David Strahan | Articles

Wishing it don’t make it so

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:02:34 +0000

This article was published in EurOil, 1 May 2012. April is the cruelest month, a poet once wrote, and so it seems in the political economy of oil. Just a fortnight after the International Energy Agency claimed the global oil market had finally turned for the better, last week Britain slid into its long-feared double [...]

Climate cost of Total’s North Sea leak

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:44:44 +0000

First published at New Scientist, 30 March 2012. Coverage of the gas leak at Total’s Elgin platform in the North Sea, off the UK coast, has so far focused on the potential for an explosion, and damage to sea life from hydrogen sulphide contamination – the latter now discounted. But methane is a powerful greenhouse [...]

Tories play fast and loose with fuel supply

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:37:42 +0000

First published in the ODAC Newsletter 30 March 2012. While awareness of peak oil has advanced light years since the petrol protests of 2000, on the evidence of this week the same cannot be said for the conduct of British energy policy. Back at the turn of the century, Tony Blair’s government was blindsided by [...]

Obama-Cameron dogging explained

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:48:49 +0000

First published in the ODAC Newsletter 16 March 2012. Finally, a plausible explanation for the Obama-Cameron political orgy – ‘love-in’ doesn’t quite do it – in Washington this week. For Cameron the benefit of this floorshow was obvious – like Blair with Bush, revelling in the reflected glory of US power – but Obama’s motive [...]

Gas: climate panacea or industry propaganda?

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:43:08 +0000

First published in the New Scientist 25 February 2012. I once hitched a lift from New York to London in the private jet of an American gas billionaire. Robert Hefner III, who pioneered the drilling of deep wells in the 1960s, was planning to write a book and wanted to discuss it. The Grand Energy [...]

Gas galore?

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:05:57 +0000

This article was first published in the New Scientist print edition of 21 January 2012, and will appear online at energyrealities.org. It may come as news to hard-pressed European households, but the world is enjoying a glut of natural gas. European gas prices have almost doubled in the last two years, as production on the [...]

Has the world reached economic peak oil?

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:46:59 +0000

This article was first published in the 3 December print edition of New Scientist and online at energyrealities.org. Whisper it. Oil production in the US is increasing. The country where output peaked in 1970 and then shrank by 40 per cent over four decades, has turned some kind of corner. Between 2008 and 2010, production [...]

Nuclear: why Britain is right and Germany wrong

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:58:28 +0000

First published in Energy World, November 2011. For decades Britain seemed to have cornered the market in bad energy policy, but these days it has some stiff competition from Germany. Which is ironic, really. Germany has long been widely admired for setting world-leading growth in wind and solar, while Britain trailed near the bottom of [...]

The real Greek tragedy

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:06:28 +0000

First published in New Scientist, 12 October 2011. Greece is going to default, one way or another, that much is clear. The bigger question is whether it will also leave the Euro and what that would mean. What is so far underappreciated is that a Greek exit would have appalling consequences not only for the [...]

Will the real peak oil policy please stand up?

admin — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:43:58 +0000

First published in Petroleum Review, September 2011. There has been much excitement in the press recently about the last government’s attitude to peak oil. Documents released under Freedom of Information requests seem to show New Labour facing both ways: dismissing the issue in public, while privately worrying about its potential impacts. Far more relevant today [...]

Cold storage

admin — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:21:40 +0000

First published in Energy World, September 2011. Only connect. In the last twelve months Britain has shelled out £4.3 million pounds to wind farms that were not producing power even though the wind was blowing. Over the same period our power stations and heavy industries chucked 800 gigawatt hours of waste heat up the chimney, [...]

European supergrid ‘decades away’

admin — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 09:47:23 +0000

First published in Windpower Monthly, September 2011. Plans to build a European supergrid to distribute wind power from the northwest of the continent and solar from the south are decades away from realisation, according to Tim Yeo, chairman of the UK parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, which is investigating the potential benefits of [...]

Last Oil Shock now available as e-book

admin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 06:44:00 +0000

The Last Oil Shock is now available as an e-book. To buy a copy click here. To read what the experts think about it, click ‘read more’. “What they didn’t want you to know: oil’s dirty little secret…” Lloyds List “A well written exposition of the peak oil case” Ed Crooks, Energy Editor, Financial Times [...]

Europe pays for Germany’s nuclear ‘Nein danke!’

admin — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:09:38 +0000

First published in the New Scientist, 29 July 2011. Europe’s energy consumers will find themselves paying a high price for Germany’s decision to get out of nuclear power. FOR decades, Germany has had some of the most enlightened energy policies in Europe. It has long been admired for setting world-leading growth in wind and solar. [...]

Coal and gas to plug German nuclear gap

admin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 07:08:11 +0000

First published in the New Scientist, 7 July 2011. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government claimed to be “ushering in the age of renewables” as German MPs passed legislation this week to phase out nuclear power by 2022 – but the basic arithmetic of the energy-switch policy suggests the country will struggle to fill the hole left [...]

David MacKay interview

admin — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 09:00:44 +0000

First published in Sustainable Business, 4 June 2011. My interview with David MacKay has the feel of a university tutorial. Perhaps it’s not surprising, since the chief scientific advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change is a professor of physics at Cambridge. But the impression is reinforced in his cramped office on the [...]

DECC model highlights inconvenient energy truths

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 07:00:07 +0000

First published in Energy World, 1 June 2011. For those of us with an anorak in the closet, the government’s new online energy planning tool, the 2050 Pathways Calculator, has provided hours of perplexing fun. The goal is to cut British climate emissions 80 percent by mid-century while keeping the lights on, through choices about [...]

How BP got into another fine mess

admin — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 21:00:59 +0000

The immediate cause of BP’s latest Russian crisis is the ruling last month of an arbitration panel in Switzerland. But its roots spread all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, and as far back as the company’s last but one chief executive. And it all reflects the company’s floundering attempts to secure production growth [...]

The real cost of not going nuclear

admin — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:00:05 +0000

First published in the Utility Week, 1 April 2011. Just because the nuclear backlash was inevitable doesn’t make it right. Long-standing opponents have naturally seized on the Japanese emergency in a bid to reverse the industry’s budding renaissance, and in Europe at least there is a chance they could succeed. Industry share prices have slumped [...]

Turbine revolution

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:39:44 +0000

This article is published in the Ecologist, Sustainable Business, and the April edition of Energy World. When Thanet wind farm off the Kent coast opened to great fanfare last September, it was no surprise that Energy Secretary Chris Huhne was there to cut the ribbon. At 300 megawatts (MW), Thanet is the world’s largest offshore [...]

My2050@lastoilshock

admin — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:58:21 +0000

Here’s my initial take on DECC’s new energy planning toy, My2050, launched this week. The aim is to cut emissions to 20% of 1990 levels by 2050 and keep the lights on. There are screenshots of my choices below. Of course, the emissions target is probably too generous and fails to reflect the latest science, [...]

IEA forecasts conceal bigger crisis to come

admin — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:34:10 +0000

British energy policy is founded on dangerously optimistic assumptions that need to be urgently reassessed, according to a paper from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) published today. As the upheavals in the Middle East drive the oil price ever higher, the report identifies a litany of questionable assumptions that underpin the forecasts of the [...]

BBC World Tonight interview: Saudi Arabia

admin — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:33:21 +0000

To hear my interview about Saudi Arabia on BBC World Tonight, click on the link below. Strahan_BBC_World_Tonight_1.3.11 NB Some listeners have reported problems with lastoilshock.com podcasts using Quicktime, but they seem to play perfectly well on RealPlayer and Windows Media Player.

Oil price set to double if production is cut off

admin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:08:49 +0000

First published in the The Independent on Sunday, 27 February 2011. Oil prices surged to a thirty-month high this week as the turmoil in Libya cut supplies by over 1 million barrels per day, raising the chances of a global supply shock that could push the economy back into recession. Brent crude reached almost $120 [...]

Old Iran hand casts doubt on Saudi, Libya

admin — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:41:27 +0000

As the last oilman out of Iran in 1979, Jeremy Gilbert knows just how it feels to be caught up in a Middle Eastern revolution. Hospitalized and desperately weak with hepatitis, he was left behind in the general evacuation and only escaped by walking through Iraq – after being forced to kiss the shoes of [...]

Saudi denial not what it seems

admin — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:37:07 +0000

Sadad al-Husseini’s statement distancing himself from the Wikileaked cable written by US diplomats in Riyadh is most interesting for what it leaves out. While robustly denying claims that were not actually made in the original message – always a good tactic when you’re on the back foot – the former VP Exploration & Production for [...]

Saudi powerless to delay global peak

admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:25:49 +0000

So, Wikileaks has finally delivered some news you can use. A cable written by US diplomats in Riyadh towards the end of 2007 contains a clear and ‘insider’ forecast of Saudi peak production in the early 2020s. After meeting Sadad al-Husseini, former head of exploration and production for Saudi Aramco, the diplomats reported: In a [...]

Saudi reserves

admin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:43:13 +0000

Much excitement today about the Wikileaks revelation that Sadad al-Husseini, former head of exploration and production at Saudi Aramco, told the US consul general in Ryadh in 2007 that Saudi Arabia’s reserves have been overstated by 300 billion barrels, or some 40%. Sadad has been saying publicly the world’s reserves are falsely inflated by that [...]

BP’s troubles have only just begun

admin — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 05:00:35 +0000

First published in the The Independent on Sunday, 20 June 2010 As BP reels from its toughest week yet since the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, investors warn the longer term outlook for the embattled supermajor is likely to worsen. Even as the share price bounced towards the end of last week – in relief [...]

Why America should thank BP

admin — Mon, 31 May 2010 06:00:06 +0000

This article was first published in the The Independent, 1 June 2010 Hollywood loves its villains to have an English accent. After the Deepwater Horizon disaster it was inevitable American commentators would deride BP as British Petroleum and its CEO as Tony Wayward. But even as Gulf Coast residents despair and BP fumbles from one [...]