James Hansen has written an (apparently) open letter to Kevin Rudd, urging that all new coal fired power plants be halted - via Energy Bulletin, original at Australian Science Media Centre (pdf).

27 March 2008
The Hon Kevin Rudd, MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Australian Parliament
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2600

Dear Prime Minister,

Your leadership is needed on a matter concerning coal-fired power plants and carbon dioxide emission rates in your country, a matter with ramifications for life on our planet, including all species. Prospects for today’s children, and especially the world’s poor, hinge upon our success in stabilizing climate.

For the sake of identification, I am a United States citizen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. I am a member of our National Academy of Sciences, have testified before our Senate and House of Representatives on many occasions, have advised our Vice President and Cabinet members on climate change and its relation to energy requirements, and have received numerous awards including the World Wildlife Fund’s Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal from Prince Philip.

I write, however, as a private citizen, a resident of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, USA. I was assisted in composing this letter by colleagues, including Australians, Americans, and Europeans, who commented upon a draft letter. Because of the urgency of the matter, I have not collected signatures, but your advisors will verify the authenticity of the science discussion.

[break]

I recognize that for years you have been a strong supporter of aggressive forward-looking actions to mitigate dangerous climate change. Also, since your election as Prime Minister of Australia, your government has been active in pressing the international community to take appropriate actions. We are now at a point that bold leadership is needed, leadership that could change the course of human history.

I have read and commend the Interim Report of Professor Ross Garnaut, submitted to your government. The conclusion that net carbon emissions must be cut to a fraction of current emissions must be stunning and sobering to policy-makers. Yet the science is unambiguous: if we burn most of the fossil fuels, releasing the CO2 to the air, we will assuredly destroy much of the fabric of life on the planet. Achievement of required near-zero net emissions by mid-century implies a track with substantial cuts of emissions by 2020. Aggressive near-term fostering of energy efficiency and climate friendly technologies is an imperative for mitigation of the looming climate crisis and optimization of the economic pathway to the eventual clean-energy world.

Global climate is near critical tipping points that could lead to loss of all summer sea ice in the Arctic with detrimental effects on wildlife, initiation of ice sheet disintegration in West Antarctica and Greenland with progressive, unstoppable global sea level rise, shifting of climatic zones with extermination of many animal and plant species, reduction of freshwater supplies for hundreds of millions of people, and a more intense hydrologic cycle with stronger droughts and forest fires, but also heavier rains and floods, and stronger storms driven by latent heat, including tropical storms, tornados and thunderstorms.

Feasible actions now could still point the world onto a course that minimizes climate change. Coal clearly emerges as central to the climate problem from the facts summarized in the attached Fossil Fuel Facts. [See note below] Coal caused fully half of the fossil fuel increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air today, and on the long run coal has the potential to be an even greater source of CO2. Due to the dominant role of coal, solution to global warming must include phase-out of coal except for uses where the CO2 is captured and sequestered. Failing that, we cannot avoid large climate change, because a substantial fraction of the emitted CO2 will stay in the air more than 1000 years.

Yet there are plans for continuing mining of coal, export of coal, and construction of new coal-fired power plants around the world, including in Australia, plants that would have a lifetime of half a century or more. Your leadership in halting these plans could seed a transition that is needed to solve the global warming problem.

Choices among alternative energy sources - renewable energies, energy efficiency, nuclear power, fossil fuels with carbon capture - these are local matters. But decision to phase out coal use unless the CO2 is captured is a global imperative, if we are to preserve the wonders of nature, our coastlines, and our social and economic well being.

Although coal is the dominant issue, there are many important subsidiary ramifications, including the need for rapid transition from oil-fired energy utilities, industrial facilities and transport systems, to clean (solar, hydrogen, gas, wind, geothermal, hot rocks, tide) energy sources, as well as removal of barriers to increased energy efficiency.

If the West makes a firm commitment to this course, discussion with developing countries can be prompt. Given the potential of technology assistance, realization of adverse impacts of climate change, and leverage and increasing interdependence from global trade, success in cooperation of developed and developing worlds is feasible.

The western world has contributed most to fossil fuel CO2 in the air today, on a per capita basis. This is not an attempt to cast blame. It only recognizes the reality of the early industrial development in these countries, and points to a responsibility to lead in finding a solution to global warming.

A firm choice to halt building of coal-fired power plants that do not capture CO2 would be a major step toward solution of the global warming problem. Australia has strong interest in solving the climate problem. Citizens in the United States are stepping up to block one coal plant after another, and major changes can be anticipated after the upcoming national election.

If Australia halted construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world. There is still time to find that tipping point, but just barely. I hope that you will give these considerations your attention in setting your national policies. You have the potential to influence the future of the planet.
Prime Minister Rudd, we cannot avert our eyes from the basic fossil fuel facts, or the consequences for life on our planet of ignoring these fossil fuel facts. If we continue to build coal-fired power plants without carbon capture, we will lock in future climate disasters associated with passing climate tipping points. We must solve the coal problem now.

For your information, I plan to send a similar letter to the Australian States Premiers.

I commend to you the following Australian climate, paleoclimate and Earth scientists to provide further elaboration of the science reported in my attached paper (Hansen et al., 2008):

Professor Barry Brook, Professor of climate change, University of Adelaide
Dr Andrew Glikson, Australian National University
Professor Janette Lindesay, Australian National University
Dr Graeme Pearman, Monash University
Dr Barrie Pittock, CSIRO
Dr Michael Raupach CSIRO
Professor Will Steffen, Australian National University

Sincerely,

James E. Hansen
Kintnersville, Pennsylvania
United States of America

James Hansen has written an (apparently) open letter to Kevin Rudd, urging that all new coal fired power plants be halted - via Energy Bulletin, original at Australian Science Media Centre (pdf).

27 March 2008
The Hon Kevin Rudd, MP
Prime Minister of Australia
Australian Parliament
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2600

Dear Prime Minister,

Your leadership is needed on a matter concerning coal-fired power plants and carbon dioxide emission rates in your country, a matter with ramifications for life on our planet, including all species. Prospects for today’s children, and especially the world’s poor, hinge upon our success in stabilizing climate.

For the sake of identification, I am a United States citizen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. I am a member of our National Academy of Sciences, have testified before our Senate and House of Representatives on many occasions, have advised our Vice President and Cabinet members on climate change and its relation to energy requirements, and have received numerous awards including the World Wildlife Fund’s Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal from Prince Philip.

I write, however, as a private citizen, a resident of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, USA. I was assisted in composing this letter by colleagues, including Australians, Americans, and Europeans, who commented upon a draft letter. Because of the urgency of the matter, I have not collected signatures, but your advisors will verify the authenticity of the science discussion.

[break]

I recognize that for years you have been a strong supporter of aggressive forward-looking actions to mitigate dangerous climate change. Also, since your election as Prime Minister of Australia, your government has been active in pressing the international community to take appropriate actions. We are now at a point that bold leadership is needed, leadership that could change the course of human history.

I have read and commend the Interim Report of Professor Ross Garnaut, submitted to your government. The conclusion that net carbon emissions must be cut to a fraction of current emissions must be stunning and sobering to policy-makers. Yet the science is unambiguous: if we burn most of the fossil fuels, releasing the CO2 to the air, we will assuredly destroy much of the fabric of life on the planet. Achievement of required near-zero net emissions by mid-century implies a track with substantial cuts of emissions by 2020. Aggressive near-term fostering of energy efficiency and climate friendly technologies is an imperative for mitigation of the looming climate crisis and optimization of the economic pathway to the eventual clean-energy world.

Global climate is near critical tipping points that could lead to loss of all summer sea ice in the Arctic with detrimental effects on wildlife, initiation of ice sheet disintegration in West Antarctica and Greenland with progressive, unstoppable global sea level rise, shifting of climatic zones with extermination of many animal and plant species, reduction of freshwater supplies for hundreds of millions of people, and a more intense hydrologic cycle with stronger droughts and forest fires, but also heavier rains and floods, and stronger storms driven by latent heat, including tropical storms, tornados and thunderstorms.

Feasible actions now could still point the world onto a course that minimizes climate change. Coal clearly emerges as central to the climate problem from the facts summarized in the attached Fossil Fuel Facts. [See note below] Coal caused fully half of the fossil fuel increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air today, and on the long run coal has the potential to be an even greater source of CO2. Due to the dominant role of coal, solution to global warming must include phase-out of coal except for uses where the CO2 is captured and sequestered. Failing that, we cannot avoid large climate change, because a substantial fraction of the emitted CO2 will stay in the air more than 1000 years.

Yet there are plans for continuing mining of coal, export of coal, and construction of new coal-fired power plants around the world, including in Australia, plants that would have a lifetime of half a century or more. Your leadership in halting these plans could seed a transition that is needed to solve the global warming problem.

Choices among alternative energy sources - renewable energies, energy efficiency, nuclear power, fossil fuels with carbon capture - these are local matters. But decision to phase out coal use unless the CO2 is captured is a global imperative, if we are to preserve the wonders of nature, our coastlines, and our social and economic well being.

Although coal is the dominant issue, there are many important subsidiary ramifications, including the need for rapid transition from oil-fired energy utilities, industrial facilities and transport systems, to clean (solar, hydrogen, gas, wind, geothermal, hot rocks, tide) energy sources, as well as removal of barriers to increased energy efficiency.

If the West makes a firm commitment to this course, discussion with developing countries can be prompt. Given the potential of technology assistance, realization of adverse impacts of climate change, and leverage and increasing interdependence from global trade, success in cooperation of developed and developing worlds is feasible.

The western world has contributed most to fossil fuel CO2 in the air today, on a per capita basis. This is not an attempt to cast blame. It only recognizes the reality of the early industrial development in these countries, and points to a responsibility to lead in finding a solution to global warming.

A firm choice to halt building of coal-fired power plants that do not capture CO2 would be a major step toward solution of the global warming problem. Australia has strong interest in solving the climate problem. Citizens in the United States are stepping up to block one coal plant after another, and major changes can be anticipated after the upcoming national election.

If Australia halted construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester the CO2, it could be a tipping point for the world. There is still time to find that tipping point, but just barely. I hope that you will give these considerations your attention in setting your national policies. You have the potential to influence the future of the planet.
Prime Minister Rudd, we cannot avert our eyes from the basic fossil fuel facts, or the consequences for life on our planet of ignoring these fossil fuel facts. If we continue to build coal-fired power plants without carbon capture, we will lock in future climate disasters associated with passing climate tipping points. We must solve the coal problem now.

For your information, I plan to send a similar letter to the Australian States Premiers.

I commend to you the following Australian climate, paleoclimate and Earth scientists to provide further elaboration of the science reported in my attached paper (Hansen et al., 2008):

Professor Barry Brook, Professor of climate change, University of Adelaide
Dr Andrew Glikson, Australian National University
Professor Janette Lindesay, Australian National University
Dr Graeme Pearman, Monash University
Dr Barrie Pittock, CSIRO
Dr Michael Raupach CSIRO
Professor Will Steffen, Australian National University

Sincerely,

James E. Hansen
Kintnersville, Pennsylvania
United States of America

NOW SHOWING: a movie on the drilling of Uthmaniyah. Using a set of wells in a productive (but now rather depleted) slice of this part of the Saudi oil field of Ghawar, it is possible to deduce to drilling sequence of these wells using the identifiers assigned to the wells as they are drilled. Given a few known dates for well placement, a timeline for overall development can be constructed and displayed as an animation. Enjoy the movie.
[break]

Uthmaniyah is both by area and by production the largest operational segment of Ghawar. The more productive northern part of Uthmaniyah was also the first part developed, is the most depleted, and has also been extensively studied. In fact, this analysis is only made possible by selected publications of Dr. Shiv Dasgupta, Microseismic Project Manager for Saudi Aramco. But rather than bore you up front with further details of how this short clip was put together, I’ll first just present the video. Green dots mark the individual wells as they are drilled. (Click the play button on the player below)

For information on the music for the above video, go here.

(if the above movie doesn’t work, try going here)

The Making of the Movie

Until the early 1990s, all wells (oil, water injectors, gas, etc.) in Saudi Arabia were assigned a numerical ID with the same sequence of numbers for a given field or area. The Ghawar areas are all numbered independently, such that the discovery well in Uthmaniyah is UTMN-1 and the tenth well in ‘Ain Dar is ANDR-10, etc. Under this assumption, a map showing both the locations and IDs of the various wells also gives the drilling sequence. Furthermore, if the drilling of a given well (by ID) can be independently attributed to a specific date, the drilling sequence can be anchored at that date. For example, the first well was placed in Uthmaniyah in around 1951 — thus providing the lower anchor for the sequence. Of course, this depends on the wells used being representative of the entire Uthmaniyah area. Fortunately, this appears to be true in this case. I will discuss below the sources of information and the assumptions made when assigning dates for the various wells.

The sequencing of wells to create the animation was done using Google Earth. First, the well layout map was added as an image overlay and adjusted to match the actual well locations. Second, placemarks with corresponding well IDs were labeled as such, and these were ordered numerically. Time information is added for each well by editing an exported KML file and adding TIMESPAN tags. Wells with IDs between those of anchor dates were spread out uniformly in time. After reloading the modified KML file, animation controls appear in Google Earth. A screen grabber program was used to record the animation.

The wells used in this analysis come from Figure 4 in the Dasgupta paper “When 4-D seismic is not applicable: Alternative monitoring scenarios for the Arab-D reservoir in the Ghawar Field” (link: Geophysical Prospecting, 2005,53,215-227). This slice contains the first few oil wells drilled in Uthmaniyah as well as the first few non-associated gas wells placed in Ghawar beginning in 1983. This same study area is also shown in Figure 3 of another Dasgupta paper, “Reservoir Monitoring with Permanent Borehole Sensors” (link: SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts — 2004). This figure is shown below:

The well IDs on this figure are a bit harder to read, but it also shows oil thickness contours for the area. These will be discussed later in the analysis. The exact date corresponding to the well inventory used for these sources is not known, but it is likely before 2004. Note that the latter figure has a few more recent wells. Wells drilled subsequent to this set are identified for the satellite imagery as presented in Drilling Ghawar in the 21st Century.

Drilling In The Years

I will cover the various phases of well drilling in Uthmaniyah and discuss the various evidence which relates the well sequence to when the wells were actually put in place. Aside from the date of the discovery well, the first clues are found in a Arabian-American Map dating to 1959. This shows the pattern for the delineation wells covering the field. This set of wells on this map is likely incomplete, but we can use it to identify wells that were present at that time. Shown below are the wells locations identified using Google Earth that are present on the 1959 map and their IDs as determined from the above well maps.

Uthmaniyah wells present in 1959 Arabian-American map (left) and in Dasgupta study area showing Arab-D reservoir contours (above). Note the location of the first well on the far east flank. Wells 10, 21, 26, and 36 were identified from other sources.

From the above we can conclude that at least 46 wells were drilled by 1959. Next, we have an Industry Map dating to 1971. This map is probably even less conplete, but it does help identify a few more wells from the 1959 set. Furthermore, water injection was initiated in Uthmaniyah in the late 1960s, first with gravity wells and then with pressure injectors in the early 70s. The field pressure profile is shown below.

Arab-D reservoir pressure in Uthmaniyah. Data from Benkendorfer et. al., “Integrated Reservoir Modelling of a Major Arabian Carbonate Reservoir” (SPE 29869)

It is probably sufficient to assume that the peripheral wells shown below were probably put in around 1970 +/- 3 years or so.

Got Gas?

In 1983, deep wells were first drilled into the Khuff-C formation deep beneath the Arab-D. A paper by Shiv Dasgupta (who else?) and friends, Reservoir characterization of Permian Khuff-C carbonate in the supergiant Ghawar Field of Saudi Arabia (link: The Leading Edge, Volume 20, Issue 7, pp. 706-717, July 2001), has a map showing several wells for this early phase of non-associated gas development as well as a more recent phase. The wells are not identified, but all were found to correspond to existing wells as per Google Earth and several corresponded with those assigned IDs as per the other Dasgupta papers. These are shown in the figure below as yellow placemarks.

Three other wells correlated with their IDs have numerical values of 1807-1809, and I believed that this represents a distinct ID grouping (starting at 1800) for these later wells.

From here on, things get much less clear. Oil production and drilling were both curtailed in the mid 1980s due to low prices, but activity started ramping up in the late 1980s and especially in 1991 following the Gulf War. The study area well IDs values seem to extend through the 600s, but then no wells are found with values from 700-999. The evidence, sparce as it is, suggests that these ID values were skipped and numbering was restarted at 1000 for the big ramp up in 1991.

Getting Squeezed

Let’s now revisit the second Dasgupta paper from above and the oil column thickness represented in Figure 3 of that work. Shown below are all of the identified wells superimposed on a recreation of this data as a Google Earth vector overlay. The green area represents the thickest remaining oil layer (over 120 feet), but note that this does not represent a complete oil layer either. The concentration of wells therein is clear.

Using the well IDs and rough time frames for even more recent wells, we can step through the next few development stages. Shown below are wells with IDs in the 1000-1199 range.

These wells are seemingly placed in front of the advancing water flood at an earlier date. As we move into the 1400 series, the wells are placed increasingly to the east.

In the final phase (1500+), wells are almost exclusively located in the thicker oil region but are rather uniformly distributed therein:

Eleven of these wells (with IDs in the range 1500-1539) are part of this latter set, with the remaining having been put in since 2004. This delineation marks the final anchor point for the video.

One remaining question is, what of the other wells? As of yet, I haven’t found any mention of wells in the 1300 series, although a large number of wells in the 1200 series, feeding into the bottom two Gas Oil Separation Plants (GOSPs) for Uthmaniyah, apparently exist. And although a number of wells in the 1400 series are in the Dasgupta study area, some wells in this same series also reportedly feed into the bottom GOSPs as well. Thus, well classification is seemingly not location-specific. Any additional information which would help clarify the ID classifications for these later wells would be welcomed.

A Visual Connection: UTMN-1093

One of the wells identified in the study area, UTMN-1093, shows up online in a photograph taken by either a Saudi Aramco employee of one of its contractors. The location in the study area is shown below:

Shown below is a crop from this photo (unknown date, but likely after the digital camera age) and a picture from above using Google Earth. Besides the color difference, one thing of note is that the boundary around the site prepared for the well consists of a large berm of sand. This probably represents a rework of this well, possibly in 2007 (after the satellite photo was taken).

Conclusion

Using well IDs to trace the development history of Uthmaniyah in the Ghawar oil field clearly shows the concentration of drilling as depletion sets in, although a precise time correlation in the 1990s is somewhat elusive. In any event, since your computer has already downloaded it once, you might as well watch it again.

Previous entries in The Oil Drum, Satellite Edition:

• Satellite o’er the Desert
• Intro to Satellite Sleuthing 101: Finding Haradh III
• Khurais Me A River
• Happenings in Harmaliyah

Selected Previous TOD Ghawar entries by Stuart Staniford and Euan Mearns:

• Depletion Levels in Ghawar
• The Status of North Ghawar
• GHAWAR: an estimate of remaining oil reserves and production decline (Part 2 - results)
• GHAWAR: an estimate of remaining oil reserves and production decline (Part 1 - background and methodology)
• Saudi production laid bare

Rx: Canned goods and ammunition

When financial assets disappear, real assets still have real value. You can eat food and live in a house.

Growing populations, rising standards of living and a finite planet argue for resource prices to rise.

Chinese demand for meat, which requires the input of much more vegetable matter than the equivalent calorie value in noodles, almost requires wheat prices to increase — and they are increasing. Whether peak oil is with us now or in 20 years, the oil supply is finite and demand continues to grow. Water, the ultimate in inelastic demand goods, is also finite — and getting scarcer.

[break]

Pemex Missteps Pare Oil Revenues, Pave Way for Petrobras Entry

Pemex, which produces more crude oil every year than Exxon Mobil Corp., suffers from too little investment, high taxes, laws that forbid competition, corruption and corroding and exploding pipelines. An accident at an offshore platform killed 21 in October.

The Pemex crisis that critics have warned about for the past decade has arrived: Production at the company’s largest oil field, Cantarell, fell 18 percent last year, and Pemex has little petroleum lined up to replace it. Yet the government of President Felipe Calderon finds itself unable to act to prevent what could be a disaster for both Pemex and the country, whose budget relies heavily on Pemex sales.

Visiting editors’ parting shots: Oil, vouchers and volunteering

There’s a topic to be discussed at the intersection of economics and the environment that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. The topic is “peak oil.”

Power crisis for Guangdong industry

HONG KONG - Guangdong province, one of China’s economic power engines, this year will suffer its worst electricity shortage in three decades. And despite China’s power supply and demand nationwide expected to reach a balance this year, power supply in the coastal regions will remain tight.

Lebanon’s top Shiite cleric bans attacks against public utilities in Iraq

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s top Shiite Muslim cleric has issued a religious edict banning attacks on public utilities in Iraq, mainly the oil industry.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah says in a statement that Iraqis should work for stability in their country otherwise they will be helping the “occupation.”

Gazprom ups pipeline costs, delays oil project

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom acknowledged on Monday it was facing delays and cost overruns at two key projects, a pipeline to Europe and an Arctic oil development.

India Turns to Angola After Losing in Energy Auctions

(Bloomberg) — India, Asia’s third-largest consumer of oil, will focus on obtaining energy assets in Angola after failing to secure supplies closer to home.

“Angola is the next country where we are going to concentrate,” Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora said in an interview in New Delhi. “We lost because our bid wasn’t good enough” in previous auctions, he said. “We have learned from this,” the minister said.

Down-home apocalypse

Dark days are coming. Oil will run out, temperatures will rise, governments will crumble and survivors will be forced to scratch out a preindustrial existence amid the detritus of the 20th Century.

James Howard Kunstler warned as much in his 2006 book of social criticism, “The Long Emergency.” And he stays on-message in his new novel, “World Made by Hand,” which sketches post-apocalyptic life in the fictional upstate New York town of Union Grove.

UK: Energy Minister Malcom Wicks grants change for green energy

New rules designed to help homeowners, schools and hospitals to install climate-friendly generators will be announced today by the Energy Minister.

Malcom Wicks will give details of the funding as part of changes to the Low Carbon Buildings Programme in which the cap on grants will be raised to 50 per cent of the costs.

Truckers to protest fuel costs

Facing mounting diesel fuel costs and shrinking profits, some truckers nationwide are making plans to protest this week by parking their semis or clogging traffic by driving slowly.

The truckers say average diesel gas prices, which AAA reported had risen over the past month from $3.38 to $3.91 a gallon nationally as of Friday, are forcing some drivers out of business.

Facing up to the coming resources crunch

The world is faced with a triple crisis: climate change, peak oil and global resource depletion. These are interrelated and interactive problems which makes the subject extremely complex. The certainties are that there will be great changes to contend with in the future in order to produce and deliver food to maintain the present world population, let alone a balanced diet for everyone. At the present time there are roughly one billion people that are underfed and/or on imbalanced diets lacking essential micro nutrients that are provided by animal protein.

The primary resource depletion is that of fossil fuel energy since the world has been using more fossil energy than is being discovered and it appears that the reserves of oil that can be cheaply mined are now at peak production (half these resources have been combusted). As oil reserves are depleted it is predictable that, just as with any other commodity, prices will rise with increasing scarcity. World population expansion has been promoted by the availability of inexpensive oil, which has supported increased world food production by providing inexpensive inputs including fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, traction power( lowering the need for labour and reducing the numbers of people in farming) and in places irrigation water. Inexpensive oil allowed food to be produced cheaply but this will change greatly as oil prices rise creating the potential for major disruptions in food availability.

Indonesia feels the pinch as oil, commodity prices surge

JAKARTA (AFP) - With prices for key commodities at record highs, Indonesia — Southeast Asia’s biggest economy and a key exporter — should, at first glance, be enjoying good times.

But with high oil prices leading to a government fuel subsidy blowout and rising food prices hitting the poor, analysts say most Indonesians are being squeezed.

Higher Crude Prices Jack Up Korea’s Oil Import Bill

Despite a drop in the volume of oil imports, South Korea’s import bill rose sharply this month from a year earlier as international crude prices shot up, government data showed Sunday.

Mexico to start afresh in oil reform talks

MEXICO CITY, March 30 (Reuters) - Mexico will start afresh this week with multiparty talks over a planned oil reform, the government said on Sunday, further reducing the chances of a law being passed before Congress winds up at the end of April.

Iraq’s Sadr orders followers off streets

NAJAF — Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on his followers on Sunday to stop battling government forces after a week of fighting in southern Iraq and Baghdad threatened to spiral out of control. A crackdown on Shi’ite militants in the southern oil port of Basra has sparked an explosion of violence that has risked undoing the past year’s improvements in Iraq’s security.

Ethiopia arrests 8 suspects in oilfield attack

ADDIS ABABA, March 30 (Reuters) Ethiopia said on Sunday security forces had arrested eight men suspected in connection with a deadly rebel raid last year on a Chinese-run oil field.

The state-run Ethiopian News Agency said the detainees belonged to the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which killed 74 people during the April 2007 attack in the remote eastern Ogaden region.

In gas-rich Gulf, supplies fall short

DUBAI: According to BP’s latest “Statistical Review of World Energy,” Iran and Qatar sit on 30 percent of the world’s total natural gas reserves.

Yet within the Gulf, the ability to meet the growing local demand for natural gas is being frustrated by underdeveloped supply mechanisms and limited regional cooperation.

Russia’s new energy strategy seems a lot like its old one

Western analysts say they expect little to change politically as a result of Medvedev’s elevation and Putin’s shift into the prime minister’s seat: and economic analysts equally expect little change to emerge from the long-term plan.

There is in fact no shift in strategy, said a Russian oil industry analyst with an international organization in Paris, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the authorities in Russia to criticism. In the absence of new thinking, “the only strategy is accumulation of assets in state hands and appropriation of the largest possible share of the oil and gas rent,” he said.

Russian Oil Output May Fall for First Time in Decade in 2008

Russian oil output may fall this year for the first time in a decade as the world’s second-biggest supplier struggles with rising costs and harder-to-reach fields, Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said.

“Two years ago, we said the growth rate was falling, and we said this was bad for Russia, remember?” Trutnev said in televised remarks after a government meeting in Moscow today. “Now we’re saying the production rate is falling this year. This is not a bogeyman, unfortunately, this is real,” Trutnev said, without giving a specific forecast.

Liquid asset

Could the oil sands, Canada’s greatest economic project, come undone simply because no one thought about water?

Companies give folks solar help to go green

For years, Bruce Crawford dreamed of putting solar panels on his one-story house to cut his power bill and “do something good for the environment.” But he couldn’t see past some dark clouds — the $20,000 to $30,000 purchase price.

“I wanted to do it, but I was choking on what I had to” spend, says the software engineer who lives in Pleasanton, Calif.

Then, a Silicon Valley start-up called Sun Run offered Crawford a way to go green without straining his wallet. Last month, the company installed a 3.8-kilowatt system on his pitched roof for $6,000. Crawford, 62, says he’ll immediately save money on his electric bill. Sun Run monitors and maintains the system, replacing worn parts at no extra cost.

Thai temple fights off encroaching tide as world sea levels rise

KHUN SAMUT CHIN, Thailand (AFP) - Crabs scuttle across the wet floor of the near-deserted Khun Samut temple, the only building left in a Thai village that has disappeared beneath the rising and advancing sea.

Waging a battle against an encroaching tide that has sent all the villagers fleeing inland, a monk in orange robes and faded tattoos meant to ward off evil spirits stalks the newly-built sea wall, planting mangrove shoots.

Austrian glaciers shrink the most in five years

VIENNA (AFP) - Austria’s glaciers retreated more than 22 metres (24 yards) on average last year, in the biggest shrinking for five years, the country’s Alpine Club said Saturday.

“All glaciers experienced melting and retreated… an average of 22.2 metres” in the 2006-2007 period, the Alpine Club said, citing measurements of 93 glaciers by its specialists who blamed milder than normal temperatures.

Can a generator make electricity indoors, with no emissions? It can if it’s a fuel cell running on hydrogen. Starting today, hydrogen fuel cells will be providing emission-free electricity inside the Sacramento Convention Center to power a forklift and parts of the largest hydrogen conference in the U.S. The forklift and fuel cells are just some of the real-life examples of the products sold today in emerging markets confirming that the industry truly is “Ramping Up Commercialization”—the theme for the 19th annual NHA Hydrogen Conference with Hydrogen Expo US, March 30 – April 3.

The AES Corporation and Riverstone Holdings LLC announced that they have committed up to US $1 billion as part of a new joint venture to develop a global platform of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects. Under terms of the agreement AES and Riverstone will each provide up to US $500 million of capital over five years to invest in PV solar projects around the world.

Hudson Clean Energy Partners and Credit Suisse announced that they have reached an agreement in principle for Credit Suisse, together with its clients and affiliates, to commit at least US $300 million to make principal investments in the renewable energy sector through Hudson.

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has signed an eight-year polysilicon supply agreement with South Korea’s DC Chemical Co., Ltd. Under the terms of the agreement DC Chemical will supply Suntech with specified annual volumes of polysilicon from 2009 to 2016 with a total value of approximately US $631 million.

In Europe there are a number of programs and tools that financially support cooperation, exchange of experiences and joint work towards improving the energy efficiency of European cities. Begun two years ago as part of the Intelligent Energy Europe program, the SECURE (Sustainable Energy Communities in Urban Areas in Europe) project brings together seven European partners to create Energy Action Plans for four cities: Malmoe, in Sweden, Hilleroed, in Denmark, Dublin, in Ireland, and Tallinn in Estonia.