Today’s Key Takeaways: Majors signal oil isn’t going anywhere. New majority owner for AKLNG. Graphite One increases Alaska mine reserves. Just Stop Oil – stops.
OIL:
BP, Shell, and Exxon Signal One Thing: Oil Isn’t Going Anywhere
Irina Slav, OilPrice.com, March 29, 2025
- BP, Shell, Exxon, and Chevron are boosting fossil fuel investments after disappointing returns on green energy ventures.
- BP is increasing oil and gas spending by 25% and Shell is prioritizing LNG growth.
- U.S. supermajors stayed the course and are now outperforming.
Ever since BP admitted that its attempt to go green had ended in a disaster, the flow of news from the energy industry has been in one single direction: back to oil and gas, which make money. Indeed, Big Oil has finally accepted it will not transform into Big Green Power and has gone back to what it does best: hydrocarbons.
In late February, when it made its very unsurprising admission, BP said it would boost spending on oil and gas production by 25% annually while slashing investments in transition-related business by 70%. The new strategy did not come easily to BP’s leadership, by the way. It came as the result of a pressure campaign from activist investor Elliot Management, which called BP out on its unrealistic expectations from the transition gamble.
As part of turnaround plans, the supermajor eyes launching an impressive 27 new oil and gas projects over the next five years, the FT reported in an overview of the company’s midterm strategy, noting, however, that even with these projects, BP’s 2030 oil and gas production will be slightly lower than its 2019 production—per plans. The important bit, however, is that it will not be reducing this production as it previously intended to do amid its green pivot.
Now, while BP has made no special mention of natural gas as a focus for its strategy, the overall shift in targets to refocus on the core business speaks volumes, and these volumes are not in favor of switching from hydrocarbons to electricity. The supermajor just announced the final investment decision on a Trinidad and Tobago gas project, due to start producing in two years with a peak output of 62,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily. It also got an approval from the Iraqi government to start the development of two oil fields in the north. BP is very much back.
GAS:
Glenfarne Taking Lead Role in Alaska LNG Project
Staff, March 31, 2025, Energy Tech
Alaska LNG is designed to deliver North Slope natural gas to customers and utilities in the state while also exporting up to 20 million tons of LNG per year.
The only liquified natural gas (LNG) export project federally permitted on the U.S. Pacific Coast so far has a new majority owner to lead the work toward eventual operations.
Glenfarne Alaska LNG signed a definitive agreement with the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) to lead work on the Alaska LNG project. Alaska LNG is designed to deliver North Slope natural gas to customers and utilities in the state while also exporting up to 20 million tons of LNG per year.
As part of the agreement, AGDC is divesting 75% of 8 Star Alaska, a subsidiary of AGDC managing all Alaska LNG project assets, to Glenfarne. Glenfarne assumes the role of Alaska LNG’s lead developer and will lead all remaining development work of the LNG project from front-end engineering and design (FEED) through to a final investment decision (FID).
AGDC will be a 25% owner of 8 Star Alaska as well as a partner to Glenfarne on the project.
“Alaska LNG will provide desperately needed energy security and natural gas cost savings for Alaskans and give Glenfarne unmatched flexibility to simultaneously serve LNG markets in both Asia and Europe through our three LNG projects,” said Glenfarne Chief Executive Officer and Founder Brendan Duval.
The U.S. Department of the Interior approved right-of-way permits for the Alaska LNG Pipeline Project in August 2020.
Alaska LNG’s three subprojects are an 807-mile 42-inch pipeline, the 20 MTPA LNG export terminal in Nikiski, Alaska, and a North Slope-based carbon capture plant to remove and store 7 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Phase one of the LNG project will initiate soon, prioritizing the development and final investment decision of the pipeline infrastructure required to deliver North Slope gas to Alaskans. The State of Alaska will retain a 25% share in 8 Star Alaska and have the option to invest up to 25% in any or all of the three 8 Star Alaska subprojects after a final investment decision.
The United States is currently the biggest exporter of LNG in the world. Natural gas is chilled to minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit to liquify and make it stable for shipping.
Most of the currently operational U.S. LNG liquefaction and export terminals are located on the Gulf of Mexico coast. Europe and Asia are leading off-takers of U.S. LNG.
MINING
Graphite One triples Alaska’s mine reserves
Cecelia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, March 28, 2025
Canadian junior Graphite One (TSX‐V: GPH) has published preliminary results from a new feasibility study on its Graphite Creek project in Alaska, revealing a threefold increase in projected production compared to earlier estimates.
The critical minerals explorer and developer said it plans to file the full study in April and will now move into the permitting phase.
The announcement comes on the heels of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump aimed at reducing the country’s heavy reliance on mineral imports.
Chief executive Anthony Huston credited grant support under the United States’ Defense Production Act (DPA) for accelerating the feasibility study by 15 months and enabling an expanded drilling program.
According to the new results, the Graphite Creek project near Alaska’s west coast hosts 3.72 million tonnes of graphite in 71.2 million tonnes of proven and probable reserves averaging 5.2% graphite. This would allow the mine to produce 175,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate annually for more than two decades.
“With these new results, Graphite Creek is now triple the size when the US Geological Survey reported just three years ago that Graphite Creek was the largest flake graphite deposit in the US,” Huston said.
Even before Trump returned to the Oval Office with a pledge to strengthen domestic critical mineral production —particularly in Alaska— Graphite One had already secured federal backing for its plan to develop a complete mine-to-electric vehicle (EV) graphite supply chain in the US.
The ore mined in western Alaska will be shipped to a processing and recycling plant the company is building in Ohio, where it will be refined into battery-grade anode material and other advanced graphite products.
To complete the supply chain, Graphite One secured last year a deal with electric car maker Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) to provide it with graphite anode material for the batteries going into its EVs.
POLITICS:
Victories
Julianne Geiger, OilPrice.com, March 27, 2025
After three years of attention-seeking behavior hurling tomato bisque at masterpieces and glue-sticking themselves to random surfaces, the UK’s most orange-vested climate troupe, Just Stop Oil, has decided to… well, stop.
Yes, the group that brought us soup-covered Van Goghs, powder paint vandalism at Stonehenge, and a Magna Carta shatterfest is hanging up the hi-vis vests at the end of April, the group said today in a press release as it claimed victory.
Their logic? The UK government has (sort of) agreed to their original demand: no new oil and gas exploration licenses. Of course, the same government is also greenlighting tiebacks to existing fields and giving the windfall tax a retirement date—so the oil is still flowing, just now with a polite legal workaround. But don’t let that nuance get in the way of a good press release.
Of course, the notice also follows tougher anti-protest laws that have made it more difficult for the group to do what it does best: vandalize. It also comes at a time when disruptive protests have seemed to fall quickly out of fashion. Extinction Rebellion bailed on attention-grabbing antics last year. With tighter protest laws and dwindling public patience, even the loudest activists are starting to read the room.
“We kept 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground,” Just Stop Oil announced, counting hypothetical barrels like imaginary friends. That figure assumes every single potential project was about to leap off the drawing board before they showed up with soup cans and glue. Bold.
The group is funded in large part by the Climate Emergency Fund—a U.S. nonprofit whose donors include heirs to oil fortunes.
As for what’s next, Just Stop Oil is citing the need for a “revolution” to tackle “mass death and rising fascism,” which feels like quite the pivot from fossil fuels.