The Sky is Falling

So this is my last post in my Minecraft themed energy blog. I have really enjoyed writing this blog and I hope you have enjoyed reading it and have found it informative. I am saying farewell to all my dear readers for now although I might write more posts in my blog in the future especially regarding the current economics crude oil prices situation. I will also update my blog if there are any major changes in the energy industry that occur in the foreseeable future. I have personally learned a lot about oil and energy and hope that you have all found my blog informative too. One of the reasons I picked this topic is because I am considering doing an MSc in geology or finance and energy thus now I feel like I have something to talk about at my interview if I do apply and actually know what I am talking about which is always a bonus. J I have also realized through writing this blog that I definitely find the topic interesting and am now seriously looking at MSc courses related to the energy industry.

A quick summary of my blog. In my blog I have covered The Anthropocene and climate change; global energy consumption; Malthusian theories of consumption; global distribution of oil as well as its formation and recovery methods; peak oil phenomenon and the debate of how much crude oil we have left; possible undiscovered oil reserves of the Arctic; non-conventional oil and the implication of its recovery; renewable energy; nuclear energy and disasters and a little bit about the current oil economics global affairs. Thus I have covered a whole scope of different areas including geography, economics, geology, photography and politics.

The slogan question at the top of my blog states: “Is it the apocalypse of the Black Gold era and what are the alternative- from dusk till dawn or are we all doomed?”. I think I have a little bit more knowledge to answer this question after the creation of my blog. Although I discovered that the crude oil situation on the planet is indeed a sorrow site, which is also quite scary, there are a lot of other potential sources of energy. Although all these areas such as yet undiscovered Arctic oil, non-conventional oil, renewable and nuclear energy all require a great amount of research still to be done, I think there is still time for the research to take place and humanity shall be ready for change, the day crude oil runs out. Unlike the peak oil documentary, it is clear that crude oil will not suddenly disappear so I think we don’t really have anything to worry about right now however more research is certainly needed. With those thoughts, I shall leave you all and I wish everyone an amazing 2015!

Thank you very much for reading,

The Creeper.

Dead Bats

Whilst I might be a fan of taxidermy, bats and dead things, it is safe to say that this is not everyone’s hobby or pretty site. Furthermore animal protectors, vegetarians and all the other groups of people may be truly disturbed by deaths of animals due to humans even if its bats. Wind power is not always good and when I wrote my previous post about it, I did not seem to come across any major disadvantages however I have just stumbled upon a very interesting article telling me that wind turbines cause increased bat fatalities especially during mating season. Thinking about it logically, I am sure they also cause bird fatalities however in this post I just want to quickly express my thoughts about bats and summarize that article.

The article states that bats are dying in unusual number at wind turbines especially during low-wind conditions in the late summer and autumn. Tree bats species are the most susceptible to increased mortality rates hence it is assumed that this occurrence is due to the fact that bats are mistaking wind turbines for trees due to their limited day time vision and turbines being tall structures that remind them of trees. The article used thermal surveillance cameras that were installed on wind turbines to try perform a control experiment and observe the bats’ behavior to try work out whether these fatalities are actually influenced by the turbines. The article found that the speed at which the blades on turbines rotated effected bat behavior (Cryan, 2014). As the new modern turbines are very quiet as well, it increases bat fatalities as the sounds of blades rotating does not scare the bats away from turbines but if anything, attracts them to the turbines as the sounds remind bats of leaves and branches of the tree moving due to the wind. Bats reproduce in trees hence the attraction of bats to turbines to begin with. Further more ecological research suggest that bats can sense and respond to air currents and thus it is easier for them to yet again mistake the blades for tree branches. Whilst the article is uncertain about specific causes of why bats are attracted to turbines, it does seem to imply that they are and bat mortality is increased.

So from this information we can conclude that wind power generation can actually have some negative effects for the ecology and our environment and it is not a completely environmentally friendly method of producing energy. Bat deaths make me sad as I find bats a very nice little creature and hence below is a picture of a screaming businessman- one of Francis Bacon’s portraits that describes well my feelings about increased bat mortality rates due to our desire to produce energy.

Figure 1.

Source: Tate. “Study for a Portrait” or “Businessman I” or “Man’s Head” by Francis Bacon.

Arctic Prospective Oil Resources

In a world desperately thirsty for oil, the Arctic and its resources seems a very appealing option. With increasing demand for oil and increasing prices, there has been higher interest shown regarding the Arctic on the global scale. In 2008 US Geological Survey estimated that the are north of the Arctic Circle has 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and 44 billion barrels of natural gas. This represents 13% of the expected undiscovered oil in the world (USGeological Survey, 2008).

The Arctic Circle appears to encompass 6% of the Earth’s surface, one third of which is found above sea level and another one third is in continental shelves beneath less than 500 m of water. The rest is deep ocean basins historically covered by ice (Gautier, 2009). Deep oceanic waters are known to have low oil potential at the moment but the continental shelves of the Arctic potentially have very high recoverable oil hidden within them. Until very recently the Arctic was seen as a very remote and technically difficult region to access with high costs of oil recovery. Whilst low-cost recovery oil was still widely available, little exploration was done in the Arctic. Some offshore wells have been drilled such as those in Mackenzie Delta, the Barents Sea, offshore Alaska and the Sverdrup Basin but even these were seen as economically unsustainable and hence were abandoned (Gautier, 2009).

However now there is an increasing interest in the Arctic due to various factors. Firstly after decades of substantial ice melting, the Northwest east passage can become a viable transportation route hence the Arctic becomes more accessible following the major decline in ice cover since 1987 (Harsem, 2011). Secondly in 2007 Russia planted a deep sea flag at the North Pole- Arctic region as an important evidence of leadership of the Kremlin. Third oil prices increases push for new discoveries to sustain high demand for oil. Finally in 2008 US geological study stated that about ¼ of the world’s undiscovered oil is probably located in the Arctic.

The exploration of the Arctic oil is still considered more technically challenging than any other environment. The USGS estimates that 84% of the oil and gas there is located offshore which means it is more difficult and expensive to recover than the oil and gas from onshore oil fields. Furthermore the US Geological Survey (USGS) did not consider economic factors such as the effects of permanent sea ice or oceanic water depth in its assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources (USGeological Survey, 2008). Nevertheless all these difficulties don’t seem to scare the northern countries in the race to obtain these territories with the aim of exploration them for resources. The four Arctic countries- Russia, US, Canada and Norway are already looking to expand their activities in the Northern region whilst Iceland and Greenland are looking at becoming oil and gas producers. Figure 1 below shows the oil fields that are assessed by the USGS in their 2008 report about the Arctic oil. It is obvious that with oil being as highly valued resource as gold, new formations and the right of exploration could create major geopolitical conflicts between the countries involved. It is especially worrying as Russia and USA are involved- historical opponents and competitors against each other so perhaps we have a worry of another cold war approaching!? Russia has already landed some deep sea flags in the area to try and claim the northern territories.

Figure 1.

Source: USGS, 2008. Location of Arctic Basins assessed by the USGS.

Whilst little research is done to this day regarding the Arctic, its resources and whether they are economically sustainable to recover, evidence seems to suggest that the region certainly has a fair amount of unexplored resources buried under the surface. All of the northern countries that have potential access to the area are currently undertaking research into the area and its resources. Perhaps the Arctic oil is our solution to the problem of scarcity of oil and will push the peak oil point further away from what it could be otherwise hence oil is a worry for a very distant future. Also perhaps it could mean that non-conventional oil resources do not need to be explored just yet meaning high costs and likewise renewable energy is not the only solution.

Deathly Hollows

Before I move onto non-conventional oil and renewable energy, I just thought I’d a little blog post of the “documentary” I have watched about peak oil the other day. This program was filmed by National Geographic and it explores what would happen to our world if all of the oil run out immediately and before we adapted to other ways of obtaining energy. Although it is classed as a documentary, it is more of a fictional horror film of how society would not manage without oil. Most of it is obvious anyway but it is a good little horror film of the potential oil apocalypses and the deathly hollows of the absence of oil for our civilization today. I think it should be taken with a pinch of salt however it does portray well how important oil is in our every day life today which we might not even always realize.