Friday 20 February 2009

Link Round up for Q1/09



Shamelessly stolen from Energybulletin, PeakOil and The Oil Drum.

Total Oil - World Oil Production Near Peak
"The world will never be able to produce more than 89m barrels a day of oil, the head of Europe's third-largest energy group has warned.

Meanwhile, Mr de Margerie now expects a faster decline in production at older fields, such as those in the North Sea."

IEA warns again on Oil Supply Crunch due to lack of investments
"Currently the demand is very low due to the very bad economic situation," he said. "But when the economy starts growing and recovery comes again in 2010 and onward, we may have another serious supply crunch if capital investment is not coming."
OPEC: Oil industry capital investments have collapsed due to crisis
"Investments in the oil industry in the Gulf region have faced a major contraction due to the global financial crisis which could endanger the future of the industry."

Crisis slowing investments in renewables
"Economic slowdown and the recent collapse in oil prices is slowing investment in alternative energy, needed to wean the world off dependence on hydrocarbons, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said"

Sir David King predicts century of Resource Wars
"Future historians might look back on our particular recent past and see the Iraq war as the first of the conflicts of this kind - the first of the resource wars.

Unless we get to grips with this problem globally, we potentially are going to lead ourselves into a situation where large, powerful nations will secure resources for their own people at the expense of others."


Are We In The Post-Peak Era?
"Due to the factors (Russia, the tar sands, etc.) explained above, it will no longer be possible to replace over 2 million barrels of lost production each year after 2010 as production follows the general decline shown in Figure 1. Thus if OPEC capacity gains do not exceed losses outside the cartel, world oil production peaked in July, 2008."

Water running out for oil, coal and tar sands production
"Water is increasingly moving from an operational issue to one of strategic significance, according to Thirsty Energy: Water and Energy in the 21st Century, a new report by the World Economic Forum and Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), an IHS company (NYSE: IHS). The report warns, “Energy’s share of water is likely to be squeezed in the future in many parts of the world.”
The big picture matters. Everything else is mere noise.