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Korea: Addicted to Oil
Editorial, The Korea Times
When it comes to saving energy, we Koreans have said one thing and done another. Even foreigners know it, as revealed by a recent British Petroleum report. According to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2006, Korea’s energy consumption jumped 3.7 percent last year, way above the 2.7 percent global average. The increase is higher than not just Japan’s 1 percent but India’s 3.3 percent _ a problem, considering the gap in industrial sophistication with the latter.
It no longer needs emphasizing Korea is the world’s fourth-largest importer and seventh-largest consumer of oil. In 2005 we spent $66.7 billion importing fossil fuel, much more than the combined exports of our top two items _ semiconductors ($30 billion) and cars ($29.5 billion). In sum, this country poured hard-won export earnings into buying Black Gold. If things go wrong with foreign shipments, it would soon lead to pressure on our international balance of payments.
Unlike in the 1970s, the current energy turmoil is not political and temporary but structural and lasting. Even more serious than the crisis itself, is the lack of a sense of crisis among the nation’s major economic players, namely government, businesses and people generally.
(16 June 2006)
Urgency picks up for oil alternatives in Australia
Think Tank, The Age
AUSTRALIA’S dwindling crude oil reserves will run out within seven years at current production rates, if there are no new discoveries.
Likely further finds will only delay the inevitable: the nation’s fleet of 13,920,105 vehicles will become increasingly reliant on oil imports, unless and until alternative fuels fill the breach.
The decline of the nation’s oil reserves has been long predicted. But a combination of other international factors has highlighted the need for alternative fuel sources: climate change concerns, sky-high fuel prices, a reliance on imports, and discussion about when the world will have used more oil than is left underground.
These issues have attracted wildly diverging opinion, with most saying crude oil will remain plentiful for decades, while others believe the moment of “peak oil” has passed. (Global oil reserves totalled 1.2 trillion litres last year, according to BP. The International Energy Agency’s estimated global demand of 84.9 million barrels a day.)
With Australia more reliant than most on oil-based transport, our fuel debate is spurring research, prompting a policy rethink and opening potential markets as alternatives become more viable.
Today, petrol and diesel account for two-thirds of Australian fuel demands. Both are made by distilling crude oil.
Despite some hyperbole about a world without oil, most believe the future will be more prosaic: fuels made from coal, gas, shale, oil sands, hydrogen, crops and waste will be investigated, cost and carbon emissions will be considered, and new fuels will supplement and then one day supplant traditional crudes.
(17 June 2006)
Long business-oriented article.
Thailand — An Energy Case Study
Dave, The Oil Drum
I thought I would do another story on how higher energy prices are affecting other parts of the world. In this case, I have picked Thailand. This story will focus a bit on the history of energy in Thailand and more on the affects of current prices on their economy and how this South East Asian country is trying cope with the stress this has caused. While there are large differences, there are eerie similarities with the United States, though on a smaller scale. We will also take a brief excursion to talk about natural gas use in vehicles.
It’s always best to give the big picture first. And here it is from the EIA Thailand country brief.
A casual glance at both graphs reveals that Thailand is in big trouble and it’s getting worse–just like America! Let’s get into some details about what’s currently happening there.
(15 June 2006)
Nate Hagens – ecological economics and fossil fuels (Audio)
Jason Bradford, Global Public Media
On The Party’s Over: Going Local, former Wall St. investment manager Nate Hagens of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont discusses fossil fuel declines, alternative energy, market reactions, our growth-addicted culture, and relocalization. Jason Bradford hosts “The Party’s Over: Going Local” on KZYX in Mendocino County, CA.
(4 June 2006)
We are cutting energy use – but it is dirtier
Liam Halligan, UK Telegraph
How fast is global energy use growing? Is climate change getting worse? And will we face a worldwide oil shortage soon? These questions, and more, were addressed at last week’s launch of BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy.
For more than half a century, BP has produced an annual compendium of data on global energy trends. Always of interest, this year’s effort left me reassured, but worried too.
…BP’s report shows the world is reacting to soaring oil and gas prices by stemming its energy use. In 2005 world energy demand grew by 2.7 per cent, down sharply from 4.4 per cent the previous year.
In the US, the world’s largest energy consumer, demand actually fell – even though the economy grew by 3.5 per cent. So, for the first time in more than two decades, the US combined above-trend growth with an absolute decline in fuel consumption. That is good news.
…But when you look elsewhere in the report, you discover that coal – the “dirtiest” fuel source – has taken up much of the energy slack. Coal is the world’s fastest growing fuel, with consumption up by 5 per cent last year, driven in large part by an almost insatiable demand from power stations in China.
…[BP CEO] Browne adopted his most persuasive voice to try to knock this view [peak oil] into touch. “There isn’t a shortage of oil reserves,” he said. “There really isn’t”. But buried in BP’s report is an interesting – and chilling – fact.
Between 1985 and 1995 global oil reserves grew by 3 per cent per year as new fields were discovered. Last year, in contrast, reserves increased by only 0.55 per cent – despite sky-high prices and a desperate search for new oil.
(18 June 2006)
Oil-Supply Anxiety Overblown, BP Chief Says (Audio)
Steve Inskeep, Morning Edition, NPR
“The world is very well-provided with both inventories of oil and gas, growth in oil and gas, and increasing surplus production capacity,” Lord John Browne said Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
In an interview with NPR, Browne said that even with energy prices currently rising to new highs, worries about political risks are often overplayed.
“I do worry that people worry too much and that we could potentially be overdoing the anxiety,” he said. “The fact is we haven’t had an interruption of energy supply for a very, very long time.”
“Right now, I think people have a high level of anxiety… not on the basis of what’s happened, but what might happen.”
(16 June 2006)
The original article has a link to a 17-minute extended interview.
