Energy News Beat

Greek LNG shipping firm GasLog has signed a new five-year sustainability-linked credit facility in the amount of $2.8 billion. The firm also secured new charter deals for its LNG carriers.

The Peter Livanos-led company, which earlier this year completed its merger with GasLog Partners, revealed these deals in its third-quarter report issued on Thursday.

According to GasLog, the senior secured reducing revolving credit facility includes decarbonization and social key performance targets as a component of the facility pricing.

This financing involves 14 international banks.

The facility refinances all outstanding debt of $2.1 billion secured by 23 LNG carriers across both GasLog and GasLog Partners, it said.

Moreover, the 23 LNG carriers (12 GasLog vessels and 11 GasLog Partners vessels) included in the facility are comprised of ten dual-fuel two-stroke engine propulsion (X-DF) LNG carriers, ten TFDE LNG carriers, and three steam LNG carriers.

The facility has a five-year tenor, includes two one-year extension options and simplifies GasLog’s debt structure, providing incremental available liquidity to the company while reducing interest cost and debt service requirements, the firm said.

GasLog said the transaction was completed on November 13, with the company drawing down an amount of $2.1 billion and $672 million remaining available for general corporate purposes.

Beside this financing deal, GasLog secured new charter deals for its LNG carriers.

Post-quarter end, GasLog extended by five years the time charter agreement of the TFDE LNG carrier GasLog Singapore, with New Fortress Energy Transport Partners, with the contract now due to expire in 2030.

Earlier this year GasLog and NFE extended the charter deal for the 2010-built 155,000-cbm, GasLog Singapore, for about two years.

This charter now will last until June 2030, according to GasLog.

In addition to this LNG carrier, GasLog Partners signed a multi-year time charter agreement for the TFDE LNG carrier GasLog Santiago, with a “major energy exploration company”, it said.

The 2013-built 155,000-cbm vessel is now chartered to Trafigura Maritime Logistic and the charter expires in December this year.

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The US president said he stood by his description of Xi Jinping as a “dictator,” hours after meeting him in San Francisco

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November 16, 2023

Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)
Note: All-electric includes buildings that consumed only electricity for all end uses except electricity generation.

Fewer than one-third of U.S. commercial buildings were all-electric in 2018, and all-electric commercial buildings were most prevalent in the South, according to data from our Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). As of 2018, 31%, or 1.8 million commercial buildings, were all-electric nationwide.

Nearly half of all-electric U.S. buildings were concentrated in a single census region, the South. The South had more commercial buildings than any other region, and those buildings were less likely than those in other regions to use natural gas for space heating. Almost one-quarter of commercial buildings in the Northeast used fuel oil for space heating, which is rare in other regions. Only 8% of U.S. all-electric buildings, 138,000, were in the Northeast.

Buildings can be classified as all-electric in different ways. All-electric buildings are defined here as buildings that consumed only electricity for end uses that electricity can perform, such as space heating, cooling, water heating, and cooking. Other energy sources such as solar, natural gas, and fuel oil may have been consumed for on-site electricity generation.

Despite all-electric buildings accounting for 31% of the commercial U.S. building stock, all-electric buildings totaled only 18% of total U.S. commercial floorspace in 2018. On average, all-electric buildings were 9,700 square feet, or 40% smaller than the average U.S. commercial building.

Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)

Space heating, cooling, water heating, and cooking are major end uses in commercial buildings that can be all-electric or use other sources. Most commercial buildings had space heating (83%), but less than one-third of buildings used only electricity for space heating. In contrast, 78% of commercial buildings had space cooling and 99% of those buildings used only electricity for cooling. Other cooling energy sources included district chilled water and natural gas.

The energy source used for space heating affects the type of heating equipment used. In 2018, packaged heating units and furnaces were the most common type of heating equipment in commercial buildings. However, heat pumps were the second-most common equipment type when only electricity was used for space heating. Nearly one-quarter of U.S. commercial buildings heated only by electricity used a heat pump in 2018.

CBECS is the only nationally representative survey that collects information about U.S. building characteristics and energy use in commercial buildings. The CBECS process spans more than four years, from developing the sample frame and survey questionnaire to releasing data to the public. We released our final 2018 CBECS data in December 2022. You can learn more about buildings that use only electricity for select end uses by reviewing our new tables.

Principal contributors: Stacy Angel, Joelle Michaels

Fewer than one-third of U.S. commercial buildings were all-electric in 2018, and all-electric commercial buildings were most prevalent in the South, according to data from our Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). As of 2018, 31%, or 1.8 million commercial buildings, were all-electric nationwide.

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Energy News Beat

Inspired by Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami, India has overcome a valiant New Zealand fightback to enter the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 final on home soil.

India beat New Zealand by 70 runs on Wednesday in Mumbai after setting a target of 398 in the tournament’s first semifinal.

The result seemed a formality when India, backed by a partisan home crowd at the Wankhede Stadium, pegged back New Zealand’s stiff chase by dismissing both their openers for 39 runs in the eighth over.

However, Daryl Mitchell struck a hard-fought blistering century to lead New Zealand’s fightback along with his captain, Kane Williamson, who scored 69 runs in a 181-run partnership.

But India, banking on the cushion of a huge total, opened the gates of the New Zealand batting with the wicket of Glenn Phillips and all but sealed the win with Mitchell’s dismissal in the 46th over.

Pace bowler Shami took seven wickets to make up for dropping Williamson’s catch earlier on.

Shami said his team were determined not to let the chance of winning a home World Cup slip out of their hands.

“We have come very close in the past, but this one chance we were not going to let go. Who knows when the next chance might come,” he said after winning the player of the match award.

Kohli keeps calm to break idol’s record

If the night belonged to Shami, the day belonged to Kohli, who assumed his place at the top of one-day international (ODI) greats with his 50th century in the format. The milestone took him past Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI hundreds.

Having won the toss, India started brightly, led by captain Rohit Sharma.

The right-handed batter was the first to fall in the ninth over when he offered a chance to his opposite number, Williamson, off the bowling of Tim Southee for 47.

Fellow opener Shubman Gill appeared to be on his way to three figures until he was forced to limp off due to cramps. He would later return with the fall of Suryakumar Yadav to finish unbeaten on 80.

The innings, the match and quite possibly this World Cup may yet be all about Kohli, who remained calm and measured in his innings from the beginning.

He brought up his half-century in 59 balls. There was no rush to the century and a chance to stand alone in the history books.

When he finally brought it up in 106 balls, the fan favourite leaped up in joy before falling to the ground in joy and disbelief.

There was another centurion, Shreyas Iyer, who destroyed Kiwi dreams with eight sixes in a 70-ball innings.

Southee, who eventually snared Kohli for 117 as the big shots soared, registered a century of his own. His 10 overs claimed three wickets but went for an even 100.

‘No score is enough at Wankhede’

New Zealand’s reply, much like Devon Conway’s World Cup, struggled.

The opener fell to Shami for 13, and two overs later, Rachin Ravindra fell on the same score to the same bowler.

Shami’s emergence in replacing the injured, and crucial, Hardik Pandya in this Indian side has perhaps encapsulated best the hosts’ dominance and superiority as the rightly chosen favourites.

Williamson and Mitchell pushed the scoring in the first powerplay, which New Zealand could ill afford to lose as they looked to stabilise the chase.

India’s victorious captain, who was playing on his home ground, said “no score is enough” at the Wankhede.

“You cannot relax. You have got to get the job done as quickly as possible and stay at it.”

He touched on the tension in the air in Mumbai as New Zealand threatened to cause a huge upset.

“Mitchell and Williamson batted brilliantly, and for us, it was important to stay calm. At one point, the crowd went absolutely silent, but that is the nature of the game. We knew we had to pull something out.”

It was admirable in the face of a billion baying fans and 11 players determined to have their own date with destiny on Sunday at Ahmedabad.

India ‘too strong’

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the team on reaching their fourth final.

“Fantastic batting and good bowling sealed the match for our team,” Modi wrote in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Tendulkar hailed Shami for his seven-wicket spell, posting: “What a Shami-final!!!!!! Well done India for a superb batting display and a spectacular bowling performance to get into the final.”

Former England captain said the current Indian side is “too strong” and hailed Rohit for his captaincy.

Shami took seven wickets after Kohli and Iyer scored contrasting centuries as India entered a home World Cup final.

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The two main telecommunications companies in Gaza have warned of a “complete telecom blackout in the coming hours” due to a lack of fuel amid an Israeli siege on the Palestinian territory.

“Main data centers and switches in the Gaza Strip are gradually shutting down due to fuel depletion,” Paltel and Jawwal said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The companies said “all generators” operating network elements in Gaza have ground to a halt, and that basic network elements were now relying on batteries.

“The countdown has begun for the halt of all communications and internet services in the Gaza Strip,” Laith Daraghmeh, CEO of the Palestinian telecommunication regulatory authority, said in a statement cited by the Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

He said talks were under way with international institutions “to ensure the entry of quantities of fuel necessary for the operation of the communications service”.

On Sunday, Palestinian Communications Minister Yitzhak Sidr warned that all communications and internet services would stop in the Gaza Strip by Thursday due to depleting fuel.

Israel cut off fuel shipments into the Gaza Strip as part of a “complete siege” on the territory after Hamas fighters from Gaza launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

Since the attack, Israel has bombarded the Palestinian territory, launched a ground offensive and severely restricted supplies of water, food and electricity. More than 11,300 people have been killed in the Israeli assault, according to Palestinian authorities, including more than 4,600 children.

The first fuel truck to enter Gaza since Israel imposed the siege arrived in the besieged territory on Wednesday.

The UN agency for Palestine refugees said it received 23,000 litres of fuel, which Israel said could be used to transport aid coming in via Egypt. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that 160,000 litres a day are needed just to run basic humanitarian operations.

“It is appalling that fuel continues to be used as a weapon of war,” Lazzarini said. “This seriously paralyses our work and the delivery of assistance to the Palestinian communities in Gaza.”

Since Israel launched a ground invasion in late October, Gaza has experienced two blackouts previously, after Israel cut communications and internet services.

Humanitarian agencies and first responders have warned that blackouts severely disrupt their work and put lives at risk.

“People will be deprived of access to lifesaving information, such as finding areas of safety or contacting emergency services,” said Rasha Abdul-Rahim, director of Amnesty Tech.

“The critical work of humanitarian agencies will also be severely disrupted, as workers lose contact with each other,” she added.

“Telecom blackouts enable Israel to cover up the mass atrocities being committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza and to maintain its chronic impunity,” said Al Mezan, a Gaza-based human rights group, in a statement.

Communications networks in Gaza have been unreliable since the war began due to lack of electricity and damage to infrastructure.

The Palestinian Ministry of Communications has previously appealed to neighbouring Egypt to operate communication stations near the Gaza border and activate roaming service on Egyptian networks.

The warning comes after the Israeli military entered Gaza’s largest medical complex, al-Shifa, in what they called a “targeted operation” to search for Hamas weapons and infrastructure. Several people have been detained during the raid at the hospital.

The raid comes after Israeli forces besieged the hospital for several days amid growing alarm over the deteriorating conditions in the facility, where the UN says thousands of people have sought shelter from the war. Hundreds of patients remain at the hospital, which ceased to function at the weekend due to a lack of fuel.

Ahmed Mokhallalati, a surgeon at the hospital, told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces moved tanks inside the hospital grounds after “continuous, aggressive gunshots, bombardments and attacks since yesterday evening”.

“Imagine being in a hospital where the water is not there, the basic hygiene of the people going to the toilet is a challenge. Food and drinking water haven’t come to the hospital for the sixth day now, with no way of getting anything in the hospital,” Mokhallalati said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement it was “urgently exploring the possibility for evacuating patients and medical staff” in al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza in discussions with Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Paltel and Jawwal say data centres and switches in besieged Gaza gradually shutting down amid fuel shortages.

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I Visited Over 120 EV Chargers: Three Reasons Why So Many Were Broken

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China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recently announced a new program in which the Xi Jinping government will subsidize the building of new coal-fired electricity generation plants. Part of an effort to ensure power grid reliability and stability into the future, NDRC’s notice says the program will commence January 1, 2024.

The program will enable new coal-fired power plants to recover about 30% of their capital costs in just the first two years of operation. The government subsidies will be funded from tariffs directed to operators of coal-fired plants by the country’s various electricity grids, using monies collected from commercial and industrial users.

The new program is just another proof point that China is continuing to increase the pace of expansion of its coal-fired power sector as time goes on. Indeed, a report released earlier this year by Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) showed China permitted more coal-fired power plants in 2022 than it had since 2015, and has six times more coal-fired power plants under construction currently than the rest of the world combined. (RELATED: DAVID BLACKMON: The FTC Should Ignore Chuck Schumer’s Embarrassing Attack On ‘Big Oil’)

Meanwhile, as the Xi government continues its massive expansion of coal-fired electricity to ensure grid reliability, the Biden government in the U.S. remains intent on destroying its own coal sector. The Institute for Energy Research (IER) notes that this effort is being underwritten by liberal billionaire philanthropists like former Democrat presidential candidate and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has now pledged $1 billion from his personal fortune to, as he put it, “finish the job on coal.”

In September,  Bloomberg Philanthropies stated, “With 372 of 530 coal plants announced to retire or closed to date—more than 70 percent of the country’s coal fleet—this next phase will shut down every last U.S. coal plant.” The effort also targets cutting natural gas-fired generation capacity by half, and would block any new plants from being built in the future. Noting that coal and natural gas power plants account for 98% of U.S. plant closures during 2023, IER points to the fact that the federal government’s forcing of those closures is now negatively impacting reserve margins on the nation’s power grids.

Until the recent hyper focus on cutting atmospheric carbon dioxide, it was customary for grid managers to work to maintain a reserve of up to 20% of total dispatchable generating capacity to be available to come online during severe weather conditions and other instances during which demand threatens to overwhelm supply. Grid managers are finding it increasingly difficult to avoid blackout conditions as grids become increasingly overwhelmed by intermittent, unpredictable wind and solar capacity at the expense of reliable dispatchable baseload.

The problem of lack of dispatchable reserves was highlighted in a deadly way in Texas during February 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, a series of three severe cold fronts that froze most of the state for almost a week, leading to blackouts in which an estimated 300 Texans died. In the storm’s wake, the legislature and regulators identified a series of issues on the grid and at grid manager ERCOT that needed correcting, many of which were dealt with in that year’s legislative session.

But the grid’s shortage of dispatchable thermal capacity – a long-known issue – was left unresolved that year. The 2023 legislature enacted a ballot proposal (Proposition 7) creating a fund to subsidize the rapid building of up to 10 GW of new natural gas generation capacity in the coming years. It is exactly the opposite approach being pushed by the Biden government and its political funders in the climate alarmist community, like Bloomberg.

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 7 in the November 7 election. In doing so, Texans rejected the notion that their state, which produces more natural gas than all but two other countries, should ever be subjected to an unreliable, unstable power grid that causes hundreds of deaths during weather emergencies.

Sadly, Americans living in other parts of the country will remain saddled with the destructive Biden approach, with little hope for anything improving until at least 2025.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Source: Dailycaller.com

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 November 15, 2023

Data source: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

The most recent auction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions allowances in the major U.S. northeast regional trading hub reached near record-high prices, as the number of allowances available was reduced. The latest Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) quarterly auction, held September 6, 2023, resulted in a clearing price of $13.85 per ton for CO2 emissions allowances, surpassing the previous quarter’s clearing price by 9% and nearing the record price, $13.90 per ton, set in March 2022. Allowance prices have been increasing since RGGI’s March 2023 auction as fewer allowances have been made available over time.

Launched in 2009, RGGI is a cooperative effort among 12 eastern states to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants. States involved in RGGI include Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia, though Pennsylvania’s RGGI regulation is under a court injunction, so the state will not release any allowances until further notice.

Participating states establish a regional cap on CO2 emissions from regulated power plants. The states require that power plants purchase one CO2 allowance for each short ton of carbon they emit. RGGI offers new carbon allowances through quarterly regional CO2 allowance auctions, where a set number of allowances are sold. These auctions are sealed-bid, uniform price auctions open to all qualified participants that result in a single quarterly clearing price. RGGI reduces the number of allowances available in auctions over time in order to reduce regional emissions and adjusts the total to take into account unused allowances from earlier auctions. These changes to the cap on the number of allowances have been put upward pressure on allowance prices.

For 2023, RGGI’s adjusted regional cap on emissions to be sold in four auctions for the 12 member states totals allowances for 168.9 million short tons of CO2. After removing Pennsylvania, the adjusted cap for the remaining 11 participating states totals allowances for 93.4 million short tons of CO2.

The RGGI states decided to adjust the cap for unused allowances starting in 2012 after experiencing successive years of large surpluses, due to the assumptions at the program’s outset that natural gas prices would remain high and growth in electricity demand would continue.

In the September 2023 auction, RGGI sold allowances for 21.9 million short tons of CO2 emissions. RGGI states invest most of the auction proceeds in consumer benefit programs to improve energy efficiency, accelerate the deployment of renewable energy technologies, and support consumer electricity assistance programs. Auction proceeds totaled $303.9 million in the September auction and have totaled $6.7 billion since inception of the auctions in 2009.

In addition to purchasing allowances at auction, entities can also trade allowances on secondary markets, either directly via over-the-counter trades with third parties or through futures contracts traded on exchanges. Secondary markets give firms the ability to obtain CO2 allowances at any time during the three months between the RGGI auctions, allowing firms to protect themselves against the potential volatility of future auction clearing prices, and provide a basis to make investment decisions in markets affected by the cost of RGGI compliance.

Principal contributor: O. Nilay Manzagol

The most recent auction of carbon dioxide CO2 emissions allowances in the major U.S. northeast regional trading hub reached near record-high prices, as the number of allowances available was reduced. The latest Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) quarterly auction, held September 6, 2023, resulted in a clearing price of $13.85 per ton for CO2 emissions allowances, surpassing the previous quarter’s clearing price by 9% and nearing the record price, $13.90 per ton, set in March 2022. Allowance prices have been increasing since RGGI’s March 2023 auction as fewer allowances have been made available over time. 

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Los Angeles County has more public electric-vehicle fast chargers than any other in the country. WSJ’s Joanna Stern hit up 30 charging locations in a Rivian R1T and ran into problems at 40% of them. Here’s what’s being done to fix the charging mess. Illustration: Annie Zhao

No, I didn’t do all that to earn a Guinness World Record (though I’ll gladly accept one if that’s a thing). I did it because everyone is talking about America’s Big EV-Charging Problem, and I wanted to investigate all the little problems that make up the Big Problem.

As a Ford Mustang Mach-E driver, I’m no stranger to these frustrations. Many of you have also shared your charging horror stories with me since I began my ad-EV-nture. So I set out to quantify these concerns in the best place possible: La-La Land.

L.A. County has more public DC fast chargers than any other in the country, according to the Atlas Public Policy research group. From the beach in Santa Monica to parking garages under Rodeo Drive, my video producer Adam Falk and I visited 30 different non-Tesla DC fast-charger stations in a Rivian R1T pickup. I ran into problems at 13 of them—that’s over 40%. Oof is right.

The easy answer is to charge at home, something I’ll tackle in a future column.

(Note: I ignored the more common chargers known as Level 2 because they’re just too slow for quick fill-ups.)

During my testing expedition, I encountered three problem categories. I pressed the companies on why they happen, and what can be done to fix them. And while it’s good that Tesla will start accepting non-Teslas in 2024, that might not put an end to the issues I’ve encountered.

Problem 1: Out of Order

I encountered three major companies running fast chargers in Los Angeles—

, Electrify America and EVCS—which operate stalls at various stations. You might find these at shopping malls, in parks or even right next to the old gas pump.

Of the 126 stalls I inspected, 27% were out of order. They either had a sign, a dead screen or an error reading “Charger unavailable” or “Out of service.”

All the companies told me they have network operators monitoring the chargers 24/7. When a problem pops up, they deploy technicians to assess and fix the issue. So what was wrong with these particular machines? It could be one of many things—a broken part, a power issue, a defective connector.

Anthony Lambkin, Electrify America’s vice president of operations, told me power issues can be the reason a charger is off. Operators also sometimes make chargers unavailable when they have repeated problems.

During my testing journey, I met with people from ChargerHelp, an independent company that provides repair services for charging stations. To get one charger back online, technician Sergio Alonso pulled the old turn-it-off-and-on-again trick: In the electrical room, he flicked the switch that controlled a bum charger. Other fixes aren’t that easy, he explained, and require replacing parts.

Solution: New gear needed

Both cars and chargers are in rapid evolution. The Biden administration recently opened up $100 million in federal funding to repair and replace existing electric-vehicle charging infrastructure.

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