Ippoippo

… and this was in Japan, rather than the UK (suprised we don’t get that much train rage here, given how crap our trains are).

For the last few days, there’s been a series of reports from various oil companies.

First up was Shell.
What caught the attention of most people on the street was

The Anglo-Dutch oil firm Royal Dutch Shell has reported annual profits of $27.56bn (£13.9bn), a record for a UK-listed company.

This caused much shouting because it is felt that the oil companies are profiteering from the high price of oil.

However, there was something else reported that caught my attention (and that of a lot of peak-niks).

But there is concern among analysts that Shell has delayed publishing figures showing its oil reserves.

Why did they delay?? Bad news, or genuine reporting issues which they wanted to rectify before issuing a report?

Later on Friday, Exxon joined in the fun.

The world’s largest publically listed company, the oil giant Exxon Mobil, has reported $40.6bn (£20.4bn) net profits during 2007, a record for a US company.

However, once again, there are potential future production issues.

But some analysts said looking ahead the issue of production could pose a problem.
Chris MacDonald at WHG Funds said: “If they are spending $21bn a year on capital expenditure and they can’t grow production….It does not bode well for the industry in general.”

So, today, it was BP’s turn.
Ahh, not so ‘good’.

The oil giant BP has reported “very disappointing” profits as refining margins were squeezed and costs rose.
Replacement cost profits for the fourth quarter fell to $2.9bn (£1.4bn) from $3.8bn, sending annual profits to $17.29bn - marking a 22% fall on 2006.

But once, again, I’m interested in future production.

Looking ahead, BP forecast a reserve replacement ratio of more than 100% for the fourteenth year in a row.

The replacement ratio is a key figure for oil companies, showing how much oil they have discovered compared with the amount they have extracted.

I’m intrigued by that one actually. Something I will have to investigate further.

With all these reports, there was a response from Jeremy Leggett in the Guardian today too.

Economists tend not to see the problem. As the oil price goes up, they assume more cash will be available for exploration, the oil majors will duly explore, and they will find more oil. But if so, why have the big five oil companies cut exploration spending in real terms? ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips used more than half their increased operating cashflow between 1998 and 2006 not on exploration but on share buybacks and dividends. Do they know something the economists don’t?

Less doom and gloom

The island of Eigg provides us with something to be cheerful about.

A combined hydro-electric, wind and solar powered system will supply continuous power to the light bulbs, computers and washing machines of the island’s 71 properties via a six-mile network of cables.

How on earth did that happen??

England 19 - Wales 26

First win since 1988 for a Welsh team in Twickenham.

Woohooo.

Good old BBC commentry, nearly a fight between Brian Moore (England) and Eddie Butler (Wales) towards the end of the game. (Just like last year).

Now, I’m really looking forward to next week, as I have tickets for the Wales vs Scotland game… though knowing typical Wales, we’ll probably lose all the games during the rest of the 6 Nations.

UPDATE:
ROFL… there is even a ’special’ edition of Taff Wars now, to celebrate this.