Liquid natural gas

Let’s make this clear from the beginning: The Post Carbon Reader is not an easy read. Indeed, if you’re looking for a breezy take on the end of the world, I would instead recommend World War Z. But whereas Max Brooks’s novel is a gore-drenched take on the zombie apocalypse, I'd state that The Post Carbon Reader is much more horrifying. There is little to fear of a rise of the undead. But throughout the Reader’s 450+ pages, it becomes clear just how and in what manner we are collectively destroying our fragile planet. ... That said, The Post Carbon Reader is an essential read, for no other purpose to have the quotable facts and information readily available.

The primary contributor to the US becoming a net exporter of refined products and the primary contributor to the decline in US net oil imports is declining consumption in the US, as the US and many other developed countries have been forced, post-2005, to take a declining share of a falling volume of Global Net Exports (GNE), which are calculated in terms of Total Petroleum Liquids.

The WSJ reporters are taking a symptom of Peak Exports, i.e., declining US oil consumption, and presenting it as a positive story.

Profits were up at the supermajors again in Q2 as high oil prices offset the rising cost of new production. Shell’s Peter Voser said that high prices were having an effect on demand for oil, especially in Europe – this could be seen reflected in flat UK growth figures and weak numbers even for major German manufacturing companies.

As supply and demand factors increasingly point to a future in which natural gas plays a greater role in the global energy mix, the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Monday released a special report exploring the potential for a “golden age” of gas. The new report, part of the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2011 series, examines the key factors that could result in a more prominent role for natural gas in the global energy mix, and the implications for other fuels, energy security and climate change.

How do 'developing' countries prioritise energy goals? How should they in the face of climate change? These countries, with per capita energy consumption and CO2 emissions which average one-sixth those of the 'industrialised' world, are not primarily responsible for climate deterioration, but on the other hand they are the most vulnerable to climate change impacts because, says the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) they have fewer resources to adapt – socially, technologically and financially.

For the majority of the populations in these countries climate change issue is not a priority concern compared with problems of poverty, natural resource management, energy and livelihood needs.

Big oil was smiling this week as Q3 profits rose on the back of higher oil prices. Prices are 12% higher than last year, and according to JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are likely to go higher, even above $100/barrel, by next year. Such a price rise may provide a test of OPEC’s ability to raise production...

- Is Venezuela the Next Flashpoint for Oil?
- Iraq Is Back In The Game
- Jim Baldauf of ASPO-USA in "The Hill": the end of oil as we know it
- Jeff Rubin: Depletion Is Economic, Not Just Geological, Concept
- Shale oil boom underlines importance of innovations on another fuel - oil shale
- LNG Trumped

Transport Revolutions presents an ambitious vision of a world, 15 years from now, that is well on its way to kicking oil and being run on renewably produced electricity. The book’s authors, internationally recognized transport policy experts Richard Gilbert and Anthony Perl, readily acknowledge the enormity of this challenge, with transport worldwide currently 95 percent dependent on oil.

A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-Deepwater horizon
-Has the EIA admitted to peak oil?
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

"as mankind proceeded to get bigger and bigger we silently crossed a threshold"

At turning points most market observers and participants are of the same mind. That doesn't mean the bear market in natural gas can't continue, perhaps for quite a while yet. But the idea that gas will remain cheap and plentiful for decades because of technological breakthroughs sounds too good to be true, and it probably is.

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.

Shell takes to high seas to escape oil gloom
OPEC unlikely to cut oil output in Sept - delegates
The Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline

Can natural gas break our oil habit?
Anatomy of a natural gas price spike
CNQ needs higher gas prices to drill
The coming liquid fuels crisis: the natural gas (partial) solution
Natural Gas Vehicles—how much can they reduce oil imports?

Egyptian Workers Strike against Fertilizer Export to Israel
David King: Iraq was the first 'resource war' of the century
Russian gas imports to Korea start in April
Crude Impact and The Tyranny of Oil