Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by JHH on October 9, 2009 at 15:05

The Russians are Coming Too!
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/09/gazprom-natural-gas-business-energ...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by LP on October 10, 2009 at 0:40

Interesting article, Buck. It does stir up some mixed feelings, however.

So much manufacturing has moved to non union countries in order to produce cheaper goods. A large portion of farming in the U.S. has been taken over by corporations owned by foreign investors. Construction is failing due to the economic collapse and those companies still alive use non citizen workers. A non manufacturing country can not employ its citizens. Unemployed citizens can not purchase goods needed to sustain a standard of living.

The US auto industry is existing on life support that drains the government revenue. Foreign auto makers using non union labor, are alive and well building autos cheaper and better than American autos because they can make a profit on their product. And many are making those autos in the United States, using non union labor.
The last hope for America was to produce the one resource we have that the rest of the world needs. Energy.
We have the opportunity to preserve the American way of life through energy production but some choose to fiddle instead.
Seeing the energy production potential in the United States, foreign owned companies are racing ahead to beat America to the export finish line. What is worse is that we stand aside to let them pass.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Nick Snow
OGJ Washington Editor

WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 9 -- Oil and natural gas are indispensable in a growing world energy market, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC plans to make gas roughly half of its total production by 2012, its chief executive officer said on Oct. 8.

“This is not merely a shift in our portfolio. Increasing natural gas production and transportation by liquefying it and shipping the LNG to global markets means that more natural gas will be available to displace coal as the fuel for power plants,” Peter Voser said in an address at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

“In the United States, new technology has opened up abundant gas resources contained in dense rock formations, increasing supplies dramatically,” Voser said, adding, “So you can see why I’m sometimes tempted to say: Nothing beats natural gas.”

Responding to questions following his talk, Voser said Shell will expand gas’s share of its total production beyond 2012. Shell is negotiating to capture gas that currently is flared in southern Iraq and export it as LNG, he said. For Europe, he said, gas is a steady supply source in itself, adding, “It’s the management of pipelines between countries that creates insecurities, which can be addressed by diversifying suppliers.”

Addressing to his talk’s theme, “The Energy Company of the Future,” Voser said companies like Shell “sit at the nexus of one the world’s most difficult and exciting challenges: building a new energy system capable of meeting the energy needs of future generations at much reduced environmental cost.”

This comes amid the International Energy Agency’s prediction that the world will need to invest $36 trillion in energy supplies through 2030, Voser said. Using International Monetary Fund calculations, that’s more than 30 times the amount which governments have used so far to save their banks and revive their economies, he said.


“Take Qatar, where we are investing billions of dollars in an LNG plant and the Pearl [gas-to-liquids] plant, which will turn natural gas into liquid transportation fuel and other products,” he said. “We will operate and maintain a fleet of 25 of the world’s largest LNG tankers, while developing capabilities within Qatar’s own shipping company Nakilat. The aim is to phase out our own role and hand over the management of the fleet to Nakilat.”

Partnerships with producing nations will become increasingly important because some energy exporting countries such as Egypt, Indonesia, and Mexico will soon become importers, he said. Growing worldwide interest in addressing global climate change also matters, Voser said, noting that the company hopes one result of the upcoming conference in Copenhagen will be tangible progress in developing a global carbon market.

That would include a US carbon cap-and-trade system, which Voser said is more effective than a direct carbon tax in setting a market price. “We need such a market as the most effective way of promoting low carbon technologies, in particular carbon capture and storage. A lot, not everything, will depend on how far the United States is prepared to push the agenda forward,” he said.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Royal Dutch Shell and other foreign owned major Oil & Gas companies are in favor of the US proposed cap and trade tax since that would increase the cost of operating to US companies, allowing the cheaper, non-regulated foreign producers to export natural gas throughout the world including the United States.

Eventually, the foreign owned energy producers may buy out the US reserves, we will buy our fuels and energy taken from right under our feet. This is much the same as we now do with autos, steel and agriculture.
Oh well, since I can not change the attitude of those Americans who chose to fiddle, I can be consoled in the fact that the foreign companies still have to pay me for it.

• ▶ Reply