What does the future of Copper mean for Alaska & the world?
Kieran Baker, Alaskanomics, January 26, 2019
According to the latest report in a new copper supply & demand outlook, by Fitch Solutions, global refined copper will grow steadily over the coming years, driven by demand from the power industry and rising electric vehicle (EV) production. Fitch forecasts that global copper demand will increase from 23.6mnt in 2018 to 29 .8mnt by 2027, at 2.6% annual growth. It makes sense that mining companies are searching worldwide for copper projects amid the forecasts that demand for the red metal will significantly outstrip supply from 2020; there are 300kg of copper in an electric bus alone and nine tons per wind-farm megawatt. It seems like brown is becoming the new green.
New technology boosts Alaska oil resources: Fuel for Thought
Tim Bradner, S & P Global Platts, January 28, 2019
Rapid technology advances are allowing explorers and producers in Alaska to add hundreds of millions of barrels of new resources to portfolios at a cost competitive with finding oil in the Lower 48 states. Chief among the technologies being used are advanced 3-D seismic and new data processing techniques, to define and map oil deposits in geological formations that have long been known but were thought to be unproductive. Companies are also using advances in horizontal drilling techniques to reach deposits. In the last two years, over 1.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil has been found mainly in the west central North Slope and northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, areas companies have explored for years.
India’s 2018 thermal coal imports grew at fastest pace in four years: sources
Sudarshan Varadhan, Reuters, January 25, 2019
Coal is among the top five commodities imported by India, one of the world’s largest consumers of coal, and the rise in imports of the fuel after two consecutive years of decline adds to its trade deficit. That trade gap has been hurting the valuation of the rupee, the worst performing major Asian currency in 2018. Thermal coal imports jumped 19 percent to 171.85 million tons in 2018, marking the fastest pace of growth since 2014, according to data from American Fuels & Natural Resources, a Dubai-based trader of U.S.-origin coal. Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie also said imports grew at their fastest pace since 2014, to 164 million tons in 2018.
From the Washington Examiner Daily on Energy:
EIA CONFIRMS US EMISSIONS HIKE LAST YEAR: The Energy Information Administration confirmed Monday that U.S. carbon emissions rose in 2018, although the agency expects that to be a one-year blip.
The EIA said emissions increased 2.8 percent in 2018 — the largest year-to-year rise since 2010. But the agency said emissions will decline again in 2019 and 2020.
The report comes after the Rhodium Group earlier this month projected that U.S. carbon emissions rose 3.4 percent in 2018 after three years of decline, even as a record number of coal plants retired.
The Rhodium Group found U.S. emissions’ increases in all major sectors: electricity, transportation, buildings, and industrial.
What’s driving the increase: It attributed higher emissions from last year to an unusually hot summer and cold winter, and increased manufacturing activity.
The EIA report, likewise, said weather conditions and “continued economic growth” were the primary drivers of higher energy consumption, and emissions.
Emissions from natural gas, a common home-heating fuel, increased 10 percent.
