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Saudi Aramco to increase oil production to meet global demand

March 21, 2022

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company said it would increase spending on oil production to meet rising global demand, as it reported a doubling of profits in 2021.Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/ReutersSaudi Aramco – the world’s largest oil exporter and one of the world’s most profitable companies – said its net profit increased by 124% to $110bn (£83bn) in 2021, compared with $49bn a year earlier.

The company said its profits had soared as a result of higher crude oil prices as demand for oil rebounded after the pandemic, and also because of increased margins for its refining and chemicals business.

Brent crude oil rocketed to $139 a barrel, a 14-year high, earlier this month but have since dropped to closer to $100. In early December, a barrel of crude was priced below $70.

Aramco expects demand for oil to keep climbing, and said “substantial new investment” is required to meet this demand, in a move likely to dismay climate campaigners.

It said it is increasing its capital expenditure for 2022 by about half to between $40 and $50bn, with further growth expected until the middle of the decade.

The state-owned oil firm’s capital expenditure came in just below $32bn in 2021, an 18% increase from 2020.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been asked in recent days by western governments to pump more oil to replace reliance on supplies from Russia.

The Gulf countries are the only two leading oil producers that have immediate spare capacity able to offset the shortfall in Russian-produced energy. However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a recent report that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are so far “showing no willingness to tap into reserves”.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

A growing number of young Americans are leaving desk jobs to farm

November 24, 2017

  • a close up of a rock in the middle of a grass covered field: Rachel Clement picks purple mustard before the first hard freeze of the season at Owl’s Nest Farm in Upper Marlboro, Md., on Nov. 9. Many women, highly educated and city-bred, are taking to the farm life. Clement has worked at the farm since August.
  • a man holding a frisbee: Liz Whitehurst picks greens at Owl’s Nest Farm in Upper Marlboro, Md., on Nov. 9. Whitehurst is the owner and operator of the farm, which sells its produce at a D.C.-area farmers market, to restaurants and through CSA shares.
  • a man that is standing in the grass: From left, Liz Whitehurst, Rachel Clement and Foster Gettys pick and weigh greens at Owl’s Nest Farm on Nov. 9.
  • a house with trees in the background: Fall colors are on display at Owl’s Nest Farm in Upper Marlboro, Md., this month.
a close up of a rock in the middle of a grass covered field: Rachel Clement picks purple mustard before the first hard freeze of the season at Owl’s Nest Farm in Upper Marlboro, Md., on Nov. 9. Many women, highly educated and city-bred, are taking to the farm life. Clement has worked at the farm since August.
 © Michael Robinson Chavez/Washington D.C.
Rachel Clement picks purple mustard before the first hard freeze of the season at Owl’s Nest Farm in Upper Marlboro, Md., on Nov. 9. Many women, highly educated and city-bred, are taking to the farm life. Clement has worked at the farm since August.

Liz Whitehurst dabbled in several careers before she ended up here, crating fistfuls of fresh-cut arugula in the early-November chill.

The hours were better at her nonprofit jobs. So were the benefits. But two years ago, the 32-year-old Whitehurst — who graduated from a liberal arts college and grew up in the Chicago suburbs — abandoned Washington for this three-acre farm in Upper Marlboro, Md.

She joined a growing movement of highly educated, ex-urban, first-time farmers who are capitalizing on booming consumer demand for local and sustainable foods and who, experts say, could have a broad impact on the food system.

For only the second time in the last century, the number of farmers under 35 years old is increasing, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest Census of Agriculture. Sixty-nine percent of the surveyed young farmers had college degrees — significantly higher than the general population.

This new generation can’t hope to replace the numbers that farming is losing to age. But it is already contributing to the growth of the local-food movement and could help preserve the place of midsize farms in the rural landscape.

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Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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