ExxonMobil paid to "erase" Global Warming

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What goes around, comes around...

U.K. Court Rebuffs Exxon Mobil, Won't Freeze Venezuelan Oil Firm's $12 Billion Assets
March 18, 2008 - A British judge on Tuesday suspended a court order obtained by U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. that freezes $12 billion worth of international assets of Venezuela's state oil company.

Judge Paul Walker of London's Royal Courts of Justice ruled that Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) has not committed any fraud and has no assets in the U.K. to justify the order issued on Jan. 24, 2008 on behalf of ExxonMobil. The judge added that London has no jurisdiction on the case.

Last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized a PDVSA oil project to which ExxonMobil was a contracting party since the 1990s. ExxonMobil decided to sue PDVSA in an international arbitration court for redress and sought the freezing of the firm's global assets in courts in New York, London, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles. The asset freeze orders, which ExxonMobil obtained, will facilitate compensation in the event the U.S. firm won its case against PDVSA.

The Texas-based company's arbitration cases are with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the International Chamber of Commerce. It is trying to negotiate with PDVSA for a solution at the same time. Meanwhile, PDVSA is planning to sue ExxonMobil for damages caused to the company by the asset freeze orders.

U.K. Court Rebuffs Exxon Mobil, Won't Freeze Venezuelan Oil Firm's $12 Billion Assets | March 18, 2008 | AHN

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Salinity imbalance threatens ocean currents...

Deep Antarctic waters freshening
April 18, 2008 - SCIENTISTS studying the icy depths of the sea around Antarctica have detected changes in salinity that could have profound effects on the world's climate and ocean currents.

The scientists returned to Hobart on Thursday after a one-month voyage studying the Southern Ocean to see how it is changing and what those changes might mean for global climate patterns. Voyage leader Steve Rintoul said his team found that salty, dense water that sinks near the edge of Antarctica to the bottom of the ocean about 5 km down was becoming fresher and more buoyant.

So-called Antarctic bottom water helps power the great ocean conveyor belt, a system of currents spanning the Southern, Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans that shifts heat around the globe. "The main reason we're paying attention to this is because it is one of the switches in the climate system and we need to know if we are about to flip that switch or not,'' said Rintoul of Australia's government-backed research arm the CSIRO.

"If that freshening trend continues for long enough, eventually the water near Antarctica would be too light, too buoyant to sink and that limb of the global-scale circulation would shut down,'' he said on Friday. Cold, salty water also sinks to the depths in the far north Atlantic Ocean near Greenland and, together with the vast amount of water that sinks off Antarctica, this drives the ocean conveyor belt.

This system brings warm water into the far north Atlantic, making Europe warmer than it would otherwise be, and also drives the large flow of upper ocean water from the tropical Pacific to the Indian Ocean through the Indonesia Archipelago. If these currents were to slow or stop, the world's climate would eventually be thrown into chaos. "We don't see any evidence yet that the amount of bottom water that's sinking has declined. But by becoming fresher and less dense it's moving in the direction of an ultimate shutdown.''

More Deep Antarctic waters freshening | NEWS.com.au

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Granny says they still makin' money like stink onna monkey...

Exxon Profit hits $10.9 Billion
Thursday, May. 01, 2008 - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday record crude prices helped its net income grow 17 percent in the first quarter, but the results came in below Wall Street forecasts.

Its shares fell more than 3 percent in morning trading. As expected, margins at the company's refining operations dragged heavily on the bottom line as the big jump in prices on refined products such as gasoline, while a menace to consumers, failed to keep pace with the rapid increase in crude prices. Lower production to start the year hurt too. Exxon Mobil, based in Irving, Texas, said earnings for the first three months of the year rose to $10.9 billion, or $2.03 per share, up from $9.3 billion, or $1.62 per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for a slightly larger profit of $2.13 per share. Revenue rose to $116.8 billion from $87.2 billion a year earlier. Analysts were looking for higher revenue of about $124 billion. Given record oil prices, some had speculated Exxon Mobil would top its own record for the biggest quarterly profit for a U.S. company. But the latest results fell short of the record $11.7 billion profit Exxon Mobil earned in the final quarter of 2007. Its shares fell $3.17, or 3.4 percent, to $89.90 in morning trading.

Exxon Mobil said earnings at its exploration and production, or upstream, business rose 45 percent to $8.8 billion, lifted by higher oil and natural gas prices. Increased natural gas production was more than offset by lower crude volumes. Overall production fell 5.6 percent from a year ago, in part from natural field declines and maintenance.

MORE

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Uh-oh, major shareholders not happy...

Shareholders want ExxonMobil to be more responsible
Monday 26th May, 2008 - ExxonMobil, America’s largest company is facing an uprising from shareholders.

A shareholder showdown is looming with claims the oil giant is not living up to its corporate responsibilities. The annual shareholders meeting next Wednesday in Dallas, Texas, will see proposals aimed at changing ExxonMobil's corporate structure and pushing the company toward more environmentally friendly energy sources.

Shareholders, including members of the Rockefeller family, whose ancestor John D. Rockefeller created Standard Oil, the main forerunner of the current company, will back resolutions urging ExxonMobil to look beyond its current focus on oil to explore renewables and alternative fuels.

Some of ExxonMobil's other large stakeholders will press for resolutions to address climate change and to separate the jobs of chairman and CEO. Much of the movement has been coordinated by a group called Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental organisations and public interest groups that is pushing companies to address issues related to sustainability.

Shareholders want ExxonMobil to be more responsible

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National Academies Weigh in on Climate and Health...

Science Academies Call for Cut in Greenhouse Gases
June 10, 2008 - World's Science Groups Call for Halving Greenhouse Gas Pollution by 2050

Calling some effects from global warming inevitable, the science academies of 13 nations -- including the United States -- issued a joint statement today calling on world leaders to cut greenhouse gas pollution in half by 2050 and speed up technology research that helps foster a "low-carbon society." "A movement to a low-carbon society will provide the opportunity to mitigate and adapt," the statement reads. "Mitigation cannot provide all the answers, but many impacts can be reduced, delayed or avoided by cutting emissions."

Progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide has been slow, according to the statement. It was issued as President Bush is discussing an international climate agreement, among other topics, with European Union leaders at a summit in Slovenia. "I think we can actually get an agreement on global climate change during my presidency," Bush said today at a news conference. But he stressed it would only succeed if developing countries participate. "I will just tell you that unless China and India are at the table, unless they agree to a goal, unless they agree to firm strategies to achieve that goal, then I don't see how any international agreement can be effective," he said.

The science academies called on countries to advance carbon capture and sequestration technologies, which would capture carbon dioxide pollution from coal-fired power plants and other sources, then store it underground. The statement also called for developing energy-saving housing, low-carbon transportation and policies for curbing emissions from deforestation. The statement was signed by the science academies of the G-8 nations: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom, along with China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

More ABC News: Science Academies Call for Cut in Greenhouse Gases

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Due to tightening profits???...

Exxon exiting retail gas business
June 12, 2008: The oil giant is selling 820 company-owned stations, plus 1,400 dealer-operated outlets, due to tightening profits.

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it's getting out of the retail gasoline business, following other major oil companies who have been selling their low-margin stations to gasoline distributors. Motorists, however, will continue to see Exxon's Tiger-themed stations and Mobil outlets in their neighborhoods. Already, about 75% of Exxon Mobil's roughly 12,000 stations in the United States are owned by branded distributors, who buy Exxon Mobil products and pay to use the name.

Irving, Texas-based Exxon, the world's biggest publicly traded oil company, said it now plans to sell to distributors its remaining 820 company-owned stations and another 1,400 outlets operated by dealers. Exxon Mobil didn't disclose financial details but said the sales will take place over a "multiyear period." Texas has the most company-owned retail locations, with about 190. Florida is next, with 170. "As the highly competitive fuels marketing business in the U.S. continues to evolve, we believe this transition is the best way for Exxon Mobil to compete and grow in the future," said Ben Soraci, the director of Exxon Mobil's U.S. retail sales.

Exxon Mobil is not alone among Big Oil exiting the retail gas business, a market where profits have gotten tougher as crude oil prices have risen. In fact, industry officials say the major oil companies own fewer than 5% of U.S. gas stations. Gas prices reached a new record at the pump Thursday, rising to a national average of $4.06 a gallon. Still, station owners say they're struggling to turn a profit on gas because, while wholesale gasoline prices have risen sharply in recent months, they've been unable to raise pump prices fast enough to keep pace.

Most gasoline retailers long ago got past any illusion that they can make money by selling gas. They rely on gas sales to drive traffic to their shops, where they hope auto repairs, or food and drink sales, will help them turn a profit. Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said Exxon Mobil's decision to sell its stations is not surprising, given similar moves by BP (BP), Shell (RDSA) and others.

"They can actually point their attention to some other area where you can make money," Lenard said. "Retail is incredibly volatile. This way, they can [sell gasoline] wholesale and count on a fairly predictable income." Exxon Mobil said it sells about 14 billion gallons of gasoline annually at its U.S. branded stations. Its shares fell $1.55, or 1.75%, to close at $87.06 in trading Thursday. The stock has traded in a range of $77.55 to $96.12 in the past year.

Source

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Global warming reversing?...

Greenland's Ice Set for a Recovery?
July 5, 2008 - Greenland Ice Sheet Slams the Brakes On; Greenland's slide into the ocean has slowed down, according to researchers.

Much noise has been made about how water lubricates the base of Greenland's ice sheet, accelerating its slide into the oceans. In a rare "good news" announcement, climatologists now say the ice may not be in such a hurry to throw itself into the water after all. Mother Nature, it seems, has given it brakes. Since 1991, the western edge of Greenland's ice sheet has actually slowed its ocean-bound progress by 10%, say the team, who have studied the longest available record of ice and water flow in the region.

Greenland's mighty ice sheet has enough water locked away to raise global sea level 6.5 metres were it to melt. Each summer, vast lakes of meltwater form on its surface. The water seeps through cracks in the kilometer-thick ice to bedrock, where it acts as a lubricant. The sheet can move up to twice as fast in the summer, when meltwater is flowing, as when it is not.

Many fear a positive feedback loop, whereby the accelerating flow will bring more ice down out of the mountains and toward warmer temperatures near sea level. Roderik Van De Waal and colleagues at Utrecht University in the Netherlands now say there is no evidence this will happen.

Daily Changes

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Antarctic ice shelf breaking up in dead of winter...

Antarctic ice breaking up even in winter
Fri., July. 11, 2008 - Experts surprised that cold hasn't frozen trend, now expect quicker demise

New satellite images show that an Antarctic ice shelf continues to disintegrate — and even more surprising is that it's happening during the Southern Hemisphere's winter. Experts warned last March, at the end of the Antarctic summer, that the Wilkins Ice Shelf was disintegrating more quickly, but they expected that the winter cold would put the trend in a temporary deep freeze.

At 6,000 square miles in size, Wilkins "is the most recent in a long, and growing, list of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula that are responding to the rapid warming that has occurred in this area over the last 50 years," David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey said in a statement released by the European Space Agency as it revealed the satellite images late Thursday.

"Current events are showing that we were being too conservative, when we made the prediction in the early 1990s that Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years," he added. "The truth is it is going more quickly than we guessed."

Warmer water melting ice?

See also:

Bush sidesteps court ruling on warming
Bucking court, EPA won't control climate gases; Bush administration says it's leaving issue for next president, Congress

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday rejected regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, saying it would cause too many job losses. In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection Agency made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress.

Environmentalists criticized the move, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce worried it left open the door for mandatory reductions. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson insisted that regulating greenhouse gases via the Clean Air Act was not workable. "If our nation is truly about serious regulating greenhouse gases, the Clean Air Act is the wrong tool for the job," Johnson told reporters. "It is really at the feet of Congress."

The White House on Thursday rejected EPA's conclusion three weeks earlier that the 1970 Clean Air Act "can be both workable and effective for addressing global climate change." Instead, EPA said Friday that law is "ill-suited" for dealing with climate change. White House press secretary Dana Perino said that President Bush is committed to further reductions but that there is a "right way and a wrong way to deal with climate change."

More Bush sidesteps court ruling on warming - Climate Change - MSNBC.com

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Hope we get there before the Russkies do...

Oil Motherlode Sits Beneath Arctic
July 23, 2008 - The U.S. Geological Survey has taken a look around the part of the world north of the Arctic Circle, and in a new estimate, out today, it says there are probably "90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, 1,670 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas, and 44 million barrels of technically recoverable natural gas liquids in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum."

What do those numbers mean? The USGS says it could be 22 percent of the undiscovered petroleum on the planet -- 13 percent of the oil and 30 percent of the natural gas. There's a fact sheet HERE, and more at the USGS Arctic Assessment site HERE. They'll give more of an idea of how the estimate was made.

84 percent of what could be drilled is probably offshore, says the report. That makes it harder and more expensive to reach -- but if indeed more of the Arctic Ocean is more ice-free in summer than it used to be, there are fewer complications than there used to be.

One more bit of fodder, perhaps, for the debate about powering the economy in the future. But while 90 billion barrels sound like a lot, the USGS says that's the equivalent of the world's demand for about three years.

Science and Society

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Exxon sets new record in profits...

ExxonMobil Breaks Profit Record
July 31, 2008 - Buoyed by high oil prices, ExxonMobil reports $11.68B profits.

Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results fell well short of Wall Street expectations and shares fell in premarket trading. The world's largest publicly traded oil company said net income for the April-June period came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 40 percent to $138.1 billion from $98.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million related to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings amounted to $11.97 billion, or $2.27 per share. Analysts on average expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. The estimates typically exclude one-time items. The record-setting results were largely expected, given that crude prices in the second quarter were nearly double what they were a year ago. Natural gas prices were significantly higher too.

But investors expected even bigger profits Thursday, especially after Europe's Royal Dutch Shell reported a 33 percent jump in second-quarter earnings of $11.6 billion, which fell just shy of Exxon's own record earnings from 2007. Shares fell 2 percent, or $1.68, to $82.70 in premarket trading. Setting U.S. profit records has become commonplace for Irving-based Exxon Mobil. The $11.68 billion topped its own U.S. record of $11.66 billion, posted in the fourth quarter of last year. Right behind that was the $10.9 billion it reported to start 2008.

More ABC News: ExxonMobil Breaks Profit Record