The Oil Drum

President of ASPO, Kjell Aleklett

The afternoon session of the first day of the Conference was chaired by the Economics Editor of RTE, George Lee who pointed out the general public lack of awareness of the current situation. He noted that when he did a program on the subject he was assailed by the Irish media, with negative cartoons, and the clear impression that he was on a subject that the public did not understand, or care to know about. The first presentation was by Dr Herman Franssen of the IEA, talking about Global Energy Demand trends. Sad to admit, I did not get to hear this so I will pass on to the second paper, which was by Professor Pang the founder of ASPO-China. He noted that China had peaked in oil production in 2005. As production continues it has a ratio of 12:1 between reserves and production of crude, (relative to a figure he quoted of 40:1 for the world ratio); and 42:1 for natural gas (against a world ratio of 60:1). In consequence China spent $63 billion on importing fuel in 2006. In order to meet demand China is sending delegations around the world and now has 65 projects in 25 countries. It has just become a coal-importing country (and in response to a question from Dr. Schlesinger he confirmed that China has cancelled its CTL plans, because of the amount of coal that would be needed for their operation).

China has initiated a program to increase self-produced oil, to reduce oil consumption and to develop renewable alternatives.