Peak Oil News

The logistic curve, and its derivative the hubbert's curve, has been widely used to model population growth. And it has been applied to model oil production by M. King Hubbert. The model comes from the following differential equation: dQ/dt=kQ(1-Q/URR) where Q(t) is a function of time (measured in years) and it is defined as the cumulative production of a region until the end of year t. The parameter URR is the "Ultimately Recoverable Resources" or the maximum cumulative production that can be reached. K is the Malthusian parameter or the maximum cumulative production growth. » Source: GraphOilogy The value dQ/dt for a specific year's, can be approximated by (Q(s)-Q(s-1))/(s-(s-1))= Q(s)-Q(s-1) which is the production of year's, so let us define P(t)=Q(t)-Q(t-1). Let us assume that we have a region where the oil production follows strictly the logistic model, and ...

Japan needs friends who are rich in natural resources, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made no bones about what he wanted from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan when he became the first Japanese premier to visit the two countries last month. The country is hardly alone, however, in looking to parts of the former Soviet Union to meet its energy needs from new sources, and indeed, rivalry among East Asian nations may well intensify as they compete to woo the region. Only days after Koizumi left the region last week, China National Petroleum Corp., China`s largest oil producer, said that together with Korea National Oil Corp., Malaysia`s Petronas, Lukoil of Russia, and local group Uzbekneftegaz, it had obtained a 20-percent stake in a joint oil and gas exploration project in Uzbekistan`s Aral Sea extending about 10,000 square kilometers that potentially has 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. » Source: M&C News Each ...

There has been a lot of talk recently about the "spike" in oil prices. Spike is, of course, a reassuring word: it implies there's a downward slope on the other side. Just the other day, editorial writers and business-page commentators were reassuring us that oil at $75 (about R540) a barrel was "unsustainable", and that prices would fall as supply and demand even out. But opinion is moving towards the Goldman Sachs 2005 forecast of a "super-spike", in which prices could go as high as $105 (R750). » Source: motoring.co.za At present, we are told, demand is increasing while supply is insufficient as a result of oil companies' under-investment during the 1990s, when oil prices were low. But now (says the business correspondent of The Guardian), "the majors are looking for - and finding - oil like never before". And ...

Underneath the high, scrub-covered rangeland of northwest Colorado is the world's biggest oil field. Getting the oil out of the ground, however, is one of the world's biggest headaches. The area's deposits of oil shale are believed to be larger than all the oil reserves of the Middle East. But past attempts to get at this oil locked in tarry rock have cost billions of dollars and raised the prospect of strip-mining large areas of the Rocky Mountain West. Now, as the federal government makes another push to develop oil shale, Shell and other companies say they have developed techniques that may extract this treasure with much less environmental impact. » Source: San Francisco Chronicle Shell's project is stunningly complex. Instead of strip-mining the rock and then processing it, Shell plans to ...

In the 19th century, Russian and British diplomats, officers, and spies sketched maps of central Asia, carving political boundaries into the steppes and mountains as they played "The Great Game" to win control of the region. Today, there is a new map of central Asia, pored over by governments and oil company executives. It is known as "hub and spoke." The hub is the Caspian Sea, and the spokes are the multiple pipe-lines emanating from it, representing potential export routes for the vast oil and gas resources that lie beneath. Today's superpower struggle is over not the land itself but the hydrocarbons under it-believed to be among the world's largest untapped fossil fuel resources. And there are some new players. While Russia still seeks to maintain control over its former satellites, China, with its seemingly endless thirst for energy, ...

Oil, uranium, gold and platinum are more sought after than ever today. The search for natural resources is becoming increasingly difficult and prices are soaring. But future growth of the world economy depends on these natural resources -- and some will soon disappear forever. Five minutes before he was scheduled to speak, leading geologist Marion King Hubbert was summoned to the phone. His employer was speaking, someone from the headquarters of the Shell corporation. He was urged not to present his forecast, Hubbert later revealed. But the scientist with his little Clark-Gable-style beard stuck to his guns, as he has often been known to do. When he appeared at the spring 1956 meeting of the American Petroleum Institute in San Antonio, he presented exactly what he had prepared ...