The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has taken part in the European Gas Conference held in Vienna. Head of the SOCAR Austria Office Gulmirza Javadov delivered a report on increasing role of the oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan.
The conference agenda included issues of European gas supply security, new alternative energy sources and transport potential, Russia's role in providing Europe with gas, and the Caspian region in the context of European energy security.
During his address, Javadov noted Azerbaijan's increasing role in the context of regional and global energy security, as well as the successes achieved by the republic in this field.
Meanwhile, the White Stream, Nabucco, ITGI and TAP project managers noted the significance of the concept of the South Corridor for the EU.
The conference was held on Jan. 25-28. It was attended by Austrian Federal Minister for Economy R. Mitterlehner, former German Foreign Minister J. Fischer, Turkish Deputy Energy Minister S. Cimen, Russian State Duma Deputy Chairman V. Yazev, Secretary General of the Energy Charter, A. Mernier and others.
Source: http://en.trend.az
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thompson Questions President’s Commitment to Energy Security, Job Creation
WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, Representative Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson participated in two of the first congressional oversight hearings of the 112th Congress under the new Republican-led majority. Thompson’s first hearing with the House Education & Workforce Committee, entitled “State of the American Workforce,” focused on the Administration’s efforts to grow the economy and support job creation. Among the witnesses was Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia.
Thompson questioned Governor McDonnell with regard to the Administration’s unilateral move to cancel offshore oil and gas production following the Deepwater Horizon Incident in the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed lease sale for energy producing areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the state of Virginia was abruptly withdrawn by the federal government following the Gulf oil spill, despite a previous announcement by the Administration to move forward with the planned sale.
Governor McDonnell suggested that Virginia did not play a role in the decision to discontinue the planned lease sale. Although, according to McDonnell, the Secretary of Interior did contact him by phone an hour before the President acted to cancel the action. McDonnell commented, “I didn’t think we ought to give up and write off an entire industry that could create tremendous capital investment in jobs at this time in America, and that I was very disappointed.” Thompson expressed his support for the Governor’s position and went on to outline the long-history of the oil and gas industry’s ability to positively coexist with the commercial fishing, shipping, recreation and tourism industries, and military operations off America’s coastline.
Later in the day, the House Natural Resources Committee, a new appointment for Thompson, held an oversight hearing of the President’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Thompson highlighted how America’s energy and workforce needs are inextricably linked, and how the Administration’s policies, before and since the Deepwater tragedy, have lacked coherence, increased our dependence on foreign oil and increased our energy costs including the price of gasoline. Following completion of the oversight proceedings, Thompson offered the following statement:
“The Administration’s actions contradict the President’s commitment to energy security during the State of the Union Address. The Deepwater spill was a terrible tragedy, but it should not be used by the Obama Administration as an excuse to constrain America’s domestic energy production and force further job losses. This will raise energy prices, undermine our nation’s path to a long-term, sustainable energy plan and stifle the American workforce. The families of the Fifth District and across the country rely on steady paying industry jobs and access to an affordable energy supply, and we’ll continue to ensure the White House’s actions live up to their rhetoric. It’s time to work together and find commonsense solutions to our nation’s economic and energy needs.”
Source: http://gantdaily.com
Thompson questioned Governor McDonnell with regard to the Administration’s unilateral move to cancel offshore oil and gas production following the Deepwater Horizon Incident in the Gulf of Mexico. The proposed lease sale for energy producing areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the state of Virginia was abruptly withdrawn by the federal government following the Gulf oil spill, despite a previous announcement by the Administration to move forward with the planned sale.
Governor McDonnell suggested that Virginia did not play a role in the decision to discontinue the planned lease sale. Although, according to McDonnell, the Secretary of Interior did contact him by phone an hour before the President acted to cancel the action. McDonnell commented, “I didn’t think we ought to give up and write off an entire industry that could create tremendous capital investment in jobs at this time in America, and that I was very disappointed.” Thompson expressed his support for the Governor’s position and went on to outline the long-history of the oil and gas industry’s ability to positively coexist with the commercial fishing, shipping, recreation and tourism industries, and military operations off America’s coastline.
Later in the day, the House Natural Resources Committee, a new appointment for Thompson, held an oversight hearing of the President’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Thompson highlighted how America’s energy and workforce needs are inextricably linked, and how the Administration’s policies, before and since the Deepwater tragedy, have lacked coherence, increased our dependence on foreign oil and increased our energy costs including the price of gasoline. Following completion of the oversight proceedings, Thompson offered the following statement:
“The Administration’s actions contradict the President’s commitment to energy security during the State of the Union Address. The Deepwater spill was a terrible tragedy, but it should not be used by the Obama Administration as an excuse to constrain America’s domestic energy production and force further job losses. This will raise energy prices, undermine our nation’s path to a long-term, sustainable energy plan and stifle the American workforce. The families of the Fifth District and across the country rely on steady paying industry jobs and access to an affordable energy supply, and we’ll continue to ensure the White House’s actions live up to their rhetoric. It’s time to work together and find commonsense solutions to our nation’s economic and energy needs.”
Source: http://gantdaily.com
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Russian Ministry: Security of Energy Infrastructure Paramount
The Russian Energy Ministry is demanding that companies in the fuel and energy sector reinforce security at sites with important fuel and energy infrastructure.
The ministry wants access points of entry to such sites to be made stronger in the wake of the terrorist bombing at the Domodedovo airport on January 24, 2011.
A telegram with the new instructions was signed by Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko and sent to the leaders of all fuel and energy facilities, the Energy Ministry press office reported.
Source: http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com
The ministry wants access points of entry to such sites to be made stronger in the wake of the terrorist bombing at the Domodedovo airport on January 24, 2011.
A telegram with the new instructions was signed by Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko and sent to the leaders of all fuel and energy facilities, the Energy Ministry press office reported.
Source: http://www.oilandgaseurasia.com
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
North Sea opening good for energy security
PARIS, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The opening of the Gjoa oil and gas field in the Norwegian waters of the North Sea will enhance European energy security, an industry executive said.
Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen officially opened the North Sea oil and gas field for business during a ceremony with energy leaders.
Gerard Mestrallet, the chairman and chief executive officer at GDF Suez, said the move is a boost for long-term energy security in the region.
"Gjoa will enhance the security of supply of Europe and act as a hub in the Norwegian North Sea for future gas and oil developments," he said in a statement.
The field holds an estimated 82 million barrels of oil and 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. GDF Suez said the field could produce oil and gas for 15 years, though installations are designed to last for 30 years.
The Gjoa platform uses electricity from the mainland, meaning the amount of carbon dioxide emissions avoided is about the same as taking 100,000 cars off the road, GDF Suez said.
Source: http://www.upi.com
Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen officially opened the North Sea oil and gas field for business during a ceremony with energy leaders.
Gerard Mestrallet, the chairman and chief executive officer at GDF Suez, said the move is a boost for long-term energy security in the region.
"Gjoa will enhance the security of supply of Europe and act as a hub in the Norwegian North Sea for future gas and oil developments," he said in a statement.
The field holds an estimated 82 million barrels of oil and 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. GDF Suez said the field could produce oil and gas for 15 years, though installations are designed to last for 30 years.
The Gjoa platform uses electricity from the mainland, meaning the amount of carbon dioxide emissions avoided is about the same as taking 100,000 cars off the road, GDF Suez said.
Source: http://www.upi.com
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Energy independence, security topic of conference
NEW PALTZ –The US Air Force is the federal government’s largest user of energy consuming $6 billion worth annually.
Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy, said Dr. Kevin Geiss, laid out the plans to establish that military branch in a position of energy security. He delivered his remarks Monday during a conference at SUNY New Paltz organized by The Solar Energy Consortium for over 200 of the area’s top CEOs of solar energy.
Eighty percent of the Air Force’s energy usage comes in the form of liquid fuels used for transportation of goods and equipment, he said.
“We’re trying to address our efficiencies in our buildings and facilities as well as coming up with entrepreneurial and new ideas for aviation so that we can cut down on how much fuel we use for all the mobility we have.”
According to Dr. Geiss, the Air Force is also the government’s largest purchaser of renewable energy and therefore private sector companies specializing in renewable energies, specifically solar, are an important ally because it is through them that the Air Force will agree to purchase renewable energy to power their applicable operations.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey spoke at Monday’s conference about the importance of this type of partnership and getting the U.S. Military on a track to energy security.
Source: http://www.midhudsonnews.com
Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy, said Dr. Kevin Geiss, laid out the plans to establish that military branch in a position of energy security. He delivered his remarks Monday during a conference at SUNY New Paltz organized by The Solar Energy Consortium for over 200 of the area’s top CEOs of solar energy.
Eighty percent of the Air Force’s energy usage comes in the form of liquid fuels used for transportation of goods and equipment, he said.
“We’re trying to address our efficiencies in our buildings and facilities as well as coming up with entrepreneurial and new ideas for aviation so that we can cut down on how much fuel we use for all the mobility we have.”
According to Dr. Geiss, the Air Force is also the government’s largest purchaser of renewable energy and therefore private sector companies specializing in renewable energies, specifically solar, are an important ally because it is through them that the Air Force will agree to purchase renewable energy to power their applicable operations.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey spoke at Monday’s conference about the importance of this type of partnership and getting the U.S. Military on a track to energy security.
Source: http://www.midhudsonnews.com
Monday, January 24, 2011
Petrol rationing looms
A report by the Lean Economy Connection in association with the 20 MP strong All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil (APPGOPO) has warned that rationing will be needed to deal with energy shortages as well as helping us achieve our green targets.
The report, ‘TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas): A Policy Framework for Peak Oil and Climate Change‘ cites the International Agency’s 2008 World Energy Outlook statement that ‘current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable – environmentally, economically and socially’.
It also refers to the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security’s report ‘The Oil Crunch’, which concluded that global oil production will be unlikely to grow after 2013. With Ofgems warnings in 2010 of shortages and breaks in supply.
The report’s favoured instrument for dealing with the imminent shortages as well as combating carbon emissions is the use of Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQ). And the time-scale of before 2020 seems to be the call.
TEQs are put forward as the solution in that they ‘ … would reduce our reliance on fossil fuels fast, guarantee that we meet our agreed emissions obligations and empower communities to address the challenges of our times, allowing us to move into a happier, thriving future‘.
A form of TEQs are used already in the EU with the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which covers about 12,000 large facilities. But this latest report wants to extend this principle across the country for use by individuals and organisations alike. When you buy fuel you surrender some of your quota, your ration. That includes all types of fuel from domestic to transport.
The ‘people’ would get about 40% of the quotas by entitlement, with the total emissions allowed each year being set by the Committee on Climate Change. The outline procedure is shown here.
John Hemming MP, chairman of the APPGOPO, said: “What is needed is an intelligent response both to climate change and to fuel depletion. We therefore welcome the model set out in the Lean Economy Connection’s report, which addresses both sides of the problem. It is the first coherent proposal to attempt to do this, and it merits close attention.”
This complex and unworkable set-up has the throw away line that ‘The number of occasions on which individuals actually purchase energy is quite limited – perhaps eight times a year for utilities, although it could rise to some thirty times a year for individuals with cars – and most TEQs transactions are done by card and direct debit.’
As the quotas are tradable they can be sold on and profit made. So that those that need to travel more have to buy more quotas. Those that work from home can make a tidy profits one supposes. How about allowances for children? Will those in prison and hospital get a quota?
Although the Department of Energy and Climate Change has said there are ‘no plans to implement such a scheme‘ just look at the choice of words. Why not just say we aren’t going to ration fuel?
Can you even begin to imagine the fraud, spivvery, mis-allocation, crime, forgery and corruption a scheme such as this would attract?
Source: http://www.economicvoice.com
The report, ‘TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas): A Policy Framework for Peak Oil and Climate Change‘ cites the International Agency’s 2008 World Energy Outlook statement that ‘current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable – environmentally, economically and socially’.
It also refers to the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security’s report ‘The Oil Crunch’, which concluded that global oil production will be unlikely to grow after 2013. With Ofgems warnings in 2010 of shortages and breaks in supply.
The report’s favoured instrument for dealing with the imminent shortages as well as combating carbon emissions is the use of Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQ). And the time-scale of before 2020 seems to be the call.
TEQs are put forward as the solution in that they ‘ … would reduce our reliance on fossil fuels fast, guarantee that we meet our agreed emissions obligations and empower communities to address the challenges of our times, allowing us to move into a happier, thriving future‘.
A form of TEQs are used already in the EU with the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which covers about 12,000 large facilities. But this latest report wants to extend this principle across the country for use by individuals and organisations alike. When you buy fuel you surrender some of your quota, your ration. That includes all types of fuel from domestic to transport.
The ‘people’ would get about 40% of the quotas by entitlement, with the total emissions allowed each year being set by the Committee on Climate Change. The outline procedure is shown here.
John Hemming MP, chairman of the APPGOPO, said: “What is needed is an intelligent response both to climate change and to fuel depletion. We therefore welcome the model set out in the Lean Economy Connection’s report, which addresses both sides of the problem. It is the first coherent proposal to attempt to do this, and it merits close attention.”
This complex and unworkable set-up has the throw away line that ‘The number of occasions on which individuals actually purchase energy is quite limited – perhaps eight times a year for utilities, although it could rise to some thirty times a year for individuals with cars – and most TEQs transactions are done by card and direct debit.’
As the quotas are tradable they can be sold on and profit made. So that those that need to travel more have to buy more quotas. Those that work from home can make a tidy profits one supposes. How about allowances for children? Will those in prison and hospital get a quota?
Although the Department of Energy and Climate Change has said there are ‘no plans to implement such a scheme‘ just look at the choice of words. Why not just say we aren’t going to ration fuel?
Can you even begin to imagine the fraud, spivvery, mis-allocation, crime, forgery and corruption a scheme such as this would attract?
Source: http://www.economicvoice.com
Friday, January 21, 2011
Energy security a journey of 1000 miles
The deeper you delve into the proposed vision of a smart, clean-energy grid — much less a supergrid — the more daunting the task appears. Looking into the future is like working your way through a set of matryoshka dolls, never quite sure where it will all end.
Still, as the Chinese proverb says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And there are some good steps forward being taken in the smart-grid space these days.
Some energy companies, for example, seem well on their way to meeting smart-metering and energy-management targets. In the UK, electricity supplier Opus Energy recently announced it had installed a total of 12,000 smart meters and expects to outfit 20 per cent of its customers with the meters this spring. The company says that puts its well ahead of the government’s 2014 deadline for smart-metering maximum-demand users.
Meanwhile, a group of 10 countries — the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Norway and Belgium — is backing plans for a North Seas supergrid that would link renewable energy sources across a wide swath. The idea behind the plan is to eliminate some of the problems with intermittent clean-energy sources by broadening the offshore electricity grid’s reach. In theory, if British winds are producing lots of energy when local demand is low, the surplus electricity could be transmitted all the way to Norway, where it could be used to pump water at hydropower plants. That stored hydropower energy could then be sent back to the UK when local demand goes up but the wind isn’t blowing.
It’s still early in the process, of course. For now, the supergrid organisation’s goals are primarily to identify policy considerations, scenarios and cost assessments. The actual work of building the supergrid remains farther out.
There’s no question that just maintaining the grid we have, never mind building new transmission lines and smart interconnections, will be a costly, time-consuming proposition. Will it be worth it, though? Undoubtedly yes … not only in terms of greater amounts of usable renewables but in more resilience of the system overall. Besides, there are a lot of efficiencies we can wring out of the grid we have today, if we only choose to. As Nick Milne-Home, president of 1E Inc., put it, “The smart grid exists today in very small islands. The challenge is to link them.”
Or to lift out those ever-smaller matryoshkas, one doll at a time.
Source: http://www.greenbang.com
Still, as the Chinese proverb says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And there are some good steps forward being taken in the smart-grid space these days.
Some energy companies, for example, seem well on their way to meeting smart-metering and energy-management targets. In the UK, electricity supplier Opus Energy recently announced it had installed a total of 12,000 smart meters and expects to outfit 20 per cent of its customers with the meters this spring. The company says that puts its well ahead of the government’s 2014 deadline for smart-metering maximum-demand users.
Meanwhile, a group of 10 countries — the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Norway and Belgium — is backing plans for a North Seas supergrid that would link renewable energy sources across a wide swath. The idea behind the plan is to eliminate some of the problems with intermittent clean-energy sources by broadening the offshore electricity grid’s reach. In theory, if British winds are producing lots of energy when local demand is low, the surplus electricity could be transmitted all the way to Norway, where it could be used to pump water at hydropower plants. That stored hydropower energy could then be sent back to the UK when local demand goes up but the wind isn’t blowing.
It’s still early in the process, of course. For now, the supergrid organisation’s goals are primarily to identify policy considerations, scenarios and cost assessments. The actual work of building the supergrid remains farther out.
There’s no question that just maintaining the grid we have, never mind building new transmission lines and smart interconnections, will be a costly, time-consuming proposition. Will it be worth it, though? Undoubtedly yes … not only in terms of greater amounts of usable renewables but in more resilience of the system overall. Besides, there are a lot of efficiencies we can wring out of the grid we have today, if we only choose to. As Nick Milne-Home, president of 1E Inc., put it, “The smart grid exists today in very small islands. The challenge is to link them.”
Or to lift out those ever-smaller matryoshkas, one doll at a time.
Source: http://www.greenbang.com
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