Alemanha aprova 'fracking'

Um campo de 'fracking' no Canadá
Foto: Simon Fraser University

A Alemanha faz o que quer e sobra-lhe tempo. Sobrará?

Governo alemão aprova a criminosa indústria de fracking no seu território—para explorar gás!

Não teria sido melhor ter desenvolvido uma diplomacia inteligente com a Rússia, a Turquia, Grécia e Chipre, em vez de andar a reboque das estratégias imperiais dos insolventes americanos?

E já agora, não deveria a União Europeia discutir o assunto previamente, dado o precedente que gera para os restantes governos da União Europeia? Ou é só para o que interessa à Alemanha que os assuntos descem aos indigentes burocratas de Bruxelas?

O fracking mede de forma clara a chegada do Pico do Petróleo. Não existe prova mais cabal das previsões de Hubbert (1956). Mas neste caso específico, a decisão alemã, que conta também com o apoio dos sociais-democratas, mede sobretudo o grau de pânico existente no setor energético alemão em resultado da sua desatrosa política de alianças.

German government approves fracking
EurActiv. Published: 13/02/2015 - 07:08

The German government has tabled a draft law permitting fracking in the country, with environmental associations criticising the draft as fragmented and risky, calling on the government to concentrate on implementing the Energiewende, instead. EurActiv Germany reports.

After a long debate over the use of fracking technology in Germany, the federal government issued a draft law allowing the controversial gas extraction method under certain conditions and in isolated cases.

German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks made every effort to dispel concerns over the controversial gas extraction technology. “In this way, we are applying the strictest rules that have ever existed in the fracking industry,” the Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician assured.

It will only be permitted under the strictest conditions and with the highest regard for the environment and drinking water, she said. The earliest possible date for initiation would be in 2019, because sample drillings must first be conducted to gather the necessary knowledge on the technology, Hendricks explained.

A bolha de xisto já rebentou!

A ilusão petrolífera americana foi mais uma bolha especulativa

A voz corrente confundiu, uma vez mais, o desejo com a realidade.

O desejo é que haja abundância eterna de petróleo fino na crosta terrestre. A realidade é que o petróleo só poderia continuar a servir a era de crescimento rápido que a Humanidade conheceu nos últimos duzentos anos se os custos da produção deste, bem como a produção do carvão e do petróleo de carvão, do GTL e de outras fontes móveis e imóveis (eólicas, paineis solares e barragens, por exemplo) de energia não tornar as operações comercialmente impossíveis, o que já está a ocorrer por toda a parte. Não se pode gastar mais na produção de um bem do que o preço máximo pelo qual o poderemos vender!

The Fracturing Energy Bubble Is the New Housing Crash
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/17/2014 18:10 -0500
Zero Hedge

The graph below which shows that every net job created in the US during the last seven years is attributable to the shale states will be one of the first to morph into a less happy shape.

But there is something else even more significant. The global oil price collapse now unfolding is not putting a single dime into the pockets of American households - the CNBC talking heads to the contrary notwithstanding.  What is happening is the vast flood of mispriced debt and capital, which flowed into the energy sector owning to the Fed’s lunatic ZIRP and QE policies, is now rapidly deflating.

That will reduce bubble spending and investment, not add to economic growth. It’s the housing bust all over again.

"It's A Huge Crisis" - The UK Oil Industry Is "Close To Collapse"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2014 23:21 -0500
Zero Hedge

"Almost no new projects in the North Sea are profitable with oil below $60 a barrel, he claims. 'Everyone is retreating'"

Comstock Suspends Drilling In Eagle Ford Due To Plunging Oil Prices
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2014 16:26 -0500
Zero Hedge

Shale 0 - Saudi Arabia 1

Following one after another major and shale company announcing plans to trim capex (even as they miraculously still get to keep their revenue and EPS projections intact, for now), the latest victory handed to Saudi Arabia on a silver platter comes courtesy of Comstock Resources (Total Debt/EBITDA 2.4x, EBITDA $421MM, CapEx $674MM) Comstock Resources said earlier today that in response to low oil prices, plans to suspend oil directed drilling activity in its Eagle Ford shale properties and in Tuscaloosa Marine shale.

It was not immediately clear how many high-paying oilfield jobs would be promptly terminated as a result of this unambiguously good development.


Calculating The Breakeven Price For The Median Bakken Shale Well
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/19/2014 14:26 -0500
Zero Hedge

Authored by CEO of the SOFA,

A lot of data has been thrown around recently concerning the Bakken shale wells of North Dakota in an attempt to figure out the necessary oil price required to break even on the investment.  In order to get a clearer picture of the financial situation in Bakken, it is necessary to develop a financial model of the median Bakken well (attached). 

With a discount rate of 15%, the median well has a profitability index of 1.02 (after federal income tax) if $66 per barrel is used.   (A profitability index of 1.0 indicates a break even situation at the discount rate that was used in the model).  This means that at $66 per barrel, half the wells are uneconomic.  If oil prices settle out at this price it can be expected that the number of wells drilled should be reduced by about half.

If the current oil price of $55 per barrel is used, the initial production rate has to be increased to 800 BPD in order to break even.  According to the J.D. Hughes data, 25% of the wells have an initial production rate of 1000 BPD or more.  Accordingly, if oil prices settle out at the current price, the number of wells drilled will be about a quarter of the present number.


Oil Crash Exposes New Risks for U.S. Shale Drillers
By Asjylyn Loder Dec 19, 2014 8:19 PM GMT+0000
Bloomberg

Shares of oil companies are also dropping, with a 49 percent decline in the 76-member Bloomberg Intelligence North America E&P Valuation Peers index from this year’s peak in June. The drilling had been driven by high oil prices and low-cost financing. Companies spent $1.30 for every dollar earned selling oil and gas in the third quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg on 56 of the U.S.-listed companies in the E&P index.

Financing costs are now rising as prices sink. The average borrowing cost for energy companies in the U.S. high-yield debt market has almost doubled to 10.43 percent from an all-time low of 5.68 percent in June, Bank of America Merrill Lynch data show.

Atualização: 19 dez 2014 23:45 WET

A quimera petrolífera da América

Estimativa da Chevron sobre as necessidades de petróleo em 2030

São precisos 200 mil milhões de barris de petróleo novo até 2030

Os Estados Unidos não conseguem produzir mais de 7,5 milhões de barris de petróleo por dia, e parecem não conseguir consumir menos de 18 milhões de barris de petróleo (+GTL e bio-combustíveis)/dia. Ou seja, a sua dependência energética do exterior tornou-se um constrangimento estrutural, ao contrário do que as balelas mediáticas sobre a "nova Arábia Saudita" e a autonomia energética americana quiseram fazer crer aos mais distraídos.

Produção de petróleo nos EUA desde 1860 — eia

Se repararmos com atenção neste mapa da produção petrolífera nos EUA, desde 1860, veremos com clareza que o pico foi atingido na década de 1970, e que desde 2008 houve um esforço extraordinário de produção (shale oil e shale gas) para compensar o peso insustentável das importações... que as ventoinhas que a Goldman Sach impingiu aos camaradas Mexia e Sócrates não conseguem compensar!

Ao contrário do que poderá parecer, todos os grandes produtores mundiais de crude e gás natural —americanos do fracking, canadianos das areias betuminosas, venezuelanos dos betumes, russos da Sibéria e do Ártico, e árabes do Médio Oriente— terão que continuar a produzir. Não podem sequer reduzir a produção em volumes significativos, sob pena de criarem gigantescos problemas para si e no resto do mundo. Acontece, porém, que quando o preço do barril desce abaixo dos 80 USD, salvo a Arábia Saudita, todos os demais produtores são atingidos duramente nas margens comerciais disponíveis, muitos deles arriscando falências inexoráveis. É o que sucederá a muitas empresas americanas que hoje exploram o petróleo e o gás de xisto se a presente quebra do preço do barril de petróleo se prolongar por mais um ou dois anos.

Petróleo acentua perdas com queda superior a 2% nos Estados Unidos
Jornal de Negócios. 15 Dezembro 2014, 16:01 por Rita Faria

Depois de ter estado a subir mais de 1,5% esta segunda-feira, 15 de Dezembro, o petróleo voltou para terreno negativo nos mercados internacionais, perante sinais de que a decisão da Organização dos Países Exportadores de Petróleo (OPEP) de não ajustar a sua produção será mesmo mantida.

O West Texas Intermediate (WTI), de Nova Iorque, negoceia em mínimos de Maio de 2009, com um recuo de 2,21% para 56,53 dólares, enquanto o Brent, negociado em Londres e que serve de referência às importações europeias, cai 0,82% para 61,34 dólares, um valor próximo de mínimos de Julho de 2009.

So far no decline in drilling activities in the USA
Aleklett's Energy Mix.
Posted on November 17, 2014

The increased production of oil has occurred on land with 40,000 wells giving an increase in 1,200,000 barrels per day or 30 barrels per day per well. This means that most of the newly drilled wells are needed to maintain current production levels. A reduction in rig number similar to that in 2008 would rapidly reduce oil production in the USA. To repeat in another nation a fracking boom similar to that seen in the USA is far, far in the future. The question is whether it will ever occur.


200 billion barrels of new oil production is needed by 2030
Aleklett's Energy Mix.
Posted on November 22, 2014

In around 2008 the IEA and others began to discuss the decline in production from existing oilfields. By that time we at Global Energy Systems of Uppsala University had been researching in this area for some years and, in a scientific article, showed that the rate of decline in production from existing fields was 6% per year. Since then, this has become an accepted fact and even Chevron mentioned it in their recent presentation noting that production from existing fields will fall from 80 Mb/d to 30 Mb/d by 2030. Thus, new production equivalent to 50 Mb/d is needed by 2030 just to keep overall production constant. For the period 2013 to 2030 this is according to Chevron equivalent to approximately 200 billion barrels of oil.

[...]

At today’s oil price of around $80 per barrel it is only OPEC’s production that is currently completely profitable and onshore and shallow offshore production are borderline in terms of profitability.

[...]

It is not possible to predict the actions of the main players but it is easier to predict what the outcome may be of certain actions.

The 2014 Oil Price Crash Explained
Energy Matters. Posted on November 24, 2014
by Euan Mearns

1. If demand for oil weakens by about a further 1 Mbpd this may send the price down below $60 / bbl.
2. If OPEC cuts supply by about 1 Mbpd at constant demand this may send the price back up towards $100 / bbl. 
3. Prolonged low price may see LTO production fall in N America and other non-OPEC projects shelved resulting in attrition of non-OPEC capacity. This may take one to two years to work through but with constant demand, this will inevitably send prices higher again. 
4. Prolonged low price may see many specialist LTO producers default on loans, risking a new credit crunch and reduced LTO production. This would likely lead to a major consolidation of operators in the LTO patch where the larger companies (the IOCs) pick up the best assets at knock down prices. That is the way it has always been. 
5. Black Swans and elephants in the room – with conflict escalation in Ukraine and / or Syria-Iraq and a new credit crunch, all bets will be off.

A bolha de xisto já era!

As reservas dos cinco maiores campos petrolíferos mundiais chegariam apenas para oito anos de consumo caso fossem as únicas disponíveis

1. Ghawar (Saudi Arabia): 70x10E9 barris
2. Burgan (Kuwait): 72x10E9 barris
3. Safaniya (Saudi Arabia): 50x10E9 barris
4. Rumaila (Iraq): 17,8x10E9 barris
5. West Qurna-2 (Iraq); 13x10E9 barris

Total: 222.800.000.000 barris

Produção diária segundo a EIA (2013): 76.053.500
Produção anual segundo a EIA (2013): 27.759.527.500
Duração das reservas caso fossem as únicas disponíveis: 8 anos

Este indicador é bem sintomático de uma outra constatação: o pico do petróleo ocorreu em 2005, e a fase de declínio da produção mundial poderá ocorrer a qualquer momento até 2030.

A produção não convencional servirá certamente para mitigar por algum tempo o impacto da escassez petrolífera no preço geral da energia. Mas as limitações já evidentes do fracking vem confimar as  previsões realizadas em 1956 (Hubbert) e 1972 (Meadows et al.) sobre o fim do ciclo do petróleo e sobre o colapso do crescimento exponencial que a humanidade conheceu desde 1887 para cá.

O que sempre escrevemos sobre o petróleo e gás de xisto —uma manobra americana de dilação— veio finalmente ao de cima: a festa do xisto acabou.

Percebe-se agora melhor como Angela Merkel terá conseguido convencer Putin e o novo líder da Ucrânia a terem juízo.

Ou seja, no que toca à Rússia, manter a Europa como seu fiel cliente e parceiro, como importador de gás e petróleo, e exportador de tecnologia, é a solução que mais lhe convém para não ficar dependente de um único cliente: a China. Quanto à Ucrânia, o melhor mesmo é este país à beira de uma guerra civil cessar imediatamente as hostilidades e preparar-se para entrar na UE, criando campo para um fortalecimento futuro das relações ente a União Europeia e a Rússia.

A linha do Tratado de Tordesilhas 2.0 deslocou-se um pouco mais para Oriente. Ainda bem!

The World’s Five Most Important Oil Fields
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/08/2014 13:38 -0400. ZeroHedge

Much has been made about the role that hydraulic fracturing – or fracking -- has played in revolutionizing the energy landscape, unlocking vast new reserves of oil trapped in shale rock. This “tight oil” is pouring into the global pool of oil supplies at a crucial time, preventing oil prices from spiking in an age of high demand and geopolitical turmoil.

But the world still relies overwhelmingly on conventional oil production from existing fields, many of which are in decline. The Middle East has dominated the world of oil for half a century and as the list below shows, it remains king. Here are the top five most important oil fields in the world.


US shale boom is over, energy revolution needed to avert blackouts
By Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, Earth Insight, hosted by The Guardian

I hate to say I told you so, but...

In 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast that the US would outpace Saudi Arabia in oil production thanks to the shale boom by 2020, becoming a net exporter by 2030. The forecast was seen by many as decisive evidence of the renewal of the oil age, while informed detractors were at best ignored, at worst ridiculed. [...]

Now IEA chief economist Fatih Birol says:

"In Europe we are facing the risk of the lights going off. This is not a joke."

We need $48 trillion of new investment to keep the lights on - and it's far from clear that investing in increasingly expensive unconventional oil and gas is going to cut it, without serious impacts on the global economy.

Currently, already, the IEA report reveals that over 80% of oil company investment is going into making up for exhausted fields where production is in decline. The agency also calls to ramp up investments in renewables and increasing efficiency, along with regulatory reform to incentivise investments, as part of the package.

While the fossil fuel empire is crumbling, the renewable energy sector has received 60% of total investment in power plants from 2000 to 2012.


Scientists vindicate 'Limits to Growth' – urge investment in 'circular economy
By Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, Earth Insight, hosted by The Guardian

Its first report in 1972, The Limits to Growth, was conducted by a scientific team at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT), and warned that limited availability of natural resources relative to rising costs would undermine continued economic growth by around the second decade of the 21st century.

Although widely ridiculed, recent scientific reviews confirm that the original report's projections in its 'base scenario' remain robust. In 2008, Australia's federal government scientific research agency CSIRO concluded that The Limits to Growth forecast of potential "global ecological and economic collapse coming up in the middle of the 21st Century" due to convergence of "peak oil, climate change, and food and water security", is "on-track." Actual current trends in these areas "resonate strongly with the overshoot and collapse displayed in the book's 'business-as-usual scenario.'"

The Golden Age of Gas... Possibly: An Interview With The IEA | Zero Hedge

Mais um argumento pesado a favor da paragem do Programa Nacional de Barragens de Elevado Potencial Hidroelétrico... que a EDP e a Iberdrola em breve mendigarão do governo, não sem antes fazerem o bluff do pedido de indemnizações por suspensão dos contratos. Marinho Pinto, aqui tens um bom naco de matéria jurídica para pegar pelos cornos!

The Golden Age of Gas... Possibly: An Interview With The IEA | Zero Hedge

OP: How is the shale
boom reshaping the global financial and economic system? Who are the winners and losers in this emerging scenario?

IEA: One of the key messages of our World Energy Outlook-2013 is that lower energy prices in the United States mean that it is well-placed to reap an economic advantage, while higher costs for energy-intensive industries in Europe and Japan are set to be a heavy burden.

Natural gas prices have fallen sharply in the United States – mainly as a result of the shale gas boom –  and today they are about three times lower than in Europe and five times lower than in Japan. Electricity price differentials are also large, with Japanese and
European industrial consumers paying on average more than twice as much for electricity as their counterparts in the United States, and even Chinese industry paying  almost double the US level.

Looking to the future, the WEO found that the United States sees its share of global exports of energy-intensive goods slightly increase to 2035, providing the clearest indication of the link between relatively low energy prices and the industrial outlook. By contrast, the European Union and Japan see their share of global exports decline – a combined loss of around one-third of their current share.