From The American Energy Society: INVESTMENT IN OIL AND GAS SET TO SOAR
So as to bring 2GreenEnergy readers the latest and best thinking on the world energy market and its implications on our civilization’s ultimate sustainability, I subscribe to a few paid publications and quote them liberally in our blog posts here. One example of this is the newsletter of the American Energy Society, though, to be honest, this particular one costs me the princely sum of $17 per year.
The piece whose title is named in the headline here suggests that, given the current situation with world oil reserves, the U.S. looks like a good place in which to invest. The rest of the world is far more hamstrung with supply constraint issues than we are. The AES writes:
According to Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy, discovered resources fell to an all-time low of around 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2017. At current oil and gas consumption rates, that’s a replacement rate of just around 11%, versus 50% back in 2012. Not only are discoveries fewer, but the sites found are holding less oil than prior discoveries. As a result, the latest forecast from the International Energy Agency projects the United States is expected to satisfy 60% of demand growth over the next five years while conventional discoveries of oil and gas outside the U.S. hit their lowest level since 1952. Morgan Stanley believes that daily output needs to increase by 5.7 million barrels per day by 2020, a pace of increase that’s happened only once since 1984.
Two items to consider:
I’m sure that, if the U.S. turns out to be the mother lode for oil and gas investments, many Americans will credit Trump. We tend to think that their president is far more to blame for our failures, and should be credited with more of our successes than is suggested by actual fact. Just like Trump deserves little credit for the continued upswing in the U.S. economy, it’s equally stupid to say that Obama personally reversed the economic collapse after he took office in 2009.
More important than who deserves the credit is the fact that the consumption of fossil fuel is in the process of rendering this planet less and less capable of supporting life. Climate change, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity and increasing rates of related diseases are all conspiring to make life here pretty miserable in the coming decades. It would be nice if we cared, but, as they say, good luck with that.
Craig,
Capital investment flows to where it is most welcomed and profitable. That’s the inescapable nature of capital.
No matter what the subject, somehow you manage to introduce a derogatory criticism of President Trump usually for gratuitous purpose.
The point of the article in the American Energy Society was to highlight the growing need for more fossil fuel based energy on a global basis.
This trend should be of concern for every citizen on the planet, not just for environmental, but economic and logistical sustainability reasons.
The growth pattern shows a strengthening of economic activity in developing nations and a slowing of fossil fuel conservation and consumption reducing technology.
Oil remains the most desired, if volatile, price sensitive, resource. More than 350,000 essential products are made from oil. Yet the focus is always on oil’s use as a fuel.
The use of oil to produce energy has led to the politicization of oil,coal,and to a lesser extent, natural gas. Fossil fuels have been demonized as “evil” by radicalized eco-pests intent on weaponizing a natural resource to suit political, ideological, quasi-religious agendas.
Demonizing fossil fuels, and fossil fuel companies, has been immensely counter-productive. The general public around the globe has grown weary, even resentful, of wild rhetoric, becoming bared with energy saving technology.
The public have grown tired of sanctimonious lectures by leftist activists seeking political advantage for outdated doctrines. Self-righteous demonstrations by noisy students, irrational alarmists, smug academics, and ill informed pundits, and all sorts of talking heads.
As the last of the vexatious, but expensive, exhibitionist “climate change law suits”, funded by public money against the oil industry collapse, the demand for fossil fuel continues to increase.
Why?
Primarily because all the goodwill, common purpose, resources, passion and human energy that could have been harnessed toward the expansion of effective clean technology, was wasted in an orgy of divisive political grandstanding and failed projects.
Sadly, it appears we’re trapped in a weird internecine war where any practical or beneficial improvements are met with a tirade of shrill screams from ideologues crying, “trolls”, “climate denier”, and other epithets (the relevance is less important that the emotional hyperbole).
Even at famous, once respected academic institutions, funding for R&D into clean technology is being heavily censored, The censors demand research can only be conducted into “approved” technologies meeting the dictates of certain ideological doctrines.
As research in the West becomes stymied by internal politics, R&D moves to more ‘focused’ societies such as India, China etc.
My call to fellow environmental conservationists, has remained constant throughout the last decade:
Forget about our political differences, dogma, ideology. Forget the name calling and who is ‘virtuous and who should be labelled “evil”.
My call is simple !
We need to focus on employing all our skill, business acumen, scientific knowledge etc, to invest surplus capital into researching all forms of clean(er) energy technology.
The only criteria for technology should be the capacity to be commercialized and adopted by consumers without coercion, but by virtue of being superior technology.
Each technology should be judged by effectiveness, not ideological purity! “Grand Solutions”, will not be as effective as a host of smaller, less perfect, more humble solutions.
Switching to electric garden lawn care machinery, would be far more environmentally beneficial than a “War on Coal” !
Introducing Clean Coal power Stations capable of producing carbon reducing industrial by products, will produce for more immediate and productive carbon emissions than attempting a “social revolution”.
This week we supplied two more large industrial lawn care electric mowing machines with recycling capacity for clippings, a flow battery and solar charging facility.
I sincerely believe this accomplished more for the health of the planet, than all the energy wasted on ranting against the US President !
This week I attended a demonstration in China into very advanced coal-fired technology. The claims made by the plant designers (if true) were astounding.
The enthusiasm by the Peoples Republic for developments in liquid coal and other ’emission positive’ coal by-products is infectious.
We ignore such developments at our peril.