8 June 2015 Energy Post, Going for gas: the risky strategy of the world’s largest companies: They are the biggest companies in the world and they are making a huge bet: they are staking their – and our – future on natural gas. At the World Gas Conference in Paris, the major oil companies all avowed their belief that gas will be the world’s “fuel of choice”, because it is “the cleanest fossil fuel”, “abundant” and “competitive”. But Karel Beckman argues they are overstating the case for gas. And may even be betting on the wrong horse. “The question before us today defines our industry and perhaps our society in the 21st Century.” The “question” that Robert Franklin, President of Exxon Mobil’s Gas and Power Marketing Company, was referring to, during a panel debate at the World Gas Conference in Paris (1-5 June), was that of “how to meet the world’s energy demand while reducing the risk of climate change”. The answer to both sides of this question, he said, increasingly was: natural gas. Franklin was not alone. At the 26th edition of their triennial global gathering, the gas industry made it abundantly clear that they believe gas is the foremost solution to the world’s energy problems. One CEO after the other sang the praises of what Gazprom lovingly calls the “blue fuel”. Read More here
Category Archives: The Mitigation Battle
5 June 2015, New York Times, OPEC, Keeping Quotas Intact, Adjusts to Oil’s New Normal (what world do these men live in!!): The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to keep the oil pumping, with no change in its production quotas, at the group’s meeting here on Friday. Even though oil prices are about 40 percent lower than a year ago,OPEC decided to keep its output target at 30 million barrels a day in an effort to maintain market share and respond to robust production in the United States. The Qatari minister of energy and industry, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, who presided over the meeting, told reporters after the gathering that the decision had been unanimous and that the 12-country group was confident that “both demand and supply were of a healthy nature.” Read More here
5 June 2015, Truth Dig, Big Oil Soon to be Extinct: What do Big Oil and whale oil have in common? According to Amory B. Lovins, chairman and chief scientist of the sustainability-focused Rocky Mountain Institute, Big Oil is soon to follow whale oil’s downward trajectory toward extinction. At the Ceres Conference 2015 for sustainable business, Lovins challenged big businesses to rethink the outdated belief that investing in fossil fuels remains the safest way to get rich (dolphins, seabirds and humanity be damned). At first look, Lovins appears to be a nerdy, middle-aged scientist in a suit, but once he starts talking, it becomes clear that he’s actually a brilliant revolutionary. Lovins’ message hasn’t changed much in the four decades he’s been doggedly trying to get the world to embrace renewable energy, but he’s accumulated more data to prove his point to a host of unlikely converts, from communist China to Arab sheiks and presidents of companies like Texaco. Even if you don’t care much about the environment, Lovins makes the case that you’d be economically foolish not to invest in renewable energy, because green technology today is akin to the discovery of petroleum and its effect on the whaling industry of the 19th century. Read more here
4 June 2015, RTCC, Oil giants support for UN climate pact signals change in strategy. Top hydrocarbon producers seem to accept a global deal will be done in Paris – the question is can they limit its damage? It’s unprecedented for the UN’s climate chief to receive a letter from six oil companies offering help. More likely Sepp Blatter resigning in the wake of FIFA’s corruption scandal, Tony Blair making a speech at a hunger summit for free. But that’s what happened on Friday when the heads of BP, Shell, BG Group, Statoil, Eni and Total wrote to Christiana Figueres. “Climate change is a critical challenge for our world,” they said. “We stand ready to play our part.” The chief executives emphasised the importance of a global price on carbon, and their willingness to work with the UN to make this happen….
But why now, and why this letter? Tom Burke, advisor to BP from 1999-2001 and chair of environmental think tank E3G is in no doubt. It’s fear. “They are getting worried. They are beginning to think governments will bend to respond on pressure on climate change more than they thought they would,” he says.“They assumed governments would not do enough to stay below 2C [a temperature level the UN agreed to avoid in 2010]. It’s unprecedented and a sign they are nervous.” The letter is a sign, argues Burke that work exposing the risk of “stranded assets” as a result of climate policies that make fossil fuels unusable is starting to hit home. Read more here