Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
-Shale energy triggers bean rush in India
-Halliburton blames guar bean shortage for profit warning
-Shale Gas: Fracking great
-Lawmakers air frustration over federal attention to shale
-China’s shale future: not as bright as promised?
-Gas rebranded as green energy by EU
Fears that Spain may be heading for a bailout, weaker than anticipated US growth, and signs that China is not about to embark on any major fiscal stimulus saw oil prices drop again sharply on Wednesday. May has now seen the biggest monthly oil price drop since December 2008. Should the decline continue we will soon be in territory which makes the marginal, more costly to produce barrel uneconomic.
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
Ever wonder how efficient it is to heat water? Of course you have! Ever measured it? Whoa, mister, now you’ve gone too far!
In the late 1800s northwestern Ohio was at the center of an oil boom as the state became the nation’s largest crude producer. Today Ohio is at the center of another fossil fuel boom, where a new drilling method — hydraulic fracturing (fracking) combined with modern horizontal drilling — is releasing natural gas from deep underground shale, leading to a rush of new leases. Is drilling safe or are contamination concerns unfounded?
-IEA’s golden rules for gas are missed opportunity
-Campaigners’ anger over agency’s shale gas report
-Using shale gas over coal does not help climate, says big gas investor
-Shale play a worry for Bexar ozone
Jeff Rubin is currently touring his new book, The End Of Growth. As the former Chief Economist for CIBC World Markets he brings an intimate knowledge of financial markets and how they work to the peak oil/end of growth community populated by other venerable thinkers such as Richard Heinberg, Chris Martenson and John Michael Greer.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The EU crisis
-Iran
-Retail gasoline prices
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
G8 leaders meeting last weekend in Camp David will have been cheered by the recent slide in oil prices – albeit that the weakening in price is largely a consequence of the increasingly dire economic news. Nevertheless the group issued a statement to the effect that should the price start heading back in the other direction they will be calling on the IEA to take action…
-Government backtracks on fracking
-Investor’s concerns lead to calls for fracking changes
-Fracking In New York: For Farmers, Gas Drilling Could Mean Salvation– Or Ruin
-Busting the carbon and cost myths of Germany’s nuclear exit
-The energy transition juggernaut
-Clean energy as culture war
The EIA helpfully produces a breakdown of the global liquid fuel supply into components. This allows us to distinguish change in the supply of “oil” – narrowly defined as crude oil plus condensates (hydrocarbons which come out of the ground as liquid) – from changes in other things (natural gas “liquids”, most of which are actually gases like ethane, propane, and butane, ethanol, and refinery volume changes.
