Oil Production

Oil demand has risen while oil production has peaked

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Many petroleum experts predict that world oil production will peak by the end of the decade. Will the United States soon be entering a period of worsening energy shortages and soaring energy costs? And, if so, what should the government to do about it? Or will the ever-improving technological efficiencies of the free market provide access to virtually endless sources of new energy? Peter Robinson speaks with Peter Huber and Jonathan Koomey.

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A new fuel producer located near downtown Newark is getting established due to higher crude oil prices and the pressure to develop alternative energy sources.

For more news and events in and around New Jersey, visit NJN’s website at http://www.njn.net

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draughts-don’t all of these factor in as well? I truly believe that it will all get worse before it gets better, but how much can Americans take? We haven’t had to live ‘hard’ in such a long time. Gas prices here (WI) are now $4.00 a gallon. It’s harder and harder to feed my family. Our income has not gone up, but nearly every retail item has. Even natural gas (to heat our homes) and electricity rates are up. Will my husbnd still have a job a year from now? I keep hearing that there is a huge rise in the middle class in both India & China and because of this they want better quality or more western type foods thus adding strain to the demand of food worldwide. But Australia had a 2 yr. draught killing their wheat crops and what about oil @ $125 a barrel? What choice of distribution doesn’t need oil? The stepped up production of ethenol has got farmers planting tons of corn instead of wheat/soybeans. Now what?

Yes, some believe that the new Chinese and Indian middle class can put a strain on the world’s resources for some time to come. The drought like you said in Australia, could do only so much. Oil is also becoming very expensive as a consequence of being put on the future’s market for speculation.

Short term answers here are to strengthen the American Dollar. Since oil is trading in U.S. $ and a weak dollar means more $ for oil, trade deficits have to be cut (easier said than done) and the budget deficit has to be brought down so bonds aren’t sold to foreigners to help fund American deficits.

Ethanol fuel standards should be temporarily suspended, to allow more corn to be available for farm feed, since corn is used to feed cows, chickens, turkeys.

These are only suggestions, but if better action isn’t taken our economy could run flat for a while.

Well nearly everyone…they came in 2nd behind the Arabs in oil consumption and the US was 3rd. Don’t believe it? Read on…

We all know the US uses more oil (in total) than any other country.
That is due to it’s large population in an industrialized nation.
But the US does not use the most oil per capita.
I put both stats in just to show the comparison between production v. consumption.

World Oil Producers

1. Saudi Arabia 10,665 bbls/day
2. Russia 9,675 bbls/day
3. USA 8,331 bbls/day

World Oil Consumption per capita

1. Saudi Arabia 28.9 bbls/year
2. Canada 26.5 bbls/year
3. USA 24.8 bbls/year

Did that come as a surprise to you?
Canadians use more oil than US.
The Arabs didn’t surprise me at all. But the canucks?
They must be burning it just to keep from freezing.

Statistics can be a funny and confusing thing but that figure…per capita…says more than you may realize. Check out some of the more enigmatic figures at my sources.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/index.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum
the production figures are in thousands per day….missed the K
Grob…sorry dude but you missed the point. The fact is that PER PERSON as in per capita….individuals in Canada use more oil than the US does per capita.
The fact that the US has more citizens than Canada explains why as a Nation we use more. I said that right from the start.
"my opinion"…you say they can use as much as they want……I agree with you bud. Fact is that the US produces more oil than Canada but that is beside the point.
I’m just sick of hearing that crap about the people of the US consume more oil than everyone else.
Jason…Canada’s population is about 1/10th of the US pop…they use about 1/10th as much oil too, slightly more.
It’s cold down here too…several of the Northern states are just as cold and have more population.

Well it’s per capita. That’s a very important distinction. Overall Canada barely uses a fraction of the oil the US, Russia, or China does.

It’s colder in Canada. More people have to heat their homes for more of the year. That and there is a lot of primary industry in Canada compared to other countries. Industries relating to natural resources, which are often huge consumers of energy.

The difference between a cold country like Canada versus a cold country like Russia is that quality of life for the average Canadian is higher than it is for the average Russian. The average Russian cannot afford to heat their home and own two cars like the average Canadian can.

MEXICO IS THE 4TH RICHEST OIL NATION IN THE WORLD

SOURCE:
CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/02/18/obit.lopez.ap/

The state petroleum monopoly Pemex had discovered big oil deposits offshore in the Gulf of Mexico that were twice Alaska’s North Slope — doubling the nation’s reserves — just before Lopez Portillo was elected.

He concentrated on developing petroleum production, quickly turning Mexico into the world’s fourth-richest oil nation at a time when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel was squeezing top dollar out of the United States and other big industrialized countries

In Mexico, like in most "third-world" countries, the situation is not that there is not any money, it is that it is kept by a few people. That’s why you have an enormous number of rich people, an enormous number of poor people, and a very small number of middle-class.

How would they impact our environment and how do they work? Are they cheaper?

The answer is yes and no.. they are both alternatives to oil for energy production but are they better? That is up for debate. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages for energy production. It also depends upon what type of energy production you are talking about electricity or transportation (e.g. stationary or moveable needs).

Oil is a very concentrated source of energy in terms of volume and weight. Until recently it was relatively inexpensive– but still more expensive than both Natural gas or coal. It is a great source of energy for moving vehicles because it is cheap, easy to transport, dispense, and easy to use. However, when it burns it creates pollution — both carbon dioxide (CO2) and other types of pollution. (some of this other type of pollution is from impurities in the oil which are burned also). Typically on a unit of energy basis (BTU) it is the most expensive.

Natural gas is one of the cleanest burning fuels. However, it is not as easy to transport (requires pipelines, very low temperatures or high pressures to liquify (LNG)) On a unit of energy basis (BTU) it is the moderately expensive. but it still burns and produces carbon dioxide when it burns.

Most electric companies use either oil or natural gas fueled generators for "topping off" electrical production — depending upon what type of fuel is available. These are standby generators that are only turned on in high demand situations (e.g. during the day time and when you run your air conditioner, etc — at night less electricity is needed because people are sleeping) These generators are easy to start and stop but are expensive to run.

Coal is the least expensive per BTU but it is the most dirty to burn, produces lots of pollution and takes a large infrastructure to process into electricity. Is not easy to start and stop a coal fired furnace so it is used by electric companies for "base loads" e.g. to supply electricity 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Clean coal is actually still experimental. It can be either a conventional coal fired boiler with pollution control equipment added on to reduce the pollutants. I understand that there are also different types of boilers and even additives to the coal that are being experimented with to make coal burn with less pollution. However, it is expected that such pollution control equipment will double or triple the cost of a coal fired power plant. Further, the cost of operation of a plant may go way up.. sometimes much more expensive– double or triple the cost.

For years electric companies have been resisting the cost of air pollution control equipment for controlling minor pollutants — like mercury, nitric oxides, sulfur oxides, etc. The concept of trapping carbon dioxide and disposing it safely is almost mind boggling to me because it will require much larger investments in air pollution control equipment and electric companies have been resisting the little investments.

So.. for electricity production all three are converted into a moving shaft that powers a generator. Oil and natural gas are typically burned in either diesel engines or turbine engines (think airplane engines), coal in a boiler that heats steam to high pressures that is used to turn the shaft, the steam is condensed and pumped back into the boiler as water. (check out steam cycles for more information)

Nuclear is another option. Its power source is relatively cheap on a BTU basis. but it uses the same steam cycle as coal for electricity production. Its costs less to operate but it is expensive to build because of the regulations. It also produces dangerous radioactive wastes (that last for thousands of years) and we do not have a great way to dispose (or even store) these radioactive wastes safely.

Remember that whenever you use energy, or transport it, your use degrades it.. i.e. you lose some energy so costs also depends upon the "efficiency" of use.

Finally, remember that oil, natural gas and coal are fossel fuels. They are not renewable … we have limited supplies of each (although for coal we allegedly have a lot so it seems almost unlimited). Thus the interest in wind, wave, ethanol and other types of so called "renewable" energy sources.

So there are no easy answers.

Saudi Arabia is fairly secretive, concerning its oil reserve capacity. What sort of clues might we see that would indicate that Saudi oil has crossed peak supply? Would they begin to lower output production, despite the inevitable rising global demand ?

first and foremost, you would stop hearing about gigantic deals being signed with oil companies, then you would hear that investments in the gas sector are surging comparatively. Also you would see a privatyization of the oil sector hence cashout operation. and also as an indicator, oil price within the country would start going up, hence here again taxes on oil products to compensate for loss of income.
I wouldn’t think that this will happen in this generation and officially the next country that will run out of oil is Norway.

Thus keeping America dependent on foreign oil for at least the next decade, while Cuba and China sucks the oil from under us? What say you?

your right, barry wants america to pay for expensive oil, he somehow thinks that will make us use less. china is drilling 50miles of the cost of miami with the cubans.

we don’t want to take anything away from his communist buddies.

he told us that we cant drive our suv’s and heat our homes while other people in the world are living colder and drive more fuel efficient cars. hes never been to my house because the last few years its been pretty dam cold in the winter and hot in the summer. gas is down now but can easily jump up to $250 a barrel overnight once barry takes office.

he also told us he will make it so it gets so expensive for coal companies to stay in business that they will go bankrupt and shut down. is he nuts? that’s were we get half our energy from. this is only the start of things to come from him. he been saving the scary stuff for after he starts his term.

he has crazy ideas and for the first time he is right, we need change
and its the change from obama, that we need

So the hurricane Gustav is shutting down production in the Gulf of Mexico but, then that isn’t much of the oil produced compared to the overall world production. From what I have seen, the US only produces about 3% of all the oil in the world. So the Gulf of Mexico, is probably much less than that 3%. Why are we getting gouged on prices, the price of gas going up again, even though this little amount of oil produced isn’t much compared to the rest of the world?
"Uncle Tonto", I suggest you read the paper or listen to your local news. I understand supply and demand! The predictions being reported on the news are that oil prices will be going up next week, ALL DUE TO THE HURRICANE GUSTAV!!! Prices of gasoline are now predicted to exceed $4.00 a gallon next week when the hurricane gets into the Gulf of Mexico. Without having done any damage to rigs or refineries. This is a tongue in cheek question and relates right back to GREED!

The US provides 9.5% of the world oil, behind Saudi Arabia 11.8% and Russia 11.7% only, the problem is the consumption, US consumes 25%, so it has to import a lot, and the US pumping out as fast as it can, because the structure to pump in place belongs to the same interest group that profits from the high price, then why rush, the 3% is really a lot, imagine Iraq pumps about 2.7%, Iran 5%, Venezuela 3.8% … if the US could pump extra 10% it could just drop imports from some countries that relations aren’t friendly, but in the long term US would dry out faster and then be more dependent and vulnerable, so it’s better to pay more now, dry everybody else and than use the reserves it has hidden, imagine the US proven reserves are some 21.76 billion bbl/ 8.322 million bbl a day produced, it is supposed to last 7 years and 4…5 months…this is the proven reserves, not the easy oil being pumped now, this is in areas ppl don’t want them and on the oceans, soooo….. in truth, the 3% shut down for a few days shouldn’t really matter, but they’re playing with this info to go back a few cents and keep it up… their business is coming to an end and they wanna cash out, they don’t know if they dominate the next era of energy solutions.