"Drilling in deep-water oil fields remains essential in spite of the moratorium in the US Gulf of Mexico following the BP oil spill", Total boss Christophe de Margerie said. "If we stopped producing in the North Sea, prices would soar."

Other oil executives including Chevron head John Watson similarly have cautioned against imposing bans on drilling in waters over 200 metres deep.

"All this means extra attention, potential additional costs... and this might mean a slight delay before new projects are announced," de Magerie continued. "This can only have a negative impact over oil prices" and push them higher. The price of oil could easily bounce back to $90 per barrel by year end, as the BP well disaster was reducing investments in finding new fields.

Read more: Upstream Online

In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates an extended global moratorium on new drilling in offshore regions could cut potential world offshore output by 800,000 barrels to 900,000 barrels per day by 2015.

The IEA is confident in its estimate that 100,000 bpd to 300,000 bpd could be lost if new projects in the Gulf of Mexico were delayed by one or two years until 2015, said IEA's executive director, Nobuo Tanaka.

"If the same one-year or two-year delay happens globally, to global offshore drilling new projects, if that happens, we calculate it is about 800,000 bpd to 900,000 bpd," Tanaka continued.

"If 1 million bpd is struck out from the market, it's big. It may have a huge impact in the mid to the long term. Premium insurance is moving up, many countries are reviewing regulations and are trying to find out if they may have a similar problem in their operations."

Read more: Upstream

Petroleum-rich Kuwait needs to develop heavy oil resources in the Mideast country, which has been looking for ways to keep up long-term production, said a top engineer with Kuwait Oil Co. Kuwait holds about nine per cent of the world´s oil reserves, much of which is higher-quality light and medium crude. Although a significant fraction of heavy oil resources are also present in Kuwait.

"We are actually reaching the maturity stage, where our production will start to decline," said senior reservoir engineer Badar Al-Matar. "We have to maintain that by exploring new resources, which is maybe heavy oil, and enhance our recovery with new technologies and techniques."

The country has set oil production targets of four million barrels per day by 2020. The energy sector accounts for nearly half of Kuwait´s gross domestic product and 95 per cent of all export revenues and government income, according to the CIA World Factbook.

What the Kuwaiti needs to support future production growth is more hands-on experience in heavy oil, Al-Matar concluded.

Read more: Oilweek

The aviation industry now uses a staggering 5 million barrels of jet fuel every day. Many of the worlds largest oil fields are nearing depletion. With peak oil production finally upon us, or very nearly so, the inevitable downward spiral of fuel supplies is no longer a doomsday theory. Without a viable solution, aviation after peak oil will eventually be grounded.

Growth estimates for global passenger traffic range between 3% and 5% per year. Airbus is literally betting the company on the new A380 . Massive airport expansions are underway, worldwide, to cope with the projected increases. Considering how many airports are running beyond capacity, these seem like wise business decisions. But what about the looming crisis in world oil production? Is there a plan for aviation after peak oil?

Read more: Associated Content

Lionel Badal, a postgraduate student at King’s College in London, has been doing extensive work to raise the issue of peak oil. His recent story about how the global oil watch dog failed its mission is both a shocking and informative tale about the peak oil issue and how it has been handled by authorities and agencies.

The intrigues, hidden agendas and events that went on behind the walls of the IEA is an astounding story of how natural science and unconvinient evidence were swept under the carpet to present a misleading outlook.

The full story can be read here: Countercurrents.org

Deepwater Horizon burns

When the oil platform Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, oil once again wound up at the top of the media’s news agenda. Of course, it also became a blog on Alekletts Energy Mix.

One can also see comments that couple together the catastrophe with our definition of Peak Oil, i.e. “The term Peak Oil refers to the maximum rate of the production of oil in any area under consideration, recognising that it is a finite natural resource, subject to depletion.”

Aftonbadet [literally “Evening page”] is Scandinavia’s largest newspaper and in the editorial of 30 April we can read the following (editorial in Swedish):

The oil companies need to drill deep to get hold of the world’s last accessible drops of oil.

Oil use will probably peak in emerging markets by early next decade, a senior adviser to Saudi Arabia's oil minister said today.

"I think that peak demand will come before peak of supply," Reuters quoted Ibrahim Al-Muhanna, advisor to Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi, saying in answer to questions at a conference in Paris. "The demand in emerging economies will take time to peak but definitely it will peak maybe this decade or early next decade," he continued.

A six-year oil price rally that ended in 2008 had led to increased interest in the theory that world oil supply may be nearing its peak as easily accessible reserves dwindle. The economic slowdown and high oil prices has eroded demand, making peak demand being more heard.

"We're sort of at peak demand right now," retired petroleum geologist Colin Campbell, who has long been associated with the belief the world's oil supplies are dwindling, told Reuters earlier this month.

Read more: Upstream Online

Rising oil prices pose a grave threat to global economic recovery, according to experts. The fear has been expressed by the automobile industry. This week in Perth, Volvo's head of product planning, Lex Kerssemakers, said "we all know that oil is running out".

"We need to find alternative solutions and though we are aware of the alternatives - LPG, CNG, ethanol, electric and so on - we have to introduce these to the market, he said. "If we don't do it now, we won't be ready in five years when oil may be prohibitively expensive".

Mr Kerssemakers said Volvo would have an electric car on the world market in 2012 that would use less than 1.5 litres/100km of fuel - about one-tenth of that used by a current V8-engined sedan. Volvo is not alone in the race to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles - all car companies are either developing alternative engined or fuelled vehicles by themselves or in partnership with other car companies that, in many cases, were once their fierce rivals.

Read more: Perth Now

"I do not see really what Opec can do to have any impact on the prices at this stage because the increase in prices is not led by the lack of supply, but it is really led by the economic recovery," Reuters quoted Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil speaking ahead of the LNG16 conference in the Algerian city of Oran.

Oil prices have nearly tripled from the lows near $30 a barrel seen at the end of 2008 to around $85 per barrel as investors eye signs of an economic recovery. The International Energy Agency, which advises industrialised economies, warned on Friday that oil prices at $85 could endanger the fragile recovery by feeding into higher energy costs for businesses and consumers. OPEC could in theory increase output quotas to try to cool prices but members have shown no sign of wanting to do that.

Read more: Upstream

The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact. The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.

"By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day," says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.

Read more: The Guardian
Read the US Military report: see below

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