Oil Peak 2014?

Kuwaiti researchers predict world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014.

Oil peak is the point where oil production, having reached a maximum, declines. “Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models, called the Hubbert model, accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide. However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for more complex oil production cycles of some countries. Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say.”

The world’s crude oil production, which comes from sources like this oil field, may peak a decade earlier than some scientists had predicted. Crdit : iStock

“The new study describe development of a new version of the Hubbert model that accounts for these individual production trends to provide a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast. Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries, which supply most of the world’s conventional crude oil. They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world’s oil reserves are being depleted at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy-related decisions and public policy debate, they suggest.” American Chemical Society Public Release said.

Related Information: Forecasting World Crude Oil Production Using Multicyclic Hubbert Model

Gulf of Mexico receives its regular ration of oil spill

Tanker collision near Texas spills oil into Gulf

About 20.000 gallons of the fuel were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico after a crude oil tanker collided with a service vessel in the Gulf of Mexico near Texas, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.

“The accident occurred in rough seas late Tuesday after the tanker finished receiving crude oil from a supertanker too large to enter port 46 miles southeast of Galveston. Ship-to-ship oil transfers, called lightering , are common and often involve a third vessel servicing the operation.” Reuters reported.

The 820-foot (250-meter) Liberian-flagged, Russian-operated Krymsk, collided with the 166-foot lightering service vessel AET Endeavor, after the Krymsk had finished taking Arabian crude oil from a larger ship, the Vega Star.

A pierced fuel tank  caused the oil spill, believed to be No. 6 bunker fuel, officials said.

The tanker was carrying a cargo of more than 70,000 metric tons of crude, which escaped damage [this time,] a spokesman for Krymsk operator Novorossiysk was reported as saying.

Endeavor, owned by American Eagle Tankers, was not seriously damaged, reports said.

Summary!

Krymsk, a Liberian-flagged tanker, operated by Russian Novorossiysk, after lightering Arabian crude oil from a supertanker, Vega Star, too large to enter port near Galveston, Texas, collided with one of its service ships spilling bunker fuel into the giant runoff and tailing pond south of Texas, aka the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile the magnitude of the Australian ecological disaster, the oil spill in Timor Sea, grows daily.

Related New Links:

• Timor Sea oil spill costs $5.3m – so far
• First attempt to plug oil leak fails
• Second attempt to plug oil leak fails

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• Timor Sea Oil Slick: Growing Australian Disaster
• Major Ecological Disaster Underway in Timor Sea
• Australian Oil Disaster May Get a Lot Worse

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• 4m liters of crude spill into French nature reserve
• Old MacDonald Had a Fleet
• Shell Leaks in Shabby Style!
• Exxon Mobile Court Orders Only Fraction of Damages
• Another Day, Another Oil Spill in Alaska

• Chevron should pay $27 billion in compensation
• US Govt Sues BP America
• Australia hit by another man-made disaster
• Large spill at Canada’s oil sands terminal

Shameful EPA slammed with yet another lawsuit

Mr Johnson, Americans Need Clean Air, Despite Your Misplaced Loyalties!

12 states, NY city and District of Columbia are suing Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, the federal environmental regulators, over greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries in the US.

The suit is led by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who “charges that EPA violated the federal Clean Air Act by refusing to issue standards, known as new source performance standards, for controlling global warming pollution emissions from oil refineries.” Reuters reported.

Anacortes Refinery (Tesoro Corp), on the north end of March Point southeast of Anacortes, Washington. Image credit:Walter Siegmund. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

“The EPA’s refusal to control pollution from oil refineries is the latest example of the Bush Administration’s do-nothing policy on global warming,” Cuomo said in a release. “Oil refineries contribute substantially to global warming, posing grave threats to New York’s environment, health, and economy.”

Stephen Johnson, the EPA head has insisted that it is the responsibility of Congress to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases that are heating the planet, despite the US Supreme Court ruling in 2007 that EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Additionally, other coalition of states have sued the EPA demanding that it should set standards for GHG pollution from power plants, and and to uphold the right of states to regulate pollution emissions from automobiles, as well as to require stronger reporting on toxic chemicals.

According to the latest suit, filed yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, “about 15 percent of U.S. industrial emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, come from crude refineries, which burn some oil as they make products like gasoline and jet fuel.”

The other plaintiff states and cities in the suit are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia and the City of New York, representing nearly one third (29%)of the entire US population.

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Stars-and-Stripes-Draped Carson Refinery (owned by the patriotic British Petroleum), Carson, California. Capacity: 260,000 bbl/d (41,000 m³/d). Image Credit: USATODAY. Image may be subject to copyright.

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