Pandreco energy advisory
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As a 30 year veteran of the energy industry specializing in Energy Security and Energy Economics, Dr. Richard Norris has some unique insights, views and opinions about current global developments across engineering research, oil and gas operations.
The Social Cost of No-Carbon
How Energy Politics is Global I was once admonished for being "too political" in my musings about energy - which was a useful reminder that energy is political. There is also an adage that "All Politics Is Local" - on this, however, I beg to differ. The politics of...
Never Gonna Give You Up, Never Gonna Let You Down…
Is Eight Hundred Billion a Big Number? Two key pieces of news this week OPEC+ announce a voluntary reduction in oil supply with a view to propping up prices. The EIA published flat-to-increasing projections of hydrocarbon liquid consumption through to 2050. It appears...
Is Paris Burning?
Les promesses n'engagent que ceux qui y croient The pictures coming out of Paris are not pretty, rubbish piling high, protests blocking roads and rail, and historic buildings on fire. All this because President Macron has tried to raise the “earliest” retirement age...
The Bat of a Dragon’s Eye
Of Dinosaurs, Volcanos and Cities There is something special, almost magical about the light in New Zealand; an effect amplified when you are immersed in building a huge sand-castle and you glance up at the view. I was with a friend and her kids on the wide sands...
Bread and Circuses
Misdirection: to distract from reality and create illusions. Misinformation is all the rage, but misdirection is a real danger. Last week social media was in a frenzy about Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh's reveal that the US had blown up...
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
The importance of being a manic street preacher. I haven’t written much recently - partly due to doing some actual work, but also because the conversation on energy security and affordability has become so noisy its hard to know where to start. So I’ll start with...
Sinners And Losers
Economic turmoil, Balkanization of energy supplies and the hard choices that expensive energy impose. This is the third part of an unintentional trilogy of posts. This will probably follow a good tradition of not being limited to three parts. Part 1: Notes on a Death...
Brexit, Pursued By A Bear
The Balkanization of Global Energy Recently seen on social media… “Why should Sweden continue to supply cheap electricity to Germany if Germany choses (in the face of all logic) to shut its three remaining nuclear power plants?” Why indeed? We are now sadly familiar...
Notes On A Death Spiral
The UK is a world leader in failing energy policy. Look on... ye Mighty, and despair! In the cult anime Death Note the Shinigami (Gods of Death) play with human lives. A human who possesses the Shinigami’s notebook has ultimate power of death over anyone by writing...
DIE: Diversity, Integration, Energy
Resilience is unlikely to be the outcome of the "Electrification of Everything" Electrification of Everything On one hand we know that energy security is not an absolute but is maximized by a diversification of sources. Indeed, an increase in wind and solar decreases...
So Long, Nerds – A Meditation On Gaming
I’m taking a break from writing about energy today - sometimes you just need to switch off and clear your head. Seeing teenagers on their video games brings out a range of reactions - they “are a waste of time”, “full of gratuitous violence”, “disconnect from nature”...
Influencers – The Kardashians (don’t) do Energy
I like to join the dots… working on deals, advising on policy – but mostly just learning and learning. When it comes to Energy, Economics and Society I hope I have had some original thoughts, but mostly it is using OPW* as building blocks. Squinting at the world,...
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RECENT POSTS
The Social Cost of No-Carbon
How Energy Politics is Global I was once admonished for being "too political" in my musings about energy - which was a useful reminder that energy is political. There is also an adage that "All Politics Is Local" - on this, however, I beg to differ. The politics of...
Never Gonna Give You Up, Never Gonna Let You Down…
Is Eight Hundred Billion a Big Number? Two key pieces of news this week OPEC+ announce a voluntary reduction in oil supply with a view to propping up prices. The EIA published flat-to-increasing projections of hydrocarbon liquid consumption through to 2050. It appears...
Is Paris Burning?
Les promesses n'engagent que ceux qui y croient The pictures coming out of Paris are not pretty, rubbish piling high, protests blocking roads and rail, and historic buildings on fire. All this because President Macron has tried to raise the “earliest” retirement age...
The Bat of a Dragon’s Eye
Of Dinosaurs, Volcanos and Cities There is something special, almost magical about the light in New Zealand; an effect amplified when you are immersed in building a huge sand-castle and you glance up at the view. I was with a friend and her kids on the wide sands...
Bread and Circuses
Misdirection: to distract from reality and create illusions. Misinformation is all the rage, but misdirection is a real danger. Last week social media was in a frenzy about Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh's reveal that the US had blown up...
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours
The importance of being a manic street preacher. I haven’t written much recently - partly due to doing some actual work, but also because the conversation on energy security and affordability has become so noisy its hard to know where to start. So I’ll start with...
Sinners And Losers
Economic turmoil, Balkanization of energy supplies and the hard choices that expensive energy impose. This is the third part of an unintentional trilogy of posts. This will probably follow a good tradition of not being limited to three parts. Part 1: Notes on a Death...
Brexit, Pursued By A Bear
The Balkanization of Global Energy Recently seen on social media… “Why should Sweden continue to supply cheap electricity to Germany if Germany choses (in the face of all logic) to shut its three remaining nuclear power plants?” Why indeed? We are now sadly familiar...
Notes On A Death Spiral
The UK is a world leader in failing energy policy. Look on... ye Mighty, and despair! In the cult anime Death Note the Shinigami (Gods of Death) play with human lives. A human who possesses the Shinigami’s notebook has ultimate power of death over anyone by writing...
DIE: Diversity, Integration, Energy
Resilience is unlikely to be the outcome of the "Electrification of Everything" Electrification of Everything On one hand we know that energy security is not an absolute but is maximized by a diversification of sources. Indeed, an increase in wind and solar decreases...
It was Visicalc. Read "Accidental Empires". One of the greatest industrial history books ever.