A round-up of last week’s articles for your weekend reading pleasure:

Energy

The most important issue of our time:

• T. Boone Pickens - The FT profiles this energy independence stalwart
• 40% of fracked wells may be leaking - studies show risk of methane leaks are about 2.7 times higher for unconventional wells than conventional wells. Worrying if correct and would mean the climate change benefit of switching to natural gas over coal would be debatable. Also see: Oil leaks raise environmental concerns over Brazil’s Santos basin – A study reveals that the Santos basin has 400 times as many oil leaks as its more prolific neighbour the Campos basin probably as a result of the huge technical challenges present at Santos. Interestingly the Brazil national average was one litre of leaked oil for every 349,600 litres of production. It would be great to know what this figure is for other nations.
• Money and entropy - nobody knows what money is and nobody knows what entropy is either! However, I am an exponent of the idea that the only objective measure a currency can ultimately be tied to is energy cost.
• Carbon capture and storage is not an option – The oil industry may be able to pay around $34/mt CO2 but carbon capture facilities on a newly built coal plant typically cost ~$70/mt CO2.
• Changing face of global gas - good analysis by region of the market for gas imports and the future prospects of a more globalised gas trade.
• Energy efficiency gains in household goods - an average refrigerator bought in 2013 would cost half the amount to run over the course of its lifetime compared to one bought in 2000.
• Shell leaves its peers behind on big gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants - arbitrage gap between oil and gas prices need to be sustained in order for GTL projects to be successful.
• Record spending on oil exploration but where are the finds? – Rate of return for exploration activities has dropped to around 10% and today we consume around 33 billion barrels of oil per year but are only discovering 10-20 billion barrels.
• Top 5 EU energy issues - security of supply, 2030 climate and energy framework, EU internal energy market, nuclear safety and fuel quality.

Offshore

What is happening on seventy percent of the Earth’s surface:

• Check out The Carbon War Room’s awesome Shipping Efficiency website – some interesting tools on here including efficiency ratings for a number of different ships and a fuel savings calculator.
• Atlantic ocean B&B hit by Hurricane Arthur - Amazing video. And yes, there really is a B&B in the middle of the Atlantic. Doesn’t seem to be listed on airbnb though…
• LNG or methanol as a future shipping fuel - Methanol is (relatively) green and cheaper and more plentiful than diesel and LNG. There are currently around 50 LNG fuelled ships whereas the first methanol fuelled ships are due to be delivered in 2015.
• Containership turned into a piece of art – quite spectacular but I am not sure I get the point of using a containership for this.
• 8 lessons you can learn about the global economy by visiting America’s busiest seaport - Bigger is more efficient, automation can be harder than it looks, you never know when your investment may pay off, even geo-political enemies work together, the biggest sort of contra-band is clothing knock-offs, one country’s trash is another country’s trade, there are lots of huge metal reefers and energy and its byproducts underlie everything
• Nicaragua approves new canal route to rival the Panama canal – due to start operations in 2020 it is three times longer than the Panama canal but wider and deeper allowing the transit of larger ships. More here.
• How to optimise the use of technology for best returns in the shipping industry? Smart infrastructure for shipping.
• Informative video on the risks of working in the Arctic
• Offshore wind energy traversing regulatory and financial currents – the US Department of Energy plans for 54 GW of offshore wind by 2030 but there are many regulatory, financial and technical barricades to cross to reach that targtet.
• Pretty cool video of the state of the art in subsea vessels – I have a friend who is a hydrodynamicist at Ulstein which looks like an interesting place to work.

Other

Other things I found interesting:

• Will the first conscious machines be on Wall Street? – This article makes a compelling case.
• Incomes and satisfaction – investigating why real wages have risen by around 80% in the UK since the 1940s but we are less satisfied with our pay.
• Could we colonise Venus? – a surprisingly plausible idea for floating colonies on the fiery planet.
• What drives organisational performance? –  clarity of mission, appropriateness of internal functional specialisations, quality of internal communication and collaboration, quality and intensity of individuals, quality of internal motivation and quality of leadership.
• Put the phone down! – I have to admit to being addicted to my phone (at least recognition is the first step) but I agree whole heartedly with this article.
• Brian Mayer becomes the most hated person in San Francisco -  and quite rightly too as this article explains. These sites don’t improve the costumers experience and are essentially just tools for the site owners to scalp money from systems that are normally allocated on a first come first serve basis. And then read this about Uber and this about MonkeyParking.
• Transformers 4 is a masterclass in economics - Much better article than the title sounds but uses the Transformers movie as a mirror to explore some current economic trends.
• Drop your weapons –  nonviolent resistance against authoritarian regimes are twice as likely to succeed as violent movements.
• Gross domestic problem - the case for more sustainable growth metrics
• The art of the opening sentence - comprehensive essay covering the development of novels opening sentences over time. Some great examples.
• A unified theory of why money makes no sense right now – the boom (or bubble) in asset prices everywhere.
• Three important articles on climate change here (our current path is likely to cause irreversible and costly damage), here (IPCC carbon targets – which look increasingly unlikely to be achieved – are based on a 1/3 chance of failure), and here (to prevent climate change every new car sold in the US needs to be electric by 2030).
• The scientific debate on global warming in one chart – compelling