Another very very interesting book written by Daniel Yergin, "The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern". I haven't bought it yet but probably will order from Amazon.com at about $22 before the shipping cost. The book is sold in Australia for A$45 so I am willing to wait.
Having read the first sentence in the Introduction page (from Amazon), I feel it won't take long at all to finish the 816-page well written book about the energy sector.
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World presents a gripping account of the quest for the energy that our modern world needs. Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize–winning book, The Prize. A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change. The Quest is a story that spans the energies on which our society has been built and the new resources that are competing to replace them.
The New World Of Oil
The Gulf War opened a new era—one defined by the tumultuous politics that accompanied the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Iraq War, turmoil in the Middle East, the surprising impact of innovation, and China’s emergence as a huge thirsty oil consumer.
In this new setting, rivals jockeyed for control of pipelines and energy fields in Central Asia. Sober observers wondered out loud—and continue to wonder—whether the United States would clash with China over petroleum reserves. And the shock of higher oil prices reverberated across the world economy, redistributing wealth on a global basis – and affecting every consumer at the gasoline pump.
The interplay between world events and oil – the world economy’s most important commodity – continues today.
Securing The Supply
On the eve of World War I, Winston Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty, faced a momentous decision: whether to push Britain’s Royal Navy to convert its fuel source from domestic coal to imported oil. Oil would improve the fleet’s speed and flexibility, but he was deeply troubled by one risk—that the navy might somehow be cut off from the main source of its oil supplies in Persia, now modern Iran.
Churchill’s answer would become a fundamental touchstone of energy security: diversification of supply. “On no one quality, on no one process, on no one country, on no one route, and on no one field must we be dependent,” he told Parliament in July 1913. “Safety and certainty in oil lie in variety and variety alone.” That precept has proved itself again and again.
The challenges of energy security are more complex than ever. They begin with the Middle East and traditional geostrategic concerns, but the risks now include cyber terrorism, extreme weather, rapidly-growing demand from the emerging markets, political clashes in other regions, and the vulnerability of the world’s supply lines to piracy. It is not only oil—the growing global natural gas market and the electricity grid are all subject to systematic shocks.
Securing the Supply explores the vulnerabilities of our energy system and how to bolster its security around the globe.
The Electric Age
The Electric Age captures the evolution of our increasingly electric society – from that moment in 1882 when Thomas Edison pulled the switch for his Pearl Street Station in Lower Manhattan, to the U.S. Navy’s development of nuclear reactors, to the quandary of fuel choice, to the nuclear disaster at Fukushima.
In the 1950s, Ronald Reagan—as a spokesperson for GE—hailed the virtues of the “all-electric home.” Today, electricity is pervasive—animating everything from our iPhones to massive factories.
Yet, as consumers, we are largely oblivious to the immense complexity behind the smooth delivery of power. When we turn on the lights, there is none of the uncertainty and anxiety that gripped Thomas Edison when he threw the switch in 1882. We simply expect the electricity to flow. It is only when something goes wrong—like the East Coast blackout of 2004 or the California electricity crisis—that we take notice. The Electric Age shows how this system came to be, how it is getting “smarter” and the cascading consequences when it falters.
Climate And Carbon
How did climate change go from being a subject of interest to a few scientists to a dominating issue of our time? Climate and Carbon tells the unexpected story of how man’s scientific quest to understand the earth’s atmosphere merged with policy to make climate central to the future of energy.
More than a century ago, high in the Alps, a few scientists and explorers began to ask questions about the age of the earth. They came to a heretical conclusion: there had been an Ice Age before our present age, and the composition of the atmosphere might explain why.
Today we know that carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases are part of the 62-mile-high blanket of gases separates us from the emptiness of outer space. These gasses are climactic balancers. If the concentration of greenhouse gases grows too high, the temperature within this global greenhouse will rise.
While early scientists considered the concept of climate change a curiosity, today the prospect is viewed with alarm. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon in massive quantities, a practice that some scientists have called “the experiment.” Climate and Carbon explores how scientists came to understand the atmosphere—and the political struggles that have ensued and are sure to intensify.
New Energies
New Energies vividly illuminates the forces that are remaking our energy world. Entrepreneurs, scientists, environmental activists, politicians and venture capitalists are all seeking to catalyze the emergence of a large-scale renewable energy industry.
It’s not the first time. A bold effort in the 1970s to push for alternatives to imported oil and fossil fuels foundered in the 1980s in the face of a collapse in prices, energy gluts, and a major political shift. The Economist described this once buoyant solar industry as “a commercial graveyard for ecologically minded dreamers.”
Yet today, renewables are back, and with new strength – led by wind and solar.
Wind power has been utilized for thousands of years, but it is only in the past decade that it has started to achieve scale. The science of photovoltaics was first explained by Albert Einstein in 1905, but its practical application was still decades away. While solar cells remain costly, they are considered one of the most-promising long-term prospects for providing large-scale carbon free electricity.
In addition to these renewables, there is one more technology with the potential to improve sustainability in our energy sector – efficiency, the giant of conservation potential.
Road To The Future
How long will oil hold onto its dominance as biofuels and batteries percolate through the transportation system?
A century ago, at the dawn of the automotive age, a great contest emerged between Thomas Edison and Henry Ford over the heart of the automobile. Would it be a battery, or an internal combustion engine? Despite Edison’s best efforts, his electrics were outclassed by the engine and what Edison called the “hydrocarbon.” Ford may have called Edison the greatest man he had ever known, but it was Ford, not Edison, who was the victor in this epic race.
Batteries and biofuels had seemed destined for the dustbin of “could have been” technologies—but today they are back.
The race between electric vehicles and internal combustion engines that seemed so thoroughly decided by 1911 is on again–the second lap has only just begun.
offshore-engineer เขียน:ลืมพูดไปหนึ่งประเด็นครับ ถ้าสังเกตุกราฟราคาน้ำมันที่แปะไว้ด้านบนจะเห็นว่า ราคา Brent เริ่มสูงกว่า WTI เหตุผลหนึ่งที่นำมาใช้อธิบายปรากฏการณ์นี้คือ การผลิตก๊าซธรรมชาติในอเมริกาจาก Shale Gas เพิ่มขึ้นอย่างมาก ล่าสุดราคาก๊าซที่ Henry Hub อยู่แถวๆ $3 (ที่เมืองไทย ราคาขายก๊าซของ PTTEP น่าจะอยู่ราวๆ $4-5) ประเด็นนี้ต้องจับตาดูให้ดีครับ อุตสาหกรรมปิโตรอย่าง Dow Chemical หันมาเปิดโรงงานในอเมริกาแทนเพราะราคาก๊าซอยู่ในระดับต่ำนั่นเอง หนังสือเล่มนี้กล่าวถึง Shale Gas ในบทที่ 16 ครับ ไว้อ่านถึงแล้วจะมาเล่าให้ฟังอีกทีครับ
A little bit side-track from the book, the Resources and Energy Quarterly for December Quarter 2011 published by Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics, Australian Government explains the causes for price differential between WTI and Brent.
Crude oils differ in quality across fields and regions. Generally crudes with low density (light) and low sulphur content (sweet) are of higher quality compared to high density (heavy), high sulphur content (sour) crudes. Light sweet crudes require less processing, produce more valuable products and, therefore, attract higher prices.
West Texas Intermediate is light sweet crude oil that is typically produced in northern US and Canada, and is the traditional price benchmark for US crude oil. WTI is traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and priced against delivery to Cushing, Oklahoma. Generally, WTI is refined in the Midwest of the US or transported to Cushing for distribution to other refineries.
Brent North Sea crude, or Brent, originates from the North Sea, northeast of the United Kingdom. It is also a light sweet crude, although typically of lower quality than WTI. Consequently, WTI has historically attracted a higher price than Brent.
However, since the start of 2011, the price relationship between WTI and Brent has not reflected their relative quality and in September 2011, the price of Brent averaged US$24 a barrel, or 28 per cent, higher than WTI.
Several factors have contributed to this price premium reversal. One factor is the effect of increase stocks of WTI crude in Cushing, which have put downward pressure on the WTI price. Increased production of unconventional oil in the US and Canada, combined with a recent lull in consumption in the US, and a bottleneck in pipeline capacity out of Cushing, has caused WTI stocks to climb.
Meanwhile, other factors have placed upward pressure on the price of Brent. Firstly, production in the North Sea during 2011 has decreased relative to 2010. Secondly, production shut-ins in Libya during the 2011 civil war disproportionally affected the Brent market, as Libyan crude is a key source of oil for many European refineries.
In October 2011, the price premium for Brent over WTI declined, reflecting the restart of Libyan production. As production in Libya continues to increase, this output will place further downward pressure on the price of Brent.
In 2012, the price premium for Brent is likely to diminish. There are plans to reverse a pipeline that connects the Gulf of Mexico to Cushing, allowing 150 000 barrels a day of crude to flow to the Gulf coast from the second quarter of 2012, increasing up to 400 000 barrels a day by 2013. News of the pipeline reversal saw the Brent premium fall to as low as nine dollars in November. The pipeline reversal should relieve the bottleneck, reduce stocks in Cushing and put upward pressure on the WTI.
เห็นพี่ Paul สนใจเรื่อง shale gas ที่ประเทศจีน ผมมีบทความจากนิตยสาร Economist เรื่อง Breaking new ground : A special report on global shale gas developments ถ้าพี่ Paul สนใจเดี๋ยวผมส่งไปให้อ่านครับ บทความดังกล่าวไม่ได้พูดถึงแต่ประเทศจีน แต่ยังรวมถึงประเทศต่างๆทั่วโลกที่มีศักยภาพในการผลิต shale gas
เห็นพี่ Paul สนใจเรื่อง shale gas ที่ประเทศจีน ผมมีบทความจากนิตยสาร Economist เรื่อง Breaking new ground : A special report on global shale gas developments ถ้าพี่ Paul สนใจเดี๋ยวผมส่งไปให้อ่านครับ บทความดังกล่าวไม่ได้พูดถึงแต่ประเทศจีน แต่ยังรวมถึงประเทศต่างๆทั่วโลกที่มีศักยภาพในการผลิต shale gas
ขอบคุณครับน้อง Offshore ถ้าพอมีเวลาส่งให้ผมด้วยครับ ผมเชื่อว่า Shale Gas มันกำลังเปลี่ยนโครงสร้างด้านพลังงาน และ อุตสาหกรรมปิโตรเคมีของโลก เลยทีเดียว
โพสต์
.. แต่จริงๆ อยากอ่านมุมมอง ความคิดเห็น ของ คุณ Offshore ด้วยค่ะ ..
ดีจริงๆ สำหรับคนแก่สายตาไม่ค่อยจะดี อ่านหนังสือมากๆไม่ไหว 
บันทึกไม่สำเร็จ