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ENB Pub Note: David Blackmon’s article from the Daily Caller is excellent, and we highly recommend that you follow the Daily Caller and his personal substack. We also highly recommend subscribing to all of his […]
At a legislative markup session last week, a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee approved 17 energy bills for consideration by the full E&C committee, including 12 measures to boost and streamline the deployment of nuclear […]
More natural gas facilities than ever will be firing in Southeast Asia almost two decades from now, according to a report by Singapore-based research firm Asia Research & Engagement (ARE). Led by Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, the region currently […]
U.S.-headquartered oil and gas exploration and production company Kosmos Energy has boosted its working interest and taken the operatorship helm of giant gas discoveries offshore Senegal, after BP’s withdrawal from the field. This is subject […]
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) achieved a significant milestone on November 2, 2023, as they officially put into service the world’s largest LNG storage tank at their Qingdao LNG Receiving Terminal. With a staggering storage […]
Stellantis plans to produce an industry-first pickup for its Ram Trucks brand that’s equipped with an onboard gas engine and electric generator. The truck can operate as a zero-emissions EV until the vehicle’s battery dies […]
By about a two-thirds margin, voters in the Lone Star State on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment authorizing a new $10 billion Texas Energy Fund to provide low-interest loans to build gas-fired power plants, develop […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
01:48 – Daily Caller: Do Big Wind Project Cancellations Signal Peak Subsidy Has Been Reached? Will the IEA even admit the issue?
04:12 – House panel advances raft of pro-nuclear bills
09:37 – Southeast Asia’s LNG investments predicted to peak by 2040: Study
11:49 – Following BP’s exit, operatorship of giant gas discoveries changes hands, as US player takes the reins
13:41 – Sinopec’s colossal LNG tank bolsters winter gas supply – 541M gallons
15:37 – Stellantis’ new Ram pickup is an EV — with a gas-powered generator in case the battery runs out
18:35 – Texas voters approve $10B energy fund, with most going to build gas-fired power plants
20:25 – Outro
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Michael Tanner: [00:00:14] What is going on, everybody? Welcome into a special edition of the Daily Energy News Beat standup here on this gorgeous Saturday, November 11th, 2023. As always, I’m your humble correspondent, Michael Tanner, coming to you from an undisclosed location here in Dallas, Texas, joined by the executive producer of the show, the purveyor of the show, the director and publisher of the world’s greatest website, energynewsbeat.com Stuart Turley, we got a great show for you guys lined up for our weekly recap of we segment and go over our top segments from the week before. Man big weeks do a lot of EV stuff we covered. [00:00:43][29.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:00:44] Oh, it was. It was absolute. You talk about being on a roller coaster. You know, when you and I were laughing and we love the new Dodge Ram, it was coming out that you’re going to have a six cylinder internal combustion engine. And it’s it’s not connected to the drive train. And all of a sudden you’re going to drive down the road with this thing like a World War two submarine and a snorkel on this truck. You know how heavy that truck is going to be? [00:01:14][30.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:01:15] Yeah, it’s going to it’s going to be absolutely insane. You can hear this and all the stories coming up. But before we do that and kick it over to the weekly recap, guys, again, all the stories you are about to hear courtesy that world’s greatest website www.energynewbeat.com here the description below to see all of the links follows Apple Podcasts Spotify at Energy News Beat on YouTube. If I was a 16 year old YouTuber, I’d say smash that like button, but I will avoid doing that and say that’s the best way to support the show [email protected] I’m out of breath tho Stu. Let’s kick it up for the weekly recap We’ll see on Monday, folks. [00:01:46][31.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:48] Do wind project cancellations signal peak subsidy has been reached. Where do I even admit the issue? We just we got a lot of the IEA over there saying that oil is still dead. I’ve reached out to them to try to jump on the leadership, to jump on the podcast and their advisor. So we’ll keep you posted. But they. [00:02:11][22.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:02:11] Agreed. But we got the time change switch. I mean, they’re so bad they couldn’t even get the time change, right? So we’ll, we’ll, we’ll try. [00:02:16][5.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:02:17] Yeah, we’ll work on it. They never mind. Okay. When we sit back and take a look, we’re dead. This is all predicated on a dead down here. In one of his paragraphs down here, worst is not the only wind developer taking write downs. Reuters reports that two big oil companies who have invested in Biden’s I’m sure the UK giant BP and Norway’s Equinor took 540 and 300 million. So even oil companies can’t do it right. But what oil companies had was they had income from the oil and gas Rush did did not have. And so first is about ready to just totally, you know, get hit in the back of the head. They can’t even keep going. Now, there is article after article in in our trends on energy news beat dot com. We are seeing lots of trends of people canceling everything. I mean it’s just they can’t support oil I mean wind offshore wind especially. [00:03:22][64.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:03:23] Yeah so offshore wind is has the very has some of the same economics as what I would say large scale you know I would say shale development, exploratory shale development. And the problem is there’s not a legitimate market to someone to sometimes sell these, you know, sell your distribution into the market. So it’s pretty funny. It’s the same stuff that happened in 2012 and been through 2014 with all these crazy shale companies taking up billions of dollars, making no money and investing billions of dollars into drilling new wells that oops, maybe don’t pay the bills. So you’re right, with without oil and gas equinor and BP, they’d be sunk too. Luckily, they do have a little bit of oil and gas in their business. [00:04:04][41.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:05] And the percentage, Michael, that are in the story, go read the story as well later on. But they had the percentage without a ruling gas they’d be done. Meet the House panel in the US. And in answer your question, I think you’re going to have to see some regulatory stuff. Lighten up. It’s been teed up. We’ve talked about it. But the House panel ever advances draft or draft pro nuclear? I don’t have to talk to the knucklehead that put that out there of pro nuclear bills. Jeff Duncan, Representative Jeff Duncan. I’ve reached out to him to see if I can get him on the panel to talk about this on the podcast. But there are some really cool ones that he’s put out here. Let’s get your real big quick quote in here. Our shared goal in this committee is to advance bipartisan durable policy that will expand nuclear energy and its benefits to the nation. He’s the chair of the agency’s energy. Climate and Grid Security Subcommittee. That’s pretty cool. All right. Let’s go through some of these. The Advanced Reactor three Reduction Act fee reduction, so that the they can reduce the hourly rate for the address collected by the NRC and applicants for advanced reactor licenses. Then you have the targeted awards to cover fees for the NRC national nuclear reactor. And then we have the preparation site for the brownfield. There’s some good stuff in here. Modernization of the Nuclear Reactor Environmental Reviews Act to submit a report and conduct rulemaking to facilitate efficiency. There’s some good stuff in here. [00:05:49][104.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:05:49] Yeah, the government in efficiency, though. That’s two words that you just got to put the word not in front of them. [00:05:55][5.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:55] It’s the first stuff I’ve seen that they’ve even tried. Okay. I am so thrilled to talk about legislative processes that don’t involve Trump or Biden falling asleep or falling off of Air Force One. I was pretty. [00:06:11][15.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:06:11] Shy. Yeah. Speaking of falling down some stairs. [00:06:15][3.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:15] Newsom. [00:06:15][0.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:06:16] A favorite governor, is trying to imitate Biden. He fell down earlier last week. He fell down. Oh. [00:06:21][5.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:22] He wasn’t imitating. It was in solidarity. That was his biting. So they removed himself that his bag was not lumpy enough. So he just did the nose, the back dive off of then. So a lot of ten. [00:06:36][13.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:06:37] So is there anything in here that pushes the regulatory process forward? Is there any one of these bills? [00:06:44][7.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:45] Because I’m going to have to go get copies of them. I will get copies of them and find out the key. [00:06:50][5.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:06:51] We’ve got 25 different things. They announced the first thing should have been, we’re just going to cut the red tape on a permit, because that’s really the issue, in my opinion, with all this stuff. Not that the technology doesn’t need to advance. Obviously we need the technology, but we have to understand that when, you know, if we can get licenses quicker and that specifically you talk about that license efficiency act, that’s hopefully going to solve it. The problem is there’s a lot of other councils that have to go around it. So if hopefully there’s enough meat on that nuclear licensing efficiency act, which they you know, they were told, you know, not our guy of the week here, the IR Guy, the week should have put that one upfront. It’s about seven down in this list of 18. So we need to that should have been the first thing we talked about. But if there’s no meat on that bone, then I give up because that’s really critical. And I think in in in my opinion, where all of this legislation needs to start is literally getting the legislator out of the way. [00:07:47][55.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:48] Right. I’ll tell you, you know, when you sit back and take a look, that’s what all of this is the thread, the underlying hidden thread between all these articles. People are tired, people are tired. And if you’re an elected official, unless you’re cheating, people are getting grumpy and you’re going to get voted out of office because of high cost of energy regulatory it being redone as part of the high. [00:08:12][24.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:08:13] Cost of you in here. You’ve got to modernize the nuclear reactor. Environmental reviews, which speeds up the NEPA process, which, you know, if you come from the mining business or you come from large infrastructure, you know that NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, which is one of the larger pieces of environmental legislation out there, for good reason. It does. It does some good stuff. The problem is certainly in the mining business, a NEPA review could be a thousand page document that you have to submit and could take five years. So I’m glad that’s in there. Again, they’re pitching this all wrong. They need to throw the legislation and the regulatory stuff higher, if only because that’s where the all of the issues come. Yes. You know, we need to have this global nuclear energy assessment and cooperation. And he cares about that. Cut the red tape. [00:08:55][42.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:08:55] Let me ask this. And I’m just asking. The Inflation Reduction Act absolutely did not do that. In fact, as you’ve heard me say, the Dan Bongino, it’s the Porkulus bill. Do you think that they’re learning that you quick work and you call it something else strawman here and then that way they might get it passed? It’s I don’t even know. I don’t know. [00:09:22][26.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:09:22] I mean, how much of this will actually get passed? I don’t know. It’ll be interesting. Hopefully we can create some bipartisan bipartisan consensus around this because we really need it. [00:09:31][8.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:31] We do. And we all need to get rid of energy poverty in the US. [00:09:35][3.7]
Michael Tanner: [00:09:35] Absolutely. That’s what we’ve been on. [00:09:37][1.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:37] In Southeast Asia. LNG investments predicted to peak by 2040. So we have a peaker here on the show. He just happened to walk in. I think it was Jerry Nadler as he was walking on stage more natural. Again, that was funny, by the way. More natural gas facilities will be firing in Southeast Asia in more than two decades, that is. Chestnut. Here comes if allowed to continue. The expanded LNG stands to thwart efforts to keep global warming below 1.5. Growing investment in LNG by the Philippines, Vietnam and other Southeast Asians will not only help push the world the world further beyond this critical target. People don’t understand that the only successful markets that will be rolling will be the Asian markets, because they’re going to continue to use low cost energy and they’re going to actually have a lower input imprint than using renewables. Look at this, Michael. The Philippines received a shipment in April to fuel a 1200 megawatt power plant, even though through its declining reserves in the natural gas field, the LNG is saving Asia. [00:10:59][81.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:11:00] Yep. Well, because it’s it’s it provides again, that baseload energy that people so desperately need, specifically where you’re in a part of the world where access to low cost energy can drastically improve your standard of living. You know, I think it’s interesting. Kurt Metzger, he’s the energy transition director for that Asian Research Council. He said Southeast Asia’s limited legacy LNG infrastructure makes the pivot to low carbon power sources a viable option compared to investing in new LNG infrastructure. So I think what they’re attempting to do is say since they don’t have any LNG, we might as well go build some unprofitable wind and solar, so we know where that’ll end up. [00:11:41][40.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:41] Oh, absolutely. It’ll be back into Germany shooting themselves in the foot and, you know, providing some extra shoes for them to eat in the winter. Following BHP’s exit operatorship of giant gas discoveries changes hands as U.S. player takes the reins. I really like this one. And Cosmos is the, I believe, Dallas based energy firm that’s taking over for this. And I was looking around on their website today and they are a offshore firm. Do you know much about them? [00:12:16][35.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:12:17] I mean, I know a little bit about Cosmos. I know the fact that, you know, they’re they’re they’re what I would call a cash flow style company, which means they’re going to live and die off cash flow. And if they’re going in and acquiring this 90% working interest specifically in this gas field. Right. They plan to produce the heck out of this 25 trillion cubic feet that they’ve got. So I think it’s an interesting move. I you know, from BP, it probably is more of a consolidation of their assets to the Gulf of Mexico versus a, you know, a move that maybe makes operational economic sense. We know they’ve been pulling off wind farm. This is probably a shift away from heavy natural gas wind assets typically to be able to invest more in their oil business. But it will be interesting to see how this goes. You know, these large project, you won’t know if this is a good deal or not for two or three years, but in two or three years it’ll be obvious whether or not it’s a good deal and we’ll be able to look back and see if that that 25 trillion cubic feet is actually a legitimate number. [00:13:13][56.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:14] Yeah. That field your car Tangier gas field he they got 90% working interest in that bed. Doug Mm hmm. That’s a lot. Yeah, it’s. [00:13:24][10.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:13:25] It’s a lot. They can. They’ll be able to crank it up. [00:13:27][2.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:27] I’m going to reach out to Andrew in English and see if I can get him on the podcast. That would be a really good one to visit with. See what his thoughts are on it. [00:13:36][8.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:13:36] It would. You want to talk about people in the forefront of energy security. [00:13:39][2.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:40] Right there, baby. Sinopec Colossal LNG tank Bolsters Winter Supply 541 million gallons. Okay, This is China’s petroleum and chemical. Oh, wait a minute. Hundreds still on the board. Sorry about that. This is actually in China. So China petroleum and chemical corporations and OPEC achieved a big, big run. They put into service the largest LNG storage tank at their King Lango. LNG receiving that thing is huge. We need one to take a bath. Indeed. [00:14:17][36.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:14:17] Yeah, no kidding. I mean, it’s a sign that China knows that there could be a coming global energy shortage and they’re just doing what they always do playing the ten, 15, 20 year long game. Yeah, it’s they, they again this investment signifies their stance to make sure that they have access to cheap energy regardless of what happens. And they specifically said this is providing a reliable supply to probably 2.1 million households for the next five months. The company claimed in a press release Exactly. [00:14:46][28.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:14:46] Now in Qatar and Sinopec. Sinopec number two, they just signed a 27 year contract for a delivery of 3 million tons per. Per year. Wow. Of LNG. [00:15:03][17.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:15:04] So not saying we are not only locked out of the future energy mix, I’ll tell you that much. Now, is that a bad thing? I don’t know, because we would love to be self-sufficient here. We could be self-sufficient. But it is interesting. We are being left behind when it comes to the global energy landscape. [00:15:18][13.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:15:18] Oh, we are. And and, you know, so here is the world’s biggest renewable manufacture of gear going with LNG, with the world’s largest storage and then the longest contract. [00:15:33][14.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:15:36] All right, we’re moving to wind. Don’t worry. [00:15:37][1.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:15:37] Stellantis new RAM pickup is an EV with a gas powered generator in case the battery runs out. Now, I’m going to laugh for a half a second, but this is actually kind of cool. Tell me you on this one and I’ll tell you why for a little bit and then a yes no. Okay. The truck can operate as a zero emissions Eevee until the battery dies and the electric onboard generator powered by a 3.6 liter V6 engine, kicks on to power the vehicle after its initial charge. Here’s the thing. It’s like an old World War Two submarine. The electric batteries drive the engine. So you get that fast, take off, you get all that. But the problem is your gas. And then the range on these things was crazy. The range on it could go down 690 miles. Yeah, I was like, Man, this is kind of good. And the torque would be great for killing. The problem is the body mass is going to weigh more than some of my college date. I mean, this is going to be nuts. Hey, I went to Oklahoma State. If you had you know, you went out to the dairy barn and, you know, hey. [00:16:58][80.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:16:59] This is hilarious, though. So a couple of things here, Stu. Diane estimates that that range of the RAM charge will be up to 960 miles. Not terrible, but only 145 miles of that is supposed to be powered by the 92 kilowatt hour battery when fully charged without the rest. So only 145 of those miles we can contribute to the battery. What I love about this is they’re calling it an EV. Wait, wait. Isn’t this a hybrid? Is it really a hybrid vehicle? [00:17:24][25.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:17:25] By definition. [00:17:25][0.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:17:26] From the top of our lungs, That hybrid is probably the way the place where car should go. Maybe this means remember Toyota two years ago, they didn’t get into the EV space, right? What did they do? They went in with the hybrid. I think this is the first step from Stellantis, who again, owns Chrysler and GM. So when you hear Stellantis think GM, Dodge, Chrysler, all that jazz, they’re dipping their toe into the hybrid space. IR Guy of the week on this one because this is sleight of hand in my opinion. [00:17:50][24.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:17:51] There’s there’s about 16 sleight of hands over here and that is very very good for them do do do do do they’re going after all tax incentives that they can because from a technical standpoint, it needs an electric ATV. And but yet you’re going to get people like me that are going a I got to drive a thousand miles to the office in a vehicle. [00:18:16][25.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:18:17] But you’ve got six mice in the backseat losing their mind on a treadmill to power the thing. So. [00:18:21][4.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:18:22] Oh, absolutely. But then you sit back and it will power a house. So now you can burn your I wonder if they’re going to have this in a diesel model so that I can get me a diesel. And then. Just kidding. Okay, that was bad. Texas voters approved 10 billion energy fund with most going to gas fired power plants to stabilize the grid. Michael, I love me from Texas. I love having Texas license plates. I love sitting here in West Texas by a two thirds margin. Voters in the Lone Star State Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment by authorizing a new 10 billion energy fund to provide the low interest loans to build gas fired power plants. Wow, how awesome is that? There’s another eight 1.8 billion to support the development of microgrids and backup power for critical facilities. This is smart. This is Texas doing it right again? [00:19:22][60.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:19:22] Yeah. No, it’s it’s absolutely doing it right. And again, when it comes down to it, what is the new electricity that’s being built? Well, it’s gas fired generation and they say through reliable grid improvement can’t do that with wind or solar. [00:19:36][13.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:19:36] Now. [00:19:36][0.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:19:38] We’d be remiss to say if Texas, ironically, isn’t the one who is it one of the more advanced renewable energy states, which I think is fascinating to talk about because wind and solar are a great insurance program when it comes to backup power and grid specifically backup power and what’s known as dispatchable gen ers, what’s not non dispatchable generation because dispatchable generation would be considered baseload. It can be great with alongside great baseload energy. So again, Texas, they’re doing it right, in my opinion, and going gas fired over rolling this out for new wind farms. [00:20:10][32.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:20:11] Oh, I agree. And I think this is going to be part of the thing that we’re seeing, Michael. I have never seen this kind of activity with everybody around the world bailing on wind farms. I mean, it’s wind is dead. Long live natural gas. [00:20:11][0.0][1164.1]
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The post Daily Energy Standup Episode #249 – Weekly Recap: Wind Project Challenges, Pro-Nuclear Bills, LNG in Southeast Asia, Gas Discovery Operatorship Shift, Sinopec’s LNG Tank, Stellantis’ Hybrid Ram, Texas $10B Fund for Gas Plants appeared first on Energy News Beat.
