The IEA Sets a Date
In the IEA’s annual report, “The World Energy Outlook 2008″, the agency says that “although global oil production in total is not expected to peak before 2030, production of conventional oil…is projected to level off towards the end of the projection period.” This rather cryptic formulation, which sounds a lot like a compromise between factions in the IEA, says
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Prices and Production
Crude prices started the week with the January contract touching $49 on Monday on prospects for an OPEC production cut and closed out the week trading as low as $32 a barrel due to a shortage of storage space for the expiring contracts. Oil prices were rather confused last week as the futures market is in “contango” with later months trading for higher and higher prices. Oil for delivery
OPEC May Meet in January
After touting for weeks the “sizeable” production cuts that would drive oil prices back to appropriate levels, OPEC officials were obviously disappointed by the immediate results of the Oran meeting. With the February oil futures contract trading as high as $54 just before the meeting and closing the week at $42.36, the announcement clearly did not deliver the desired results. Officials
Investment in Oil Production
Alarms continued to sound around the world last week bemoaning the sudden drop in oil exploration and production. Active drilling rigs in the US have fallen to 1,790 - down 12 percent from September. Industry analysts expect that hundreds more rigs will be idled by summer and that there could be a total drop of as many as 1000 rigs or a 50 percent decline during 2009 from the September 2008 peak. In
Quote of the Week
“I find little reason for optimism regarding the market’s ability to provide a coherent oil price signal reflecting future scarcity of this precious non-renewable resource.” – Dave Cohen, energy writer
Briefs December 22, 2008
Delays in energy investments could curb future global fuel supplies by the equivalent of 4 million b/d within the next five years, according to Peter Jackson, Cambridge Energy Research Associates. As scores of small wells are shut down, analysts have calculated that oil production in North America could decline by 1.3 million barrels a day through 2010, or 17 percent, to 6.14 million barrels a
Will Canada be Our Salvation?
There have been occasional claims from U.S. media sources that oil from Canada, specifically oil from the Athabasca oil sands region, can be the salvation for US oil woes in the future, assuming drilling everywhere in the US doesn’t do the trick. An example of such optimism was exemplified in a 60 Minutes segment about a year ago which gave the impression that the Athabascan region could supply
