$50 oil for three years? It’s the economy, stupid. Q3 global gas review.

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News of the Day:        Don’t Tell Us Alaskans Not to Drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

OIL

Budgeting for oil at $50/bbl. for the next three years
Abeer Abu Omar and Matthew Martin, Bloomberg, October 4, 2020

Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry is budgeting for oil prices to be around $50 a barrel for the next three years, according to a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysis of the kingdom’s fiscal plans.  “Using our own estimates for the breakdown of government revenues, we calculate that the numbers presented in the budget statement are based on an average oil price of around $50 a barrel between 2020 and 2023,” said Farouk Soussa, a London-based analyst at Goldman, referring to a pre-budget statement from Sept. 30.

GAS

Gas Line, Q3 2020
Nikos Tsafos, Center for Strategic and International Studies, October 1, 2020

Gas Line is a quarterly publication that looks at major news stories in global gas—ranging from project development to markets and geopolitics. My goal is not to cover every story but to draw connections between stories across time and space in order to shed light on the major themes that will drive global gas markets in the years ahead. My main takeaways from this quarter:

  • Suppliers Cut Production to Balance Markets
  • Companies Announce Big Impairments, but Finance Still Flows
  • New Player in the East Med Faces a New Landscape
  • The Southern Corridor Comes into Shape

MINING

 US grabs stake in battery metals miner to fight Chinese control
Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, October 5, 2020

The US government is taking a $25 million equity stake in Dublin-based battery metals miner TechMet, as part of a push by President Donald Trump to reduce the country’s reliance on supply chains dominated by China.   The backing from the $60 billion US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will help TechMet develop a nickel and cobalt mine in Brazil. Both metals are key in the production of the batteries that power electric cars and cell phones.

POLITICS

Economy Tops Voters’ List of Key Election Issues
Megan Brenan, Research Consultant, Gallup, October 5, 2020

As the nation remains in a pandemic-induced recession, U.S. registered voters say the economy is the most important issue of 16 that may potentially affect their choice for president. Nearly nine in 10 registered voters consider the presidential candidates’ positions on the economy “extremely” (44%) or “very” (45%) important to their vote.

At least three-quarters of voters consider six other issues to be important to their vote choice — terrorism and national security (83%), education (82%), healthcare (80%), crime (79%), the response to the coronavirus (77%), and race relations (76%).