i have just charted the pr may 2007 data given on p. 5.

UK oil and gas production

two questions:
is the summer fall in gas production because uk uses gas mainly for winter heating and has very little storage?
why does oil production fall in summer? do brits drive and fly less in the summer? maybe the august school holidays cause the economy to slow down?

Instead, greener, cleaner and dematerialised growth is seen as the solution to "one-planet living". Marks says these are necessary along with major reductions in resource use.

The University of Manchester study has calculated that a mere 10% increase in the amount of green space in built-up centres would reduce urban surface temperatures by as much as 4°C.

So his solution is to go for solar energy in a big way. Above all, he wants us to use it make hydrogen fuel, using artificial photosynthesis instead of the more familiar photovoltaic process. That requires a number of scientific breakthroughs that Nocera claims are within reach. One certainly hopes so, but there is an alternative that is within our technological grasp: space solar power. The scientific and engineering principles are well understood. The biggest obstacles are cost, of course, and the will to do it.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who met in Krakow with his counterparts from Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan to discuss ways of lessening Russian dominance in oil and gas supplies, declared the gathering a success.

The United States consumes about 60 billion cubic feet of gas per day -- about a quarter of its energy consumption. Gas heats more than 60 million U.S. homes and is the fuel of choice for generating power in many areas. At the same time, gas supplies are getting tighter.

The EU chose to follow Washington's lead. The proposals of the five members of the UN security council and Germany in June 2006 contained no guarantee of non-intervention in Iranian affairs. In response, Tehran suggested "that the western parties who want to participate in the negotiation team announce on behalf of their own and other European countries, to set aside the policy of intimidation, pressure and sanctions". Without such a commitment escalation is inevitable.

Leaders from Seoul to Sydney and Mumbai to Mexico City are expected at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, billed as helping to reduce cities' greenhouse gas emissions and develop more energy-efficient infrastructure.

Shanghai could become the first city in the world to build an infrastructure to support the use of hydrogen fuel cells, analysts and automakers say.

But a convergence of factors—recent innovations, consumers fed up with high gasoline prices, and a now-obvious environmental crisis—may finally be creating a tipping point. Auto manufacturers are pushing hybrid, diesel, natural gas, electric and other systems through R&D programs as fast as they can. But there won't be a single-point solution. "There's no silver bullet to deal with the challenges of climate change and energy security," says Joshua Cunningham, a program manager at the University of California at Davis's Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways project. He predicts that gasoline will remain a dominant fuel until at least 2050.

The move comes only days after the nation's energy minister said Venezuela is in "conflict" with Conoco over its refusal to sign an accord recognizing the OPEC nation's takeover of four multibillion dollar Orinoco heavy crude projects on May 1.

So when an e-mail arrives urging people to buy no gas on May 15 - saying it would take nearly $3 billion away from oil companies "for just one day" and promising a 30 cent a gallon drop in gas prices "overnight" - it's awfully tempting to go along, savoring that bit of guilty pleasure knowing you're sticking it to Exxon Mobil (Charts, Fortune 500), Chevron (Charts, Fortune 500), BP (Charts) or what ever oil company sells gas on your block. Don't be fooled. "A one-day boycott makes no sense whatsoever," said Tyson Slocum, energy program director at Public Citizen, a national consumer advocacy organization. "You're not reducing consumption, you're just buying on a different day."

In a Rose Garden announcement, Bush said he wanted to move ahead, pending any separate legislative approaches. The new rules will "cut gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles," he said.

Ghawar is the largest conventional oil field in the world. The field is entirely owned and operated by Saudi Aramco, the nationalized Saudi oil company. Relatively little is known about Ghawar because the company and Saudi government closely guard field performance information and per-field production details. Available information is predominantly historical (pre-nationalization), from incidental technical publications, or anecdotal.

The reason to understand Ghawar is simple: If Ghawar is in decline, it is very highly likely that world supply has plateaued.

The current spate of energy shortage would more than double to 2500MW in the next two months and the deficit would remain unmet even in the coming winter when demand for power falls drastically.

There will be no let-up in the load-shedding — described as load management in official jargon — both in summers and winters although it will fluctuate between 1400 to 2500MW beyond 2008-09. This shortage would prevail despite significant investments in system rehabilitation and load-management practices.

While corporation officials expressed optimism about receiving "good news" from IOC on Monday, NOC deputy general manager Umesh Dahal told The Kathmandu Post daily the corporation did not receive any fuel on Sunday as it is a public holiday in India.