U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke today announced the next step for responsibly developing the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (National OCS Program) for 2019-2024, which proposes to make over 90 percent of the total OCS acreage and more than 98 percent of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas available to consider for future exploration and development. By comparison, the current program puts 94 percent of the OCS off limits. In addition, the program proposes the largest number of lease sales in U.S. history.
Selon les prévisions annoncées dans l’édition d’octobre du Commodity Markets Outlook, les prix des produits énergétiques (pétrole, gaz naturel et charbon) progresseront seulement de 4 % en 2018, après l’envolée de 28 % de cette année.
Le prix du baril de pétrole, qui était de 1 dollar en 1972, est monté à près de 150 dollars en 2013, avec des projections qui le voyaient aller jusqu’à 300 dollars. Et le voilà retombé aujourd’hui aux alentours de 50 dollars. Pour expliquer une évolution aussi spectaculaire, il faut comprendre que le pétrole a été à un moment un prix politique, mais que la loi du marché a pris sa revanche
L’OPEP (Organisation des Pays Exportateurs de Pétrole), dénommée OPEC en anglais (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), est une organisation intergouvernementale fondée à l’issue de la conférence de Bagdad le 14 septembre 1960 par le Venezuela, l’Irak, l’Arabie saoudite, le Koweït et l’Iran.
Les énergies fossiles toujours omniprésentes dans le mix mondial
La consommation mondiale d’énergie primaire a encore reposé à 81,4% sur les énergies fossiles en 2015 selon les dernières données de l’AIE. En 1973, cette part atteignait 86,7% (dont 46,2% pour le seul pétrole) et les énergies décarbonées ont ainsi légèrement progressé dans le mix énergétique mondial.
Notons que les productions mondiales de gaz naturel et de charbon ont respectivement triplé et plus que doublé depuis 1973. Les émissions mondiales de CO2 relatives à la combustion d’énergie ont pour leur part doublé durant cette période.
Energy researchers at IHS Markit have completed the first, three-year phase of a massive Permian Basin research project that models and interprets the giant basin’s key geologic characteristics to better estimate its remaining hydrocarbon potential, and initial results indicate the giant basin still holds an estimated 60 billion to 70 billion barrels of technically recoverable resources.
To conduct this new analysis, researchers used the IHS Markit historical well and production database that includes more than 440,000 Permian Basin wells, and a new proprietary software tool that, for the first time, enables them to leverage interpreted formation ‘tops’ data to identify accurate formations for completion intervals on hundreds of thousands of wells
World energy consumption is projected to rise to 736 quadrillion btu (quads) in 2040 from 575 quads in 2015, an increase of 28%, according to the latest International Energy Outlook 2017 (IEO2017) from the US Energy Information Administration.
Most of this growth is expected to come from countries that are not in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and especially in countries where demand is driven by strong economic growth, particularly in Asia. Non-OECD Asia, which includes China and India, accounts for more than 60% of the world’s total increase in energy consumption from 2015 through 2040.
This report introduces CDP’s League Table for oil and gas companies, highlighting company performance across a range of portfolio, emissions and water-related metrics which indicate carbon risk preparedness and highlights earnings risks for oil and gas companies.
Highest ranked companies are Statoil, Eni and Total.
Lowest ranked companies are Suncor, ExxonMobil and Chevron.
Total rachète le Danois Maersk Oil pour plus de 7 milliards de dollars, soit sa plus grosse acquisition depuis celle d’Elf Aquitaine en 2000. Grâce à elle, le pétrolier vise 3 millions de barils-jours en 2019.
“With the decline of North Sea gas and our ever increasing reliance on gas imports, including shale gas imported from the United States, developing an indigenous source of natural gas is critical for U.K. energy security, our economy, jobs and the environment,” Cuadrilla CEO Francis Egan said in a statement. “We are proud as a Lancashire company to be at the forefront of that effort.
An article just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B describes two remarkably different hydrothermal vent fields discovered in the southern Gulf of California. Despite being relatively close together, these vents host very different animal communities. This finding contradicts a common scientific assumption that neighboring vents will share similar animal communities. Instead, the new paper suggests that local geology and the chemistry of the vent fluids are important factors affecting vent communities
Les 5 supermajors sont par ordre de chiffre d’affaires en 2015 :
Royal Dutch Shell (Pays-Bas) : 272,2 milliards de dollars et une production de 3,0 millions de barils équivalents pétrole par jour contre 421,1 G$ et 3,1 Mbeb/j en 2014);
ExxonMobil (États-Unis) : 268,9 G$ et 4,1 Mbeb/j (contre 411,9 G$ et 4,0 Mbeb/j en 2014) ;
BP (Royaume-Uni) : 226,0 G$ et 3,3 Mbep/j (contre 359,8 G$ et 3,2 Mbep/j en 2014);
Total (France): 165,4 G$ et 2,3 Mbep/j (contre 236,1 G$ et 2,15 Mbep/j en 2014) ;
Chevron (États-Unis): 138,5 G$ et 2,6 Mbep/j (contre 200,5 G$ et 2,6 Mbep/j en 2014).
U.S. evolves into coal, gas and oil global energy giant supplying world’s hungry energy markets
David Middleton’s excellent WUWT article addressing the resurgence of the American coal industry as well as the growing role of U.S. natural gas production in creating global gas export markets hits the nail on the head in demonstrating how dominant the U.S. has become in producing and supplying global energy markets at home and abroad with growing demands for fossil fuels.
The IEA agency clearly recognizes the U.S. as the global driver of a huge transformation of the world’s natural gas energy markets.
While US scores with increased rig count and production, the oil industry in the Middle-East is festering with under investment. Said to be in trillions, the lack of investment could boomerang as supply deficit within a decade. Let’s not forget that oil exploration is a long term development in which a decade is but short. Why are the investors moving away?
Weinberg advised OPEC to change tack and go back to what it set out to do initially: stifle U.S. shale by pumping at maximum. “They should let prices crash to kill shale and then aim for steady price increases in the long term,” Weinstein told Bloomberg. The question remains, however, whether OPEC, with oil-reliant budgets already strained, could afford this tactic reversal now that they’ve suffered price lows for an extended period of time.
Saudi Arabia has lagged the U.S. in oil production for the last four years, according to federal data compiled by University of Michigan economist Mark Perry.
Perry created a chart Saturday showing just how far behind Saudi oil production has trailed U.S. production. Rising U.S. production combined with OPEC policies drove crude oil prices down to new lows. Monday, a barrel of oil costs $46.26, while the same barrel would have sold for $109.04 in June 2014.
On Wednesday, Premier Oil Plc, Sierra Oil & Gas and Talos Energy LLC announced the first Mexican discovery by explorers other than state-owned Pemex in 80 years, a reservoir with an estimated 1.4 billion to 2 billion barrels
Global energy investment fell by 12% in 2016, the second consecutive year of decline, as increased spending on energy efficiency and electricity networks was more than offset by a continued drop in upstream oil and gas spending, according to the International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Investmentreport.
Global energy investment amounted to USD 1.7 trillion in 2016, or 2.2% of global GDP. For the first time, spending on the electricity sector around the world exceeded the combined spending on oil, gas and coal supply. The share of clean-energy spending reached 43% of total supply investment, a record high.
Hubbert’s fame in peak oil circles comes primarily from the assertion that he accurately predicted the 1970 U.S. peak. Because of this prediction, Hubbert is widely-regarded among peak oil adherents as a visionary. He has been called an oracle and a prophet. A recently published article — What Hubbert And Pickens Got Right About Oil, And What’s Next — recounts the uncanny accuracy of his prediction.
Source: Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels by M. King Hubbert
The IPCC carbon budget concludes that changes in atmospheric CO2 are driven by fossil fuel emissions on a year by year basis. A testable implication of the validity of this carbon budget is that changes in atmospheric CO2 should be correlated with fossil fuel emissions at an annual time scale net of long term trends. A test of this relationship with insitu CO2 data from Mauna Loa 1958-2016 and flask CO2 data from twenty three stations around the world 1967-2015 is presented. The test fails to show that annual changes in atmospheric CO2 levels can be attributed to annual emissions.
by Ben Wolfgang, July 5, 2017, in The Washington Times
The biggest critics of President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord are also the world’s biggest hypocrites on energy policy, top environmental groups charged Wednesday in a report that found many top nations’ rhetoric on cutting emissions doesn’t line up with how and where they spend their money.
The key finding: The G-20 nations spend roughly four times as much in public financing for fossil fuels as they do supporting renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The report examines loans, grants, guarantees, insurance and other types of public finance offered either by the governments, government-owned financial institutions and credit agencies, and multilateral groups made up of G-20 countries.
Despite the lack of growth – even slight decline – in human emissions rates during 2014 – 2016, the atmospheric CO2 parts per million (ppm) concentration grew rapidly – by more than 8 ppm (397 ppm to 405 ppm).
The study found that dispersants broke up the oil into tiny droplets, making them less buoyant and unable to float to the surface. This meant that the oil formed a layer deep below the surface of the water, making it easier for microbes that live in the deep ocean to eat it. However, scientists weren’t able to measure the exact amount of oil eliminated by the microbes.
Due largely to these oil-eating bacteria, the Gulf of Mexico recovered from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill faster than scientists thought possible and has returned to pre-spill levels of environmental health.
Norway on Wednesday proposed to open up a record number of blocks in the Barents Sea to oil exploration despite protests from environmentalists and others fearing possible damage to the Arctic region.
The Norwegian oil and energy ministry offered oil companies 93 blocks in the Barents Sea and nine others in the Norwegian Sea, all located beyond the Arctic Circle.
La géologie, une science plus que passionnante … et diverse
