My takes - Peak Oil Crisis and the Energy policy

Posted by Abhijith as Uncategorized

Peak Oil

I was listening to a talk on the Peak Oil Crisis, there are a few points I must share too. These are not points I have come up with, but I have read/heard over time.

There was an article in The Hindu reproduced from the New York Times about 2 years back. It was a very introspective, and threw up a lot of interesting facts. The OPEC stated that the production of a country shall be a percentage of their reserves, which would means that the oil produced would be severely limited by a number. However, after this policy came out, many countries, especially in the Gulf, increased the estimates of the reserves they had overnight - without any scientific proof. What this essentially means, is that we don’t actually know exactly how much oil there is in these countries, and, when it will run out.

Regarding Peak Oil, as the person mentioned, many oil fields have hit peak oil, which is basically that the oil produced from the oil field will not increase any more, due to lack of new oil finds. These include the ones in the North Sea(BP) and the American ones. The newest major oil fields are Venezuela and Africa. Strategic investments by China means that they are taking control of a lot of the African reserves, while Venezuela is constantly threatening USA with a boycott, constantly keeping them on tenterhooks. There is always news of new finds - the Orinoco belt in South America, off the Brazilian coast, the Arctic and the Antarctic - which we may soon turn to if need be.

Energy policy

There is a lot of hue and cry about China being the largest polluter, being the next largest consumer of oil and so on. India is also being ‘accused’ of being behind them in such statistics. But my point is, being the two largest countries by population, aren’t we supposed to have such proportional usage? Well, the fact that we are increasing our rate of consumption at a time of crisis is also a valid argument, but with many parts of the country still lacking infrastructure and the benefits others enjoy, I feel we have every right to use necessary resources. On the one hand, we are taunted for having a backward society. On the other, we are rapped for consuming resources. Why?

The European Union recently announced measures to take ‘action’ on the world’s largest polluters, read China and India, but we are simply providing facilities to our people. The finger in fact should be pointed at the major consumers, the US mainly, for ‘using more than what is required’. Indoor temperature control, mass movement of goods, fuel inefficient vehicles(imagine - a ‘normal’ SUV has an engine capacity of 4 litres - in India that powers a truck).

In essence, rather than make comparisons by plainly quoting No.1 and No.2, the statistics need to factor in per capita consumption, economic development, current usage and the actual want for consumption. If such a chart is ever prepared(has it been?), India and China will be justified in their efforts.

India and China’s energy policies

At the same time, our own energy policies are flawed - many elders would recollect that Beijing was a country of bicycles - very few cars - and now that trend has reversed. As with India, I read an article in the Frontline, that the current policy of the government, which is encouraging auto manufacturers, is wrong, as it puts more pressure on limited roads and subsidised oil, which has to be imported. It should be the opposite - investments should be made in public transport, simultaneously with heavy taxes on private transport - in an effort to push people to use more cheaper forms of transport. Hence instead of allowing a Tata Nano we should think about more metros, ways of including them in already existing infrastructure. From my previous post on the Tata Nano, I would like to reproduce:

A very simple example to quote, from my experience, is that in places like Erode, Salem and Namakkal, many businessmen travel a lot by bus - because there it is reliable, cheap and on time.

Note that they can’t afford it, but choose not to.
This ultimately boils down to what every person should do to reduce energy consumption, or to be even more specific reduce dependence on non-renewable sources of energy. Dumping as little as we can, reusing as much as possible, recycling the best we can…. Writing is one, reading is one, thinking is one, doing things, is altogether different.

first posted at http://abhijith1729.blogspot.com/

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April 21, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

Comments

One Response to “My takes - Peak Oil Crisis and the Energy policy”

  1. Sunil on June 3rd, 2008 2:19 am

    Abhi…..way to go…very good blog
    u have done ur homework well

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