Heavy oil

The Saudis are exploring the opportunity to sell their oil on more transparent exchanges in which they feel they have some logical control over production levels and pricing in relation to world demand, and also be paid in currencies outside the anemic US dollar. Such a mover would be a great influence on all of OPEC. This has crucial implications for the US as it could take oil trading from US exchanges and eventually outside the dollar as the currency of trade.

Evolution demands short-term thinking focused on individual survival. Most attempts to overcome our evolutionarily hardwired absorption with self are selected against. The Overman is dead, killed by a high-fat diet and unwillingness to exercise. Reflexively, we follow him into the grave.

“Swesif”, Sweden’s Forum for Sustainable Investment, had invited me to a symposium on "Tar sands – an ethical pitfall?" The reason for the discussion on tar sands is that Norway’s Statoil is going to invest huge amounts into the tar sands and Swedish pension funds are investors in Statoil. My task was to describe the role of Canada’s tar sands in the global energy system and to discuss the significance of tar sands for global energy supply.

If you’ve been following energy news with a discerning eye, then you already know better than to buy into all the hype about the Canadian tar sands...Far from being a panacea for declining supplies of conventional oil, the sands could...leave Alberta resembling “a third-rate golf course in the Sudan”...The quote comes from Andrew Nikiforuk’s new book Tar Sands, a powerful, eloquent litany of horrors associated with North America’s frenzied dash toward tar sands bitumen.

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Production and prices
-The Clean Energy & Security Act
-Cuba
-Detroit
-Briefs

Germaine Greer on Dubai
Tar sands boom hits a sticky patch
Gail the Actuary visits Chevron's Kern River Facility

An analysis of Peak Oil impacts indicates that there will be no economic recovery following the economic collapse of 2009 and that the recession will deteriorate into a permanent economic depression that will worsen over time.

Fatih Birol talks the talk on peak oil - In this 40 minute exclusive interview for my film "PetroApocalypse Now?" I interviewed Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the IEA about reserves, the USGS, technology, demand and recession, solutions and peak oil. (Also, a mini-review of the film)

Oil sands projects slashed as credit crisis hits Alberta
The carbonate question
Some regret locking in price for oil
Big Oil's last stand

Hurricane Ike -'Within the current NHC storm path lies about 5 million bpd of US petroleum refining capacity'
An urban legend to comfort America: oil is oil, even if it is not oil
Energy vision 2050
Zac Goldsmith on PO
Hamish McRae: Cheap oil is not in our interest
NASA study shows how PO could impact climate
'Smart water' may boost oil production

Hurricane Gustav, energy infrastructure, and updated damage models
TOD's peak oil update
An urban legend to comfort America: our massive reserves of unconventional oil
Cantarell July output lowest since 1995
Gulf of Mexico oil production likely never to reach pre-Katrina levels
Brazil's debate over new oil wealth heats up

An executive summary of weekly news from a US peak oil perspective, featuring:
- Production and Prices

- China

- Iran's Production Cut

- Energy Briefs

Dark side of a boom town (Alberta tar sands)
The iconic and ironic rural electric co-op

Opposition takes on coal plants
Rise in heavy oil refining could boost demand for hydrogen

How to get a pipeline built (tutorial)
Running out of roughnecks
Big Oil sees Gulf of Mexico as pricey but accessible

Carnegie Mellon researchers question investing in LNG
New method of extracting heavy oil: Toe to heel air injection (THAI)

A closer look at the National Petroleum Council (NPC) report: the case of the "missing" graph. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) been used in the United States for three decades. By its own admission, the NPC's previous estimates for EOR production didn't pan out. Are you willing to take the chance that the NPC is right this time?