Oil & Gas
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PITTSBURGH -- Some people are absolutely sure gas drilling threatens public health, while others are absolutely sure it doesn't. Geisinger Health Systems is looking for more facts on the debate. "Our concern is getting reliable data so we know what to do for our patients," said David Carey, director of Geisinger's Weis Center for Research in Danville, Pa. Geisinger serves many patients who live in areas that have seen a recent boom in Marcellus Shale gas drilling.
Geisinger Health Systems: What Are The Gas Drilling Health Facts?
Transportation & Pipelines
Deep-water drilling remains a risky business
Two years after the blowout of the BP oil well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the United States is largely failing to act on the lessons learned from that experience to ensure that deep-water drilling and production is safe and environmentally compatible. In particular, the US Congress has not enacted any legislation to improve safety and protect the environment. Meanwhile, high oil prices are stimulating the expansion of drilling into ever deeper waters in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as off Brazil, Africa and Europe.
No Peak Oil
The End of Cheap Oil, by Colin J. Campbell, Jean Laherrere
Why is the global economy constrained by the energy cost of energy? In 1973 and 1979 a pair of sudden price increases rudely awakened the industrial world to its dependence on cheap crude oil. Prices first tripled in response to an Arab embargo and then nearly doubled again when Iran dethroned its Shah, sending the major economies sputtering into recession. Many analysts warned that these crises proved that the world would soon run out of oil. Yet they were wrong.The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, And the Renewal of Civilization - Thomas F. Homer-Dixon
Michael Klare
PAWSS Professor Michael Klare, Five College professor of peace and world security studies, and director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies (PAWSS), holds a B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of the Union Institute. He has written widely on U.S. military policy, international peace and security affairs, the global arms trade, and global resource politics. His books include American Arms Supermarket (1984), Low-Intensity Warfare (1988), Peace and World Security Studies: A Curriculum Guide (Fifth Edition, 1989; Sixth Edition, 1994), World Security: Challenges for a New Century (First Edition, 1991; Second Edition, 1994; Third Edition, 1998), Rogue States and Nuclear Outlaws (1995), Light Weapons and Civil Conflict (1999), Resource Wars (2001), Blood and Oil (2004), and The Race for What’s Left (2012).Last week, the president made a rare appearance at the Pentagon to unveil a new strategic plan for U.S. military policy (and so spending) over the next decade. Let’s leave the specifics to a future TomDispatch post and focus instead on a historical footnote: Obama was evidently the first president to offer remarks from a podium in the Pentagon press room. He made the point himself -- “I understand this is the first time a president has done this. It’s a pretty nice room. (Laughter)” -- and it was duly noted in the media . Yet no one thought to make anything of it, even though it tells us so much about our American world.
Michael Klare, Energy Wars 2012
If you go to the executive summary of the 2009 International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook , and search for "peak oil", your browser will come up empty. The whole subject was so beneath the dignity of a serious energy agency that they didn't even bother mentioning it. However, yesterday, the 2010 IEA World Energy Outlook became available . And if you repeat the exercise in that executive summary , you will come upon a section titled: Will peak oil be a guest or the spectre at the feast?
IEA acknowledges peak oil
Oil Prices
Entretien avec Roland Vially, géologue à IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) Où en est-on des réserves de pétrole ? R.
Les réserves de pétrole
Norway Looks North for Oil and Gas Oil and Politics in Iraq Squabbles over the South China Sea Putting India on the World’s Petroleum Map Oil Rushes Back to Libya Norway’s economy depends on the sea. Many tons of cod, herring, mackerel and other fish hauled in from Norwegian waters land on dinner plates around the world each year, making Norway the world’s second-largest fish exporter. Fifty years ago, no one would have predicted that another offshore resource — hydrocarbons — would one day supersede fish as Norway’s most valuable asset.
Oil around the World
The chief executive of Shell has posted this article on Shell's new energy scenarios. I was made aware of it by The Oil Drum , who first posted it at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3548 and I thought it was worth repeating for your comments. They had a large number, 153, of mostly very insightful comments at the time of this posting. The article supports the peak oil theory, as I envision it. They defined it as the time that easy accessible oil will no longer be able to keep up with demand , their estimate being 2015. I interpret that as meaning that heavy oil, as in the tar sands of Canada and the heavy oil in Venezuela, and oil shale are not significant sources of oil by 2015 and that their addition will cause significant increases in the price of oil which will have an effect on demand.
Shell CEO Presents Two Scenarios For the Future of Energy
The South China Sea Oil Card | China Power
Over the weekend, the China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) quietly announced that nine new blocks in the South China Sea were now open to foreign oil companies for exploration and development. This move reflects one of the starkest efforts by China to assert its maritime rights in these disputed waters – and constitutes a direct challenge to Vietnam’s own claims. Unlike the blocks that CNOOC offered in 2010 and 2011 , the new ones are located entirely within disputed waters in the South China Sea. As this map shows , the new blocks lie off Vietnam’s central coast and comprise of more than 160,000 square kilometers. The western edge of some blocks appear to be less than 80 nautical miles from Vietnam’s coast, well within that country’s Exclusive Economic Zone.Oil & Gas Maps