Cambridge

The debate over the peak oil theory revved up Thursday after Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) and IHS Inc. said their indepth analysis puts the aggregate global decline rate at 4.5%, or only about half the 8% rate that many industry pundits have pegged.

Costs to construct new oil and natural gas facilities have nearly doubled since 2005 and have surged to record highs, according to the IHS/Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) Upstream Capital Costs Index (UCCI).

Costs to construct new oil and natural gas facilities have nearly doubled since 2005 and surged to record highs, according to the IHS/Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) Upstream Capital Costs Index (UCCI).

What a difference a year makes. In early 2006, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) featured a session at CERAWeek titled, “Is the Time Finally Right for Renewables?” This year, the buzz is not only about rising costs and profit margins, but about the number of sessions devoted to energy efficiency, climate change and biofuels.

Resource adequacy is the most pressing issue facing the power industry today, a top official with Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) said last Wednesday. There is a trend toward the issuance of request for proposals (RFP) to meet this challenge, but solicitations for capacity with long-term and short-term contracts are not necessarily silver bullets, CERA found.

While Sabine Pipe Line continues to lift its force majeure on a few more Henry Hub interconnects each day, Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ (CERA) Kenneth Yeasting, director of Eastern North American Energy, wonders if too much emphasis has been placed on the Erath, LA, pipeline hub as the benchmark pricing point for North American natural gas market.

A San Diego-based spokesperson for Sempra Energy Thursday qualified remarks the company’s top liquefied natural gas (LNG) executive made at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ CERAWeek conference in Houston a day earlier regarding the company’s possible pursuit of LNG supplies from Alaska. Sempra has no specific plans regarding Alaskan LNG, other than listing it as one of its possible future sources of gas in the post-2010 time frame, the spokesperson said.

A San Diego-based spokesperson for Sempra Energy Thursday qualified remarks the company’s top liquefied natural gas (LNG) executive made at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ CERAWeek conference in Houston a day earlier regarding the company’s possible pursuit of LNG supplies from Alaska. Sempra has no specific plans regarding Alaskan LNG, other than listing it as one of its possible future sources of gas in the post-2010 time frame, the spokesperson said.

IHS Energy, which specializes in analyzing energy exploration and production (E&P) data around the world, has acquired Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), whose analysis covers energy markets, geopolitics, structure and strategy. The partnership, said the IHS Group subsidiary, will build on the companies’ joint resources to expand their database and operations support. No financial details were disclosed.