[copious.abundance]

Sorry to say, but oil demand in Korea is a bit more elastic than you think.

or not?

Crude inventories in S. Korea,

SEOUL, June 20 (Reuters) - South Korea's commercial crude inventory fell nearly 37 percent by end-May from a year ago as high oil prices continued to discourage refiners from making new purchases, state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) said Friday.

37%... ouch

South Korean oil demand has been flat for several years. It would be nice to see actual recent figures, but I'd be willing to bet that much of the decline in crude imports represents decreased demand.

A decrease in storage does not necessarily mean a lack of supply, it could mean they don't want to have $140 oil sitting around idle in storage. It's getting too expensive to keep in storage, so they take a "lean inventory" approach.

Same goes with US storage, I might add.

[copious.abundance]

South Korean oil demand has been flat for several years.

As I said.

South Korean oil demand through 2006.


source

[wisconsin_cur]

Sorry to say, but oil demand in Korea is a bit more elastic than you think.

or not?

Crude inventories in S. Korea,

SEOUL, June 20 (Reuters) - South Korea's commercial crude inventory fell nearly 37 percent by end-May from a year ago as high oil prices continued to discourage refiners from making new purchases, state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) said Friday.

37%... ouch

South Korean oil demand has been flat for several years. It would be nice to see actual recent figures, but I'd be willing to bet that much of the decline in crude imports represents decreased demand.

A decrease in storage does not necessarily mean a lack of supply, it could mean they don't want to have $140 oil sitting around idle in storage. It's getting too expensive to keep in storage, so they take a "lean inventory" approach.

Same goes with US storage, I might add.

You quoted a decline in imports. I demonstrated that a decline in imports has been more than accounted for by a decrease in stocks year over year.

No one claimed they could not buy it, only that it (more than) accounts for your noted drop in imports, negating your argument about elasticity of demand. period.

[cube]

S. Korea to cut oil tax if oil hits $170

The plans follow a 10.5 trillion won ($10.01 billion) package introduced last month to ease the financial burden of high oil prices on low-income individuals and self-owned businesses.

The government said last month it would come up with extra contingency plans, including a cut in oil taxes, if Dubai oil tops $170 a barrel.

link

Subsidizing. Have to keep that economic ball rolling.

This is why I always have a good laugh whenever anyone proposes a "government solution".
//
I fully expect government (to do what gov. always does best) tax the productive part of the economy and subsidize the failing part.

[misterno]

South Korean oil demand has been flat for several years.

As I said.

South Korean oil demand through 2006.


source

South Korea has been growing with positive % for many years. So how come their demand is flat for so many years?
Anyone care to comment?

[wisconsin_cur]

Efficiency can carry you for quite a while. Here in the ol' US of A, efficiency is the biggest oil gusher to be found.

You do reach a point where the returns start to diminish.

Unfortunately for the S. Koreans they spent that margin when oil was "cheap" and now they are facing high prices when all of the low fruit has already been picked.

[DantesPeak]

South Korean oil demand has been flat for several years.

As I said.

South Korean oil demand through 2006.

South Korea has been growing with positive % for many years. So how come their demand is flat for so many years?
Anyone care to comment?

Part of the answer is that they import more oil than they need, then refine and export the surplus as gasoline - including to the US up until recently.

Reuters - Thursday, June 26
South Korean top refiner SK Energy's ability to export at least 120,000 tonnes of gasoline each month from its new 60,000-bpd residual fluid catalytic cracker from July has also helped boost supplies.

Yahoo

[copious.abundance]

^
Thanks. I was wondering if that might be the case, but wasn't sure.

[wisconsin_cur]

source

I was thinking about this graph as I went to sleep (yes, I accept that I have a problem).

It has leveled after a ~4 fold increase in about ten years what would that me something like 30% annual growth?). Would that be an instance of a newly rich nation utylizing that wealth until they reached a point of saturation (ie those who are going to buy cars and the like have already bought them)?

For a break down of increase in type of fuel used over the period in question

[copious.abundance]

^
You also have to remember that South Korea is a VERY crowded nation. Your point about saturation is no doubt correct, but also it's probably a case of . . . well, there's not much more room on the freeways anymore, and in the meantime they've built super-duper subways, trains, etc. to help people get around.

Could also be that industry is using more coal and/or natural gas (or even nuclear for all I know) and less oil.

[wisconsin_cur]

Nuclear is very big there for electric generation but it doesn't look like they every used "much" oil for electric generation.

[mattduke]

Turns out the government is keenly interested in "educating" the population about itself.

iht

[yesplease]

South Korea's top technology university has developed a plan to power electric cars through recharging strips embedded in roadways that use a technology to transfer energy found in some electric toothbrushes.

The plan, still in the experimental stage, calls for placing power strips about 20 cm (8 inches) to 90 cm (35 inches) wide and perhaps several hundred meters long built into the top of roads.

Vehicles with sensor-driven magnetic devices on their underside can suck up energy as they travel over the strips without coming into direct contact.

"If we place these strips on about 10 percent of roadways in a city, we could power electric vehicles," said Cho Dong-ho, the manager of the "online electric vehicle" plan at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Link

[yesplease]

Here's a link to what they're probably using for inductive charging. While ~40% charging efficiency isn't great, the system would be very convenient in dense cities, and probably allay a lot of fears about being stranded.

[outcast]

Good idea.

[Schmuto]

This seems like a ridiculous suggestion given YesPlease's assertion that we'll be running our EV cars on 10" battery cubes soon.

Have you called them yet YP?

[Tanada]

Heck with 10% of the grid being fitted, just put them for four car leangths at every stop light, when you have to stop on red you get a 30 second period of charging. You could also easily install these in parking spaces, hidden and safe from vandalism.

[Gerben]

Traffic lights sounds like a good place to start. For parking I'd prefer the old-fashioned way with a cable: more efficient.
This kind of infrastructure does not sound cheap however, so not sure it's worth using in cities. The bottleneck for EVs is longer distance travelling. Recharging at traffic lights doesn't solve that. We should equip a highway lane with this stuff.

[PrestonSturges]

Red lights would be great because people would stop for yellow lights to be the first in line to get the power strip!

[Forester]

In an ironic fashion, I can also see public-access charge-as-you-go schemes like this resulting in an increased number of stalled EVs on the side of the road. Assuming that charging strips will be in limited areas (i.e. first four car-lengths at stoplights, some streets in cities, etc.), I can see people pushing their vehicles too far in the hope or assumption that they will fortuitously land on a recharge strip somewhere along the line. Then, surprise, surprise, they hit all green lights and run out of juice, or go empty sitting in traffic.

To me, taking the burden of keeping a vehicle fueled/charged away from the user is a bad idea. Where would the money to pay for the electricity coursing through these strips come from?