On November 14, the captain and the sailors of ship that caused the oil spill in
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On December 7, the pilot has filed misconduct charges by an agency in
The Commerce Department reported that
The Labor Department reported that the increased oil costs also make the import prices 2.7% higher in November.
The monthly trade deficit grew 1.2% to $57.8 billion, since the average imported oil prices reached $72.49 per barrel.
During the first nine months of this year, the
The stronger growth of exports helped the economy continued go up although other parts of the economy are dropped.
But still, even though the deficit is narrowed, but the bilateral trade gap with
No wonder oil is the one of the most important factors that affects economy condition, since most the countries do not produce as much oil as they use, they all depend on the imported oil. And country like Saudi Arab started decreased the number of exported oil, and the non stop war threats on
The oil spill happened on Friday morning when a collision occurred between a crane-carrying barge and the Hebei Spirit, a Hong Kong-registered supertanker. When they slammed, the vessel punched three holes into its hull; the tanker was at anchor and carrying 260,000 tons of crude oil. Although none of the ship was sinking, it spilled an estimated 10,500 tons of crude oil before the last of the three holes was plugged on Sunday.
It is an environmental disaster for local residents. Thousands of fishermen, soldiers, government personnel, local residents and volunteers were on
The best thing is that there is no more spilling in the area. However, it will take at least two months for Korean people to complete the cleanup.
A rapid rise in car ownership is a big factor that causes the oil consumption increase.
Southwest Airlines was losing its dominance in the domestic airline industry this early year. However, the situation is changing and it is becoming the winner of the competition.
Southwest Airlines is also hurt by the increasing fuel prices, but others hurt more severe than it. What helps it win? Will it be the quality of service or the efficiency of work? The main reason for Southwest’s increasing advantage over other competitors is that it loaded up years ago on hedges against higher fuel prices. While other big airlines are trading oil above $90 a barrel, Southwest is not. It owns a long-term contract that allows it to buy most of its fuel through 2009 by $51 a barrel.
Thomas W. Horton, a financial officer said, “At American Airlines, annual fuel costs rise eighty million for every dollar increase in a barrel of oil.” Some airline companies try to raise their fares since they do not want to bankruptcy. However, when fares are raised, fewer customers will come to buy their tickets. Southwest Airlines use the “EXTRA” money to upgrade their computer systems to improve productivity and airline reliability.
The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are offering new energy policy as the oil prices keep raising.
In the future, the prices of gasoline will deeply affect billion dollars on government budget.
On Democratic side, its goal is to reduce the oil consumption, and it is related to the goal of reduce the risk of climate change.
On Republican side, its policy is to produce more oil at our own country, and more new types of energy resources.
The Democratic candidates all hope spend more money for develop the new efficient fuels. The Republican has more aggressive plans. But anyway, people start to wonder those plans are realistic or they just use them as the step stone for their political proposes.
As Leo Hindery, the chief economic adviser to John Edwardssaid, “There is no short-term solution.”
In fact, people expect the candidates can do more than the candidates can do. The high oil price is not a simple that everyone can easily deal with it.
But also, not just between those two parties, even in one party, the conflicts also occurred. Senator John McCain from Republican Party said that he opposed oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Coast Guard officials said their investigation showed that the oil spill was caused by human error. The National Transportation Safety Board questioned four men who were on the ship when the accident happened. One of them said, “We gave immediate notice to the government agencies, including the Coast Guard that a spill had occurred. But it was over an hour before they responded.” However, the Coast Guard officials did not agree with what he said. In their opinion, the Coast Guard responded to the spill immediately. The crew of the cargo ship might face the criminal charges.
The authorities said they did not see much of oil concentration to be skimmed after they flew over the polluted area after few days. We need more ships and volunteers to clean up.
A line for fuel in gas station in China.| Country | Crude oil production (1,000 b/d) |
| Russia | 9,358 |
| Saudi Arabia* | 9,208 |
| USA | 5,136 |
| Iran | 4,073 |
| China | 3,674 |
| * Including share of production from Neutral Zone. | |
United States 19,650,000
Japan 5,290,000
China 4,975,000
Germany 2,813,000
Russia 2,595,000
Brazil 2,199,000
South Korea 2,140,000
India 2,130,000
France 2,026,000
Italy 1,866,000
United Kingdom 1,710,000
Canada 1,703,000
Mexico 1,507,000
Spain 1,497,000
Saudi Arabia 1,452,000
Iran 1,277,000
Indonesia 1,045,000
Taiwan 988,000
Netherlands 895,300
Australia 796,500
Thailand 785,000
Singapore 700,000
Turkey 619,500
Belgium 595,100
Egypt 562,000
It is not surprise to see United States is the one consume the most oil, but it is interesting to see Singapore, just a small city/country(I went to Singapore this summer, compare to New York City, it is so small), consume more oil than larger countries Turkey and Egypt.Top World Oil Net Importers, 2006
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First, before we talk about the importance of oil, we should know about what is oil.
Oil is a substance in a liquid state at a warmer temperature. It is nonpolar substance. Oil is both hydrophobic and lipophilic.
There are two types of oil. One is Mineral oil, another one is Organic oil.
All the oils contain high carbon and hydrogen. They all come from the organic material, for example, the dead plankton from ancient time. During the geochemical process those materials were converted to mineral oil, or petroleum. The compositions of the mineral oils are kerosene, parafiin waxes, gasoline, diesel and else.
They classified into mineral oils because they don’t have the organic origin on human time line. They were identified by the underground geologic locations.
The organic oils come from the plants, animals, and other organisms. Those oils, fats, wax, and cholesterol substances in scientific term are called lipids.
Oils can use in many different ways.
We use the food oil to cook, the fried foods even much hotter than the spoil water.
We use the oil as fuel, energy resource, for driving, heating, lighting, and so on.
We also use the oil for painting, since the color pigments, the slow drying process and mix of oil are help the artist to draw in realistic style.
Obviously, I am going to talk about the oil as fuel. Today, it does not just used for the energy resource, it also used for the economic and political issues.
