Living in Denver during the mid 1980’s, I learned quite a bit about that era’s oil shale collapse. Paul Foy takes a look at the growing interest in this potential 1 trillion barrel reserve (4X Saudi Arabia’s holdings):

Shell believes it can make its technique economical as long as crude oil stays above $30 a barrel, but it is five years away from proving the technology or deciding whether to build a commercial-scale operation, said Terry O’Connor, a company vice president for external and regulatory affairs.
Outside Vernal, Utah, officials with Oil-Tech Inc. say they have perfected an older technology of baking oil from shale in a furnace and wants government approval to mine 1,600 acres of state land plus access to 30,000 tons of shale left outside an abandoned mine on federal land.

The Eye Between the Storms
by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin
Petroleum and Natural Gas Watch, Vol. 4, Number 1
September 21, 2005
On its way toward the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana and Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina cut a swath through a hydrocarbon-rich zone of the Gulf of Mexico, the largest domestic source of petroleum and natural gas. When fully operational, this offshore oil and natural gas complex accounts for about 30% of domestic oil supplies and 20% of domestic natural gas supplies.
Fueled by exceptionally warm waters, this Category 4 storm KO’ed nearly 50 production platforms and four drilling rigs. Extensive damage was reported at 20 platforms and nine drillings rigs. The force of the winds and the waves tore six rigs loose from their moorings and sent them adrift; one rig in Plaquemines Parish was found beached on Alabama’s Dauphin Island. At the storm’s peak, on August 29, more than 90% of the Gulf’s oil extraction capacity and nearly 90% of its natural gas extraction capacity was off-line.

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The Customers First! Coalition hosts its third annual energy conference on Monday, October 17th, 2005, at American Family Insurance headquaters in Madison to explore:

– The role that high voltage transmission lines could play in the cost of electricity in Wisconsin;
– The growth of wind energy;
– The the new federal energy policy act of 2005.

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Daniel Yergin, Author of the excellent: The Prize on the coming energy crisis:

Man’s technical ingenuity has collided with nature’s rage in the Gulf of Mexico, and the outcome has been an integrated energy disaster. The full scope will not be understood until the waters recede, the damage to platforms and refineries is assessed, and the extent of damage to underwater pipelines from undersea mudslides is determined. Yet what has happened is on a scale not seen before, and the impact of the price spikes and dislocations will roll across the entire economy. Even as we confront the human tragedy, the consequences will also force us to think more expansively about energy security, and to focus harder on a matter which other events have already emphasized: The need for new infrastructure and investment in our energy sector.

Theoildrum.com carries a post on hurrricane damage to oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico:

There are MANY production platforms missing (as in not visible from the air). This means they have been totally lost. I am talking about 10’s of platforms, not single digit numbers. Each platform can have from 4 to 100+ wells on it. . . .
We are looking at YEARS to return to the production levels we had prior to the storm. The eastern Gulf of Mexico is primarily oil production…
YEARS, people. I know what this means – hope everyone else gets it too…

Click here to read the full post.

Tyler Cowen summarizes a number of bets on energy prices. Cowen is buying an economy car next time around. T. Boon Pickens recently said that we’d see $70/barrel before $50.

BioBelt Could Be Wisconsin’s Future
By converting its energy-rich organic wastes into heat and electricity, Wisconsin could become the capital of the Midwestern BioBelt. That is the assessment of bioenergy experts who are planning the Renewable Energy from Organics Recycling conference at the Madison Marriott West from September 12 through September 14.

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All Things Considered:

All Things Considered, August 15, 2005 · The Lundberg Survey says the average price of gasoline has gone up 20 cents over the past three weeks, to an average of $2.53. But different areas, or zones, are paying different costs. Michele Norris talks with Elizabeth Douglass of The Los Angeles Times.

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