ODAC News
Sunday 20 May
The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre
1a/ Central Asia: Russian, Turkmen, Kazakh Leaders Agree On Caspian
Pipeline (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Sat
12 May)
1b/ Russia: Energy Summit Gives
Putin New Trump Card (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty,
Wed 16 May)
2/ Meeting the food
security challenge through organic agriculture
(FAO Newsroom, Thu 03 May)
3a/ Iran Gasoline Price
Hikes, Rationing System Scheduled In May
(Middle East Economic Survey, Mon 07 May)
3b/ Interesting headlines from
MEES newsletter (Middle East Economic Survey, Mon 07 May)
4a/ Coalition to invest
billions to save energy (International
Herald Tribune, Wed 16 may)
4b/ Britain to Set Out Radical
Energy, Planning Revamp (
5/ UES Wants More Gas
(FC Novosti, Tue 15 May)
6a/ Hamish McRae: Let us hope a
7 per cent interest rate is a bridge too far
(The Independent, Thu 17 May)
6b/ Bernanke
joins critics of ‘high-risk’ bank lending
(The Times, Fri 18 May)
7a/ 350th North Sea field
approved [UK] (Sustainable Energy Policy Network (SEPN) newsletter,
April 2007)
7b/ Energy statistics
(Sustainable Energy Policy Network (SEPN) newsletter, April 2007)
8/ Peak Oil and the
British National Party
(BNP, May 2007)
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1a/
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/05/09BF853D-A94B-48BE-A3DD-937138D0B299.html
Article: The presidents of
The landmark deak was agreed
today during three-way talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkmen
President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov,
and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev
in the coastal Turkmen city of
The pipeline would carry natural gas from
... Still, Berdymukhammedov
said plans for a rival U.S.-backed trans-Caspian pipeline that bypasses
However, Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said he believed there was now little chance of
it going ahead. He said that the "technological, legal, and ecological
risks are so big that it will be impossible to find an investor unless it is a
political investor who does not care how much gas there is to pump
through."
Julian Lee, a senior analyst at
"It seems at the moment, at least, very clear
that both
... Berdymukhammedov said
... "Russia has become increasingly concerned in
recent years not perhaps so much about the possibility of Central Asian gas
going to Europe by routes that don't go through Russia, but by Central Asian
gas going to China, which can very easily be done without transiting Russian
territory," Lee says.
"And I think what we're seeing at the moment is a
Russian reaction to the possibility of very substantial gas exports from
Khristenko
told reporters that in the first stage, the new pipeline will deliver 10
billion cubic meters of gas per year by 2009-2010.
1b/
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/05/2c66d7b7-9c7e-465e-a263-11a3fbab043a.html
Comment: Similar to article above, but more
analytical in nature. You have to wonder where the gas for the Nabucco
pipeline is going to come from.
Article: … If
Some observers warn that
"Central Asia has two options today -- either
make enormous profits by selling its energy resources independently from
Russia, with the help of Western investments, but with high commercial risks;
or opt for sound commercial guarantees and Russia's firm support but
significantly lower selling prices," analyst Stanovaya
wrote.
However, she noted that in the absence of a consensual
Western energy policy, both domestic political considerations and
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2/ Meeting the food security challenge through organic agriculture
(FAO Newsroom, Thu 03 May)
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2007/1000550/index.html
Comment: No mention of the word oil,
but if ultimately there is going to be very little available, then there will
be no choice except for organic agriculture.
Article: “Organic agriculture is
no longer a phenomenon in developed countries only, as it is commercially
practiced in 120 countries, representing 31 million hectares and a market of
US$40 billion in 2006,” FAO underlines in a paper, Organic Agriculture
and Food Security, presented here at an International Conference on Organic
Agriculture and Food Security (3-5 May 2007).
The paper identifies the strengths and weaknesses of
organic agriculture with regards to its contribution to food security, analyzes
attributes of organic supply chains against the Right to Food framework and
proposes policy and research actions for improving the performance of organic
agriculture at the national, international and institutional levels.
“The strongest feature of organic agriculture is
its reliance on fossil-fuel independent and locally-available production
assets; working with natural processes increases cost-effectiveness and
resilience of agro-ecosystems to climatic stress,” the paper says.
“By managing biodiversity in time (rotations)
and space (mixed cropping), organic farmers use their labour and environmental
services to intensify production in a sustainable way. Organic agriculture also
breaks the vicious circle of indebtedness for agricultural inputs which causes
an alarming rate of farmers’ suicides.”
The paper recognizes that “most certified
organic food production in developing countries goes to export” and adds
that “when certified cash crops are linked with agro-ecological
improvements and accrued income for poor farmers, this leads to improved food
self-reliance and revitalization of small holder agriculture.” ...
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3a/
No link, from Newsletter.
Article:
3b/ Interesting headlines from MEES newsletter (Middle
East Economic Survey, Mon 07 May)
No link, from Newsletter. Each headline, in the
newsletter, links to the full story, but the headline gives the gist of the
story.
Energy Fundamentals - Barclays Predicts Oil Market
Will Tighten Further In 2H07 [Second Half, 2007]
Caspian -
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4a/ Coalition to invest billions to save energy
(International Herald Tribune, Wed 16 may)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/16/news/climate.php
Article: A coalition of 13 of the
world's biggest cities, five banks, one former American president and companies
and groups that modernize aging buildings pledged to invest billions of dollars
on Wednesday to cut urban energy use and releases of greenhouse gases linked to
global warming.
Under a plan developed, participating banks would
provide up to $1 billion each in loans that cities or private landlords would
use to upgrade energy-hungry heating, cooling and lighting systems in older
buildings.
The loans and interest would be paid back with savings
accrued through reduced energy costs, organizers of the initiative said at a
news conference in
Making more efficient use of energy is considered by
many scientists to be the best starting point for addressing global warming,
particularly because there is a potential immediate financial payoff along with
the long-term environmental benefit.
Energy use in buildings accounts for about a third of
global releases of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. In densely populated older
cities, like
4b/
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/41978/story.htm
Comment: Alastair
Darling, the UK Trade and Industry [Energy] Minister, wants to speed up the
development of roads, airports and nuclear power stations.
Article: Britain will next week set
out plans for a major policy revamp to secure energy supplies and fight global
warming, calling for new nuclear power plants and also giving business and
individuals vital roles.
The government will vow to rip up red tape delaying
major infrastructure projects like roads, airports and power stations and
promote a mix of low carbon technologies and energy sources.
"I am determined that we should not become
over-dependent on more and more imported oil and gas," Trade and Industry
Minister Alastair Darling has said.
"I believe that nuclear has to be part of the
energy mix along with more renewables, local energy and carbon capture from
fossil fuels." ...
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5/ UES Wants More Gas
(FC Novosti, Tue 15 May)
http://www.fcinfo.ru/themes/basic/materials-rfcm-index.asp?folder=3192
Comment: There seems to be an internal
struggle in
Article: RAO UES,
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6a/ Hamish McRae: Let us hope a 7 per cent interest rate is a bridge too far
(The Independent, Thu 17 May)
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/comment/article2553967.ece
Comment: Hamish McRae ponders if
Article: Some day we won't have to
keep on about rising inflation and interest rates; but not for a while yet.
There have been three major chunks of new information about the
... Indeed I have just seen the first economist's
paper that suggests that the peak may be 7 per cent in the next 18 months to
two years. It comes from Chris Watling at Longview
Economics and his argument is that inflation in the
... Last autumn I warned of the possibility of 6 per
cent rates. That fear is now commonplace. I am beginning to wonder about 7 per
cent. Let's hope that really is a bridge too far.
6b/ Bernanke joins critics of
‘high-risk’ bank lending
(The Times, Fri 18 May)
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article1805741.ece
Article: Ben Bernanke,
the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has become the most prominent critic of
the banking industry’s appetite for financing highly leveraged private
equity deals.
Mr Bernanke gave warning
yesterday that piling so much debt into some deals posed “significant
risks”, particularly if the
“I urge banks to closely evaluate the risk that
they’re taking, not only in the context of a highly liquid, benign
financial environment, but in one that might conceivably be less liquid and
benign,” Mr Bernanke told an audience in
Mr Bernanke joins a chorus
of concern that private equity firms are overpaying for businesses because they
are sitting on an unprecedented mountain of investment capital. The increasing competition
among buyout firms for deals is pushing up the prices of the companies they
buy, and the banks are happily making bigger and bigger high-margin loans to
help to finance the deals.
In the
Such loans enable borrowers to bypass many of the
safeguards that protect against the possibility of default.
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7a/ 350th North Sea field approved [
No link, newsletter
Comment: From the UK Dept of Trade and
Industry Sustainable Energy Policy Network newsletter. 340 billion cubic
feet is almost 10 B cubic metres. The
Article: The continued central role of
the North Sea in meeting the
He confirmed three fields - Caravel, Shamrock and
Kelvin – which will be operated by Shell (in partnership with ExxonMobil)
and Conoco Phillips.
While underlining the commitment to the industry, he
also set out the opportunity for the
In total the three fields should add an extra 340
billion cubic feet of gas to overall
7b/ Energy statistics (Sustainable
Energy Policy Network (SEPN) newsletter, April 2007)
No link, newsletter
Comment: ‘Energy Trends’
can be accessed from the ‘UK Oil and Gas’ page on the ODAC we bsite.
Article: Energy Trends and Quarterly
Energy Prices publications were published on 29 March by the Department of
Trade and Industry. Energy Trends covers statistics on energy production and
consumption, in total and by fuel, and provides an analysis of the year on year
changes.
The March edition of Energy Trends also includes
articles on: "Carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption in the
UK", "UK oil industry over the past 100 years", "UKCS
capital expenditure survey 2006", and a number of articles concerning
energy consumption in the regions. Quarterly Energy Prices covers prices to
domestic and industrial consumers, prices of oil products and comparisons of
international fuel prices.
DTI website: Energy Trends
DTI website: Quarterly Energy Prices
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8/ Peak Oil and the British National Party
(BNP, May 2007)
Comment: The BNP (British National
Party, far right political group) seem to have been triggered in to another
bout of Peak Oil articles by the recent Peak Oil article in the Daily Mail. As
of today, there are three Peak Oil articles:
Ahead of the pack on Peak Oil crisis
Peak Oil Week Day 2 - Eating up the oil reserves
Peak Oil Series Day 3 - A looming economic depression?
Peak Oil Day 4 - Building an electricity based economy
http://www.bnp.org.uk/reg_showarticle.php?contentID=2573
In terms of
http://www.bnp.org.uk/peakoil/index.htm
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