Tag Archives: petroleum

Strait of Hormuz: oil supply chokepoint

Another example of the risk of petroleum supply interruption: the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz. While it’s hard to imagine that United States military forces wouldn’t prevail in a conflict with Iran, that confrontation might easily escalate.

Excerpted from Oil Price Would Skyrocket if Iran Closed the Strait of Hormuz by Clifford Krauss  at NYTimes.com:

HOUSTON — If Iran were to follow through with its threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit route for almost one-fifth of the oil traded globally, the impact would be immediate: Energy analysts say the price of oil would start to soar and could rise 50 percent or more within days.

An Iranian blockade by means of mining, airstrikes or sabotage is logistically well within Tehran’s military capabilities. But despite rising tensions with the West, including a tentative ban on European imports of Iranian oil announced Wednesday, Iran is unlikely to take such hostile action, according tomost Middle East political experts.

United States officials say the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, based in nearby Bahrain, stands ready to defend the shipping route and, if necessary, retaliate militarily against Iran.

Iran’s own shaky economy relies on exporting at least two million barrels of oil a day through the strait, which is the only sea route from the Persian Gulf and “the world’s most important oil choke point,” according to Energy Department analyst

What does this mean? We think it’s most important in understanding how fragile our dependence on oil is – particularly because protecting requires us to ask our military personnel to put themselves in harm’s way. Petroleum dependence – energy policy – shouldn’t be a casus belli. We have other choices – conservation and renewable energy sources. If we reduce our dependence on oil, we win in many ways: reducing risk to our armed forces; cheaper energy, and better environmental and health outcomes.

Reducing the power of the current Iranian ruling elite is a bonus.

Plastic Bags: a not-so-disposable problem, and the aggregate of small solutions

From reuseit.com, here are some  Fast Facts on Plastic Bags:

Market Tote from GraniteGear.com

  • 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year, worldwide.
  • About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.
  • A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.
  • More than 3.5 million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were discarded in 2008.
  • Only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled (BBC).
  • The U.S. goes through 100 billion single-use plastic bags. This costs retailers about $4 billion a year.
  • Plastic bags are the second-most common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette butts (2008)
  • Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down.
  • Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.

We’re talking about, we suspect, two main uses: bags used in the transportation of goods – and bags used to transport “waste,” including the garbage bags themselves, discarded shopping bags – and sometimes shopping bags re-used as garbage bags.

Tara Lohan, in The Great Plastic Bag Plague,  (On Alternet, 2007), cites industry sources for the proposition that American retailers spend $4 billion/year on plastic bags – adding, of course, to the cost of goods – without reflecting their full environmental cost. Lohan cites other sources for the proposition that 12 million barrels of oil are used , annually, to produce plastic bags used in the United States. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that average daily use of petroleum products in the United States – the world’s largest consumer – is 18,771,000 barrels/day. Assuming we’re not in a leap year – 1/365th is .0027 (rounded) of our energy consumption. Put another way, slightly over one-quarter of one percent (0.27%). And 12 million barrels would be about two-thirds of that.  Thought of another way – 18 million barrels per day – 365 days per year – 6.5 billion (6,570,000,000).  So plastic bags amount to 0.18% of our petroleum consumption.  1 component of  6,570 equal components. So what difference does it make if you accept a plastic bag, or bring your own reusable bag?

In WW II ((One of the ways in which the  Allies gradually wore down the Axis was by depriving it of – no surprise, we hope – petroleum.  Richard Overy, in Why The Allies Won, contends that Allies’ gradual degradation of Axis energy supplies made a great contribution to the eventual Allied Victory.))     , three million soldiers retook the continent (the invasion of Western Europe, sometimes referred to as Operation Overlord)  during and after D-Day. Each soldier’s contribution amounted to 0.12%  One in three million – without counting the various Resistance groups, support troops and civilians in the United Kingdom and the United States.  Total U.S. troop count: 16.5 million. The Philippines suffered over 50,000 military deaths alone. (For total WW II casualties, see Wikipedia entry of that name).

So  – the aggregate of many small, coordinated contributions is dramatic. Get a reusable shopping bag, and use it. In future posts, we hope to point out some good deals on reusable bags, and revisit the principle of aggregating small acts. For an always-brilliant take on individual action about energy, particularly heating, check out Ellen Honigstock’s  ToePrint Project.

And:

Our earlier post, International Herald Tribune: Ireland rids itself of a plastic nuisance – Ireland’s early success with a small tax on disposable bags.

Oil pipeline explosion kills 27 in central Mexico – Wikinews, the free news source

The explosion of an oil pipeline in San Martín Texmelucan de Labastida in central Mexico has killed at least 27 individuals and injured 56 others. Twelve of the dead are children. Over 100 homes were damaged and at least 30 of them were destroyed. The explosion had an estimated blast radius of three miles.

Describing exploding gas tanks that flew through the air, Carlos Hipolito, who fled the scene with approximately 60 relatives, described the incident to Milenio Television as a “catastrophe”. Living ten blocks from where the explosion occurred, 58-year-old Jose Luis Chavez explained that he had heard a minimum of two loud explosions and witnessed flames rising over 10 meters (30 feet) into the air.

It is thought that at the Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) pumping station where the incident occurred, a gang of criminals were attempting to illegally tap crude oil from the pipeline when they punctured it. Valentin Meneses, Puebla state interior secretary, stated: “They lost control because of the high pressure with which the fuel exits the pipeline.”

Pemex has explained that the theft of oil from the pipelines causes them to lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Juan José Suárez Coppel, the head of the company, stated that the pipeline section near to the location of the blast was tapped illegally on 60 occasions. He also reported that across Mexico, 550 cases of illegal tapping had occurred.

Expressing his condolences to the families of those that had died because of this incident, Mexican president Felipe Calderon stated that the federal government is to launch an investigation to try to establish the identities of the offenders and apprehend them.

via Oil pipeline explosion kills 27 in central Mexico – Wikinews, the free news source.