Stories tagged with "oil consumption"

The Future of European Transport: iTREN-2030

Posted by Rembrandt on October 30, 2009 - 10:23am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: brussels, eu, europe, itren-2030, oil consumption, transportation [list all tags]

On 21 October the final workshop was held in Brussels (Belgium) of the integrated transport and energy baseline until 2030 (iTREN-2030) modeling project. At the workshop a final scenario was presented that incorporated likely transport and energy policies, and the effects on European transport of a continued global plateau in oil production up to 2030. The integrated scenario was generated by four energy and transport models that have been linked in iTREN-2030 to increase the forecasting power of the transport policies of the European Commission.

In this post I describe the iTREN-2030 project and the different models, covering the POLES global energy supply and demand model in more detail, highlight the conclusions of the present integrated scenario, and give my reflection on the workshop commenting on some areas of improvement to augment the potential of the models.

The iTREN-2030 project is all the more important because the resulting model set and integrated scenario will be used by the European Commission (DG-Tren) in preparing the white paper on transport policies due for 2010. After discussion with the European Parliament and approval by the council of Minister, the European Union will as a result have set out its new course for the future of transport in the period up to 2020.

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Book Review - Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil

Posted by Robert Rapier on September 22, 2009 - 2:00pm
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: book review, matthew simmons, oil companies, oil consumption, oil exploration, oil production, peter maass [list all tags]

Introduction

It succors and drowns human life. And for the last eight years, oil — and the people and places that make it — was my obsession. - Peter Maass

Today a new book by Peter Maass was released. The book is called Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil. Peter Maass is a name you may know from a 2005 article that he wrote for the New York Times called The Breaking Point. The story was a comprehensive look at where he thought oil production/prices were headed - and what the implications might be. Maass focused on Saudi Arabia in the article, and spent a lot of time covering Matt Simmons' viewpoints. It was after reading this story that New York Times columnist John Tierney offered to bet Simmons on the future direction of oil prices. Thus arose the Simmons-Tierney bet.

I thought Maass' 2005 article was well-researched, and it was a captivating read. So when Mr. Maass e-mailed and asked if I would like a copy of his new book, I thought it would probably be a book I would enjoy. I still have a stack of books that have been sent to me to review, but I jumped this one to the front of the queue. I hadn't really intended to, as I am working on two other books right now*, and would normally finish those before starting another. But once I picked this book up and started thumbing through it, I couldn't put it down.

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Has OECD oil consumption peaked?

Posted by Rune Likvern on April 14, 2009 - 9:47am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: bric, china, oecd, oecd europe, oil consumption, oil stocks, original, world oil production [list all tags]



The above diagram shows that the pattern of growth in oil consumption has varied greatly for different groupings of countries. Oil consumption in China and India has continued to grow, whether or not oil prices rose greatly. Oil consumption also continued to grow in the "Others" category, which includes many of the oil producing nations. Oil consumption in the Former Soviet Union also followed a pattern somewhat independent of world oil prices. It was only the OECD whose consumption changed significantly as world oil prices changed.

Based on this comparison, it seems to me that OECD consumption is far more affected by oil price changes than the consumption of other countries. Based on data shown in this post, it seems to me that OECD economies can only absorb a price increase of US$10 per barrel in a year, without experiencing slowdowns in their economies and a reduction in oil consumption. Non-OECD economies (including BRIC countries) are more resilient, and are more likely to continue to show growing consumption.

Below the fold, I examine similarities and differences in oil consumption patterns of OECD and Non-OECD countries and offer my view as to what the future may hold.

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Energy Export Databrowser

Posted by Robert Rapier on June 10, 2008 - 9:50am
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: natural gas, oil consumption, oil exports, oil imports, oil production [list all tags]

Jonathan Callahan, a Ph.D. chemist who spent 12 years working for NOAA, has created a very useful databrowser for exploring the supply/demand situation in various countries around the world. Based on BP's 2007 Statistical Review, it provides a quick and easy way to see the trends for whether countries are consuming or producing, importing or exporting crude oil and natural gas. The tool may be found at Energy Export Databrowser.

How useful is this tool? It took me about 5 seconds to pull up the following graphic for crude oil trends in the U.S.:

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