OIL
Vulnerable Democrats Break With Biden Over ‘Transition’ From Oil Industry
Andrew Solender, Forbes, October 23, 2020
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s remark during the final presidential debate that he would “transition” away from the fossil fuel industry was met with heavy pushback not only from Republicans – who instantly identified the remark as Biden’s weak point of the night – but vulnerable Democrats as well.
“Democrats, Republicans and Independents know that the U.S. natural gas and oil industry delivers affordable and reliable energy to American families and businesses and all over the world,” the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement following the debate. “We are proud of the grit, innovation and progress we’ve made so that Americans no longer have to choose between environmental progress and access to affordable, reliable and cleaner energy. And we aren’t going anywhere.”
GAS
The World’s Largest Oil Trader Just Sent LNG Prices Soaring
Irina Slav, OilPrice.Com, October 22, 2020
Three trades for liquefied natural gas cargoes executed by commodity trading major Vitol made the company the talk of the LNG town as it pushed the Asian regional LNG benchmark up by as much as 20 percent. Bloomberg reports that the deals included one purchase of an LNG cargo from PetroChina, one from Gunvor, and one from Trafigura. The prices, at which Vitol bought the commodity between Friday and Tuesday, varied from $6.62 per mmBtu for the first cargo to $6.87 per mmBtu for the third one. Following these trades, the Japan-Korea Marker benchmark surged 20 percent to $6.761 per mmBtu—the year’s high.
MINING
Over $1 trillion needed for energy transition metals
Mining.Com, October 23, 2020
An investment of over $1 trillion will be needed in key energy transition metals – aluminum, cobalt, copper, nickel, and lithium – over the next 15 years just to meet the growing demands of decarbonization. Wood Mackenzie, in a new report, says the figure is double what was invested over the last 15 years.
While the coronavirus pandemic has slowed climate change mitigation efforts this year, governments across the world are using stimulus packages to either kick-start or accelerate their decarbonization journeys, WoodMac points out. “One can argue about both the pace and scale of the energy transition but the criticality of metals to its realization is without question, says Julian Kettle, Wood Mackenzie’s Vice Chairman of Metals and Mining. “Put simply, the energy transition starts and ends with metals. If you want to generate, transmit or store low/no-carbon energy you need aluminum, cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium.”
POLITICS
API Fact-Checks Presidential Debate Energy Positions
Pipeline & Gas Journal, October 23, 2020
The American Petroleum Institute (API) released the following statement on Thursday’s presidential debate.
“To seriously address the risks of climate change, the next U.S. president must be willing to acknowledge the issue is real and put forward realistic solutions, but unfortunately neither candidate did both,” API Content and Rapid Response Manager Scott Parker said. “Now more than ever, we need bipartisan policy solutions that do not force a false choice between protecting the environment and growing the U.S. economy.
“Rather than benefit our country’s environment and economy, policies that restrict U.S. production of natural gas and oil would jeopardize America’s economic recovery, increase energy costs, eliminate good paying union jobs, and shift energy production to foreign countries with lower environmental standards and higher CO2 emissions from energy production.”
API provided the fact checks below, it said, to correct the record on discussions about a fracking ban, implementing a carbon-free power sector by 2035, replacing natural gas and oil jobs with clean energy jobs, and policies to reduce CO2 emissions.