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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Mining group believes in tooth fairy -- "New Zealand cushioned against oil shocks"

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Straterra, a body representing mining companies has said, "New Zealand is in an excellent position to withstand any future oil shocks, thanks in particular to our lignite and geothermal resources". Straterra was commenting on the Parliament's research unit report called "The Next Oil Shock".  The Report says major international organisations are warning of another supply crunch as soon as 2012.

What planet are these guys on ? Let's be clear -- geo-thermal energy produces electricity. It cannot power New Zealand's internal transport system - or carry our imports and exports -- 99% of which relies on liquid fuels. If our transport systems cannot run efficiently the economy heads south into recession.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

NZ Parliament Report Warns of Imminent Oil Shock

New Zealand is highly vulnerable to oil price shocks that are nearly certain to occur in the next few years according to a research report published by Parliament yesterday. Its an excellent report on peak oil and will be huge wake-up call for government and opposition MP's and their advisers.  It deserves the widest circulation.

"Peak hype" on New Zealand's offshore oil reserves

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There was much hype and hoopla at the recent New Zealand Petroleum Conference about the extent of New Zealand's potential oil and gas reserves. Chris Uruski, a GNS scientist told Chris Laidlaw on Radio NZ's Sunday that we potentially have 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent in New Zealand's offshore exclusive economic zone. He did however put something of a dampener on the excitement by stating "we haven't really got anything sorted on a scientific basis" as to the extent of our oil reserves.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

UK Govt Takes Peak Oil Threat Seriously, but NZ Govt Deep in Denial

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The UK's Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has ordered his officials to look at the impact of a 1970s-style oil price spike on the British economy. Mr Huhne warned that a  1970s-style doubling in the price of oil would drain £45billion from the UK economy in two years, hitting investment and jobs. 

Meanwhile our Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee and the NZ government are deep in denial about peak oil and resulting higher oil prices.