With its choice for Hinkley Point C - a ÂŁ100 billion boondoggle â its enthusiastic support for expensive and environmentally harmful fracking, and its relentless attack on renewable energy, the UK governmentâs energy policy is both morally and economically bankrupt, write Peter Strachan, Professor of Energy Policy at the Robert Gordon University, and Alex Russell, Professor and Chair of the Oil Industry Finance Committee. Westminster must … [Read more...]
Chinese national oil companies: giants built on shaky foundations
Chinese state-owned enterprises, Chinaâs national oil companies foremost among them, have incurred phenomenal debts â higher than the countryâs total GDP. So far they have been bailed out by the government, but this just shifts the problem one level up,  to China Inc as a whole, writes geophysicist  (ex-Shell) Jilles van den Beukel. Van den Beukel explains how Chinaâs national oil companies Sinopec, CNPC and CNOOC got into this fix and why the … [Read more...]
Energy policies of the U.S. presidential candidates
âThere is still much that needs to be investigated in the field of âclimate changeââ, says one. âWhen it comes to climate change, the science is crystal clearâ, says the other. âSave the coal industryâ, says one. âQuickly move to make a bridge from coal to natural gas to clean energy,â states the other. Allan Hoffman, author of the blog Thougts of a Lapsed Physicist, investigates the positions of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on climate and … [Read more...]
IEA sees âmajor shiftâ â but not major enough
âA major shift in investment towards low-carbon sources of power generation is underwayâ, according to a first-ever detailed analysis of investment across the global energy system from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Yet, in non-OECD countries, âinvestment in conventional generation remains strongâ, with over 75 GW of coal-fired power plants starting operation in 2015 in âdeveloping Asiaâ â âas much as all renewable capacity additions in … [Read more...]
How millennials could bring the oil industry to its knees
There is a growing disconnect between the world of Big Oil and the world of the âmillennialsâ, writes Julianne Geiger of Oilprice.com. Ignoring this generation, could be a costly mistake, she warns. What do the millennials want anyway? New ways of doing things, that is for sure. … [Read more...]
Slashing dividends: only option left for Big Oil?
The oil majors will have an extraordinarily difficult time trying to maintain their hefty dividends in todayâs oil market environment, writes Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com. Already they are piling on huge debts to enable them to keep up payouts to shareholders. Unless oil prices rebound substantially, they may have no choice but to slash them. Which would be a major blow to their reputation as cash generators. … [Read more...]
Paris deal, rapid transition means deepening doldrums for energy incumbents
Even as the earth is heating up, established oil, gas and nuclear companies are increasingly feeling the heat of the energy transition, writes famous author and entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett. Signs are everywhere that the fossil fuels game is almost up. This article was republished from Leggett's blog. … [Read more...]
The Age of the Lithium Barons has arrived
We've gone electric, and there's no going back at this point, writes James Stafford of Oilprice.com. Lithium is our new fuel, which will power pretty much everything on which our economy is built. But like fossil fuels, the reserves we're currently tapping into are finite. Those who start tapping into them now will be extremely well positioned in the future. … [Read more...]
Eiffel Towers in the North Sea – Shell’s decommissioning plans another Brent Spar PR disaster?
Shell is preparing to start the decommissioning of its four gigantic oil platforms in the famous Brent field in the Scottish part of the North Sea â a huge undertaking. Unfortunately, write Professor Alex Russell of the Oil Industry Finance Association and Professor Peter Strachan of Robert Gordon University, the company plans to dismantle only the topsides of the platforms. It wants to leave the Eiffel-tower sized legs, including 64 giant … [Read more...]
France, how can you square your ban on fracking with the import of shale oil?
The latest data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that exports of shale oil from the US are destined for France and other European countries that have banned fracking, points out shale gas expert Nick Grealy. This is hypocritical, notes Grealy. If fracking is really that bad, why donât the Europeans care when itâs done in Texas or North Dakota? … [Read more...]
Interview Sir John Scarlett, advisor Statoil, ex-head MI6:Â âThe role of old-fashioned geopolitics will become less important in energyâ
Thanks to new energy policies, technologies and market trends the potential to use energy for political purposes has decreased in recent years, says Sir John Scarlett, former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 and now Chairman of the Strategy Advisory Council at Statoil, in an interview with Energy Post. At the same time he notes that instability in North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe has grown and energy security should … [Read more...]
It will take more than a share in shale gas profits to sway public opinion on fracking
The UK government has proposed a scheme under which households in communities affected by shale gas production would be paid directly out of a Shale Wealth Fund financed by company revenues. Joseph Dutton, Research Fellow at the Energy Policy Group, University of Exeter, points out it is impossible to estimate how much they would get paid. According to Dutton, in the absence of a social license to operate, the promise of payments will do little … [Read more...]
Christoph Frei, World Energy Council:Â âGrand transitionâ requires new vision of energy security
The energy sector is going through a âgrand transitionâ that will radically change the way energy security should be approached, says Christoph Frei, Secretary General of the World Energy Council, on the eve of the ONS Summit, a high-level meeting on energy security in Stavangerâ on August 28-29, hosted by the Munich Security Conference and the ONS Foundationâ. In particular, the role of gas in the European energy system will change, says Frei. … [Read more...]
The elusive gas connection between Spain and France
The French energy regulator has recently said that a long-awaited gas interconnector between Spain and France, which the European Commission says would help reduce Europeâs dependence on Russian gas, is not needed and too costly in the current market environment. Juan Vila, President of the Spanish company Gasindustrial, disputes the CREâs assumptions and calls its viewpoint short-sighted. âThe people and industries in Spain and Portugal need to … [Read more...]
The USâs multi-trillion-dollar bridge to nowhere in the Greater Middle EastÂ
The US finds itself fighting multiple wars across the Greater Middle East, but no one in Washington asks the questions that really matter, writes historian Andrew Bacevich: do these wars make sense? What is their goal? When will they end? Are they even winnable? This article was first published on TomDispatch.com and is republished here with permission. It is more than about energy - it's about the future of our planet - which defines much of the … [Read more...]
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