The Scope for Renewable Energies under-stated
Mr Rudi Rechsteiner, a member of the Swiss Parliament, confirms that the World Energy Outlook 2005 by the IEA fails to give sufficient credit to the contribution that Renewable Energy can make, as already pointed out in Item 650 in the last Newsletter.
New Film on Peak Oil
A major documentary on Peak Oil is being produced by the Swiss Company, Lava Productions, for early release see oil crash movie
The Fifth ASPO International Workshop on Oil Depletion
Professor Bardi of ASPO-ITALIA reports that he now has raised sufficient sponsorship to organise the next annual ASPO International Workshop, which will be held at San Rossore, in Italy on 12th and 13th July, 2006.
Country Re-Assessment – Indonesia
Indonesia is an archipelago, stretching for about 3000 km from Asia to Australasia, and including the large islands of Java and Sumatra, as well as much of Borneo. It has a diverse ethnic population of some 220 million, which has doubled over the past Century. It is a predominantly Muslim country, but about 3% are Chinese, who have traded and settled in the area for centuries.
Correction to Item 640
The first line of the second paragraph of Item 640 on Syria should read. It is an ancient land that has been populated for some six thousand years. (not million)
Investment in Kuwait
Having stated that the Burgan Field is now in decline (see Item 642), Kuwait now announces that it is to invest 44 billion dollars in its oil industry over the next 15 years. Significantly, much of it is to be spent on new refining and petrochemical capacity, which sounds credible.
Peak Oil in Washington
The following article from CNN reports on the recent Peak Oil hearings in Washington. Lawmakers: Will we run out of oil?…
Running short of Gas.
It seems that China is running short of gas as the following article explains. One can imagine that switching gas supply on and off might be dangerous, leading to the risk of explosions, some of which have been reported. Britain too announces a 40% increase in gas prices for next year, while the politicians bleat about the failure of the “open market”.
The questionable contribution of enhanced recovery
Preliminary estimates suggest that the long decline in new discovery continued into 2005 when about 7 Gb, were found, of which 2 Gb were in the deepwater last frontier. In other words, we found about one barrel of Regular Conventional oil for every five consumed.
2005 Update of the Depletion Model
A first pass at updating the oil and gas database and depletion model has been made, based in part on the 2005 production data published by the Oil & Gas Journal. The published Reserves data remain unreliable with as many as 66 countries reporting unchanged estimates, several for several years on end.
Peak Oil Debate
The prominent Spanish language journal, Vanguardia Dossier, devotes an impressive Spring issue to Peak Oil. It includes articles by Michael Klare, Richard Heinberg,, Matt Simmons, Colin Campbell and Mariano Marzo, all of whom have participated in ASPO meetings.
Peak Oil on BBC2’s Newsnight
The BBC’s flagship news discussion programme, Newsnight, covered peak oil with a full length debate on ‘the End of the Age of Oil.
