by wp_sysadmin | Oct 21, 2019 | Home, News
Cuomo’s Carbon Contradiction
The Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2019
Mr. Cuomo wants to make New York ground zero in the left’s plan to purge fossil fuels. First he banned shale fracking in southern New York despite its huge potential to boost local economies. Then he blocked a natural-gas pipeline from Pennsylvania that would have reduced energy bills and reliance on heating oil.
As a coup de grâce, in May he vetoed another pipeline to bring natural gas to Long Island from New Jersey. National Grid, which provides natural gas on Long Island, responded rationally by imposing a moratorium on natural-gas hookups to prevent supply disruptions when demand spikes in the winter.
This essentially stranded tens of thousands of folks waiting for gas hookups, including more than a thousand who had deactivated their service after moving or renovating. Apparently Mr. Cuomo didn’t understand that the result of his pipeline blockade was to force residents to use more expensive and less-efficient electric appliances for space and water heating.
Our take: “Consider this another parable of how the political campaign to ban fossil fuels is detached from energy and economic reality.” Meanwhile, as winter looms just around the corner, let’s remember Headlamp’s go-to slogan: Markets, not Mandates.
Alaska regulators taking public comment on possible oil spill plan changes
Becky Bohrer, KTOO, October 19, 2019
Thirty years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the state of Alaska is looking at whether to change its requirements for oil spill prevention and response plans.
State Environmental Conservation Commissioner Jason Brune said there’s no intent to do away with the plans. He said the department wants to make sure the rules are not outdated.
Brune said he has heard from many Alaskans that contingency plans “are unnecessarily burdensome while lacking corresponding environmental benefits.”
Successful test aboard ‘Norwegian Cinderella’ holds promising future for automated offshore rigs
Sergio Chapa, Houston Chronicle, October 21, 2019
Houston oilfield service company Baker Hughes and the Norwegian energy company Equinor successfully tested automated and remote-controlled systems that were recently installed aboard the Askepott, an offshore drilling rig named after the Norwegian version of the fairy tale princess Cinderella.
Tasks such as cementing, fluid engineering and directional drilling can now be performed remotely by an operator working out of a control center miles away in the coastal city of Tananger. Connected to Askepott by an underwater fiber optic cable, Baker Hughes staff have performed their first cementing jobs via remote control on a pair of oil wells in the North Sea’s Oseberg field.
Our take: Increased safety, increased efficiency, no jobs lost… What’s not to like! Bravo Baker Hughes and Equinor!
Big U.S. liquefied natgas players move fast; smaller ones try to keep up
Scott DiSavino & Sabina Zawadzki, Reuters, October 17, 2019
A gap is emerging in the U.S. liquefied natural gas industry as big players such as Exxon Mobil Corp and Cheniere Energy Inc race ahead to build export terminals with fewer long-term contracts, while smaller developers struggle to find financing for their first plants.
[The LNG trade] is changing. As the market grows and pricing mechanisms diversify, some buyers do not want to commit to 20-year contracts. The growing prowess of oil majors such as Exxon and recent entrants such as Cheniere and trading houses means there are aggregators that can supply buyers more flexibly, making it harder for smaller players.
From the Daily on Energy
RENEWABLES ON THE RISE
Total global renewable power is set to more than double in the next five years, the International Energy Agency says in a new report out Monday. In fact, IEA projects an increase of 1,200 gigawatts by 2024, an amount equal to all the power capacity in the U.S. currently.
enewables’ doubling will be driven largely by increasing solar power — with China set to take over with the world’s largest solar PV capacity. Overall costs for solar and wind will continue to tumble, too, the IEA says.
Putting the numbers in perspective: A doubling in global renewable capacity isn’t as ambitious as it sounds. According to the IEA, the huge growth it projects in solar PV through 2024 represents a mere 6% of the technology’s total potential worldwide.
And the renewables’ growth IEA projects isn’t nearly enough to meet global climate goals. “Renewables are already the world’s largest source of electricity, but their deployment still needs to accelerate if we are to achieve long-term climate, air quality, and energy access goals,” Fatih Birol, IEA’s executive director, said in a statement.
by wp_sysadmin | Oct 17, 2019 | Home, News
Trump to pick former Alaska oil industry attorney for federal judgeship
Nathaniel Hetz, Alaska’s Energy Desk, October 16, 2019
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to pick Joshua Kindred, a former oil industry attorney, as a new U.S. District Court judge for Alaska. Kindred works as a lawyer in Anchorage for the U.S. Department of Interior. Before that, he was regulatory and legal affairs manager for the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, an industry group that sometimes participates in lawsuits to defend oil development in federal court. Kindred has also worked as a state prosecutor.
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy:
FLIPPING THE BIRD: A federal judge gave the proverbial you-know-what Wednesday to the Trump administration’s plan to weaken protections of the threatened chicken-sized Sage Grouse.
Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho granted a preliminary injunction ruling that the administration failed to analyze how sage grouse would be harmed under a plan issued in March that would allow for drilling and mining activities amongst the bird’s habitat.
“It is likely that these actions will cause further declines of the sage grouse under the weakened protections,” Winmill wrote in his decision.
If Obama did it…: The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management sought to revise a previous sage grouse plan issued in 2015 by the Obama administration with the support of western states. The Obama administration decided not to list the bird as endangered — a more significant step — but protected large chunks of habitat from oil and gas drilling. The range of the grouse extends across 270,000 square miles in parts of 11 states in the western United States. The bird’s population once numbered in the millions but fell to a few hundred thousand in recent decades.
Our Take: Here’s an example of what can happen when the government tries to save a species:
Owl vs. owl: Should humans intervene to save a species?
Democrats’ Repeal of Trump Power Rule Rollback Faces Long Odds
Chuck McCutcheon, Bloomberg Environment, October 17, 2019
Senate Democrats face an uphill battle in a vote slated for today on their attempt to repeal the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken carbon pollution limits for U.S. power plants.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) vowed to use expedited floor procedures under the Congressional Review Act to scrap the EPA rule but also Trump administration health regulations and a rollback of limits on state and local tax deductions in the 2017 tax law. It could be passed with just a simple majority vote. But with Republicans controlling the Senate 53-47, Democrats would need to avoid any defections—including coal-state Democrats.
by wp_sysadmin | Oct 15, 2019 | Home, News
Exclusive: No choice but to invest in oil, Shell CEO says
Ron Bousso, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Reuters, October 14, 2019
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) still sees abundant opportunity to make money from oil and gas in coming decades even as investors and governments increase pressure on energy companies over climate change, its chief executive said. But in an interview with Reuters, Ben van Beurden expressed concern that some shareholders could abandon the world’s second-largest listed energy company due partly to what he called the “demonization” of oil and gas and “unjustified” worries that its business model was unsustainable. The 61-year-old Dutch executive in recent years became one of the sector’s most prominent voices advocating action over global warming in the wake of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Our Take: Of course Shell is investing in oil; the world markets demand it. As noted in the article below, the oil and natural gas industry produces the energy we count on every day, while meeting climate objectives. Markets, not mandates.
The Continuing Quest for Energy – and Lower Emissions
Mark Green, API Energy Blog, October 14, 2019
Looking over EPA’s new Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) data on methane emissions, let’s consider two overarching points: First, energy from natural gas and oil power and empower America’s modern way of life – better health, greater comforts and conveniences and opportunities for Americans and their families to prosper. No other energy comes close in terms of accessibility, reliability, affordability and useful adaptability across an economy and nation as large and diverse as ours. Second, as America’s natural gas and oil industry produces the energy we count on every day, it also must continue to capture as much methane as possible from that production, to help the U.S. meet its climate objectives. On both of those leading priorities, our industry is on it.
The oil tax initiative: Fair for whom?
Roger Marks, Anchorage Daily News, October 15, 2019
Alaska’s constitution provides for “utilization, development, and conservation of … resources … for the maximum benefit of the people.” What is maximum benefit? Cash to the state? Short-term cash? Long-term? Jobs? Income? Environmental quality? Who knows? Then there is the idea of the state getting its “fair share.” What is fair? For eons, philosophers, theologians, lawyers, economist and countless others have pondered this. There is currently a ballot initiative to raise oil taxes called “The Fair Share Act.” Most economists would say fairness entails taxes being competitive; taxpayers should pay a similar amount to what they pay in other similar places. Otherwise investment will go elsewhere, and production suffers. As measured by percentage of net pre-tax profits going to the state and federal government, the current system is competitive. (Including the “credits,” which do not really function as credits, but rather provide progressivity to the system.)
Our Take: Today is the day. Alaska’s lieutenant governor will either certify or deny the “Fair Share” ballot initiative. As noted in the article, “The initiative sponsors have not stated what is fair, how they justify it, how they measure it or how the initiative attains fairness.” Adding an additional $1 billion in taxes would triple the tax rate – the sponsors of this initiative assume that such a drastic increase will have no impact on investment levels. #voodooeconomics
by wp_sysadmin | Oct 14, 2019 | Home, News
Santos Targets Asia LNG Growth With $1.4 Billion Conoco Deal
James Thornhill, Bloomberg, October 13, 2019
Santos Ltd. agreed to buy ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia business for $1.4 billion in a deal that will boost the Adelaide-based oil and gas producer’s position in the growing Asian liquefied natural gas market. The transaction may allow Santos to become the country’s largest independent energy producer and capitalize on a push by Asian consumers, including China, to switch to cleaner burning natural gas away from coal. Conoco is selling its operating interests in the Darwin LNG processing plant and the Bayu-Undan, Barossa and Poseidon gas fields. Conoco is the second U.S. energy major to announce plans to sell down its interests in Australia after Exxon Mobil Corp. in September said it would start a process to find a buyer for its Bass Strait producing assets off the coast of southeast Australia. Conoco completed the sale of its stake in the Greater Sunrise field to Timor-Leste’s government for $350 million earlier this year, and the Santos deal will free up capital to invest in U.S. shale and return cash to shareholders, two of its priorities in recent years.
Oil and Gas Companies Turn to AI to Cut Costs
Neanda Salvaterra, The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2019
Amid a growing push to cut operating costs, big oil is looking to artificial intelligence for help with automating functions, predicting equipment problems and increasing the output of oil and gas. AI tools can quickly find solutions for the costly problems that can disrupt the business of searching for and extracting hydrocarbons. For example, a faulty well pump at an unmanned platform in the North Sea repeatedly disrupted production earlier this year for Aker BP, a Norwegian oil company in which BP owns a stake. The company finally fixed the problem by installing an AI program that monitors data from sensors attached to the pump and flags glitches before they cause a shutdown, says Lars Atle Andersen, vice president of operations for technology and digitalization. Engineers now can fly in to fix such problems ahead of time and avert a shutdown, Mr. Andersen says.
Facing climate change, ExxonMobil ramps up energy research
Amy Harder, Axios, October 14, 2019
ExxonMobil is expanding its research efforts with the stated goal of producing more — but cleaner — energy in the face of climate change. Driving the news: The world’s biggest publicly traded oil company has been creating new partnerships with American and foreign universities in recent years totaling at least $75 million, and it just inked another, unprecedented $100 million deal with the U.S. Energy Department.
The big picture: Oil and gas companies have been funding energy and climate research at universities and other entities for years. Exxon’s recent moves are an expansion of this trend at a time of heightened scrutiny facing oil companies and their role fueling climate change.
- To critics, this corporate funding casts doubt on the scientific independence of research, especially from oil and gas producers with bottom lines to protect in the face of policies targeting their products.
- To academics and executives involved, the partnerships are genuine and mutually beneficial as oil companies seek to adopt cleaner energy technologies and universities get deep pockets of money and expertise.
by wp_sysadmin | Oct 10, 2019 | Home, News
