The Oil Drum

This is a guest post from Andy Hunt (solar_bud on The Oil Drum). It's an inspiring account of what can be done today with a modest property to live efficiently and maintain a degree of energy security.

Vital Statistics

Our house was built around 1900. It is an end-terrace house with 2 bedrooms, located in an inner-city area in Bury, Lancashire, UK. Our household comprises me and my partner, with no children, and we live in the property all year round. No planning restrictions are in effect in our area.

Wood burning stove with back boiler.

Click on the image to the right to download the .pdf of a full page "advert" which appeared in both Time and Fortune magazines over Easter. It was written by Jeremy Leggett, the prominent peak oil and climate change commentator and proponent of renewable energy (also Chairman of Solarcentury). On peak oil Jeremy doesn't pull any punches: The bad news is that no combination of technologies can plug the energy gap if the peakists are correct. There will be a third, and last, global energy crisis. It will dwarf previous crises. Profound economic dislocation will result. The challenge for human civilization will be how we rebuild post-peak. The interesting point here is that that Shell sponsored the thing. So, what's in it for Shell?

Click to enlarge. .pdf

This is a guest post by Alan Drake, a letter he sent to his youngest brother.

Peak Oil in Greater Detail

“Oil companies should fire all of their geologists and geophysicists and hire economists to replace them since economists are SO much better at finding oil”.
---- Old Saying in the oil patch

Here's some random facts to illustrate how inelastic supply of oil is once an oil province hits it’s “Hubbert Peak” and the super giant fields deplete...

This is a guest post by Gail the Actuary.

1. I love my SUV. Why can't we continue to use oil and gas as in the past?

George W. Bush has given us one reason why we need to make changes - Unstable foreign oil supply. Al Gore has given us another reason - Climate change.

There is a third reason that trumps the first two - WE DON'T REALLY HAVE A CHOICE. Demand for both oil and natural gas continues to rise each year, as the result of China, India and other countries wanting to adopt a lifestyle more like that in the United States. As we saw in Oil Quiz - Test Your Knowledge, world oil supply is likely to decline in the near future. With demand increasing and supply decreasing, there is certain to be a significant gap in the not too distant future.

Natural gas is similar. Like oil, we started with a finite quantity of it, and it is now depleting. The main difference is that we are dealing primarily with a gap between North American supply and demand, rather than world supply and demand, because natural gas is difficult to transport. Demand is rising, because natural gas is viewed as a less-polluting source of energy.

Natural gas supply is likely to decline in the next few years, because most of the larger, more productive sites have already been tapped. New natural gas wells are getting smaller and smaller, so that more and more new wells need to come on line each year, just to stay even. For a while, we were able to make up our shortfall with imports from Canada, but these have begun to decline. In the next few years, both US production and imports from Canada will be declining. It is doubtful that liquified natural gas imports from overseas will be able to fill the gap.

(7 more questions and answers under the fold...along with a study guide! Go Gail Go!)

The supply of fuel is critical to effective operations of any military unit.  This has been true both for combat situations and for the effective use of the military bases that most countries operate.  It is a topic that Yankee has previously covered, but that, in light of a couple of recent articles, is worth a revisit.  To answer one of her questions back then, as to exactly how much fuel the armed forces uses, comes a Reuters Article

The U.S. military consumed 144.8 million barrels of fuel in 2004, spending $6.7 billion, according to the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC). Last year, it consumed only 128.3 million barrels, but spent $8.8 billion, as the average price per barrel rose by almost 50 percent to more than $68. For 2006, DESC estimates the military will need 130.6 million barrels and pay more than $10 billion for it, at a price of more than $77 per barrel.