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Charles Hall “Peak oil, declining EROI and the probability of degrowth”

Second Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity March 26-29th 2010, Barcelona Peak oil is not some fuzzy academic concern but a reality: for the US in 1970, for some 60 of 80 oil-producing countries and, at least for the moment, for the world since about 2005. In addition the net energy delivered to society (as opposed to the total) is declining in recent decades from 30 or more to one to ten or less to one as we have exhausted our largest, shallowest, closest to shore and highest quality oil and gas fields. While technological improvements have slowed the effects of depletion the net effects are that there is a declining EROI (Energy Return on Energy [and money] Invested). Most alternatives to oil and gas except hydroelectric or coal have a small or very small EROI, and even for these the highest EROI sites in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Futures Ease Lower

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at $103.97 a barrel at 0549 GMT, down $0.38 in the Globex electronic session. July Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.67 to $109.87 a barrel. Over the weekend, Petro Poroshenko declared victory in Ukraine’s presidential elections although pro-Russia separatists blocked voting in the eastern parts of the country. Russian President pledged on Friday to respect the outcome of the elections. U.S. financial markets are closed for the Memorial Day holiday and there will be no floor trading for WTI. Overall oil supply in the U.S. is still rising, although the summer driving season is expected to boost demand. Despite one of the biggest jumps in oil production by countries outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries since the 1980s, elevated outages have kept prices high alongside rising geopolitical tensions, according to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Brent Crude Falls as Ukraine Elects President; WTI Declines

Brent crude fell amid speculation Ukraine’s election of a new president may help ease months of tension with Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter. West Texas Intermediate slid in . Futures dropped as much 0.7 percent in London . Ukraine voted billionaire Petro Poroshenko as president yesterday, handing him the task of stemming separatist unrest in the country, a conduit for Russian oil and natural gas supplies to Europe. China , the second-largest oil user globally, announced plans to slow its pace of energy consumption. “Market tensions are easing over potential disruptions from Russia,” Barnabas Gan, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore , said by phone today. “The market was also anticipating that U.S. and European sanctions could have been imposed on the Russian oil industry, which didn’t come to pass. The success of the election could have possibly eliminated these fears.” Brent for July settlement declined […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hedge Funds Buy Oil as Supply Drops Before Memorial Day: Energy

U.S. crude inventories declining from a record before the Memorial Day weekend spurred speculators to increase bullish bets on oil for a second week. Hedge funds raised their net-long position in benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures by 4.1 percent in the week ended May 20, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Prices climbed to a one-month high. Crude supplies fell the most in four months in the week ended May 16, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Refineries produced a record amount of gasoline before the holiday, the start of the summer driving season. AAA, the largest U.S. motoring group, expects it to be the busiest weekend since 2005. Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. “The decline in crude stocks, particularly after weeks and weeks of build, gave the impetus higher to WTI prices,” Harry Tchilinguirian , BNP Paribas SA’s London-based head of commodity markets strategy, said […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Press: Natural gas production is the highest in the history of the Kingdom

On a local economic affair, Al-Yaum quoted under the title ” Natural gas production is the highest in the history of the Kingdom as saying that a report issued by Saudi Aramco recently indicated that the Kingdom’s reserves of natural gas rose to 288.4 trillion cubic feet in 2013, an increase from the rates which amounted to 284.8 trillion cubic feet in 2012, thanks to the company’s efforts through active expansion of mining operations and the use of techniques modern industrial operations in exploration and production. It noted that the Kingdom plans to make the largest increase in electricity generation in the Middle East to raise its capacity to generate electricity of about 60,000 megawatts currently to 120,000 megawatts in 2020, which is to be doubled in less than 7 years because of the rise in demand for electricity in the Kingdom. –More 10:58 LOCAL TIME 07:58 GMT

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Sisi on brink of presidency as Egyptians vote

Egyptians voted on Monday in a presidential election expected to sweep former army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi into office, with supporters brushing aside concerns about human rights and hailing him as the strong leader the country needs. Three years after the historic uprising against Hosni Mubarak, the vote is set to restore a pattern of rule by men from the military after Sisi toppled Egypt’s first freely elected leader, Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Voters lined up to cast ballots at heavily guarded polling stations from 9.00 a.m. (2.00 a.m. ET). Sisi faces only one challenger in the two-day vote: the leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. "We see Sisi as a real man. Egypt likes a strong man," said Saber Habib, clenching his fist to illustrate his point as he waited to vote in the city of Suez, east of Cairo. "We want the country to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Papua New Guinea became the world's newest significant energy exporter

SYDNEY—Papua New Guinea, a small Southeast Asian nation better known for its jungles and corruption, became the world’s newest significant energy exporter after an Corp-led facility began shipping natural gas. The cargo delivery from the US$19 billion PNG LNG project is the first from several new liquefied natural gas, or LNG, terminals in Papua New Guinea and Australia. These plants are due to start up over the next three years and will mark a shift in the global LNG trade’s epicenter, away from the Middle East. Work began on the PNG LNG project in 2010, when Asian gas users were looking to ramp up imports of fuels that burn cleaner than coal, and international energy companies were struggling to access resources not owned by foreign governments. The industry’s landscape has changed dramatically since then, with companies in North America now looking to export shale gas while China this week […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Papua New Guinea became the world’s newest significant energy exporter

SYDNEY—Papua New Guinea, a small Southeast Asian nation better known for its jungles and corruption, became the world’s newest significant energy exporter after an Corp-led facility began shipping natural gas. The cargo delivery from the US$19 billion PNG LNG project is the first from several new liquefied natural gas, or LNG, terminals in Papua New Guinea and Australia. These plants are due to start up over the next three years and will mark a shift in the global LNG trade’s epicenter, away from the Middle East. Work began on the PNG LNG project in 2010, when Asian gas users were looking to ramp up imports of fuels that burn cleaner than coal, and international energy companies were struggling to access resources not owned by foreign governments. The industry’s landscape has changed dramatically since then, with companies in North America now looking to export shale gas while China this week […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China scraps high-pollution vehicles in air cleanup

The Chinese government announced on Monday the country will eliminate 6 million high-polluting vehicles before the end of 2014 in a move to bring down air pollution. The mandatory rule applies to vehicles that do not meet exhaust emissions standards. Of the vehicles to be eliminated this year, 20 percent are in the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, as well as Hebei Province — all northern regions frequently troubled by smoggy air in recent years. In a further step, more vehicles will be scrapped next year, involving up to 5 million units in the nation’s economically developed regions, such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions, according to an action plan published by the State Council, China’s Cabinet. "Strengthening control on vehicle emissions will be a major agenda item for the country’s energy savings, emissions reductions, and low-carbon development […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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37 dead, 6 missing in south China rainstorms

At least 37 people have died and six others remain missing after downpours hit provinces in south China, according to a statement from the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction on Monday. In south China’s Guangdong Province, the death toll from floods had risen to 17 as of 12:00 p.m. Monday, while three others were missing. The rainstorms also hit Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi and five other southern provinces, leading to casualties. Hunan witnessed seven deaths and three missing, while four died in Guizhou, said the statement. A total of 5.51 million people were affected and 447,000 displaced with the collapse of 25,000 houses. Continuous downpours have led to floods in mountainous areas and raised the water level of rivers, where a large number of houses collapsed and farms were submerged. About 264,800 hectares of crops have been destroyed by the floods and other related […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple