Member Info for romaron

Good points Dumbly. There are something close to 40 million ICE vehicles in the UK and 23 million homes heated by gas. I am replacing my car (thank you Sidiq) and it isn't an EV. For people who do the miles or want a Rolex when a Timex does the same job it might make sense. I think I am not alone. On the space heating I know more than most and once again the cost is horrendous if you think ASH pumps are the answer. We will need gas and oil for a lot longer than strident climate activists are preaching. We can't afford renewables in the time demanded by them.

[BTW Rishi Sunak is on TV being interrogated by the Liaison Committee and I've missed most of it so will try catchup.]

On the space heating front, Grant Shapps was the Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning from 2007 and in 2010 became Minister of State for Housing and Local Government so knows full well the costs of improving the housing stock. It is frightening and obviously the empty promises of Labour will fall at the first hurdle if they achieve power on COST. This is important in his new role as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of UK. The Tories may do better than we expect. The public has both long and short memories and I was surprised when I realised Rishi Sunak has only been PM since October. The Tories are currently looking (to me) like a pragmatic government. Sunak has (so far) surprised me in a good way.
If Labour go on preaching without details they will lose support. Ed Miliband is a liability to them imo. Opposition requires more than catchy slogans more suitable to the Mail or Sun newspapers. A job as sub-editor beckons for him; sooner the better!

Hi Dumbly - I will be writing to Dr. Simon Evans and have a slightly devious approach planned. His reputation could easily be on the line as helping to spread the misrepresentation undermines his authority. The fact that juststopoil at one extreme use it to claim authentication on top of the various politicians doesn't enhance his reputation imo.
I think he'll just ignore your email but it has value as the next person/organisation you contact can claim that you have contacted him but so far with no reply. If others contact him as well he cannot then pretend he was unaware and obviously thinks the "end justifies the means". That is NOT scientific.
Keep up the good work.

Whilst we are in the doldrums waiting for news I have been researching or googling as some call it. Few of us here are trained researchers and I'll confess to struggling at times. I came across this: "Wind droughts are caused by climate change." here https://www.greenmatters.com/news/wind-drought

I think climate change started even earlier than we think. I've got back as far as 1798 and perhaps it is even earlier if you use the "wind drought" method of pinpointing when exactly the change began.

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion:
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
(The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1798)

There has been little research in the effect on climate and sea birds since then. I was shocked to find that wind didn't blow regularly in the past. Surely it is worth revisiting?

https://www.google.com/search?q=monty+python+albatross+sketch&rlz=1C1GGRV_enGB751GB751&oq=monty+python+albatross+sketch&aqs=chrome..69i57.12042j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7fea8a57,vid:wrqW_BZu5Xk

Price shot up this morning. They still want gas in the Eastern Med. BP and Adnoc have made a joint offer for NewMed. Energean is in the same area and nearly all gas. Sympathetic reaction I guess.

BP and Adnoc buying into NewMed. Fill your boots.

1. I wonder if the BBC has a problem getting industry comment? It seems that if you work for a Green activist group your comments are printed without the due rigour the BBC is supposed to apply.

I do have some sympathy as you risk being burned at the stake. If I'd lived in Spain during the inquisition I'd happily have mumbled some Christian prayer to avoid unpleasantness.

2. Good point AOK 08:50.

3. Thanks Therapist. I will study them. Going back to point 1. I'll only be looking for negatives against renewables following the lead of Red Ed and Uplift etc....

Anybody know the latest price, or at least a 2023 price for the current cost of running a gas-fired power station per £MWh?

correction - the Greek guy did possibly speak to AB at an AGM He definitely asked him a question at the AGM QA (2016 I think). That was the first time I met the Shell guy and we went for a coffee round the corner in Brasserie Zédel after.

In answer to Mansardman. I know two people who share my opinion of AB. One is an ex-Shell employee who has met AB and is impressed. He has a slightly different view to me in what can be achieved but by and large we agree. The other is a Greek guy I know who was a NED and worked in international banking whose opinion I value. He hasn't met AB but knew of him. A colleague who worked with AB told him "the man is a genius". My own opinion is that he is competent, well connected and most importantly gives back to people with his charitable foundation. My problems lie more with expediency and the short-termism of political decision makers.

I could never vote Tory whilst the cabal led by Johnson was in charge. I'm holding my breath but I continue to be impressed by Rishi Sunak.

*Dumbly (14:52) - sometimes the obvious stares you in the face. I shall write to Carbon Brief and I think others should too. No prize for you but you get a pint if we ever meet up.

I read a proof copy of this book some months ago, I even mentioned it on here and there is one part in it that I found important. It revolved around a new Unilever CEO deciding g to stop updating the market quarterly and go for a longer view. It damaged their price and a number of their investors sold. However, they were "replaced by shareholders more willing to take longer bets". As for the shareholders that sold. "He didn't change their minds, they simply moved on to companies that allowed them to beat the gun elsewhere".

I think some of this applies to EnQuest now and we have shaken off most of the traders and are awaiting the next stage in the short history of this company.

I believe we are a future winner because going forward it will be a mixture of fossil and renewables and existing companies in this space have the best chance of success. AB is one of the best CEO's in the industry imo and has a strong team around him, including a new chairman.

Build it and they will come.

*volume today is derisory.

Ooops - I left the date out 2008

They were right.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-fisher-journalist_wow-my-book-the-long-view-is-reviewed-in-activity-7045690760809078784-D01M?trk=public_profile_share_view

I especially enjoyed the acronyms used by the bankers selling toxic debt when asked about culpability and the reply IBG-YBG

It stands for "I'll be gone - you'll be gone" Politics is the same.

I like Red Ed with a Pinocchio nose - just need a pithy slogan. The 9X needs to be in it imo.

But you're up against "an inquisition" that insists it is right and the "facts" prove it. No costs or plan B if the renewables don't magically fill the energy gap. I think many experts from the O&G industry and scientists are AFRAID of sticking their neck out. Why would you leave yourself open to public abuse or demonstrators turning up at your home address?

Good post battle but your last sentence will be rebuffed with "only on NEW drilling" with a total misunderstanding of the high rates of decline of existing fields. Its all the fault of those "oil giants" and the "obscene profits" don't ya know!

The tweets that Dumbly gave a link to (today 05:17) show that Rachel Reeves has removed the 9X quote from the tombstone ad; she's not as silly as the useful idiots. They (Labour) can be pinioned by their spreading of this lie.

Based on the "9 X cheaper " canard could one of you motley crew come up with a pithy phrase that we could turn into a banner?

I fancy one with Red Ed on it in a kinda Wallace (from Wallace & Gromit) caricature. If it's beyond you ask a friend or your kids. I'll have no problem turning up at a rally with it.

*prize is either a black swan or a bottle of 'bubbly'

The Labour party and their Green friends intend to abolish fossil fuels when the "experts" who they like to refer to unanimously agree that we will need oil and gas for many years (personally I'm sticking with my gas central heating and internal combustion engines) for transport, space-heating, fertiliser, cement, piping, syringes, lap top covers etc...

Their solution is to abolish them in the UK and if the new and eye-wateringly expensive renewables don't provide enough energy we can always import fossil fuels from friendly regimes like the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and of course the Ukranian war won't last forever and we can welcome Russia back into the fold.

Easy when you live in cuckoo land and don't have to do the sums.

*M - I wonder if we can get the figures to compare those that watched the Trilemma debate to the Question Time programme, both last Thursday, where once again the 9X distortion of the truth was repeated?
I don't know but I'll guess 5,000 against 1.5 million.

Hi Dumbly - I don't follow twitter generally and found it impossible to find the tweets mentioned in the BBC link. It all helps though as eventually somebody will dare to challenge the total misrepresentation. I even thought of starting a campaign offering (say) £10,000 to anybody who can prove the Labour party claim for 9X cheaper but wouldn't know where to start. It would attract interest and publicity.
I'm still at a loss as to why the industry hasn't challenged the quote. Perhaps they're scared of them?

*I heard on the radio an explanation why Trumpa and Johnson got/get away with so much. You hear a lie and think "that can't possibly be true" then when it starts being investigated they replace it with an even bigger lie. You never catch up. It does mean though that the damage is done and there are plenty who want to hear the message. Whether it is true or not doesn't really matter. If enough believe it fiction can be turned into truth. Like the resurrection and Muhammed's trip to heaven on a winged pony.

I'm sure you're right BattleFIS but so many politicians now follow the Tweedledum and Tweedledee political world we live in (Trump and Johnson) with Red Ed aspiring to join them in hoodwinking the public. Getting elected into a position of power is what counts above all else. Facts and realities come second by quite a distance.

"It is also true that on the whole renewable energy is now cheaper to produce than energy from fossil fuels"

9 X I am told.