The Oil Drum | More goings-on around the world

171 comments on More goings-on around the world

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Leanan on February 17, 2006 - 11:00am

Let's see....

Ghana is forced to raise fuel prices

Nigerian militants are threatening "total war"

In the U.K., natural gas prices are up

Indonesian growth hit by doubling of fuel prices

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Dave Cohen on February 17, 2006 - 1:21pm

This is a wake up call. You might recall that I posted Nigeria Is a Mess and Getting Worse a little while back. This from Bloomberg Oil Jumps on Report `Total War' Declared on Nigerian Producers.

As much as 9 percent of Nigeria's oil production was interrupted last month when rebels blew out pipelines and kidnapped oil-company workers. Militants have said previously that oil companies should leave Nigeria. Last month, they vowed to cut Nigeria's oil export capacity by 30 percent in February.

The threat is supposedly from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and the oil companies must leave the delta by midnight tonight or it will be "total war".

We've heard this kind of thing before but I think these folks are getting serious... NYMEX LSC Future is up $1.32 as of now and rising. Could be an interesting weekend.

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Leanan on February 17, 2006 - 1:48pm

Things definitely seem to be heating up in Nigeria:

Shell oil well on fire in Nigeria

New Nigeria helicopter attack in delta

One of the PeakOil.com mods has a father in Nigeria (petroleum engineer, I think). He says no one is allowed to leave the Shell/BP compound. (He also thinks the end of oil is nigh, and warns that the American way of life is going to change drastically. I think Big Oil knows what's coming. They may not admit it in public, but they know, and they've known for a long time.)

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Gets IT on February 17, 2006 - 8:11pm

Actually I found the Video List not quite as shocking as another fire in Nigeria. I quess Shell is upset because they didn't start that one themselves? Their flares are bigger.

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Leanan on February 18, 2006 - 11:14am

Nigeria suspends 380,000 bpd oil exports after attack

Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day Forcados terminal on Saturday after militants bombed the tanker loading platform, a senior oil industry source said.
The company is still trying to ascertain the damage to the platform, which is located three miles offshore, but has already begun shutting oilfields in the area which feed the terminal, the source added.
"Of course no ships can go near there now. This is going to be a major deferment," the senior industry source said.
"If we can't export, we can't produce," he added.

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Leanan on February 18, 2006 - 8:01am

Oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria

Nine foreign oil workers have been seized by armed militants from a barge in Nigeria's Niger Delta.
The group, including three Americans, two Thais, two Egyptians, a Briton and a Filipino, were on a pipelaying barge.
Shell's Forcados export terminal was also set on fire, and oil loading there has been suspended.

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Leanan on February 17, 2006 - 2:04pm

Here's a rather unsettling story from Zimbabwe:

Bodies of fetuses, newborns clog Harare's sewers

Gasoline shortages and 613% inflation are blamed. The sewers are also being clogged by sand. People can't afford detergent any more, and clean their dishes by scrubbing them with sand.

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Don Sailorman on February 17, 2006 - 3:34pm

Today Zimbabwe, tomorrow the U.S.?

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Stuart Staniford on February 17, 2006 - 4:35pm

I don't think we should reason too far from Zimbabwe - that country was FUBAR before oil prices went high. Completely corrupt and incompetent government.

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Leanan on February 17, 2006 - 5:35pm

Completely corrupt and incompetent government.

Good thing we don't have one of those. ;-)

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Magnus Redin on February 17, 2006 - 5:42pm

No you do not. The Zimbabwe government is worse then North Koreas. There is a long way to fall before any western government reaches the Zimbabwe level. Even south Italian mafia would run a better government.

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Gets IT on February 17, 2006 - 8:34pm

Or the northern ones.

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davebygolly on February 18, 2006 - 1:49am

Some distinctions have to be made here. You can't measure corruption just by its impact.

First: a poor country can be devastated by a level of corruption that will have a far less noticeable impact on a developed country.

Second: what constitutes corruption? Does the removal of resources at bargain basement rates from a poor country (or use of its labor) by a corparation, constitute corruption? Or is it only the bribes paid by the corporation to officials in that country that count?

Third: I believe that the top levels of our gov't are totally corrupt, but that the corruption has not yet infected everything all the way down the line. So the top of our gov't could be just as corrupt as the top there, but here there are many more layers below that are, if not healthy, at least still functioning.

You might be right about the mafia doing better, but they would also have done a better job with Katrina if only because you can't do business where there are no people.

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Leanan on February 18, 2006 - 7:31am

I'd take my chances with the mafia. Tony Soprano for president. ;-)

Seriously, though, I sometimes wonder if those at the top know what's coming...and are looting the country now, while they can.

But the reason I posted the link to that article wasn't that I think that's what will be happening here (at least, anytime soon). The point was demand destruction is occurring. Mostly in the Third World, but it is occurring.

I think this could go one for quite awhile. As long as we can outbid everyone else for the remaining oil, we may be relatively unaffected. As long as the dollar holds up...

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howleyj on February 17, 2006 - 5:57pm

Friends:
The BBC recently deployed its worldwide network of correspondents to produce "Fueling the Future." Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2006/energy/default.stm to read, hear and watch the results. A diverse snapshot of energy related developments from Cambodia to Canada. Remind your British friends to pay their telly tax!

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Agric on February 17, 2006 - 6:58pm

I've been doing a good deal of listening to BBC world service this last week to catch these programs. They have steered fairly well clear of apocalyptic views but generally it has been a balanced and informative set of (many) programs and parts of programs. I think it's fair to say it has permeated just about all aspects of BBC WS news and current affairs this week, so very well done. The best radio station in the world got even better.

Howleyj's link is the main page for this extravaganza, here's a direct one to the listenable radio programs, many are well worth the time (don't dally, sometimes BBC radio archives evaporate after a week):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1349_energy/

Perhaps consider it a relaxed version of what will come to a news station near you sometime sooner than you would like. Rather like an erudite after dinner discussion, midst walnuts, port and cigars, in an english country house dining room in 1938...

"I say, that Hitler looks a rum chap."
"Perhaps, but the Sudettenland seems happy enough with the arrangement."
"Algy says he has his eyes on Russia."
"That may be no bad thing, keep 'em both busy for a while, haw, haw, haw!"
"Dash and blast, the fire's getting low and we seem to have run out of logs. I'll ring for Jeeves."

BTW, one does not need a telly licence to listen to radio in UK any more. UK also abolished the dog licence over 30 years ago.

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Gets IT on February 17, 2006 - 8:39pm

agric, They know where you live. As BBC says themselves, "If you don't pay your telly license, that's fine." Get it?

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dipchip on February 18, 2006 - 8:31am

Everyone's favorite media outlet is the one that confirms his or her opinion. Truth is usually in the eyes of the beholder. Don't confuse me with the facts or details.

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Agric on February 18, 2006 - 9:06am

The BBC World Service is a strange radio station. I wouldn't say it confirms my opinion, I quite often disagree with opinions when expressed there, it is more about information - I've yet to hear any radio station that comes close to BBC WS in providing factual world news and information, and I've listen to many.

If you've never listened to it I strongly suggest you do, you may be very pleasantly surprised. What better place to start than these programs about a subject that interests you?

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Leanan on February 18, 2006 - 9:13am

I like the BBC. Much more intelligent and in-depth than any American news source. (Don't listen to the radio much, but I read their web site regularly, and watch their TV news when in London.)

Though they did let me down with their coverage of Hugo Chavez kicking out the missionaries:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1672

That's the kind of coverage I'd expect from CNN. :-P

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dipchip on February 18, 2006 - 10:17am

Sorry: I wasn't referring specifically to you, and I should have said, the one that confirms his or her opinion most often.

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Agric on February 18, 2006 - 10:31am

Tis OK, I read it the way you intended and took no offence, I agree with your sentiment, thanks for the apology. But do please give the BBC WS a listen, you won't regret it. I make a distinction between it and other BBC broadcasting (which I find relatively poor and close to the mid point of BBC WS and the better US news media) and it is a largely separate organisation.

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shez on February 18, 2006 - 7:03pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1349_energy/index.shtml

This is the index to all the world service programs in the Fuelling the Future series.

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shez on February 18, 2006 - 7:18pm

Duh - I now see Agric posted them above!

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Gets IT on February 19, 2006 - 6:24am

take this! 1994 date but a lot of useful engineering & chem data. Includes full system designs for bio->gas treating->burning in IC engines /inc engine mods. http://www.fao.org/docrep/T4470E/t4470e00.htm#Contents

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Agric on February 19, 2006 - 9:07am

Good find, lots of interesting ideas and techniques, thanks

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Agric on February 19, 2006 - 9:32am

I was particularly impressed by the solar greenhouse info:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/T4470E/t4470e0c.htm#9.%20research%20on%20the%20temperature%20environment%2 0of%20solar%20greenhouse

Temperature increases of +20 to +30 C ( +36 to +54 F ) in midwinter. Intercropping with mushrooms to increase CO2 availability is synergistic, too:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/T4470E/t4470e0d.htm#10.%20integrated%20energy%20self%20served%20animal%20a nd%20plant%20complementary%20ecosystem%20in%20ch

There's a lot we could learn from these folks in China, India and some other developing countries about relatively small scale energy and argiculture.

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Gets IT on February 19, 2006 - 2:06pm

Ya that's the real beauty ...the symbiotics. Let's coin a new phrase "symbiofuels". Did you see the wind power-aquaculture one? In the west we think we know everything often forgetting that we forgot everything we knew at least three times.

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Agric on February 19, 2006 - 6:23pm

I haven't got to that one yet, but I will. Time is coming that it will probably pay us to learn the technologies which will be more appropriate in future and which these countries are developing now.

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Gets IT on February 20, 2006 - 1:41pm

Seems that we usually only learn when the ROI looks favourable.

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171 comments on More goings-on around the world

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