Gas Flaring – Cheap and Nasty

 

In 2007 Shell and the Nigerian Government undertook that they would end gas flaring by 2008. They have not kept their promise. Gas flaring is the practice of burning off methane from oil wells, instead of dealing with the methane in an environmentally friendly fashion.

Discriminate Against Canadian Oil from Oil Tar Sands

If you buy food you expect to know where the food was produced and how it was produced. It is reasonable to know, for example, if the food is produced in a way that may be hazardous to your health, or if the food comes from a country which you would rather not deal with. When it comes to buying wood products many people want to know, before they buy and as a condition of their buying, that the wood is produced from sustainable sources, rather than from illegal logging.

Oil Leaks Again – are we surprised?

Chevron seems to find it hard to keep oil contained inBrazil. It was fined $100 million for a large leak in one of its Brazilian oil fields that leaked 3000 barrels of oil in November 2011 and less than three months later there is another leak in the same oil field which Chevron describes as a small new seepage, and add that there is no evidence that the leak was caused by their drilling or indeed anyone’s drilling.

UK Energy Statistics 3rd Quarter 2011

The Department of Energy & Climate Change has published statistics showing energy trends for the third quarter of 2011. The statistics show, comparing the position with the third quarter in 2010:-

Beyond Petroleum and Beyond Power

What a difference eighteen months can make. In July 2010 the United States was gunning for BP; President Obama had decided to call it, with a sneer in his voice, British Petroleum (nothing to do with me, Governor) and claiming billions of dollars as compensation for the oil spill in the Gulf of México known as Deepwater Horizon. Today BP, having paid much of the damages (although I am not terribly confident that the money has cascaded down to those who really suffered) BP declares profits for the last quarter of 2011 of $7.6 billion. The profits for the like period in 2010 were $4,6 billion.

Oil and Gas leaks from Deepwater Horizon

When the oil and gas leaked from the Macondo Well at Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in June 2010 something happened that never happened before. The oil and gas leaked some one and a half kilometres under the sea.

How to reduce your fuel oil bills

In the United Kingdom this time last year heating oil prices soared as very cold weather set in. Overall the price increase suffered was more than 70% in some cases. Almost all the homes that use fuel oil are off the gas grid network, and for these homes fuel oil is a cheaper heating alternative than electricity. It offers the same flexibility of heat as gas but much more expensive per unit of heat.

The Fourteen Billion

I was re-reading a collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. Asimov was born in 1920, and each story is prefaced with an explanation of how he came to write it. At the end of the story the note continues with an end piece. Although Asimov was famous as a writer of science fiction – I, Robot was made into a film but it was not his best work – he was also a scientist of renown.

Oil spillages: prevention is better than cure

A few years ago oil was discovered under the sea off the coast of Brazil and there was, of course, a rush to exploit the discovery. Chevron (amongst others) built wells to drill into the oil reserves and started to produce the crude but two weeks ago something went wrong, as it often seems to go wrong when drilling oil under the sea.

Investing in the Future of Energy

Brent Crude Oil is today selling at more than $115 a barrel. Its price has risen by 9% in the past month and that price rise has largely gone unnoticed because the world financial farce has dominated the media. Whatever you think of the economy the availability of fuel and energy is important to it. An oil price rise would make things more difficult right now so we need to know if oil prices are likely to rise further and plan for the rises.