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a community peak oil portal
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| The Peak Oil Crisis: America's Electricity |
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Earlier this week, the National Conference of State Legislators held an energy policy forum entitled "The Future of State Electricity Policy" for the benefit of legislators from all over the U.S. who were attending the annual conference. At the outset, the organizers announced they had been considering a transportation fuels forum, but had finally deemed the subject too confusing and too politicized to grapple with at this time.
The first speaker, a senior Energy Information Administration (EIA) official, felt impelled, however, to tell the gathering that before talking about electricity, he should warn them that his agency is very concerned about the cost of home heating which is set to at least double this coming winter.
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| The coming gas supply shock in the Gulf |
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 IT IS ironic that the Arabian Gulf, which contains two thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves and is the epicentre of the energy business, faces a regular gas shortage, possibly as high as 7 billion cubic feet in the next decade. This is going to have a seismic impact on the GCC’s oil production, consumption and exports, a major factor in crude oil prices.
Only Qatar among the GCC states has the scale of reserves, production and infrastructure to ignore gas supply constraints in industrial production in some of the highest nominal GDP growth economies in the world.
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| Just how thin is the North Pole ice? |
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 vox_mundi writes: Last spring we broke the news that the North Pole could be ice-free this summer. Now we've got some numbers that show just how thin the ice at the North Pole has become over the past 17 years, and they suggest that Santa isn't sitting very pretty.
Christian Haas of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany and colleagues estimated the thickness of late summer ice at the North Pole in 2001, 2004 and 2007. They found that the ice was on average 1.3 metres thick at the end of the summer in 2007. By contrast, it was 2.3 metres thick in 2001 and 2.6 metres thick in 2004.
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| New Microgrid Network Proposed For More Dependable, Cheaper Power |
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 vox_mundi writes: Hurricane Katrina helped University of Texas professor, Alexis Kwasinski, formulate a new plan for the U.S. telecom system: a de-centralized power architecture that would have kept the lights and phones on in New Orleans. Kwasinski maintains that a microgrid-based power plant with its own local power sources and independent control would be more dependable, efficient, and cost effective than traditional telecom power systems.
Microgrids would also be a quick and inexpensive way to include renewable energy sources for both existing and developing systems.
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| Study: Saudi oil exports may start falling in 2014 |
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 Saudi Arabia's oil exports may start to fall in 2014 after it reaches maximum production capacity of 12.5 million barrels a day and domestic consumption grows, Chatham House said in a report.
"Once production levels off at a plateau, exports will decline" as local demand rises, the London-based think tank said in report titled "Ending Dependence: Hard Choices for Oil- Exporting States." Current Saudi output capacity is 11.3 million barrels a day, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said June 30.
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| Everything you need to know, in order |
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| A student in my class asked me for a list of skills we need to get ready for peak oil, prioritized. I admit, it took me about a day after she asked to stop thinking “Holy Crap, how do I figure that all out!” But it is an interesting question. And while it isn’t all just about food preservation, I thought I’d take a shot at it. I will, of course, be relying on my fearless readership to point out gaps in my thinking.
Now I’m not going to get everything, but it did occur to me that we could break it down a bit, and then subcategorize. So what the heck, here goes. In order of priority - the main categories are numbered, and the skills in each category are lettered. I’m going to do this in several posts, so that I don’t go mad. But here’s the beginnings of my list.
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| Pretend-O-Rama (Kunstler) |
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| The comprehensive bankruptcy of the United States, at every level, in all corners, atop each hill and mole-hill, and down not a few rat-holes, is preceding like some kind of hideous multi-media, inter-dimensional cosmic grand opera as produced and directed by the Devil. Every week, some bizarre new subplot is introduced by the stage managers, each turn and twist geared to produce maximum pain and carnage in the US economy, as if to foreclose any possibility of redemption on the way down. Well, the absence of hope is, after all, the essential nature of Hell (setting aside, for the moment, J.P. Sartre's quaint notion that Hell is other people).
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| China oil use soars in 1H despite high world prices |
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| Soaring world prices don't seem to have crimped China's oil use, with statistics released on Thursday by an industry group indicating that first-half consumption of oil and refined oil products set records.
The China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA) said that "apparent consumption" of refined products -- gasoline, diesel and kerosene -- rose 14.6 percent year-on-year to 106 million tonnes, while crude oil use rose 6.3 percent to 183.3 million tonnes.
"Apparent consumption" represents the sum of net imports and output, according to the group, and can be used as a proxy for real consumption excluding inventory.
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| Politicians say electric cars will dominate, but experts differ |
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| If you listen to political leaders like Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, you might think that we will all be driving around in electric cars in just over 10 years, but industry experts don't agree and expect there will still be a big cocktail of choices available by 2020.
Brown told the Group of Eight summit in Japan earlier in July that all new vehicles could be powered by electric or hybrid engines by 2020. The other leaders of the world's richest nations plus Russia didn't demur, so presumably they agreed. Brown repeated his claim at the London Motor Show this week in a meeting with GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster. Forster said that this was a "very, very ambitious target".
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| Nigerian oil union threatens fresh strike over diesel cost |
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| Nigeria's oil workers' union NUPENG has threatened to resume a suspended strike over the high cost of diesel and kerosene in the oil-rich west African country, its leader said Thursday.
"We will meet again next week Tuesday. But between now and Tuesday, our extension will have lapsed so we are looking at a lot of options," NUPENG president Peter Akpatason told reporters.
"Some people are suggesting that we must start the strike next Monday because we only suspended for two weeks. But another group is saying why don't we do some other protests," he said.
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| Venezuela, Belarus sign oil deal |
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| Venezuela and Belarus sign a deal to develop three more oil fields in the Latin American country as Caracas vows to supply Belarus with its oil needs.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has assured his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that his country will supply Minsk with its oil needs for the next century.
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| Faltering Northwest Airlines posts loss |
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| Northwest Airlines Corp. says it lost $377 million (U.S.) in the second quarter because of a large accounting charge and soaring fuel expenses.
The loss came to $1.43 per share on revenue of $3.58 billion, Northwest said yesterday.
During the same period last year, when Northwest emerged from bankruptcy protection, profit stood at $2.15 billion, including $1.94 billion in bankruptcy items.
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| Bangalore: Brace Up for Harsher Power Cuts - Energy Minister (India) |
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| During the fortnight since the last evaluation of the state's power situation two weeks ago, the state government has found that it has sunk deeper into power crisis than it estimated. As against the 11% power shortage that was projected then, fresh estimates say, that the state is faced with a huge shortfall of 20% now. The energy minister rests his hopes of an improvement in the situation on the God and better rainfall.
The people residing in cities who are presently facing four to six hour cuts may have to face power cuts stretching upto eight hours soon. The rural areas will be the worst hit as they may face power cuts upto 12 to 15 hours per day. The load-shedding which is 20% now, has been decided to be increased to 25% in August.
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| It is time to resolve the dispute over Iraq's reserves |
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 At a time of high oil prices and supply shortages, the dispute over Iraq's oil reserves, which could produce an additional 1.5m barrels a day with minimum investment, demands urgent resolution.
Iraq's oilfields require immediate and expert maintenance, and the Iraqi people need the funds the oil can command on the global market. But negotiations on a draft national oil law are hopelessly stalled and controversy has erupted over proposed contracts with foreign oil companies. Iraq needs international support to negotiate fair and sustainable deals.
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| Russia oil output seen up at 10.3 mbpd in 2010 |
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| Russia expects its oil output will rise by 4.6 percent in 2010 compared to 2007, an energy ministry document showed on Wednesday, stopping short of making predictions for 2008-09.
A government source quoted the report, issued by Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, as saying that oil output in Russia will reach 514 million tonnes (10.3 million barrels per day) in 2010, up from 491.5 million tonnes last year.
The report did not include the ministry's forecasts of oil production for this year and 2009.
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