Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Finally the day has come when the Catalyst science programme on the Australian TV-channel ABC has broadcast its 12 minute long “Oil Crunch” segment on peak oil.
– SMH: Peak oil highlights need for a unified policy
– Comments from Kjell Aleklett (ASPO-International)
– Deep Oil From Diamonds? Maybe, Says A New Report
– Romney blames high prices on insufficient supply
– Nuclear waste: Keep out – for 100,000 years
– Former nuclear safety official says Swiss plant should be shut down
Rising petrol prices and huge oil company profits combined to put pressure on President Obama this week. Prices are reaching around $4.00/gallon, levels not seen since 2008 and a psychological barrier for many Americans whose entire infrastructure is designed around the motor car.
If I am right, we are now entering a period in which, like it or not, we must finally follow President Carter’s advice to develop a thoughtful energy policy and give up our carefree and careless ways with resources. The quicker we do this, the lower the cost will be. Any improvement at all in lifestyle for our grandchildren will take much more thoughtful behavior from political leaders and more restraint from everyone. Rapid growth is not ours by divine right; it is not even mathematically possible over a sustained period.
We are in an era where the availability of natural resources is not sufficient to support the wealth levels that the developed world has grown accustomed to, along with the speed of growth with which the developing world is trying to approach those same levels.
In other words, Mr. Horsnell is saying that since the world previously thought that the Saudi’s were producing less in December than they actually were, then the estimated worldwide “buffer” production capacity was significantly less than believed, as well. Also, his observation that the Saudi’s evidently needed to produce at 9 million b/d in order to balance the market is the exact opposite of what Mr. Naimi said, four weeks later….In turn, if the Saudi’s can’t really sustain even 9 million b/d, then this would have serious implications for the world in that the next, more intense manifestations of Peak Oil may be nearer than we think.
-How close is peak oil?
-Russia halts petrol exports
-EIA budget cuts to curb some energy data gathering
-University Vows to Lock Out Students Opposed to ExxonMobil
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
-China
In just a century, we’ve become almost entirely dependent on cheap oil. We rely on oil for just about everything, in fact the global economy is reliant on its free flowing supply. So what would happen if the well started to run dry and demand outstripped supply? Some oil industry experts think we’ve already hit Peak Oil and we should brace ourselves for the imminent Oil Crunch.
– Dems’ Oil Subsidy Repeal Push Puts GOP On Defensive
– Oil firm tax breaks must end quickly: Senator Reid
– President Obama Urges Congress to Eliminate Oil Company Subsidies
– Trump on Iraq: “if it is me, we take the oil”
– Climate change to reduce US West water supply – report
– A City Built on Oil (Midland, TX) Discovers How Precious Its Water Can Be
-Catalyst Online Edition: Oil Crunch (video)
-Fleeing Vesuvius, the US Edition
-Imagining a world without oil
The trading floor with coke, hookers and fistfights is gone, but speculation has only gotten worse in the era of peak oil.
