Using data from MarineTraffic (which is definitely worth a click through), the New York Times has created this terrific animation showing the flow of oil tankers from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world from May 15 to June 15, 2019.
Here's a screenshot:
About 20% of the world's supply of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a tiny passage located between Iran (north) and the UAE (south). See above.
The article also has a number of other charts that speak to changing supply and demand patterns. Note the US, China, and Iran.
Here are the top oil producers (total petroleum liquids) and the top crude oil exporters in 2018 (both are measured in millions of barrels a day):
And here are the top oil consumers ranked by 2016 data (total consumption of petroleum and other liquids):
Images/Charts: New York Times
While we were doing our West Palm Beach to Toronto road trip last weekend, I started wondering how much longer the trip would be taking had we been driving a Tesla. The drive, according to Google Maps, is normally about 20 hours and 46 minutes. It's a long one. About 2,288 km. The mountains in Virginia are nice, though.
The route I threw in is West Palm Beach to Junction House (2720 Dundas St W, Toronto):
Bill Gates recently spoke with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Full video, here.
According to Tesla, this same route using a Standard Range (400km) Model X SUV is now estimated to take 34 hours.
The additional travel time is a result of charging time (anywhere from 20 - 70min per charge depending on the device) and the fact that you need to go where the chargers are. In this scenario, you end up driving an additional 155 km. However, you will end up saving money on gas.
This reminds me of something that Bill Gates argued in the talk I recently posted. Electric vehicles are the future of personal transport, but they're not great for commercial applications: planes, boats, and so on. The battery capacity simply isn't there, and it's unlikely to be there anytime soon. But perhaps the charging times can be brought down. That would help.
I'm not planning on doing this drive again anytime soon. But if any of you are, you may want to leave the Tesla at home if you're in a rush. However, using an EV would, of course, be the right thing to do for our planet.
The technology discussions in general are interesting, but I also really enjoyed hearing about his efforts to address climate change. He spends a good chunk of time talking about that. Strongly recommend. (Related link: Breakthrough Energy.)
On a somewhat unrelated note, this is also the first time I've seen every question and answer neatly transcribed below a video. This makes it very easy to find the parts that may be of interest. All video discussions should have this.
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