The Oil Drum: Europe

I am travelling today, so only a few links. Feel free to add more in the comments below.

aeldric

ABC - Timor Sea oil field development likely

An Adelaide-based petroleum company is looking at developing an oil field in the Timor Sea, about 700 kilometres from Darwin.

As part of an $85 million deal, Stuart Petroleum has bought a stake in the Oliver oil field.

SMH - Presentation to 2008 Australian Geothermal Energy Conference

Russia halts military cooperation with NATO

BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO has received a note from Moscow saying Russia is halting military cooperation, in the latest sign of tension over the violence in Georgia, an official said Thursday.

NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said the alliance had received notification through military channels that Russia's Defense Ministry had taken a decision "to halt international military cooperation events between Russia and NATO countries."

Petrobras Will `Need a Miracle' to Hit Output Target, Itau Says

(Bloomberg) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, will ``need a miracle'' to meet its forecast for production this year, Itau Corretora said, citing July results that ``continue to disappoint.''

Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based company is known, produced 1.87 million barrels of crude oil and natural-gas liquids per day in Brazil in July, almost unchanged from June, according to data posted on the company's Web site yesterday.

SMH - Australia's hot rocks may generate power

Australia is sitting on an "inexhaustible" source of energy, scientists say - and they're not talking about coal. "Hot rocks" energy is being touted as the latest solution to climate change. Australia's first hot rocks power station moved a step closer on Wednesday when the federal government launched a $50 million fund to commercialise the technology. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said Australia's first hot rocks power plant could be built within four years.

SMH - Chinese oil firm targets coal-to-liquids

A subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned oil giant has thrown its weight behind an ambitious, $3 billion coal-to-liquids (CTL) project planned for South Australia. Australia-focused energy minnow Altona Resources Plc, which is listed on London's Alternative Investment Market, has signed an in-principle agreement with CNOOC (Beijing) Energy Investment Co Ltd to cooperate in the development of Altona's Arckaringa project in SA.

The project includes a 10 million barrel per year open cut mine and a 560 megawatt power plant. Interest in CTL, which involves converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons, is growing amid concerns about "peak oil".

The Great Oil Bubble?

The markets are rejoicing as the “great oil bubble” loses air and rapidly heads back to its proper double-digit price. The rejoicing may be a bit premature as the underlying supply and demand fundamentals do not appear to support “proper” prices for oil.

Between 2004 and 2007, global oil consumption grew by 3.9%, driven by emerging giants China and India (40% of the world’s population) and other rapidly growing emerging economies. While consumption has exploded, production has not kept pace. Non-OPEC production growth has slowed well below historical averages. And the only country with significant spare production capacity is Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, Saudi spare capacity is not independently verified, and the vast majority of their current production is from the giant Ghawar oil field, a dowager now 57 years old which still produces nearly 5 million barrels a day.

Schools scramble as tougher times hit

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Harder times and higher fuel prices are following kids back to school this fall.

Children will walk farther to the bus stop, pay more for lunch, study from old textbooks, even wear last year's clothes. Field trips? Forget about it.

This year, it could cost nearly twice as much to fuel the yellow buses that rumble to school each morning. If you think it's expensive to fill up a sport utility vehicle, try topping off a tank that is two or even three times as big.

At the same time, bills are mounting for air conditioning and heating, for cafeteria food and for classroom supplies, all because of the shaky economy. And parents have their own tanks to fill.

In this post, I will talk about American Petroleum Institute's new Energy IQ Game and a related bloggers call, which Nate Hagens, Robert Rapier, and I participated in.

Last year, the American Petroleum institute (API) developed an Energy IQ Survey. This year, they revised it slightly and made it into a game. You can play, by clicking on this link:

The audio tape and the transcript for the API bloggers call can be accessed here.

Peak oil is coming, and we're unready

Has the world already reached peak oil, a time of permanently high oil prices and shortages that will profoundly change our way of life? The answer, I think, is likely yes, but the proximity of this catastrophe is not the most important question to ask.

Oil is a finite natural resource; sooner or later, the supply will peak. Jeroen van der Veer, chief of Royal Dutch Shell, earlier this year predicted 2015 as the year the world reaches peak production. John Hess of Hess Corp. said: "An oil crisis is coming in the next 10 years. It's not a matter of demand. It's not a matter of supplies. It's both."

Whether peak oil is already here or on its way, we'll have to deal with it.

SMH - Trigger happy and oil mad

Georgia overplayed its hand this week, and Russia got to build its trumps, writes Paul McGeough.

Dig deep enough and you come to oil and gas. The war this week between Russia and the headstrong former Soviet republic of Georgia prompted hand-wringing about another awkward demonstration of the limits of American power.

The Australian - LNG Ltd set for CSM offtake agreement next month

GLADSTONE liquefied natural gas hopeful LNG Ltd is set to sign an offtake agreement next month for its planned Fisherman's Landing project, which is one of five schemes to export Queensland's coal seam methane. ...

Arrow, which recently boosted its proven and probable CSM reserves by 81 per cent to 1431 petajoules, has agreed to supply the CSM for the first production unit and has an option to supply the second. However, its agreement with Shell, which is due to be finalised this month, has raised questions about what the oil major's plans are for the CSM and whether it would want a third party to process its LNG.