Posted on May 19, 2012 at 9:09 am by The Oil Drum in
The age of extreme oil: ‘This used to be a forest?’
Over the course of three days spent visiting reserves, band offices and the vast sand dunes left behind by the bitumen-scrubbers surrounding Fort McMurray, the Achuar confronted a reality that may one day be their own. And they didn’t much like what they saw.
This encounter was born of a new dynamic: the age of extreme oil. Gone are the days of sweet Texas crude and boundless Arabian oil fields, when petroleum lay so near the surface that all a company had to do was prick the Earth’s crust ...
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Posted on May 18, 2012 at 3:47 pm by The Oil Drum in
This a guest post by Jean Laherrère, a long-time guest contributor to TheOilDrum.
Defining deepwater oil as the offshore resource found in water depths over 500 m, the data available as of October of 2010 was pointing to an ultimate around 150 Gb. T…
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Posted on May 18, 2012 at 9:33 am by The Oil Drum in
David Strahan – Dump the pump: could peak oil be voluntary?
People have fretted about when the world’s oil will start to run out ever since M. King Hubbert came up with the idea of “peak oil” back in the 1950s. The American geologist, who worked …
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Posted on May 18, 2012 at 9:00 am by The Oil Drum in
During the past seven years, TheOilDrum.com has hosted analysis and discussion surrounding the possibility and implications of a near term peak in global oil production and importance of energy to society in general. Out of the ~8,500 articles posted h…
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Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:20 am by The Oil Drum in
U.S. energy independence is no longer just a pipe dream
Every president since Richard Nixon has called for the U.S. to wean itself from needing oil from unstable or unsavory countries. The nation’s new-found energy riches are likely to bring that ambit…
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Posted on May 14, 2012 at 9:12 am by The Oil Drum in
Peak oil debate is over, say experts
THE debate about peak oil is over and the world has used just a fraction of the petroleum it will be possible to extract, an expert believes.
Speaking at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Associat…
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Posted on May 12, 2012 at 10:44 am by The Oil Drum in
WSJ: ‘Undisclosed’ Chesapeake debt looms
A US report contends that the embattled Chesapeake Energy has “previously unreported liabilities” summing to $1.4 billion resulting from a programme that allowed it to exchange future oil and gas production …
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Posted on May 11, 2012 at 9:23 am by The Oil Drum in
Scientists urge action on world’s biggest problems
LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists from 15 countries are calling for a better political response to the provision of water and energy to meet the challenge of feeding a world of 9 billion people within 30 y…
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Posted on May 11, 2012 at 4:19 am by The Oil Drum in
peak oil
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently issued a new working paper called “The Future of Oil: Geology versus Technology” (free PDF), which should be of interest to people who are following “peak oil” issues. This is a research paper that is being published to elicit comments and debate; it does not necessarily represent IMF views or policy.
The paper considers two different approaches for modeling future oil supply:
- The economic/technological approach, used by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and others, and
- The geological view, used in peak oil forecasts, such as forecasts made by Colin ...
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Posted on May 9, 2012 at 9:47 am by The Oil Drum in
In this post I present an updated view on Norwegian crude oil exploration, sanctioned developments, discoveries, production, reserves and what these now suggest for the future of Norwegian crude oil production.
The content for this post was originally …
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Posted on May 9, 2012 at 8:30 am by The Oil Drum in
Smart-Meter Defiance Slows $29 Billion U.S. Grid Upgrade
A growing consumer backlash against new wireless digital technology for measuring power usage is slowing U.S. utilities’ $29 billion effort to upgrade their networks.
States including Californ…
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Posted on May 7, 2012 at 10:54 am by The Oil Drum in
This is a guest post by Dave Rutledge. Professor Rutledge is the Tomiyasu Professor of Electrical Engineering at Caltech, and a former Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science there. This post originally appeared on Judy Curry’s Climate Etc. blog here.
In this post, I consider the limited impacts of climate policy on fossil-fuel production and discuss estimates of fossil-fuel production in the long run. Since this is a cross post, with the original aimed at an audience with a climate interest, it includes introductory material that will be familiar to most Oil Drum readers. I would like ...
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