Martin Hertzberg, Ph.D, wrote the following in response to an article by an alleged physicist who was taken in by “ad hominem” arguments : The following commentary is submitted for your consideration in response to today’s guest commentary in the SDN by Dave Yost. It is tragic that what should have been a respectful and [...]
Citigroup Says Peak Oil Is Dead
General, International, Renewables
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Feb 232012
Citigroup announced to the world Thursday that peak oil is dead. The controversial idea that world crude oil production is almost at its peak and will soon begin an irrevocable long-term decline has been laid to rest in the highly productive shale oil formations of North Dakota, with potentially big consequences for oil prices, the bank said.
However, despite this reading of last rites, the data suggest it would be premature to pronounce this patient dead.
Changes in oil markets in the past decade have given significant traction to the argument that world oil production is close to peaking. Despite the huge incentive of a near-threefold increase in the price of benchmark Brent crude from 2000 to 2010, the world barely managed to eke out a 10% increase in crude oil production, according to BP data.
Many have argued that this proves the physical limit on global crude oil production is near, or may already have been passed.
“The belief that global oil production has peaked, or is on the cusp of doing so, has helped to fuel oil’s more than decade-long rally,” Citigroup said in a note to clients. “This is now all changing because of what is happening in North Dakota,” where new technology has led to a large and unexpected surge in oil production from shale rock.
After decades of decline, “U.S. oil production is now on the rise, entirely because of shale oil production,” said Citigroup. Shale oil could add almost 3.5 million barrels a day to US oil production between 2010 and 2022 and has already slashed 1 million barrels a day from U.S. oil imports. One day it may allow the U.S. and Canada to be self-sufficient in oil, it said.
There are other parts of the world with similar promise, the bank said. Argentina has already discovered significant shale oil deposits. Australia may have shale reserves. The prospects for Europe may not be so good, given that one of the more prospective areas is in the Paris basin of France, where shale gas drilling has already been banned.
“The surge in U.S. production clearly indicates that human ingenuity is rising to the challenge issued by long-time oil bulls,” and peak oilers, said Citigroup.
Dutch Scientist Says IPCC Draft Report Exemplifies “Worst Features of Science” – Calls For A Critical Review!
Dutch scientist and chemical engineer Dr. Arthur Rörsch has distributed a working paper to Dutch officials in his country to request a comprehensive review of the results and recommendations of the IPCC, especially its upcoming 5th assessment report. In his paper Rörsch, former vice-president of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Research, writes that the IPCC [...]
Facts don’t bother Warmists
Facts don’t bother Warmists The Himalayan glaciers aren’t melting, at least for the moment, says a recently study published in Nature. Between 2003 and 2010 the effective change in the size of glaciers in the high mountains of Asia was “not significantly different from zero,” said a British scientist not involved with the study, who [...]
Fatal Error: Believing the Vacuum of Space has a Temperature
by John O’Sullivan Astrophysicists will tell you that the vast emptiness of outer space has no temperature. Space is empty, thus it is temperature-less. But ask a climatologist and you’ll be told space is ‘cold.’ Such fallacy spawned the fatal error in the junk science known as ‘greenhouse gas theory,’ also called the ‘greenhouse effect’ [...]
Green taxes add 15% to Britain’s energy bills: Government finally admits how much more families pay to meet emissions targets
Electricity prices are 15 per cent more expensive than they should be because of green policies, Whitehall officials have admitted. Energy costs for hard-pressed consumers have been pushed up by extra charges imposed to help the Government meet pledges to cut carbon emissions. Projections in Whitehall show that by 2020, the burden for electricity will [...]
Greener Than Thou
Greener Than Thou By Alan Caruba The most obnoxious and hypocritical people are those who are always preaching a “greener” way of life, insisting that anything that constitutes our modern lifestyles are destroying the Earth and depleting its natural resources. Never mind that we depend upon oil, natural gas, coal, and a host of minerals [...]
Reformed Warmist gets good coverage in major Austrian newspaper
The truth will out even in the “Ostmark des Deutschen Reichs” Fritz Vahrenholt gives a comprehensive interview with leading Austrian daily KURIER here. The interview covers a number of areas. But a few points I found particularly interesting. On the lack of warming since 2000, the KURIER asks if it’s too short of a time [...]
Reply to a reply
The authors of the Jan. 27 Wall Street Journal op-ed, ‘No Need to Panic about Global Warming,’ respond to their critics This letter responds to criticisms of the op-ed made by Kevin Trenberth and 37 others in a letter published Feb. 1, and by Robert Byer of the American Physical Society in a letter published [...]
Scientific fraud has happened often before
The review below of the book FALSE PROPHETS By Alexander Kohn has obvious appicability to the current global warming mania but the author wisely leaves that subject for future commentators AMONG the many scientists and doctors whose names adorn the pages of “False Prophets,” I have found myself haunted by three in particular: Johnson S. [...]
The dreaming goes on, untroubled by reality
Computer-modeled tropical fish to boom in Canada, while actual tropical fish freeze to death in Florida Playing with computer models is such fun: A new UBC study suggests climate change could create a boom in tropical fish species in BC, but overall result in a drop of up to 35 per cent in catches in [...]
Tragedy Unfolding in Europe – Is U.S. Media Trying to Ignore It?
The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds and brought deep snow where it hasn’t been seen in decades,” says this article in the Seattle Times. This should be front page news. Instead, the article doesn’t appear until page eight. And the title, “At least 3 killed in avalanche in [...]
Uncertain future for electric cars in Britain
Uncertain future for electric cars in Britain Where next for the all-electric family car? The honest answer is that nobody – not even the companies which make them – knows for sure. Our ruling politicians don’t have a clue either. This despite the fact that they’re endorsing the idea of battery-powered vehicles for the general [...]