Three more bits of intel on the energy crisis:
http://www.telegraph.../ixcitytop.htmlUK goes back to being oil importer
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor (Filed: 10/02/2006)
Britain lost its oil independence last year for the first time since the 1970s as the country continued to run down its North Sea reserves.
The UK imported £670m more oil than it exported in 2005, the Office for National Statistics said. It is the first annual deficit for oil trade since 1979, when the North Sea's first fields came online.
The landmark follows figures last year showing Britain became a net importer of natural gas in 2004.
Only four years ago, Britain's oil exports were regularly topping £5 billion a year, but the gradual exhaustion of reserves, combined with a series of accidents on rigs during the year, meant 2005 was a particularly poor year.UK goes back to being oil importer
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor (Filed: 10/02/2006)
Britain lost its oil independence last year for the first time since the 1970s as the country continued to run down its North Sea reserves.
The UK imported £670m more oil than it exported in 2005, the Office for National Statistics said. It is the first annual deficit for oil trade since 1979, when the North Sea's first fields came online.
The landmark follows figures last year showing Britain became a net importer of natural gas in 2004.
Only four years ago, Britain's oil exports were regularly topping £5 billion a year, but the gradual exhaustion of reserves, combined with a series of accidents on rigs during the year, meant 2005 was a particularly poor year.
http://www.washingto...6021502762.htmlJapanese Putting All Their Energy Into Saving Fuel
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 16, 2006; Page A01
KAMIITA, Japan -- When the Japanese government issued a national battle cry against soaring global energy prices this winter, no one heeded the call to arms more than this farming town in the misty mountains of western Japan.
To save on energy, local officials shut off the heating system in the town hall, leaving themselves and 100 workers no respite from near-freezing temperatures. On a recent frosty morning, rows of desks were brimming with employees bundled in coats and wool blankets while nursing thermoses of hot tea. To cut back on gasoline use, officials say, most of the town's 13,000 citizens are strictly obeying a nationwide call to turn off car engines while idling, particularly when stopped at traffic lights.
Takao Iwase, Kamiita's husky administrative director, joined other locals in switching off the heat at home, too -- leaving his family to quickly hustle from steaming nighttime baths to the warm comforters on their traditional futons. "We're saving [$100] a day at city hall by shutting off the heat," Iwase, wearing four layers of clothing and a winter coat inside his office, said proudly. "But we no longer see this as just an economic issue. Japan has no natural resources of its own, so saving energy has become our national duty."
http://www.upi.com/E...14-124738-9900rAnalysis: Mexico faces production decline
By CARMEN J. GENTILE
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Mexico is facing a possible steep decline in oil production in 2006 and beyond due to setbacks at its largest oilfield, experts have warned.
A recent study conducted by Mexico's state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, says output could be threatened at its largest oilfield due to encroaching water and gas. When gas or water enters an oilfield it contaminates the supply, making it more difficult to sell on the market, energy analysts say.
The Cantarell field is Mexico's largest source of crude, producing 2 million barrels per day, or 60 percent of Mexico's total output. Any threat to its production capacity would severely hamper Mexico's already-strapped oil sector and thwart U.S. plans to decrease American dependency on Middle Eastern oil, as espoused by President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address last month.
Canada and Mexico are the largest suppliers of oil to the United States.
Pemex officials have expressed confidence, however, that the company can make up for any setbacks it might experience in the coming years.
"I am confident in Pemex's portfolio of assets," said the state companies Chief Financial Officer Juan Jose Suarez Coppel in a recent interview. "Other fields will be able to substitute (Cantarell's output) and increase production."
An internal report by Pemex actually predicts the company will increase output in 2006 to 3.42 million barrels a day, up from 3.33 million bpd in 2005.
But at the same time, output at Cantarell -- second globally in production only to the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia -- is predicted to decline by 6 percent to 1.9 million bpd and be diminished to 1.43 million bpd by 2008, a significant drop that could have devastating financial implications to the company and further add to Mexico's energy crunch.
And, of course, the latest statement of a theory which puts it all together:
The Olduvai Theory: Energy, Population, and Industrial Civilization, by Richard C. Duncan
http://www.thesocial...wo/xvi-2-93.pdf
LongeCity
