New York Times-Peak Oil on the horizon?

[jetflyer]

Here are two articles on what is going on in China:

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/China/GH06Ad04.html

Guangdong drivers queue at the pumps

August 6, 2005

Surging demand for fuel in Guangdong has led to severe shortages of gasoline and diesel, prompting officials to impose rationing.

Many filling stations in Guangzhou are limiting each car or truck to adding 50 yuan (HK$48) worth of fuel, newspapers said. They said some stations were completely sold out and cheaper types of fuel were not available anywhere.

...

Photos in newspapers showed scores of taxis and cars lined up at filling stations in Guangzhou. Some drivers were pushing cars that had run dry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4748665.stm

S China drivers face fuel famine

Petrol shortages are developing in Guangdong Province, the industrial belt that produces one third of China's manufacturing exports.

Drivers are reportedly having to queue for rationed petrol and shortages are hurting petrol station profits.

Refiners are also limiting output of some fuels in the face of soaring crude oil prices and domestic price caps, the official China Daily reported.

"I've seen business drop by around one third since I stopped being able to get 90 gasoline," a Guangdong petrol station manager called Liang told Reuters news agency. Ninety gasoline is a popular budget option.

Taxi drivers are suffering too. "You can barely find 90 anywhere", said driver Xiao Weisong. "How can we make a living like this?"

The Chinese government is causing SHORTAGES at the gas stations. The govt. is forcing the local gas stations to sell at DISCOUNTED RATES. They are instead selling the gas on the open market outside China, where they can make more money.

Eventually the price caps are going to have to be lifted. When they are, that is when the chinese consumer is really going to be hurt by the high costs.

Jet

 

[JimNtexas]

Here is a good debunking of the core "peak oil" arguments.

 

[jetflyer]

Three other good articles on China's oil problem:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/19/content_470601.htm

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050816/china_fuel_shortages.html?.v=1

http://en1.chinabroadcast.cn/855/2005/08/19/[email protected]

Shanghai Not Hit by Fuel Shortage: Local Government

Shanghai has denied the city's fuel supply is in trouble. It comes amid growing concerns that the acute fuel shortage in southern China has spread to Shanghai and neighboring provinces. From Shanghai, CRI's Wang Jing has more.

Over the past week, many Shanghai drivers have found it is getting difficult to have their vehicles fueled. Some had to visit several gas stations before getting the gasoline they need.

But spokeswoman Jiao Yang of the municipal government has denied this is a sign of a fuel shortage.

"We are confident that the supply of gasoline is at normal levels."

Signs of supply shortages began surfacing earlier this month in southern China's Guangdong province.

In the southern city of Shenzhen, more than half of all gas stations closed this week as the situation worsened.

Media reports say the supply shortage has spread to east China provinces and to Shanghai.

Gasoline wholesale has been suspended in Shanghai's neighboring province Zhejiang.

Although the crisis is considered to be a result of disruptions to tanker traffic due to recent typhoons, analysts believe there are other reasons.

Yang Hong is an analyst with East China Oil Gas, a Shanghai-based website engaged in market information and analysis.

"The increase of domestic oil prices is far lower than international oil price increases. The fact that China is more dependent on imported crude oil drives up the cost to refineries. Their margins are falling when they sell their product domestically."

Retail prices of gasoline and diesel has been raised three times this year, but retail prices are still 40 percent lower than international crude.

But Yang Hong adds Shanghai as the country's financial hub, is unlikely to be hit by the crisis. He believes the government would fix the problem.

Shanghai government spokeswoman Jiao Yang says the government has strengthened its supervision and set up a pre-alarm system.

"We will pay special attention to the gas supplies going to buses, taxies, hospitals and other public facilities."

China's largest energy and chemicals company, Sinopec, earmarked an extra 25 thousand tons of gasoline for Shanghai by the end of July.

For Realtime Beijing, this is Wang Jing.

 

[LAXSaabdude]

The Chinese government is causing SHORTAGES at the gas stations. The govt. is forcing the local gas stations to sell at DISCOUNTED RATES. They are instead selling the gas on the open market outside China, where they can make more money.

Eventually the price caps are going to have to be lifted. When they are, that is when the chinese consumer is really going to be hurt by the high costs.

And Chinese consumption will drop precipitously, and prices will stabilize.

LAXSaabdude.

 

[jetflyer]

And Chinese consumption will drop precipitously, and prices will stabilize.

LAXSaabdude.

I think I speak for all of us when I say, "Let's hope"

I think Oil and energy in the near future, are going to be the most talked about items in our lives.

There are some good technologies out there in the works, that almost seem magical. They possibly could propel our aircraft and cars. They are nothing any of you would be familiar with. Tesla, inventor of DC power theorized this technology would be our number one source of energy one day. The technology is called "Zero Point Energy". There are about 12 companies working on getting this technology to market soon. The government has worked with ZPE since 1986, and Boeing is even trying to bring the technology to everyday use. There have been great breakthroughs in the last year or two, and one company in particular plans on having demonstration devices for the end of this year. Let's hope they succeed.


Jet

 

[Ty Webb]

I think I speak for all of us when I say, "Let's hope"

I think I speak for sane people everywhere when I say,"You need to wake the hell up. Someone has gotten inside your head, stolen your brain, and replaced it with dog-doo and conspiracy theories.".




.

 

[jetflyer]

poo for brains. yuck