As the 116th Congress commences, in the wake of dire reports from climate scientists, the debate over U.S. climate policies has taken a welcome turn towards bold solutions. Capitol Hill is alive once again with policy proposals that edge towards the scale required to address the crisis we’re in. A new study by Kelly Trout of Oil Change International, along with 17 partner organisations, makes it clear that managing a rapid and equitable decline … [Read more...]
Low oil price alongside rise in renewables sees Oil & Gas slide to bottom of S&P 500
In December we reported that in 2018, the U.S. became the world's leading oil producer for the first time since the 1970s. It is tipped to produce 12 million barrels of oil per day this year (up approximately 10% year on year), and over two-thirds of it will come from shale producers. But the consequent squeeze on the oil price meant U.S. Oil & Gas firms ended the second year in a row at the bottom of the stock market. IEEFA’s director of … [Read more...]
The Saudi Dilemma: To Cut Or Not To Cut
Following November's G20 meeting in Buenos Aires and the ensuing OPEC meeting earlier this month, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is still left scratching its head. 90% of the Kingdom's income comes from Oil. As US shale keeps piling on the pressure, some argue they have enough in the bank to fund higher production levels and even lower prices for another 10-years. But their Vision 2030 initiative, to radically diversify their economy, also requires … [Read more...]
IEA: Future is electric and increasingly renewable
"The IEA is no longer the conservative bastion of oil it once was" writes Fereidoon Sioshansi. Distilling all 650 pages of their latest Outlook, he summarises how the pressing need to address climate change means the dwindling supremacy of oil is giving way to a growing role for electricity that will, amongst other things, cater for 1 billion EVs by 2040. Courtesy EEnergy Informer … [Read more...]
The IEA comes up short on climate (again)
The release of the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2018 marks another missed opportunity for the International Energy Agency (IEA) to provide a roadmap to Paris, writes Greg Muttitt of NGO Oil Change International. According to Muttitt, even the WEO’s “sustainable development scenario” falls well short of the Paris goals. Policymakers and investors cannot rely on the WEO to guide their decisions in energy. … [Read more...]
US shale has a glaring problem
With oil prices high and production booming, 2018 was supposed to be a year of profits for US shale oil and gas companies. A report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and the Sightline Institute shows that hasn’t happened. As 3Q 2018 results start coming in, investors around the world should be considering if there is a fundamental problem with the fracking business model, says Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com. … [Read more...]
Khashoggi and Skripal: wake-up calls for European energy policy
The apparent brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey by the Saudi Arabian regime and the equally brazen attempted murder of Sergei Skripal in England should serve as wake-up calls for European energy policymakers, writes Karel Beckman, editor-in-chief of Energy Post. These misdeeds demonstrate the aggressive nature of the Saudi and Russia regimes and underline the necessity for Europe to reduce its reliance on oil and gas much more rapidly … [Read more...]
How attractive are renewables for oil companies?
At the recent ONS (Offshore Northern Seas) conference in Stavanger, the largest annual gathering of the oil and gas industry in Europe, debate on the energy transition took centre stage. Some major oil companies are expanding into renewables, but there was a lot of skepticism among the attendants about this strategy, writes independent energy analyst Jilles van den Beukel, who attended the event. He also noted that in project financing there is a … [Read more...]
DNV GL’s Energy Transition Outlook shows massive shift of investment from oil and gas into power lines
The global energy transition will lead to a massive expansion of power lines at all voltage levels as well as a steep growth in the number of transformers and substations in the electricity system. This is one of the major new findings of the second edition of the Energy Transition Outlook, the annual flagship publication of global technical consultancy DNV GL. As a result, grid costs will triple, yet this cost explosion is offset by cost … [Read more...]
Oil vs electricity: which will prevail?
Oil faces three challenges that together may be insurmountable, writes energy expert Fereidoon Sioshansi. Electricity's fortunes on the other hand are on the rise. Courtesy EEinformer. … [Read more...]
Trump’s grand strategy: a tripolar world order
Most commentators seem to believe that President Trump lacks a coherent vision on foreign policy, but energy expert and author Michael Klare disagrees. According to Klare, an examination of his speeches and actions shows that he is out to establish a tripolar world order, in which Russia, China and the U.S. control their respective spheres of influence. Article Courtesy Tom Dispatch. (Editor’s note: this article deals with broader geopolitical … [Read more...]
Economic slowdown poses higher risk to oil price than decarbonization and EVs
Most people seem to believe that oil prices will go down in the long run because of climate policies and the growth of electric cars. Friedbert Pflüger, Director of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS), argues that this view is far too simplistic. The only constant in energy markets, he writes, is that they are cyclical – and we seem to be poised for a sharp downturn right now. … [Read more...]
Why US shale will crash and UK will fail: a history of shale oil & gas production in pictures & charts
With fracking about to recommence in the UK after 8 years, social entrepreneur and writer Jeremy Leggett reviews the short but troubled history of fracking in the U.S. In a devastating slide presentation, he pictures the shale gas industry as a dirty, multi-hundred-billion-dollar doomed-to-burst debt bubble. And he predicts a similar fiasco in the UK. Courtesy Future Today. … [Read more...]
Un-SAFE: Trump clean cars rollback could cost $450 billion, increase emissions 11%
Trump’s fuel economy standard rollback will be a disaster for the United States, write Jeffrey Rissman and Robbie Orvis of California-based think tank Energy Innovation. It will harm American consumers and the transport sector and sharply drive up emissions. The only winners will be oil companies. … [Read more...]
The risks of the Trump Administration’s whiplash policy on Iranian oil
As the Trump Administration prepares to re-impose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran following the president’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), its treatment of Iranian oil sales could dramatically impact both the United States’ Iran strategy and the global oil market, write David Mortlock and Ellen Wald of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. According to the authors, the … [Read more...]
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