China: Battle for Oil and Money, Kremlin Style
China may not have a flamboyant oil tycoon like Russia’s Yukos ex-boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky but Beijing is embroiled in a similar, albeit smaller, court battle over oil and money as the Kremlin.
China may not have a flamboyant oil tycoon like Russia’s Yukos ex-boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky but Beijing is embroiled in a similar, albeit smaller, court battle over oil and money as the Kremlin.
China’s oil giant Sinopec Group has signed a $70 billion worth oil and natural gas deal with Iran; China’s biggest energy deal with the No. 2 OPEC producer.
Nobody disagrees that production eventually will peak, because the amount of oil in the Earth is finite. It also is clear that population increases and rapid economic growth, particularly in the United States, the world’s wealthiest nation, and China, the world’s most-populus nation, will continue to drive up demand.
Fossil fuels, so easily set alight! Yes, and as Bush and Kerry are out campaigning, we are presently touching off nearly the very last whiffs and drops and chunks of them. All lights are about to go out.
As the Russian government moves to reassert its sway over
the country’s lucrative energy business, the British oil and gas
giant BP would seem to be an obvious target. The company’s 50-50
Russian venture, called TNK-BP, is posting record profits, and now
pumps one of every five barrels of BP’s worldwide oil supply.
MEXICO CITY — While record-high oil prices have filled the coffers of Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, experts say the good times mask a looming problem in the country’s energy sector.
The Cantarell oil field in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico’s biggest, is running low. Exactly when it will run out, nobody knows.
ROYAL Dutch/Shell yesterday raised fears that it may have to write down its reserves by more than 1.5 billion barrels — 10 per cent of its total reserves — after the Anglo-Dutch oil company admitted that it was considering its fifth “volume adjustment” this year.
While Delta, like other airlines, cut about $600 million in costs between 2001 and 2003, its fuel costs at the same time went up by about $120 million. Given that oil prices have increased by roughly three-quarters in a year, the fuel expense for 2004 will be much worse.
Climate change will impact every one of us. For this reason, governments all over the world are making moves to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions. Geosequestration is the new kid on the block in energy technology research. It has become very popular politically, so much so that Australia’s Howard Government, following the lead of the US, is investing heavily in it. But at what cost?
“I think it is not helpful for the world to believe that we are running out of oil.” LORD BROWNE, BP chief executive
Despite RBI Governor Dr Y.V. Reddy putting on a brave front on Tuesday saying that the Indian economy is resilient enough to absorb the oil shock, it is now clear that the ogre of petro inflation will adversely impact India’s growth prospects.
Iran’s Ambassador to Beijing Fereydoun Verdinejad said here Wednesday that Iran and China enjoy great potentials to boost long-term cooperation in various oil, gas and petrochemistry fields.