OIL
OPEC slightly lowers 2021 outlook for oil demand
Market Watch, October 13, 2020
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Tuesday left its outlook for 2020 oil demand relatively unchanged, penciling in a decline of 9.5 million barrels a day. For 2021, OPEC, in its monthly report, said revised demand lower by 80,000 barrels a day, forecasting growth of 6.5 million barrels a day, with the cut largely reflecting a lower growth outlook for both developed and emerging market regions compared to the September forecast. On the supply side, OPEC revised up its forecast for 2020 output by 310,000 barrels a day, due largely to a stronger-than-expected recovery in U.S. liquids production. Oil futures were higher Tuesday morning, with the U.S. benchmark CL.1, 2.23% 1.5% at $40.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
GAS
Russian LNG Gets A Climate Change Boost
Irina Slav, OilPrice.Com, October 12, 2020
Russia’s Novatek said last week it planned to triple current liquefied natural gas production rates to as much as 70 million tons annually by 2030. That’s despite the current glut that has depressed LNG prices globally and the damage to demand done by the pandemic. The company has a major ally in that ambition, and it’s not Putin. It’s the Northern Sea Route. In September, shipments of liquefied natural gas from Novatek’s Yamal LNG facility via the Northern Sea Route hit 700,000 tons, according to an Argus Media report. That amount broke the record of 623,000 tons shipped in August and substantially increased the amount of LNG shipped from Yamal a year earlier. And shipments will continue to grow as the Northern Sea Route remains open for maritime traffic for longer.
MINING
Ucore unveils Alaska2023 rare earths plan
Shane Lasley, MetalTech News, October 7, 2020
Seeking to alleviate the United States’ heavy reliance on China for its supply of the rare earth elements needed for a broad range of high-tech applications, Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has rolled out a strategy to begin producing REEs in Alaska in three years. Dubbed Alaska2023, this business plan aims to build the Alaska Strategic Metals Complex, a commercial-scale RapidSX rare earths separation and purification plant in Southeast Alaska, by 2023. This processing facility is the first step in the company’s ultimate goal of establishing a mine at Bokan Mountain, a rare earth and critical minerals project about 30 miles away from the SMC.
POLITICS
BP’s climate reinvention dodges politics
Amy Harder, Axios, October 13, 2020
BP CEO Bernard Looney is leading the biggest transformation in the oil industry’s 160-year history, but he’s staying quiet on the thorniest part: the politics. Driving the news: In our recent interview for “Axios on HBO,” Looney made a scripted case for BP’s big plan to pivot to renewable energy and survive — and even thrive — while doing it.
Over the course of an hour, he redirected or waved off questions on the climate-change positions of President Trump and Joe Biden, BP’s lobbying activities in Washington, and mistrust from the public and environmentalists over the oil industry’s willingness to address climate change.