Global oil consumption hit record high in 2010

Demand is outpacing supply as demand increases drastically causing supply shortfall

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Some illuminating new stats on global oil production, consumption, and the shifting landscape of oil producing nations.

Reports show that global oil consumption was up in 2010, bucking the trend for the two previous years under the grips of the Great Recession, increasing 2.7 million barrels per day (mbd )to a new record high of 87.4 mbd. Increases in global oil production, however, fell short of that by 900,000 barrels per day.

In other words, rising supply in not at all keeping pace with rising demand and consumption, something which everyone from the US military, to the IEA, to oil industry execs, and plenty of doom and gloom peak oil researchers (who likely will be more accurate than the technology optimists out there) have been saying for some time.

Exemplifying that growing supply and demand gap, and the dwindling supply of easy to get oil accompanied by the rise of tar sands and other so-called unconventional sources of fossil fuels, is Norway.

Once in the top 10 oil producing nations of the world, and one of the few nations which managed to escape the resource curse of oil while also having solid green credentials, in 2010 Norway's oil output dropped more than any other nation, by 9.4% to roughly 2.1 million barrels per day. It now occupies the 13th position.

Something which obviously doesn't sit well with Statoil, which has just released a statement saying that it expects to raise production “to above 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalents per day by 2020” and is positioned for long term growth.

Britain's North Sea oil (and gas) fields are also coming to an end of their productive lives and new sources do not seem to be forthcoming, not in the North Sea nor elsewhere. The trip to the Islas Malvinas, the Falkland Islands, and the surrounding waters, also drew a blank.

The rejiggered oil production rankings now have Russia leading the world (10.27 mbd) and Saudi Arabia in second (10 mbd). The US produces 7.5 mpd (and consumes a bit under three times that). China is now in fifth place, seeing the largest increase in production, with a bit over 4 million barrels per day.

Saudi Arabia, according, to sources, is, however, on the brink of running dry as well and that does not bode well for a lot of things.

The entire problem is not being helped one bit now by the crisis in Libya meaning that things will get worse in time to come. Then again oil is the very reason that we, that is to to say the USA, the EU and NATO are involved in supporting the Libyan rebels.

The action in Libya has about as much to do with human rights as the war against Saddam Hussein had anything to do with weapons of mass destructions. If it was human rights we were concerned about why are we not intervening in the former Rhodesia, now referred to as Zimbabwe, or Syria or Bahrain. In two out of the tree mentioned there is no oil and Bahrain is needed as a base for the US and British war ships thus we could not possibly upset the ruling family there. But I digressed. It was oil we were talking about and the disparity between demand and consumption and supply.

In order to level things out, it would appear, the US has, at the end of June 2011, released stocks from their strategic reserves. This was also a move in order to bring down gas prices at home and quieten unrest amongst motorist.

The fact that such reserves had to be released also seems to point to the fact that – unless the oil producing countries are sitting on their stuff (aside from no oil coming out of Libya) – the demand cannot be met anymore by current level of production.

Is the “end of oil” upon us sooner rather than we had assumed? It might just be.

© 2011

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Plastic bags are bad but they are not (all) “made from oil”

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

It is a misconception that the majority of those “free” plastic grocery bags are made from oil, especially foreign oil.

Plastic bags are either made of a byproduct of natural gas or of a byproduct of oil, not of oil or natural gas itself. It is a misconception to say that they are made from oil.

Plastic bags are made from ethylene, a byproduct of natural gas or from ethylene created from naphtha, a byproduct of petroleum.

Chemists string together long chains of ethylene to form polyethylene. Depending on the process used to create the chains different densities of polyethylene can be produced.

As polyethylene is a byproduct, whether from natural gas or made from naphtha, which is a byproduct of the petroleum industry, those bags, really, but no more demand on the oil reserves and oil imports or those of natural gas, than does the demand for oil for the refineries anyway but they still remain unsustainable products.

The bags you are given at retail and grocery stores checkouts are High Density Polyethylene or HDPE. They are fairly sturdy, able to hold quite a bit of weight without breaking, optically cloudy, and can be dyed any color.

Low Density Polyethylene or LDPE are optically clear bags, very light, and often described as wispy. These bags are likely to be found in the produce market or covering your clothing at a dry cleaner.

In some countries, such as the USA, for instance, most of the plastic bags given away by grocery stores and others are made not from oil but natural gas, and the USA has ample supply of natural gas within its own borders – so no costly imports. Other countries are not so lucky.

In addition it has to be said that that only applies if the bags are actually produced in the USA and not, as will be more likely the case, in places such as China (or India). The source of the ethylene from which the polyethylene is then constructed we do not know.

Whatever the source, the fact remains that Plastic Bags Are Bad For The Environment

Most of what you have read about plastic bags is true. Plastic bags kill wildlife, cause pollution, clog landfills and indirectly raise the price of food at the grocery store. There are also, aside from those made from PLAs, that is to say those that are made from a plastic made from corn starch and lactic acids and such, no biodegradable plastic bags about. That is a fallacy and absolute greenwashing. Ordinary polyethylene shopping bags do NOT biodegrade; they photodegrade. That is to say they break down into ever smaller and smaller particles of plastic in the environment, all the while releasing harmful substances into the soil and water.

I strongly recommend the use of reusable grocery bags. They hold more, look better, and are not likely to leave your groceries strewn around the grocers parking lot.

Let us, however, clear up the misconception that plastic bags are made from oil. If they are made “from oil” then it is from a byproduct of the petroleum industry, namely naphtha. They are not, however, made from oil as oil goes. Therefore they are neither made from primarily from foreign oil or such.

We have enough strong and valid points as to why we should reduce or even ban the use of plastic bags without mentioning the oil factor in it at all.

However, whether made from a byproduct of oil or natural gas, that is to say from ethylene, they may actually come a long way to us as well, as I have said already. That too should be another reason, atop of the others, why we should get away from the free plastic grocery bag.

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008

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