NOG Announces Bolt-on Acquisitions; Expands Northern Delaware Position and Enters Ohio Utica Shale in Appalachia

Energy News Beat

MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG) (“NOG” or “Company”) today announced two acquisition transactions.

“After closing, our Permian lands will approach ~40,000 net acres and definitively become our most active and largest basin in terms of activity and production”

NORTHERN DELAWARE BASIN TRANSACTION

NOG has entered into a definitive agreement with a private party to acquire non-operated interests across ~3,000 net acres located primarily in Lea and Eddy Counties, New Mexico. NOG owns existing interests in approximately 90% of the leasehold. Current production is ~2,800 Boe per day (2-stream, ~67% oil). NOG expects 2024 production to average ~2,500 Boe per day (2-stream, ~67% oil) but expects significant future growth on the assets, with average production of >3,500 Boe per day for 2025 through 2030. Capital expenditures on the assets are expected to be in the range of $25 – $30 million to be incurred in 2024, with similar expected levels annually through 2027.

The acquired assets include 13.0 net producing wells, 1.0 net well in process and an estimated 26.3 net undeveloped locations, representing approximately 13.5 years of inventory at sustaining capital levels. The undeveloped assets are of extremely high quality, with an average pre-tax PV-10 breakeven of less than $45 per barrel. Mewbourne Oil is the largest operator, controlling approximately 80% of the assets.

The effective date for the transaction is November 1, 2023. NOG has placed a $17.1 million deposit for the acquisition with the balance of the funding to occur at closing, which is expected in the first quarter of 2024, subject to the satisfaction of typical closing conditions.

APPALACHIAN BASIN TRANSACTION

NOG has entered into a definitive agreement with a separate private party to acquire non-operated interests in Jefferson, Harrison, Belmont, and Monroe Counties, Ohio. The primary target zone is the Point Pleasant/Utica Shale.

Current production is approximately 23 MMcfe per day (~3,800 Boe per day, ~100% gas) and NOG expects average production in 2024 at slightly higher levels. NOG expects to incur approximately $14 million of capital expenditures on the assets in 2023 (which may be included in whole, or in part, as a portion of the initial closing settlement, depending on timing), and $8 million of capital expenditures in 2024.

The acquired properties include approximately 0.8 net producing wells and 1.7 net wells-in-process. Substantially all the assets are operated by Ascent Resources, one of the top Utica producers in Ohio.

The effective date for the transaction is November 1, 2023, with an expected close in the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to the satisfaction of typical closing conditions.

MANAGEMENT COMMENTS

“These transactions demonstrate our continued ability to successfully acquire high quality assets in the core of their respective basins, with best-in-class operating parties,” commented Nick O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer of NOG. “We expect the assets to be accretive in 2024 and to accelerate further in future years. We are also pleased to expand our Appalachian presence into some of the best parts of the Ohio Utica Shale as we continue to grow our natural gas portfolio in the region over time. Notably, at the current pricing strip, we still expect to reach our ~1x leverage ratio target in 2024 and cash generating assets such as these should add to dividend capacity over time.”

“After closing, our Permian lands will approach ~40,000 net acres and definitively become our most active and largest basin in terms of activity and production,” commented Adam Dirlam, NOG’s President. “Our focus remains on low-breakeven, resilient inventory that works in nearly any price environment, and these assets deliver in spades. On the Appalachian front, we are acquiring assets in the core of the Utica under one of the most prolific operators, with a focus on near-term development. As we continue to build data in the area, there is significant potential for longer term expansion.”

ADVISORS

Citi served as financial advisor to NOG for the Delaware Basin transaction.

TPH&Co, the energy business of Perella Weinberg Partners, served as financial advisor to the Delaware Basin seller.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as NOG’s legal advisor for the Delaware Basin transaction. Steptoe & Johnson is serving as NOG’s legal advisor for the Utica transaction.

ABOUT NOG

NOG is a real asset company with a primary strategy of acquiring and investing in non-operated minority working and mineral interests in the premier hydrocarbon producing basins within the contiguous United States. More information about NOG can be found at www.northernoil.com.

SAFE HARBOR

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and future results that are subject to the safe harbors created under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”). All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this release regarding NOG’s financial position, common stock dividends, production, cash flows, capital expenditures, business strategy, plans and objectives of management for future operations and industry conditions are forward-looking statements. When used in this release, forward-looking statements are generally accompanied by terms or phrases such as “estimate,” “project,” “predict,” “believe,” “expect,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “target,” “could,” “plan,” “intend,” “seek,” “goal,” “will,” “should,” “may” or other words and similar expressions that convey the uncertainty of future events or outcomes. Items contemplating or making assumptions about actual or potential future sales, market size, collaborations, and trends or operating results also constitute such forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and important factors (many of which are beyond NOG’s control) that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements, including the following: changes in crude oil and natural gas prices, the pace of drilling and completions activity on NOG’s properties and properties pending acquisition, NOG’s ability to acquire additional development opportunities, changes in NOG’s reserves estimates or the value thereof, general economic or industry conditions, nationally and/or in the communities in which NOG conducts business, changes in the interest rate environment, legislation or regulatory requirements, conditions of the securities markets, NOG’s ability to consummate any pending acquisition transactions (including the transactions described herein), other risks and uncertainties related to the closing of pending acquisition transactions (including the transactions described herein), NOG’s ability to raise or access capital, changes in accounting principles, policies or guidelines, financial or political instability, acts of war or terrorism, and other economic, competitive, governmental, regulatory and technical factors affecting NOG’s operations, products, services and prices.

NOG has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations and assumptions about future events. While management considers these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory, and other risks, contingencies, and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond NOG’s control. NOG does not undertake any duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by the federal securities laws.

Source: Businesswire.com

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French court opens case against teens over beheading of teacher

Energy News Beat

Six teenagers have gone on trial behind closed doors in connection with the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty.

The murder, which shocked the country, took place in 2020 after the teacher had shown his pupils caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression.

Paty, 47, was killed outside his school in a Paris suburb by Abdoullakh Anzorov, an 18-year-old assailant of Chechen origin, who was shot dead by police soon afterwards.

The six youths cannot be identified due to their age. They entered court on Monday wearing hoodies to hide their faces.

Five of the six, who were 14 to 15 years old at the time, face up to 2.5 years in prison for criminal conspiracy with intent to cause violence. They are accused of identifying the teacher to the killer in exchange for money.

The other defendant, a girl who was 13 at the time, allegedly told her parents that Paty had asked Muslim pupils to leave the room before showing the caricatures. However, she was not in the class at the time.

During questioning, the teenagers swore that at most they thought Paty would be “flagged up on social media”, “humiliated” or maybe “roughed up”, but they never imagined “it would go as far as murder”.

“He is consumed with regret and is very fearful of the confrontation with Paty’s family,” Antoine Ory, lawyer for one of the accused, said on Monday before the hearing started.

Paty’s sister Mickaelle said in a statement through lawyer Louis Cailliez that her brother would still be alive without a “fatal association of small cowardices, big lies”.

“The role of the minors was fundamental in the sequence of events that led to his assassination,” a lawyer for Paty’s family said.

The hearings, due to last until December 8, will be held behind closed doors. Eight adults are also accused and will appear before a special criminal court.

Last month, almost two years to the day of Paty’s killing, a 20-year-old man fatally stabbed teacher Dominique Bernard and gravely wounded two other people in an attack at a school in northern France.

Like Anzorov, Bernard’s suspected killer Mohammed Moguchkov also hailed from Russia’s mainly Muslim North Caucasus region.

Anzorov targeted Paty after messages spread on social media that the teacher had shown his class the cartoons. They had originally featured in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015, triggering a deadly attack by gunmen.

The teacher was killed in 2020 outside his school in Paris, after sharing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in class.

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While America Pursues Renewables, Worldwide Expansion Is Underway for Nuclear Generated Electricity

Energy News Beat

Sweden, China, India, Russia, and others are changing from occasional electricity from renewables to fossil-free electricity from nuclear that is continuous and uninterruptible.

American political leaders such as President Joe Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom continue “to dream the impossible dream” that intermittent electricity from wind and solar can run the world while countries such as Sweden, China, India, and Russia are changing from occasional electricity by renewables to electricity from nuclear that is continuous, uninterruptible, and fossil-free.

With regards to reliable electricity, Sweden has said their electricity policy goal is “changed from 100% renewable to 100% fossil-free”. The Swedish government unveiled a roadmap which envisages the construction of new nuclear generating capacity equivalent to at least two large-scale reactors by 2035. Sweden plans ‘massive’ expansion of new nuclear generated electricity by 2045.

The Swedish agreement also said necessary regulations should be developed to create the conditions for the construction and operation of small modular reactors (SMRs) to service smaller communities. In addition, the permitting process for nuclear power plants must be shortened.

Elsewhere, about 60 nuclear power reactors are currently being constructed in 15 countries, notably China, India, and Russia. Together, China and Russia account for 70 percent of new nuclear plants.

America continues its pursuit of reducing crude oil usage, in favor of wind and solar generated electricity. In addition, the “American renewables dream“ would mean sacrificing an estimated 6,000 useful products that rely on by-products manufactured from crude oil – products that range from asphalt for highways to fertilizers, cosmetics, synthetic rubber, medicines and medical devices, cleaning products, plastics, so many more.

Without fuels and without products now based on crude oil, we would be unable to operate the international and military airports that now accommodate a large number of the  more than 20,000 commercial aircraft  and a large number of the more than 50,000 military aircraft, as well as many of the more than50,000 merchant ships.

Without the fuels and products now based on oil, the world would see the elimination of all militaries and space programs as the world reverts to the pre-1800’s when civilization existed without oil!

The billions who live on this planet without the benefits of those products made from the petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil have provided are also the poorest, sickest, and most vulnerable humans on the planet.

For any electricity generation method, whether it’s coal, natural gas, hydroelectric, nuclear, wind turbines, or solar panels, the most reliable are those that can generate continuous and uninterruptible electricity year-round to support hospitals, industry, militaries, electronics, and communications.

The nameplate rated capacity of renewables is very misleading as the generated electricity is intermittent and unreliable. Wind facilities only generate their stated output about 30-40 percent of the time.  Solar units typically only kick in 25 percent of their purported “capacity factor.” That means backup electricity  from coal, natural gas, and nuclear generating plants must be provided for the other 60-75 percent of the time that wind and solar are napping.

To the electrical engineer, the available wind and solar farms operational data shows that, it is not possible for wind and solar electricity to ever displace dispatchable, reliable generation of continuous uninterruptable electricity supplying the base load demand. In this regard, the proposal by some policymakers to replace major coal, natural gas, hydro, and nuclear power stations with a fleet of nameplate rated wind and solar farms that are dormant most of the time is not technically achievable, thus “they dream the impossible dream”.

Further, the minerals and components of renewable electricity from wind and solar are typically garnered overseas in developing countries, chiefly in China, Africa, and Latin America. What this means is that it will be on the backs of poor Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics to provide the low-cost, cheap labor that will drive a “Green revolution” – to include any potential child and slave labor as well as extensive environmental degradation to “their” country, as discussed in detail in the Pulitzer Prize Nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support Clean Energy”.

As for the environmental credentials of “clean electricity”, governmental leaders need to look at the trail of environmental and human damage from the beginning to the end of the life of batteries, turbines, and solar panels. The cleanliness of “clean” electricity is one of the Big Lies of our time. Wind and solar electricity are not cheap or energy-efficient, after considering the energy required for mining, transporting, processing, construction, and disposal of the hardware at the end of the line.

Then we have the oxymoron situation, where policymakers are not yet cognizant that everything that “needs” electricity is made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil, from the light bulb to the iPhone, defibrillator, etc., etc.! Thus, renewables are not displacing the need for crude oil.

Policymakers need to have a plan to be able to support the materialistic demands of the eight billion on this globe for all the products, infrastructures, and electricity that exist today that did not exist a few hundred years ago. Efforts to cease the use of crude oil, without a planned replacement, could be the greatest threat to civilization’s demands of the eight billion on this planet.

The so-called fossil fuel industry enables people to live lives of ease and comfort that were inconceivable for the masses before the 1800’s. The products and fuels manufactured from crude oil are the basis of modern life, providing thousands of products that are ubiquitous in modern society. These include items that we use practically every minute of the day from putting on our makeup and cleaning our teeth to undergoing medical treatment. Imagine the pharmaceutical industry without petrochemical products.

If we want to deliver continuous, uninterruptible, and emission-free electricity at scale, and at a low cost for millions of electricity consumers, to support the materialistic demands that did not exist a few short centuries ago, that pace will have to move to a warp speed timeline, like that in Sweden, China, India, and Russia with their focus on electricity from nuclear generation.

Source: Heartland.org

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Lorries line up at Poland-Ukraine border as truckers expand blockade

Energy News Beat

Polish truckers and farmers have started a blockade of one of the busiest border crossings with Ukraine, expanding a protest against what they say is unfair competition from Ukraine and demanding more government support.

The Polish truckers and farmers began an around-the-clock blockade of the southeastern Medyka crossing on Monday.

Medyka is the fourth border point Polish workers have blocked since November 6, stranding thousands of lorries for days in kilometres-long lines.

The Polish truckers said they are losing out to Ukrainian companies, which offer cheaper prices and are transporting goods within the European Union rather than just between the bloc and Ukraine.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU lifted permit requirements for Ukrainian truckers entering the bloc and for EU truckers entering Ukraine.

‘No intention of giving up’

The Polish truckers are demanding the EU reintroduce the old permit system, offering exemptions for the transport only of humanitarian and military supplies.

They also want empty trucks from the EU to be excluded from an electronic queueing system in Ukraine and measures to stop Belarusian and Russian hauliers from setting up companies in Poland to get around sanctions.

Polish farmers joining the blockade are pressuring their government to extend support to help them cope with low grain prices.

Tomasz Borkowski, leader of a Polish transporters union, said the workers are committed to maintaining the blockade until their demands are met.

“I would like to end this protest as soon as possible because it is as burdensome for us as for everyone around us,” Borkowski said.

“We have no intention of giving up, and we will stand until we get our terms.”

Long waits

Protesters said only two trucks were being allowed to pass through the Medyka border crossing per hour with exemptions made for humanitarian aid and war supplies.

This has led to a 127-hour wait for trucks to cross at Medyka, one of just eight road border crossings with Ukraine, according to data from the Polish border guard.

Ukraine said the protest is damaging its fragile wartime economy by hampering exports and stopping supplies of essentials like motor vehicle gas from entering the country.

With Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, a key export route before the war, virtually blocked by Russia, Ukrainian businesses rely on roads and railways to reroute exports and imports.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure estimated that an average of 40,000 to 50,000 trucks had been crossing the border with Poland per month via eight existing crossings, twice as many as before the war. Most of the goods are carried by Ukraine’s transport fleet.

Polish truckers and farmers are staging an around-the-clock blockade of the southeastern Medyka crossing.

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US says Somali pirates likely behind attempted tanker seizure near Yemen

Energy News Beat

The United States has said that a group of attackers who tried to seize an Israel-linked cargo ship over the weekend were probably Somali pirates rather than Houthi fighters from nearby Yemen.

Speaking on Monday, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder noted that the US has not ruled out a Houthi connection to the attempted hijacking by five armed men over the weekend.

“We’re continuing to assess, but initial indications that these five individuals are Somali,” said Ryder.

“Clearly a piracy-related incident,” he added.

US Navy forces thwarted the capture of the tanker Central Park over the weekend after it was boarded by armed men, who were captured after the US warship Mason arrived on the scene.

The attempted hijacking comes at a time when Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have carried out a series of raids on ships in the region, and the US said ballistic missiles were fired from Houthi-controlled territory in the direction of US ships shortly after the attack.

The Houthis have consolidated control over large swathes of northern Yemen and emerged as a growing force in the region after a yearslong war with the country’s government and a coalition of forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

While fighting in Yemen has become more subdued over the last year, the Houthis have launched several attacks on Israel amid ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Missile and drone attacks launched towards Israel have largely failed, but the group has seized commercial ships in the Red Sea that they say have connections to Israel.

Following one such seizure earlier this month, the US said that it was considering redesignating the Houthis as a “terrorist” organisation.

The Pentagon has said that the ballistic missiles fired over the weekend were launched in the general direction of the US ships, but that they fell into the ocean about 19km (10 nautical miles) away from the vessels and did not result in any injuries.

Yemen’s government in Aden placed blame on the Houthis for the attack, but the group did not acknowledge either the missile launch or the attempted vessel seizure.

The Central Park is managed by Zodiac Maritime Ltd, a London-headquartered international ship management firm, owned by Israel’s Ofer family.

The Pentagon has said that the attempted hijacking was likely the work of Somali pirates rather than Houthi fighters.

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Iran Sees Its Oil Production Rising to 3.6 Million Barrels per Day by March 2024

Energy News Beat

Iran expects its oil production to rise to 3.6 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the current Iranian year in March 2024, from around 3.3 million bpd now, Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji has said.

The minister talked about Iranian oil production during a visit by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi to the headquarters of the Ministry of Oil, Iranian media reported.

Iran has recently signed six contracts for the development of oil and gas fields in the past months, including deals to develop joint fields in the west of Karun, such as Azadegan and Yaran. The total value of the contracts is $14.5 billion, according to the minister.

Earlier this month, Owji said that Iran’s oil production has jumped by 50% percent since the current administration came into office two years ago.

Iran’s oil production was 2.2 million bpd in August 2021 and has now increased to 3.3 million bpd. Output is further set to rise to 3.6 million bpd by the end of this winter.

This summer, Iran’s oil production and exports were estimated to have soared to the highest level since the U.S. sanctions were imposed in 2018.

Some analysts have attributed Iran’s higher oil sales abroad despite the current sanctions to the U.S. not looking to clamp down too much on the exports as it looks to keep oil markets well supplied.

However, Iranian exports could come under pressure as the United States signaled earlier this month that it would tighten the sanctions on Iran’s oil industry.

The U.S. will tighten sanctions on Iran’s oil industry amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, aiming to bring exports down by more than 1 million bpd, White House energy security adviser Amos Hochstein told Bloomberg.

“We are going to enforce those sanctions,” Hochstein said. “Those numbers will come down.”

Source: Oilprice.com

Source: Cfact.org

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‘We want permanent ceasefire,’ Palestinians in Gaza say as truce extended

Energy News Beat

Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – Ayman Harb, a father of three children, stuck it out with his family in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shujayea for more than a month of the war, even as Israeli bombs and tanks destroyed the besieged enclave’s largest urban centre.

Last week, just before a four-day humanitarian pause came into effect, he decided the family had to flee. One of his sons has cerebral palsy and requires an oxygen tank, and the Israeli soldiers threatened to shoot Harb if he did not throw away the oxygen.

Now in central Gaza, Harb has but one dream — for the truce to turn into a full-fledged ceasefire that allows him and his family to return home.

On Monday evening as the four-day truce was coming to an end, Qatar, which has played a central role in mediating talks that enabled the pause in fighting, announced that the halt in the war had been extended by another two days.

For families across Gaza, that brief respite also serves to underscore the suffering and humiliation of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, who have been under attack since October 7. Palestinians are calling for a permanent ceasefire, stressing that their priority is to return to their homes even if they were destroyed in the heavy bombardment over the past month and a half.

The truce, which began on Friday, has seen the release of Israeli civilian captives held by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.

It has quietened the skies over the Gaza Strip from the incessant sound of Israeli drones and warplanes. But it has done little to ease the collective trauma of the people of Gaza. According to the United Nations, 1.6 million people have been displaced from their homes, many forced to flee to the south of the strip. Some families who have tried to return to the north during the truce have been fired upon by Israeli snipers.

Others have been forced to live in what they describe as “shame”.

Ayman Harb, who was injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a market in Shujayea, was forced to flee to the central Gaza Strip with his family, and they are now living in a tent in Deir el-Balah [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

“I’ve been here staying in a tent on the grounds of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for a week, right next to the ambulances,” 41-year-old Harb said. “We are about 20 people in one tent, but I had to send my wife and my other two children to stay with a relative after the rain soaked our tent this morning.”

“Yes, the bombings have stopped, but we need a truce that will return us to our homes,” he added. “Otherwise, there is no point in one. I’d rather go back to my home and die there than stay here in a tent living in shame and being forced to rely on people for the basic necessities of life.”

Harb said his family had to beg before in their lives. Now they are desperate for medicine, food and water.

“We don’t want war. We just want to live in our homes with our dignity intact,” his 20-year-old cousin Badr said.

Imm Shadi al-Taher, a 63-year-old mother of 10, was displaced from her home in Tall az-Zaatar in Gaza City three weeks ago.

Imm Shadi al-Taher from Tall az-Zaatar in Gaza City wants to go back to her neighbourhood to bury her dead siblings who were killed in an Israeli attack and whose bodies remain trapped under the rubble [Abdelhakim Abu Riadh/Al Jazeera]

She has also been staying with 25 members of her family in one tent on the hospital grounds.

“We had our pride and dignity, but look at the state we are in now, this destitution and the fact that no one is looking to help us or is thinking of us,” she said.

She acknowledged the “huge relief” of not hearing the sound of drones, warplanes or artillery shelling, noting that her grandchildren are more relaxed, but she cannot bear to stay away from her home, which was destroyed.

“I’m willing to live in a tent but on the ruins of my home, where I don’t need to ask anyone for help,” she said. “I want to go back to bury my siblings who are still under the rubble of their own destroyed homes.”

According to the Gaza media government office, at least 6,800 people are missing and presumed dead under the rubble. This is in addition to the 14,854 Palestinians killed since October 7, the majority of them women and children.

A child runs between tents set up for displaced Palestinians on the grounds of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

For Noor Saadeh, a 23-year-old mother of two who was displaced from her home in Gaza City a month ago, the truce is not enough.

“What’s the point of a truce if we cannot go back to our homes?” she asked. “My son keeps telling me he misses his friends at nursery school. We want our old life back.”

She is worried about the onset of winter since she and her family fled while it was still warm and have no way to go back to their home.

“I had to ask people for appropriate clothes for the children at the very least,”  she said. “We didn’t think we would be here for this long.”

Four-day pause has quietened the skies over Gaza but has shone a light on the suffering of displaced Palestinians.

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Gaza truce extended by two days, Qatar and Hamas say

Energy News Beat

A humanitarian pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas will extend by two days, mediator Qatar and Hamas have said, hours before an initial four-day truce in Gaza was set to expire.

“The State of Qatar announces that, as part of the ongoing mediation, an agreement has been reached to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional two days in the Gaza Strip,” Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

Qatar, the United States and Egypt have engaged in intense negotiations to establish and prolong the truce in Gaza, which mediators had said was designed to be broadened and expanded.

Over the course of the initial truce a total 50 civilian hostages, women and children, were expected to be freed by Hamas.

In exchange, 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel were to be released and more humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza.

According to Ghazi Hamad, from the Hamas political bureau, an extension of the four-day truce was always a possibility.

“It [the possibility of an extension] was written in the agreement, that if Hamas gives more hostages, there will be more days of the ceasefire,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We have now agreed to release more hostages and extend the agreement for two days. This is good news for our people, especially the people of Gaza.

“I hope we can extend it until we reach the end of this war. We want to end the war. We are in a temporary ceasefire but we are trying to extend it. There is lots of support from Qatar, Egypt and many Western governments to end this catastrophe,” he added.

During the first three days of the truce, 39 Israeli hostages were freed by the armed group in exchange for 117 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails as part of the deal between the two sides.

As a result of parallel negotiations led by the Gulf state, 17 Thais, one Filipino and one dual Russian-Israeli national have also been released by Hamas.

Hamas fighters seized around 240 hostages when they stormed from Gaza into southern Israel on October 7 and killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.

Afte the attack, Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, killing more than 15,000 people, including more than 5,000 children, according to Palestinian officials.

Reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said families across the occupied Palestinian territories were relieved by the extension.

“This is a source of relief for many families, not just the families of prisoners, but also other people in the occupied West Bank who are watching in horror images coming out of the besieged Gaza Strip.

“We are not just referring to the killings and children who’ve lost their lives, but also to the people who have been displaced, to the wounded, to the many hunger and in a very difficult situation.

“We are also talking about families of prisoners. So far we do not have a list,” she adding that according to a Hamas official, it will see the release of at least four more Palestinian prisoners.”

Hamas official says the group hopes to extend the truce even further and put an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

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Residents In Blue States Pay Much More For Electricity Than In Red States: Study

Energy News Beat

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Blue state residents, whose governments have adopted aggressive climate policies, are paying much more for electricity and fuel than their counterparts who live in red states that lack such policies, according to a new report from America’s largest membership organization of state legislators.

The report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), provides a breakdown of energy prices throughout the United States while demonstrating the relationship between big government policies and high energy costs.

“While some states rely on free market principles and innovation to limit manmade emissions into the atmosphere, others use a more heavy-handed approach by implementing of standards, enacting mandates and pricing schemes that benefit specific types of technologies,” the report reads.

“Whether it is mandates, subsidies, or some combination of both, when the government inserts itself into the energy markets, taxpayers wind up footing the bill.”

The trend of government mandates being linked to higher electricity prices is evident throughout the report.

For instance, simply being part of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which dictates that a certain amount of a state’s electricity generation must come from renewable sources, pushed up electricity costs in a participating state by around 11 percent.

Big Government Means Higher Electricity Costs

Overall, the report finds that red states that lack their own green energy mandates or that don’t take part in cap-and-trade schemes (systems that limit aggregate emissions from a group of emitters by setting a cap on maximum emissions) have the lowest electricity costs.

Red states Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah had the lowest electricity prices. None of them have a government-mandated RPS or participate in cap-and-trade schemes, such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is a CO2 cap-and-trade program among 10 states in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions of the country.

Utah has a voluntary renewable energy goal of 20 percent by 2025, but it’s not a mandate. Idaho and Wyoming don’t have state-mandated net metering, which is the utility billing practice of recording the excess energy generated by a solar installation and applying it to a customer’s bill as credit toward grid-drawn energy.

While the report notes that the impact of state-mandated net metering is “still not clear cut,” some utility companies have said that it represents a cost shift from people who can afford to install solar panels, leaving people without solar to pay a greater share of the fixed costs of maintaining the electrical grid.

Outside of red Alaska and blue Hawaii (which are geographic outliers and so understandably have the highest electricity costs), the five states with the highest electricity prices are all blue: California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

All five states have cap-and-trade schemes and government-mandated RPSs in place. Each of these states has also imposed a state-mandated net metering policy on its utilities.

Overall, the difference in electricity costs between the cheapest red states and the most expensive blue states is substantial. The costs of a kilowatt hour in California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut are more than double what they are in red states Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.

“There is a strong correlation between big government policies and higher electricity costs,” the report states.

When crafting energy and environmental policies, lawmakers should avoid imposing more government controls and instead allow markets to adapt, innovate, and improve.

Besides electricity, the ALEC study also looked at gasoline costs across states and similarly found that, in general, there was a correlation between government mandates and prices.

“States with more stringent fuel content requirements, more regulations, and above-average taxes generally have higher gas prices than those that do not,” the report reads.

Electricity Versus Natural Gas

Meanwhile, a recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that the cost of heating a home this coming winter using natural gas is going to be roughly 40 percent lower than using electricity.

Households using electricity to heat homes are projected to pay $1,063 on average between November and March, according to a Nov. 7 winter fuels outlook report by EIA. By contrast, households using natural gas are only expected to fork over $601.

The stark findings come as the Biden administration ramps up its war on gas appliances, including furnaces, while touting electrically-powered alternatives (such as heat pumps), all in the name of fighting climate change.

Recently, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that President Joe Biden will use emergency wartime powers to boost U.S. production of electric heat pumps as his administration continues its push to replace furnaces that run on fossil fuels.

Earlier, the DOE proposed new energy efficiency standards for residential water heaters that would require electric water heaters of the most common size to use heat pump technology and gas-fired instantaneous water heaters to use condensing technology to achieve energy efficiency.

At the time, Republicans on the House Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs argued that the DOE’s proposed appliance efficiency standards would be burdensome and costly for Americans, hitting lower-income families the hardest.

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Females And Young Adults At Higher Risk Of COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects: Study

Energy News Beat

Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Females and young adults are at an increased risk of suffering from side effects after COVID-19 vaccinations. People who take three doses as compared to two may present different side effects, a Japanese study finds.

The study published on Scientific Reports in November studied 272 hospital employees who received the Pfizer vaccine as a second dose between January to June 2022.

None of the participants had a prior history of COVID-19 infection, and all of their symptoms were examined and diagnosed by doctors at the hospital.

They found “higher frequencies of COVID-19 vaccine-related side effects” and “worse outcomes with longer recovery from side effects” among females and younger adults compared to males and elderly adults, the authors wrote.

Third Dose Versus Second Dose

The authors found different side effects were linked with different doses, and the side effects after third dose tend to be more long-lasting and severe compared to the second dose.

Axillary pain occurs much more frequently in people who have taken three doses as opposed to two. Headaches and joint pain is a side effect that tends to be prolonged following the third dose compared to the second or the first dose.

At the second dose common symptoms include asthma symptoms, ear fullness, numbness in the upper arm, and injection at the injecting site.

The author associated the symptoms that occurred after the second vaccine dose with an allergic response while headaches and joint pains after the third dose were linked with inflammation and immune dysregulation.

Health Practitioners Report Similar Findings

Doctors and other studies have reported similar demographics in patients who report symptoms post-vaccination.

Additional vaccines also create a cumulative effect such that people who have taken more shots tend to be at a greater risk of worse symptoms, internist Dr. Keith Berkowitz, who has treated over 200 long COVID and post-vaccine patients, told The Epoch Times.

A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the majority of people who report anaphylaxis are female.

Additionally, a JAMA Network Open study similarly showed that females tended to report adverse effects from Moderna and Pfizer vaccinations. The authors of the study reasoned that females tended to produce a greater number of antibodies after vaccination, and that the higher levels of estrogen and progesterone in females may also result in different symptom manifestations.

Younger people also tend to have a stronger immune system, and the side effects experienced by the patient may be a result of the immune response, the authors reasoned.

The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines induce the body to produce spike proteins. These spike proteins can damage the blood vessels and cause clotting, inflammation, and even autoimmunity. Greater symptom severity is suggestive of having more reactive symptoms due to the body’s attempts to fight off the spike proteins.

While this may help in clearing spike proteins, it may also prevent recovery as the body directs its resources toward fighting an infection rather than resting and recovering. “If the immune system is functioning better … the body functions better as a whole and the body can use its needed sources elsewhere,” Dr. Berkowitz said.

Changing Demographics

Nurse practitioner Scott Marsland of Leading Edge Clinic told The Epoch Times that in recent months he has seen a shift in his patient population.

“I have a lot more male patients these days and … we’re getting more patients who have had multiple vaccinations and boosters,” Mr. Marsland said. Many of the patients now come from recommendations from friends and family who think that they may be suffering from vaccine side effects. Since these people have not been following the research on COVID-19 vaccine injuries, they tend to be a lot more skeptical and distrusting, he added.

Dr. Berkowitz similarly added that as the pandemic progressed, he started to get different patients with the majority being patients who have had several COVID-19 infections and also taken several doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Keith said that since each infection and injection will increase the load of spike protein, “I’ll list how many times have they had the vaccine and how many times have they been infected [to assess treatment].”

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