Economics

A peek at the peak oil problem
By The Mogambo Guru // Asia Times Online

There are a few people who ask me to rebut the argument that oil will go down in price, thanks to a slowing world economy and the increased use of alternative energy resources and the "fact" that the world has zillions of barrels of oil still waiting to be pumped. By now, my response is automatic; "Oil go down in demand or price? What a load of hooey! You're a stupid freaking moron!" To which they always bizarrely reply, "Oh, yeah? Well, screw you!"

My heart bleeds for the oiligarchy wringing their hands in their country estates.

-Petro-Pete

West's ravenous oil appetite may lead to tough sacrifices

GWYN MORGAN
Read Bio | Latest Columns

September 17, 2007

CALGARY -- The Southern family's Spruce Meadows equestrian centre near Calgary is ranked as the world's top show-jumping venue. Each September, its flagship Masters Tournament brings together the sport's best horses and riders.

Pickets vow they will ignore order to stop
Jamie Hall, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, September 14

EDMONTON - Undaunted by the prospect of arrest and fines, scores of protesters vowed Thursday to continue a crusade that has disrupted work at more than a dozen construction sites and cost oilsands contractors millions of dollars.

Union members who again formed "information lines" early Thursday were served with copies of a cease-and-desist order issued on Wednesday night, which bars picketing at any construction or maintenance site.

Newfoundlanders claim company has left them stranded in Alberta
JAMIE BAKER
The Telegram

What was supposed to be a tasty piece of the Alberta employment pie quickly turned into a sour serving of severance for a small group of Newfoundland workers who found themselves on their own in the oil-rich western province with no job and no way home.

The group had been working on a 20 days on, eight days off schedule for one of the many contractors at the huge Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) Horizon oil sands project near Fort McMurray.

Shifting oil sands
Telegraph UK Magazine
15/09/2007

In the hunt for new fuel sources, a vast swath of western Canada is being mined for its precious 'oil sands'. Jack Fairweather visits the centre of the new gold rush. Photographs by Jonas Bendiksen

Donnie Leblanc is surprisingly nonchalant for a man who has just blown $20,000 on a two-day trip to Las Vegas. But then, since he came to northern Canada, he hasn't had to worry too much about money - and there is plenty more where that came from. In a few months' time he will have saved enough to hit the casinos again.

Oil industry 'sleepwalking into crisis'
Former Shell chairman says that diminishing resources could push price of crude to $150 a barrel
By David Strahan and Andrew Murray-Watson
Published: 16 September 2007 // Independent UK

Lord Oxburgh, the former chairman of Shell, has issued a stark warning that the price of oil could hit $150 per barrel, with oil production peaking within the next 20 years.

Is it too late to stop the ethanol con job?
ERIC REGULY
September 14, 2007 at 6:27 AM EDT

ROME — Not so long ago, you could feel complacent - smug even - about your little greenish exertions. You traded your SUV for a smaller set of wheels. You bought compact florescent bulbs and dragged the old push mower out of storage. You approved of ethanol and other biofuels and vowed to buy them whenever possible. Okay, there wasn't a lot of sacrifice involved. But you could feel a tad superior to your fossil-fuel-slurping neighbours.

Meat, dairy and other food producers assail ethanol
Congress about to decide whether to require sixfold hike in fuel output
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.16.2007

WASHINGTON — Already this year, ethanol has been blamed for more expensive Easter eggs, dying shrimp along the Louisiana coastline and costlier milk in school lunches.

Germans curse biofuels for higher beer costs. In Italy, consumer advocates organized a pasta boycott last week, complaining that pasta prices have soared because farmers grow crops for fuel, not food.

Rainbow Lake oil pipeline put on sale by Imperial Oil and partners
Published: Thursday, September 6, 2007 | 8:44 PM ET
Canadian Press: JUDY MONCHUK

CALGARY (CP) - The energy champions behind the proposed $16-billion Mackenzie pipeline are selling a small oil pipeline in northern Alberta, bewildering observers who say the Rainbow line has strategic importance.

Rainbow is owned by Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO), ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, all partners in plans to bring Canada's large Arctic reserves of natural gas to southern markets.

The article here, rather poorly put together, nonetheless should be noted for a multitude of reasons & not least that this is on CNN and is a follow up on the GAO in the lower 48 actually discussing the problem. There is a slow but clear trend towards not just peak oil, but peak denial. We have hit the peak in reasonable denial; the costs of continuing any further such denial are simply too great for the "market of ideas" to bear.

--M

The end of oil
A small - but growing - group of experts think world oil production will peak in the next few years, to devastating effect.