Energy News Beat

Highlights of the podcast:

04:31 – The significance of UAE ditching the petrodollar and its implications in global trade.

05:56 – Concerns about the Biden administration’s foreign policy and its impact on relationships in the Middle East.

08:03 – Speculation about potential candidates and dynamics in the upcoming 2024 election.

19:48 – Consideration of third-party candidates like RFK Jr and their policies on energy and other issues.

22:25 – Anticipation of upcoming events like the COP 28 conference and future podcast episodes and interviews.

With 3 unique personalities, backgrounds, and one horrible team sense of humor, it makes for fun talks around the energy markets.

David Blackmon is a Forbes author and currently writes Energy Absurdities of the Day. He has several active podcasts with ….. His industry leadership is evident, but a dry, calm way of expressing himself adds a different twist.

R.T. Trevillon is the podcast host of The Crude Truth filmed in Fort Worth Texas and runs an oil and gas E&P company. Pecos Country Operating has been in business for ….years and has a constant commitment to all of their stakeholders and is actively working in this oil and gas market.

Stu Turley is the co-podcast host of the Energy News Beat Podcast. While Stu is a legend in his own mind, [email protected]

 

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3 Podcasters Walk in a Bar Episode 39 – Global Financial Ripples: UAE’s Petrodollar Exit Explored and MORE!!..

 

Stuart Turley [00:00:14] Hello, everybody. You read an uncle? Kind of like Eddie had a Christmas vacation, and all of a sudden, he starts at a joke at Christmas, and you hear this three guys walk into a bar. Well, I happen to know those other two guys. Three podcasters walk into a bar. Welcome. We are here with the David Blackmon. I mean, he is a legend around the energy world. And I am so honored to know him. He is on The Daily Caller. He’s on a Telegraph. He’s in Forbes. He’s on the energy question, which is going phenomenal. And then he’s also on the energy transition, which is in Brazil, the UK, Pakistan sometimes, and we’ve even got a few others. Hey, welcome, David.

David Blackmon [00:01:01] Hey, man. Happy to be here. Before we get going, I want to show everybody my t shirt, which is in honor of my favorite conspiracy theorist, Stu Turley, keeping score on who’s been right. The experts are the conspiracy theorists. And I’m thinking.

Rey Treviño [00:01:19] Give a screenshot of that and we need to post that on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Stuart Turley [00:01:23] Oh, we guys, I’m going to have our production team get us a t shirt with the three podcasters in that t shirt. I’m sorry, David, you just want to share the week and we’re just.

Rey Treviño [00:01:36] Never you got to be cool to put our logo on the shirt. And then they write back of it. Just the t shirt, nothing much or.

Stuart Turley [00:01:43] Oh no. And we’re, we’re, we’re flat going to just absolutely have a drawing for anybody that gives us likes and subscribes. We’re sending out T T-shirts maybe we’re sending that day. I mean, David that was huge. And then we have coming around the corner, he’s a big dog over there. Pecos Operating and he has that crude truth. And I mean that crude truth is a wild showcase of just everything. Dear friend and a wonderful guy. He’s still in school. I think it’s high school. Welcome RT

Rey Treviño [00:02:23] Welcome to a good. You caught me off guard there. Thank you. You know, you give all these accolades, accolades that are definitely due to David. We talk about his t shirt now. I don’t know where am I or what day it is. Yes. Hello, everybody. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Three podcasters Walk into a bar if you can’t tell if you’re a first time listener. Thanks for sticking around this long. Stick around for the whole episode. We are three, but I like to think energy and people that have knowledge in the oil and gas or the energy space, and we like to cut loose a little bit on this episode and are on three podcasters because as you mentioned, I have a great show called The Crude Truth, where I do primarily focus on oil and gas and energy, but also I bring in people from all different types of entrepreneurs, from life coaches to insurance to even Americans for Prosperity and True Texans. And and I even bring on candidates. So yeah, so it’s a great show just trying to ride Giles coattails, if that’s all right with my little show but but that’s my moonlighting gig and during the day I like to drill oil wells with a Pecos country operating. So thank you, Stu, again for having me on and have made me have to introduce myself.

Stuart Turley [00:03:46] This is the Join Ugly baby with you guys, so I’m not having you on Anyway, here did so you know, it’s kind of like the ugly baby that gets left on a doorstep. That’s what the three podcasters is, you know, a rock on. David, I love your articles. I steal them all the time. And your article on your substack energy transition absurdities this morning is phenomenal. The UAE is ditching the petrodollar. And I loved your article. You want to tee that off?

David Blackmon [00:04:19] Yeah. You know, I mean, that’s a big deal. I think UAE is one of the big oil countries in the Middle East. It’s it doesn’t produce quite as much as a Iran, I think, but it probably is the third largest behind Iran and Saudi Arabia. And for them to be now announcing that they’re going to make all trades and have local currencies rather than the US dollar, which has been the the currency of market in international trades for over 100 years is a big shift. It’s driven, I think, and we’ve written it, we’ve talked about it a lot here and I’ve written a lot about it too, throughout 2023. I think it’s driven by UAE is new membership in the BRICs alliance. The BRICs has ambitions to become the preeminent international oil consortium globally and to displace the G7 in that status. And they added six new countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia in August to their membership. And I think BRICs versus G7 politics are playing a big role in this. So it’s it’s I think it’s very significant, too, that the UAE makes this announcement the week it is hosting the Cop 28 conference in Dubai. And so this is, you know, just another sign of the failure of the Biden administration’s foreign policy and its fading influence in the Middle East in general, which is a a real tragedy for the United States.

Rey Treviño [00:06:09] You know, you guys, I think I’ve had the pleasure now to get to know you all for for several years now. And this has been something you both have been talking about since I met. All that was whether it was we’re going to go to the U.N. or where we going to go to the ruble, because I think that’s what Russia uses. But you all have continued to mention that, hey, at some point with this administration, we’re going to lose our status at trading oil with the United States currency. And that, again, is huge. Like David, your your article today wrote in this really, I want to kind of just say on how quickly, David you move, you understand and why people definitely need to be, you know, or really why more people need to follow you because you’ve got you know, you’ve got great people that

David Blackmon [00:07:00] Come on People. Get in line here

Rey Treviño [00:07:02] And they need to subscribe to your substack. But no, this is literally it is less than 24 hours old of this news and you’ve already got a great grasp on it. You’ve already been talking to people and even understanding more. So, David, I want to just say kudos to you and everything that you do to stay on. And I know you’re not a journalist or news reporter. I know you’re not. And you tell me that all the time, but God dang, you can Don’t call me that, but then you can do some great reporting. David So this, this is this is a perk. Perks me up a little bit here because with BRICs 90 are choosing not BRICs, but. The UAE not even being the main player in BRICs or in the Middle East. And they’re the first ones to do this. I mean, we could really sit here and say that the domino, the first domino has dropped. And, you know, I don’t think it’s outrageous to say we could see more dominos drop within the next 12 months before their election in 2024.

Stuart Turley [00:08:05] What do you say, David? I’m going to throw this ugly squirrel in here. And there’s a couple of things. India and Russia has been trading in their currency and they were they’ve been doing it. The EU is trying to shut down some more sanctions. And we know, as Irina Slob says, you know, sanctions don’t work as intended. Those sanctions we’re trying to tell Russia, don’t sell over $60. And they go, hmm. But you know, my lousy Putin imitation, hey, I could care less. So I still don’t know if that’s Fonzie or Fozzie Bear or Fozzie. Who knows? It ain’t Putin. But it’s funny. And so then when you take a look at the U.S. dollar, David and RT, I’m I’m can you know, you take a look at who’s buying the U.S. debt is using the Petro dollar and everything else. And as they move away from the dollar you nailed it, David, with the BRICs and everything else so that I think the demise of the U.S. dollar is even though that you’re saying the petrodollar. I think this is going to spill over. What are your Thoughts?

David Blackmon [00:09:23]  Well, yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, we call it the petrodollar mainly because oil is the most traded commodity globally and has been for a long time. But but really, the the United States dollar has been the prevailing currency of mark in all international trades for all commodities and goods for a century now. And to see it start to fade like this, I mean, this is not some little border country. This is this is a very significant all power. And for them to take that step is a very significant thing. And, you know, it’s it’s really kind of surprising because the U.S. relationship with the United States supposedly has been fairly healthy. And so I just you know, I saw that headline this morning and it really caught me off guard. And I just I think it’s a real shock to the system. And I think know it’ll make more news as the week goes on.

Stuart Turley [00:10:28] RT, ahm, Hamas in Hamas headquarters in the UAE or I know that’s on that’s in Qatar. Qatar. Thank you. Yeah. Qatar, UAE, you know.

David Blackmon [00:10:41] Well, they’re next door

Stuart Turley [00:10:47] To each other, right? Sorry.

David Blackmon [00:10:49] Anyway, so I think it’s a big deal. RT What do you think?

Rey Treviño [00:10:53] No. Again, that’s I do. And I think that we’re going to see more damage. I mean, I’m going to say it in your correct me if I’m wrong, we’re going to see more dominos fall before the election of 2024.

David Blackmon [00:11:06] Well, I think we could. I mean, I you know, the United States relationship with Saudi Arabia is so fragile right now and really has been severely damaged by this administration. You know, when you look back just four years ago where Donald Trump, for whatever else you think about him, and it really strengthened that relationship both with Saudi Arabia and Israel and the Middle East and and the damage that’s been done by this administration to the Saudi relationship is just incalculable. And it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Saudi Arabia, you know, started making noises about making a similar move. Now, I know our friend and also al-Hashemi would disagree with that. He thinks that all of this is overblown. And and I’ll be interested to see his commentary about it here in the next few days.

Stuart Turley [00:12:01] Yeah.

Rey Treviño [00:12:03] Oh, go ahead.

Stuart Turley [00:12:04] Go ahead, sir.

Rey Treviño [00:12:05] Well, I mean, where was I going with that? It it just really should, like, start to worry us all. And you talked about, you know, love him or hate him, and I guess I’ll get off of oil here for a second. The media did no justice. When when when Donald Trump went to Saudi Arabia, went here as 50% of America now thinks that he was the problem with the Middle East. And yet the Abraham Accords, who all of a sudden the Biden administration is now somehow taking credit for, which they that happens in every administration. I will say that. Right. Just like they’re still blaming Covid on on Donald Trump, you know, about the economy. But you’re absolutely right. There were so many great things that were done. And, you know, my worry is if he is to get into office for just another four years, you know, is there really enough time to restrengthen all these true relationships that we America, not Donald Trump, that America had that for whatever reason, the the of President Obama’s administration and President Biden, his administration are pushing away the fact that this administration will not just straight up condone what Hamas is doing the way that they are not working with the Middle East. There’s a lot going on here, guys. And, you know, it just raises a bunch of random questions. But they are not being pro-America and that just bothers me like no other.

David Blackmon [00:13:39] Well, you know, I think the real issue here is for for many decades, the United States, even though you would frequently change presidencies between the two parties, we had a very clear and and consistent continuity in our posture, in our relations with all these governments in the Middle East, most importantly, Saudi Arabia and Israel. And, you know, this is what has kind of been damaged to to a great extent in this presidency, is that we no longer have had that continuity of a consistent posture with Saudi Arabia. And, you know, once you damage that and once that goes away, it’s going to be very difficult to restore it. It’ll have to be restored over several subsequent presidencies. So I just think it’s a very underrated problem for our country.

Stuart Turley [00:14:44] Yeah. For Podcasters listeners. RT’s evidently run out of power in Texas. So, you know, I’m here in West Texas and I got generators and I could survive without the. Go ahead. But, you know, when you sit back, David, and we take a look at that, I truly believe that if Trump loving Haiti, he does some silly things. But if he does get back in, I think that RT point is fabulous. Don’t tell him I’m compliment and him. But it is it is an excellent point. And I think it’s going to be his success or his vice presidency is going to be just as critical as if whoever wins the Republican nomination. And I want to go on record as saying that I believe there’s just as many corrupt Republicans as corrupt Democrats out there. I am not a politician fan and I am a anybody that’s an outsider. I’m in. You know, let’s vote them all out of office as far as I’m concerned.

David Blackmon [00:16:03] Yeah, no, I think that’s a really strong point because if if Trump were reelected or elected to a second term, he would immediately be a lame duck president because he wouldn’t be eligible to stand for reelection in 2028. So who picks as his vice president is going to be crucial as a signal not just to voters in the United States, but governance, governments of other countries, that there is at least a prospect for continuity of government beyond these four years. And that means that he can’t just go off and pick anyone to be his running mate. He can’t, you know, do another Mike Pence kind of thing.

Stuart Turley [00:16:44] No,.

[00:16:46] You know, I think he has to be really careful about picking someone like Kari Lake who, you know, I don’t have a problem with Kari Lake, but she’s not I don’t think would not be seen as a potential electable successor to to President Trump. Now.

Stuart Turley [00:17:05] Tucker Carlson.

David Blackmon [00:17:07] Carlson You know, you know, I think you get a variety of opinions on that. I enjoy Tucker Carlson is as a talk show host, a new show host and a commentator. I think he’s he has a lot of views. I agree with some. I don’t. And but would he be seen as by the governments in China and Saudi Arabia and other countries as a likely electable successor to Donald Trump? You know, that’s an open question.

Stuart Turley [00:17:41] Oh, yeah. But I like your answer, David. I truly do, because I love Tucker. I think Tucker is a hoot. Now, like you said, is ill in electable? I will say this. All his interactions with world leaders right now has been phenomenal. Yeah, the dude is out pressing the flesh with world leaders. I’ll give you that.

David Blackmon [00:18:04]  You know, the interview he did with the new incoming president in Argentina recently was tremendous. He interviewed the leader in Hungary. It was Hungary a few weeks ago. And that was just tremendous, the information he got out of that interview. And I think he does have credibility with a lot of these people.

Stuart Turley [00:18:28] Oh, yeah.

David Blackmon [00:18:30] You know, I just frankly, he gave a speech in Las Vegas weekend before last that I thought was so significant and powerful that I posted it on on my substack, my pilot, my political substack and with along with a transcript that I compiled of it because I just think it was a really brilliant speech. But, you know, he is not someone who’s ever won an election. And even though he’s been around a long time in the media, it’s it’s a different thing. So I. You know, I, I wouldn’t have a problem with with Tucker Carlson necessarily as as the Republican Party’s running mate. But I know a lot of people would.

Stuart Turley [00:19:17] We got about five more minutes, David, But I’ll tell you. What do you think about JFK and the third party folks running? Do you? I like.

David Blackmon [00:19:30] Yeah, I’m not sure.

Stuart Turley [00:19:31] Excuse me. Yeah, well, he is. He is dead, and he could vote Democratic. Just kidding. No, I’m not. What do you think about third party candidates?

David Blackmon [00:19:44] Well, you know, there’s going to be several, obviously. I mean, RFK Jr is one of them. He’s going to be, I guess, run as an independent. It doesn’t appear he’s going to be the Libertarian candidate or the Green Party candidate. And then you’ve got Joe Manchin out there running around the country with Mitt Romney thinking they may run as a as a kind of middle of the road ticket. And losers. Losers.

Stuart Turley [00:20:14] Excuse me.

David Blackmon [00:20:15] Well, I think some of RFK Jr, I think is right about some things. He’s I think he’s very much right about the true nature of Anthony Fauci and the disastrous response to Covid by our federal government under two and if.

Stuart Turley [00:20:31] CIA in the FBI.

David Blackmon [00:20:33] CIA and you know I mean he’s right about a lot of things. But at his base, RFK Jr is no different than Joe Biden in terms of being a left wing Democrat. And so while there’s a handful of things I think he’s very much right about, I think he’s wrong about a lot more. And I would never vote for him.

Stuart Turley [00:20:57] Oh, he. Did you hear what he said about fracking?

David Blackmon [00:21:01] Yeah. He wants to ban it.

Stuart Turley [00:21:03] Yeah. Online.

David Blackmon [00:21:06] He’s. He’s been an advocate for banning hydraulic fracturing for 15 years. I mean, he’s been one of the leading voices.

Stuart Turley [00:21:13] I heard that. You know, I was over here going. Yeah, I think he might be a good fit. And I heard that. And I’m like, You’re out.

David Blackmon [00:21:21] To me. Yeah, I so I just think he’s a is a nonstarter from an energy standpoint is his policies would be every bit as disastrous as what Biden is doing right now. And so I just I don’t see him as anyone I could support. I think he’ll still a lot of votes. From from Joe Biden. But I think he’ll also take a lot of votes away from Donald Trump, from Trump supporters who don’t do a deep dig into what he’s really about. And so I think it’s just kind of a zero sum game as far as influencing the outcome of the election.

Stuart Turley [00:21:59] Well, cool. Well, David was coming around. Hey, Nape. I cannot be more excited about Nape. We’ve talked about that. It’s going to be a hoot. Yeah. I can’t wait to get down there with you. And you’re going to have a live podcast booth and everything else. What’s coming? What else do you think? See, coming around the corner from a news perspective?

David Blackmon [00:22:23] Well, I’m going to be writing a lot about the Cop 28 conference over the next couple of weeks. You know, I have no doubt there’s going to be a flood of idiotic stuff coming out of that conference and very significant stuff as well that will impact everyone mostly negatively. And so I’ll be focusing on that a lot. But we have, you know, some some really good interviews coming up as well. On the energy question, I’ll be doing another monthly episode with Tim Stewart here soon. And we have a lot of other folks lined up.

Stuart Turley [00:22:58] That sounds fabulous. I’ll tell you, I’ve got a lot of good, good ones, too, that I got to get over to you and turned on. And we had CIA operatives and everything else coming. So your conspiracy theory. Oh, man, it is huge. And you need me interviewing George McClellan, and they’re about to release it as well as Mark Masters. You need to interview both masters.

David Blackmon [00:23:25] Yeah, I’m fully aware of Mark Masters. Would love to have, you know, maybe we need to start a new Conspiracy Theory podcast and just just do nothing but that.

Stuart Turley [00:23:36] On a different. I think we should we owe it to ourselves now that, you know, you and I are getting shut down by Google and we’re still getting our word out there. So anyway. Well, thank you so much. And it sure was fun having RT drop off. That was sure consider it.

David Blackmon [00:23:53]  Yeah, that was excellent. That was a great feature of this episode.

Stuart Turley [00:23:56] Oh, absolutely. Well, thank you all very much for stopping by. The three podcasters walk in a bar for R.T. The Crude truth, David Blackman The energy question and the energy Transition. And me. I’m Stu Turley with the Energy News Beat. We’ll see you guys next time. Thanks

David Blackmon [00:24:16] Adios

 

The post 3 Podcasters Walk in a Bar Episode 39 – Global Financial Ripples: UAE’s Petrodollar Exit Explored and MORE!!.. appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

ENERGY TRANSITION #90-Venezuela wants Guyana’s oil

Highlights of the podcast:

01:02 -Guyana is standing on its own
02:08 -Hess and Chevron
02:50 – Guyana’s 11 billion barrels in reserves
05:41 – Inflation rate in Venezuela
08:37 – Financial assistance from China
11:51 – CapEx investment into new wells
13:43 – The Monroe Doctrine that’s been in effect in the United States for 200 years
17:55 -The Permian and our other basins
22:15 – BRICs and OPEC Plus are going to play into the Brazilian oil markets
29:36 – Offshore Guyana is a major focal point of the capital budgets

 

 

The Podcast Hosts for The Energy Transition

Energy Thought Leader, Podcast Host, Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
International Author writing about energy, mining, and geopolitical issues. Bulgaria
Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.Principal at DB Energy Advisors, energy author, and podcast host.

Energy Consulting Specialist

Energy Analyst | Economic and Geopolitical Analyst | ExFounder U&I Global | Consultant, Advisor | Commonwealth Scholar

President, and CEO, Sandstone Group, Podcast Host

Blubrry Podcast:

 

 

ENERGY TRANSITION #90-Venezuela wants Guyana’s oil

 

Armando Cavanha [00:00:02] Energy transition. 90. Venezuela wants Guyana’s oil. Some some people talk as Guyana pursue Guyana but internationally I suppose is Guyana. Good morning David Blackmon. Let me show more light. Yeah. His LinkedIn. Good morning. Stuart Turley. His LinkedIn page.

Stuart Turley [00:00:28] Good morning.

Armando Cavanha [00:00:29] And good afternoon. Dr. Tammy Nemeth. This is her page. And so.

Tammy Nemeth [00:00:39] Yeah. Armando.

Armando Cavanha [00:00:42] Yeah. So very good to see you both. Please let me share a video that’s short one. 40s. From Exxon Mobil president?

CNBC news Interviewer [00:00:57] Well, I mean, they can’t defend themselves at the Venezuelan’s decide. They want to do something.

CNBC Darren Woods [00:01:01] I’m not sure Guyana is standing on its own, to tell you the truth. I think, you know, there are a lot of. We’ve all seen what happens when nation sovereignties are challenged and unilateral actions take. And I think the world and our states community have grown pretty sensitive to that. So my expectation is there’s more support, more broad, more broad support in the international community to make sure that the right processes are followed to resolve this dispute. From our perspective, we know what we need to do in-country, develop those resources economically, environmentally, responsibly and do what we’ve been contracted to do. That’s what our organization is focused on.

Armando Cavanha [00:01:39] I’m not sure Guyana is standing on its own. Stuart Turley for own companies, short European and place. Is it better the reserves be in Guyana or Venezuela?

Stuart Turley [00:01:52] Well, I’ll tell you. Just to start it off, thank you so much for having me this morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Everything else I love love your interviews, intros. Guyana, I don’t think can stand on its own. And when you have Hess and Chevron, you know, and they’ve been supporting it and then you have Maduro, who has been in charge for Venezuela. The only reason that man is in charge is because he has made all of his generals millionaires. He takes care of his generals. The generals take care of the colonels. The colonels go out and they take care of the sergeants. Sergeants go out in the street and beat the snot out of everybody. And so that’s how he’s keeping control. Guyana has a tugboat out there, and they call that their navy. And we’re doing ships out there with them. David, you’ve had probably the best single stories out there. But Guyana’s 11 billion barrels in reserves, they’re only doing about 400,000 barrels per day. Now, that could be three X in a few years. Here’s the gotcha. Why is Maduro going after Guyana? Is because the great Venezuelan oil machine has been crippled for so many years due to his corruption. And if he shows up on my doorstep, you’re going to see me jumping under my desk. But it’s because of the corruption. They’ve destroyed the Venezuelan oil fields. So why is our president, President Biden, relieving the sanctions on Venezuela to get more oil to the market? Because he can’t steal any more from the strategic oil reserves. And so this chess match going on with the Biden administration is basically put the thumb under Guyana and either intentionally or unintentionally, I don’t know yet, but it’s because of stupidity in geopolitical. And I hope I didn’t cross the line or if I made sense, which is rare for me on a Monday morning. I notice David’s over and damn, you’re both going,.

Armando Cavanha [00:04:13] Oh yeah,.

Stuart Turley [00:04:15] Pull him off the stage. Pull him off the stage.

Armando Cavanha [00:04:17] You brought some good points, David, because. He mentioned the 11 billion barrels of recoverable reserves and the production was 3 million barrels a day. Now is. 700 going to 1.2. They are forecasting 1.2, 1.4. How do you see this amount of money being, let’s see, not in a war?

David Blackmon [00:04:45] Well,. You know, Venezuela is by many estimates, the wealthiest country in the world in terms of just pure reserves of crude oil. And yes, Maduro and before him, Hugo Chavez. I mean, the Venezuelan oil and gas industry was very vibrant when Hugo Chavez took over in 1999. Chavez didn’t do all that much to destroy it until he decided to confiscate the holdings of foreign countries or companies in his country. I was at Shell when all of that began to percolate up to the top in 2007. Maduro has completely collapsed his industry and this whole country’s economy. The inflation rate in Brazil, you know, we Americans whine about a 6 or 8% rate of inflation. This year’s inflation rate in Venezuela is 359%. And that’s a vast improvement from the 65,400% rate of inflation in 2018. That’s the Maduro economy. So Biden nomics looks pretty good compared to that. But, you know, Maduro’s desperate to to find a new source of income. Exxon Mobil and Hess and the Chinese national oil company Sener did a fine job of developing the Stabroek block in a very responsible and efficient way. They’re going to be producing this new set a million barrels a day by 2027, at which point Guyana would rank as about the 12th largest exporter of crude oil on the face of the earth. It’s the fastest growing economy on the face of the earth the last two years. And so it’s no secret why Maduro is doing this. And I suspect, although no one, I think has established hard links yet, but Maduro made his announcement that he was going to hold this recent referendum three days after he met with Vladimir Putin or had a phone call with Vladimir Putin two weeks after he had met with Xi Jinping. Both those countries, China and Russia, have established major economic and military inroads in Venezuela over the last five years. And I suspect those two countries are playing a big role in motivating this as well. And the question just becomes now, what is the Biden administration going to do about it? They held joint military exercises last week with the Guyanese security force. They don’t call it an army. They call it a security force. It’s very small. Obviously, this is a country of 800,000 people. So Guyana, if Venezuela does decide to mount a military operation, Guyana will need the help of the United States and Brazil and other interested countries.

Armando Cavanha [00:07:44] Yeah, that’s right.

Tammy Nemeth [00:07:44] Yeah.

Armando Cavanha [00:07:45] Dr. Tammy Maduro, interested in an election campaign next year in Venezuela, probably will hold a summit. We supposed they will hold elections. And the problem he’s trying to avoid to discuss internal problems and making war something bigger. What do you think about this?

Tammy Nemeth [00:08:08] You know, that’s a really good point. I think with respect to what’s going on there, there is lots of different variables and factors involved. And I think David’s highlighted two really important ones, and that’s Russia and China involved in, you know, support. I don’t think Ruggiero would have gone and done this without the backing of those two nations. I mean, China holds I think they’re the biggest debt holder in in Venezuela. So they can’t really keep operating without financial assistance from China. When Chavez changed this, the when they kicked out the private companies, they said only state oil oil firms were allowed to develop in Venezuela. And so you had Rosneft get involved. You had China, the Chinese national oil company, get involved and whatnot. And so when the production goes down and they’re looking to build back up again, I think Guyana’s a oh, Guyana is a threat. They’re a threat to Venezuela’s future. So when you have China and Russia doing this kind of thing and they they will seek to benefit because it puts the United States off balance. It’s in the American back backyard. It’s another distraction away from what’s going on. In Ukraine. Will the United States be more likely to insist on some kind of negotiated settlement with the with the war in Ukraine now that they have this distraction? Does it allow China more flexibility in asserting its power in the South China Sea and and in the Middle East and whatnot? Because America’s distracted in, you know, in its own backyard. So there’s all of these other issues. And then, of course, Maduro is happy to do it because he’s like, okay, I can help in this situation. And I have an election coming up which will distract the local people and we can push nationalism and and this kind of thing. But it baffles me, like you mentioned, that Venezuela has all of these incredible resources. They have these massive reserves. So why do they need more? They have this, you know, first or second largest reserves in the world. Why do they need this? Well, I would submit that they they don’t need it. It’s to keep it off the market because then it’s a it earns more for Venezuela for whatever production they do manage to squeak out in its corrupt system.

Armando Cavanha [00:10:38] Perfect. Very good. Good morning, John. Thank you.

David Blackmon [00:10:42] Good morning, John.

Tammy Nemeth [00:10:43] Good morning, John.

Armando Cavanha [00:10:45] Tammy Tammy you put something very interesting because Venezuela has a huge reserves. 300 billion barrels recoverable. But they need because the type of oil they have, the reserves, they need technologies and products to solve this production. And they do not have a lot they need the United States very close to them to produce this, Stuart Turley.

David Blackmon [00:11:10] Do I know you? I’m sorry. My system cut out. What was the question again?

Armando Cavanha [00:11:14] The question is the following. Venezuela to produce more oil than production today. Right. Need the United States supporting US companies like Halliburton, Schlumberger, so that they cannot produce alone?

David Blackmon [00:11:28] No, they absolutely cannot. And their infrastructure has been weakened so much over all of the the last so many years. Very much like the French in their nuclear fleet, they never put any money back into it. Oil and gas does not happen without maintenance. Oil and gas does not happen without CapEx investment into new wells, into infrastructure. None of that has been done. You know, it’s kind of like if Maduro was wanting to bring in and say, I’m going to give it general millions of dollars or invest back into my infrastructure. Hmm. Okay. So, you know, General Juan Nido, whereas gets $1 million and then this offshore rig falls into the sea. So that’s exactly what’s been going on.

Armando Cavanha [00:12:25] Yeah. And David, you see that.

Tammy Nemeth [00:12:28] I went out there that.

Armando Cavanha [00:12:31] Sorry. Go ahead, please. Please

Tammy Nemeth [00:12:32]   Armando, I would add that you know that the state oil company of China invested heavily in the oil sands, which uses a significant a similar technology for extracting the type of oil that’s in Venezuela. So, yeah, I think they do need some American support for further developing their resources and whatnot. But I think that the Chinese state oil company, if they wanted to, could help increase that production. That’s just that’s just my point of view there.

Stuart Turley [00:13:06] Is that the same one that Hunter’s on the board? I’m not sure.

David Blackmon [00:13:10] No.

Stuart Turley [00:13:10] Okay. Yeah. Just

Armando Cavanha [00:13:13] See Tammy in Russia, Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker are working very hard that they they they are the high technology that that.

Tammy Nemeth [00:13:21] Yeah.

Armando Cavanha [00:13:22] Sometimes is necessary for this.

Tammy Nemeth [00:13:25] Okay.

Armando Cavanha [00:13:25] Yeah. They you see the U.S. has a position in terms of a Guyana or Venezuela on on their reserves but it depends on on the party. I mean Democrats or Republicans are different thing.

David Blackmon [00:13:41] Well it shouldn’t You know, we have the Monroe Doctrine that’s been in effect in the United States for 200 years. And and that just basically says that any time a foreign power is making an incursion into the Western Hemisphere whose interests are hostile to those of the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere, the United States military would intervene to prevent that from happening. That’s obviously been happening in Venezuela with Russia and China coming. I mean, China’s in the process of establishing a military base in Venezuela right now. So that’s that’s a clear threat to American interests. That’s this is a clear cut case of of declaring this U.S. vital interest under the Monroe Doctrine they dispute. Now, this dispute goes back all the way to 1899 over the Ezequiel Akiba excuse me territory, which makes up two thirds or almost three quarters of Guyana’s geography and about 125,000 of the 800,000 citizens of Guyana live in the region. In 1899, an international panel that was I really don’t even understand how it was constituted declared this to be territory of Guyana, which had been a British territory at the time. The Venezuelan government in 1899 disputed that. That finding is an example of colonialism. But in 1905, Venezuela’s government, as a result of a negotiation, agreed to the current borders along with the Guyanese government. And so this has been an established border and established Guyanese region since 1905 for 118 years. And Venezuela has attempted to raise this claim periodically in the intervening years since. Whenever it turns out that some gold mine was discovered in Guyana or, you know, and now you have the big oil presence that the most of the stabroek block offshore would go along with this to convey with the Eskimo region. So, I mean, this is clearly just an economic grab. Venezuela’s claims, you know, some people will say, well, it’s legitimate, but, you know, this is 118 years of an established border. And to be raising it now is just clearly an act of aggression and an a grab for the billions of dollars in revenues that stand to accrue from the stable block. And so, you know, I just think it’s it’s really pretty clear example of of of an instance where we can expect the American government and American military to intervene on behalf of Guyana. And I think that means that at the end of the day, Maduro is not going to make any sort of military incursion.

Armando Cavanha [00:16:48] We’ll have a comment from. John.

David Blackmon [00:16:53] All the major supplying us.

Armando Cavanha [00:16:56] Yeah, well, that’s.

David Blackmon [00:16:56] Certainly true in in the shale plays in the United States.

Armando Cavanha [00:17:00] And I would like to add, because some United States are importing 7 million barrels a day at this time and with the problems and restrictions from Middle East oil. So come from Venezuela could be very interesting in terms of logistics. Stuart, Tammy and David.

Stuart Turley [00:17:23] Yeah, and especially this is a heartbreaker on that. And we I would much rather trade with our beloved Canadians on the heavy oil sands and, and see a Keystone pipeline might have helped that a bunch. We would not need to import that and David and Damian this is this is something that has been talked about David has written about that and that is the blending of our refineries needs the heavier oil to come from the sweet oil out of the Permian and our other basins. So we need heavier oil in. And so we’re it’s going to get kind of ugly on that is when we take a look at the importing in the blending, we may be doing 7 million barrels per day importing. We wouldn’t have to that right now they’re coming in by rail and you can’t get that much in by rail. I believe Warren Buffett and most of that rail, we’ll leave that alone.

Tammy Nemeth [00:18:27] There are a fair number of pipelines as well. They come from Canada and Canada is the number one supplier to the United States. We we overtook Saudi Arabia some time ago. And it’s interesting when you look at the Energy Information Agency data about oil imports and you see Venezuela just fall off a cliff and Canada takes up and and you’re right. I mean, Keystone could have been such a huge benefit to the United States, you know, fortress North America and all that, which is one of the reasons why the Biden administration wanted to make sure it was canceled so there couldn’t be a fortress. North America. Mexico was also a large exporter to the United States, but their supplies are are starting to drop. Guyana recently has started to, of course, be a supplier to the United States. But it’s it’s quite small, but not that much smaller than Venezuela, which is interesting. And historically, Venezuela has been part of the the Western Hemisphere coalition of exporters to the United States, which was supposed to be a counterbalance to the Middle Eastern oil. And the Middle Eastern oil was supposed to predominantly supply Europe. And then you had the Western Hemisphere sources that were supposed to supply the United States and North America. Then there was supposed to be this sort of interdependence. But of course, with Chavez, that all kind of and the and the various other coups that have taken place in Venezuela over the years often throw that into disarray. But then it comes to, I think, Brazil in all of this, because Brazil is supposed to be there. They’re not the mediator for this meeting that’s supposed to take place on Thursday between Venezuela and Guyana on on a Caribbean island. But they’re there as an observer. And and I’m curious to know what Armando thinks about the role of Brazil in this, because if you think about it, there’s a question there about Iran. Well, that’s part of the the BRICs plus now. And and so is this a way for the BRICs to sort of assert their own strength of oil supply in the face of Cop 28 and everything else? And Brazil’s part of that. So what side are they going to take in this dispute? Armando, what do you think?

Armando Cavanha [00:20:53] Yeah, I think that that is not that good. A good place to Brazil because you are being a friend, friends of a dictator. That’s the real case. And the middle class in Brazil that do not accept this situation. And Maduro in the past threatened Brazil several times with this. That in itself we are not so friends. This can be another thing. Brazil exporting one more than 1 million barrels a day. And I see that a great opportunity in the United States to receive this 1 million barrels a day because and I do not know how they do not reach a good deal because.

Stuart Turley [00:21:37] Can I can I ask a follow up to Tammy’s great comments now? Sorry, Tammy did not mean to compliment you, but great comments. With Brazil being admitted into OPEC plus that would follow into that. Armand, there’s this great company called Petrobras. And I believe the CEO of Petrobras said, we don’t care about yours. We don’t need no stinking quotas and we’re going to pump everything we can. I believe that was in the movie a long time ago. We don’t need no badges. He doesn’t like no quotas as he goes in. Do you think that BRICs and OPEC Plus are going to play into the Brazilian oil markets?

Armando Cavanha [00:22:23] It’s a dubious position, so it is not clear the direction we are taking because OPEC plus BRICs, at the same time trying to be the developing country. So it’s complicated for Brazil, I suppose.

Tammy Nemeth [00:22:40] And you’re saying Brazil. Lula’s around there going around telling everybody how green they’re going to be and they’re going to be all this renewable stuff, but at the same time, increasing oil production. It’s one of those contradictions, I guess.

Armando Cavanha [00:22:54] Exactly. Ever see at the same time and the opposition to their actions is not good and some people are afraid to be moderation in Brazil. So the current government goes to the mayor. Maduro is a trend. It’s not a good thing for my opinion that there are people thinking differently. They should like.

David Blackmon [00:23:15] Your point about Brazil’s potential to be a major exporter into the United States is a great one because between Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Mexico and Canada, the United States really would have no need to import oil from any other part of the world outside the Western Hemisphere.

Armando Cavanha [00:23:37] Is this just the.

David Blackmon [00:23:38] Financial companies arrange their contracts with those five major supply and growing suppliers. Venezuela, if if it could get its industry back on track, was once exporting almost 3 million barrels of oil per day.

Tammy Nemeth [00:23:54] Yes, absolutely.

David Blackmon [00:23:55] Of what, half a million or something like that. Chevron is is continuing to operate down there in Venezuela. It managed not to have its assets confiscated by the Chavez government. And so it’s really almost the entire industry is in Venezuela.

Stuart Turley [00:24:12] And Iran picked up that slack because they’re now over what I believe it’s 3.5 million.

David Blackmon [00:24:18] Barrels

Stuart Turley [00:24:19] And when Biden took office, they were at 400,000. So a huge win for Iran picking up that slack.

Armando Cavanha [00:24:31] And, David, that could be something regional and some countries being friends and supporting themselves and then do not reach this point they cannot reach. Sorry, because I have several things on the same screen that you can help me.

David Blackmon [00:24:46] It is my understanding that Iran’s IRGC operatives are well established in Venezuela. Isn’t it also possible that Iran figures in Maduro’s decision to pursue aggression against its neighbor? Certainly, you know, Maduro is a bad guy. Folks, let’s let’s just all be honest about this. Maduro is a youth who is is more than happy to be influenced by terrorist supporting regimes like Iran, by China, by Russia. He’s going to take help from wherever he can get it because he knows his whole regime is collapsing. And if he ever does hold an actual free election, which he’s never going to do, he would lose miserably with the voters there in Venezuela. But, you know, and that’s the irony of this whole situation, right, is that the United States agreed to lift its sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for a promise from literally the worst despot in the Western Hemisphere to hold a free election next year. Well, my, does anybody really think that’s going to happen? Of course it’s not. This guy who makes Vladimir Putin looks like look like an angel in terms of holding elections. So it’s just this just the most naive.

Stuart Turley [00:26:03] Do you think that’s where the Biden administration got the Dominion servers was from a left over election in Venezuela?

David Blackmon [00:26:11] I don’t know

Stuart Turley [00:26:12] That was a joke. That was a joke. Maybe a joke.

Armando Cavanha [00:26:18] There is another comment here from our.

David Blackmon [00:26:24] Pick up Maduro and his orchestra. Put them behind bars. The whole conflict will be over. Peace and happiness will be back to Venezuela. True. True. But someone has to take the initiative to do that. And unfortunately, the Biden State Department has the whole world on fire right now. And we’re distracted in places like Ukraine and in the Middle East. And so there’s no real focus here, you know, yet. We’ll see see what happens in the coming months.

Armando Cavanha [00:26:53] Dr. Tammy You see that investments. And thus in the region because this conflict.

Tammy Nemeth [00:27:00] Yeah, that was one of my concerns, is that, okay, so Chevron, Exxon, Hess had found these fields and they’re they want to develop them. Will those developments go on hold if there is the prospect of of armed conflict? I don’t know. Are they would they be anticipating that they would hire private defense contractors or maybe the American military would come in to protect those assets from the potential of Venezuela coming in and doing whatever it is they’re going to do? So, yeah, I’m not sure. I think David probably knows more about how the the the major companies would operate in those kinds of circumstances. What do you think?

David Blackmon [00:27:42] Yeah. I mean, I think if there was an actual armed conflict arise, they would probably shut down operations and evacuate their personnel if if they perceived any threat that that their personnel could come in harm’s way. I would you know, it would be just like having a hurricane come through the Gulf of Mexico. You just shut it all in and get your people out of there and keep them safe.

Tammy Nemeth [00:28:07] Yeah.

David Blackmon [00:28:08] You know, you hope it doesn’t come to that. It shouldn’t if cooler heads prevail. But it’s hard getting harder and harder to identify the cooler heads in this world these days.

Armando Cavanha [00:28:20] Stuart do you see, as some some American companies, let’s see, going going back home and do not extend exploration this area?

Stuart Turley [00:28:33] I think it’s an excellent question, Arman, and I think that’s probably why you’re seeing so many countries wanting to invest in the oil and gas space. That’s why you see total investing in natural gas energy plants in Texas. That’s why you see people wanting to not invest in CapEx in outside the U.S. Now, there are areas like off of Africa’s coasts that there are still some good investments, but it’s getting tougher out there because you don’t know where you’re going to and find a geopolitical problem popping up. It’s we’re going to need the oil. And the oil is not being explored for the known reserves.

David Blackmon [00:29:27] That’s a great point, by the way, that we need to to emphasize here is this Stabroek block. Offshore Guyana is a major focal point of the capital budgets, future capital budgets of the two American major integrated oil companies, Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

Stuart Turley [00:29:51] That is Correct.

David Blackmon [00:29:51] To acquire Hess. This is Exxon’s top priority, international development globally. Okay. And it’s about to become among Chevron’s most critical international developments globally as well.

Stuart Turley [00:30:06] That is correct.

David Blackmon [00:30:07] So the implications here for the American oil and gas business, if this should fall into Maduro’s hands, are enormous. They can’t be overestimated. And, you know, this is a U.S. government, this current administration that’s pretty hostile to American oil and gas companies and has said repeatedly that it wants to put them all out of business in ten years. So, you know, that that also complicates this whole situation and really makes it a very tense thing inside these oil companies.

Armando Cavanha [00:30:40] Yeah. And you can see the map, the companies that are working in front of them.

David Blackmon [00:30:47] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, in Suriname, you know, you have Apache Corporation over there as well. Chevron has a big position. ExxonMobil even has interests offshore, Chevron, Shell, you know, So this is just a real major hot spot right now for the American oil and gas industry.

Tammy Nemeth [00:31:08] Yeah, that’s an excellent point about that. The the forward looking of the of the majors because it’s become so difficult to do any increased exploration and production in supposedly democratic regions that they end up having to go elsewhere in order to invest in the in those kind of capital expenditures for for research and about, well, development, exploration and development. So yeah, that’s a really good point. Thank you.

David Blackmon [00:31:39] And unfortunately, the Biden administration has has created so much damage to the ability of these companies and the United States to have faith in the fair application of laws and regulations and the stability of the legal and regulatory system. And that’s been an intentional thing by this administration then. And so it really makes it harder and harder to invest in exploration for new reserves in the United States.

Tammy Nemeth [00:32:08] Yeah, and the same in Canada, the same type of regulatory burdens and the endless litigation by environmental groups and other interested parties who who wish to see the the oil and gas companies die and the oil and gas left in the ground. If I could make one point about Venezuela and they’re supposed to have these free elections, well, it was five days ago that Venezuela’s top prosecutor put out an arrest warrant for, I think it was 12 members of the opposition saying that they were they were taking the side of a Guyana and were trying to sabotage the referendum or something like that. So so much for the possibility of free elections if they if they’re using the referendum as an excuse to arrest the opposition leaders.

David Blackmon [00:32:53] Gosh, it sounds like the Biden administration.

Stuart Turley [00:32:56] David, I am so proud of you. I was about to say that. And you beat David. David Blaze, thank you very much. David, I am so proud of you.

Armando Cavanha [00:33:08] I regret that. Good. So going to the conclusion, do you see any any solution, possible solution for this next month’s situation?

Stuart Turley [00:33:19] I think we sent Hunter Biden down. And I think that his he has enough that in negotiation skills that we know that then the Biden administration would be interested in doing this. So I think you think I’m making a joke. I think that if there is actually financial implications for the Biden administration, we might actually get some decent. Somebody laughing about that. So I’m serious. We’ve got to get the Biden administration interested in this to actually do something right for the country. 10% for the big guy may be a joke, but it may be a theme song in Guyana.

David Blackmon [00:33:59] I just think that they’re a show of force by the United States, this conducting of joint military operations and a statement from the Biden State Department, you know, note putting Maduro on notice that the United States would intervene on Ghana’s behalf would pretty much but a quiet a sign any military operations coming from Venezuela. But, you know, it also the administration would be reluctant to do that because they don’t want to be criticized by their normal support base for engaging in colonialism and all the talking points that would come in opposition to that. So, you know, it’s it politically it’s a difficult thing for the Biden administration because it has to be sure it doesn’t alienate its own voter base. So it’s this a tough deal for everybody.

Armando Cavanha [00:34:50] Dr. Tammy you see Trudeau can help us to solve this problem.

Tammy Nemeth [00:34:55] Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that’ll be great. Send Mr. Fancy socks down there. They can compare notes or something. Yeah, It’s so in all seriousness, I think it’s too soon to tell what the outcome will be on all of this this situation. I’m curious to see what happens on Thursday at the meeting, but. I don’t know. It’s it’s just too early. And I hope that that a show of force will be enough to get Venezuela to back off. But given that they aren’t coming into an election election year, who know for anything. can happen In these days.

Stuart Turley [00:35:34] A show of force,

David Blackmon [00:35:34]  United States.

Stuart Turley [00:35:36] Oh, I was like.

Tammy Nemeth [00:35:38] Oh, my gosh.

Stuart Turley [00:35:39] Oh, yeah.

Tammy Nemeth [00:35:39] They would send the beer boat. You know, that’s what we’ve got, is we have a freighter with that hauls beer around seriously.

Armando Cavanha [00:35:48] And Tammy Tammy in England, UK, UK is not concerned about this because was something.

Tammy Nemeth [00:35:54] It’s not it’s not in their neighborhood. And so unless BP or something was involved, I think they they know this is an American in the Americans neighborhood and the Americans need to deal with it. I think the UK is just dealing with its own mess in Europe and Brexit and everything else.

Stuart Turley [00:36:14] You’re saying the Falklands was not such a good thing?

Tammy Nemeth [00:36:19] Well. I don’t know. But now with the new fella in Argentina, I don’t know. Maybe the UK will get pulled into that one again.

David Blackmon [00:36:29] There he is.

Tammy Nemeth [00:36:32] Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:36:33] I think he threw.

Tammy Nemeth [00:36:34] A cabinet, though.

Stuart Turley [00:36:37] Yes. I think he.

Tammy Nemeth [00:36:40] Done.

Stuart Turley [00:36:41] Sorry. I think he’s. He’s an entertaining cat. I’d love to get him on our podcast. So the offer is there and and I would even fly down to get that interview. I think that would be an absolute.

Armando Cavanha [00:36:56] That’s great. Thank you so much. Was a great pleasure to have. Having a Stuart Turley, David Blackmon and Dr. Tammy Nemeth. Thank you.

David Blackmon [00:37:07] Thank you Armando

Tammy Nemeth [00:37:08] Thank you Armando, Thank you gentlemen

Stuart Turley [00:37:10] It’ll be a great week.

Tammy Nemeth [00:37:12] For sure. Bye.

 

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Energy News Beat

The electric car will not whisk us towards an ever growing yet greener future.

If governments were truly serious about reducing emissions, I have argued, they would celebrate walking and subsidize bicycles instead of $70,000 vehicles for the rich.

They would improve public transportation and make our cities walkable again.

And, bottom line, they would help us imagine a livable economy that uses less energy of every source, not more.

But this puts me at loggerheads with those who view every problem as an opportunity to conquer some part of the human realm with a complex technical solution. Our political elites serve this determinism because they can’t countenance any tampering with the ponzi scheme of economic growth.

As a consequence civilization now pretends that extracting more and more metals to build heavier and larger vehicles whose electricity is largely powered by fossil fuels is somehow a measure of progress.

The evidence paints a different picture. CO2 emissions are rising and EV sales are stalling. It is becoming more obvious that the purveyors of battery-operated vehicles promised more than they could deliver. They did not account for unintended consequences and ignored serious environmental problems.

Furthermore, the evidence suggests that electric cars really aren’t about lowering emissions but furthering artificial intelligence and automation.

So here are 13 brief scenes documenting the unexpected performance of the ballyhooed electric vehicle. They illustrate, once again, that technologies not only create more complexity but usually generate more problems than they solve.

The post Poof Goes the Electric Car Dream appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Plans to push South Africa and Indonesia off coal sputtered. So have offshore wind farms on the New Jersey and British coasts, and a green hydrogen project in an Italian port city.

Climate projects around the world are sinking because of high borrowing costs driven by interest rates — jeopardizing a major plank of the international effort to prevent the most catastrophic damage from warming temperatures.

The post Building wind power, canceling coal — it’s all drowning under borrowing costs appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

India, the world’s third-largest crude oil importer, expects to raise its refining capacity by around 1.12 million barrels per day (bpd) each year until 2028, according to India’s junior oil minister Rameswar Teli.

Total Indian refining capacity is expected to increase by 22% in five years from the current 254 million metric tons per year, which are equal to around 5.8 million bpd, Teli told lawmakers in a written statement carried by Reuters.

Crude processing capacity is set to grow by 56 million tons a year, or around 1.12 million bpd, Teli wrote.

The government expects the boost to refining capacity to be “adequate” to meet the country’s fuel demand in the long term, according to Teli.

India has been planning an increase in its refining capacity for years, as it is expected to topple China as the fastest-growing crude demand market in the future.

Two years ago, India’s state-held oil refiners were planning to spend as much as US$27 billion (2 trillion Indian rupees) on raising the country’s refining capacity by 20% by 2025.

India will be the fastest-growing major developing economy, averaging long-term growth of 6.1% between 2022 and 2045, and accounting for over 28% of incremental global energy demand during the same period, OPEC said in its World Oil Outlook 2023 earlier this year.

By 2028, global oil demand is set to reach 110.2 million bpd, up by 10.6 million bpd compared to 2022, with non-OECD oil demand expected to increase by 10.1 million bpd, reaching 63.7 million bpd by 2028.

India will be the driver of growth through 2045, expected to add 6.6 million bpd to oil demand over the forecast period, OPEC said. Other Asia’s oil demand is set to increase by 4.6 million bpd, China’s by 4 million bpd, Africa’s by 3.8 million bpd, and the Middle East’s by 3.6 million bpd.

Source: Oilprice.com

The post India to Boost Oil Refining Capacity by 1 Million Bpd a Year Until 2028 appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

HE the Finance Minister Ali bin Ahmed al-Kuwari said Qatar will account for about 40% of all new LNG supplies by 2029 and noted the country is providing the world with the “cleanest” hydrocarbon source of energy. He was speaking at a panel session at the Doha Forum Sunday.
The minister spoke about the investments Qatar have made in developing its LNG resources, particularly the North Field expansion.
The project includes six mega trains, each with a production capacity of 8mn tons per annum of LNG, four of which are in the North Field East (NFE) expansion project, and two in the North Field South (NFS) expansion project.
This major expansion will add 48mn tons per year to the global LNG supplies.
Stressing the importance of investing in cleaner energy sources, al-Kuwari said Qatar believed natural gas is a “transition fuel” until the net-zero emission targets are reached.
Qatar has firmly supported the role of natural gas as a central component of any energy mix on the road to a realistic energy transition.
He said lack of investments in developing conventional energy sources have already caused a shortfall in supplies around the world.
Al-Kuwari stressed the need for setting realistic goals vis-à-vis climate change. It should be about a reasonable and realistic shift to cleaner alternatives to power economies around the world.
In reply to a question, al-Kuwari said the surplus from Qatar’s budgets is divided between servicing debt, sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and central reserves.
QIA, he said, is focused on “investments for future generations.”
The minister also spoke about Qatar’s support of International Monetary Fund’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) and Resilience Support Trust (RST) mechanisms for financial support
Qatar has shown global leadership by pledging 20% of its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) holdings towards IMF’s PRGT and RST mechanisms. It demonstrates Qatar’s leadership role in supporting least developed countries overcome economic shocks and challenges
SDR is an international reserve asset created by the IMF to supplement other reserve assets of member countries.

Source: Zawya.com

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A major power grid operator that oversees electricity supplies across the mid-Atlantic repeated its warning that the looming shutdown of a coal-fired power plant in Baltimore will threaten the region’s grid reliability and may have devastating impacts on consumers.

In a follow-up letter obtained by FOX Business this week, PJM Interconnection warned the shutdown of the Brandon Shores coal power plant is slated to occur before replacement power sources can come online, resulting in “degraded grid reliability” for more than 1 million state consumers, including the entire city of Baltimore.

PJM Interconnection coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, serving 65 million consumers.

The plant’s operator, Texas-based Talen Energy, recently confirmed to FOX Business that it still intends to deactivate the Brandon Shores plant in June 2025 as part of an agreement with the Sierra Club.

But PJM has repeatedly warned the region is not prepared for the terms of that settlement and addressed its letter this week to Sierra Club leadership, imploring it to take action.

The post Major grid operator warns legal agreement to shutter coal plant will devastate electric reliability appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

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BOSTON — After more than three years of considering the future of the natural gas industry in Massachusetts and what role it can play in the state’s efforts to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades, the Department of Public Utilities issued an order Wednesday meant to signal to gas utilities that it won’t be business as usual going forward.

With Order 20-80, DPU aims to “guide the evolution of the natural gas distribution industry to clean energy” with an eye toward the state’s goal of getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while still protecting ratepayers and ensuring energy reliability. It is the culmination of a process that got underway in October 2020 and included input from dozens of “institutional and individual stakeholders.”

The policy aims to discourage gas system expansions by requiring gas distribution companies to evaluate whether there are non-gas alternatives — things like electrification, networked geothermal or targeted energy efficiency — available that would make additional gas infrastructure investment unnecessary. In order for a gas utility to receive full cost recovery for a gas system expansion, it will “bear the burden of demonstrating that [non-gas alternatives] were adequately considered and found to be non-viable or cost prohibitive,” DPU said in the order.

“It is fair to say that a different lens will be applied to gas infrastructure investments going forward. The Department will be examining more closely whether such additional investments are in the public interest, given the now-codified commitment toward achieving Commonwealth’s target of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 and the urgent need to address climate change,” the order says. “In this ‘beyond gas’ future, we will be exploring and implementing policies that are geared toward minimizing additional investment in pipeline and distribution mains and achieving decarbonization in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.”

DPU is also going to require distribution companies to file Climate Compliance Plans every five years (starting in 2025) to outline their plans for transitioning to clean energy and to ensure their compliance with the state’s emissions limits, and the agency also will no longer allow gas distribution companies to recover costs for the promotion of natural gas use.

“As Massachusetts moves towards net zero emissions by 2050, the DPU must develop a regulatory structure for the gas sector befitting that requirement,” DPU Chair James Van Nostrand said. “We are pleased to unveil a forward-thinking framework that charts a path for moving toward clean energy and enhancing the state’s ability to achieve its climate goals while ensuring a fair, equitable, and orderly process.”

The home construction industry and others, including former Gov. Charlie Baker, have cautioned for years that restricting natural gas could stall housing production — one of Gov. Maura Healey’s main priorities — and add unnecessary expenses for residents.

DPU said its Wednesday order shouldn’t have major impacts on housing affordability, but conceded that it could make it slightly harder for customers to install natural gas furnaces in new housing. But, the department said, that’s the direction Massachusetts needs to go if it is going to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction targets.

In general, the order that DPU issued Wednesday does not directly address affordability. Instead, the department said it plans to launch another proceeding by the end of this year focused specifically on affordability and “energy burden,” or the amount of a household’s income that is spent on home energy bills.

“As in the case of the transition to clean energy in the electricity sector, the decarbonization of the natural gas industry may result in higher costs being imposed on ratepayers. Given the urgency of addressing the climate crisis, however, we are reluctant to slow the pace at which the transition must occur due to concerns about affordability for low- and moderate-income utility customers,” DPU said in the order. “Rather, the Department will address these issues in a separate proceeding, to be commenced later this year, dedicated toward examining innovative solutions to address the energy burden and affordability, such as capping energy bills by percentage of income or offering varying levels of low-income discounts, that have been implemented in other jurisdictions.”

The department said it is confident that it can develop a solution to address both decarbonization and affordability, but foreshadowed that getting there “likely will require a change in our statutory authority.”

Last year, the final report from the Commission on Clean Heat recommended that Massachusetts develop and implement a “clean heat standard” that could incentivize cleaner heating technology and promote the electrification of building stock, encourage joint natural gas and electric system planning, and reorganize existing energy efficiency and clean energy transition programs to be more user-friendly for residents, businesses and contractors, among other proposals.

The residential and commercial building sector-specific sublimits established in keeping with the state’s 2021 climate law require a 28% reduction in emissions by 2025 and a 47% reduction by 2030, all compared to the baseline of 1990 emissions. As of 2020, the commission said, emissions for the residential and commercial buildings sector were 18% below 1990 levels.

Source: Atholdailynews.com

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South America’s offshore oil boom is set to make the region a major play in global oil markets, challenging OPEC’s dominance.
The combined efforts of Guyana and Brazil alone are expected to add nearly three million barrels per day of oil production by the end of the decade.
Brazil aims to boost its oil production to 5.4 million barrels per day by 2029 while Guyana is expected to be lifting at least 1.2 million barrels by 2027.

In Guyana’s territorial waters, after Exxon’s swathe of world-class petroleum discoveries, gigantic ships called floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels are sucking crude oil from reservoirs up to four miles below the Earth’s surface. Since then, it has been estimated the former British colony of just over 800,000 possesses at least 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources. These discoveries not only garnered the attention of energy supermajors, notably Exxon, Chevron, and TotalEnergies but heralded a new oil era for South America. Those developments coupled with Brazil’s push to become the world’s fourth-largest producer see South America once again on the cusp of becoming a leading oil-producing region with the potential to challenge OPEC’s dominance.

After the spectacular two-decade-long implosion of Venezuela’s hydrocarbon sector, it is Guyana’s massive oil boom, which only keeps getting bigger, that is garnering considerable attention from big oil and will propel South America’s oil production higher. In a mere five years, Guyana went from first discovery to first oil. This is an incredibly short timespan that is unprecedented in a global energy sector where it can take a decade or longer to develop billion-dollar world-class oil discoveries and bring them to production. Guyana is now a major regional petroleum producer, pumping an average 350,000 barrels per day at the end of September 2023, and described by industry analysts as the world’s most exciting frontier oil play.

The 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block, where Exxon has made more than 30 discoveries since 2015 which are estimated to contain 11 billion barrels, is pivotal to tiny Guyana’s mega-oil boom. Exxon, Hess, and CNOOC make up the consortium controlling the block holding 45%, 30%, and 25% working interests respectively. The consortium is investing heavily to develop world-class oilfields across the acreage. So far, the partners have approved the development of five projects and are evaluating a sixth project, the nearly $13 billion offshore Whiptail development, with the final investment decision (FID) expected during the first quarter of 2024. As each of those operations is commissioned and reaches capacity, Guyana’s oil production will grow at a solid clip. In October 2023, U.S. supermajor Chevron announced plans to acquire Hess in a $53 billion all-stock deal. In the announcement, Chevron cited the Stabroek Block as a key reason for the deal describing it as an “extraordinary asset with industry-leading cash margins and low carbon intensity that is expected to deliver production growth into the next decade.”

Industry analysts estimate Guyana will be lifting at least 1.2 million barrels by 2027, which based on 2022 production data will rank the tiny South American country as the world’s 16th largest producer, ahead of OPEC member Algeria. It is increasingly apparent that Guyana’s oil output could exceed that number with the FPSOs Exxon is installing capable of producing greater than nameplate capacity as various operational efficiencies are implemented. Those developments have sparked speculation Guyana’s expanding oil production, which analysts expect to peak during 2035 at around two million barrels per day, will diminish OPEC’s ability to control global oil prices.

Brazil, which is Latin America’s largest oil producer and economy, is on track to significantly expand production by the end of the decade at a time when many OPEC countries are facing potential declines. The regional giant was once a marginal oil producer, but output skyrocketed after a series of world-class oil discoveries in the offshore pre-salt layer were made nearly two decades ago in what is now the prolific Santos Basin. The first supergiant discovery was the mammoth Tupi oilfield in the Santos Basin. According to data from the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP – Portuguese initials), Tupi is pumping 497,000 barrels daily making Brazil’s largest oilfield responsible for 16% of total production. Meanwhile, the prolific Santo Basin, where three out of five of Brazil’s top-producing oilfields including Tupi are located, accounts for 28% of the country’s petroleum output.

Due to the extent of those world-class discoveries and their rapid development, with foreign energy investment inflows surging since 2008, Brazil is now Latin America’s largest oil producer along with being the region’s most powerful economy. The federal government in Brasilia plans to rapidly expand oil production to 5.4 million barrels per day by 2029. If that lofty target is achieved, Brazil will become the world’s fourth largest oil producer after Canada and before Russia, based on 2022 global production data.

There is considerable speculation among analysts that Brasilia’s ambitious target may be unattainable. Data from the ANP shows September 2023 production hit a record 3.67 million barrels per day, while overall hydrocarbon output, including natural gas, hit an all-time high of 4.67 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. For petroleum output to reach 5.4 million barrels daily, Brazil’s production must grow by 47% or 1.73 million barrels over the next six years.

To achieve such an ambitious target Brazil’s government, in the capital Brasilia, launched the Potencializa Exploration and Production program. This forms a key plank in Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy’s strategy to make the country the world’s fourth-largest oil producer by encouraging investment in frontier, mature, and marginal oil basins. This initiative will attract further domestic and foreign energy investment with Brasilia’s 2031 Energy Expansion Plan (PDE – Portuguese initials) forecasting a total investment of $428 million to $474 million for oil and gas exploration and production.

Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras, in its Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027, committed to investing $78 billion over that period, with 83% budgeted for upstream operations which will see nearly $65 billion spent on exploration and production activities. The national oil company plans to spend 67% of its upstream budget on pre-salt assets. Those operations are believed to offer the greatest potential to boost output because of low lifting costs and the high-grade and medium-grade sweet oil they produce, which is popular among refiners, especially in Asia. By the end of 2027, Petrobras anticipates that pre-salt assets will be responsible for 78% of oil production.

As part of that strategic plan, Petrobras will drill 42 exploration wells with 24 planned for Brazil’s Southeast Basins, another 16 in the Equatorial Margin, and 2 for offshore Colombia. Brazil’s national oil company will also deploy 16 FPSOs, between 2023 and 2027, with 11 destined for the Santos Basin and the remainder for the Campos Basin.

Importantly, six of the 11 production units bound for the Santos Basin will be deployed to the Búzios field, which as the world’s largest deepwater oilfield and responsible for 8.7% of Brazil’s production is a key focus of Petrobras’ development efforts. By 2027, Petrobras estimates that operated production from the Santos and Campos Basins will reach 4.4 million barrels daily. Petrobras’ strategic plan along with growing foreign energy investment will help to revitalize exploration and production in frontier as well as mature offshore basins to achieve Brasilia’s 2029 production target of 5.4 million barrels daily.

By the end of the decade, it is estimated that Guyana and Brazil combined will add nearly three million barrels per day of oil production, significantly boosting South America’s oil output. This once again will make the continent a leading global oil producer which is attracting considerable attention from big oil. Regional production will grow further because of Washington’s decision to ease sanctions against Venezuela and there is also rising output from Argentina’s massive unconventional hydrocarbon boom, where production hit an all-time high for March 2023. Those developments will challenge OPEC’s dominant role as a global price maker while bolstering nearby supply to U.S. refineries further diminishing the need for petroleum imports from OPEC. That will reduce Washington’s exposure to geopolitical risks in the Middle East and reliance upon Saudi Arabia, where Riyadh has taken a less cooperative approach to U.S. energy needs.

Source: Oilprice.com

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It has become all too common in the media, especially every time another United Nations climate conference like COP28 takes place, to blame every problem on climate change. The media and their go-to climate pundits reach far and wide to connect whatever tragic event is trending in the news to the modest warming of the past hundred or so years, and they do it no matter how tenuous the connection.

Some claims immediately stand out as ridiculous to even the casual observer, like the claim that the oceans are boiling, which is so stupid only someone who has blind trust in favored authorities bordering on pathological would believe it.

Other claims have the appearance of plausibility, at least at first glance, because the logic is relatively straightforward. Even then, existing data often contradicts the climate attribution. Taking a hypothesis, testing it, and then revising it based on the results used to be a thing called the “scientific method,” but apparently many in the media find that too boring and choose to spread unverified claims instead.

One of the common claims made by climate hucksters recently is that climate change is increasingly harming human health.

On the surface this might sound true. One of the examples often cited is that an increase in pollen will torment allergy sufferers. It is true that more plants due to carbon dioxide fertilization and longer stretches of plant-friendly weather certainly results in more pollen from some species. However, alarmism regarding this claim misses the broader point; better growing conditions means a lusher planet that better sustains human and animal life. Allergies are a misery, true, but they are manageable. Starvation is not so easily managed.

Voice of America (VOA) posted an article that pushes several other common claims about the supposed threat that climate change poses to human health, including extreme heat, air pollution, infectious diseases, and mental-health issues.

VOA reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared climate change the “single biggest health threat facing humanity.”

The first category highlighted is extreme heat.

Again, on the surface, this sounds possible. VOA writes that this year is “expected to be the hottest on record,” and cites a study that claims by 2050 five times more people will die of heat each year if 2°C warming occurs.

However, some of the data used to make the “hottest month/year” claim is suspect, due in part to the urban heat island effect, and a variety of natural factors, like increased water vapor from a massive volcanic eruption, the onset of a powerful El Niño, and increased solar activity.

Concerning the health impact of heat, the clear evidence and data show that cold temperatures kill far more people than hot temperatures and, as a result, overall deaths related to non-optimum temperatures have declined significantly.

Air pollution is next; the WHO asserts that outdoor air pollution driven by fossil fuel emissions kills millions, particularly in the form of particulate matter. This figure is refuted by real world data. Worse still for the claim, they admit that deaths from air pollution have fallen over time, even as fossil fuel use increased. Even the U.N.’s climate body does not connect  global warming to “air pollution weather,” or temperature inversion conditions that may cause ground level ozone.

The claim that infectious diseases are on the rise due to climate is also unsubstantiated by data. VOA claims that because of animal migration, the risk of infectious disease will spread, especially those spread by mosquitos.

More than a dozen peer-reviewed studies show that temperature alone is not enough to guarantee migration or longer survival of mosquitoes or mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria.

One scientist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a paper that it’s “facile” to attribute regional resurgences of malaria to climate change.

Looking at other animal sources of disease outbreaks like the Bird Flu, the exotic animal trade and wet markets where animals are crammed in close quarters are a much more likely candidate. The WHO of all groups should know this.

VOA devotes only a small section to the final category, mental health, writing that worrying about warming “provoked rising anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress — particularly for people already struggling with these disorders[.]”

The blame for this health effect falls squarely on the media’s alarmist reporting. The mainstream media has increasingly used words like “catastrophe” and “uninhabitable” to describe the condition of the planet. This is despite the fact that data show weather is not getting worse.

Creating climate anxiety is explicitly the goal of media climate reporting. Bombarding their audiences with scare stories, facts to the contrary be damned, is aimed at motivating people into “taking action” and supporting severe restrictions on fossil-fuel use. Survivors of a natural disaster may also struggle with PTSD or similar ailments, but it doesn’t mean that climate change is the cause. VOA reporting that climate anxiety is a result of climate change itself is frankly disgusting.

In the end, objective scientific data does not show that human health is being negatively impacted by climate change, and it is certainly not the biggest health threat facing humanity.

It is also worth noting how suspicious it is that the WHO is jumping on the climate change alarm train, given their preference for parroting the Chinese Communist Party’s talking points. China also happens to have a near monopoly on “green” tech manufacturing, and stands to gain a lot from the West’s “transition.” I’d argue that the greatest human health threat is actually climate policy, because it is destabilizing the electric power grid, increasing food insecurity, and encouraging the world’s people to be increasingly reliant on the good will of the Chinese Communist Party. Climate change itself doesn’t even break the top 10 of humanitarian or health threats facing the world.

Source: Americanthinker.com

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