Resources

Question 1

What is a resource?

Answer 1

Any aspect of natural environment that can be acquired to meet a human’s needs

Question 2

What is resource security?

Answer 2

The ability of a country to safeguard a reliable resource flow to meet standards

Question 3

What is a critical flow? Give examples

Answer 3

Something that may be depleted if use goes beyond capacity to regenerate- Eg; Wood, fossil fuels etc

Question 4

What is a non critical flow? Give examples

Answer 4

Something that won’t run out- Wind

Question 5

What is ‘virtual water’ ?

Answer 5

Hidden water in trade of food or commodoties

Question 6

What is a reserve?

Answer 6

Part of a resource base that is economically, legally and technically viable to extract

Question 7

What is unconventional oil?

Answer 7

Oil that is extracted using more complex, expensive methods. Such as hydraulic fracking or tar sands

Question 8

What is the resource peak?

Answer 8

Point of maximum rate of resource exploitation. Where oil is at it’s cheapest and you’ve reached the 50%

Question 9

What is a possible resource?

Answer 9

Something that is thought to exist, not yet been sampled

Question 10

What is an inferred resource?

Answer 10

Limited sampling, no measurement

Question 11

What is an indicated reserves?

Answer 11

Partially measure but don’t know the extent of it, probable reserve sufficient sampling to justify investment

Question 12

What are proven reserves?

Answer 12

Economically viable as have done a feasibility study

Question 13

What does OPEC stand for?

Answer 13

Organisation of the petroleum exporting countries

Question 14

What are the five stages in resource development?

For each stage give a description about them

Answer 14

Exploration - locate and evaluate resource
Exploitation- Extract it - change to secondary energy- transport it
Depletion- Resource begins to run out
Development- New methods (tertiary and secondary) injecting gas and or water
Exhaustion- No longer physically or economically viable tp extract

Question 15

What are physical risks?

Answer 15

Quantity; Quality; physical location and accessibility; technology available.

Question 16

What are price risks?

Answer 16

Providing energy at reasonable prices

Question 17

What are geopolitical risks?

Answer 17

• Physical supply disruption due to political interference in transit routes
• Dependance on unstable countries
• Market dominance by producers

Question 18

What are OPEC’s main 3 aims?

Answer 18

Promote individual interests
Provide efficient supplies
Control 72% of worlds oils

Question 19

What is secondary energy? Give an example

Answer 19

Energy that has to be converted from primary energy first to be used to power things

Question 20

What is primary energy? Give an example

Answer 20

Energy that can be generated straight from it’s source

Question 21

What is a conventional oil reserve?

Answer 21

The general way of collecting oil which is usually the more simple method

Question 22

What is an unconventional oil reserve?

Answer 22

The more complicated and sometimes costly option of collecting oil instead of using the conventional method

Question 23

What limit OPEC’s influence on the world?

Answer 23

Other companies that provide oil

US and Russia are major providers of oil which compete against OPEC and undercut each other

Question 24

What is the ANWR? Why wasn’t it exploited in the past?

Answer 24

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

1) Oil banned from being drilled there
2) Difficult to access
3) Environmental

Question 25

Define a resource frontier?

Answer 25

Abundance of natural resources that haven’t been explored and are found on the periphery of a country.

Question 26

Why may exploitation of resource frontiers be necessary in the future?

Answer 26

Increase in population
Increase in demand
Frontiers running out elsewhere

Question 27

Why may exploitation of resource frontiers may not be necessary in the future?

Answer 27

Get better at recycling

People/countries moved to more renewable sources of energy instead.