Peak Oil News

One of the hazards involved in energy analysis is placing too much emphasis on raw data, like the kind one finds in the U.S. Energy Information Agency’s weekly and monthly reports. While rawness may be a desirable attribute in certain meats and vegetables, it is less desirable in statistical information that is susceptible to errors requiring a correction at some later point. It is even more exasperating when the changes are significant enough to warrant junking a hypothesis that explained the earlier results well but doesn’t fit at all with the newly redrawn picture. The latest example of this recurring pattern occurred this week when EIA released a compilation of supply and consumption data from January through June this year. In that statistical summary, EIA reported that demand for gasoline inched up by 0.6 percent from the year-earlier period. But in the weekly reports, EIA’s estimates of increased demand had been ...

Norway's oil output is peaking at around 3 million barrels per day and will stay at this level for the next four to five years before the country switches focus to natural gas production, a senior government official said today. "We are sort of on the peak of oil production (and) we will stay here for four or five years and then switch to gas," Reuters quoted Anders Bjarne Moe, director general of the Oil & Energy Ministry, as saying at an oil and offshore conference. The looming shift to more gas as recoverable oil supplies on the Norwegian continental shelf dwindle will curb the flow of cash into the country's oil fund, which manages assets worth nearly $250 billion or roughly Norway's annual gross domestic product. » Source: Upstreamonline Moe said Norway enjoyed the status of a safe energy supplier, noting the UK's strong ...