Response to ”Paying the Pumper” by J. Robinson West

I read with interest J. Robinson WestOn the surface, at least, it is comforting to someone in the business of improving energy efficiency that there are members of the oil industry willing to go on record as recognizing the need for greater energy conservation. However, I was disappointed that Mr. West

5 FARMERS GET DEATH FOR STEALING OIL

BEIJING – A Chinese court has sentenced five farmers to death for stealing crude oil from a pipeline that ran through their county, state media said yesterday.

ST

Natural resources funds surge

“We’re seeing a collision between supply and demand that will be good for investors,” says Charles Ober, manager of the $1.5 billion T. Rowe Price New Era Fund. “I think this is the beginning of a multiyear run.”

Chron

Iraq Pipeline Watch

Attacks on Iraqi pipelines, oil installations, and oil personnel:

IPW

Crude oil price may reach record high

Crude oil may reach a record high this week amid concerns the Russian Government’s dispute with OAO Yukos, the nation’s biggest exporter of the fuel, will disrupt shipments, a Bloomberg survey of traders and analysts shows.

CD

China’s power crisis

The Straits Times reports that :

In the first half of this year alone, 24 out of the China’s 31 provinces and municipalities have suffered from blackouts because Chinese power companies just cannot generate enough electricity for all of the country’s factories and smelters.

This summer, China’s power companies are expected to fall short by 30 million kilowatts, more than half of which will be needed in Shanghai and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

… as the frequency of power outages shows no sign of abating as the weather heats up, the local authorities have resorted to more drastic measures, including offering subsidies for factories to buy their own power generators and asking some companies to give their employees paid vacations this summer. All these measures helped prevent the 757,000 brownouts that plagued China in the first half of this year from being more than it was, said industry experts.

http://www.jroller.com/page/lowem/20040726#china_s_power_crisis

Some hybrids not as reliable as gas-powered models

Owners of 2001-model Toyota and Honda hybrids reported twice as many engine problems as owners of gas-engine Toyotas and Hondas. Owners of Volkswagen diesels reported up to twice as many engine problems as owners of VWs burning gas.

USA Today

How Long Will the Oil Age Last?

John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, argues that peak oil- production estimates are so far off that for all practical purposes we might as well act as if oil will flow forever. “Ever since oil was first harvested in the 1800s, people have said we’d run out of the stuff,”

Popular Science

Gas Prices Rising, Again

Retail gasoline prices dropped slightly in Los Angeles but stubbornly high prices in the wholesale market could bring an end to the decline in pump prices, which have gradually ease in the past two months, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Weekend Gas Watch.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area was $2.196 a gallon, which is 2.1 cents lower than last week, 10 cents lower than last month and 49 cents higher than last year.

The Car Connection

Saudis hint at production rise

He said there were areas which the Saudi government had not yet allowed to be intensively explored, including potential fields in the Red Sea and the “empty quarter”.

Nuaimi also reiterated Riyahd

Alberta Oil Sands

Pinning hopes on the tar sand Athabasca fields prove bountiful Oil production expected to soar From the Toronto Star – www.thestar.com – Sunday, July 25, 2004 JOHN SPEARS BUSINESS REPORTER FORT McMURRAY, Alta.

Analyst: High oil prices spur need for energy diversity

“Oil demand from the developing economies has more than doubled over the past decade, and supply restrictions are now evident,” Westwood said. “Analysis for The World Oil Supply Report [published by Douglas-Westwood] shows that it is increasingly likely that oil supplies will peak, possibly within a decade, and governments must acknowledge this scenario as the economic consequences are considerable.”

O&G Journal

The Petrodraft

Over the last three years, the United States of America has reengaged itself in war, further committing its unparalleled military power to “planetary control” of the world’s economic and social life.

Left Hook

Forget global terrorism.

FORGET THE THREAT OF TERRORISM. CHINA IS ABOUT TO FLICK THE SWITCH ON A GLOBAL ENERGY CRISIS AND A TIME BOMB THAT WILL BRING MASSIVE DESTRUCTION WORLDWIDE

SH

Exploratory oil drilling completed in Gulf off Cuba

HAVANA, July 25 (Reuters) – Drilling of an exploratory well in Cuba’s virgin Gulf of Mexico waters that could make the Communist nation an oil exporter and undermine the U.S. embargo has been completed, a senior official said.

“The drilling has ended and the Spanish company is assessing the results. We don’t know if there is good quality oil yet. We expect to be informed in two weeks,” the Cuban official, who spoke on the condition he was not identified, said on Saturday evening.

Reuters

China Faces 250 Million Ton Oil Shortage by 2020

China’s consumption of crude oil may reach 450 million tons by 2020, with local output at 200 million tons, the report said, citing Chen Geng, president of China National Petroleum Corp. The country’s demand for gasoline, diesel and kerosene may total 260 million tons by 2020, the report said.

Bloomberg Asia

Bolivia’s natural-gas find opens financial floodgates

After allowing foreign gas companies to search for gas deposits, South America’s poorest Spanish-speaking nation discovered it had vast underground wealth. Bolivia claims certified reserves of 52.3 trillion cubic feet, about as much as Kuwait has, and neighbors are hungry for energy.

Kansas City Star (subscription)

Oil, Venezuela’s Lifeblood, Is Now Its Social Currency, Too

The government recently announced that $2 billion in Pdvsa revenue would bypass the central bank and form a special development fund to pay for public projects like a hydroelectric plant and a new state airline. Another $1.7 billion – taken from Pdvsa’s $5 billion capitalization budget – is going to social programs, Rafael Ram

Riyadh hints at oil production increase

“We have enough resources to raise our production (currently nine million barrels per day) in the medium term to 12 or 16 million,” he told the German weekly Der Spiegel .

“Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, what’s that? Its the illusion of a force which does not exist. Its imaginary”, he stated.

CNA

Oil sands will drive 40% hike in crude output

The report projects that production of conventional light will drop to 334,000 bpd in 2015 from 622,000 bpd in 2003, while conventional heavy will decline to 266,000 bpd from 497,000 bpd.

Petroleum News

World creeping closer to `oil shock’

The charitable view is that Big Oil is merely reacting to investor expectations. “CEOs are listening to what institutional shareholders want,” Lehman Brothers Inc. analyst James Crandell told Business Week in June. “Production growth is a secondary goal, if it’s a goal at all.”

The less charitable view is that consumers are now at the mercy of a cabal of like-minded Big Oil CEOs who are no longer forced to bet their companies on a potential giant discovery

Bacteria, Underground Fires to Unlock Oil Reserves

” Could microbes, underground fires, or sonic vibrations help open up untapped oil resources?”

Reuters

Beijing ‘brown-out’ to save power

Beijing has experienced its first “brown out” of the year – a partial power cut to save energy as China grapples with soaring electricity demand. BBC

Shell Acquires Additional Athabasca Oil Sands Leases

CALGARY, July 22 /CNW/ – Shell Canada Limited announced today that it has
acquired Athabasca oil sands Leases 9 and 17 from EnCana Corporation.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

CNW

Victory: shale oil project collapses

In a world which holds more oil than we can safely burn, why would anyone try to squeeze more out of rocks? And in a world threatened by climate change, why would anyone make a bad fossil fuel even WORSE for the environment by using tremendous amounts of energy to crush the rock and heat it to 500 degrees Celsius

Greenpeace

The Guardian on human population

“And what that allows us to do is grow food, because our crop production is oil-powered; we rely hugely on fossil fuel to grow food, over huge areas of the world. The reason you and I can sit here having a lively intelligent conversation without having to worry where our lunch is going to come […]

Japan’s June Oil Imports Fall 12% as Reactors Restart

July 22 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s crude-oil imports fell 12 percent in June as Tokyo Electric Power Co., Asia’s biggest power producer, restarted nuclear reactors, cutting demand for fuel used to fire thermal generators.

Bloomberg

Oil hovers above $40 for 7th day

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S. oil prices stayed above $40 for the seventh trading day in a row on Thursday, with dealers unwilling to sell in a market where global supply is stretched almost to its limits by strong demand.

CNN

OPEC Plans 10 Percent Boost In Oil

(CBS/AP) OPEC aims to boost its oil production capacity by at least 10 percent by the end of next year, in an effort to keep crude prices from rising further, the group’s president said Thursday.

CBS

The gas station that time forgot

At Action Oil, you must indulge in a ritual so quaint that it may strike customers as akin to churning their own butter:

You must actually walk into the building to pay.

And here’s the kicker: If you are unable or unwilling to pump your own gas, a gentle toot-toot on the horn will bring forth – incredible but true – someone from Action Oil to pump it for you.

KCS

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