OIL
Oil steady near $70 on hopes of recovering demand
Shadia Nasralla, Reuters, March 11, 2021
Oil hovered near $70 a barrel on Friday, supported by production cuts by major oil producers and optimism about a demand recovery in the second half of the year.
Benchmark Brent fell 22 cents, or 0.3%, to $69.41 a barrel by 1444 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $65.82 a barrel, down 20 cents, or 0.3%.
Brent is on track to end the week flat after prices touched a 13-month high on Monday, following seven straight weeks of gains.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecast a stronger oil demand recovery this year, weighted to the second half. OPEC, Russia and its allies decided last week to maintain its output curbs almost unchanged.
Related:
Oil prices fully rebound a year after markets were rocked by COVID-19
GAS
The first hydrogen-supply chain project to start operations
Sonja Pekic, Offshore Energy, March 12, 2021
A Japanese-Australian consortium sets off the production of hydrogen from brown coal in the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) pilot project in Australia.
The HESC Pilot is developing a complete hydrogen supply chain, creating hydrogen gas via the gasification of Latrobe Valley coal, transport to the Port of Hastings for liquefaction, and shipment to Japan. The operations are about to start at both Victorian sites.
The 500 million Australian dollars (USD $388m) project is run by Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
It is being delivered by a consortium of industry partners from Japan and Australia including Kawasaki Heavy Industries, J-POWER, Iwatani Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, AGL and Sumitomo Corporation, and is supported by the Victorian, Australian and Japanese governments.
The pilot project wants to demonstrate liquefied hydrogen can be produced commercially and exported safely overseas.
MINING
Donlin Gold seeks local subsistence input
Shane Lasley, North of 60 Mining News, March 11, 2021
Donlin Gold LLC, Calista Corp. and The Kuskokwim Corporation are seeking the perspectives and local knowledge of people living in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region when it comes to subsistence and the proposed Donlin Gold Mine project.
Calista, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act regional corporation for the Yukon-Kuskokwim area of Southwest Alaska, owns the subsurface rights at Donlin, and TKC, the ANCSA village corporation that owns the surface lands covering the 39-million-ounce gold project, are encouraging shareholders to sit on this and other Donlin Gold committees.
“Community residents, who are largely our shareholders, can have an important voice and presence in the development of this project and its future operations,” said Calista President and CEO Andrew Guy. “By serving on a committee, our people have direct input on the project and a direct line of communication to its oversight group.”
One such communication line is the Subsistence Community Advisory Committee, one of series of committees being launched by the Donlin Advisory Technical Review and Oversight Committee, or DATROP.
“This is our home. Our families have been the caretakers of this area for generations and will continue to steward these lands for generations to come. These community advisory committees provide a way for people of the region to have input, a critical voice of the potential project,” said TKC President and CEO Andrea Gusty.
With members from Donlin Gold, Calista and TKC, DATROP was established to discuss environmental protections, cultural resources, subsistence uses, reclamation and potential impacts on communities.
This technical oversight group is seeking direct input from communities in proximity to Donlin and the Yukon-Kuskokwim area transportation corridor that will be used to deliver equipment and supplies to the proposed mine being advanced under an equal partnership between Novagold Resources Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp.
POLITICS
An Alaska legislative aide’s severe COVID-19 has heightened Senate reaction to anti-mask lawmaker
James Brooks, Anchorage Daily News, March 12, 2021
he case of a severely ill Alaska Senate aide is influencing how the Alaska Legislature deals with a senator who has declined to follow the Legislature’s pandemic precautions.
As of Thursday, seven people who work in the Alaska Capitol have tested positive for COVID-19 since an outbreak began in late February. An additional 22 people have quarantined in connection with those positive cases. Konrad Jackson, a top aide to Senate President Peter Micciche, is one of the seven cases and has been hospitalized with significant breathing problems.
A spokesperson for Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau confirmed that Jackson is a patient there. Through the spokesperson, Jackson referred questions about his condition to Capitol officials.
Micciche, who had a mild case of COVID-19 in the fall, had been seeking to relax the Capitol’s COVID-19 testing and screening requirements before the outbreak here.
“Yeah, it’s changed my opinion,” he said of Jackson’s case. “Talking to him now and hearing him struggle makes it real for me.”
On Wednesday, Micciche was one of 18 senators who voted in favor of excluding Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, from most in-person legislative activities. Legislators and Capitol employees are required to wear CDC-approved masks, take two coronavirus tests per week and undergo daily screening for symptoms and fever.
CLIMATE CHANGE
We’ve all heard The Biden Administration’s mission to “Build Back Better,” but right now, we can only build new clean energy projects and reduce CO2 emissions as fast as we can permit new projects. If we are to truly build back better, the mission ought to be Build Cleaner Faster. Watch ClearPath’s latest whiteboard video explaining the history of the environmental permitting process, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and why modernizations must keep pace with the transition to a clean energy economy that will require tens of thousands of miles of new pipelines carrying hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide from power plants and industrial facilities, new transmission infrastructure to carry electricity around an increasingly electrified country, and new power plants sited everywhere will be key to a clean energy future. This will be the largest continental construction project in history, and every one of those projects will begin with a permit.
Watch the Whiteboard Video Here