<DrumBeat: July 14, 2008 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: July 15, 2008>

51 comments on Algeria & Morocco: Natural Gas Cartels, Fertilizer Mercantilism, and Rising Tensions

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jonathan.s.callahan on July 14, 2008 - 10:41pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Euan,

Point taken to do a little more homework here at TOD before posting.

Had I read your in-depth article on The European Gas Market I would not have made those off-the-cuff comments based on a single graphic.

This points out the problem with artificially grouping nations together without having a very good reason for doing so. Algeria, Spain, France & Italy do not constitute anything approaching a closed system as the graphic implies and I'll need to review the various groupings I have set up in the databrowser. (Groupings were one of the main requests from the initial batch of users.)

I should probably stick to groupings that are either geologic in nature like the North Sea or political in nature like the EU or OECD.

-- Jon

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Euan Mearns on July 15, 2008 - 9:21am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Jon - as I've said before many of your charts are useful for quick checks on exports. But I think you agree this one's not that helpful and could even be misleading for a reader not experienced enough to know what lies behind the numbers.


Figure 27 Destinations for Algerian pipeline gas exports.


Figure 28 Destinations for Algerian LNG gas exports.

The European gas market is complex with a high degree of interconnectivity of supplies. many countries would be affected by a failure of Algerian gas exports - not only those countries that actually receive Algerian gas directly.

But I'm still left wondering if the threat level in Algeria has some how increased significantly that shoudl make us more concerned now than before.

As explained above I was in a bad mood yesterday - sorry for being a bit gruff.

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jonathan.s.callahan on July 15, 2008 - 12:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Euan,

No offense taken. I understand how it can be frustrating to have to explain things over again when you've done such an excellent job of explaining them the first time.

We both agree that this particular chart is misleading and I'll be removing it. Part of the reason I've been posting so many charts is to gauge their usefulness and your comments let me know that this one in particular, and arbitrary groupings in general, are problematic. This is very valuable information for me as I definitely don't want to add to the confusion!

I hope to be adding more styles of charts in the future and I'll be looking to your work and that of others here at TOD for inspiration. A couple of ideas I'm working on include:

  • per capita plot option that displays import/export per capita
  • flow of money chart that multiplies import/export by the BP provided yearly price
  • fossil fuel use chart (superimposed timelines for coal, oil & gas (mtoe) and their sum)

I look forward to the continuing conversation and discussion about how best we can bring this information to the non-cognoscenti.

Happy Exploring!

-- Jon

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51 comments on Algeria & Morocco: Natural Gas Cartels, Fertilizer Mercantilism, and Rising Tensions

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