Energy News Beat

#podcast @thecrudetruth9585

@davidblackmon6807 #energytransition #oilandgas #geopolitics

David Blackmon – https://davidblackmon.substack.com/

Rey Trevino – https://thecrudetruth.com/

Stu Turley, – https://energynewsbeat.co/

 

Highlights of the Podcast:

01:32 – The poster child for years on renewable energy

02:38 – Germany’s economy will not do well this year

06:55 – ESG investing can also include natural gas

08:48 – Tax in tax incentives are from profits from companies.

11:18 – The regulatory issues in the US

16:12 – The Nape Presents the Crude Truth with David Blackmon and Stuart Turley podcast pavilion.

 

 

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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If you have any questions, please reach out to us. We want to answer all questions, and if you have what it takes to be a podcast host and you want your show reach out.

Also, sponsor slots are available. There is excellent reach with the four podcasts.

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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

3 Podcasters Walk in a Bar EP 44 – The guys talks about ESG investing can also include natural gas

 

Stuart Turley [00:00:13] If you ever have that uncle, that crazy old uncle at Christmas when he was sit there and he kind of walk up and he’d tell you, look at the family with a straight face and say, all of a sudden these three guys walk into a bar. Well, I happen to know the other two. One of them is out on his yacht in the middle of the Caribbean. So David’s on assignment. We’re going to hold him. Do it next week. So we got RT. We got the Rey Treviño the third. He is a big dog over there at Pecos operating company. And I mean, he’s got a wonderful podcast, The Crude Truth. Great numbers. Welcome. Thank you very much.

Rey Treviño [00:00:52] Well, thank you. Stu, as always for having me on this two podcasters edition. You know, David again, is that on assignment in the Caribbean? I hope he comes back.

Stuart Turley [00:01:00] Oh, yeah.

Rey Treviño [00:01:01] Nothing else. Hopefully finds a good ten and and maybe, maybe a little bit of a smile. Who knows?

Stuart Turley [00:01:07] I got some stuff on that. But, David, we love you. We miss you. And, but we’re going to talk about you because your energy absurdity, is absolutely one of the best Substack to subscribe to, and today is no exception. I mean, we’re talking, Germany is going nuts. And, RT, it was weird that Germany, has been the poster child for years on renewable energy. They shut down their their nuclear reactors.

Rey Treviño [00:01:39] Yes.

Stuart Turley [00:01:40] Then they have to fire back up all of their, coal plants.

Rey Treviño [00:01:45] Yep.

Stuart Turley [00:01:46] And they’re having to tear down wind farms because they got coal plants there, and they’ve run all their business out. BASF has had to move to China for their fertilizer. And so David’s article on his Substack. It’ll be in the show notes was very simple when it was like, is this intentional, RT? You can’t be this evil and stupid at the same time.

Rey Treviño [00:02:12] It blows me away, you know? The way that Germany has been, I guess what? They’ve been the poster child on what not to do.

Stuart Turley [00:02:19] Exactly.

Rey Treviño [00:02:20] Okay. And I didn’t quite know. I was like, well, what about.

Stuart Turley [00:02:23] California? Newsom has been saying we’re going to follow Germany.

Rey Treviño [00:02:29] That’s that’s it. Let’s let’s table that discussion for a second and get back to Germany, because I even had a great Substack article last week about how just Germany’s economy will not do well this year due to their decisions that they’ve made on renewables over consistent energy, efficient, reliable, abundant, inexpensive, right. Fuel sources. And I think in that, and David, and David Blackmon’s article, excuse me, David, he even mentioned that I think it was a graph that they’re now using less. Thank you so much, Megan. And of course, that was just a shout-out to our, waitress today. Again, we’re coming to you from the flying saucer in downtown Fort Worth. Thank you, as always to them. And, if you guys ever get a chance to get over and have a cold pint, have a good pint at the flying saucer.

Stuart Turley [00:03:21] Absolutely.

Rey Treviño [00:03:21] Okay. Back. Yes, back to David Blackman. There’s a graph in there, and, you know, hey, you know, from the generation of look at the graphs, you know. Yeah, it’s clear Germany is now using less electricity than they were in the 1970s.

Stuart Turley [00:03:35] Yes, 1978. And, I can actually remember 1978 since Noah and I were wonderful friends. But in 1978, you can see that they have, demolished their wonderful all of their stuff. VW has even closed some of their plants, and they’re not building any new plants. So the gross domestic product, for, GDP for Germany is down. And and then the next thing is so goes Germany, goes to the, EU. So, I mean, it is the largest one there. So if Governor Newsom, who was just seen having, lunch with the Clintons in Mexico, it was pretty funny. But if you sit back and sit and take a look. California is having the same high energy costs. And the reason that he points out in this article is the fact that the energy is so expensive, businesses have left and people can’t afford to run anything at home. So they’re trying to use as least amount of energy and they’re still spending more.

Rey Treviño [00:04:50] Jesus, that’s an oxymoron, if I ever said so myself.

Stuart Turley [00:04:54] I resemble that remark. So.

Rey Treviño [00:05:00] You know, on part. I tell you what, this, just the whole upside down world and and we talk about ESG right here. Germany has gone the way that we should go. Just think about the year that we’re having this year in 2024. ESG investments have Tanked. .

Stuart Turley [00:05:17] And they have. And it’s it’s just unbelievable. Blackrock lost $5 trillion last year in their ESG funds. And so what was so fun was Cop 28 when heads were exploding on Cop 28 when they had to include natural gas. That remember the president of Cop 28 was, from the UAE? That’s right. And he’s an oil company guy. And so they said, we’ll transition away when reasonable. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I thought I was going to see John Kerry just absolutely go. Well, here’s the point. Blackrock. Larry Fink has said we are investing in oil and gas. Here’s the biggest. And olive oil guy on the planet. Now trying to say that the investors need their money back.

Rey Treviño [00:06:15] Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:06:16] Vanguard’s doing the same thing. And all of the others. And the discussions I’m having. RT are phenomenal. Yeah, people are wanting to say, hey, I’m getting like, killed in California.  And we’ve talked about you, and I have laughed about the fact that, U-Haul, the highest rates in U-Haul history, are coming from California to Texas. Nobody wants to go back. But it’s the tax deduction and investing in ESG for folks that actually know what they’re doing. I’ve got a bunch of other stuff coming around.

Rey Treviño [00:06:51] Investing in ESG that actually know what to do. What do you mean?

Stuart Turley [00:06:55] Because ESG investing can also include natural gas. You can’t go to the grid without having natural gas. Now, here’s where ESG investing comes in. You can have Bitcoin mining. You can also just invest directly into the EMP operators. And the way that happens is if they are doing carbon capture, if they’re watching their emissions, if they are actually following the regulations, you can have the right EMP company doing and following best practices and you get the tax deduction.

Rey Treviño [00:07:34] Now there is a difference between a tax deduction and a subsidy right.

Stuart Turley [00:07:38] Oh absolutely. You know that bad dog. Which one is is subsidy is Tammy Nemeth brought this out on the show on on Monday. And David was still out on his yacht in the middle of the Caribbean, and and Tammy was way cool. She said, you know, a subsidy is like, the high price of energy is so high that they have to give a subsidy to the end users in Germany or the EU or the UK. The UK has had to have subsidies go in order. Subsidies come in to the disproportionately impacted communities in the US, giving them a heat pump. But here’s the here’s the bad part about subsidies. They don’t work as intended. Okay, so all the subsidies do is help eliminate the higher cost, which is hurting the middle class, which is taking away from them. So with high costs of energy, you’re wiping out the middle class and you’re creating more poor people, higher cost of energy. I kid you not.

Rey Treviño [00:08:47] And

Stuart Turley [00:08:48] Tax in tax incentives are from profits from companies. So if you look for tax incentives going in, all of a sudden the tax incentives actually make a huge difference because somebody’s had to make some profit in order to do that. On on EVs.

Rey Treviño [00:09:07] Yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:09:08] We can’t go to EVs because you’re going to get a 7 to $14,000, tax rebate. How much money do you have to make in order to get that to that? You’re going to save money and not pay that in taxes?

Rey Treviño [00:09:24] Oh, wow.

Stuart Turley [00:09:25] Think about that. The average median income, I believe in the US is around $86,000. If you’re at $86,000 in the mid, middle class, you know you’re not going to get be able to take advantage of an EV. So I had a family member look at me the other day at Christmas and I just had to leave. He said, everybody can afford an EV. I’m like, no. And then you can’t even plug them in to charge them.

Rey Treviño [00:09:53] I know, because what if everybody was at your house? Would you have enough chargers to plug everybody up? No. Never thought about that.

Stuart Turley [00:10:00] No, but it’s even bringing in the grid. You can’t bring in the grid because of the, circuits? No. There are people in California trying to buy EVs, but the grid is not capable of supporting more than 100 back to a house.

Rey Treviño [00:10:15] Wow.

Stuart Turley [00:10:16] Oops.

Rey Treviño [00:10:16] Oops. There’s just so much going on. I mean, you know, I’m glad you got, because a lot of people are like. Well, it’s just about a subsidy, right? Like, no, you know, tax deductions are not subsidies.

Stuart Turley [00:10:29] Yeah.

Rey Treviño [00:10:29] Just glad you’re able to make a difference.

Stuart Turley [00:10:31] There’s a difference. Are you using me up?

Rey Treviño [00:10:35] Well, Tim, you know, it’s.

Stuart Turley [00:10:37] Easy because you do that to me all the time. That was intentional. It’s like, guys, when I walk down the hall and RT, you go, hey, stupid. And I answer it.

Rey Treviño [00:10:50] So I don’t know.

Stuart Turley [00:10:51] I don’t know.

Rey Treviño [00:10:52] Yeah, I got nothing on that one.

Stuart Turley [00:10:54] No, the truth hurts. Okay, so RT when you sit back and we take a look at what’s coming around the corner for energy, nuclear. Your talk with Grace Stanke is phenomenal. I thought you did fabulous on that. And so, she has some great things. We’re seeing some great nuclear things coming around the corner. The, problem is the regulatory issues in the US. If you know your senator, if you know your, Congress representative, reach out to them and call them, because it’s not only the wind, it’s not only the solar, it’s nuclear, it’s oil and gas. It is everything.

Rey Treviño [00:11:36] Everything.

Stuart Turley [00:11:36] Everything is getting shut down. There are 24,000 energy projects that they can’t connect to the grid right now.

Rey Treviño [00:11:45] You know, I mean, if when I I’ll tell you this and I’ll look at the camera, but I can’t figure out how to make a dollar from nuclear Pecos country is going to the nuclear. That’s. I’m not lying. So if anybody out there that’s listening that has an idea of, please let me know. Well, just from everything that you’re doing. Because guess what? How far can a nuclear sub travel?

Stuart Turley [00:12:11] Long Way.

Rey Treviño [00:12:12] Forever So why would I not want to produce an energy source that I could charge people for, right? For? I mean, I’m not having to worry about, you know, and I love my oil and gas, but I’m going to worry about pump maintenance, finding new sources. I mean, heaven forbid. So, I mean, nuclear’s doing great in other parts of the world, even in Japan, where they have probably seen the worst of nuclear. You know, I kind of now looking at nuclear the way Thomas Edison used to go against Tesla with, direct current.

Stuart Turley [00:12:49] Right.

Rey Treviño [00:12:50] And that Thomas Edison was showing all the negatives that Tesla’s, which we all use today as his warm electricity because Thomas Edison created, is known creating the electric chair.

Stuart Turley [00:13:03] Right.

Rey Treviño [00:13:04] It’s something else because he was trying to dismiss and scare everybody,  With Tesla’s one way electricity. And yet, I would say Japan probably has the 100% most reasons not to ever have nuclear. And yet they supply most of their energy from nuclear down. And the rest of the world is also doing more and more nuclear.

Stuart Turley [00:13:27] Yes,.

Rey Treviño [00:13:27] But not in America.

Stuart Turley [00:13:28] No, it’s because regulatory issues, legislation through regulatory issues equals higher energy price.

Rey Treviño [00:13:36] But you know what? I don’t see too many politicians that are really going nuclear, baby.

Stuart Turley [00:13:42] No. But I want to give a, shout out to Doug Sandridge, who I’m going to introduce you to. I signed a, petition. Yes. And I’m going to sign a petition. And it is for oil executives that are for nuclear. And I’m going to introduce you to him. And we’ve had Chris Wright sign it. And a lots of other David have signed it. And you didn’t get the memo?

Rey Treviño [00:14:05] No, I did not, I did not. That’s okay. I promise you no. Well, I think on the top of my list, I tell you, you know, we’ve, we had a great 2023.

Rey Treviño [00:14:16] Oh, yeah.

Stuart Turley [00:14:16] We’ve been having a better, more busy 2024. I mean, you and I were talking beforehand. I was like, how much time do I have to really work on?

Stuart Turley [00:14:24] Yeah, I’m I’m going to be a testament here. He has no time. So, but, you know, you’re one of the hardest working cats I know.

Rey Treviño [00:14:34] No, I tell you what, you know, I always enjoy putting these out there. And I enjoy coming here to the. I’d like doing them at the bar more. It’s just more fun, you know, something is. And, it’s a fun little break from the monotony of the day.

Stuart Turley [00:14:47] Oh, absolutely.

Rey Treviño [00:14:48] The fact that you and I and David Blackmon get to sit here, laugh a little bit, but talk about energy.

Stuart Turley [00:14:54] Yep.

Rey Treviño [00:14:54] And we even had on a guest doctor in Ireland came. Hopefully we’ll have more people on this year. I think that was very fun.

Stuart Turley [00:15:01] Oh, I.

Rey Treviño [00:15:02] I think we should.

Stuart Turley [00:15:04] If you want to be on the 3 podcasters, walk into the bar. We want to have a party with you. So come on, just let us know. Reach out to either David Blackmon, RT Rey Treviño the third, or me Stuart Turley on LinkedIn. And, RT, how can they find you?

Rey Treviño [00:15:22] Oh, definitely on LinkedIn at Rey Treviño the third or the Crude Truth.com. Right. Also, we got, we’ll we’re updating, but right now we got our website up. Well. My God, what is it? Pecos operating. Pecos operating dot Com.

Stuart Turley [00:15:39] Right.

Rey Treviño [00:15:40] And, you know, we’re just we’re gearing up for 2024.

Stuart Turley [00:15:43] You and I, we’re looking in that, like, headline in the, deer in headlights.

Rey Treviño [00:15:47] You know, as we’re getting closer and we roll this out, man, we’re getting ready for Nape.

Stuart Turley [00:15:50] Isn’t that fun?

Rey Treviño [00:15:51] And I’ve really been working on it. You know, I wrote I work for an oil and gas company, right? And so we’re getting ready. We’ve got some great projects that we’re doing in 2024 that we’re going to actually have at Nape, have great digital, showing of it, you know, of, of some great news.

Stuart Turley [00:16:09] The podcast pavilion.

Rey Treviño [00:16:10] Yes. It’s going to be the Nape, the Nape Presents the Crude Truth with David Blackmon and Stuart Turley podcast pavilion.

Stuart Turley [00:16:17] Right.

Rey Treviño [00:16:18] Something like that. And, but we want to say thank you to Nape Expo for allowing us to be out there.

Stuart Turley [00:16:23] Right.

Rey Treviño [00:16:24] We’re going to have a great podcast pavilion. And, so we’re going to have on some great guests, and we’re even gonna have some wonderful people coming in. Right.

Stuart Turley [00:16:32] And I want to give a shout out to, John Farrell and Aaron Summers over at, well, database. They’ve already kicked out to a huge email blast.

Rey Treviño [00:16:42] Yeah,.

Stuart Turley [00:16:42] You’ve got some folks lining up. I got some folks lining up, and, they’re a, sponsor on Nape, and we’re going to be doing live deal evaluations. So we got a whole team. We got a live podcast.

Rey Treviño [00:16:56] Yeah,.

Stuart Turley [00:16:56] We got a live deal, evaluations, and not every deal. Should you invest in. You want it validated? Hey, I know people.

Rey Treviño [00:17:08] And we may even be able to do a little a little light in happy hour while we’re there. We’ll see. We’ll see.

Stuart Turley [00:17:12] Thanks.

Rey Treviño [00:17:13] Oh, well, no, not confirmed yet, but we don’t know. And, but I’m just excited. We got a great first quarter in 2024. Still, David, you know, hurry up and get back from assignment.

Stuart Turley [00:17:23] Right.

Rey Treviño [00:17:24] And, you know, I just thank you all so much.

Stuart Turley [00:17:26] And, he doesn’t want to he doesn’t like being alone with me because I’m too funny. So with that, thank you. Very much. Appreciate all of you.

Rey Treviño [00:17:35] Adios.

 

The post 3 Podcasters Walk in a Bar EP 44 – The guys talks about ESG investing can also include natural gas appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

President Biden vetoed a bipartisan resolution Wednesday that would have reversed his administration’s decision to waive “Buy America” requirements for taxpayer-funded electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.

The resolution, which was authored by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and introduced in July, would have specifically overturned the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Waiver of Buy America Requirements for Electric Vehicle Chargers. Rubio, the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and other Republican lawmakers argued DOT’s waiver benefits Chinese manufacturers who dominate the EV charger supply chain.

“If enacted, this resolution would harm my Administration’s efforts to encourage investment in critical industries and bring high-quality jobs back to the United States,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday. “It would not only thwart the collective goal of the Congress and the Administration to establish a domestic EV charger manufacturing industry, but it would also delay the significant progress being made by my Administration and the States in establishing the EV charging network.”

“Establishing resilient supply chains is critical to our national economic and energy security, and my Administration will not support policies that would undermine efforts to bring this critical manufacturing back to the United States,” the president continued.

A driver charges his electric vehicle at a charging station in Monterey Park, California, on August 31, 2022.

Biden further argued that his administration’s actions in effect promote domestic manufacturing while the Senate resolution would do the opposite. But he acknowledged the DOT waiver allows newly announced manufacturing capacity for EV charger components “the necessary time to ramp up production.”

17 RETIRED MILITARY OFFICIALS RAISE ALARM ON BIDEN’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE PUSH

DOT unveiled the final Made in America EV charger waiver rule in February 2023 which axed more stringent requirements and pushed certain deadlines back months what was considered a victory for green energy industry groups. The waiver governs manufacturing and assembly requirements for EV charging companies to be eligible for millions of dollars in federal subsidies.

The waiver rules revised a stricter proposal put forth by DOT in August 2022. The four-phase proposed waiver would have immediately scrapped all requirements; then required EV charger companies to assemble all products in the U.S. beginning Jan. 1, 2023; manufacture chargers with no less than 25% American-made components by cost beginning July 1, 2023; and manufacture chargers with no less than 55% American-made components by cost beginning Jan. 1, 2024.

The post Biden vetoes bipartisan bill protecting US EV industry from China appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

In October the Daily Sceptic reported on a paper written for the Royal Society led by Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith of Oxford University that concluded batteries were not the answer to the huge storage requirements of intermittent ‘green’ electricity power. Despite the prestigious academic fire power on parade, the paper died a death in the popular prints, presumably because of its unwelcome message about the much-touted battery solution. But recent revelations suggest the report could act as a loose thread that helps unravel the collectivist Net Zero agenda in the U.K. The Royal Society analysed decades of local wind speeds and found the electricity system needed the equivalent of at least a third of green energy to be stored as backup. Such a cost would be astronomical. Now it appears that the Government’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) fudged the issue by using just one year of high wind data in persuading Members of Parliament in 2019 to donkey-nod through Theresa May’s insane legislative rush to Net Zero by 2050.

Sir Chris’s report showed that wind could fall away for days at a time during periods of intense cold dominated by high atmospheric pressure. It also found wind speeds varied between years, all of which is in fact known and has been studied widely by other scientists. The Telegraph has reported on remarks made by Sir Chris after the paper was published in which he noted that the CCC has “conceded privately” that reliance on one year’s data was a “mistake”. It appears that the information given to MPs committing to 2050 Net Zero assumed there would be just seven days when wind turbines would produce less than 10% of their potential electricity output. According to Net Zero Watch that compares with 30 such days in 2020, 33 in 2019 and 56 in 2018.

In reporting that the CCC has conceded the “mistake”, the Telegraph noted that Sir Chris said the committee was still saying it doesn’t differ much from Sir Chris’s calculations. “Well that’s not quite true,” observed the Oxford Emeritus Professor. Asked by the newspaper if it disputed the account of Sir Chris, a CCC spokesman said it had “nothing further to add”.

Of course the ‘Noble Lie’ that Net Zero must be foisted on an unwilling population whatever the economic and societal cost will need to be preserved. Nothing to see here, move along please, is likely to guide most mainstream media in covering these latest revelations. The investigative science and Net Zero writer Paul Homewood is less inclined to ignore the serious matter. “It is now clear that Parliament authorised Net Zero without any proper assessment, whether financial or energy, and the whole Net Zero legislation must now be suspended until a full independent assessment is carried out.” He goes further and states that current and past members of the CCC must be held to account, and “excluded from any further influence over the country’s energy policy, or indeed on any issue of public policy”.

In general, nobody wants to talk about the lack of wind and solar backup, so there is a widespread pretence that the problem will somehow be solved in the future. But having dismissed any role for batteries, the Royal Society suggested hydrogen as a solution, an idea, alas, only slightly less dumb than batteries. Highly explosive, low kinetic energy compared with hydrocarbons, expensive to produce, difficult to store and move around – the disadvantages are all too obvious. Francis Menton of the Manhattan Contrarian saw the report as an “enormous improvement” on every other effort on the subject of large scale energy storage systems. But in the end, the authors still have a “quasi-religious commitment” to a fossil-free future, and this means that the report, despite containing much valuable information, “is actually useless for any public policy purpose”.

What is becoming clear is the level of statistical deception that is practised across climate science and the promotion of Net Zero. Surface temperature measurements are frequently adjusted upwards on a retrospective basis despite ignoring growing urban heat corruptions, activists use computer models to run up garbage-in, garbage-out scares on an almost daily basis, and bad weather is deliberately confused with long-term climate to suggest the latter is changing due to human caused carbon dioxide. All lapped up without a critical word between them by members of the mainstream media increasingly funded by elite billionaires.

The donkey-nodding politicians and the poodle media often hide behind the notion that they are just following the ‘science’. There is no such thing as the ‘science’, settled or otherwise, just the ongoing scientific process. The distinguished scientist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman captured the integrity of the process when he wrote: “If you’re doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid – not only what you think is right about it. … Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them.”

Renewable energy is not a low-cost substitute for fossil fuels, notes a forward in Rupert Darwall’s recently published report on Net Zero and Britain’s “disastrous” energy policies. High and rising energy costs have locked Britain into economic decline, a suggestion given weight by last week’s savage destruction of the steel economy of Port Talbot. Renewables are not cheap, nor can they provide the reliability that modern societies expect and on which they depend. His report is said to convincingly demonstrate “how Britain was conned into Net Zero by deceptive and illusory promises of cheap wind power”.

The CCC is a dedicated green activist group that sits at the heart of U.K. Government. It is a pernicious, untrustworthy force in British politics giving cover to policies that will lead to de-industrialisation and massive changes in future lifestyle including restriction on diet, transport and personal freedoms.

Here’s hoping the wind scandal blows the damn thing away.

Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.

Stop Press: Watch award-winning journalist, Alex Newman, explain why the “human-induced climate change” narrative is finally crumbling.

The post Revelation That U.K. Climate Target is Based on One Windy Year’s Data Threatens to Unravel Net Zero Credibility appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat
High GDP growth, industrialization, urbanization, and a rising number of middle class in India are set to drive demand growth in the Asian country.
Total Indian refining capacity is expected to increase by 22% in five years from the current 254 million metric tons per year.
All major forecasters expect India to replace China as the biggest driver of global oil demand growth in the long term, which should happen before 2030.

Before the end of this decade, the world’s third-largest crude oil importer, India, is set to become the single biggest driver of global oil demand, replacing China, analysts and forecasters say.

India’s economy has grown at a robust pace over the past year. Meanwhile, growth in other major economies—including China—has sputtered. High GDP growth, industrialization, urbanization, and a rising number of middle class in India are all expected to shift the key oil demand growth driver from China onto India.

Some analysts, such as Rystad Energy, expect India’s crude oil demand growth to shrink to 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2024 from 290,000 bpd in 2023.

Despite these predictions of slower demand growth, India is boosting its refining capacity. The country should add 1.12 million bpd to its current total each year until 2028, a junior oil minister told India’s parliament last month.

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

India’s economy is growing faster than all other major economies, and so is its demand for energy.

All major forecasters expect India to replace China as the biggest driver of global oil demand growth in the long term, which should happen before 2030.

In 2023, oil consumption in India hit a record high of 231 million tons, up from 219 million tons in 2022, according to data from the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas cited by Reuters market analyst John Kemp.

Besides being a major oil importer, India isn’t shying away from buying crude from whoever offers the lowest price. Over the past year, India has become a top buyer of Russian crude oil, alongside China, taking advantage of the discounts at which Russian grades are being offered compared to international benchmarks.

India buys from abroad more than 80% of the crude oil it consumes. Over the past year and a half, the country has significantly raised its imports of cheaper Russian crude oil, which is banned in the West.

India sees its oil supplier base as diversified as it is buying crude from 39 sources at present, compared to 27 sources previously, Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, said in August last year.

“If there’s a 30% discount, the Russians are putting a ribbon around it and sending it to us free. That’s what it means,” the minister told CNBC.

India is thus looking to make opportunistic spot purchases on top of its term sale agreements to meet its growing oil demand, which is only expected to rise in the coming decades.

Economic growth is much higher than in any of the other major economies and is expected to remain robust in the near and medium term, Indian authorities and international investment banks say.

Earlier this month, India’s National Statistical Office (NSO) said that real GDP growth during 2023-24 is estimated at 7.3%, up from 7.2% growth in 2022-23.

“With strong domestic demand conditions, India remains the fastest growing major economy and is now the fifth largest economy in the world,” Shaktikanta Das, Governor of Reserve Bank of India, said in Davos last week.

“Strong domestic demand remains the main driver of growth, although there has been a significant increase in Indian economy’s global integration through trade and financial channels. Higher reliance on domestic demand cushioned India from multiple external headwinds,” the central bank governor added.

The strong economy would raise demand for oil, as will continued urbanization and industrialization, analysts say.

Source: Oilprice.com

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The futility of 22 naval ships trying to patrol 2,200 km of Yemeni coastline were once again exposed yesterday with two US-flagged Maersk boxships fired upon by the Houthis as shipping comes to terms with the fact that the Red Sea exodus is here to stay for a considerable time.

Reacting to Israel’s war in Gaza, the Houthis of Yemen – backed by Iranian intelligence and hardware – have targeted around 40 merchant ships in the last three months with drone and missiles, as well as taking one carrier and its crew, the Galaxy Leader, hostage.

The Maersk Detroit and the Maersk Chesapeake became the latest vessels to be targeted yesterday, with both ships forced to turn around.

According to the US military three anti-ship ballistic missiles were fired at Maersk Detroit. Two were shot down and one exploded just 100 m from the vessel’s starboard.

Container shipping was the quickest sector to reroute away from the Red Sea and the Suez, with some 90% of all boxships heading via southern Africa on voyages between Asia and Europe. According to liner analyst John McCown, who runs US firm Blue Alpha Capital, the Asia-Europe tradelane accounts for 25% of worldwide container miles and with typically one-third longer voyages the change has the effect of drawing in the equivalent of 8% worldwide capacity of boxships and equipment to maintain the same service.

For the tanker trades, Middle East-origin crude flows to Europe have all now started rerouting to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope, though loadings do appear to be continuing normally. Only two transits have been observed via the Bab el-Mandeb since US-led strikes began on January 12, the last of which occurred a week ago, according to new analysis from Vortexa.

The vessel class most impacted by these diversions is suezmax, as this is the class that carries most of these cargoes through the Red Sea on this route. Diverting via the cape adds about 4,900 nautical miles to the voyage and over two weeks in voyage length. This increases tonne-miles for a single voyage by around 70%, according to Vortexa.

Using 2023 data, Vortexa has projected the impact to this vessel class if this rerouting continues. On a monthly basis, tonne-miles for suezmaxes carrying crude from the Middle East to Europe would increase about 130% if transits occur via the cape instead of the Bab el-Mandeb. With the incremental increase from the extra tonne-miles for these specific cargoes, monthly global suezmax tonne-miles would increase by around 10%.

Turning to product tankers, a very hot sector rates-wise at present, Pareto Securities suggests no product tankers look set to use the Suez Canal during the first half of February — and this will imply near-zero middle-distillate arrivals from the Middle East Gulf and India to Europe during that time, something that will require significant stock draws or the need for replacement cargoes.

New analysis has just been published on how the shut-in of the Red Sea is affecting the LNG trades too. Qatar is now shipping all its gas cargoes to Europe via the cape and last week Splash reported on how the Red Sea had no gas carriers in it at all for the first time this century.

For the LNG market, an extended shut-in of the Red Sea route from the Middle East poses a supply risk to Europe, although the price impact will be delayed until Europe’s gas storage has been drawn down sufficiently.

In 2023, around 15.5m tonnes of LNG was sent through the Red Sea from the Middle East to Europe accounting for 12.9% of the continent’s LNG supply last year.

Re-routing vessels through the Cape of Good Hope adds around 12.5 days to the voyage each way at 16 knots – which could require an additional 15-20 vessels to deliver the same volume over the year, Rystad analysis shows.

Source: Splash247.com

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Drivers of electric cars are being asked to pay more than twice as much for insurance as those who own petrol-fuelled models as EV premiums surge 50% in a year, data have revealed. The Telegraph has more.

The typical insurance premium for electric vehicles (EVs) has increased to £1,344, a rise of 50% compared with a year earlier, according to U.K. broker Howden Group.

That is double the cost of cover for combustion engine cars, which Howden blames on a higher cost of repairs for electric models.

Insurance premiums for all types of cars surged last year but the rise for EVs was bigger both proportionally and in real terms, the company said.

For example, while the cost of insuring a typical internal combustion engine (ICE) car jumped by 31%, the number itself rose from £514 to £676, some £668 less expensive per year than insuring an electric car.

Howden blamed this on a higher frequency of claims from EV drivers and a higher average cost per claim than for ICE-model drivers.

The average cost per claim for accidental damage was typically 35% higher for EVs, the company said.

Howden said this was due to the more complicated technology in electric cars which tended to require specialist mechanics with specific equipment.

Batteries were also “expensive and prone to damage”, Howden added.

Carl Shuker, the broker’s U.K. and Ireland boss, told Bloomberg: “You’ve got length of repair times going up, you’ve got the cost of the component parts going up, and you probably see more EVs written off because residual values are particularly low at the moment.”

It comes following reports that some EV drivers are being refused insurance completely, or being charged extortionate sums of up to £5,000 or more for a year’s cover.

Source: Dailysceptic.org

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Investors and governments are not adequately addressing Uyghur forced labour risks in the renewable energy sector, research has found.

Anti-Slavery International, the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice and the Investor Alliance for Human Rights published an investor guidance and policy briefing on green technology supply chains on Monday.

The co-authors said business leaders and ministers must develop more effective and proactive strategies to address systemic forced labour risks in the sector due to supply chain reliance on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.

The country has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region.

Both solar and electric vehicle industries have been heavily impacted by forced labour in the region, given its dominance in green technology material supply and production, the report said.

The researchers, who carried out interviews with investment professionals to understand how investors have responded to the risks in their portfolios, warned that any materials sourced or produced in the Uyghur region carry human rights risks.

The paper also notes that green technology processing in the Uyghur region is also heavily reliant on coal-generated electricity, which is key to the “cost-competitiveness” of the Uyghur region’s solar industry, according to the International Energy Agency.

The researchers therefore argued that this also puts the solar industry at risk of greenwashing and potentially delays the transition to net zero.

The report further found that investor and corporate actions to remove the threat of direct or indirect complicity in Uyghur forced labour are stymied by a lack of co-ordinated international governmental collaboration.

It calls for such collaboration from governments to scale up and support the growth of alternative green technology supply chains.

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​Some environmental advocates are striking a new tone as they urge skeptical neighbors to see the larger climate benefits of a proposed port that would help build future offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Maine.

The fast-warming area of the North Atlantic is thought to have one of the world’s best wind resources in its deeper waters. Tapping into this huge renewable energy potential will likely require massive floating turbines, with a deepwater port to help construct and assemble them before they’re towed out to sea.

A state announcement on one of two potential port sites in the small Midcoast town of Searsport is expected in the coming weeks. Amid a record spate of destructive extreme weather events, conservation groups are stepping up calls for the public to back some version of the port project for the climate’s sake.

“The number one best thing to do for the environment is to get turbines in the water and start generating renewable energy,” said Nick Lund, the advocacy and outreach manager for Maine Audubon. “This is a larger question than just Searsport, because it really does affect all of us.”

Offshore wind is crucial to Maine’s goals for reducing its carbon emissions, Lund said, and offers a unique chance for the state to contribute its resources to the national and global fight against climate change.

Maine Audubon, which predates and is separate from the National Audubon Society, hopes to reframe the debate around the port and offshore wind in general as more than a “lesser of two evils,” he said.

“This type of turbine is not something that can be built elsewhere,” Lund said. “This is a real opportunity to generate a ton of energy completely locally. Other states, other countries don’t have this opportunity.”

Maine depends more on carbon-intensive fuel oil for home heating than any other state, importing it largely from Texas, Louisiana and Canada, according to federal data. The state has encouraged residents to switch to electric heat pumps and hopes to get 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

But a boom in local solar projects has raised land-use concerns, and residents have repeatedly pushed back on transmission lines planned to bring Canadian hydropower or land-based wind from Northern Maine onto the regional grid. Some Maine fishing groups also oppose offshore wind development.

Lund said Maine Audubon is trying to turn toward saying “yes” rather than “no” to projects with a net benefit for the climate. The group has spent years developing habitat-minded siting guidance for solar developers, and executive director Andy Beahm wrote a newspaper commentary in 2023 urging support for offshore wind and calling climate change “the No. 1 threat to Maine wildlife and habitat.”

Around the same time, the National Audubon Society put out a report supporting transmission build-out for climate reasons despite potential impacts to birds. Environmentalist Bill McKibben also wrote that summer that “some NIMBY (not in my backyard) passion will need to be replaced by some YIMBY (yes in my backyard) enthusiasm — or at least some acquiescence” in order to fight the climate crisis equitably.

In an interview soon after his commentary was published, Beahm acknowledged that localized energy development may feel new to many Mainers: “Maine is highly dependent on others for our energy,” he said. “As a consequence, we haven’t had to see a lot of the power infrastructure from our communities.”

But his group and others are increasingly arguing that this needs to change. If Maine can’t tap into its offshore wind potential, it could see far more land used for solar, Lund said — or could help drive fossil fuel growth in already overburdened environmental justice areas of Appalachia and the Gulf South.

“If we say no to everything here,” Lund said, “someone else, someone with less power — their land is being developed.”

It will take a rare kind of port to help build and deploy turbine assemblies that are expected to be taller than the Washington Monument, with blades and installation vessels more than 400 feet long, according to a 2021 port feasibility study by the state Department of Transportation.

“Those locations in Searsport are, by far, the sort of best available — certainly in Maine and in New England,” Lund said. “Without a deepwater port, we’re simply not going to have floating offshore wind in the time that we need.”

The state has zeroed in on two potential wind port sites in Searsport: Mack Point, a piece of shoreline that now partly houses a Sprague Energy oil and cargo terminal; and Sears Island, a state-owned conservation area popular for birding and outdoor recreation.

Sears Island is one of the largest undeveloped islands in Maine, managed by a 2009 conservation easement that set about a third of its area aside for a potential future port. The island was unsuccessfully eyed for a nuclear plant, a coal plant, a container port and an LNG terminal in decades past, according to a state committee that overcame “years of acrimony and controversy” to negotiate the easement.

The 2021 study listed Sears Island as a preferable wind port site, partly because building one at Mack Point would require costly dredging. But some Mainers have pushed back hard against the idea of this use for part of DOT’s Sears Island set-aside, with officials predicting protest “sleep-ins” if they go this route.

A state working group has spent more than a year considering ways to minimize Mack Point’s potential cost and dredging issues — with buy-in from the site’s current owner, Sprague — and recent editorials in Maine newspapers have supported it as a better choice over Sears Island.

“Locating the offshore wind port at Mack Point consolidates industry in a single location and removes unused physical remnants of outdated energy production that offshore wind intends to replace with clean, renewable, more sustainable energy production,” Sierra Club Maine director Pete Nichols wrote in the Portland Press Herald on Jan. 18.

Lund said Maine Audubon agrees that Mack Point is the preferable site, and that choosing it could help the state avoid costly legal challenges. “And,” he said, “I’m better with delay than I am with not getting it built at all — that’s really the worst outcome.”

He said his group is most interested in seeing the project move forward, and in working to mitigate and offset any environmental impacts wherever it’s located.

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The current transit deal is due to expire at the end of this year but Bratislava is negotiating to extend it, Prime Minister Robert Fico says

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UAE’s energy giant Adnoc is looking to order liquefied natural gas carriers for its planned LNG terminal in Al Ruwais, according to shipbuilding sources.

Sources told LNG Prime that Adnoc recently issued a tender inviting offers from yards in China and South Korea for six firm plus four optional standard-size LNG carrier newbuilds.

The vessels will feature the latest technologies and GTT’s Mark III Flex+ and NO96 Super+ membrane systems are being considered.

The sources said that the LNG carriers are expected to serve Adnoc’s second LNG terminal in Al Ruwais, but they did not provide any further information.

Adnoc Logistics & Services, a unit of Adnoc, is already working to renew its fleet of LNG carriers and it has six 175,000-cbm vessels on order at China’s Jiangnan Shipyard worth more than $1.2 billion.

The firm will take delivery of these vessels in 2025 and 2026.

These “LNG Jumbo” dual-fuel carriers will feature GTT’s Mark III Flex membrane system and a partial reliquefaction system.

Adnoc L&S’s existing fleet of Moss-type, steam turbine LNG carriers serves the company’s 6 mtpa LNG terminal on Das Island.

Last year, Adnoc announced it will build its second LNG terminal in Al Ruwais.

The firm previously planned to construct the facility in Fujairah and is yet to take a final investment decision on the project.

When completed, the project, which consists of two 4.8 mtpa LNG liquefaction trains with a total capacity of 9.6 mtpa, will more than double Adnoc’s LNG production capacity.

Last month, Adnoc signed a heads of agreement with a unit of Chinese independent gas distributor ENN to supply the latter with 1 mtpa of LNG for a period of 15 years from its planned terminal in Al Ruwais.

This is the first Ruwais LNG supply agreement.

The deliveries are expected to start in 2028, upon commencement of the facility’s commercial operations.

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