Russia's Gazprom Plans Big Sales To U.S.

Russia's energy giant Gazprom is launching a major drive into U.S. and Asia-Pacific markets with gas from its new Siberian and Arctic fields, but it needs money from Western investors.

Five Western groups have been short-listed to help develop the Shtokman field, which contains 113 trillion cubic feet of gas - enough for 25 years of Russian gas exports to Europe. The five are Chevron, Phillips-Conoco, Statoil and Hydro from Norway, and France's Total. Two, or at most three, would be picked as partners.

Oil dispute fuels China-Japan tension

peakoil.com -> gulf-news.com :

China has, according to Japanese reconnaissance data, completed at least one new drilling platform in the East China Sea and may already be tapping into natural gas and oil fields, escalating a dispute with Japan over the rights to billions of dollars worth of underwater energy reserves. A second Chinese drilling platform in the area also appears nearly complete.

The two drilling platforms in question appear to lie just within the Chinese side of a dividing line that Japan has already acknowledged as separating the territorial waters of both nations. Japan argues, however, that China is tapping into energy fields that straddle an area claimed by both Japan and China.

Official surveys say the disputed fields contain an estimated 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and up to 100 billion barrels of oil.

(2005-10-25 20:41:18 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Fuel hikes could cost 60000 Indonesian jobs

chinapost.com.tw :

The Indonesian government's dramatic fuel price raises may force about 200 textile companies into bankruptcy and lead to 60,000 job losses this year. The government, reacting to soaring global oil prices, announced that the cost of gasoline would rise 87 percent to US$0.44 per liter (0.26 gallon), while diesel fuel would more than double and kerosene triple.

The size of the rises, much larger that expected, caught many by surprise, but economists have said that the bold move could help the government - which spent US$7.4 billion last year on fuel subsidies - balance its ballooning budget. The government hopes it will help stave off an economic crisis.

"The closures could cause massive layoffs," Benny Sutrisno, chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association, told Dow Jones Newswires. Indonesia's 2,760 garment and textile producers account for the bulk of the country's non-oil exports. Textile exports contributed around 13 percent of Indonesian gross domestic product in 2004.

Ben Bernanke to Succeed Greenspan

news.yahoo.com -> reuters.com :

President George W. Bush nominated top White House economist Ben Bernanke to succeed Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chairman, and the former Fed board governor pledged to keep faith with the Greenspan era. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Bernanke, a widely respected monetary economist with a rich academic resume, would have huge sway over the world's mightiest economy.

Greenspan, 79, is set to step down on January 31 after leading the central bank for more than 18 years through a period in which he cemented a reputation as a monetary policy "maestro." Bernanke, now chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, must still be approved by the U.S. Senate for the top Fed job. The selection of Bernanke met with a generally positive reaction among Capitol Hill Republicans, although some key Democrats were more guarded.

- Hmm, that would be the one and the same Ben "Printing Press" Bernanke, wouldn't it?

"... the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services."

- Ben S. Bernanke
November 21, 2002

- Here's to hoping that he doesn't overdo the printing press part, eh? And, apparently, he's also the one and the same Ben "Helicopter Money" Bernanke.

(2005-10-25 11:03:43 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Time : "How to Kick the Oil Habit"

peakoil.com -> time.com :

If anyone harbored any doubts that hybrid cars are hot, the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show put them to rest. Carmakers practically ran over one another promoting their attempts to catch up with Honda and Toyota, the technology's pioneers. As the price of crude has headed steadily upward, technological innovation has driven down the cost of alternative energy sources. Oil companies, worried that these changes could leave them behind, are starting to think of themselves instead as broad-based energy companies. If this explosion of innovation has a problem, however, it may be that the developments are coming too late to allow a smooth transition to the postpetroleum era.

As consumers, we need time to make adjustments - often very expensive ones - to the new technologies. Not everyone can afford to junk a two-year-old SUV to buy a new hybrid. Most people can't afford to abandon houses built in developments 100 miles out in the countryside when oil was cheap. And although energy and power companies are investing in new technologies, they can't create a massive new infrastructure overnight.

Another problem is refinery capacity. Even an unlimited supply of crude is useless if it can't be refined into gasoline, heating oil and other fuels. Beyond that, the supply of crude is not unlimited. The more oil that is removed, the more expensive the cost of extracting the remaining oil becomes. At some point - possibly as early as 2010 - production will therefore reach a peak, and then gradually start to decline. "The problem," says investment banker Matt Simmons, "is that the global economy and the U.S. economy are structured on the assumption that the oil supply will only increase."

The one thing that will probably cushion the blow of this new and permanent energy crisis is conservation. There's nothing particularly sexy or chic about consolidating shopping trips, carpooling, turning the thermostat down in winter and up in summer, or biking to the office and back, but it does work. In the early '80s, in the midst of soaring oil prices, we doubled the average efficiency of cars, furnaces and insulation.