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207 comments on Saturday Open Thread and News Dump

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AlanfromBigEasy on March 11, 2006 - 12:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
Just a quick note about what other nations are doing.

The Swiss became tired of heavy trucks transporting goods through their country.  Road congestion, pollution, fuel use and general "environmental effects".  Peak Oil & Global Warming probably fit under the last catch-all.

As I noted before, the Swiss made do with VERY limited quantities of oil during WW II (in all of 1945 they used what they used in 26 days in 1938) by electrifying their transportation.

They are spending enourmous amounts on the world's longest tunnel (34.5 km), which, when combined with the earlier Simplon tunnel, will give 250 km/hour rail link through Switzerland.  More importantly, taxes on heavy trucks will pay for the new tunnel and force shippers to use it.

The tunnel and associated improvements will be completed past Peak Oil but they will be a welcome improvement in EU adn Swiss transport when completed

One excerpt.

nvestment amounting to more than 31 billion Swiss francs will be needed to modernise the railway system in Switzerland over the next 20 years. Construction of the 34.5 km Lötschberg base tunnel will cost some 3.22 billion francs (for the first construction phase). By comparison, about 60 billion Swiss francs were spent constructing the network of national roads. The finance concept is based on the model of constructing and financing the public transport infrastructure (FinöV/FPT) which was adopted by the Swiss electorate in 1998. The fund consists of revenue from the fuel tax, the mileage-related heavy vehicle tax, an additional 0.1% value-added tax and loans from the capital market. Once the Lötschberg base tunnel becomes operational in 2007, Switzerland will then be able to levy the full rate of the mileage-related heavy vehicle tax

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Marotti32 on March 11, 2006 - 1:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
There is another tunnel being planned. The Brenner base tunnel in Austria and Italy. Expected to become 56km long. It is, though, far in the future. In the end it should bring relief for the heavily congested Brenner Pass. Further it is part of the highspeed railway connection from Berlin to Naples.

But I think the swiss neighbours are better in organizing such large procjects than the EU.

http://www.ita-aites.org/cms/1075.html

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Gets IT on March 12, 2006 - 8:47pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I don't know what you base your organization comment on?  I think you'll find that a 56 km tunnel will not be a problem.  I have been working with Swedes that have build a 12 km long tunnel at 3000 meter elavations and another 24 km long tunnel at 1500 meter elevation in Saudi Arabia and 5 underground strategic fuel storage projects, each with somewhere around 20 km of VERY BIG tank tunnels.  I'm sure if they could do this in Saudi Arabia, they will be able to handle it within the EU borders.  Besides, anybody that can only think of bridges to put on the back of all the Euro bills will most certainly be able to handle any kind of a transportation problem. ^|^
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DuncanK on March 12, 2006 - 11:28pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Gets IT,

Can you tell us more about these Saudi fuel storage tunnels?

Matt Simmons talked about the Saudis having storage which he suspected that they used to ramp up 'production' when the need arose.

I just tried Googling for your fuel storage tunnels and found no information about them.

Are these the secret fuel storage that Matt aludes to?

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Gets IT on March 13, 2006 - 8:01am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
These underground storage plants are a Ministry of Defense project that are now operated under a joint agreement between MOD and Saudi Aramco.  These are not crude storage facilities, but hold refined diesel, gasoline and jet base fuels in many tanks, the larger ones approaching 1 km in length.  There are 5 at present.

I have a long term informal discovery project ongoing concerning S.A. crude storage tanks outside the Kingdom.  S.A. and Shell share 50% interest in Motiva Enterprises' refineries located in Port Arthur, Texas; Convent, Louisiana; and Norco, Louisiana.  Motiva refineries can process approximately 780,000 barrels per day, and have a distribution system including appx 47 product terminals with 19 MM BBLS of storage.  Since these are product terminals, fortunately I don't have to identify those.

Using a WAG of 20X refinery capacity, I can get around 50MM BBLS, not counting Rotterdam possibilities.

Ras Tanura Refinery  325,000 bpd
Aramco/Exxon Yanbu  400,000 bpd
Aramco/Shell Jubail 305,000 bpd
@ 20 x 20.6 MM BBLS

Norco, La  Crude: 240,000 BPD
Port Arthur, Tx. Crude: 235,000 BPD
Convent Ref, La. Crude: 255,000
@ 20 x capacity = 15 MMB

S.A. may be leasing tanks from Valero Corp http://www.valerolp.com/Customers/TerminalDataSheets/
At this Caribbean Island VLCC "service station" from Valero Corp.
http://www.valerolp.com/NR/rdonlyres/83C1FDE0-ABE8-4B18-B64E-F17DA79FE3A8/0/StEustatius1_25_06.pdf
with 51 tanks 11.3 MM BBLS of storage. (they can process only 15,000 BPD of light stuff)

Rotterdam?

S.A's. transportation subsidery can probably hold almost 10 MMB in their ships alone.

OFF TOPIC
13 March 2006
"Iran's Nuclear Plans Complicate China's Energy Security"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=456&language_id=1

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AlanfromBigEasy on March 11, 2006 - 1:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Further information.

The Swiss are building two North-South rail links.  The first will open in 2007 (partially built, single track at first) with a new 34.5 km Lötschberg tunnel and the existing Simplon tunnel.  200 kph seems to be the likely max speed.

The other, with a 57 km Gotthard tunnel, will be fully open in 2015 and provide an almost straight and level track from Zurich to Milan and pax train speeds of 250 kph.  Again, roll on-roll off auto & truck service plus other freight will generate most of the revenue.

Massive investments that will help Switzerland and parts of the EU adapt to Peak Oil.

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