China Warns of More Power, Oil Shortages

China’s energy-hungry southeast – the center of the country’s manufacturing industries – suffered brownouts every day in the first six months of the year, said Lu Qizhou, deputy general manager of the State Grid Corp.

Forbes

Venezuela may suspend oil shipments to US

CARACAS, July 21 (Xinhuanet) — The Venezuelan government said Wednesday it may suspend oil shipments to the United States in case of an eventual conflict with that country.

CV

China Crude Imports At New Record, Stockbuild Seen

China’s crude oil imports hit a record of about 2.8 million barrels a day in June, prompting speculation that aside from a boom in demand, Beijing may be quietly building inventories. China’s crude oil imports hit a record of about 2.8 million barrels a day in June, prompting speculation that aside from a boom in […]

China Warns of More Power, Oil Shortages

China will face growing demands for power, oil and coal in the next few months, said Ma Liqiang, director of the economic operation bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission.

“We still see no sight of change or things getting better,” said Ma, quoted by the official China Daily newspaper.

Forbes

Thirsty Invaders, Chasing Heat

The Earth’s atmosphere has been warming at the rate of +0.03

China’s Oil Imports from Sudan Draw Controversy

“They [the Chinese] continue to drill for and export the oil,” said Senator Brownback. “That continues to take place, and they are funding the military build-up by the [Sudanese] government, because the helicopters and the gun ships, and it appears also, the arming of the Janjaweed. They’re armed, the Janjaweed are.

Voice of America

Canadian oil sands

Oi&gas journal HOUSTON, July 20 — Total Canadian crude oil production, led by output from Alberta’s 175 billion bbl oil sands, is projected to increase to 3.6 million b/d by 2015 from the current 2.6 million b/d, forecasts the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) in its 2004 Canadian Crude Oil Production and Supply Forecast. […]

Heating Oil Spike Could Signal Inflation Risk

This means that going into winter the bulk of surplus Russian heating oil will stay in Europe rather than head for the U.S., which in the event of a cold snap in the U.S. could send prices through the roof.

Reuters

Lawmaker Urges Oil-Reserve Accounting Overhaul

“The time is past for lengthy study,” said U.S. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a letter to regulators, in reference to sharp, unexpected cuts by Anglo-Dutch energy group Royal Dutch/Shell Group in its reserve accounts. The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday on energy reserve accounting issues. Dingell asked regulators in May for an update on reserve accounting. He said he was underwhelmed by a seeming lack of urgency in their responses.

Reuters

OPEC oil production now at 25-year high

Opec oil production is now at its highest since December 1979, reported Petrologistics. Output is now 29.9m bpd, ahead of a previous peak of 29.8m bpd in November 2000. Opec last week cancelled its July meeting but officials said a planned 500,000 bpd increase in quotas from August 1 will go ahead, though little spare capacity remains.

ameinfo.com

Greenspan Says Rates Could Rise Quickly

In his testimony, Mr. Greenspan reiterated his view that recent price increases are mainly a result of “transitory factors,” like higher oil prices.

NYT

US increases scrutiny of oil groups

Mr Dingell said answers to his preliminary inquiries from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US’s senior financial regulator, were inadequate. “I am . . . underwhelmed, if not outright troubled, by the staff resources and level of review . . . given to these critical matters,” he said.

FT

Oil Prices Look High For Some Time

“The price of oil is likely to stay high in the near future, analysts are warning.

Strong demand and continued fears over the situation in Iraq are keeping prices up, say analysts.

A barrel of crude cost just over US$41.60 in New York – bringing the price close to the US$42.45 level recorded last month.

With producers working hard to pump enough oil, analysts say soaring demand may outstrip supply in the coming months.”

Annanova

Reliance on Middle East oil not risk to supply

The cost of shipping crude oil is extremely low. Because most crude oil is purchased at spot rates in the world, Japan would be able to buy oil from other nations if supply from the Middle East was halted. Furthermore, oil exports from all Middle East nations with coastlines on the Persian Gulf has never been simultaneously disrupted in the past.

Daily Yomiuri

UPDATE 4-U.S. oil hits $42 ahead of contract expiry

NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) – Oil prices were higher on Tuesday, with benchmark U.S. crude trading above $42 a barrel for the first time since June 2, supported by concerns robust world demand is stretching supplies to the limit.

FX

Oil Price Unlikely to Reach $50/barrel: Kuwaiti Official

most OPEC states, including Kuwait, have investments in industrial countries and revenues of these investments would suffer in the event of unreasonably high oil prices.

RigZone

Bolivia Moves to Take Control of Oil Wells After Vote

The proposal also would increase taxes and royalties on production to as much as 50 percent, up from 38 percent, at Bolivia’s four largest oil fields.

It also would revive the state oil company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, or YPFB, to manage production with oil companies in Bolivia, which include Repsol, London-based BP Plc, Reading, England-based BG Group Plc and Paris-based Total SA.

Bloomberg

Coal-to-liquid solution for energy woes

China signed an agreement with Sasol, a South African energy and chemicals firm, to build two coal-to-liquid fuel plants in China. These plants, costing $3 billion each, are reported by the Financial Times to produce jointly 60 million tons of liquid fuel (440 million barrels) a year. The raw material and capital costs of a barrel of fuel would fall under $10 and other expenses would not bring total costs over $15.

The Korea Herald

Natural gas crisis looms, study warns

North America is heading toward an inevitable natural gas crisis that will not end until dozens of liquefied gas plants are built, according to a new study.

Canada National Post

Shell wives excluded from next year’s finance conference

First Shell lost its oil and gas. Now its wives are losing their reserve after Shell decided not to invite them to a corporate jamboree next year. Shell is not asking the wives of the company’s heads of finance to next year’s group finance conference, when all Shell’s top money men meet to discuss how […]

The New Energy ‘Crisis’ and Iraq

It is a myth that there is a fixed quantity of petroleum in the earth (at best a half truth) and that current “reserve” and “forecast” figures give a meaningful measure of how much gas is left in the planet’s tank. A subsidiary myth is that Middle East, a large chunk of those reserve figures, is thus an irreplaceable and thus “strategic” resource.

antiwar

The ”worst” is yet to come

The FirstEnergy analyst said the patterns in natural gas futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange indicate that prices won’t peak until the first quarter of 2005. “If you believe [that], the best is yet to come,” he said.

G&M

OPEC predicts surging demand for oil next year

LONDON – Rising world oil consumption next year is expected to deliver another increase in demand for OPEC crude supplies, the cartel’s Vienna secretariat said in a report today, its first forecast for 2005.

Chron

The Lessons of History – 30 years later

By Peter Hillmore
Tuesday October 23, 1973

The shortage of refining capacity has already compelled President Nixon to announce rationing of various heating oils and a large number of garages do not have enough petrol for their customers.

Guardian

Peak Oil in the Guardian again

Oil drought could be our saviour

Guardian

Kuwait sees oil falling to $28 a barrel

KuwaitThe Kuwaiti minister told The Korea Times newspaper that as soon as the speculation died down, prices would also dive, to what he called a more stabilised level.

Big Oil Protects its Interests

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2004

Oil prices giving dealers a big chill

Add the terror factor to the rapidly increasing global demand for oil and the reality of refineries humming at full tilt just to meet the burgeoning need for gasoline and expect to pay more to stay warm in New Hampshire next winter.

UL

Why 2004 Will Be Remembered as the Year World Oil Production Peaked

Mr. Hubbert, we should have listened. In 1957 M. King Hubbert (1903-1989) predicted in a publication of the American Petroleum Institute, Drilling and Production Practice (p. 17), that the peak of world oil output would come “about the year 2000.”

And it has.

As Richard A. Kerr stated in “The Next Oil Cirisis Looms Large–and Perhaps Close,” Science 281 (21 August 1998): “the gush of oil from wells around the world will peak at 80 million barrels per day, then begin a steady, inevitable decline . . .” (p. 1128).

AoL

Record prices prompt little new drilling to replace imported fuels

“Why on earth would you drill here when we’ve been drilling here for 120 years and when there’s vast untapped regions across the globe?” said Kyle Cooper, analyst at Citigroup Global Markets in Houston.

Pumps in the United States pulled 5.43 million barrels per day of oil in early July, compared with 5.70 million barrels per day in early February, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Houston Chronicle

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