Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
On Sunday, February 17, I marched in the largest climate change protest in U.S. history. About 35,000 people gathered on the Washington Monument grounds for a rally and then marched past the White House, calling on President Obama to deny permission for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from Canada’s tar sands through the heart of the U.S. to the Gulf Coast.
The real challenges—and costs—of 21st century fossil fuel production suggest that such vastly increased supplies will not be easily achieved or even possible. The geological and environmental realities of trying to fulfill these exuberant proclamations deserve a closer look.This report provides an in-depth evaluation of the various unconventional energy resources behind the recent "energy independence" rhetoric, particularly shale gas, tight oil.
•Dude, where’s my cheap gas? •How do you measure China’s oil demand? IEA goes from “error to error” •Twilight of an energy boom: Alberta’s new fiscal challenge •OPEC Boosts Estimated Demand for Its Own Crude Oil •Setback for Shell’s Arctic oil ambitions as rigs require repair in Asia
Oil politics makes for greasy bedfellows, and that accounts for some odd and ominous slipping and sliding on the part of Albertan oil developers and their guy in Ottawa, prime minister Stephen Harper.
•US shale oil abundance: Bernstein vs the IEA •US limits oil-shale development in Rocky Mountains •Fracking: A new dawn for misplaced optimism •Nigeria Exxon spill spreads for miles along coast •Thousands Protest Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Outside White House •The World Running on ‘E’: The Coming Oil Crisis
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.
You are not alone if you think it’s odd that Canada–the world’s ninth largest exporter of crude oil and petroleum products and the main supplier of oil imports to the United States–is itself a longtime oil importer, importing more than 40 percent of its oil needs this year. That may be set to change.
One of the reasons that I am in China just now is that Uppsala University is discussing increased collaboration with the Chinese University of Petroleum in Beijing, CUPB. It is Professor Feng of the School of Business Administration at CUPB that leads research on Peak Oil at that university. He has just organised a workshop with the theme “The Impacts of Peak Oil”.
In the old days, that is before 2010, the oil industry used to regale the public with tales of plenty that revolved around what is commonly called "conventional oil." Then in its 2010 World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency announced that the peak in the rate of production of conventional oil had already arrived, probably in 2006. The agency projected that production of so-called "unconventional oil" would grow considerably over the coming decades and allow total oil production to rise. But, new unconventional oil production may not be able to make up for the decline in the rate of conventional oil production. And, rate is the key metric.
An update is warranted to address comments from friends and followers – comments such as “Gee, I guess Peak Oil has been postponed?”, or “I guess we don’t have to worry about Peak Oil anymore!” Often they have a smile on their face …
The shale oil plays will reduce but not eliminate our reliance on foreign oil. Should a supply disruption occur over the next decade, we will be better off having this production than not. The natural gas and NGL from these plays will provide high-quality, low-carbon heat energy for electricity as well as feedstock for plastics – which could help jumpstart manufacturing.
Overall, these plays don’t solve the much larger issue of Peak Oil, but they do help “buy time.”
…Kunstler has a new work of social criticism titled Too Much Magic, his first nonfiction book since The Long Emergency came out in 2005. The book is an inquiry into a skewed, delusional perception of reality that Kunstler thinks has become “baseline normal for the American public lately.” Americans, he says, have been led astray by the incredible technological advancements of recent times. We’ve come to believe that any problem we face is solvable—as if by magic—with the application of some new technology.
– Peak Oil Reloaded (1/2)
– « Nier l’imminence du pic pétrolier est une erreur tragique », dit l’ancien expert pétrolier de l’AIE
– Nicole Foss: The Guardian Is Ignoring The Critical Paradox Of Peak Oil
– The world is oil rich so let’s all enjoy it while we are here
– How Many Years Of Oil Do We Have Left To Run Our Industrial Civilization, Keeping In Mind That Oil Is A Resource And Has An Economical End?
– Europa am Peak
– Le altre fossili, la sfida dello shale
