Energy key in the new Asian architecture

globalresearch.ca :

China took just 10 months to propose, construct, and operationalise a 1,000 kilometre oil pipeline from Atasu in Kazakhstan to Alashankou in Xinjiang. No sooner was that project completed a few months ago than China indicated its eagerness to lay a gas pipeline along the same route as well. "We completed the 4,500 km-long pipeline from Xinjiang to Shanghai in just two and a half years," Chin Geng, president of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) told India's Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, and a group of top Indian executives in Beijing earlier this month. The Indian side was suitably impressed.

Though a recent convert to the cause of pipelines, India is seeking to compensate for its earlier lack of interest with an ambitious proposal for an Asian gas grid that links Asia's major energy producing and consuming regions to one another. India has unveiled an ambitious $22.4 billion pan-Asian gas grid and oil security pipeline system.

Pipelines aim to deliver gas, crude or products between discrete points. The underlying economic logic of a grid is that the capital costs can be more easily absorbed and amortised and energy supplies calibrated to match demand variations in the consuming countries without too much effort. But there is a political logic as well. As Asian grid will create mutual dependencies, giving countries a stake in the political and economic stability of one another, and hasten the process of regional integration.

Energy will be THE issue in 2006, 2007, 2008, etc...

peakoil.com -> dailykos.com :

You are not going to escape energy issues in the coming months and years, so you might as well get ready to talk about them. The issue is acknowledged by all insiders. It has become visible to everybody via gasoline prices, higher heating bills, and rampant inflation at home, permanent tension with Russia, Venezuela and Iran on the international scene. Do you really think it won't have massive economical and political consequences?

One sector where peak oil (or more precisely, peak gas) is already visible is nuclear energy. The keenness of a number of countries to build new nuclear plants is at its highest in 30 years. And remember that the only alternative, for now, for baseload power, is coal. Coal is more plentiful than oil (although a major switch to coal could change that quickly), and it's still relatively cheap. But it's incredibly dirty to produce and to use, and it is one of the biggest contributors to global climate change.

The USA are the biggest consumer and importer of oil, but China is fast catching up. The biggest oil and gas reserves are located around the highly unstable Persian Gulf. Irrespective of whether it is the main cause of the war in Iraq, oil is definitely part of the background of that conflict, and it is one of the main reasons why anyone cares about what's happening in Iran, like it is the one thing that makes us listen to Chavez in Venezuela or to Putin in Russia. Geopolitics are essentially focused on energy issues these days - because it is the only way most of these countries can really threaten us or get us to care. It's all energy-related. You'd better care, it's going to impact you, personally, very soon if it hasn't done it yet.

(2006-01-27 15:33:59 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

France warns EU on nuclear power vote

biz.yahoo.com :

Shunning nuclear power will push up electricity prices for the entire 25-nation European Union, France warned EU finance ministers. "The avowed aim of a number of member states to abandon nuclear power is leading them to opt preferentially for fossil fuel based production, the cost of which will be aggravated by incorporating the CO2 impact," the French government said in an energy policy paper circulated at a monthly ministerial meeting in Brussels.

Nuclear power has a bad name in Western Europe even though it is the EU's biggest single source of electricity. Thirteen EU member states use nuclear power, while several others are determined to shun it. Germany and Sweden are saying no to nuclear, promising to phase out its unpopular atomic power stations even as France, Britain, Italy and Finland consider building more.

France - which generates three quarters of electricity from nuclear - pushed its view that nuclear power is of "strategic importance" to Europe as the 25-nation bloc aims to limit its dependency on energy imports and tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Paris called on the European Union to take nuclear power on board and invest more in nuclear research and development to boost security, safety and waste management. It reminded EU countries that nuclear power generates 34% of European electricity "thus offering an independent and stable means of meeting a large share of European energy demand, while avoiding a rise in our greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the entire European automobile fleet."

(2006-01-27 15:22:13 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Delta to cut 1000 jobs, outsource maintenance

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

Delta Air Lines will outsource more maintenance work and close an Atlanta hangar as part of its restructuring. The ailing carrier told employees that it will cut 800 to 1,000 maintenance jobs by April 1 - mostly aircraft mechanics - through a combination of voluntary and involuntary furloughs. Those are part of the total of 9,000 job cuts announced last year.

Delta hopes to cut costs or boost revenue by US$3 billion annually as it struggles through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. The airline has said it plans to reduce capacity this year by about 7%, shedding up to 90 aircraft in addition to about 40 that were already grounded.

Delta also plans by April 1 to close a former Eastern Airlines hangar that it rented from the Atlanta airport for the past several years. Closing the facility would save about US$5 million annually in rent, utilities and other costs. The carrier also will outsource more maintenance work to outside contractors to save money.

Google Base:
american airlines

(2006-01-27 15:13:27 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Disney to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion

news.yahoo.com :

The Walt Disney Co said it would buy Pixar Animation Studios in a $7.4 billion deal that gives Pixar animators creative control over the world's most famous cartoon studio and make Pixar CEO Steve Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder. Under the agreement, Jobs, who also heads Apple Computer Inc, will join Disney's board of directors.

Pixar's six films with Disney, including "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles," have grossed more than $3.2 billion. Both boards of directors have approved the deal, which calls for 2.3 Disney shares to be issued for each Pixar share. Jobs owns a 50.6 percent stake in Pixar shares, which would translate into about 6 percent of Disney shares after the deal. Steve Jobs bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd that became Pixar from "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' in 1986 for $10 million.

(2006-01-27 15:05:58 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Europe fights freeze as Russia's General Winter marches west

peakoil.com -> timesonline.co.uk :

Plummeting temperatures and icy winds have claimed up to 300 lives across Europe as Russia's big freeze spreads westwards. The Arctic chill has closed schools, frozen out hospital wards, cracked railway lines and immobilised motorways, airports and river traffic. The worst-hit country is Poland where 161 people have died as a result of the weather. The freezing temperatures have caused problems as far west as France. Northern and Central Europe are used to harsh winters, but even these weather-hardened regions were struggling to stave off chaos.

A surge in demand for heating fuel has distorted energy supplies. Russia is consuming so much gas that supplies to other Eastern European countries are being restricted. Coal, heating oil, petrol and even firewood are in short supply.

Public transport has broken down in many parts of Poland, where some temperatures fell to minus 35C (-31F). The cold is also causing problems in nuclear plants, where vital instruments are freezing over. Moscow is experiencing its coldest winter since 1978. When temperatures plunged to minus 22C in Podolsk, a city outside Moscow, pipes carrying heat to 26 high-rise buildings froze, leaving 12,000 people stuck in apartments that were colder than most refrigerators. Charity workers have been trawling the underground tunnels of Berlin and taking the homeless to shelters as temperatures dropped to the lowest for 64 years.