News article filed by BNP news team
Last September the BNP organised a small conference with some key industrial players in the New Forest to discuss the political impact of the Peak Oil crisis. As a political topic it has rarely made the mainstream, rarely mentioned by the Old Gang Lib/Lab/Con party but the article in Saturday’s Daily Mail has not only played “catch-up” to the BNP but has forced the issue into the consciousness of over a million of its readers.
The facts which form the basis of Peak Oil concern are indisputable. All modern economies have been built on the extraction, processing of oil. It is from oil that we derive fuels for vehicles, fuels for heating, feedstocks for every chemical we take for granted, pesticides, fertilizers, paints, adhesives and of course plastics.
Oil is a naturally occurring geological substance which was created only once in the history of the planet. As such it is a finite resource; once it has gone it has gone and will not be replaced in the history of humankind. Usage greater than new finds
Peak Oil concerns arise not from the complete exhaustion of known reserves but the zero growth in world production of conventional oil in last six years. Simply put the world’s consumers are using more oil than the oil companies are finding. Some oil fields e.g. in southern USA have been worked to exhaustion, with old pumps and pipes lying rusting in the Texan deserts. Other larger oil fields are slowly being worked to their exhaustion with the output of the world’s three biggest fields – in Saudi, Kuwait, Mexico – in decline.
The UK and Norway’s North Sea fields are being depleted at a rate of 9 – 11% per year, in the USA 6% per year.
If anyone doubts the enormity of the situation consider this one single fact:
Globally 31.5 billion barrels of oil were consumed in 2006 whereas world discoveries amounted to just 4 billion the word “unsustainable” immediately springs to mind.
Long-term oil pollution from sub-sea leakage is 180,000 bpd in North Sea and is key factor in the decline of fisheries from waters of Britain, Norway and Denmark. Sea floor pollution results from the need to pump sea water into oil fields, oily water comes out. Most of oil is heavy and stays at the bottom.
2% of world production or 2.25 million bpd is lost, this is as much as the UK consumes in a year. This criminal waste comes from spillage as well as the burning of gas flares, which are full of condensates which fall back into water.
Deep sea production is even worse but those waters contain less life. Shallow seas should be full of life. It’s a eco – catastrophe the likes of Greenpeace and the WWF haven’t covered. Subsea pictures are difficult to produce and as there are no aesthetic fluffy creatures at risk the impact for the public is less than that of the diminishing habitat of the panda, red squirrel or polar bear.
Every day this week we will be publishing a report about the Peak Oil crisis – the facts, the figures and the threats and opportunities it presents across a range of disciplines; engineering, economics, political and how our everyday lives may be affected for better or for worse.
Recommended reading:
“http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0471790184?tag=bnpwebsite-21&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0471790184&adid=1MD5Y22C4ACZ7BM6XP5G&” – Matthew R. Simmons
Links:
http://www.bnp.org.uk
http://www.bnp.org.uk/peakoil/index.htm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=454275&in_page_id=1770 of Saturday 12th May 2007.
http://www.policypete.com/.