{"id":9481,"date":"2019-04-18T09:33:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T07:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9481"},"modified":"2019-04-18T09:39:37","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T07:39:37","slug":"global-witness-tampering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/9481\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Witness Tampering"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning I received an email from an outfit called Global Witness<\/a>. Let’s take a look:<\/p>\n

All of the $4.9 trillion the oil and gas industry is forecast to spend on exploration and extraction from new fields over the next decade is incompatible with the Paris Agreement\u2019s 1.5\u00b0C goal, according to new analysis by Global Witness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of it? I confess, when the signing of the Paris Agreement was being celebrated by world leaders, I didn’t realise it meant an immediate and total halt on global oil and gas exploration and production. You’d have thought someone might have mentioned it.<\/p>\n

The report, Overexposed, published today, is the first to compare the latest 1.5\u00b0C climate scenarios used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with industry forecasts for production and investment. It finds that any oil and gas production from fields not yet in production or development would exceed what climate scenarios indicate could be extracted and burned while still limiting warming to 1.5\u00b0C.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’d love to see the equation they’ve used to derive global temperature changes from oil and gas production figures. Sadly, the link to their methodology (.pdf)<\/a> doesn’t include it, or any explanation of how they’ve arrived at this conclusion.<\/p>\n

ExxonMobil is forecast to spend the most in new fields over the next decade, followed by Shell. Together with Chevron, Total and BP these five oil and gas majors are set to spend over $550 billion on exploring and extracting oil and gas that is not aligned with the world\u2019s climate goals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Next up: Toyota stubbornly making cars while world demands jet packs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an alarming gap between the plans of oil and gas majors and what the latest science shows is needed to avoid the most catastrophic and unpredictable climate breakdown\u201d said Murray Worthy, Senior Campaigner at Global Witness and author of the report.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meaning, there is an alarming gap between oil and gas demand as expressed by its users and the quantity Murray Worthy thinks they should be using.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvestors will rightly be concerned that despite industry rhetoric to the contrary, the oil and gas sector\u2019s spending plans are so drastically incompatible with limiting climate change. This analysis should encourage the escalation of investor engagement efforts to challenge oil and gas majors to credibly align their business plans with the Paris goal.\u00a0Blindly pushing ahead comes with huge financial risks for investors, either as a result of the transition to a low carbon economy, or as the devastating consequences of a changing climate stack up.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a matter for investors, is it not? I hardly think investors in the oil and gas industry are so dumb as to not be aware of two or three decades of climate hysteria. I expect a good few are piling in on the basis that if the likes of Global Witness get their way, there will be a severe shortage of oil and gas supplies in future allowing them to make hay. No, what Murray Worthy is saying is he disapproves politically of how investors are spending their money, but dresses his words up as concern for their welfare.<\/p>\n

Global Witness\u2019 report finds it is only possible to claim this investment is compatible with the Paris climate goals by using scenarios that assume massive carbon capture and removal will take place in the future. This is despite the fact that these technologies remain unproven at scale.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which is pretty apt, given the technologies which will render oil and gas production unnecessary are also unproven at scale.<\/p>\n

The industry is at a crucial turning point; capital investment\u00a0has fallen by over a third since 2014, largely due to a slump in oil prices. Yet, investment is forecast to rise by over 85% over the next decade, reaching over $1 trillion a year. Two thirds of this is set to take place in new fields.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s almost as if investors don’t take you seriously, isn’t it? Now why could that be?<\/p>\n

Major capex projects in new fields that are due to be approved over the next decade include US domestic shale expansion, the Vaca Muerta shale in Argentina, the Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan and the Yamal megaproject in Russia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Kashagan field went into production in 2013<\/a>; I expect he’s talking about the expansion project<\/a>, which doesn’t make it a new field. Vaca Muerta has been in production since 2011<\/a>, and I expect he’s also talking about expansion projects. He’s on slightly firmer ground regarding Yamal; production on the Yamal peninsula started in 2017<\/a>, but the project I think<\/em> he’s talking about – the development of the Kharasaveyskoye field<\/a> – is yet to go ahead. However, that’s a Gazprom project, so nothing to do with the majors listed in the article. It’s therefore not surprising Global Witness and those with real money at stake are not on the same page here, is it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning I received an email from an outfit called Global Witness. Let’s take a look: All of the $4.9 trillion the oil and gas industry is forecast to spend on exploration and extraction from new fields over the next … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9481"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9485,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9481\/revisions\/9485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}