Saturday August 19, 2006

Scotland motorists clock up 150m fewer miles in their cars

peakoil.com -> news.scotsman.com :

Scotland's love affair with the motor car is waning, with Scots increasingly leaving their vehicle in the garage and taking public transport or walking instead. The Scottish Executive's transport survey shows that Scots drove 150 million fewer miles on major roads last year than in 2004, down by 1% and only the second drop since the oil crisis of the 1970s. Rail and bus journeys were up and walking and cycling were more popular. Experts said huge rises in fuel costs, increasing congestion on the roads, coupled with increasing investment in public transport and growing awareness of the environment was behind the change.

But with car drivers still running more than 14 billion vehicle miles on A-roads and motorways last year, environmentalists warned that much still needed to be done. Congestion is still at record levels, with lorries, vans and other vehicles pushing the total to 27 billion vehicle miles. Mark Ballard, transport spokesman for the Scottish Green Party, said: "Flying, the most polluting form of travel, has increased by 93 per cent since 1995, again to the highest levels ever, blowing a massive hole in any plans for Scotland to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions."

(2006-08-19 11:54:35 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Russia eyes yet another gas pipeline to China

peakoil.com -> jamestown.org :

Apart from preparing to build the Altai gas pipeline from Western Siberia, Russian authorities have also indicated plans to build a new gas pipeline from Sakhalin to neighboring China along a network of gas pipelines to supply domestic consumers in Russia's Far East.

Sakhalin-1 began oil production in 2005. Estimated reserves are 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Commercial production in the Sakhalin-1 project has been trailing that of Sakhalin-2, where oil production started in 1999. Sakhalin-2 has reserves of some 1.1 billion barrels of oil and 17 trillion cubic feet of gas. The second stage includes gas production and liquefaction at a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Sakhalin with projected annual capacity of 9.6 million tons.

Earlier this year, Gazprom was reportedly planning to buy all gas from Sakhalin-1 for re-export to China. Japan is unlikely to consume any significant amount of natural gas from Sakhalin-1 before 2013, as this market appears oversupplied with imported LNG. South Korea is also an unlikely client because a gas pipeline through North Korea remains impossible, therefore China is an obvious option for gas export.

See also :

1. Energy key in the new Asian architecture
2. China-Kazakhstan oil pipeline connected
3. Singapore hopes for Russian LNG supplies

(2006-08-19 09:53:09 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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