Norwegian oil production may stop

[rawstory]

As seen on the liberal Drudge, http://www.rawstory.com

A Norwegian oil strike is threatening to shut almost all oil and gas output, raising chances of government intervention.

Following a week-long dispute, employers in the world's number three oil exporter said they would lock out all workers from offshore platforms from Monday at 22:00 GMT.

The move is designed to encourage unions to back down after a strike already cutting 375,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Norway's 3.0 million bpd output.

"We see no other option for ending the dispute than to impose a lockout," said Per Terje Vold, director general of the employers' Norwegian Oil Industry Association on the seventh day of a strike over pensions and job security.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4F9198E4-9211-473C-B2C4-DD10EACB9069.htm

[Frodo]

1. The Norwegians are about to acquire WMDs.

A "peacekeeping" force may be necessary.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. That would be the lutefisk, I presume

"To understand the relationship between aquavit and lutefisk, here's an experiment you can do at home. In addition to aquavit, you will need a slice of lemon, a cracker, a dishtowel, ketchup, a piece of lettuce, some caviar, and a Kit-Kat candy bar.

1. Take a shot aquavit.
2. Take two. (They're small.)
3. Put a bit of caviar on a bit of lettuce.
4. Put the lettuce on a cracker.
5. Squeeze some lemon juice on the caviar.
6. Pour some ketchup on the Kit-Kat bar.
7. Tie the dishtowel around your eyes.


If you can taste the difference between caviar on a cracker and ketchup on a Kit-Kat while blindfolded, you have not had enough aquavit to be ready for lutefisk. Return to step one."

http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~atman/ic/lutefisk.html

[Tellurian]

10. Cute story, m_v...thrilled I passed on my last offer..

no one tells the truth!

:::python:::

[mhr]

3. Yes! - The Indirect Impact Of Peak Oil!

www.dallasforkerry.com/mediascope/brainzone/

eom

[Geo55]

4. SA has approximately

1.3 mbs spare capacity as of now.....guess I'll go get myself one of them BIG ol' SUV's

[mhr]

5. What Is A "mbs" And Where Do You Get Your Data From?

eom

[Geo55]

7. sorry bpd...barrels per day

http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1645145-6098-0,00.html

[mhr]

8. Spare Capacity - Not Much

This from your article:

"If oil demand continues to grow as strongly as it has over the past year and a half, Opec's spare production capacity will soon be eroded, requiring significant increases to oil output sooner rather than later," says the Centre for Global Energy Studies, a consultancy founded by Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the former Saudi Arabia oil minister.

This from the BBC article cited in my link:

At ASPO's recent conference in Berlin, companies such as BP and Exxon and men such as Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, began to talk to the proponents of the peak oil theory.

Snip ......

In public, Mr Birol denied that supply would not be able to meet rising demand, especially from the buoyant economies in the USA, China and India.

But after his speech he seemed to change his tune.

"For the time being there is no spare capacity. But we expect demand to increase by the fourth quarter (of the year) by three million barrels a day."

Snip ......

"If Saudi does not increase supply by 3 million barrels a day by the end of the year we will face, how can I say this, it will be very difficult. We will have difficult times. They must invest."

This from Michael Ruppert also cited in my link:

Snip ......

He (Matthew Simmons - a Bush/Cheney advisor) insisted that it was imperative that we (the US) begin to examine every area where we use energy and find ways to become more efficient. As an example he said that using a burner tip in a multitude of industrial practices, or in boiling water, was immensely more efficient than converting gas into electricity. He suggested gong to a “three-shift” economy, where everyone would be required to work graveyard shifts about one-third of the time, was a way to avoid overloads to the grid. The reason is simple, he said. Power generating stations run all night while very little electricity is drawn. Plants cannot be shut down and restarted. After you turn an electrical generating station off, it takes a week to bring it back on line. That’s called “spinning” and it’s extremely expensive. “Instead of having everything peak between 4 and 6 PM you can spread it out and still have some growth because you’ll be making use of capacity that is not being used during off hours.”

I thought about how far ahead Europe, and especially Germany was in its thinking. All electrical uses in hotel rooms are made possible only when your room key is inserted into a slot. Leave the room, take the key, and everything shuts off automatically. Every gas station I saw in Germany had the option for people to purchase biodiesel, the cheapest grade of fuel, at about 90 US cents a liter. (And you think US gas prices are bad! Premium gasoline was selling at just under $5 (US) per gallon). At those prices it’s easy to understand why German drivers, when they come to ubiquitous railroad crossings, automatically shut off their engines until the train passes.

Public Enemy Number One, according to Simmons, is not SUVs but air conditioning. His top priority would be to design and build vastly more efficient air conditioners. Ironically, he believes that when gasoline reaches $7 per gallon (and he does), there may be a lot of people riding together in SUVs rather than in smaller cars. Let’s hope!

Snip ......

[Geo55]

9. It will be very expensive just to do everyday

things in the near future....the elephant in the living room is about to get off the couch

[TahitiNut]

6. "no other option for ending the dispute"??? (Bullshit.)

This is a clear case of extortion. The ethical objective is not to "end" a dispute, it's to arrive at a resolution. Any failure to resolve the issues in any dispute merely serves to prolong the animosity and heighten the antagonism. This is like a husband depriving his family of food and shelter because he's having an arugument with his wife. It's a power play.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.