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Archive for the Category » Peak Oil «

What price our environment?

Friday, August 01st, 2008 | Author: News Team

Concern has been raised in southern England after permission to drill for oil was granted to a petroleum company on the South Downs. Environmental groups are angry that the local council is allowing such a development on a designated area of outstanding natural beauty.

West Sussex County Council granted permission earlier this year for Northern Petroleum to sink a test well in Markwells Wood, an ancient woodland outside the village of Forestside, near Chichester. The company reportedly became interested in drilling in the area after oil prices started to soar.

Conservation groups opposed to the plans claim that the drilling - which will destroy over two acres of woodland in an area which is likely to become part of the South Downs National Park - amounts to an act of environmental vandalism. But the council, contrary to its own ecologist and landscape officers objecting to the scheme, decided that the application met all legal requirements and approved it on the understanding that the company will replace and enhance the woodland when it has finished working on the site.

Notice the use of the word “understanding” - rather than “obligation”!

A spokesman for the Woodland Trust, said: “This is in ancient woodland which we consider to be irreplaceable. It’s our richest habitat for species in the UK and we would consider it as the equivalent, in terms of importance, to a rainforest.”

Meanwhile a director of Friends of the Earth, added: “This application is a further symptom of our dependence on dwindling oil resources. Sooner or later we must wean our society off oil and the quicker we do so the better.”

In addition, a director for the South Downs Society, an environmental pressure group, said: “The damage to habitat, destruction of trees and hedgerows, the visual impact of the drilling tower and its lighting, construction of a new access through the wood, noise from vehicles: all of this is inappropriate in the Downs, where people go for peace and quiet.”

Yet despite the comments of respected environmentalists, a spokesman for West Sussex County Council is quoted as saying that the area was not as important as some were making out. “Technically it is ancient woodland, but to look at it you would not regard it as a very important piece of land,” he said.

“We granted permission for oil to be drilled for two reasons: one is that there is a national policy in favour of extracting minerals from the earth where we have them; and secondly because we have struck a deal with the company which will actually see the area of woodland improved when they are finished.”

The construction of the 120-feet high exploration rig will involve clearance of part of the wood and the building of a temporary access road and will take three months. Northern Petroleum has temporary consent for construction, drilling and testing for a period of three years, but they will need consent to remove the reserves if enough oil is found.

What happens next, if commercially viable quantities of oil are found, is anyone’s guess!

Yet it is no secret that the oil beneath the North Sea is becoming increasingly expensive to extract. In 2006, Britain changed from being a net exporter of oil to a net importer. Last year, the country produced 1.8 million barrels a day but used more and so had to import 145,000 barrels daily. This year, it is expected that the production rate will drop to 1.5m barrels a day and so 310,000 barrels will have to be imported. This means that the country is now spending £3bn a year on importing oil, compared to earning £3bn a year from exports, as it was in 2001.

Land & People concurs with those who believe that even if oil is found in commercial quantities, the likely effect on South Downs habitats - together with the likely short life of any such enterprise, gives rise to the question: “is it worth it”? We suspect not!

Category: Environment, New development, Peak Oil | Leave a Comment

The issue of our times

Thursday, July 31st, 2008 | Author: News Team

With crude oil at well over $100 a barrel one would have thought that exporting countries would be producing as much as they could to cash-in on the bonanza. However, a growing number of respected industry figures are now starting to question mainstream forecasts for supply, suggesting that the era of “plateau oil” is nearer than many in the business care to admit.

It remains a fact that whilst global oil demand is projected to grow to more than 100 million barrels per day (bpd) over the next few decades, it also remains a fact that supply is unlikely to increase much beyond the current rate of some 86 million bpd. To make matters worse, even when oil extraction from so-called unconventional sources, such as tar sands and converted from natural gas are taken into account, supply will continue to decline against demand.

A former top official at state oil giant Saudi Aramco is quoted as saying: “Today’s oil prices are high because there are limited new supplies. “There’s a history now. We’re several years into level production.”

Back in 1980, when crude oil first hit $100 per barrel, the impact was alleviated by producing countries and major oil companies increasing production, partly through exploiting new fields. It remains to be seen whether they are capable of responding in the same way this time around - many doubt it.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) conventional supply from outside OPEC has missed forecasts in recent years and appears to have hit an “effective plateau” in terms of production capability. Non-OPEC countries currently extract around 60% of the world’s oil, with the 13 members of OPEC making up the balance. Most OPEC countries, whether for reasons of war or sanctions, lack of investment or falling supply at ageing fields, are deemed unable to raise production. Or, as top oil official for OPEC member Libya, told the media recently: “Opec can do little. Most OPEC countries are producing at capacity.”

Furthermore, a former exploration geologist claims: “Every place is more or less running flat out. They can’t pump enough to meet demand, so the price is going up. Assuming no particular economic crash, the only direction is upwards.”

The view of some experts vary. Some believe that the supply of oil, including unconventional oil, will peak in 2010. Others claim that high prices will sustain a production plateau of 85 million bpd for up to around 2018, thereafter production will go into a long, gradual decline, reducing the world’s supply of oil and natural gas liquids to about 78 million bpd by 2030.

The bottom line, which most experts now agree, is that demand will outstrip availability. The bone of contention is merely whether the point of divergence has already been reached or simply postponed for a few more years. The need to develop new, clean and green forms of energy have never been so acute and is, undoubtedly, one of the major challenges of the Age.

Category: Energy, Peak Oil | Leave a Comment