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Energy companies assessing emerging Canadian shale

CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 2 (UPI) — It’s too soon to fully assess the Duvernay shale area in Canada but “sweet spots” are being investigated, says an analyst for energy consultancy Wood McKenzie. “There still is a large amount of delineation drilling to do, or basically just appraising and figuring out where the sweet spots are,” Andy McConn said in an interview published Friday by the Financial Post. The Alberta Geological Survey estimates the Duvernay shale reserve area holds more than 440 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and nearly 62 billion barrels of oil. The newspaper reports energy company Encana Corp. plans to spend more than $500 million on exploratory operations in the Duvernay region. Chevron said it was encouraged by its preliminary efforts in Duvernay, which it described as a source of future growth for its Canadian operations. “They [Chevron] haven’t given hard plans yet, but that’s a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Peak Oil as Wishful Thinking

By  Tom Athanasiou – Tom Athanasiou is the director of the Earth Island-sponsored project EcoEquity and a member of the Greenhouse Development Rights authors’ group. His interests focus on distributive justice within the global environmental emergency. Is our civilization doomed? I don’t think so, though I’ll admit that the case for doom is a pretty good one. But I wish to be clear on two points. First, it’s not too late to avoid disastrous climate change. We’re in trouble, no doubt about that, but we have the science, the technology, and the money to save ourselves. Second, we simply won’t do so if we give ourselves up to the habits of pessimism. Is “peak oil” a good way to talk about all this? The short answer is No , and this despite the fact that it draws attention to planetary limits, and to the great resource crunch that’s now […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Peak Oil Denial: Nonsense Keeps Rolling Along

Page added on December 2, 2013 [D]enial strategies suppress both facts and emotions, maladaptive coping strategies admit some of the facts and allow some of the emotions, both often in distorted form, and adaptive coping strategies accept the facts and allow the emotions to be felt, thus promoting more positive behaviours. The three groups of coping strategies may be considered to be sequential in the sense that moving from the first to the second and the second to the third requires that obstacles be overcome…. Some people who use denial strategies are likely to remain ‘stuck’ there regardless of the evidence. (links/references in the original quote) [1] Those comments were written as part of a study on climate change denial, but their application is easily and accurately extended to peak oil denial and any number of political issues where too many prefer avoiding contemplation of the consequences of ideological […]

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Robert Rapier: How Alberta’s Oil Sands are Produced

Introduction I spent the first week of November in the heart of the Athabasca oil sands around Fort McMurray, Alberta. I was there as a guest of the Canadian government, which hosts annual tours for small groups of journalists and energy analysts. In the previous two articles, I covered some of the environmental issues arising from the development of the oil sands. In  Oil Sands and the Environment – Part I  I discussed greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on wildlife, and I touched upon water usage. I also detailed some of the work of  Pembina Institute  (PI), which is working to improve the environmental conditions as the oil sands are developed. In Oil Sands and the Environment – Part II  I covered the tailings ponds, water consumption, impacts to water quality, and impacts to indigenous people. Today I want to discuss the actual process of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Let’s Give This Era a Name: The Age of Denial

It’s traditional at this time of year to look back at what we have accomplished or how we have blundered, and to look forward at how we might fix things. So far, we should classify this decade of the 2010s as the Age of Denial . People, and Americans in particular, continue to avoid serious thought about human population growth, the predictable effects of global warming, the degradation of the oceans, and even the depletion of top soil in the Midwest. At this moment, our most critical economic and social problem is something called Peak Oil, and it’s not even getting play in the alternative media, much less on the network news.   About a decade ago, I wrote a series of columns on another internet site about the issue of Peak Oil. Basically, it is the observation that there is only so much easily obtainable oil, and the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Boosted by Upbeat China Data

Oil futures are higher on Monday, boosted by better-than-expected factory data from China and as uncertainty over oil supplies from Iran lingered. China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index data came in at 51.4 in November–ahead of market expectations and above the key 50-point level that separates expansion from contraction. “Oil is seen extending gains after data from China over the weekend showed industrial activity in the world’s number two crude buyer remained high despite worries the economy is facing a modest slowdown,” Singapore’s UOB Economic Treasury Research said in a note. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at $93.15 a barrel at 0531 GMT, up $0.43 in the Globex electronic session. January Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.41 to $110.10 a barrel. Brent oil is also getting a boost due to easing concerns over the potential return […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil rises on China's modest manufacturing growth

Oil prices rose Monday as China’s manufacturing growth held steady at a modest pace in November. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was up 44 cents to $110.13 a barrel at midafternoon Kuala Lumpur time on the ICE futures exchange in London. Benchmark U.S. crude for January delivery added 48 cents to $93.34 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 41 cents to close at $93.68 on Friday. Chinese manufacturing barely expanded in November, growing at about the same rate as the previous month, two surveys showed in evidence that growth in the world’s No. 2 economy was continuing but at a modest pace. HSBC’s purchasing managers’ index released Monday slipped to 50.8 from 50.9 in October. Although November’s reading was little changed, HSBC said it was the second-highest level in eight months, indicating China’s massive […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil rises on China’s modest manufacturing growth

Oil prices rose Monday as China’s manufacturing growth held steady at a modest pace in November. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was up 44 cents to $110.13 a barrel at midafternoon Kuala Lumpur time on the ICE futures exchange in London. Benchmark U.S. crude for January delivery added 48 cents to $93.34 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 41 cents to close at $93.68 on Friday. Chinese manufacturing barely expanded in November, growing at about the same rate as the previous month, two surveys showed in evidence that growth in the world’s No. 2 economy was continuing but at a modest pace. HSBC’s purchasing managers’ index released Monday slipped to 50.8 from 50.9 in October. Although November’s reading was little changed, HSBC said it was the second-highest level in eight months, indicating China’s massive […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Gains as China’s Manufacturing Growth Beats Estimates

West Texas Intermediate crude advanced for a second day after China ’s manufacturing topped estimates in November, signaling the world’s second-biggest oil consumer is sustaining its economic growth. Futures rose as much as 0.6 percent in New York . China’s Purchasing Managers ’ Index was 51.4, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said yesterday, a result that exceeded 24 out of 26 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. OPEC will keep its oil-production quota unchanged at 30 million barrels a day at a meeting this week in Vienna, according to a separate Bloomberg News survey. U.S. manufacturing data for November is to be released today. “The oil market doesn’t normally care about PMI numbers unless they are different from the consensus like today,” Bjornar Tonhaugen, senior commodities analyst at Oslo-based Nordea Bank AG, said by phone, referring to the Chinese purchasing managers’ index. […]

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Dubai Oil Premium Reaches Two-Year High as Shell Buys Record

Middle East crude for immediate delivery traded at its biggest premium in two years to later shipments last month after Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) bought an unprecedented number of cargoes. The price gap between the earliest loadings of the benchmark Dubai grade and those for two months later climbed to $2.82 a barrel on Nov. 21, the widest spread since 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The increase coincided with Shell’s purchase of 12 million barrels last month via the Middle East crude price-setting system conducted by Platts, a unit of McGraw-Hill Financial Inc. (MHFI) The premium for prompt cargoes, a market structure known as backwardation , influences the level at which Middle East exporters including Saudi Arabian Oil Co. set official monthly prices for buyers in Asia, according to industry consultants KBC Energy Economics and JBC Energy GmbH. The growing spread shows how deals made in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple