Oil Industry Costs Weakening After Hitting Record - CERA
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Oil and natural gas drilling costs around the world are starting to weaken amid the global economic downturn after hitting a record level in the past six months, according to Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
In a report, obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, the U.S. energy consultants said the fallout of the global economic crisis, with all energy and metal commodity prices tumbling in recent months, had already started pressuring drilling and construction costs.
“The effects of the recession and the credit freeze will likely change the picture considerably in the months ahead,” CERA chairman Daniel Yergin said in a summary of the report. Costs had already started to moderate in early October, the report indicated.
Saudi Arabia to Join NATO Naval Mission; Pirates Boost Defenses
(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia said it will join a fleet of NATO warships on an anti-piracy mission, as hijackers bolstered defenses around an oil-laden Saudi tanker captured off the East African coast.
The kingdom will contribute “naval assets to help in pursuing piracy in the region, and this is the only way this can be dealt with,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters in Oslo today after meeting with his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Stoere. “Negotiations and ransoms only encourage piracy and are not a solution.”
OPEC to take “important decison” on Dec.17-Khelil
TUNIS (Reuters) - OPEC will “very likely” take an “important decision” when it meets in the Algerian city of Oran on Dec. 17 to stem falling oil prices, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said on Friday.
Khelil said the expected OPEC move on supply in Oran could be of a greater magnitude than the one decided by the cartel on Oct.24, when it agreed to cut its output by 1.5 million barrels per day.
Waxman Win Is Boon for Environmentalists, Bust for Utilities
(Bloomberg) — A wall-sized poster of Earth hangs in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, an image that Chairman John Dingell once boasted showed the reach of his panel.
Dingell will no longer rule the planet. House Democrats yesterday handed the committee’s gavel to Representative Henry Waxman, 69, a Californian who promises a different agenda for a panel that touches nearly every sector of business — climate change, health care, telecommunications and trade.
Obama Transition Said to Consider a ‘Prepackaged’ Auto Bankruptcy
(Bloomberg) — President-Elect Barack Obama‘s transition team is exploring a swift, prepackaged bankruptcy for automakers as a possible solution to the industry’s financial crisis, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Generation Velcro: What will become of the children who could not tie their shoes?
The other day I took my seven-year-old son Louis to buy some running shoes. “Pick something with Velcro,” I said, as he trotted off to roam the racks.
A clerk, hovering nearby, gave me a jaundiced look, “You know we get high school kids in here who have to buy Velcro because they never learned to tie their shoes. Every year their parents would just buy them Velcro because it was easier than making them learn how to tie laces.”
I stared at him and he went on.
“The other day we had to special order a pair of shoes for this kid’s high school graduation because he couldn’t tie his laces, and he needed a pair of Velcro formal shoes.”
What’s interesting now is that an increasing number of people finally have had enough of this anonymity and isolation. Intellectuals from management maven Richard Florida to planning guru James Kunstler are talking about the importance of again creating “communities,” and the value of belonging to them.
It’s unpopular to say so, but this longing for community could foreshadow a renewal of religious sentiment; indeed, it may even be an expression of spiritual yearning. For it’s impossible to be nostalgic about the communities of yesterday without acknowledging the central role that the church, synagogue, service club and other religious institutions played in supporting those communities.
Americans driving less, unmoved by lower gas prices
Americans are driving less despite falling gas prices, reflecting the deepening recession and signaling a shift in lifestyles and driving habits that could outlast the current turmoil.
Drivers logged 10.7 billion fewer miles in September than they did the same month a year earlier — a 4.4% decline, according to data issued Wednesday by the Federal Highway Administration.
The data reflect the effects of the worsening economy.
Arctic-Seabed Oil Claims May Quicken Under New Senate
(Bloomberg) — Democratic party gains in the U.S. Senate may speed approval of a maritime treaty that allows signatories to stake claims to Arctic seabed containing oil and gas deposits.
With President-elect Barack Obama supporting ratification of the Law of the Sea and Democrats unseating seven Republican senators in this month’s elections, the U.S. moved a step closer to joining 157 nations including Russia that have endorsed the treaty, political analysts including the Century Foundation’s Jeff Laurenti said.
Intelligence study sees risks in rapid global power shift
WASHINGTON — The risks of a nuclear weapons being used and wars being fought over dwindling resources will grow during the next 20 years as diminishing U.S. power, a shift of wealth from West to East, the rise of India and China and climate change reshape the world, a new U.S. intelligence study warned Thursday.
“The international system — as constructed following the Second World War — will be almost unrecognizable by 2025 owing to the rise of emerging powers, a globalizing economy, an historic transfer of relative wealth and economic power from West to East, and the growing influence of non-state actors,” the report said.
U.S. power, influence will decline in future, report says
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A government report released Thursday paints an alarming picture of an unstable future for international relations defined by waning American influence, a fragmentation of political power and intensifying struggles for increasingly scarce natural resources.
● Report says China will have growing impact, second largest economy by 2025
● There will be an unprecedented global transfer of power because of oil, report says
● Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, will likely see power, desire for natural resources increase
● “Unprecedented” growth means demand for basic resources will outweigh supply
US clout down, risks up by 2025 - intel outlook
A shift away from an oil-based energy system will be underway or complete by 2025. Better renewable technologies such as solar and wind power offer the best opportunity for a quick and low-cost transition, the report said.
Lukoil could become main shareholder in energy major Repsol
MADRID (AFP) – Russian oil group Lukoil could soon become the leading shareholder in Spanish-Argentine energy major Repsol, a possibility that prompted unease in Spain Friday given Repsol’s strategic importance.
OPEC output to fall sharply in Nov - Petrologistics
LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC oil production is expected to fall by 1.22 million barrels per day in November as members implement a deal to cut supplies, industry consultant Petrologistics said on Friday.
The estimate indicates that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is delivering on the bulk of its pledge to lower supply by about 2 million bpd to prop up oil prices.
TIMELINE: Half a century of oil price volatility
LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC meets in Cairo on November 29 in an attempt to stem a collapse in oil that has knocked two thirds off the price in just four months.
Oil ministers face an uphill task trying to tame a commodity that has seen a roller-coaster ride from about $2 a barrel in the 1960s to a peak above $147 in July to a low of almost $50 this month.
FACTBOX - The oil price needs of OPEC members
(Reuters) - Oil’s slide from a record of $147.27 in July to below $52 on November 20 has different implications for members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers can manage with a relatively low oil price and can also draw on funds accrued during the price boom, while Venezuela needs a much higher level.
The following are estimates from Washington-based consultancy PFC Energy of how much various OPEC countries need on average to balance their external accounts.
Central bankers wary of deflation
LONDON (Reuters) – Euro zone demand is plunging and price pressures vanishing, business surveys showed on Friday, while central bankers weighed the bleak prospect of deflation.
The case for buying oil stocks
“Given what we know about the decline rates, just to stay flat [in global oil production] we’d have to add the equivalent of four Saudi Arabias between now and 2030,” said Matt Simmons, chairman of Houston energy investment bank Simmons & Co. International and author of Twilight in the Desert, the 2005 book that argues that even oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s petroleum production might have peaked. “It’s a very, very scary study. It’s hard to argue with the data and it’s ghastly what the data says.”
Brazil’s Petrobras makes another subsalt oil find
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras said Friday it discovered “large volumes” of light oil in the subsalt layer off the coast of Espirito Santo.
The company estimated the total recoverable oil from the newly discovered subsalt deposit in the so-called Parque das Baleias area amounts to 1.5 billion to 2 billion barrels of oil.
Gunmen attack Nigerian navy near Shell oil facility
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked a navy houseboat protecting a Royal Dutch Shell crude oil flow station in southern Nigeria on Friday, a military spokesman said.
Kiev displeased with growth of Russian gas price for Ukraine
KIEV (Itar-Tass) — Ukrainian Minister of Industrial Policy Vladimir Novitsky has described as political the statement, made by Gazprom President Alexei Miller, on the intention to bring the gas price for Ukraine to 400 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres in 2009. “There are no economic reasons for setting that price of gas delivered to Ukraine,” he told journalists on Friday.
Volkswagen diesel car wins “Green Car of the Year”
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A clean-burning diesel sedan, Volkswagen AG’s Jetta TDI, won the “Green Car of the Year” award at the Los Angeles auto show on Thursday, the first time a diesel-powered car has taken the industry’s top environmental honor.
“This signals that clean diesel has arrived,” said Ron Cogan, editor of Green Car Journal, the trade magazine that awards the prize.
Bay Area vows $1 billion network for green cars
SAN FRANCISCO - A $1 billion network of electric car recharging stations will dot San Francisco Bay area highways under a plan unveiled Thursday that aims to greatly expand the number of electric vehicles on the road.
Nuclear planning to the year 1,002,008
YUCCA MOUNTAIN, Nevada (Reuters) - Will this barren mountain rising up to 4,950 feet from the Mojave desert look roughly the same in the year 1,002,008? That’s a million years into the future.
The question may sound bizarre but its answer is key to the future of a decades-old, controversial project to store America’s nuclear waste in the belly of Yucca Mountain, on the edge of a nuclear test site and 95 miles from Las Vegas. The narrow road from there winds through a desolate landscape of sparse vegetation — creosote scrub, cactus and gnarled Joshua trees.
Spanish police detain 30 at Greenpeace nuclear power plant protest
MADRID (AFP) – Police in Spain detained 30 Greenpeace activists Thursday who had blocked the entrance to the country’s oldest nuclear power station which the environmental group is urging the government to close, the group said.
Cap and trade could work: oil patch
CALGARY - Canada’s oil-and-gas industry is holding off criticism of the federal government’s plans to forge a market-based climate-change pact with the United States, saying harmonization makes sense.
What climate change? Meltdown trumps fears at APEC
LIMA, Peru – Countries on both sides of the Pacific have reason to be very afraid of climate change. Rising sea levels could swamp coastal farms, higher temperatures wipe out entire species and increasingly violent storms exact a widening human and financial toll.
But at this week’s summit of 21 Pacific Rim nations, global warming is barely on the agenda. In its place: the financial crisis.
Fossil carbon’s fate: review of Tyler Volk’s CO2 Rising: The World’s Greatest Environmental Challenge
Volk is not prescriptive and judiciously leaves the future open. But perhaps there are indeed powerful grounds for optimism. The need for security of supply is becoming as important in the public mind as the demand for cheap energy. More generally, ‘peak’ oil is becoming reality, ‘peak’ gas may be as close as a decade away, and there may even be a near-future crisis in coal supply. Perhaps Mother Nature has set aside only enough accessible fossil fuels to push CO2 to 450 parts per million or so — bad enough, but at least not near the extremes in some scenario models. Most of all, we have new leadership in America. Is it too much to hope for audacity?
