Shell seeks Colo. water for oil shale production

Shell Oil has filed for the first major water right on the Yampa River in northwest Colorado for its oil shale development plans.

Shell applied Dec. 30 in state Water Court to use about 8 percent of the Yampa's peak spring flow.

Shell spokesman Tracy Boyd says the water would be shipped to a reservoir for later use in oil shale production.

Critics say extracting oil from shale will use too much of the West's scarce water. Some estimates say it could take up to three barrels of water to produce a single barrel of oil.

SMH - Perthlings, please take us to your railway system

I say most cities have serious rail projects, because Perth does not. It has spent the last 20 years modernising and extending its railway, largely because of the political backlash to a conservative state government's attempt to close the railway down - in the middle of the first major oil crisis. It mobilised everyone and showed how important a modern electric railway was to the future resilience of the city.

Perth's new Southern Railway already is something of a model for other cities as they prepare their plans. It goes deep into the outer suburbs, places badly hit by last year's oil crisis (a foretaste of many more). Now, 50,000 people a day are carried along a corridor that before could only manage 14,000 on buses. It cost $30 million a kilometre, including a one kilometre tunnel under the city and two river crossings. Sydney's recent Epping-Chatswood rail project cost $200 million a kilometre due to the extensive tunnelling.
The Southern Railway is a model in other respects, too. Most significantly for Sydney, some stations have transit oriented developments, or TODs. These are high density, mixed-use areas with homes, shops and offices, designed to integrate closely into the station and which can provide a local area with many city services.

Worldwide concern is growing over high oil prices, the security of supply of fossil fuels and its impact on many sectors of our society. Such concerns voiced at the oildrum over the past years are becoming part of the mainstream energy discussion. On 21 & 22 January 2009 a major business conference will be held in the Netherlands in which I am involved as an advisor in my role as President of ASPO Netherlands.

I invite you to come and listen to top executives and leaders from many industrial sectors who will explore the effects of high oil prices in their field of expertise or industry. Day 1 is dealing with political and macro economic aspects of changing oil supplies. Day 2 is teaching more about specific economic sectors, like Transport & Infrastructure, Food & Agriculture, Energy Systems and Chemicals & Materials.

There will be many speakers including Maria van der Hoeven (Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs), Matthew Simmons (invited), Peter de Wit (President Shell Netherlands), Kjell Aleklett (ASPO International), Jeremy Tomkinson (CEO The National Non-Food Crops Centre), Jörg Schindler (ASPO Germany) and Ger Bemer (CEO Royal Nedalco). For Conference Agenda and Registration, go to the the Permanent Oil Crisis website.

Under the fold, find the highlights from the program. Come to Amsterdam!

Russia oil output falls for first time in a decade

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil production fell by around one percent in 2008, official data showed on Friday, the country's first annual decline in a decade after large increases in previous years and a sign of things to come.

The decline is widely expected to continue because of ageing reserves and plunging oil prices, which combine with heavy taxation to leave producers with limited cash to invest in maintaining production and opening new fields.