But Wait, There's More
High-tech extraction methods are delaying the peak of world oil production
Remember the predictions that the world was at or near the peak of oil production? Sigh with us now, for industry is using high-tech methods to suck oil from wells once considered tapped out. Thanks to steam and carbon dioxide injections, as well as 3D modeling, Big Oil is breathing new life into old oil fields: Chevron, for instance, is now extracting 200,000 barrels a day from an Indonesian field that oozed a mere 65,000 barrels a day in the 1980s. Energy pros have revamped the estimate of recoverable oil in the world -- including the trillion or so barrels already used -- to 4.8 trillion barrels, from 3.3 trillion. "It's not over until you abandon the last well, and even then it's not over," says a Chevron geophysicist. That's good news for energy suckers, since plans to rely heavily on coal are stalled in lawsuits. "Until new technology makes coal-burning cleaner in three to five years," says industry analyst Richard Price, "it's gonna be real tough to get new [coal] plants built."
[ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ] High-tech extraction methods are delaying the peak of world oil production
Remember the predictions that the world was at or near the peak of oil production? Sigh with us now, for industry is using high-tech methods to suck oil from wells once considered tapped out. Thanks to steam and carbon dioxide injections, as well as 3D modeling, Big Oil is breathing new life into old oil fields: Chevron, for instance, is now extracting 200,000 barrels a day from an Indonesian field that oozed a mere 65,000 barrels a day in the 1980s. Energy pros have revamped the estimate of recoverable oil in the world -- including the trillion or so barrels already used -- to 4.8 trillion barrels, from 3.3 trillion. "It's not over until you abandon the last well, and even then it's not over," says a Chevron geophysicist. That's good news for energy suckers, since plans to rely heavily on coal are stalled in lawsuits. "Until new technology makes coal-burning cleaner in three to five years," says industry analyst Richard Price, "it's gonna be real tough to get new [coal] plants built."
straight to the source: Reuters, Steve James, 05 Mar 2007
see also, in Grist: An interview with Jeff Goodell, author of Big Coal
see also, in Grist: Ask Umbra on peak oil
 | NEW IN GRIST Cleaning House Umbra on disposing of toxic chemicals |
Like it or not, we've all got them: those half-used containers of Ajax, paint, and other toxic substances we use to "improve" our homes -- and unknowingly harm our health. Today a reader who has seen the green light asks advice maven Umbra Fisk what she should do with those old vessels: use them up, throw them out, or leave them sitting in the garage? Umbra scrubs in to offer an answer, providing a few green-cleaning tips along the way. 
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They Didn't Get the "Aw, Cute" Memo
Public hearings on polar-bear fate get Alaskans all riled up
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is holding public hearings on plans to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, and it's getting an earful. A hearing in Anchorage on Friday brought out critics of all stripes, from the deputy director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association to a leading biologist with the state's Department of Fish and Game. While we're not saying these folks are afraid of regulations cramping their resource-extraction style, the rainbow of panicky points they conjured sorta suggests it. Concerns centered around the likely effects of climate change -- which proponents of listing say is the primary cause of the bears' peril -- and the chance that U.S. protection would actually lead to more bear hunting in Canada. Then there was the hope that the seal-munchers could become land-based hunters, an idea one polar-bear researcher called "absolutely fanciful." Hearings will be held this week in Washington, D.C., and Barrow, Alaska; a listing decision is due in January.
straight to the source: Houston Chronicle, Associated Press, Dan Joling, 02 Mar 2007
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