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Book Details
Abstract
Out of sight, out of mind. That's the general reaction to the crucial movement of oil around the world's oceans. Yet this vital supply chain that allows the world to function is constantly under enormous, largely unreported pressure. The uninterrupted flow of oil is essential to globalisation, and increasingly so as manufacturing and markets move Eastwards to Asia. However, it is threatened by conflicts between nation states, pirates and global warming.
All too often the movement of oil by ocean is something taken for granted by the majority of the world yet it is fraught with difficulty, and could haemorrhage global growth if issues covered in this book are not resolved or allowed to escalate.
From reporting onboard giant tankers to looking at the geopolitical shift in oil consumption, Oil on Water is holistic, all encompassing and engrossing look at the way oil is moved and consumed; mixing reportage, examples and hard-hitting facts.
'East Asia's growing share of the 2 trillion tons of oil shipped each year across the world's oceans is one of the great, but little-told, stories of our age. By tracking this very literal shift of power from West to East, the authors provide invaluable insights into energy security, environmental pressure and areas of potential conflict and cooperation.'
Jonathan Watts, author of When a Billion Chinese Jump
'An engaging and informed book about vitally important, yet little-discussed areas in business and geopolitics.'
Toby Webb, Ethical Corporation
'An insightful study of a subject vital to world shipping and trade.'
Bob Jaques, Seatrade
Paul French has been based in Shanghai for many years as Chief China Representative of research and analysis consultancy Access Asia. He is a regular commentator of China and North East Asia on the international media. He is the author of a number of previous books including the well received North Korea: State of Paranoia (Zed 2015).
Sam Chambers has lived in China for a decade and his career as a travel and transport writer has taken him to the four corners of the country. He has co-authored a number of books including a travel guide to Yunnan and Hunan provinces as well as a transportation guide to the Yangtze. Writing for a variety of titles including The Sunday Times and The Royal Geographic Society Chambers follows very closely the day-to-day needs and demands of this rapidly evolving nation. After living in Hong Kong for many years he is now based in the northeastern city of Dalian.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| About the Authors | i | ||
| Tables, Boxes and Figures | vi | ||
| Tables | vi | ||
| Terminology and Definitions | viii | ||
| Geographical Note | ix | ||
| Abbreviations | x | ||
| Acknowledgements | xiii | ||
| Introduction | Oil on Water | 1 | ||
| Friday 3 October 2008 – The Bund, Shanghai | 1 | ||
| 1 | Life Without Oil | 13 | ||
| Sunday 5 October 2008 – The Port of Singapore | 13 | ||
| The Imperative of Strategic Reserves | 14 | ||
| Oil and the Getting of It | 16 | ||
| Table 1.1 Top fifteen countries with largest proven oil reserves, 2008 | 17 | ||
| The Crucial Role of East Asia | 21 | ||
| Table 1.2 Top fifteen countries with largest oil consumption, 2008 | 22 | ||
| Box 1.1 World Without Oil: Possible Scenarios for East Asia | 24 | ||
| 2 | The Shift East | 29 | ||
| Monday 6 October 2008 – The Singapore Straits | 29 | ||
| A Shifting Centre of Gravity | 30 | ||
| Table 2.1 Projected oil consumption growth for selected Asian countries, 2008–2018 | 33 | ||
| Table 2.2 Ten largest independent oil tanker companies, 2009 | 34 | ||
| Table 2.3 Ten largest oil company/state-owned oil tanker companies, 2009 | 34 | ||
| Building Tankers: from the Clyde to Korea | 35 | ||
| Box 2.1 The Birth of the Supertanker: A Brief History | 37 | ||
| Fig. 2.1 The Jahre Viking, formerly the Seawise Giant | 38 | ||
| Sino Shipbuilding Supremacy | 39 | ||
| Fig. 2.2 Dalian Shipyard | 41 | ||
| China’s Tanker Fleet | 42 | ||
| Oil Terminals | 43 | ||
| Table 2.4 Major oil terminals in operation in China, 2009 | 45 | ||
| 3 | The Great Voyage | 47 | ||
| Tuesday 15 July 2008 – Fujairah Port, United Arab Emirates | 47 | ||
| Fig. 3.1 Heading east – the critical sea lanes of communication | 48 | ||
| The Necessity of Oil Supply | 49 | ||
| The New International Web of Oil-based Relationships | 52 | ||
| Table 3.1 Sources of oil imports for Japan, China and India, 2008 | 53 | ||
| The Resurrection of the Silk Road | 54 | ||
| Scouring the Globe for Black Gold | 61 | ||
| African Excursion | 63 | ||
| 4 | Securing the SLOCs | 65 | ||
| Wednesday 22 July 2009 – Breakfast at the Grand Hotel Europe, St Petersburg | 65 | ||
| Addiction Requires a Reliable Supply | 67 | ||
| Box 4.1 Suez: Bringing Continents Together | 68 | ||
| Fig. 4.1 A tanker queuing to transit the Suez Canal | 69 | ||
| The US Takes Control of the High Seas | 69 | ||
| Box 4.2 Bosporus and Panama | 72 | ||
| China’s Harmonious Rise and the ‘Malacca Dilemma’ | 73 | ||
| Into the Indian Ocean | 75 | ||
| Fig. 4.2 Gwadar Port (Pakistan) under construction | 77 | ||
| Box 4.3 A Fantasy that Might Become a Reality: The Kra Canal | 80 | ||
| African Safari | 81 | ||
| Box 4.4 A New SLOC? Awakening the Arctic | 82 | ||
| 5 | Piracy: The Nebulous Threat | 85 | ||
| Monday 6 October 2008 – The Riau Islands, Indonesia | 85 | ||
| Easy Money? | 87 | ||
| Box 5.1 The Rise of the Pirates: Areas Prone to Piracy | 88 | ||
| Bad Business on the High Seas | 93 | ||
| Pirates of Somalia | 94 | ||
| Fig. 5.2 Somali pirates captured off the Horn of Africa | 95 | ||
| The Global Response to the Resurgence of Piracy in Africa: One Year of Activity | 96 | ||
| The East Asian Energy Angle | 100 | ||
| Table 5.1 Pirate attacks on energy vessels: a new wave | 101 | ||
| Where Do We Go from Here? | 104 | ||
| 6 | The Criminalisation of Crews | 107 | ||
| 28 May 2008 – Taean County, Republic of Korea | 107 | ||
| Korean Sojourn | 109 | ||
| Fig. 6.1 An Indian officer at work on a VLCC | 111 | ||
| Taiwan Trauma | 113 | ||
| Fig. 6.2 The Hebei Spirit spewing oil off the coast of Korea | 114 | ||
| Box 6.1 Shipping’s Bill of Rights | 118 | ||
| An Unenticing Career Option | 120 | ||
| Table 6.1 Officer class: top ten countries of origin of officers | 121 | ||
| The Epicentre of World Crewing | 122 | ||
| Accidents Will Happen | 124 | ||
| 7 | Flags of Convenience | 127 | ||
| 28 May 2009 – Ulan Bator, Mongolia | 127 | ||
| The Beginning of the Open Registry System | 129 | ||
| Table 7.1 Leading twenty shipping registers globally by tonnage, 2008 | 130 | ||
| Table 7.2 Leading twenty actual ship owners by country by percentage of world fleet, 2008 | 131 | ||
| The Case Against FoCs | 132 | ||
| Table 7.3 Where to find a flag of convenience | 133 | ||
| Sinking Ships | 134 | ||
| Market Forces at Play | 138 | ||
| Box 7.1 A Very Dirty Flag: Cambodia | 139 | ||
| In Black and White | 141 | ||
| 8 | Green Shipping? | 143 | ||
| Tuesday 7 October 2008 – The South China Sea, off the coast of Vietnam | 143 | ||
| Fig. 8.1 A tanker's funnel belches emissions | 144 | ||
| Stratospherically Worse than Aviation | 145 | ||
| Table 8.1 CO2 emissions per km from shipping, aircraft and road haulage | 147 | ||
| Table 8.2 Comparative air emissions by major modes of commercial transportation | 148 | ||
| Dithering while the World Rages | 148 | ||
| Solutions: Greenwashing or Not? | 155 | ||
| Fig. 8.2 SkySails kite-propelled tanker | 156 | ||
| Ships to the Rescue | 160 | ||
| Box 8.1 Relocating the Sea: Ballast Water | 161 | ||
| Box 8.2 Where Tankers Go to Die | 162 | ||
| Fig. 8.3 Shipbreaking yard | 163 | ||
| Box 8.3 Nuclear Adherent | 164 | ||
| 9 | The Politics of Pipelines | 167 | ||
| 22 April 2006 – Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, China | 167 | ||
| Pipelines: An Alternative Way to Achieve Energy Security? | 168 | ||
| Table 9.1 Major pipeline countries, 2009 | 170 | ||
| Boxes | vii | ||
| The Silk Pipeline | 173 | ||
| Box 9.1 China’s Growing Pipeline Network | 178 | ||
| Figures | vii | ||
| Sea-Lane and Pipeline Combos | 180 | ||
| Pipe Dreams | 182 | ||
| Contentious Alternatives | 184 | ||
| Conclusion | The Future of Moving Oil | 187 | ||
| Saturday 11 October 2008 – Mailiao Port, Taiwan | 187 | ||
| On the ‘High Seas’ | 188 | ||
| Preparing for the Future | 189 | ||
| The Scramble for Oil | 191 | ||
| Table 10.1 China’s outbound investment in energy and power internationally, 2003–2009 | 192 | ||
| The Future is a Volume Game | 193 | ||
| Notes | 195 | ||
| Introduction | 195 | ||
| Chapter 1 | 195 | ||
| Chapter 2 | 196 | ||
| Chapter 4 | 197 | ||
| Chapter 5 | 197 | ||
| Chapter 6 | 198 | ||
| Chapter 7 | 199 | ||
| Chapter 8 | 199 | ||
| Chapter 9 | 200 | ||
| Index | 201 |