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US Oil Reserve Growth

This is a guest post by Dennis Coyne. The views expressed in this post are those of Dennis Coyne and do not necessarily represent those of Ron Patterson. How much oil can be extracted from known oil resources profitably? This depends on many factors, the price of oil and technological progress in oil extraction methods are the chief factors, but improved knowledge gained through the development wells drilled and the corresponding output and geological data as known reserves are developed is important as well. Oil reserves do not grow, they deplete as the oil is produced. With increasing knowledge, oil price, and improved technology and production methods, the estimate of oil reserves changes over time and on average these estimates tend to increase, this is what we mean by reserve growth. The United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) has detailed data on proven (1P) reserves and proven discoveries from […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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A visit to the heart of Canada’s oil sands industry

Since 2007 when we published our article, ”A crash program scenario for the Canadian oil sands industry” a visit to Fort McMurray and the areas where oil sands are mined has always been high on my wish list. On my current trip I passed Calgary on the way to Toronto so I finally got an opportunity to visit the oil sands. The flight from Calgary became an interesting introduction to the industry. It was on a small aircraft with around 50 seats and about 40 of the passengers were presumably workers on their way back to Fort McMurray after a week’s leave. A three week session of work on the tar sands awaited them. This report is a description of my trip and does not take a position for or against the mining of oil sands. During the weekends from May until and including autumn the Oil Sands Community […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Death of Peak Oil? Not so fast.

From Earth Insight by Nafeez Ahmed, hosted by the Guardian, Former BP geologist: peak oil is here and it will ‘break economies’ : Dr. Richard G. Miller, who worked for BP from 1985 before retiring in 2008, said that official data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), US Energy Information Administration (EIA), International Monetary Fund (IMF), among other sources, showed that conventional oil had most likely peaked around 2008. Dr. Miller critiqued the official industry line that global reserves will last 53 years at current rates of consumption, pointing out that “peaking is the result of declining production rates, not declining reserves.” Despite new discoveries and increasing reliance on unconventional oil and gas, 37 countries are already post-peak, and global oil production is declining at about 4.1% per year, or 3.5 million barrels a day (b/d) per year: “We need new production equal to a new Saudi Arabia every […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Euro skids as Greece misses debt deal deadline

LONDON The euro tumbled on Monday after Greece missed a self-imposed Sunday deadline for reaching an agreement with its lenders to unlock aid, keeping alive fears of a debt default and potential exit from the euro zone. Athens and its euro zone and International Monetary Fund (IMF) creditors have been locked in talks for months, with the single currency reacting to any signs of deadlock or breakthrough. Without a deal, Athens risks default or bankruptcy in weeks. It faces a payment to the International Monetary Fund on Friday and the expiration of its bailout program on June 30. "It’s becoming increasingly unlikely that (Greece) will be able to get the funding without some kind of political disruption along the way," said Hamish Pepper, a currency strategist at Barclays bank in London. "The news over the weekend was consistent with that and the impact on the currency is also consistent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The Unrealized Horrors of Population Explosion

The second half of the 1960s was a boom time for nightmarish visions of what lay ahead for humankind. In 1966, for example, a writer named Harry Harrison came out with a science fiction novel titled “Make Room! Make Room!” Sketching a dystopian world in which too many people scrambled for too few resources, the book became the basis for a 1973 film about a hellish future, “ Soylent Green .” In 1969, the pop duo Zager and Evans reached the top of the charts with a number called “ In the Year 2525 ,” which postulated that humans were on a clear path to doom. No one was more influential — or more terrifying, some would say — than Paul R. Ehrlich , a Stanford University biologist. His 1968 book, “The Population Bomb,” sold in the millions with a jeremiad that humankind stood on the brink of apocalypse […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The energy revolution will not be televised

Three recent news items remind us that energy transitions take time, a lot of time–far too much time to be shrunk down into a television special, a few talking points, or the next big energy idea. For example, the complex management task of putting together the international fusion research project called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) has resulted in estimated final costs that have tripled since the 2006 launch . Fusion could theoretically offer clean and abundant energy almost indefinitely because it uses ubiquitous hydrogen* as fuel and creates helium in the process. (Water you’ll recall is two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom and is therefore the most abundant source of hydrogen.) Despite nine years of effort, ITER has yet to carry out a single experiment; and, the project is not expected to do so for another four years. The idea for such an international project was […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple