DrumBeat: February 18, 2008
Saudi Aramco to Start Khursaniyah Oil Output by April
(Bloomberg) — Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, will start production from its Khursaniyah oil-field project by April.
“Khursaniyah will make available 500,000 barrels a day within two months,” Senior Vice President Khalid Buainain said today at a conference in London.
The start of output was delayed from December to allow “commissioning activities” to be completed. Saudi Arabia, like other Persian Gulf oil producers, is implementing large-scale energy projects to boost crude oil and refining capacity to meet rising demand.
Saudi Aramco plans to produce 12 million barrels a day by 2009 from all its fields, Buainain said. An additional 250,000 barrels a day this year from the Shaybah field, in the southeast desert known as the Empty Quarter, will bring total output to 750,000 barrels a day. It’s also planning to pump 1.2 million barrels a day from the Khurais field by mid-2009, and expects production from the Manifa field will reach 900,000 barrels a day from 2011.
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In shifting power, the rise of manifold destiny
With the sizzling competition for energy, water and other resources, comes the threat of global warming, something the rich, energy-guzzling countries have done little to curb, while urging restraint on developing nations.
“The fly in the ointment is energy,” says Michael Klare, a professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and author of the forthcoming book Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet.
“China and India will have explosive growth and demand at a time when supplies are not going to grow fast enough to satisfy both their burgeoning requirements and those of the older powers like Europe and Japan.”
If there is a struggle for resources, liberal democratic values could take a bigger battering worldwide. And if the United States and other Western countries were weakened, the process would accelerate.
Oil rises towards $96, buoyed by supply risks
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil climbed towards $96 a barrel on Monday, as investors weighed the effects of a slowing U.S. economy against an escalating row between OPEC member Venezuela and oil major Exxon Mobil.
Exxon struggling to replace reserves, analyst says
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Exxon Mobil Corp. is struggling to replace reserves and may have to boost capital spending substantially, an analyst said on Monday.
China: Coal exports hit 13-month high
Mainland coal exports inched up to 5.75 million tonnes last month, the highest in 13 months as producers sought to capitalise on record global prices even as domestic supplies were strained by harsh winter weather.
Shipments from the world’s top coal producer and consumer are expected to fall in the coming months after the central government put a two-month freeze on exports in a bid to solve its worst energy crisis in years. Transport disruptions and coal supply shortages caused power outages during the country’s worst storm in 50 years.
Energy shortfalls of up to 35% to hit the UAE by 2012
The power generating capacity of existing facilities in the MENASA region is inadequate and investments of at least US$ 155 billion will be required over the next decade to meet growing consumption, according to research by UAE-based infrastructure specialists, Septech Emirates.
According to the report, water and power shortages of approximately 35 per cent are expected in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia by 2010, while the UAE and Bahrain will face similar problems by 2012 and 2013 respectively.
China’s producer price index hits 3-year high
Surging crude oil prices pushed up China’s producer price index (PPI) by 6.1 percent in January over the same month last year, the largest monthly rise in three years, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday.
California “Food Miles” Cannot Be Discussed in Isolation from Land Use Policies
“Not too long ago, there was a food store within a half-mile of every resident in Davis. The trend to larger stores has been one cause of the closure of several of these ‘neighborhood stores.’ As the effects of climate change and ‘peak oil’ make themselves felt in our economy and our daily lives, having essential services such as a grocery store accessible to each neighborhood will be an important element in reducing the number and distance of vehicle trips in the community.”
It’s time to think about the nation’s new energy future
In being neither appropriate nor effective, our feeble attempts so far are grossly irresponsible. What we need is the boldness and creativity that characterized this country after Pearl Harbor: having declared war but being unprepared militarily to take on the superior German and Japanese armies, the nation came together in a way that matched the urgency of the task. Our imminent crisis requires no less!
Aramco says Total and Conoco plans progressing well
LONDON (Reuters) - State oil company Saudi Aramco said on Monday its plans to build refineries with U.S. oil refiner ConocoPhillips and French oil and gas firm Total were “progressing well”.
Saudi Aramco executive Khalid al-Buainain told a conference in London that refineries in Jubail and Yanbu would have 400,000 barrels per day capacity.
Nigeria: Let Us Go Back to Firewood
My take is simple and short, whether we agree or not we should go back to our old kitchen, the ones that used to be outside the main house, made of mud brick and thatch roofs; there is no kitchen like that, those kitchens often took time to construct.
We went wood searching, picked up many but it never finished and every home was sure of more than enough for firing the biggest pot in the house and the food produced was most times, not just delicious in taste but spread its aroma around the neighbourhood. Many of our mothers were married to their husbands just because of the dexterity they showed with the ‘firewood-cooked food’.
Saudi, Norway back carbon capture for CDM - paper
OSLO (Reuters) - Oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Norway will cooperate to get carbon capture and storage (CCS) — burying greenhouse gases — recognised as a way for rich countries to offset their emissions, a Norwegian daily reported.
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