RE: Idle thoughts during the phoney war20 Jun 2024 12:39
From today -
edit -
Oil demand dilemma
Atmospheric carbon doesn’t recognize international boundaries, so any reduction in UK emissions resulting from dwindling North Sea output is just an accounting trick that does nothing to solve a global problem.
Yet fears that a Labour government — which looks almost certain to be with us in less than a month — will shut down Britain’s oil and gas industry are overblown.
“Labour will not revoke existing licenses and we will partner with business and workers to manage our existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan,” the party says in its manifesto.
That actually gives a lot of scope for future production.
In addition to the 3.5 billion barrels of proven and probable oil and gas reserves, there are another 6.5 billion barrels classed as “contingent resources.” That covers accumulations discovered but not developed.
The bigger challenge is to transition energy use away from fossil fuels. Electrification can only be a solution with a much more robust power grid and local distribution network, no matter how many new wind farms are built.
The cables serving my street in London can handle demand from the relatively small number of electric cars charging up each night — probably about 5% of the vehicles parked there.
But once that rises to even 50%, they’ll be under serious strain.
--Julian Lee, Bloomberg News