ODAC Newsletter Nov 16
The US as the new Saudi Arabia, energy insecurity for most of the rest of the world, and climate chaos for everyone – such were the headline points of the latest World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency.
The US as the new Saudi Arabia, energy insecurity for most of the rest of the world, and climate chaos for everyone – such were the headline points of the latest World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency.
Good news, folks. According to our friends at the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United States will once again be the world’s top oil producing nation by 2020. In your face Russia and Saudi Arabia!
•IEA Oil Forecast Unrealistically High; Misses Diminishing Returns •2012 World Energy Outlook: James Hamilton •IEA report reminds us peak oil idea has gone up in flames •US to overtake Saudi Arabia in oil as China’s water runs dry •Did Peak Oil Doomers Fixate On a False Scenario?
A weekly update, including:
-Oil and the Global Economy
-The Middle East
-The Superstorm’s Aftermath
-Europe
-Quote of the Week
-The Briefs
Global Challenge: Recently, new data on available oil reserves, new deep-water deposits, oil sands and especially "shale gas" has given rise to concerns about what these resources means from a climate perspective. The seminar "Peak Oil Postponed?" Aims to analyze the importance of these tasks.
The end of the US election season and a return of the incumbent Barack Obama saw oil markets turn their attention back to the economy. Despite much talk of upside the picture remains bleak with the US showing a huge deficit, and the EU still unresolved on how to deal with its highly indebted members. Oil prices showed their steepest decline of the year on Wednesday before recovering slightly to around $107/barrel for Brent.
•Big Coal in big trouble as coal production costs rise •Obama, Romney avoid hard truths about energy •Japan kicks off winter energy-saving campaign •Full Text: China’s Energy Policy 2012
*IMF study: Peak oil could do serious damage to the global economy *Weaning America Off Oil *Canada’s New Pipeline Woes *Analysis – Does U.S. shale mean cheap global oil by 2020?
The impact of unconventional fuels like shale oil on the global energy system is still an issue of great uncertainty. Not so much because of the size of the tank (the resource base), but due to the large physical effort necessary to obtain a sizeable supply of this type of fossil fuel. For instance, to exploit tight shale oil formations we need large capital expenditures to obtain relatively low flow rates from many horizontally drilled wells.
BP took a gamble this week, entering into partnership with the Russian state backed energy company Rosneft. The deal frees the company from a stormy relationship with its oligarch partners at TNK BP. At the same time, it effectively makes BP business partners with the Kremlin…
*Insight: Is Ohio’s "secret" energy boom going bust?
*Russia Off Limits to Big Oil After BP Wins Putin Approval
*Delta Boys: Powerful Documentary Chronicles Niger Delta Oil Struggle
Last winter, fossil-fuel enthusiasts began trumpeting the dawn of a new “golden age of oil” that would kick-start the American economy, generate millions of new jobs, and free this country from its dependence on imported petroleum. It turns out, however, that the future may prove far more recalcitrant than these prophets of an American energy cornucopia imagine.