DrumBeat: March 1, 2007
Posted by Leanan on March 1, 2007 - 9:07am
Topic: Miscellaneous
Moscow is urging its residents to switch to energy-saving light bulbs
Russia has begun its first major energy-awareness campaign since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, bringing an unfamiliar sight to Moscow streets: billboards urging people to switch to energy-saving light bulbs.But Muscovites are not being encouraged to go green to save the planet.
The city government in Moscow has realized that the country's wasteful ways with energy could mean that before long there will not be enough fuel to go around.
Venezuela Orinoco Companies Fear Voucher Compensation
Six of the world's largest oil companies caught in Venezuela's continuing oil nationalization are bracing for an unfavorable compensation scheme for many billions of dollars in investment. The idea involves paper investment vouchers.
Troubles for the Iraq Oil Deal
Barely two days have passed since Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed the country's new petroleum law as a "solid base for unity of all Iraqis" -- a rare boast these days. President Bush has also trumpeted it as proof that Iraq has a viable future. But parliamentarians and Iraq's oil unions have already begun mobilizing against the draft legislation, arguing that it is a desperate attempt by al-Maliki's government to satisfy Western demands, which could damage Iraq's economic future and speed the country's ultimate disintegration.
Sign Your Country on the Dotted Line
Old research habits die hard. Actually, it's my belief that knowledge should not be compartmentalized - you know what you know, and latent awareness can only help. Now, why does my linguistic training apply to fossil fuel?I can read the new Iraqi oil law in its original form.
Zimbabwe: Fuel price hike sounds death knell
The sharp hike in fuel prices is likely to sound the death knell for most companies, already weighed down by an acute shortage of foreign exchange and key inputs, top economists warned this week Economic experts spoke as the pump price of a litre of petrol rose to a staggering Z$6,500, inflation shot to almost 1,600 percent, and the country electricity shortages woes intensified.
Cambodia Eyes Benefits from Offshore Resources
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday his country will begin seeing benefits from exploitation of its offshore oil and gas resources by 2010 at the latest, vowing to use the income to improve education and health.
EU green targets 'too expensive,' OECD energy official warns
Claude Mandil, head of the 26-member International Energy Agency, said the aim could be very costly unless environmentally friendly energy production costs become significantly reduced.
China has added nine oil and gas producers in North Africa, South America and the Middle East to a list of countries that it wants major Chinese companies to invest in.Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Morocco, Libya, Niger, Norway, Ecuador and Bolivia are now on the list, which builds on previous ones issued in 2004 and 2005, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Thursday.
The US military needs oil -- about 300,000 barrels a day -- to fight....It should come as no surprise then that the Department of Defense is giving very serious thought to oil independence. The notion is that the nation -- and particularly the military -- must have assured access to energy, and oil isn't such a safe bet any more.
Australia: 'Wind drought' causing farm water woes
Pastoralists in Western Australia's mid-west say a 'wind drought' is causing major problems on their properties.Windmills are not catching enough wind to pump ground water to fill storage tanks.
For more than a decade, Stefan Bachu, a senior advisor with Alberta's energy regulator, has been excavating through half a century's worth of geological data to find out how much of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions can be entombed in Western Canada's vacant oil and gas reservoirs. It has been a painstaking, unsung endeavour, but it could ultimately help relieve Canada's greenhouse guilt.
DOE Makes Draft Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle R&D Roadmap Available for Comment
The DOE Office of FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies (FCVT) has developed a Draft Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle R&D Plan to accelerate the development and deployment of technologies critical for plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Barking up a new tree for renewable energy sources
Carbon-neutral and cheap, wood pellets look like a good fuel bet - as some schools and businesses are already discovering.
Saudi Arabia's crude oil production reaches 10.7m bpd in 2006
The President of Saudi Aramco stated that Saudi Arabia's production of crude oil has increased to 10.7 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2006, Arab News reported.He pointed out that during the past year, Aramco has upgraded the optimization of its upstream operations and development and depletion strategies in order the rising demand of crude oil worldwide.
Saudi Aramco Found More Oil Than It Produced In 2006
Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world's largest oil company by production, discovered 3.6 billion barrels of crude oil reserves last year, 6% more than it produced, the Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday
Dredging contract for Manifa field signals a start on extensive works at the facility
When completed Manifa will include a central processing facility, water injection facility and offshore platforms, as well as pipelines and an upgrade of the Khursaniyah Gas Plant - to cope with the extra gas flow.
Protests Suspend Maintenance, Gas Restrictions Extended
Maintenance work on the Canadon Alfa field in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province was suspended on February 24, extending the duration of gas cuts to Chile's region XII, the latter country's energy regulator CNE said in a statement.The works were suspended due to security concerns as a result of union protests related to salary issues.
Chile studies nuclear, hydroelectric power to satisfy mining, domestic energy cravings
Responding to political pressure to solve a potential energy crisis, Chilean Energy Minister Karen Poniachik said the ministry will commence a technical study into the use of nuclear power in Chile.
Indonesia: Nuclear power plant gets a cold response
The government's plan to press ahead with construction of the country's first nuclear power plant in 2010 was met angrily by Jepara residents Wednesday.
It appears that the promise to not build eight of TXU’s 11 proposed coal-fired power plants does not constitute a future ban on all coal plants. “We did not commit for any time period to a complete moratorium on coal plants,” said the private equity rep.
Oil Field Explosions in Oklahoma Leave Four Injured
South Africa presses the nuclear button
The government declarations in mid-February came simultaneously: one announced that work is to begin on a second nuclear power station, and the other proclaimed South Africa’s deposits of uranium as a strategic reserve.
Imperial Oil resumed crude oil processing Wednesday at its refinery in Nanticoke, Ont., but production won't be back to normal for two more weeks, which will extend Ontario's fuel shortage.
Will green tech become the valley's new bubble?
Silicon Valley's shift toward green technology is in high gear. Will it create the same kind of bubble, bust and lasting change as the Internet itself? Are we going to party like it's 1999? Will we hear venture capitalists like John Doerr describe ``green tech'' the way they did the Internet boom in the 1990s as the ``largest legal creation of wealth in human history''?
Pickens: global oil production has reached its peak
Legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens sees today's stubbornly high oil price as evidence that daily global production capacity is at — or very near — its peak.If demand for crude oil rises beyond the current global output of roughly 85 million barrels per day, Pickens told The Associated Press, prices will rise to compensate and alternative sources of energy will begin to replace petroleum.
"If I'm right, we're already at the peak," Pickens said earlier this week in Doha, on the sidelines of the Forbes magazine CEO conference. "The price will have to go up."
Oil prices rebound to two-month high
Oil prices rebounded to another two-month high Wednesday, as traders brushed off Tuesday’s stock market plunge and refocused on declining product inventories.
Key lawmakers skeptical of Bush fuel savings plan
Influential members of Congress expressed doubt on Wednesday about the White House goal of raising auto fuel efficiency by 4 percent next decade, convinced the target would harm U.S. manufacturers.
Inpex to Spend 200 Billion Yen a Year on Oil Fields
Inpex Holdings Inc., Japan's largest oil explorer, said it will spend more than 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) annually to search and develop oil and gas fields over the next three to four years.
Diversify sources, and don't expect positive changes in Russia, say energy experts
Europe is likely to be increasingly dependent on gas and oil imports, whose security it is less and less able to guarantee.
Tokyo ends first snowless winter
The Japanese capital Tokyo has ended winter without snow for the first time on record, the weather agency said Thursday, amid rising global concern about climate change.
Scientists watch polar areas for changes
Are we really heading for an ice-free Arctic? More than 50,000 researchers hope to find an answer during a massive study of how global warming and other phenomena are changing the coldest parts of the Earth — and what that means for the rest of it.
Inuits blame U.S. for climate change
The Inuits of Northern Canada and beyond are taking their case against the United States on Thursday to an international human rights commission. They have scant chance of a breakthrough but still hope to score moral and political points against the U.S. and its carbon spewers.
Germans tackle climate change riddle
But whatever the cause, Mr Fuchs says businesses are already thinking about how to adapt if these warm temperatures become the norm."We need water in the summer to cool our power stations, deep enough rivers to allow ships to navigate, enough wind for turbines," he says.
Iowa ethanol biorefinery gets $80 million grant
Broin Cos. will receive up to $80 million to build a biorefinery that would make fuel from corn cobs as well as corn kernels in Emmetsburg.
Nepal: Energy crisis brings industrial production down to 20%
The national industrial production has dropped down to around 20 percent of its total capacity after the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) started 40 hour a week load shedding a few weeks back.
What a Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire
“What A Way To Go” names Peak Oil, climate change, mass extinction, and population overshoot, as the four pivotal and daunting challenges that humans must address and resolve if any species are to remain on planet earth. Equally terrifying, in my opinion, are two symptomatic offshoots of these four: nuclear holocaust and global economic meltdown.
Traders are expecting the market to head lower this morning. Dow Jones futures have bounce between 90 points and 130 points below fair value. Most say this is because of a comment by the Bank of Japan, or perhaps it was some Japanese banker. Anyway he issued a warning to those who "borrow in Yen but sell in Dollars". This caused the dollar to plunge against the yen and the Dow futures to drop by over 100 points.
Ron Patterson
Looks like we might have another bloodbath today.
IMO the four year rally which led to a new high in nominal terms (although nowhere near that in real terms) is now over and the large-scale bear market that began in 2000 has resumed. My view is that this decline has very much further to go to the downside. It may stair-step down with rallies of different sizes along the way, some of which might whipsaw the markets up and down very sharply (ie volatility should be a prominent feature), but I think the overall trend will continue to be down, perhaps for several years. I would expect it to involve the unwinding - perhaps rapidly as thresholds are crossed - of enormous leveraged positions, which would wreak havoc with the derivatives market and the banking system. IMO the effect would be strongly deflationary.
I have read it would more be more disinflationary in nature.
Check this out...
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=417
http://thefinancedude.blogspot.com
It seems like the old dogs in Congress can't learn new tricks. They still believe higher fuel mileage standards will hurt the auto industry. They can't see that the failure to raise mileage standards is the reason US manufacturers are in such pain now.
I've long believed that if industry is required to make changes because it is in the public interest than the public through its government should share the cost. In return for the subsidy the government would recieve shares of stock and a share of the profits.
>It seems like the old dogs in Congress can't learn new tricks. They still believe higher fuel mileage standards will hurt the auto industry. They can't see that the failure to raise mileage standards is the reason US manufacturers are in such pain now.
The reason why US auto makers are in trouble is because of their huge entitlement programs. They are forced to generate high margin vehicles in order to stay afloat. While it would not be difficult to produce smaller, fuel efficient vehicles, they would face a lot of compitition from foreign auto makers which can sell vehicles for a much lower margin. US automakers need to support workers that retired in the 1960s, that are still collecting their pensions. On the other side, foriegn makers have relativity few pensioneers. If US makers tried to complete with foriegn makers they would quickly go bankrupt. As it is, they are barely staying afloat.
I suspect that in the not too distant future, US auto makers will dump thier pension programs on the PGCC at the dis-pleasure of retired auto workers.
This is the same problem with the airline industry. In a lot of ways both of these markets would be better served if some of the existing players did go bankrupt, and just closed down. This would allow for the other companies to buy up the resources (plants, planes, etc) without the pension plans. If there are mergers you get all of the pensions along with the resources.
While what you say is very true, you villanize the pension plan. There's nothing inherently wrong with pension plans - they just have to be properly funded along the way. You can't let the corporations continue to underfund their obligations.
Congress needs to step in and protect people's pensions. As it is, anyone who retired in the 60's (best case they are what 90+ years old?) has gotten their shirts handed to them in terms of inflation.
Garth
It would help if we imposed a tariff on imported cars equal to the health care subsidy provided by their government.
It would help if the USA had a national health care system like all other major industrialized countries. Even the former head of GM-Canada said that the national healthcare was good for business - until he was moved back to a US job. They reap what they sow. As for the pensions, the unions should have demanded proper funding rather than empty promises. I guess the "growth" religion entraps all classes.
Basic health care insurance provided by the gov't as one option for US citizens would bring down a major cost to US corporations and level the playing field. The cost would be great, but what is the cummulative cost we've already incurred due to lost jobs that won't ever come back. US workers and corporations can compete if the game is fair.
If there goverement subsidy health care they probably pay it in taxes instead.
Impressive. Saudi Arabia is storing 2 million barrels per day. Instead of leaving it in the ground they prefer to build ever expanding tank farms. Their domestic demand is too small to absorb such a large volume.
Fun with numbers and how lying can create the reality you want.
The first two Saudi links above; the first Saudi increased production to 10.7 mb/d. The second says they increased production capacity to 10.7 mb/d. There is a considerable difference.
No way can they claim that they actually produced 10.7 mb/d, that was probably just a mis-quote by whomever wrote up the article. However they can claim that they have the capacity to produce any figure they can dream up.
Ron Patterson
saudi production, according to the 2nd article was , 9.3 million bpd (3.6 x 10^9 /1.06/365) but how much was exported ? ............i'll bet the ever vigilant westex can tell us
"Saudi Aramco Found More Oil Than It Produced In 2006"
I don't know what this headline was doing on the CATTLENETWORK website but it certainly sounds like cowpat to me!
Marco.
Sorry that joke was bullshit.
Indeed. There is no way they found over 3 billion barrels in 2006.
It must reflect on an increase in recoverable oil from existing reserves where vast armies of fairies are sent into the ground with modified vacuum cleaners that suck every last drop of oil out.
Marco, don't you remember, we weren't supposed to tell anyone about the fairies...
You just add a figure, any figure to the existing reserves.
Back it up with some 3-D modelling and hey-presto
It is called 'Nintendo Geology'
Once upon a time, you had to drill and test. Now you just need to visualise it on advance computers.
And as we know, computers never lie.
well i would sure hope that the saudi's would find some oil with all the rigs they are utilizing .........otherwise we are all f*****, real f*****
My take on this is more negative. They are trumpeting a 6% surplus of oil found over oil produced. This after spending tons of money on extra oil rigs.
I agree. But most readers of such articles will not know this detail.
9.142 mbpd Crude+Condensate plus 1.479 mbpd NGPLs + .080 mbpd Refinery Processing Gain = 10.701 mbpd
the article referenced crude production
I'm just telling you where the number came from. One commentor up above thought it was a misquote and another agreed with him and added that most readers wouldn't understand the detail. I don't know who all the "most readers" would be, but I can guess who two of them are :)
Not very likely. The first article stated:
The second article stated:
The first article stated crude oil. The second article gave the exact same figure and just said “oil production”. But if the first article really meant crude, like it said, then it would be only logical that the second article meant crude as well. After all, if thy meant to add NGLs and refinery gain, to the crude oil, the figure would have been way above 10.7 mb/d. So if you use simple logic here, the first reporter simply dropped the word “capacity” from the report. After all they both came up with the exact number of 10.7 mb/d.
Dissident is right, most readers would not be able to figure this out. In fact, it is highly unlikely that people who read the first article, in the media, would also read the second article also. But because we have both, we can deduct that the word “capacity” was most likely dropped from the first article.
And while it is true that most readers would not understand this, at least one reader would still not understand it even after it was clearly explained. NGLs and refinery gain had absolutely nothing to do with it. (A clue: Saudi does not add refinery gain to crude exports. Refinery gain can only be added to refined products.)
Ron Patterson
The Saudis themselves have admitted that their current crude oil production is "about 8.5 mbpd."
The articles quote Arab News as the source. See ArabNews.com. The story there starts as follows:
Claim is they reached that level. So what is the guess? 5 minutes at that rate on 31-Dec?
and here is home Schlumberger reported it- does this clarify matters:
http://realtimenews.slb.com/news/story.cfm?storyid=640439
Freddy, you keep coming back with new aliases. What's up?
Whats wrong with last viking?
There goes my 401K. What little gains I had this year are evaporating quickly, except for my Diversified Bonds. I had most of my money in Developed International and Midcap Value which had done wonderfully the last two years.
How many are in the same boat? Watching their retirement disappear before their eyes.
DF,
Mine disappeared in 2001. Still have not recovered yet.
''A stockbroker is a gentleman who takes all your money and invests it until it is all gone.''
- Spike Milligan
DF said,
"Mine disappeared in 2001. Still have not recovered yet."
Exactly.....someone asked me the other day if I was trading in penny stocks....and I said, "Well, they weren't when I bought them..."
Oh well, it only hurts when I laugh.....hee, hee, hee, OWWW!
See.....:-)
Roger Conner
Rememeber, we are only one cubic mile from freedom
No worry. There must be some deflation in the market before the Fed has the cover to drop interest rates and start the next re-inflation. You want to be in equities before the Fed drops the rate. The next few months is a good time to dollar cost average into the market and position yourself.
Goldman Sacs, before the market drop this week, was already predicting two interest rate drops this year.
First the pain, then the gain.
i dumped much of my stock (mutual fund) holdings about 3 wks ago in favor of bonds (funds again) my 401k is rather miniscule for better or worse
Never have a naked long or short position in any market.
The pros are always spread into a position which generate small consistent profits. I have been doing this for thirty years.