The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand

SMH - Oil Search reports drop in profit

Oil Search is following an interesting strategy:

Mr Hartley said exploration expenditure in 2008 would be lower, following a disappointing run of dry holes in PNG and the Middle East.

"Capital expenditure this year will be just under $US400 million ($A438.21 million), similar to 2007/08, with more emphasis on production drilling," he said.

ABC - Govt defends 'hand-me-down' transport ticketing system

The 15-year-old ticket readers from Brisbane are being bought to replace Tcard machines, which were being trialed on buses in Sydney's south.

The machines had to be replaced because the Government cancelled the company developing the Tcard integrated transport system's contract.

This article is cross-posted from the Newsletter on the CSIRO website.

The transport sector is the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in Australia, and the Energy Transformed National Research Flagship and its collaborators are focusing on finding solutions to this crucial issue through the new Future Fuels Forum.

The initiative will articulate the main challenges for our nation in arriving at a secure and sustainable transport fuel mix for the road, rail, air and sea sectors to 2050 by drawing on the expertise of forum participants and utilising sophisticated techno-economic modelling tools.

Scenarios will explore, for example, international oil supply, likely policy changes such as emission trading, future fuels and technologies and how quickly they can be deployed.

The Future Fuels Forum report will be released in June 2008.

The Future Fuels Forum is designed to provide input to decision makers in industry and government on strategic policy and future investment. This will be articulated through the release of a comprehensive report in June 2008.

On Monday the 1st October 2007 the UK government increased the duty on a litre of petrol and diesel by two pence taking the duty to 50.35 pence per litre (ppl). This is the first of three increases announced in the last budget. Duty will be increased by a further 2 ppl on 1st April 2008 and 1.84 ppl on 1st April 2009 (Duty Rates .pdf).

The increase has been almost unanimously criticised by the UK motorist, not just because it’s a tax but because it takes UK fuel prices perilously close to the psychological barrier of £1 per litre. On the www.petrolprices.com site a survey receiving 80,000 votes in just a few days indicated 90% in favour of the following statement:

Should the government do a U turn and scrap the extra 2.35p tax on fuel because of unexpectedly high oil prices already hitting motorists hard?

Despite everyone talking about petrol prices it seems that many people don’t understand how that price comes about and certainly have no awareness of the approaching decline in global oil production.

The New York Times reports (from the other day, but we didn't cover it, did we?):

The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported on Thursday that if every car and truck on America's roads was equipped with ventilated seats, air-conditioning-related gasoline consumption could be reduced by 7.5 percent, thus saving 522 million gallons of fuel per year.

The seats tested have two built-in fans that suck warm air and moisture through their perforated leather and send it away from the driver or passenger.

Ventilated seats make drivers feel cooler, so they could save fuel by turning their air-conditioners down a notch, in theory.

While I'm at it, I'll just throw this out there. If you're driving on a highway at 60mph, which is more fuel efficient: turning on the AC, or opening the windows? In my experience, this question always causes something of a disagreement.

And you can also use this as an open thread.

[editor's note, by Prof. Goose]Also, a heads up (hat tip: peakoil.com) on a CNN special on peak oil which will be aired Saturday, March 18, 8pm, anchored by Frank Sesno, and is called "We Were Warned: Tomorrow's oil crisis." (brief description here)

TODers know that flying, for the most part, is a luxury and not a necessity. Well, that's the way it should be, anyhow, but often, there's that pesky matter of business travel. Even academics do a considerable amount of travel, since we have to show our faces at few conferences a year in order to stay current in the field and make sure that our colleagues remember us. In other professions, some businesspeople may get on a plane 2-3 times a week (or more!).