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One piece of information that slipped out during the gas price rise furore was that N. Sea gas is expected to be severely depleted by 2015.
I鈥檇 be interested to know how much longer it鈥檚 thought that oil and gas will be forthcoming from the N. Sea, what will happen to the economy once it stops flowing and if we as a country are preparing for this.

why is there no one from Newsnight on Headcases? Has it been dumbed down?

Grangemouth was a wake-up call. There are many issues which Newsnight could investigate. How finely balanced are our reserves?
Did we ever get back into surplus the refinery that exploded and burnt down?
Why should the price of diesal have "flipped" to become more expensive than unleaded when it was the easiest to refine. Two possible agruments. Profiteering as more diesals are on the road or the cost of the extra additives to reduce emissions.
How far will the cost go up? Some are saying today as high as 拢1.50/litre or even 拢2/litre.
My contacts in the business keep telling me that diesal is in short supply and it is literally a "hand to mouth" existance.

Why were tankers some weeks ago being turned away from the Manchester depot as there was no diesal?

Why did the big oil producers some years ago decide to reduce the profit/litre to small stations, hence why you see so many roadside garages closing , to allow the big supermarkets to set the price? Irrespective that they are cheaper, they are still making over 5p/litre profit . That is why many TESCO and Sainsbury's can offer a 5p. reduction if you spend 拢50 in store. Some deal was struck with Government support on this. Is there a cabal/price fixing operating?

Why isn't the public benefitting from the increases in revenue from the price of oil, we find at 拢50m per day? (plus VAT at the pump)?

Why should the refinery workers not contribute 6% as all other Final Salary public sector workers do? Surely as a compromise they could agree to this with a guarantee that all should benefit including new recruits. There were some moves in the past to increase the 6% to public sector workers but it is now too near election time.

What pressure is being put on OPEC to increase their output? Is the only way the price will come down is that motorists use less?

And Finally is it right that BP and Shell? should make such high quarterly profits as reported today?

Newsnight get some of the independent spokespeople on this topic and reps. from the big petrol companies/refineries. WE all nee the true picture rather than speculation and a hope that "we need not panic".

Bookhimdano (2)

Disappointing that we haven't featured on Headcases, yet, but I see Jeremy's picture is prominent on the new look Have I got News for You

Peter

Jeremy's picture

Yes It's the only time we see Jeremy on a Friday night !

Liz,

I assume you are planning a full programme on "the oil story", otherwise you won't do it justice!

I'd see the key issues as:
a) National security for both energy supplies and distribution - is it adequate?
b) Global price pressures - how should the UK respond in policy terms for the long-run, especially given the large short position in energy run by countries such as the USA, China, India, Japan and Korea? What are the diplomatic implications for the rise in the power of Russia, the Gulf etc?
c) Why is it that the large UK-based mulitinationals are afraid to do deals that grow their reserves? Is the political risk of operating in the UK seen as unacceptably high given the taxation changes imposed on North Sea oil over the last 10 years and the perennial threats of windfall taxes?
d) Why is the City not prepared to invest in smaller energy companies? Most of them currently trade as if oil was going to be at $70 in the long-term, rather than the current $105 or so implied by the long-dated futures markets.

That would do for starters. Fiddling about with the issues raised by the Grangemouth dispute would only be scratching the surface!

regards

I think it most certainly a good idea to 'attempt' to pull the strands of the oil debate together. Quotes should be taken from Richard Heinberg, author of The Oil Depletion Protocol, Former Environment Minister,Michael Meacher etc. One cannot attempt to pull the strands of this argument together without taking about Peak Oil production and Opec's insanely optimistic estimates for the future. Furthermore, I imagine that any talk of maintaining and advancing oil production should preclude an analysis of just why the Americans invaded Iraq? Surely middle-eastern oil reserves are a great boon to a country which uses up more crude oil than any other nation on the planet? Another line of questioning could involve the potential conflict that could arrive following oil depletion. We depend on oil to carry food to local supermarkets, to fuel fighter-jets, to maintain international prestige among lesser oil-producing countries, to provide employment for the production of other significant products and tools.

What's worrying is the comment made by Michael Meacher in the documentary: Oil, Smoke and Mirrors. He relates the following: "We are discovering less and less oil fields... Most of the fields we extract from are from the 1970s" Meacher also makes the point that we are "consuming each year 3 times more oil than we are discovering." This comes to around "84-95 million barrells a day." Such opinions should be mentioned if the issue of oil is to be discussed. One final issue might be that of how alternative fuels 'may' do much more damage to the environment than formerly imagined.

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Do the moderates moderate, or do they censor? What exactly is the difference?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

To pull all strands of the oil story together quickly why not interview Alex Salmond?

The other oil economist turned politician is of course Vince Cable.

and then for Labour and political balance
(as this is an election week in England)
you could bring in Tony Benn ...............
and Zak Goldsmith for the Tory Greens?

afganistan excitment well, 'how jolly' for us viewers....

HOpe the report will look at just why the uk is fighting this and the Iraq war?

Have you all forgotton the WMD Bliar (and Brown supported it) lie?

Can we have a report on how much this is all costing the taxpayer? I.e. the real reason the 10% tax rate had to be doubled up!? Plus Britain's working poor have to contribute to the outrageous more than a few billions quid so capitalism (via a nationalised debt) can be saved! And something about the oil - well it is the same story isn't it? Isn't our pipe line crossing Afghanistan etc etc...

And then there is the reason why skunk (potent cannabis) is being home grown and with harmfull results - compared to the old fashioned stuff that used to come from Afghanistan. The British soldiers are (apparently) there to stop the relatively harmless 'black' stuff (and the much needed poppy as morphine is in short supply in hospitals)being manufactured there.. Will that be in the report? HA!