Chavez Bloc Races with Oil Cartel to Grid the Continent

As the left-populist Evo Morales takes office in Bolivia, a clear anti-imperialist bloc is consolidating in South America, led by Venezulea’s Hugo Chavez and also including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and potentially Chile. Days before Morales was inaugurated Jan. 22, Chavez and other regional leaders met in Brasilia to announce ambitious plans for new gas and oil pipelines spanning the continent, linking national markets across vast areas of rainforest and towering mountains.

Big Plans, Bad Ideas

Two big-state governors have hit the headlines last week with grand plans for the future. In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a massive infrastructure construction program, while in New York, George Pataki has called for a renewable energy program. Both plans were developed by comparatively moderate Republican governors with an eye to the challenges of tomorrow. Unfortunately for the residents of these states, both wind up missing the larger point.

Megaprojects October 2005 Update

Gripping update on the invaluable Megaprojects listing by the Petroleum Review: “…The world has now reached the point where the volumes lost to depletion are much larger than the levels of likely new demand. This means total increments required (new demand plus depletion) are running at around 7%/y, while the largest supply increments in 2006 and 2007 are contributing 3.6% and 3.5%”.(pdf)

UK Energy Part 2: 2005 Quarter 2 Update

Two interesting reports have been published recently, Energy Trends from the DTI updated with 2005 Quarter 2 data and Winter Outlook Report 2005/06 from Ofgem. These two reports contain a wealth of data on the UK energy market past, present and looking forward to the winter. However I am less impressed with the analysis and conclusions drawn from the data. This is part two of the article and discusses the Energy Trends report, in part one I discussed the Winter Outlook Report here: UK Energy Part 1: The Winter Outlook.

UK Energy Part 1: The Winter Outlook

Two interesting reports have been published recently, Energy Trends from the DTI updated with 2005 Quarter 2 data and Winter Outlook Report 2005/06 from Ofgem. These two reports contain a wealth of data on the UK energy market past, present and looking forward to the winter. However I am less impressed with the analysis and conclusions drawn from the data. In part one of this article I discuss the Winter Outlook Report, part two discusses the Energy Trends report here: UK Energy Part 2: 2005 Quarter 2 Update.