Planet Earth International 2009

Earth sciences and energy
It could become more
difﬁ cult to satisfy the
demand for oil from places
like China and India.
T
he collapse in the price of oil from its lation or delay of others, possibly resulting
historic highs in the summer of 2008 in a medium-term supply shortage.’
has fundamentally changed thinking about
the world’s most traded commodity. Declines and delays
Energy industry leaders and analysts Projects in high-cost areas, such as Cana-
suggest that the drop in price will make da’s oil sands and in the deep waters of
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K it more difﬁ cult to develop untapped oil west Africa, are already being delayed and
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reserves to meet the future demand of coun- the International Energy Agency (IEA) does
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tries, such as China and India, and could not see Russia, the world’s second largest
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prolong the world economic downturn. oil exporter, being able to increase its
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O
Concerns centre on security of supply production at all in a draft of the Paris-based
P
H
K rather than the environment and this point agency’s latest forecast to 2030.
C
T
O
was made by the Organisation of the Petro- Many of the former Soviet Union’s biggest
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/

M leum Exporting Countries (Opec) oil cartel oil ﬁ elds are ageing, and tax cuts meant to
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in its October communiqué, in the hope of give companies incentives to develop new
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justifying its decision to cut production by ﬁ elds and help boost the production of old
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as much as 1.8 million barrels a day. ones are too little, too late, executives and
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H The statement read: ‘Oil prices have wit- analysts say.
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nessed a dramatic collapse – unprecedented But the problem spreads far beyond
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R in speed and magnitude – with these falling Russia. In fact, the IEA believes the single
;

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E to levels which may put at jeopardy many most important factor in deciding how hard
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existing oil projects and lead to the cancel- the energy industry will have to work to
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»Many of the small oil companies that tackled
;

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these difﬁ cult-to-work ﬁ elds are now struggling
.
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O as their share prices have dropped and, in some
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cases, the credit crunch has eaten into their
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ability to fund production programmes.
www.yearofplanetearth.org PLANET EARTH 59
PE12.Oil.rky.vp.indd 59 16/2/09 11:23:08 am
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