China’s Oil Stockpiling Suggests Fossil Fuel Dependency Unlikely to Decline

Elizabeth Balkan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:00:08 +0000

In a rare admission of China’s strategic petroleum reserve capacity, a senior industry executive acknowledged that all four state-owned emergency oil reserve tanks – holding a total 100 million barrels – are filled to the brim.

Revealing that China’s current stockpiles have already exceeded the capacity of the first phase of facilities, which the government built over the last two years, China Shipping Group President Li Shaode urged the government to use foreign exchange reserves to finance floating storage capacity in the short term.

Li’s comments come after a string of recent oil- and gas-related events in China. Within the last few months, China has entered into natural gas supply agreements with Myanmar, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and has already begun construction on needed pipelines. Just yesterday, China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) signed a 25 year gas supply agreement with Qatar.

Environmental Catastrophe: The Aral Sea is Almost Gone

Jennifer Lance — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:36:58 +0000

The Aral Sea is landlocked between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and it was once the world’s fourth largest inland sea.

Due to Soviet irrigation projects, the Aral sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s. In 2007, the sea had shrunk to 10% of its original size, and what remains is heavily polluted from weapons testing, industrial projects, pesticides and fertilizer.

The shrinking Aral Sea has also caused local climate change effects, such as hotter, drier summers and colder, longer winters. Kazakhstan is trying to save the remaining the northern part of the Aral Sea.

Image: Wikipedia

Green Options » Kazakhstan

China’s Oil Stockpiling Suggests Fossil Fuel Dependency Unlikely to Decline

In a rare admission of China’s strategic petroleum reserve capacity, a senior industry executive acknowledged that all four state-owned emergency oil reserve tanks – holding a total 100 million barrels – are filled to the brim.

Environmental Catastrophe: The Aral Sea is Almost Gone

Due to Soviet irrigation projects, the Aral sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s. In 2007, the sea had shrunk to 10% of its original size, and what remains is heavily polluted from weapons testing, industrial projects, pesticides and fertilizer.