Energy Forum

I was a panelist in the energy forum on the 29th of May 2008. Prior to the event I had done a few research no the international and local perspectives concerning energy. Mostly I researched on the Oil and gas market. I have had kept tabs on the rising oil and gas prices since 2002, when Bush decided to go to war in Iraq. The price of oil per barrel was $20. The current record high was reached on June 6, 2008, at $138.54/barrel. a lot of my research was using google, wikipedia and howstuffworks. just search on oil price and you got a lot of people talking about it. At the forum we had limited time, so I decided to share more in this blog.

Causes

From what I understand is that oil prices nominally increases in price mainly due to inflation and the cost of extracting it. The more oil we take out, the more harder it is to find and extract. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.

Market prices are usually due to the market supply and demand relationship, if something is abundant and the demand for it is little then it is cheap; and if something is limited supply but the demand is high then the would become expensive. Like an organism, the world’s population is growing and developing, and with this growth, the hunger for energy increases. Some have argued whether the supply is keeping up with demand. Personally I think it has, as I don’t see any signs saying “sold out” anywhere. Many have argued that the recent price hike is due to Market speculation which is in turn due to the weakening US dollar (due mainly to the sub-prime crisis), which entices people to invest more onto oil as commodity, especially since oil and gas is non-renewable resource makes it appear in limited supply. And then theres the geopolitical factors of what is happening oil producing countries such as war, rebellion and so on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_price.

The demand of Oil and gas prices are not solely on energy production, but it also greatly contributes to the world of chemistry. Petrochemicals are used to create plastics, synthesizing chemicals and cosmetics.

Effects

The ever increasing price of energy has forced some people to find and develop effiicient use of energy or alternative sources. Some of these are biomass, biofuel, hydroelectric, geothermal, solar and nuclear power. Interestingly each of these are derived directly or indirectly from the sun. each and everyone of these alternatives have their own advantages and disadvantages. Mostly it is a problem of efficiency, sustainability, reliability and environmental effects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_energy_sources.

The higher cost has also made the expensive extraction of difficult fossil fuels more viable. Such as those of Sand Tars and “Dry Wells”

One of the pressing economic problems of biofuel- the use of plants such as soyabean, vegetable oil and palm for diesel enhancement or replacement; has caused the increase cost of the world’s food cost. Which I think is making the world economy worst. Several countries are suffering because of this.

Future

A hopeful alternative is the use of novel methods, which have are being researched but are not commercially viable. My favourites include Fusion, Cold fusion, and zero point energy. Nuclear Fusion is a huge contender, but it has yet to produce more energy than it consumes. If alternatives such as these were to be achieved, it would solve the worlds energy hunger. Of course this may affect fuel prices to point that it would become less valuable as depicted in movies such as Chain reaction starring keanu reeves and morgan freeman.

I’ll be talking about how I think the energy situation will affect Brunei in my next blog.