Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya Will be the Next Great Oil Province

When Conoco's Mogadishu office became the de facto US embassy before the Marines landed in Somalia; it was not a war on terror, but supposedly a "humanitarian mission". Protecting oil concessions to Conoco and other US corporations was a key factor behind this invasion, after major oil finds in Somalia.

Tom Windle, who explored some of Africa's west coast sites for Amoco, believes Africa's potential has barely been recognized. The regional geologist says that East Africa is the most significant potential oilfield worldwide. Tom says that although there are prospects for further oilfields in West Africa, it is in the East and the Horn of Africa where the potential is the greatest : "... in my opinion, the East African margin (from Sudan, through Ethiopia and Somalia down to Kenya) will be the next great oil province."

Big companies are now attempting to "book reserves" in the region under the most favourable terms they can and they have found willing takers in East African governments. A number of companies are now involved in exploring the possibility of oil finds in East Africa including Exxon Mobil, Woodside Petroleum and Tullow Oil, which recorded a 660% increase in its profits for the first half of 2005. Tullow Oil chief executive Aidan Heavey put his firm's exceptional performance down both to the increase in oil prices and its strategy of investing heavily in potential new oilfields in Africa and Asia.

Africa currently produces around 11 per cent of the world's oil and over five per cent of natural gas. It is home to nearly 10 per cent of proven world oil reserves totalling some 112 billion barrels.

Climate Change: It's getting hot in here

peakoil.com -> news.independent.co.uk :

2005 was the year in which concerns about the stability of the climate regularly made the headlines; 2006 may be the year when demands to do something about it finally become irresistible.

... another lesson of 2005 is that scientists can be wrong about climate change - though not in a way that provides any comfort to the dwindling band of sceptics. For several years, the consensus had been that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet would be a slow process, taking centuries or even millennia. But as Ian Howat, a Greenland expert, explains: "Current models treat the ice sheet like it's just an ice cube sitting up there melting, and we're finding out it's not that simple." Instead, thinning glaciers have been speeding up on the edges of Greenland, dumping more and more melting ice into the sea. Howat estimates that the changing dynamics could "easily cut in half the time it will take to destroy the Greenland ice sheet", suggesting that sea-level rise predictions for this century may well have been underestimated.

Russia-Ukraine gas dispute hits supplies

channelnewsasia.com :

The European Union voiced concern Sunday after Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine, amid growing fears of a knock-on impact on deliveries to the rest of Europe despite Moscow's reassurances.

Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said it had begun lowering the pressure into Ukraine's gas pipeline system. It followed the expiry of a deadline for Kiev to agree to a four-fold price increase for gas from Russia, the cause of a lingering and increasingly bitter dispute.

Around a fifth of European gas imports come from Russia via Ukraine. Soon after the reduction in pressure, Ukraine's state-owned Naftogaz energy company said the move threatened the supply to downstream European countries.

(2006-01-10 19:02:24 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Climate Shock

truthout.org :

Climate shock comes from the realization that climate change is not only real, but huge; it is not only huge, but it is now; and it will affect your life very shortly - if it hasn't already. Gulf Coast residents got their climate shock this past hurricane season as warming oceans spawned the strongest storms on record. Alaska natives are getting their climate shock as retreating sea ice ruins their hunting, and melting permafrost topples their homes. Pacific Islanders are getting it too as their atolls flood and they flee to higher ground. And this is just the very beginning.

A funny thing happened 2 million years ago on the way to the ice ages. An arboreal ape came down from the trees and began to make tools and lose its hair. When its descendants multiplied and started to burn fossil fuels, they became a fever-inducing planetary infection. They (we) are the cause of climate shock.

An international commission predicts that there is a high likelihood that all of the Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035. The Himalaya will turn black, and the Ganges and other rivers that flow from it will dry to seasonal streams. The 500 million people in India who depend on water from these rivers will have no other source. China, the Andes and California will face the same climate shock - no water.

Meanwhile, the melting ice will raise the seas. If all of the Earth's mountain glaciers were to melt, it would raise the sea level by a foot and a half and that would be the end of places like Bangladesh and Louisiana's bayou country. But the polar ice caps are showing the same tendency for rapid melting, and a mere two degree Fahrenheit rise in global temperature could be enough to cause a complete disintegration. Sea levels could start rising by 3 feet every 20 years. We will have to act quickly and drastically to avert this inundation.

3000 billion tons of coal off Norway's coastline

energybulletin.net :

Fifty years from now, oil producing rigs could be setting coal on fire far below the sea, rather than pumping oil. Burning coal where it is is one way Norwegian oil company Statoil thinks that the vast coal-reserves on the Norwegian shelf can be utilized. Students from Norwegian University of Science and Technology analyzed data from 600 wells drilled on the Norwegian Shelf of the North Sea. They calculated that there are 3000 billion tons of coal off the Norwegian coast. This compares to today's proven and recoverable world reserves of 900 billion tons of coal.

Geologists have known for a long time that there are vast amounts of coal in the North Sea. What we have done now, is to estimate how much there actually is, says energy advisor with Statoil New Energy, said Olav Kårstad. "By injecting oxygen, we can ignite the coal where it is. This will produce a mix of gas which we can recover and use for energy-production. The problem however, is that one of the components of this gas mix will be the greenhouse gas CO2. We have to research a lot before we can utilize the resource in a way that doesn't harm the environment."

(2006-01-10 18:26:21 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Swiss Airlines and pilots reach truce

channelnewsasia.com :

The management of Swiss International Airlines and pilots have agreed to keep talking in an attempt to reach a new wage agreement, heading off an implied threat to start replacing pilots who have declined to sign new labour contracts. After the last collective agreement expired in October, pilots assigned to the regional carrier were told to sign individual contracts, which the pilots' union said entailed salary cuts and the abolition of automatic salary releases based on length of service.

Swiss International, an amalgamation of bankrupted Swissair and the regional carrier Crossair, has for several months been involved in merger talks with the German carrier Lufthansa.

(2006-01-10 18:20:54 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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