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Robert Rapier: Where The US Got Its Oil From in 2013

As events in Iraq continue to unfold, we have been getting quite a few queries on just how much oil the US imports from Iraq. In my previous post –  The Top 10 Oil Producers in 2013 — I showed that even though the US is a major oil producer, we are an even greater oil consumer. So we import millions of barrels a day of oil from over 40 countries — one of which is in fact Iraq. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) tracks US oil imports and finished product exports, and I have tabulated our Top 10 sources of crude oil imports from 2013. Overall, the US imported 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in 2013, a 2 million bpd decline since 2008. We imported another 2.1 million bpd of finished products like diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel, but we also exported 3.6 million bpd […]

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Pro-Russian Rebels in Ukraine Match Government Cease-Fire

Pro-Russian separatists declared a cease-fire Monday in a surprise move that they said they hoped would lead to a settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The announcement came as rebel leaders met with representatives of the Ukrainian government in Kiev, including the former president, Leonid D. Kuchma, as well as the Russian ambassador to Ukraine and a representative of the acting chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “In answer to the cease-fire by Kiev, we commit to a cease-fire from our side,” said Aleksandr Borodai, the prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. Mr. Borodai, a Russian citizen, said the cease-fire would last until Friday, matching the timeline of the cease-fire announced last week by the new Ukraine president, Petro O. Poroshenko. “We also hope that in the time of this bilateral cease-fire,” Mr. Borodai continued, “we can agree to […]

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Breakaway regions agree to observe Ukrainian ceasefire

A pro-Russian rebel leader in Ukraine’s breakaway east said Monday that separatist groups would observe a weeklong ceasefire, a move that raises hope of a breakthrough in the crisis but could nonetheless be undone by fighting on the ground. Alexander Borodai, the self-proclaimed prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, said rebels would lay down their arms in line with a  cease-fire declared Friday by the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. "The consultation ended with authorities of the Luhansk and Donetsk Republics agreeing to maintain a ceasefire for their part until the 27th," Borodai said, following the first face-to-face meeting between separatists and intermediaries from the Ukrainian and Russian governments. It comes despite claims from both sides of numerous violations of the proposed ceasefire over the weekend and amid ongoing skepticism over the chances of a more permanent peace. Borodai’s comments came after Monday’s meeting in Donetsk attended by, […]

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No gas siphoning found, Moscow says

There’s no evidence to suggest Russian natural gas bound for Europe was siphoned off during transit through Ukraine, the Russian Energy Ministry said Monday. "According to [the gas meters], there has not been any siphoning off of Russian gas in Ukraine," a ministry spokesman told state news agency RIA Novosti. The Soviet-era gas transmission network in Ukraine carries more than half of the Russian natural gas bound for the European market. Russian energy company Gazprom last week said it would deliver gas to its Ukrainian counterparts only if paid in advance. Gazprom switched to the pre-payment mechanism saying it was frustrated with the $4 billion debt for gas from Ukraine. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said last week Ukraine would siphon off the gas for free unless it secured a substantial discount. "Ukraine will not pay off its gas debt, will take our gas for free in […]

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World Energy 2014-2050 (Part 1)

This is a guest post by Political Economist World Energy 2014-2050: An Informal Annual Report The purpose of this informal report is to provide an analytical framework to track the development of world energy supply and demand as well as their impacts on the global economy. The report projects world supply of oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, biofuels, and other renewable energies from 2014 to 2050.  It also projects the overall world energy consumption, gross world economic product, energy efficiency, and carbon dioxide emissions from 2014 to 2050. The basic analytical tool is Hubbert Linearization, first proposed by American geologist M. King Hubbert.  Despite its limitations, Hubbert Linearization provides a useful tool helping to indicate the likely level of ultimately recoverable resources under the existing trends of technology, economics, and geopolitics.  Other statistical methods and some official projections will also be used where they are relevant. […]

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Why Standard Economic Models Don’t Work–Our Economy is a Network

The story of energy and the economy seems to be an obvious common sense one: some sources of energy are becoming scarce or overly polluting, so we need to develop new ones. The new ones may be more expensive, but the world will adapt. Prices will rise and people will learn to do more with less. Everything will work out in the end. It is only a matter of time and a little faith. In fact, the Financial Times published an article recently called “ Looking Past the Death of Peak Oil ” that pretty much followed this line of reasoning. Energy Common Sense Doesn’t Work Because the World is Finite  The main reason such common sense doesn’t work is because in a finite world, every action we take has many direct and indirect effects. This chain of effects produces connectedness that makes the economy operate as a network. This network […]

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'Risky Business' Report Aims to Frame Climate Change as Economic Issue

Henry Paulson, former U.S. Treasury secretary, speaks at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in April. Bloomberg Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson , ex-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, a hedge-fund billionaire and major Democratic donor, are linking arms Tuesday to release a report, Risky Business, that argues U.S. companies should treat climate change as any other business threat. The report, which says climate change could cost the country billions of dollars over the next two decades, is the product of a bipartisan group of former cabinet officers, lawmakers, corporate leaders and scientists. In an interview, Mr. Paulson said the goal is to depoliticize the climate-change debate and instead focus on how it poses an economic risk to U.S. businesses. "The whole point was to have a bipartisan group who agreed on the nature of the problem, which is that climate change is a huge economic risk," […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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‘Risky Business’ Report Aims to Frame Climate Change as Economic Issue

Henry Paulson, former U.S. Treasury secretary, speaks at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in April. Bloomberg Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson , ex-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, a hedge-fund billionaire and major Democratic donor, are linking arms Tuesday to release a report, Risky Business, that argues U.S. companies should treat climate change as any other business threat. The report, which says climate change could cost the country billions of dollars over the next two decades, is the product of a bipartisan group of former cabinet officers, lawmakers, corporate leaders and scientists. In an interview, Mr. Paulson said the goal is to depoliticize the climate-change debate and instead focus on how it poses an economic risk to U.S. businesses. "The whole point was to have a bipartisan group who agreed on the nature of the problem, which is that climate change is a huge economic risk," […]

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Bipartisan Report Tallies High Toll on Economy From Global Warming

More than a million homes and businesses along the nation’s coasts could flood repeatedly before ultimately being destroyed. Entire states in the Southeast and the Corn Belt may lose much of their agriculture as farming shifts northward in a warming world. Heat and humidity will probably grow so intense that spending time outside will become physically dangerous, throwing industries like construction and tourism into turmoil. That is the picture of what may happen to the United States economy in a world of unchecked global warming, according to a major new report being put forward Tuesday by a coalition of senior political and economic figures from the left, right and center, including three Treasury secretaries stretching back to the Nixon administration. At a time when the issue of climate change has divided the American political landscape, pitting Republicans against Democrats and even fellow party members against one another, the unusual […]

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Peak Oil – It’s Just a Rumour

Whenever I present a course, someone will inevitably ask: “When, exactly, do you think we will run out of oil?” “Never!” is always my response. The world will never run out of oil. “But”, they protest, “I saw a report about it on TV”. “I saw a YouTube video about it”. “My science teacher showed us a graph”…… When Professor Marion King Hubbert made his predictions almost sixty years ago that US oil production would peak in the mid 1970s and decline thereafter (and so also by the same reasoning would World oil production), little did he realise what consternation he would create! The truth of the matter is that his analysis and predictions were based on proven reserves from conventional oil fields. And it is true, production from these types of fields did indeed start to decline in the 70s much […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple