Peak Oil in 2015 – What of Senator James Robertson Energy Policy?

In light of recent development on the world Oil market, it appears that according to the article “IEA official warns of shrinking Oil Supplies: Report”, Sunday August 2^nd, 9:04 pm ET, AFP, Yahoo! News, Oil production is set to Peak in the year 2015. To put that in plain English, that means that the Oil production would have reached its maximum and cannot be increased to meet up with increasing world demand.

This article’s dire warning were recently backed up by statements by Sir Richard Branson of Virgin as stated in the article “World Faces Oil crunch by 2015”, published Sunday 14 February 2010, AFP, which effectively means that we must go Renewables by 2015 – or face the collapse of our Social Order as we live in a world dependent on cheap Fossil Fuel based Energy

Many Oil producers are heavily indebted to bankers and will not be in a position to look for more Oil in a bid to increase production. Energy and its pricing and availability affects the price of production and trade of commodities in production and manufacturing sector, and thus this news is a bellwether that indicates that the current recession will definitely last till 2016

With Peak Oil come significantly higher Oil prices and thus any discovery of Oil by 2015 off Jamaican shores (hopefully!) would mean that the price of the commodity would make it an excellent commodity to stockpile and use to support the Jamaican dollar as opposed to borrowing from the BOJ.

Thus, this online article and the recent AFP quote by Sir Richard Branson and British Business Leaders is now newsworthy, as we are now in the beginnings of the Government of Jamaica economic recovery plan as laid out in the article “'No more skylarking' PM outlines economic program and debt exchange”, published Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter, The Daily Gleaner.

Which, as far as one can see, aims to increase the tax net, reduce local debt, sell off non-performing Government of Jamaica infrastructure, cauterize the continuous slide of the Jamaican dollar via a US dollar denominated loan from the IMF, implementation of laws necessary to encourage growth such as the Credit Reporting bill and the Cyber Crime bill as stated in the article “Move to Tackle CyberCrime - Hacker got Golding”, published Sunday  February 14, 2010 by Philip Hamilton, The Daily Gleaner and eventually reduce inflation by the separation of our economy from the US dollar by liberalizing the Energy Sector.

The last item, the Liberalization of the Energy Economy, is now of greatest importance ever, as it is necessary in order to have production and manufacturing, the main driver that will move us from being a net importer of foreign goods to suit our growing appetite for la dolce vita to a next exporter and earner of foreign exchange, as stated in the article “Debt Swap and Debt Trap”, published Sunday 14 February 2010 by Robert Buddan, University Lecturer in the Department of Government, The Daily Gleaner, and hence result in employment and further growth in the Services Sector.

It is well known that the Senator James Robertson, Minister of Energy, has made statements in Parliament in 2009 that indicate a soon coming liberalization of the Energy Sector as indicated by the Energy Policy. There, however, has still been no news from his Energy Ministry as to when LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) imports from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, are set to reach Jamaica.

The preparations made by the Government of Jamaica with regard to Storage and Distribution of LNG as well as preparations by the Bauxite industry and the JPS Co (Jamaica Power Service Company)  in terms of modifying and changing (if necessary) their generators to use the new Fuel, as stated in the article “LNG for Jamaica a national priority - Manning”, published Friday June 26, 2009, by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, Business Writer, The Daily Gleaner.

Despite having now being given the ailing Air Jamaica , which we needed to get off our books, as indicated by the sale of Air Jamaica properties in the article “Government selling off Air Jamaica properties”, published Thursday February 11, 2010 by Philip Hamilton, Gleaner Writer, The Daily Gleaner. Time is now of the essence, as the sands of time have now been set for us, as 2015 is only five (5) years away.