|
GOTO Graphs and Links |
|
GOTO Graphs and Links |
|
Begun October 2003 |
|
In the Newspapers... SUNFLOWER OIL CAN POWER HYDROGEN CARS: "We use a process that mixes vegetable oil with steam that eventually goes through a catalytic process to produce hydrogen. There are no carbon dioxide emissions and it's completely renewable." Reuters, August 25 "Leading accountancy firms are reluctant to tackle reporting on oil and gas reserves as they lack the engineering and geological skills needed to interpret the data." Times (UK), July 16 "'History has shown that the oil industry is able to operate in hostile environments, such as Colombia, Algeria. They will adjust to the new environment', said Kevin Rosser, analyst at consultancy Control Risks Group." Pakistan Daily Times, June 5 "EU finance ministers sought to co-ordinate their response to surging oil prices today after expressing concern over the potential impact on their sluggish economic recovery." The Scotsman, June 2 "This 'crisis' is man-made, and the more it resembles the oil-crisis frenzy of the 1970s, the more nervous we should all be." Washington Post, May 24 "The failure of Shell's horizontal drilling technology in Oman suggested that even advanced extraction techniques won't bring back the good old days." New York Times.com, April 8
|
RAMCO FINDS
WATER IN WELLS—"It is clear from the performance of the producing wells that deliverability from the reservoir is much poorer than had been predicted. This lower deliverability has led to the previously reported issue of water build up in some of the wells, which has acted to further restrict deliverability."
Press Release, May 20
MUST-SEE DATA
Top Ten Oil Consumption per Person
Source: nationmaster.com TOP TEN OIL RESERVES
Source:
infoplease.com
BACKGROUNDERS: DISASTROUS
PRICES COMING?—
(1)
"Oil production levels will hit their
maximum soon...At that point prices for petrol and other fuels
will reach disastous levels."
CNN,
October 2, 2003
(2) "The total amount of
regular oil produced in the world up to and including 2002 is 891Gb
[52%].
The total amount discovered is 1713Gb, which leaves the world with total
reserves of regular oil of 822Gb [48%]."
Uppsala
Hydrocarbon Depletion Study Group,
2003
(3)
"The peak in production of any nonrenewable resource is a very critical point. At that point, demand remains the same, but supply drops off. The first result is rapidly increasing prices."
daviesand.com
(4) "Peaking
is at hand, not years away."—Investment
Banker Matthew Simmons, peakoil.net
(5)
What is left is an enormous amount of
low-grade hydrocarbons, which are likely to be much more expensive
financially, energetically, politically and especially environmentally."
oilcrisis.com,
Nov. 20, 2003
(6)
"Peaking could occur as early as
2007...not as a result of an OPEC decision, but of an inability of
producers to continue expanding production of what is, ultimately, a
finite resource."
World Resources Institute,
2000
(7)
"Global oil supplies could struggle to meet growing demand after 2007, according to
Petroleum Review, January, 2004."
Oil
Depletion Analysis Center (8)
Pessimists: mainly retired
geologists or retired CEO, technical data; Optimists: mainly
economists or governmental agencies, political or financial data."
Laherrere Report: Estimates of Oil
Reserves, June 2001 (9)
Scientific American—"There is only
so much crude oil in the world, and the industry has found about 90
percent of it. What matters is when production begins to taper off. Beyond
that point, prices will rise."
Scientific
American, 1998
(10)
"...a mixture of imprecise
regulations, geological guesswork and corporate culture that goes into the
accounting of such reserves."
International
Herald Tribune, March 12, 2004
(11)
"The recent cuts in the estimates of oil and natural gas reserves at Royal Dutch/Shell, El Paso and other energy companies have raised questions about how companies could suddenly have far less potential oil and gas than they initially reported.
The answer is in a mixture of imprecise regulations, geological guesswork and corporate culture that goes into the accounting of such reserves."
International Herald
Tribune, March 12, 2004
Notable Quotables "Since 1000 AD, world population has tripled, while fossil fuel use has grown tenfold." U.S. Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) "The total amount of regular oil produced in the world up to and including 2002 is 891Gb [52%]. The total amount discovered is 1713Gb, which leaves the world with total reserves of regular oil of 822Gb [48%]." Uppsala Hydrocarbon Depletion Study Group, 2004 "The Hubbert model assumes that if oil production is unrestrained in a very large producing region, it will follow a bell-shaped curve with peak production occurring when approximately 1/2 of the ultimately recoverable amount of oil is extracted." hubbertpeak.com "Peaking is at hand, not years away." Matthew Simmons, June 12, 2003 "It has become increasingly clear that the world is heading toward a major oil crisis--in terms of both price and supply--that will dwarf that of 1973." cbsmarketwatch, May 5 "Running out of oil isn't something we need to worry about." spiked-online.com, June 3 "The next generation of Saudi oil certainly seems to be harder to extract. Among many serious questions about Saudi's oil future, a handful of facts seem to me beyond doubt. Lots of bypassed pockets of oil remain, reservoirs above and below the prime producers can be extracted but with difficulty. New oil projects are going to be expensive and complex and not risk free." Matthew Simmons, Feb. 24, 2004 "The failure of Shell's horizontal drilling technology in Oman suggested that even advanced extraction techniques won't bring back the good old days."
nytimes.com,
April 8, 2004
(Most of the news items on this site are found first by using Reuters and Google News.)
|
RESERVES DEPT.
AUSTRALIA RESERVES FAR LOWER THAN THOUGHT?—"We always had at least fifteen years of oil supply, and now the figure we heard today was around five years...so there is a real shortage looming here." Australian Broadcasting Co., March 30 SHELL AGAIN LOWERS ESTIMATE OF ITS RESERVES—"Shell revised the shortfall higher on three subsequent occasions...2003's financial report will show a reduction of 4.47 billion barrels." thestreet.com, May 24 U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission To Investigate Shell's Oil Reserves, Boston Globe, February 20, 2004 SHELL STATEMENT S.E.C. BROADENS INVESTIGATION OF OIL RESERVE ESTIMATES—"ChevronTexaco has been contacted by the SEC, and we understand others in the industry have been contacted as well." San Francisco Chronicle, April 4 "HOUSTON-El Paso Corp. said Friday that it is working on restating financial statements from 1999 through 2003 to reflect write-downs of the value of proven oil and gas reserves." The Arizona Republic, May 29 "...SEC subpoena requesting the production of documents related to the company's recently announced reserve revisions." El Paso Oil Corp. Statement MORE WRITEDOWNS--"Forest Oil Corp., Denver, cut the reserves estimate for Redoubt Shoal field in Alaska's Cook Inlet to 8 million bbl as of Dec. 31, 2003, compared with Dec. 31, 2002, estimates of 49 million bbl, of which 36 million bbl were categorized as proved undeveloped.--Nexen Inc., Calgary, reduced its proved reserves by 67 million boe, or 8%. Most of the revision involved production performance, recovery factors, and field economic life assumptions associated with Western Canada conventional properties.--Husky Energy Inc., Calgary, eliminated 275 bcf, or 13%, of its natural gas reserves estimates from assets in Northern Alberta and Indonesia's Madura Straits project.--El Paso Corp., Houston, reported a 1.8 tcfe negative revision to its proved reserves of Dec. 31, 2003, a 41% reduction from Dec. 31, 2002, levels. That leaves the company with 2.64 tcfe as of Dec. 31, 2003 (OGJ Online, Feb. 18, 2004).--Vintage Petroleum Inc., Tulsa, revised downward its Canadian reserves by 26.3 million boe, or 5% of the company's total proved reserves, saying that its Canadian operations have underperformed expectations since their acquisition in 2001.--Western Gas Resources Inc., Denver, cut its proved reserve base by 123 bcf, a 30% reduction of year-end 2002 Powder River coalbed methane reserves. This was primarily related to undrilled locations, the company said. Proved net reserves as of Dec. 31, 2003, in the Powder River CBM play were 326 bcfd." Oil & Gas Journal, March 22 GOTO Graphs and Links
|
EDITORIAL 
