Archive for the ‘Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis’ Category

“Mobilizing society in the face of peak oil: a call to French Presidential candidates”.

March 29, 2012 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

French oil experts, including ex Total executives, publish an appeal in le Monde, translated in the Energy Bulletin.

“Soaring oil prices will dwarf the Greek drama”.

February 25, 2012 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

So writes Liam Halligan in the Telegraph. “Crude is now expensive not due to political argy-bargy but because of the fundamental truths of demand and supply.” Oil now highest ever in sterling and euro terms.

“Running dry”: Economist headline. “Oil production fails to keep up with demand.”

June 9, 2011 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

In 2010, world consumption exceeded supply by 5mbd for the first time ever, the Economist observes based on the BP SWRE data. World stockpiles are being run down.

“DECC accepts warning of rising peak oil risks”: Business Green.

June 9, 2011 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

But the ministry takes no position on timing, in its statement on the chief scientist’s enquiry. Most of the 11 submissions gave a date before 2030, and many before 2020.The UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security urges the government to take action, and looks forward to working with DECC on an oil shock response plan.

Head of Saudi Electricity Company says Saudi oil may run out in 2030 on current trends.

June 7, 2011 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

Domestic consumption is so high – currently 2.5 – 3.4 mbd – and growing so fast that by 2030 Saudi oil “could be depleted”. So says Abdel Salam al-Yamani in his company’s magazine,  as reported by Spanish magazine elEconomista.es.

IEA: governments should have recognised oil depletion problem ten years ago.

April 28, 2011 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis, Useful peak oil summaries on film

So says Fathi Birol, IEA chief economist, on ABC Catalyst’s 12 minute peak oil film, while appearing doubtful about the IEA’s own assertion that production can be lifted to 96 mbd by 2030, crude having peaked in 2006.

Wikileaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices.

February 8, 2011 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

A US diplomat is convinced by ex Saudi oilman Sadad al-Husseini that (potential) reserves have been overstated by nearly 40%, and that the world’s number one producer is “running to stand still” as a result of operational challenges. “Jeremy Leggett, convenor of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, said: “We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse.”

Senior Saudi official says Saudi must develop solar and nuclear to stop soaring domestic oil use.

January 24, 2011 Clean Energy, Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

In less than 20 years, most production will be burned domestically, on current trends. 8m barrels a day will be needed just for domestic needs by 2028, roughly equivalent to its current production. So says Hashim Yamani, president of the King Abdullah Atomic and Renewable Energy City. The kingdom currently burns a total of 3.2m/b a day. “Oil exports and economic growth will be constrained if there is no mix of alternative energy,” Yamani said. “We won’t be able to leverage prices of oil to build our institutions.” Demand for electricity is rising at 8 per cent per year and is expected to triple to 121 GW by 2032. Yamani, a former commerce and trade minister, expects solar energy in commercial quantities “sooner” than atomic power.

USGS drops estimate of Alaska’s undiscovered oil by fully 90 percent.

October 27, 2010 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

The U.S. Geological Survey assesses conventional, undiscovered oil in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska as a fraction of a previous estimate: 896 million barrels, about 90 percent less than a 2002 estimate of 10.6 billion barrels. The reason: drilling has shown more gas than oil recently.

IEA warns Gulf spill effect has put the oil industry’s ability to find enough new oil “on a knife edge.”

August 11, 2010 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

The IEA monthly oil market report says that c. 30% of existing global oil, and nearly 50% of new supplies by 2015, need to be sourced from offshore, much of it from deep water, where operating and regulatory standards may be tightened, and permits delayed.

ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva admits that pursuing new oil reserves no longer pays.

April 25, 2010 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

Chris Nelder of Energy & Capital: “The remaining resources have become too marginal and too expensive, and the competition for them has become too intense. Rather than keep slugging it out with bigger and better-funded players in pursuit of growth, Conoco has decided to sell $10 billion worth of its assets over the next two years, all of them in the marginal category, and concentrate on producing its core assets.”

US military warns oil output may drop unexpectedly, with massive shortages by 2015.

April 14, 2010 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

A Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command says: “By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day.”

Richard Branson and other UK business leaders warn of oil crunch within five years.

February 8, 2010 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

“The next five years will see us face another crunch – the oil crunch. This time, we do have the chance to prepare. The challenge is to use that time well. ….Our message to government and businesses is clear: act. Don’t let the oil crunch catch us out in the way that the credit crunch did.”

Kuwaiti scientists forecast world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014.

February 4, 2010 Oil, Top Ten Signposts to Energy Crisis

The Kuwait University / Kuwait Petroleum Company study, published in the journal Energy & Fuels, describes the development of a new version of the original “single cycle” Hubbert model that accounts for individual production trends (i.e. a “multi-cycle” model) to provide a global oil production forecast. The researchers analyse production trends of the 47 oil-producing countries supplying most of the world’s conventional crude oil.

  • My most recent commentaries

    • The greenest-ever government after the Clean Energy Ministerial: a delusion.

      It is “incredibly disappointing”, Jeremy Leggett founder and chairman of Solarcentury told Channel 4 News. “Mr Cameron was elected in major part because he detoxified the Conservative brand on the promise of being the greenest government ever. He is a fine mile short of that. ….All our confidence is shot to pieces. ….It’s the same with investors, and it’s part of a bigger pattern. Meanwhile, these are global industries, and other countries are not making the same mistakes. They’re deluding themselves. You talk to people from other countries – they think it’s a joke. We’re making an exhibition of ourselves.”

    • “Ghost at the banquet” attends Clean Energy Ministerial.

      Business Green: Jeremy Leggett, Founder and Chairman of Solarcentury, who will be attending the event as one of three solar industry representatives, said: “Solarcentury is attending this gathering to make three key points. First, the days when policy makers could dismiss PV as ‘nice to do’ but ‘too expensive’ are over.  PV is an essential ally in the global struggle to deliver energy security and a cost-effective low and then zero carbon future.  Second, Governments must stop pandering to the fossil fuel and nuclear lobby, a stance which is driving out the very investment which is needed to drive forward PV and other renewable energy technologies. And third, Governments need to resist the temptation to keep undermining successful feed-in tariff policies.  This industry will continue to cut costs, invest in new products and jobs, but it needs predictable public policy not knee-jerk panic of the type for example that has undermined the UK scheme.”

    • Take-up of UK solar PV has more than halved since April 1st.

      Business Green: “Weekly government figures revealed that solar firms installed an average of 2MW each week since the start of April, marking a sharp decline from the 4.8MW average capacity installed in the same weeks last year. This month’s figures are the lowest since January 2011, aside from the week leading up to 1 January 2012, when just 0.4MW of capacity installed. They also reveal that only one business-scale installation was completed last week, the lowest level since January 2011. …Jeremy Leggett, founder and chairman of Solar Century, said many installers were reporting that trade had declined by 90% since last year. “The heat’s totally gone out of the market,” he said. “It’s not just about the feed-in tariff but the government has succeeded in confusing people and making them lose interest in solar power. They’ve done a great job in stuffing the embryonic industry.” …Leggett also urged the government to draw up a roadmap to help the industry achieve DECC’s stated goal of delivering 22GW of solar capacity by 2020. “We could help them draw up a roadmap. Surely they must at least now be minded to have a rethink of their policies,” he added. “The nuclear ship is going down in the UK and they must have realised that the next question is about where the clean energy is going to come from. Or are they going to listen to the new carbon industries who think we can “frack” our way to energy independence?””

    • Supreme Court kicks out DECC appeal on feed-in tariffs.

      ClickGreen: “Jeremy Leggett, Chairman, Solarcentury said: “The Supreme Court has today confirmed that the Government simply has no grounds to appeal the decision that its handling of solar Feed-in tariffs was illegal. This final step in the legal process has wasted much needed time and money and now we, the renewables industry, simply want to get on with creating our clean energy future. Renewables can only play the pivotal role necessary to deliver a new green economy if we have a stable market and investor confidence backed by lawful, predictable and carefully considered policy. I hope the Government is now clear that it will be held to account if they try to act illegally and push through unlawful policy changes. We would much prefer not to have taken this path but Ministers gave us no choice. Our hope now is that we can work together again to restore the thriving jobs-rich solar sector that has been so badly undermined by Government actions.” More in the Guardian.

    • “We are trying to grow a business in a minefield”.

      E2B Pulse: ““Disastrous” solar Feed-in-Tariffs, the “cavalier irresponsibility” of bankers, and a government that is “mortgaging the future” – Jeremy Leggett is a man with strong opinions. In an exclusive interview with E2B Pulse’s News Editor James Kershaw, Solarcentury’s Executive Chairman argues there’s a war raging against the UK’s renewable energy industry – one that he’s prepared to fight.”

    • PV’s “glittering future” in a near £250bn global green tech market within next decade.

      ClickGreen: “Jeremy Leggett, chairman of UK-based Solarcentury said: “Any industry (PV) growing volume at 69% and cutting costs 40% whilst netting nearly $100 billion you would suspect might have a glittering future. Big Energy needs to understand that this industry is coming for their market share fast, first in Germany and soon after in other countries, they should embrace solar technology and cease their pushback in defence of a ruinous and increasingly expensive status quo. The UK government is among those who need to understand that their accommodation of Big Energy’s special pleading will cause them to lose out in a job-rich global industry just as it approaches a mass market.”

    • Wrexham installs 30,000 locally made solar panels on 3,000 low-income homes.

      Guardian: “Jeremy Leggett, chair of Solarcentury, said the solar would not be crushed. “The government does not want anything to impinge on the prospect of centralised power from the big six electricity companies. But well before 2020 solar will be cheaper than nuclear or gas. It’s not the end of the industry but of our opportunity in Britain to grow a domestic industry that could compete with those in Germany and elsewhere. It will explode again, but it will not be British.”

    • Why so much coverage for one exploding Scottish wind turbine?

      My latest Sublime column, on Big Energy PR blowback against renewables. “What to do about this? Most of us do what we can to support renewables within our circles of influence, be they vocational or domestic. That might boil down just to switching supplier from EDF and otherBig Six companies to Ecotricity or Good Energy. But someone reading this might actually work in a Big Energy PR department, or in one of its hired-gun agencies. You could always leak us the plan for myth-sowing about renewables.”

    • Comment on HMG’s decision to take their illegal FiT plan to the Supreme Court.

      Jeremy Leggett: “We have been expecting this but we hoped that Ed Davey would see sense and not take the appeal. If we are lucky this is just a cynical exercise to limit the market to 3rd March and they will withdraw in a few weeks. If not, and they really are serious about a Supreme Court appeal, then the implications for the renewables industry are deeply worrying. Two weeks ago, Ministers reassured the industry that they wanted to see 4 million solar homes in the UK by 2020. This appeal completely undermines that claim. They need to stop rewriting the scheme, end the constant stop-start and provide long-term stability and meaningful returns for investors and customers and give certainty to the 30,000+ employees of this successful industry – one of the few that is actively creating jobs in this country. If the appeal is successful it will allow Government to change feed-in tariffs whenever it chooses, even for projects that are already installed and supposedly guaranteed the feed-in tariff. At a stroke, this would undermine investment in all UK renewables, not just PV, and show investors that the UK government simply cannot be trusted. Fortunately their arguments are weak. They are the same ones unanimously rejected by the Court of Appeal so I wouldn’t give them much chance of success. Sadly, this appeal has the whiff of farce about it. First they try to woo private capital into infrastructure; then they mismanage it; now they go to the Supreme Court to argue for sovereign default to cover their tracks. I just hope the new Secretary of State actually understands what his lawyers are doing.”

    • Climate change should mean a 100% renewables by 2030 target.

      Interview at the Oxford Climate Forum, in Oxford university student magazine, Cherwell: “There are people who are worried about peak oil who aren’t worried about climate change. And vice versa. I’m worried about both. With both of them, at a minimum it’s about wrecking the global economy. A lot more in the case of climate change. These are high stakes issues. And both are high risk. In fact, climate change isn’t just high risk. It’s odds on certainty.” More.

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