Peak Oil May Be Now : Matt Simmons

As oil stubbornly refuses to fall below $45 a barrel, a major market mover has cast a worrying future prediction. Energy investment banker Matthew Simmons, of Simmons & Co International, has been outspoken in his warnings about peak oil before. His new statement is his strongest yet, "we may have already passed peak oil".

The subject of peak oil, the point at which the world's finite supply of oil begins to decline, is a hot topic in the industry ... speaking exclusively to Aljazeera, Simmons came out with a statement that, if proven true over time, could herald by far the biggest energy crisis mankind has known.

"If Saudi Arabia have damaged their fields, accidentally or not, by overproducing them, then we may have already passed peak oil. Iran has certainly peaked, there is no way on Earth they can ever get back to their production of six million barrels per day (mbpd)."

... the idea that Saudi Arabia could force its production up to 12mbpd or higher is met with scorn by Simmons. "This is dangerous stuff," warns Simmons. "If we say they have not peaked and then they choose to further increase production, they will only hasten their field decline, and waste huge amounts of valuable oil into the bargain. And oil, as we are only now coming to realise, is the world's most precious resource."

(2005-02-21 11:37:07 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Peak Oil and Swedish Government

energyresources -> runningonempty2 :

According to this message from Lars Oloffson in Sweden, the government of Sweden is aware of "peak oil" and is getting ready ...

In the Swedish Consumer Agency ("Konsumentverket") monthly magazine, "Råd och Rön", there is a four page "peak oil" article. The totally advertisement-free magazine has 125 000 subscribers, and is read by 520000 swedes (out of 9 million) every month, most highly aware consumers ...

(2005-02-21 11:32:54 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

The "United States of Europe" ?

peakoil.com -> cnn.com :

As Bush arrives in Europe, he's presented with a clear message: the EU is becoming a united block, strengthening its geopolitical power. A fact which we can no longer ignore ...

MADRID, Spain (CNN) - Spanish voters gave overwhelming support for the European Union constitution Sunday, voting for ratification by a more than 4-1 margin in the first national vote on the proposed charter. Interior Ministry figures showed 10.1 million voters - 76.4 percent of the 13.3 million who cast ballots - supported ratifying the constitution ..

Quenching your printer's exotic thirst

news.com :

The sheer size of the ink galaxy took me by surprise. But it shouldn't have. The reason so much choice exists is simple. As the prices of printers have dropped drastically over the past decade, ink prices haven't. Nowadays, every time I replace the black-and-white cartridge in our $80 Deskjet 3650 with a new name-brand HP No. 27 (which last week cost $17.88 at Amazon), the replacement adds another 22 percent to the cost of the printer.

"Most of the profit in the printer industry is in the printer supplies, which is why the manufacturers want proprietary products to go into their printers as much as possible, and it's why we sell well over a thousand different printer products," said Dana Larrabee, president of InkjetCartridge.com ...

Firefox reaches 25 million downloads

news.com :

Look out, Microsoft.

That's the message this week from the Mozilla Foundation, whose Web browser Firefox has surpassed 25 million downloads in 100 days.

Mozilla, which released the free 1.0 program in November, says an average of 250,000 people download Firefox every day and more than half a million Web sites feature Firefox promotions. The group promotes the program as an alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which has become a target for computer virus writers and other security exploits ...

(2005-02-21 11:14:11 SGT) [Tech] Permalink

China : World Number 1 Consumer

todayonline (archived) :

China is quickly overtaking the United States as the world's biggest consumer of global resources, energised by a dynamic economy that is growing at a record pace, said Washington-based research group Earth Policy Institute in a report. The report points to China's increasing consumption patterns and expanding influence on the US economy. Mr Brown says these trends are an early warning that China's rapid growth could lead to an unsustainable use of global resources.

... the report predicted that as Chinese incomes rise at a record pace, use of foodstuffs, energy, and raw materials — and sales of consumer goods — would continue to climb.

The report said China is outpacing the US in consumption of four of the five most important commodities: Grain, meat, coal and steel. The fifth, oil, is still consumed in the US at rates triple that of China at about 20.4 million barrels per day.

But while oil use in the US rose by 15 per cent from 1994 to 2004, use in the Asian giant more than doubled over the same period. China has now surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest consumer of oil after the US, said the report.

It said it was only a matter of time before China becomes the biggest guzzler of oil.