Good Articles- 9/17

Russia: Oil Firms Producing at Loss Due to Lower Crude Prices

The country's oil companies are losing money on crude production after a decline in prices pushed the market value of a barrel of the Urals blend below the cost of getting the fuel to consumers and paying taxes, UBS said Tuesday.

A Russian company shipping crude from the Siberian city of Nizhnevartovsk would post an operating loss of $13 per barrel after costs and taxes are taken into account, analysts Dmitry Lukashov and Maria Radina said a note to investors.

"Every company in Russia is losing money on crude oil export deliveries or crude oil domestic deliveries," Lukashov said later by telephone. "If you don't have a refinery, you're losing money."

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The view from the graveyard of empires

The continued growth and all the military, diplomatic and cultural muscle that flow from it have been based on cheap oil.

But the era of cheap oil is over. It is over in part because of the huge and increasing new demands for energy by people in India, China and other countries that have climbed up the development ladder to the gardens of consumerism.

It is also over because oil is a finite resource. Experts quarrel vigorously about when global oil stocks will go into permanent decline.

Some point to the fact that since the mid-1970s the discovery of new sources of oil has not kept pace with new demands and say we are already on the downward slope.

Others say the tipping point when the oil lake starts to run irretrievably dry comes a bit after 2050.

Whichever estimate is right, the end is nigh.

CNBC's "Hunt for Black Gold" will Premiere on September 24th

"The Hunt for Black Gold" hosted by Maria Bartiromo follows the flow of oil from the moment it comes on line, into the supertankers, into the refineries and finally pumped into the consumer's gas tank. Bartiromo's special moves from Alaska's North Slope all the way to the Gulf of Mexico - critical areas in the national oil debate.

...Bartiromo's special addresses the issue of global thirst: which countries consume the most crude - you might be surprised. "The Hunt for Black Gold" also looks at the peak oil theory: How much oil is left? Is the planet running dry? Some of the foremost experts say yes.

World economic crisis - Australian AWL 2008 conference report

Peak oil: too many catastrophists, but production of oil is all downhill form here. Price of oil now driven by cost of producing the marginal barrels: deep water oil, e.g. Gulf of Mexico. No huge new oil fields to discover. Future of increasingly constrained energy production: need for sustainable energy. But no way capitalism can get there before the house of cards collapses.

Pre-salt ‘could double Brazil gas supplies’

Brazil's natural gas production could double with supplies from the country's recently discovered pre-salt offshore reserves, consultants Gas Energy Participacoes said.

"Jupiter, Tupi, Iara and Carioca (fields) have the potential to produce 120 million cubic metres per day," Marco Tavares, a director at the consultancy, told reporters yesterday at the Rio Oil & Gas conference in Rio de Janeiro this week.

Experts warn EU of climate change 'trade war'

Concerns are growing that import restrictions being mooted by the EU and other developed states as a means to protect their domestic energy intensive industries against 'dirty' imports from developing states like India and China could lead to a global trade war.

Arctic Ice Retreat May Be Harbinger of Climate Change

Warmer Arctic waters may release from the seabed methane locked up in compounds called clathrates, Sommerkorn said in a telephone interview from Oslo, where the WWF Arctic program is based. On land, the extra heat will help release carbon dioxide and methane, both greenhouse gases, from the soil, he said.

``The loss of Arctic sea ice does not only have Arctic implications,'' Sommerkorn said. ``It has the potential to seriously amplify global climate change.''

Peak oil: postponed

Before becoming chief executive of the RCS, Pike spent twenty five years in the oil industry. His background hasn’t prevented him from calling for alternative energy sources to fossil fuels, and making criticisms that have embarrassed industry executives, latterly over the amount of oil lost to leakages.

But the most intriguing argument is that we’re simply not told the truth about how long oil supplies will last. Conventional wisdom reports the oil reserves as 1.2 trillion barrels. There’s far more than the oil companies report. This is neither cock-up nor conspiracy, he says, but a combination of conservative reporting, a failure to understand probability theory, and consequently a lack of understanding of the figuresactually mean. Oil engineers and planners have their own – these are figures we don’t see.

Were We Wrong To Fret About Peak Oil?

Remember when $200-per-barrel oil looked inevitable? Or, at the very least, a $100-per-barrel plateau looked certain? Plenty of oil analysts thought that was just over the horizon (yes, I was also guilty of this). But now crude futures are hovering down around $90, despite the succession of brutal hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico—mainly due to fears that the crisis on Wall Street will knock more wind out of the U.S. economy and further dampen demand. So does that mean all the frantic concern about "peak oil" and all the apocalyptic blather about the end of mass air travel and so on and so forth was all totally baseless and wrong?

US lawmakers vote to end 26-year ban on offshore drilling

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers Tuesday sought to overturn a decades-old ban on offshore drilling voting in favor of a new energy bill which has been spurred by spiralling oil prices.

The new bill, which was put forward by the majority Democrats in the House of Representatives, was approved by 236 votes to 189.

It would allow drilling off the US coastline up to a distance of between 50 to 100 miles (80 to 160 kilometers) overturning a 1981 federal moratorium.

Under the ban, states had been prohibited from allowing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration, protecting virtually the entire Atlantic and Pacific coastlines and sections of the Gulf of Mexico.

As global fuel prices rocketed earlier this year, US President George W. Bush had lifted the drilling ban in July, urging lawmakers to swing behind him in the country's search for energy independence.

Oil rebounds after 2-day tumble

LONDON - Oil prices rebounded Wednesday as traders viewed a two-day $10 drop as overdone and driven more by recent market jitters than by fundamentals.

Sentiment got a boost on news that the U.S. Federal Reserve agreed to provide an $85 billion emergency loan to rescue insurance giant American International Group, helping stabilize global markets rattled by the failure of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.

Debunking supply shock myth

Evidence indicates that what appeared to be the Opec-induced supply shock was a delayed, catch-up response to rising inflation. Under demand stimulus from the Vietnam war, the US economy was growing rapidly. The prevailing Keynesian policy under Democratic president Lyndon Johnson was to tolerate a bit more inflation to reduce unemployment. With the unemployment rate below 4% from 1966 to 1969, and crucial prime-age male unemployment below 2%, inflation was creeping up.

Economist Milton Friedman had warned from April 1966 onwards that the economy was overheated. Both he and Edmund Phelps argued that, as unemployment would return to its natural rate, inflation would also rise — in other words, stagflation.

Officials: 10 dead after U.S. Embassy in Yemen hit by car bomb

SAN'A, Yemen (AP) — A car bomb exploded at the front gate of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen's capital Wednesday, killing six Yemeni guards and four civilians, officials said. No American personnel were reported hurt.

A second explosion followed the first blast almost immediately, a U.S. embassy spokesman said. A Yemeni security official said the embassy was hit by two car bombs, followed by heavy gunfire that lasted about 10 minutes.

Britain 'faces power cuts threat'

The UK will experience prolonged power cuts in about five years unless urgent action is taken now, a report warns.

It said a third of generation capacity was due to be decommissioned by 2020, but was not being replaced fast enough.

The report, by nuclear supporting Fells Associates, said new reactors would not be ready in time, and questioned spending on renewable energy.

The Next Big Disruption: Peak Oil

What happens when the demand for oil clearly surpasses suppliers' ability to provide it? No industry will escape the disruption of so-called peak oil.

Report: The Peak Oil Problem and the CRM Solution

One of the many tines in a multipronged approach to solving the energy crisis could be the effective use of enterprise applications like CRM and Web 2.0 technologies like social networking to reduce the strain of transportation costs on businesses.

Shell restarts 26,000 boed in Gulf after Ike

NEW YORK, (Reuters) - Shell Oil said it restarted some 26,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

"While Hurricane Ike did not damage our East area assets, we still have remaining repair work at some locations (Mars, Ursa, West Delta 143 and Cognac) from Hurricane Gustav that could not be completed before we evacuated for Ike," the company said in a press release issued late Tuesday.

Bristow Group says it sustained some storm damage

Bristow Group Inc., which operates helicopters that ferry workers and equipment to offshore oil drilling rigs, said Wednesday it sustained some base damage and lost at least four offshore refueling stations during recent storms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Houston-based company said its Galveston base incurred substantial damage from Hurricane Ike and preliminary assessments show flooding and likely some structural damage at its Intracoastal City and Creole bases.

US consumer prices ease on cheaper energy

U.S. consumer prices posted their first monthly drop in nearly two years during August as a weakening global economy cut energy costs and relieved some inflation pressures, government data showed on Tuesday.

Nigeria militants threaten broader "oil war" in delta

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian militants threatened on Wednesday to broaden their "oil war" to offshore oilfields and announced attacks on a crude oil pipeline in the Niger Delta and another Shell-operated facility.

Militants: they have destroyed Nigeria oil line

LAGOS, Nigeria - Militants say they have destroyed an oil pipeline that crosses southern Nigeria in the latest attack to hit the restive crude-pumping region.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says in an emailed statement Wednesday that it destroyed the conduit in a rare daylight attack.

Russia harshly criticizes NATO visit to Georgia

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's Foreign Ministry issued an unusually harsh condemnation Wednesday of the NATO chief's visit to Georgia, saying it showed "Cold War reflexes" and will further destabilize the region.

NATO's support for Georgia after its war with Russia last month can only be seen as "encouraging Tbilisi to engage in new reckless ventures," the ministry said in a statement.

Colombia oil find could reach 100 million barrels

A British company has discovered an oil deposit that could hold up to 100 million barrels of crude, Colombia's energy minister said Tuesday.

The find in Colombia's eastern plains could be the country's largest in a decade, Minister Hernan Martinez told Bogota-based Caracol Radio.

Petro-Canada Sees Surging Costs at Fort Hills Oil Sands Project

(Bloomberg) -- Petro-Canada, the country's second largest refiner, estimated costs to develop the Alberta, Canada, Fort Hills oil sands fields have increased by 50 percent since a project memorandum in June 2007.

The increase comes from the price of construction materials, labor, project management and engineering, Petro-Canada said in a statement distributed today by Marketwire. An investment decision will be made in the fourth quarter after completion of the engineering and design plan, the company said.

Scientists, FDA face off over safety of BPA in consumer plastics

ROCKVILLE, Md. — A hormone-like chemical should be taken out of food packaging, especially baby bottles, infant formula cans and other products used by children and pregnant women, university researchers and consumer advocates told a Food and Drug Administration subcommittee Tuesday.

The FDA has said that the chemical, bisphenol A, or BPA, doesn't pose a risk at the levels to which people are commonly exposed. BPA has been detected in the bodies of virtually all Americans tested.

But critics questioned why the FDA based that ruling on three studies funded by the chemical industry, all of which found BPA to be safe at current exposure levels. Hundreds of independent studies in animals and cells suggest the estrogen-like chemical poses serious risks.

Automakers downshift on loan requests

DETROIT — U.S. automakers have decided to back off from their drive for $50 billion in loan subsidies from the federal government and now are focused on persuading Washington to appropriate the money to back the original $25 billion promised in last year's energy bill.

The strategy change came over the weekend after the government let Lehman Bros. file for bankruptcy protection rather than providing financing to help the investment bank find a buyer.

Solar companies feel fallout from Lehman bankruptcy

Fallout from Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. Sept. 15 bankruptcy filing is hitting the clean-tech sector.

At least three solar companies, including SunPower Corp. of San Jose, Evergreen Solar of Marlboro, Mass., and JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. of Shanghai, China, have issued statements in the wake of Lehman's bankruptcy about stock loans made to Lehman that could dilute earnings per share.

Tar sands - the new toxic investment

Shell and BP have been warned by investors that their involvement in unconventional energy production such as Canada's oil sands could turn out to be the industry's equivalent of the sub-prime lending that poisoned the banking sector and triggered the current financial crisis.

The criticism came as a report was released yesterday warning of the potential financial risks of tar sands, and members of the UK Social Investment Forum met in London to consider a Co-op Investments campaign on halting oil industry involvement in the carbon-intensive oil projects.

Airports go for green with eco-friendly efforts

Logan's turbines are one of the most visible examples of the environmentally friendly initiatives being embraced by major U.S. airports. From low-flush toilets and hybrid taxis to solar panels and recycled coffee grounds, some of the largest airports are aggressively implementing green measures to save on energy costs and to generate favorable impressions among travelers.

KYRGYZSTAN: Melting glaciers threaten livelihoods

BISHKEK (IRIN) - The number of glaciers in Kyrgyzstan has dropped by 15 percent over the past 30 years, according to Kyrgyz environmental experts, because of climate change.

"The process of melting glaciers is a very serious problem for Kyrgyzstan because the main water resources are connected first of all with the glaciers," Anna Kirilenko, with the BIOM environmental NGO, told IRIN in the capital, Bishkek.

Obama and McCain: No Climate Doubt

While there are substantial differences between the climate and energy planks of the presidential candidates, it’s clear that Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain agree on something that a persistent cluster of comment contributors here (and about 20 percent of the country) rejects:

That the threat posed by the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activities is sufficient to justify a concerted, sustained effort to curb, and eventually deeply cut, such emissions.

Climate change already altering farm practices

More than 65pc of Australian agricultural businesses say they have perceived a change in the climate and 62pc say the change is affecting their operations, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.