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• Israel, Denmark hooking cars to electric grid

  Posted Sep 02 2008, 04:19 PM by Jon Markman
  Filed under: Energy, oil, economy, Jon Markman
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  The number of practical new plans to dump crude oil from the modern transportation system is advancing at breathtaking speed. Last week, I wrote about the new Fisker Karma electric car, and now I’ve been reading about a new electric-car system lifting off drawing boards to completely replace gasoline-powered cars in Israel and Denmark.
  
  According to the cover story of the the latest Wired, a former SAP software exec named Shai Agassi has developed an end-to-end system, called Better Place, aimed at helping smaller countries eliminate their dependence on imported crude oil. Israel was a natural first choice for the idea, since it has no oil of its own and all purchases fund its Arab enemies. Denmark has a glut of wind energy, and wants to use it to power cars.   Read More...

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• Petroleum engineer is the new hot job

  Posted May 06 2008, 12:05 AM by Jon Markman
  Filed under: Energy, oil, Jon Markman
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  If soaring gasoline prices are blowing a hole in your commuting budget, perhaps you ought to consider going to work for an oil company. That seems to be the employment road to riches these days, as the industry reportedly faces the loss of half of its aging work force over the next decade.
  
  According to a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the energy industry will lose as many as 15% of its engineers in just two years to retirement, and has therefore launched an all-out assault on finding, training and retaining new young staffers. It sounds like the boom in demand for software developers in Silicon Valley in the '90s. Bonuses and perks are escalating as companies vie for talent. Report author Pritesh Patel said new workers will stream into the industry from around the world, but there will still be a “knowledge gap” that will hamper efforts to find and exploit new oil and gas reserves.
  
  It sounds like this is a better direction for college graduates to head than the traditional havens of medicine and law. The Society of Petroleum Engineers has published a survey that shows the average base salary for petroleum engineers was $122,458 in 2007, up 5% from 2006. Bonuses, housing allowances, retirement plan contributions and the like reportedly push the average compensation to $167,712. All this at a time when doctors and IT pros are facing cutbacks.   Read More...

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• North Dakota oil discovery called biggest in U.S.

  Posted Apr 10 2008, 03:53 PM by Jon Markman
  Filed under: Investing, Energy, oil, Jon Markman
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  Watch out, Texas!  Get back California, Louisiana and Alaska! North Dakota and Montana are on track to knock all of you off your high horses as the oil capital of the United States.
  
  According to a government report published today that has stunned the energy biz, a thin layer of rock known as the Bakken Shale, located a couple of miles under the Badlands, holds up 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil, making it the single largest oil reservoir that federal scientists have ever assessed. 

  At today’s price of $110 per barrel, that puts the value at $475 billion, give or take a few bill, or more than enough to make people think ND stands for North Dallas. Or maybe that’s New Dhabi. 
  
  The U.S. Geological Survey only assessed the Bakken Shale in U.S. boundaries, so the full extent of the find, which stretches north into the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, will ultimately be larger. Already the estimate for “technically recoverable” oil – or that which is exploitable using current technology -- is 25 times higher than the last time the USGS surveyed the area, in 1995.   Read More...

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