Industrialized Cyclist Notepad


Uber Dumps Self-Driving Car Operation

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Putin Unbroken as Oil Decline Continues
December 21, 2015, 10:14
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,

From Zerohedge.com:

In short, if John Kerry and Riyadh did in fact plan to bankrupt the Russians by tanking crude prices, the effort was a miserable failure that resulted not only in a 20% fiscal deficit for the Saudis, but the destruction of American jobs in the oil patch.

Source: “I Know Of No One Who Predicted This”: Russian Oil Production Hits Record As Saudi Gambit Fails | Zero Hedge



Public disagreements

Even in a totalitarian government they can’t get their stories together.

“Saudi Arabia’s national production management scheme is set to increase total capacity to 15 million barrels per day and have an export potential of 10 [million] barrels per day by 2020,” Prince Faisal, a former Saudi ambassador to the US and UK said in a speech at the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs of Harvard University. The speech was delivered last week and posted on the centre’s website late Monday.

The prince clarified his position in an email on Tuesday. “Saudi consumption may reach five million barrels of oil by then [2020], hence the production capacity of fifteen million barrels,” is required to maintain country’s export potential, he said.

Saudi Arabia would be lucky to go past production of 9 million barrels a day by 2020 and, “we don’t see anything like 15 million barrels a day before 2030, 2040,” said Naimi in an appearance at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC Tuesday.

via Rift emerges over Saudi oil policy | GulfNews.com.

Notice in this article and others how any potential increase or decrease in Saudi oil production is always portrayed as a matter of policy, not geology.



Saudi Arabian women can ride bikes, sort of

The kingdom’s religious police are now allowing women to ride bikes in parks and recreational areas.

However, they have to be accompanied by a male relative and dressed in the full Islamic head-to-toe abaya.

via Saudi Arabia lifts ban on women riding motorbikes and bicycles | Mail Online.

No cycling for transportation of course. Not in the Big Gas Station. A strange policy considering that every time somebody gets into a car in SA, it comes straight out of the profits of the princes.

I guess the Saudi religious police have never heard of ‘bicycle smile.’



Saudi Arabia gets high on its own supply

Leaving less for our late-night Taco Bell runs.

DUBAI, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia burned record volumes

of crude oil over the summer, official government figures show,

contrary to its aim of using more gas for power generatation to

reduce wastage of crude that it could export.

During the peak period from early June through September,

Saudi Arabia burned an average of 763,250 barrels per day (bpd)

of crude, compared to an average of 701,250 bpd last year and

747,750 bpd in the previous record summer of 2010, official

government data issued on Sunday under the Joint Oil Data

Initiative (JODI) shows.

via Saudi summer oil burning hits record high in 2012 -JODI – Yahoo! News.



The amazing red mound

The happy talk on future production is crazier than ever in the latest IEA World Energy Outlook, but there are also some stunningly pessimistic predictions buried inside. Wild!

For instance: The US will become number one oil producuh again and rediscover our lost oil-producing prowess with about 11 million barrels/day (Yay!) — which must mean Saudi Arabia won’t approach IEA’s previous prediction for that country of roughly 15 mbd output (Ooof). And the predicted exporter status of the US (Yay!) relies as much on a huge drop in consumption as it does on increases in production (Ooof). So it’s a bit of a sad day in IEA land, where consumption always went up, up, up.

From Tverberg:

The International Energy Agency (IEA) provides unrealistically high oil forecasts in its new 2012 World Energy Outlook (WEO). It claims, among other things, that the United States will become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020, and will become a net oil exporter by 2030.

Figure 1. Author’s interpretation of IEA Forecast of Future US Oil Production under “New Policies” Scenario, based on information provided in IEA’s 2012 World Energy Outlook.

Figure 1 shows that this increase comes solely from the expected rise in tight oil production and natural gas liquids. The idea that we will become an exporter in later years occurs despite falling production, because “demand” will drop so much.

via http://ourfiniteworld.com/2012/11/13/iea-oil-forecast-unrealistically-high-misses-diminishing-returns/

Note that IEA and other maniacs add NGLs, biodiesel and even ‘refinery gain’ to the US oil production number, in a crude attempt to fool y’all.



Weird Discrepancy

…between official Russian oil production numbers and JODI numbers.

via http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2012/05/20/is-russian-oil-production-plummeting/



Senator Schumer wants Saudi Arabia to talk down oil prices

But Senator — to what degree will desperate-sounding ‘comments’ from US officials like yourself counteract those hypothetical emphatic promises? Seems like Shoom is scrambling for relevance.

Schumer called on Saudi Arabia to repeat its intention to make up for supply losses, arguing the comments will drive down gas prices, which are tethered to global oil prices.

“If the markets believe this is real, the price will come down even further. So we are asking the Saudis to repeat this promise,” Schumer said.

“The more explicit they are, the more emphatic they are, the more they ensure the markets that they are for real here,” he continued, “the more the markets will calm down more permanently and the more the price will come down.”

via Schumer: Saudi Arabia's plan to increase oil supply will lower gas prices – The Hill's E2-Wire.



Yemen
March 10, 2012, 13:19
Filed under: maps | Tags: , , , , , ,

via U. Texas:



Sometimes you have to go to Canada to find people who understand the concept of depletion

Like this Eric Reguly character of the Globe and Mail:

Why hasn’t the high price triggered a production surge? The biggie, it seems, is that the non-OPEC countries are simply not up to the job. As Barclays points out, non-OPEC supply last year landed at a full one million barrels a day less than forecast by the International Energy Agency. The North Sea (whose production is shared by Britain and Norway) continued its terminal decline. Brazil and Azerbaijan were also the scenes of production disappointments.

Meanwhile, OPEC, dominated by Saudi Arabia, is sweating exceedingly hard. OPEC production volumes are at three-year highs, to the point that the cartel has only about 1.6 million barrels a day of spare capacity, and still prices are climbing.

via CTV News | All the signs point to a falling oil price – except supply.



Saudis tell Cantor they can make up for Iran

Is it true though? Will it still be true six months from now when the sanctions kick in for Euro? Does it even matter if China, India et al keep buying Iran’s oil? Is this just theater, the whole thing?

Saudis have enough oil to make up for Iran.



Saudi forces clash with protesters in Qatif
January 14, 2012, 04:02
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , ,

Saudi security forces have clashed with protesters in the country’s Eastern Province, home to a large Shia minority, killing one person, the interior ministry and activists reported.

via Saudi forces clash with protesters in Qatif – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.



Saudis move into solar
December 24, 2011, 00:13
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , ,

Saudi Arabia is paying a heavy price for its continued reliance on oil to generate electricity. Its power plants consume 800,000 barrels a day of oil equivalent, Ziyad Al Shiha, the executive director of Saudi Aramco Power Systems, told reporters in May. With the price of crude above US$100 a barrel on international markets, the opportunity cost is high, making investments in alternative sources of power more attractive.

via Saudis kicking off major move into solar – The National.



Decision or depletion
November 22, 2011, 06:26
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…or just using more of their own production? Just blowing hot air?



Saudi production down, rig count up
November 20, 2011, 15:55
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That’s not an encouraging sign for the “all is well” team. We might expect some lag-time, however. Look at the graph. From 2005-7 the rig count shoots up as production falls. Then production shoots up while the rig count plateaus.

Graph from Stuart Staniford’s blog.