This will make wee burney jump for joy

[Rodney Mills]

Drilling for oil is no different from any other industry. Way back, years ago, it was no good searching for oil in thousands of feet of ocean, when deep drilling ability on water was measured in hundreds of feet. True oil companies would experiment on locations just outside the reach of current limits, that's how advancement proceeds, but not waste money on dreams, only governments using tax money not investor money can do that.

Slowly over the years advancement in drilling was made in both depth and even more hostile environment. Money wasn't spent on, finds added to oil reserves, in say national parks where drilling is forbidden. Today drillers can do horizontal drilling and stay outside the forbidden area and still recover the oil without doing surface damage. However, with demand for oil eroding today, with competition from renewable sources high tech dreams have a tendency to get pushed to the back burner.

The biggest problem are the costs involved in drilling in hostile or deep water vs. the costs paid per barrel. The same goes with fracking. Costs at the beginning were something like $90 a barrel which was Ok. while receiving back $120. but as the oil market collapsed the reduction of costs of recovery by fracking were always behind the sale price; consequently, most of the fracking companies went bust. Today the cost of fracking is roughly $50 per barrel, almost equal to the sale price per barrel. Fracking companies are slowly reentering the market and fracking for slightly above break-even margins, but the demand for oil is still down and falling.

The same has happened with coal: In 2011 there were 137,000 employed in the U.S. mines, as of March, 2017, there were 77,000 a loss of 60,000 jobs and the four largest mining companies declared bankruptcy last year and close their pits.

"A new study out of Duke University has shown that during the four years following the 2008 recession, [to 2012] the US coal industry lost more than 49,000 jobs, while at the same time the natural gas, solar, and wind industries across the country created nearly four times as many jobs as coal lost."


"The new research from Duke University, published in the journal Energy Policy, analyses county-by-county the losses and gains in the US electricity sector.
There are inherent stories involved in this research that need to be acknowledged, however. While on the surface, it appears to be a good sign for the renewable energy industry that the coal industry is hemorrhaging jobs, the reality is that those numbers represent people, and we cannot crow at their misfortune. However, the flip-side of that is that the coal industry is suffering, and in turn renewable energy industries like wind and solar — along with natural gas — are flourishing."

I do not understand that despite all the evidence and facts and figures to the contrary President Trump could promise the miners of Kentucky and West Virginia "Your jobs will be back and stronger." If any politician stood outside an abandoned coal mine in Yorkshire or Lancashire and said that to the unemployed you would die laughing.

[happy daze john in oz]

Rodders, the coal mines may well continue to flourish under Trump, but the fact is modern methods of extraction see the industry need less persons .

As we have found out here in some parts of Oz wind and solar will never provide base load, there has to be a solid reliable source of power particularly for business and industry.
China is still opening coal fired power stations and there was a report the other day on Oz TV that Japan new coal fired power stations.
Coal if burned at the correct temp can be a clean source of energy. In Ireland they still burn Peat, which is a form of coal at a lower level but not as it was many years ago, now turned into Peat bricketts it burns very cleanly.

[Rodney Mills]

I'm sure you are right Johno with reference to Oz., though our countries have roughly the same land mass the U.S. have the population that allows renewable resource energy to be successful. We have enough uninhabitable desert places to have enormous solar panel farms already in operation and growing as we speak, as Oz does too have desert space, but more importantly the U.S. is criss-crossed with grids to easily ship energy where it's needed and store it during slack periods, the same with wind and tidal production. Renewable energy is one of the fastest growing industries in the States. So here in the States the reliance on coal and oil is eroding annually as it continues to do in continental Europe. That's why mining companies are closing here. There is nothing on the horizon, other than wishful thinking, that is going to open mines back up in any number to make a difference in Kentucky or West Virginia. The projections all say more mines will close.

The Western States have enough known reserves of coal to last three hundred years (with our population that would conform to a thousand Oz. years) that doesn't count Alaska which has a small statewide population but heaps of fossil resources. I remember spending a lot of my former employers money in the 80s trying to win a catering contract on a large to be coal mine in Alaska, five years of marketing expenses came to naught, project cancelled. We catered the building of a coal mine and refinery to turn coal into oil in Parachute, Colorado. At the same time we were bidding on a large project called Colony Shale, two to three thousand camp population during construction, you can find these projects still on the inter-net. A multi, multi millions of dollars catering package. I think it was Shell who cancelled the bloody thing as we were sealing the bid. As did Exon (I think) who never put the Parachute mine or refinery into operation, but ceased operation. Not profitable enough. Even then, back in the 1980s oil and coal was going down the toilet. That was one of the reasons I took early retirement, the market was eroding in some areas and getting too sophisticated in others, the years of making big money in oil, coal, timber, etc, etc, (all over the world) was coming to an end.

As I have previously mentioned one of the projects catered was the Syncrude Oil Mine in Fort McMurry, Alberta Canada, so I have fairly regularly followed with interest this huge Tar Sands operation. It was the largest Remote-Site catering contract in North America, I'm not sure if it still is today.

[happy daze john in oz]

Like the USA we have a vast number of solar panels producing power, but not enough to sustain base load. Many houses, including mine, have solar panels on the roof getting a rebate from power companies, or in some cases state govs, for the power they put back into the grid. But now the power companies are complaining as with tis their profits are being eroded.
There is a big push for nuclear but the Labor and Greens say never, but how long is that?

We had a guy here, owned the local funeral parlor for years, who developed a wind turbine of great difference.
This one was designed for individual houses, unlike the big windmills this could turn to catch the wind no matter the direction and would not be affected by wind speed. There are some similar ones in Thailand and Vietnam.
He sold 40 to Honda to power their offices and tried without luck to sell the concept to a number of state govs.
He eventually sold the patent to China.

Queensland has about 500 years supply of coal and a Chinese company has just won the right to build and operate a new coal mine there to supply China's needs.
Whilst the new breed of energy production may be on the way the old style will I think be around for some time yet. Base load power is the key to any constant supply and until weather style production can be made as a constant the older production methods will remain.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Independent Scotland would be ‘most welcome’ to be full member of EU, say MEPs

Scotland would be “most welcome“ to join the EU if it voted for independence, according to a group of 50 politicians.

The open letter, signed by 26 MEPs and members of national and regional parliaments in Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Belgium, declared that there was a “tremendous amount of goodwill from across the continent towards Scotland’s European aspirations”.

The letter was mostly signed by Green MEPs, the same party that supported Scotland’s first bid for independence in 2014. The group lamented UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s push for a hard Brexit and acknowledged that Scotland, as a whole, had voted to remain.

“Therefore, if Scotland were to become an independent country and decided to seek to maintain European Union membership, we offer our full support to ensure the transition is as swift, smooth, and orderly as possible,” the letter, addressed to Scottish parliament, read.

It added: “Scotland would be most welcome as a full member of the European Union, with your five million European citizens continuing to benefit from the rights and protections we all currently enjoy.”

Independent Scotland would be ‘most welcome’ to be full member of EU, say MEPs

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Keith.
How much of a percentage of MEPs would that be.?
Des

[vic mcclymont]

There are 751 MEP's maximum allowed under the Lisbon Treaty.
Regards
Vic

[Keith at Tregenna]

Hi Keith.
How much of a percentage of MEPs would that be.?
Des

Ask Sturgeon ?

'OUR FULL SUPPORT' Group of 50 European politicians announce independent Scotland would be welcomed into European Union

It comes a week after the Spanish Foreign Minister said Spain would not block Scotland's attempts to apply for membership.

Think she has thoughts to unite with Canada also.

The group – which includes German Green MEP Reinhard Hans Butikofer, Malta Labour MEP Miriam Dalli, Greek Green MP Giorgos Dimaras and Slovenian Social Democrat MEP Tanja Fajon – also advised that they could not “tell Scotland what path to take”.

SHE SEEMS TO BE HOLDING MORE OF THE CARDS NOW IN SCOTLANDS DECK.

Certain she will decide not me, I just added current news to be discussed.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/new...uropean-union/

K.