Conversations on Vietnam Development
The oil industry, with its history of booms and busts, is in its deepest downturn since the 1990s, if not earlier.
Earnings are down for companies that made record profits in recent years, leading them to decommission more than two-thirds of their rigs and sharply cut investment in exploration and production. Scores of companies have gone bankrupt and an estimated 250,000 oil workers have lost their jobs. Tiếp tục đọc “Oil Prices: What’s Behind the Drop? Simple Economics”
The U.S. Navy is touting its “Great Green Fleet,” but why haven’t biofuels made a bigger splash despite a decade of hype and investment?
technologyreview – Last week the U.S. Navy, with its accustomed pomp and fanfare, launched its first carrier strike group powered partly by biofuel—in this case, a blend made primarily from beef fat. The biofueled warships form a central element of the Navy’s Great Green Fleet program to draw half of its power from clean energy sources, rather than petroleum, by 2020.
Attended by secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, the ceremony masked what has been nearly a decade of problems for biofuels—an energy source once touted as capable of virtually eliminating the use of petroleum in the transportation sector. Today biofuels production and consumption stand at a fraction of the levels foreseen under the Renewable Fuel Standard, a federal mandate signed by President George W. Bush that requires fuels made from corn, sugarcane, and other biological sources to be mixed into the nation’s gasoline supply. Tiếp tục đọc “The Problem with Biofuels”
Low energy prices ought to be a shot in the arm for the economy. Think again Jan 23rd 2016 | From the print edition Timekeeper
economist – ALONG with bank runs and market crashes, oil shocks have rare power to set monsters loose. Starting with the Arab oil embargo of 1973, people have learnt that sudden surges in the price of oil cause economic havoc. Conversely, when the price slumps because of a glut, as in 1986, it has done the world a power of good. The rule of thumb is that a 10% fall in oil prices boosts growth by 0.1-0.5 percentage points.
In the past 18 months the price has fallen by 75%, from $110 a barrel to below $27. Yet this time the benefits are less certain. Although consumers have gained, producers are suffering grievously. The effects are spilling into financial markets, and could yet depress consumer confidence. Perhaps the benefits of such ultra-cheap oil still outweigh the costs, but markets have fallen so far so fast that even this is no longer clear.
The new economics of oil
The world is drowning in oil. Saudi Arabia is pumping at almost full tilt. It is widely thought that the Saudis want to drive out higher-cost producers from the industry, including some of the fracking firms that have boosted oil output in the United States from 5m barrels a day (b/d) in 2008 to over 9m b/d now. Saudi Arabia will also be prepared to suffer a lot of pain to thwart Iran, its bitter rival, which this week was poised to rejoin oil markets as nuclear sanctions were lifted, with potential output of 3m-4m b/d. Tiếp tục đọc “Who’s afraid of cheap oil?”
Tiếp tục đọc “Finding the Silver Pipelining in the Keystone XL Decision”
Jun 18, 2014
UNDP VN – Ha Noi, 18 June 2014 – “Fossil fuel subsidies should be phased out and a price set on carbon,” the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Viet Nam has recommended in a discussion paper launched today.
The paper, “Green Growth and Fossil Fuel Fiscal Policies in Viet Nam – Recommendations for a Roadmap for Policy Reform” argues that despite the Government’s commitment towards green growth and restructuring the energy sector including price reform, there are still substantial indirect subsidies on fossil fuels in the country.
According to the paper, Viet Nam’s energy prices are low compared to other countries in the region. Although there have been significant price increases, average retail prices remained the same during 2008-2013, and are in fact lower than the previous five-year period, when measured against 2002 prices taking into account inflation. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam: Fossil fuel subsidies need to be phased out”
IEA report sees continued shift to coal and increasing dependence on oil and gas imports
8 October 2015 Kuala Lumpur
IEA – The energy landscape in Southeast Asia continues to shift as rising demand, constrained domestic production and energy security concerns lead to a greater role for coal, a sharp rise in the region’s dependence on oil imports and the reversal of its role as a major gas supplier to international markets.
“As Southeast Asia flourishes, it is moving to the centre of the global energy stage,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. “Countries in the region now have much in common with IEA members. We must all work together to build more secure and sustainable energy supplies and markets, as platforms for promoting economic development.” Tiếp tục đọc “Emergence of Southeast Asia as energy giant carries risks, opportunities”
The revelations about Volkswagen’s diesel emissions hurt not only the German carmaker, but the diesel industry overall.
The cars in question include the Passat, Jetta, Beetle, Golf, and Audi A3.
MITtechnologyreview – When Volkswagen debuted the so-called “clean diesel” Jetta TDI sedan and wagon in 2009, it was regarded as something of a breakthrough. The company claimed its new diesel technology would reduce emissions—most notably soot and nitrogen oxides (NOx)—without disrupting the car’s exemplary efficiency or performance.
We now know that unsuspecting owners of some 500,000 VW diesel cars in the United States—and as many as 11 million worldwide—were all the while subjecting themselves and others on the road to extraordinarily high levels of the emissions that cause smog. The company’s CEO apologized after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed that VW used technology to produce overly forgiving results during smog tests that did not match emissions on the road. Tiếp tục đọc “What the VW Scandal Means for Clean Diesel”
Updated : 09/10/2015 17:31 GMT + 7
Other subsidiaries of the Seoul-based firm want to join the Vietnamese energy, life insurance, and oil and gas sectors, Samsung Vietnam general director Han Myoung Sup said in a meeting with Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son in Hanoi. Tiếp tục đọc “Samsung eyes role in Vietnam’s insurance, energy, fuel sectors”
CVD 