Bitume e Sabbie Petrolifere

Marine militari di 8 paesi per proteggere petrolio nel Golfo di Guinea Una guardia costiera speciale unificata è stata costituita da otto paesi dell’Africa occidentale che affacciano sul Golfo di Guinea. Il ministro della Difesa nigeriano, Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi, ha precisato che la decisione è stata adottata dopo aver definito “interesse comune prioritario” la sicurezza delle acque del Golfo di Guinea, molto ricche di petrolio e fonte di notevoli introiti grazie alle concessioni off-shore che le aziende petrolifere di tutto il mondo si contendono. La nuova guardia costiere – che si chiamerà Gulf of Guinea Guard Force (Ggcf) – sarà composta da Nigeria, alla guida dell’iniziativa, Camerun, Guinea Equatoriale, Sao Tomé e Principe, Gabon, Angola, Repubblica democratica del Congo e un ottavo paese ancora non indicato. E’ l’interesse della comunità internazionale per il Golfo di Guinea - crescente alla luce del persistere di forti aree di crisi in Medio Oriente e nel Golfo Persico – ad aver spinto i paesi a consorziarsi e a prendere l’insolita iniziativa. “La crescente importanza del Golfo di Guinea nelle politiche internazionali può essere fonte di minacce” ha detto il ministro nigeriano della Difesa. “Il Golfo di Guinea, con le sue riserve di greggio stimate in 30 miliardi di barili, è il singolo più grande deposito di greggio di tutta l’Africa sub-sahariana e sta diventando rapidamente un’importante area strategica per le nuove politiche mondiali in materia di energia” ha aggiunto il ministro Aguiyi-Ironsi, spiegando la necessità dei paesi dell’area di difendere “i comuni interessi marittimi nella regione”.

l'Afica occidentale, golfo di Guinea sta scatenando grandi entusiasmi e a differenza di arabi, russi e sudamericani gli africani lasciano spazio libero alle societa' occidentali ... By some estimates, Africa holds 10% of the world's reserves, but that figure belies the importance West Africa has already achieved as a source of energy. According to Poisoned Wells, a new book on African oil by Nicholas Shaxson, an associate fellow with international affairs institute Chatham House in London, the U.S. imported more oil from Africa than from the Middle East in 2005, and more from the Gulf of Guinea than from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined. Nigeria, the giant of the region, supplies 10-12% of U.S. oil imports. "There's a huge boom across the region," says Erik Watremez, a Gabon-based oil and gas specialist for Ernst & Young. "Exploration, drilling, rigs, pipes. It's exploding." Ann Pickard, Shell's regional executive vice president for Africa, agrees: "The Gulf of Guinea is an increasingly important place." Indeed, says Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, West Africa is "only going to get hotter. It has the location and the resources; the technology is now there to develop them; and companies from all over the world want to be in on the action." Rising demand from India and China and worries over instability in the Middle East have fueled higher oil prices, and those in turn have precipitated a new scramble for energy — oil rigs worldwide now have to be rented a year in advance. There are several reasons why the Gulf of Guinea is a key focus of this rush. African oil is high quality, with a low sulfur content that requires little refining to get it to the pump. The Gulf is relatively close to the U.S., cutting shipping costs to the world's biggest oil consumer, and most of the reserves are out to sea — which means there's no need to construct pipelines through different nations to get the stuff to market. Equally important: unlike some other oil-rich countries, African nations welcome foreign companies to their oil fields, as there are no indigenous African oil majors. In his 2007 book Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, John Ghazvinian, a visiting fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, explains the euphoria like this: "African oil is cheaper, safer and more accessible, and there seems to be more of it every day ... No one really knows just how much oil might be there, since ^no one's ever really bothered to check...#http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1626751,00.html^

E per raffreddare un po' il solito ottimismo exaggerato del GiZeta: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/canadian_oil_at.php http://petrolio.blogosfere.it/2005/12/il-canada-e-le.html http://www.oilcrisis.com/ May 15, 2007 Albertans Want Oil Sands Companies to Pay for Pollution Media Contact: Amy Taylor A recent poll reveals that more than 90 percent of Albertans want oil sands companies to be held responsible for their share of industrial pollution by applying the "polluter pays" principle. These observations are the result of a recent poll conducted by Probe Research, a professional polling firm based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The findings are based on a province-wide phone survey of 500 Albertans conducted between April 3 and 16, 2007, with a margin of error of 4.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20. "Oil sands operations have massive impacts on Alberta's boreal forest and water supply. They're also expected to cause nearly half of Canada's greenhouse gas pollution growth between 2003 and 2010," says Amy Taylor, Senior Economist with the Pembina Institute. "Albertans clearly understand that meaningful improvements will only happen once pollution becomes a cost that businesses have to factor into their decisions." "Polling data from last week showed that 70 percent of Albertans want oil sands producers to achieve absolute emissions reductions," adds Taylor. "Today's results only serve to reinforce the conclusion that Albertans are light years ahead of their leaders when it comes to the environment." The Probe poll also investigated Albertans' perceptions of the current oil sands royalty regime, which was designed ten years ago to spur oil sands development by applying relatively low royalties. A clear majority of Albertans now want the system reformed to reflect the true value of the resource, in particular, by tying royalties to companies' profits. Albertans also want their government to take a leadership role in maximizing value for citizens, and to start investing for the future by dedicating 1/3 of oil sands royalties to renewable energy and energy efficiency. "Albertans own the oil sands resource," says Taylor. "The provincial government manages the resource on Albertans' behalf and as manager, has a duty to obtain maximum value for the resource owners by limiting commissions - the profit earned by resource developers - to a reasonable return on investment." The Pembina Institute will be making a presentation to the expert panel assigned to review the oil sands royalty regime (as well as the royalties applied to conventional oil and natural gas) on May 22 in Calgary. The presentation, preceded by a press conference at 10:30 AM, will show how royalties could be reformed to maximize value for Albertans while maintaining investment viability. A backgrounder describing the survey questions and findings in detail is available at www.pembina.org. Information on the royalty review is available at www.albertaroyaltyreview.ca.

Interessante articolo sulle ^rocce, non sabbie questa volta, petrolifere del Colorado#http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aoZ7q9LhDrVs&refer=exclusive^ che contengono potenzialmente riserve superiori a quelle dell'Arabia Saudita estraibili sui 30 dollari al barile (siamo a 67 dollari ora per cui è diventato economico) La tecnologia sta facendo progressi incredibili e tra le protagoniste noto ^Nabors#^ a cui siamo affezionati qui come "trivellatore" e anche la nostra ^Raytheon#^ che teoricamente si occupa di difesa militare ma le sue tecnologie hanno tante applicazioni questo sono idee di lungo periodo

Un ondata di clima temperato sia in nordamerica che in europa ha affondato petrolio, gasolio e gas naturale dai massimi (-20% e -28% dal massimo di settembre) e ha sgonfiato parecchi titoli energetici Questo non toglie che 57$ dollari al barile e circa 50 euro (a causa della svalutazione del -13% dell'euro quest'anno) siano prezzi che spingono a cercare alternative al petrolio L'alternativa più accessibile sono le sabbie petrolifere dette anche "scisti" che sono formate da un miscuglio di bitume, sabbia, acqua e argilla e si trovano soprattutto in Canada Ci sono titoli grandi e piccoli nel settore sabbie petrolifere come ad esempio ^Petrobank#^ una società piccola di cui parla il guru austriaco che scrive ^sul forum di SiliconInvestor#http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=21882267^