November | 2010 | The Price of Oil

Posts in November 2010

BP says to Cancun: Invest in the tar sands
Andy Rowell
Nov30
Timing, as I have pointed out in this blog before, is everything. Day two of the Cancun climate summit and you would have thought that politicians and companies would be tripping over themselves to portray themselves as clean and green. But not BP. The oil giant is off-loading assets left, right and centre. Just days…
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“There is little to no chance of less than 2C rise”
Andy Rowell
Nov29
A year ago at the Copenhagen conference, the talk was all about deals and final agreements that would put the world on the road to a low carbon future. This year, at Cancun, the expectations are so low that just keeping the show on the road is the main priority. At best the hope is…
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World is Still Warming
Andy Rowell
Nov26
According to a new report by one of the world’s leading authorities on climate change, the UK Met Office, the world has warmed more rapidly than previously thought over the past decade. The report also finds evidence that man-made climate change has grown even stronger over the last year. This means that this year is…
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The 5 Gigatonne Gap
Andy Rowell
Nov24
The mood may be different this year, but the message is the same. The time to act is now. If we are to keep global temperatures to below a 2 degrees Celsius rise, nations have to implement the pledges made in Copenhagen and much, much more. According to a new report compiled by the UN…
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A Small Window of Opportunity At Cancun
Andy Rowell
Nov23
It has been adundently clear that since the Midterms, any small lingering hopes of a domestic push on climate legislation are dead in the water. As the Washington Post argued recently: “This is what the 2010 midterm elections will change about U.S. climate policy: Cap-and-trade was dead. Now it will be deader.” And the political…
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“We see ice-sheets changing overnight”
Andy Rowell
Nov22
Just over a year ago, the Climategate scandal rocked climate science to its core. The scandal damaged the Copenhagen climate talks and has been fodder for the sceptics ever since. A year on, and the scientist at the centre of the row, Professor Phil Jones, argues that it will take a long time to convince…
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Time to Vote in the EU Worst Lobby Awards
Andy Rowell
Nov19
It’s that time of year again. Over in Europe, a coalition of NGOs is running the “Worst EU Lobbying Awards” and one of the categories for this year’s award is “climate”. There are three nominees for companies and organisations who are the worst offenders when it comes to undermining action on climate change. To vote…
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Deepwater Increases Chance of “Oil Crunch”
Andy Rowell
Nov18
Its not rocket science. But if you delay further expansion of offshore drilling because of the Deepwater disaster, then you risk compromising the supply of future oil supplies. If deepwater drilling is where over a quarter of new oil reserves are, then any delay in accessing these reserves could mean trouble. That is the conclusion…
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“Insufficient Consideration of Risk” on BP Rig
Andy Rowell
Nov17
If the oil industry is about one thing and one thing only it is not really about oil, it is about risk. How a company manages the geological, technical, safety and financial risk of its daily decisions determines whether the company stays ahead of its cut-throat competitors. Oil just happens to be the commodity that…
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Spillcam Enters the Psyche
Andy Rowell
Nov16
In another signal of the legacy of BP’s spill, it has emerged that “Spillcam” was one of the top words of 2010, reflecting the impact the spill had around the globe. Along with words such as “vuvuzela”and Sarah Palin’s “Refudiate” — a morph of refute and repudiate – Spillcam made the annual Global Language Monitor…
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