Energy News Beat

For years, the United States has depended on imports of rare earth elements, the critical materials found in everything from smartphones to renewable energy technologies.

But in a surprising twist, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have discovered that a massive domestic supply has been sitting right under our noses all along.

Trapped within the country’s coal ash deposits lies a staggering $8.4 billion worth of these essential elements, a finding that could significantly reduce dependence on imports and reshape America’s approach to sourcing critical minerals.

From waste to wealth

Coal ash, the powdery byproduct left after burning coal for fuel, has long been considered an industrial waste product.

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An explosion has rocked the Trans-Niger Pipeline at Bodo, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The affected section of the major pipeline is currently on fire, though the exact cause of the explosion remains unknown at this time.

Authorities have yet to determine whether the incident resulted from human interference, especially amid recent threats by militant groups to attack oil installations in response to the Federal Government’s withholding of Rivers State’s allocation due to the ongoing political crisis.

The explosion reportedly occurred on Monday night along the critical export pipeline that transports crude to the Bonny Terminal.

Source: Vangard

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Energy News Beat

ENB Pub Note: Stu has been saying that the oil price for 2025 needs to be at the $80 mark for “Drill baby Drill when fiscally responsible.” ESG has had one impact on Exploration and Production companies that President Trump did not plan on. That is fiscal responsibility to give shareholders profits and returns on their investments. Harold brings up some great points and throw on top of those points a few other key issues. The world needs trillions of dollars to meet normal decline curves, and Saudi Arabia needs $80 in oil just to meet their Sovereign Wealth fund commitments. Saudi Arabia has significant influence in the global oil markets, and while that has diminished over the last several years, it can still heavily impact the price.

• Harold Hamm: would need an oil price of around $80 per barrel to cover the cost of drilling wells.’
• U.S. Energy Secretary Wright: the administration isn’t targeting a specific price of oil, but it works to bring back common sense and pro-energy policies in America.
• Scott Sheffield: The cash breakeven price, including dividends, is $50-$55 for U.S. oil companies, and “that $50 oil is not going to work.

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From a cramped booth in a crowded conference center on New Delhi’s outskirts, executives from one of Russia’s biggest energy firms made their sales pitch to Indian buyers — take our Arctic gas now, while it’s still cheap.

A flagship project in the far north, Arctic LNG 2 was intended as a symbol of Russia’s enduring gas might, even with only minimal pipeline sales to Europe. Targeted by US sanctions, however, the $21 billion-plus facility led by Novatek PJSC halted production last year. It began to assemble a shadow fleet of liquefied natural gas tankers to keep the super-chilled fuel moving, but those vessels remain idled.

Officials from Novatek told Indian importers at the country’s biggest oil gathering last month that this was about to change.

President Donald Trump would bargain with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine — and would ultimately scrap sanctions, the gas officials said, according to people who attended the meeting. The people asked not to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Reality is less clear cut. There is no guarantee that Trump will ease curbs on Russia. The US has publicly signaled no sanctions relief would be granted prior to a formal deal on Ukraine, and even then punitive measures tend to be far easier to impose than to remove.

Still, presidential advisers are said to be looking into which measures could be tweaked if there is progress in talks with Moscow — and Novatek is the latest Russian firm to seize the marketing opportunity.

Officials at Novatek and Arctic LNG 2 did not respond to emails seeking comment. The White House also did not respond to a request for comment.

India, which has close historic ties with Russia, has rushed to buy discounted crude under the Group of Seven’s “price cap” mechanism. Moscow’s producers became the country’s top oil suppliers, up from closer to zero before the war. Price, India’s oil minister has said, is the only criteria.

Sanctions on tankers have slowed that flow — and at last month’s conference buyers enticed to purchase stranded Arctic gas were cautious, even after dangled discounts, the people said. They said none of the Indian importers signed up, though some indicated they could be interested if conditions changed.

“You don’t get the sense in Asia that there’s a long-term aversion to Russian gas,” said Lachlan Clancy, a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills who advises on financing for oil, gas and power operations. “It’s more of a sanctions issue.”

Gas Gamble

Novatek’s pitch is a significant gamble for buyers.

In the oil market, there are signs of shippers and middlemen finding workarounds to help blunt even more recent American efforts to blacklist vessels from the dark fleet, the flotilla of old, often uninsured vessels ferrying sanctioned exports around the world.

But while LNG is vital for Russian gas exports, it is also far less flexible than crude, with a limited number of specialized tankers that are challenging to mask movement from the eyes of regulators — and vulnerable to sanctions.

Russia’s fleet of sanctioned LNG vessels, roughly ten ships compared to hundreds for oil and related products, has been stalled for months as buyers hold back. Five LNG shadow fleet ships are anchored in North Russia near the Barents Sea, three are in Russia’s far east, and two are just north of Egypt in the Mediterranean, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Read More: How Moscow Assembled a Shadow Fleet to Break US Gas Sanctions

Not a single one of the vessels landed at an overseas port to deliver the fuel. Most of the shipments were offloaded into Russian storage.

“The market has for a while already assumed that this would come as part of an agreement about Ukraine, but I have not registered anything yet that Russia would see LNG sanctions lifting,” said Kjell Eikland, managing director of Eikland Energy AS and an oil and gas veteran who closely tracks the Russian dark fleet.

“I do not believe any prospective buyer will gamble but wait for a formal lifting of sanctions.”

The next opportunity for the Arctic LNG 2 plant to export fuel will come when ice around the facility recedes in the summer months — late May at the earliest, Eikland estimated.

For Novatek and others, Trump himself remains the biggest unknown. He has made ouvertures to Russia — and will speak with Putin on Tuesday — but has also threatened more sanctions. Russian LNG flooding the market, meanwhile, would provide direct competition for US gas exports, a key bargaining chip in Trump’s trade war, and dampen prices.

“There is great enthusiasm for boosting further US exports,” said Geoffrey Pyatt, the former US assistant secretary of state for energy resources who helped craft Arctic LNG 2 sanctions under the Biden administration. “Novatek is direct competition.”

The post Russia Is Wooing Arctic Gas Buyers With Life After US Sanctions – Bloomberg appeared first on Energy News Beat.

Energy News Beat

ENB Pub Note: CBS and the other Main Stream Media outlets must understand physics and fiscal responsibility in energy. The left energy policies and pretending that “Climate Change” does not happen naturally or that CO2 is not plant food only focus on ending coal, oil, and gas. The problem is that “Renewable Wind, Solar, and Hydrogen” are not renewable, nor are they fiscally responsible. People are waking up to the world of facts, and physics needs to be applied. Too many climate scientists have used corrupt data to scare the global population into false fears of disasters. This will only continue to be their downfall. Lee Zeldin needs to go after the true pollution, and that will help the United States “Build baby Build”, as Chris Wright has said. 

CBS News criticized Trump EPA’s deregulation by going full doomsday, claiming it jeopardizes public health, clean air and water while causing pollution.

​During the “By the Way” segment on Friday’s CBS Mornings Plus, CBS environmental correspondent David Schechter decried the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Administrator Lee Zeldin by giving away the game on the climate alarmists by reupping a line that’s been deployed for at least five decades, which is we have “less than ten years” to save Earth from climate change. [emphasis, links added]

Co-host Adriana Diaz twice teased his appearance and spelled doom about what deregulation at the EPA would mean, ominously wondering “what” the “big changes at the EPA” “could cost you” as the “administration…mak[es] good on the President’s campaign promise to roll back climate protections.”

With the liberal media, any and all regulations are nearly always seen as a benefit and for our good, not a hassle.

“[O]ne of the things the EPA will now, ‘reconsider’ is what its press release calls a burdensome greenhouse gas reporting program where thousands of companies have to submit their emissions levels. Zeldin said the agency would try to undo a total of 31 environmental regulations from rules governing wastewater to emission standards. The Trump administration has also…revealed plans to shut down the EPA’s Environmental Justice Division,” she added.

Schechter came out swinging with the apocalyptic analysis that Zeldin has changed “the way we interface with the environment” as the EPA has decided it has “nothing” to do with “the environment or ensuring “we have clean air and…clean water.”

He continued with the claim Zeldin doesn’t want to:

“talk about the environment and why we need to keep it clean and why climate change has become such an existential threat with increased floods and fires and droughts and how the EPA has a role in trying to make sure that we control that and contain that.”

Moments later, he dropped the tiresome claim about having less than a decade or we’re goners:

“I think the biggest risk is that we have a small window to deal with climate change, really. It’s getting smaller and smaller, less than 10 years, to sort of level out and reduce our emissions and we had and have currently a lot of rules that deal with that.

“To throw those all out would undo a lot of progress that’s been made to try to reach these new standards for our country and for the world. And we will lose our opportunity to really get ahead of this problem or even stay current with the problem.”

Co-host Tony Dokoupil next summarized Zeldin’s view of the EPA as “if companies save money by not having to report a bunch of things that are a waste of time, they can take that saved money and make the energy process cleaner.”

Schechter was obviously not having it because you can’t trust non-governmental parties to behave (click “expand”):

SCHECHTER: I don’t know if, I guess if that’s your reading of that claim, I think that’s an interesting way to look at it. You know, companies, corporations, many of them do, do the right thing and do spend a lot of time on their environmental issues and reporting and things like that, but, you know, the government’s job is to set a level playing field, if that’s how you view the government’s job, to set a level playing field with regulations so that everyone is following the same rules. Some companies do get in trouble when they get ahead of their competitors and they have rules that are maybe more stringent than what their competitors have. And then the market kind of catches up to them and they take a lot of criticism for being too far ahead of the pack. So, you know, having stoplights and roads and, you know, rules of the road, is what keeps everybody sort of moving in the same direction. That’s the idea of the EPA. That’s the power of the EPA. And to say we care about the earth and we care about clean water, that’s what we’re going to do, is one thing, but to look at what they did and want to cut 31 important regulations is really what you should be looking at.

DOKOUPIL: It’s interesting. Yeah, but this is the claim from the EPA press release. Hundreds of millions of dollars saved could better be used, “to improve and upgrade environmental controls to have a noticeable impact and improvement on the environment.” We’ll see what happens.

DIAZ: Yeah.

SCHECHTER: Yeah.

DIAZ: And if companies take it upon themselves to try to make that environmental improvement without the regulations.

This Friday segment capped three days of rage at CBS.

Rolling back to Thursday, senior White House and campaign correspondent Ed O’Keefe appeared on both CBS Mornings and the Plus editions to say the EPA will now be “rolling back…regulations” that said “greenhouse gasses are bad for public health[.]”

And, on Tuesday, CBS Evening News co-anchor Maurice DuBois said the agency was doing away with red tape “aimed at protecting public health and fighting climate change.”

Co-anchor John Dickerson commiserated with former Obama EPA official Matthew Tejada a half-hour later on CBS Evening Plus.

Tejada went full doomsday and fearmonger by saying Zeldin’s announcement was:

“taking us back to the 1960s, from before the times when we had regulations that actually cleaned up our water, protect people from across our country, from cancer-causing agents in our air, actually cleaning up legacy contamination sites that people had been living on top of for generations.”

Tejada further vented the Trump administration will “tak[e] us back to that time when we didn’t have regulation” in which Americans won’t be “healthier” as they’re purposefully “allowing polluting industries” to “hav[e] absolutely unfettered ability to pour their pollution into our communities[.]”

Always a pompous partisan, Dickerson invited Tejada to go further…

Read rest at NewsBusters

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Energy News Beat

The country imported 3.07 billion cubic meters, or about 2.3 million metric tonnes, of LNG in February via long-term contracts and spot purchases.

This marks a rise of 7.3 percent compared to the same month in 2024, PPAC said.

PPAC’s data previously showed that LNG imports rose in January compared to the previous year.

From April 2024 to February 2025, India took 34.32 bcm of LNG, or about 25.8 million metric tonnes, up by 19.4 percent compared to the same period in the year before, according to PPAC.

India paid $1.3 billion for February LNG imports, up from $1.3 billion in February 2024. The country paid $14.2 billion for LNG imports in the April-February period, up from $12.2 billion in the same period before.

Moreover, India’s natural gas production reached about 2.74 bcm in February, a drop of 6.7 percent from the corresponding month of the previous year.

Natural gas production of 33.12 bcm in April-February was down by 0.5 percent compared to the same period before.

India now imports LNG via eight facilities with a combined capacity of about 52.7 million tonnes per year.

These include Petronet LNG’s Dahej and Kochi terminals, Shell’s Hazira terminal, and the Dabhol LNG, Ennore LNG, Mundra LNG, and Dhamra LNG terminal.

The newest LNG import terminal is HPCL’s 5 mtpa Chhara LNG import terminal in India’s Gujarat, which recently launched commercial operations.

PPAC said that during April-January, the 17.5 mtpa Dahej terminal operated at 98.8 percent capacity, while the 5.2 mtpa Hazira terminal operated at 37.3 percent capacity.

The 5 mtpa Dhamra LNG terminal operated at 41.6 percent capacity, the 5 mtpa Dabhol LNG terminal operated at 43.2 percent capacity, the 5 mtpa Kochi LNG terminal operated at 22.3 percent capacity, the 5 mtpa Ennore LNG terminal operated at 25.1 percent capacity, and the 5 mtpa Mundra LNG terminal operated at 23 percent capacity.

Petronet LNG expects to launch an additional 5 mtpa capacity at its Dahej LNG terminal in western Gujarat state by June this year.

Last year, Petronet launched two new Dahej LNG storage tanks, T-107 and T-108, each with a capacity of 180,000 cbm.

These two tanks add to six existing storage tanks at the Dahej terminal with a total capacity of 932,000 cbm, while Petonet is also building a third jetty at the facility.

India’s natural gas demand is forecast to increase by nearly 60 percent by 2030, doubling the country’s need for LNG imports, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency.

India’s LNG imports will need to rise to around 65 bcm a year by 2030 to meet rising demand, the IEA said.

The post India boosts LNG imports in February appeared first on Energy News Beat.

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Stonepeak’s Seapeak said in its results report that the vessel in question is the 2018-built 174,000-cbm, Seapeak Glasgow, which is currently on charter to BP Gas Marketing.

“In February 2025, the charterer exercised its option to terminate the charter contract with effect in December 2025,” Seapeak said.

“Had the charterer not exercised its termination option, the charter contract had a potential charter period of up to December 2031,” the LNG shipping firm said.

Seapeak did not provide further details.

According to previous Teekay LNG Partners reports, Seapeak Glasgow, previously known as Sean Spirit, started its 13-year charter contract with BP in December 2018, with a cancellation option after seven years.

Teekay LNG Partners rebranded as Seapeak in 2022 following the completion of its $6.2 billion merger deal with New York-based private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners.

As of December 31, 2024, Sepeak’s LNG fleet included 50 LNG carriers, the report shows.

This includes five LNG carriers under construction and one LNG regasification terminal in Bahrain.

Seapeak’s interest in these vessels ranges from 20 percent to 100 percent.

The company also plans to sell three steam LNG carriers that were placed in layup in early 2025.

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According to a statement by Crowley, the milestone will provide Puerto Rico with increased access to the supply of US mainland-sourced LNG, helping address the island’s ongoing power demands.

Crowley and Naturgy have entered into a multi-year agreement that provides for the regular delivery of US LNG to Naturgy’s operating facility in Penuelas, Puerto Rico.

The Crowley-owned carrier American Energy, which has a capacity of 130,400 cubic meters (34.4 million gallons) per voyage, will operate in accordance with the US Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1996.

Crowley said the vessel has a CAP 1 rating, certifying its top rating for safety and vessel condition, and its compliance with all regulatory requirements.

VesselsValue data shows that Crowley bought this steam LNG vessel from Stena’s Northern Marine Management in January this year.

Built by Chantiers de l’Atlantique in 1994, the vessel, previously known as Puteri Intan, and then renamed to just Intan, was previously part of MISC’s fleet.

Crowley said the 900-foot-long (274 meters) LNG carrier builds on its 70-plus years commitment to Puerto Rico.

The company also operates the full-service marine Isla Grande cargo terminal in San Juan for its container and roll-on/roll-off vessels, including two LNG-fueled ships, and logistics services.

The company annually delivers more than 94 million gallons of LNG through its LNG loading terminal in Penuelas as well as provides ocean delivery and land transportation using ISO tank containers.

At capacity, each delivery of LNG aboard American Energy provides enough energy to power 80,000 homes for a year, according to Crowley.

American Energy will be crewed by U.S. mariners and provide regular service from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Puerto Rico.

“We are proud and privileged to expand U.S. LNG availability in Puerto Rico in partnership with Naturgy,” said Tom Crowley, chairman and CEO of Crowley.

“LNG is an ample, reliable energy source available in the U.S. that provides a more resilient and lower-emission option as part of our nation’s energy portfolio for quickly serving the growing power needs of Puerto Rico while supporting American jobs, American energy production and U.S. national security.”

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Last month, global LNG imports increased by 1.26 Mt y-o-y to 34.90 Mt, the highest level ever recorded for the month, Doha-based GECF said.

GECF said this marks the first monthly y-o-y increase after three consecutive months of decline.

The growth was primarily driven by Europe, and to a lesser extent from the MENA region, which offset a decline in Asia Pacific imports.

GECF said the substantial premium of TTF gas prices over North East Asia (NEA) spot LNG prices
continued to redirect US LNG cargoes to Europe rather than the Asia Pacific.

For January and February 2025 combined, global LNG imports totaled 73.63 Mt, reflecting a
1.4 percent (1.01 Mt) y-o-y increase, largely supported by stronger imports in Europe, according to GECF.

In February 2025, European LNG imports surged by 19 percent (1.95 Mt) y-o-y, reaching a record high of 11.99 Mt for the month, remaining relatively unchanged from January, GECF said.

The increase was driven by lower pipeline gas imports and higher gas demand for heating amidst colder weather.

At the country level, Türkiye, the UK, France, and Belgium led the growth, offsetting declines in Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany.

For January and February 2025 combined, Europe’s LNG imports rose by 13.5 percent (2.85 Mt) y-o-y to 24.01 Mt, GECF said.

The surge in Türkiye’s LNG imports was driven by the need to compensate for reduced pipeline gas supplies to neighboring countries following the non-renewal of the Russia-Ukraine gas pipeline transit agreement, it said.

In the UK and Belgium, higher gas consumption fuelled the increase in LNG imports.

Meanwhile, in France, a combination of stronger gas demand and lower pipeline gas imports from Norway contributed to the rise in LNG imports.

Conversely, in Spain and Italy, despite higher gas consumption, a sharp increase in pipeline gas imports from Algeria curbed their LNG imports.

Additionally, higher gas production in Italy further contributed to its decline in LNG imports.

Although gas consumption in the Netherlands and Germany was higher y-o-y, LNG cargoes were redirected to higher-priced markets in the region, leading to lower imports in both countries, GECF said.

GECF said LNG imports in the Asia Pacific region declined for the fourth consecutive month in February, dropping by 4.6 percent (1.02 Mt) y-o-y to 21.14 Mt, and dipped below the February 2023 level.

The weaker LNG imports was attributed to the negative NEA spot LNG-TTF price spread, with Europe pulling LNG cargoes away from Asia Pacific, as well as weaker gas consumption in some countries.

China, South Korea, and Japan drove the decline in the region’s imports, which was partially offset by higher imports in Taiwan, GECF said.

For January and February 2025 combined, Asia Pacific’s LNG imports fell by 5.1 percent (2.44 Mt) yo-y to 45.76 Mt.

China’s LNG imports fell to their lowest level since June 2022, driven by weaker gas consumption, higher pipeline gas imports, and increased domestic gas production.

In South Korea and Japan, LNG imports declined as Europe attracted LNG cargoes away from Asia Pacific.

Additionally, lower gas consumption in Japan further contributed to its drop in imports.

Conversely, Taiwan’s LNG imports increased, supported by stronger gas demand, GECF said.

LNG imports in the Latin America & the Caribbean region declined sharply by 20 percent (0.18 Mt) y-o-y, reaching 0.73 Mt, the lowest level since April 2023, according to GECF.

The decline was primarily driven by lower imports in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Colombia.

For January and February 2025 combined, LAC’s LNG imports decreased by 7.4 percent (0.15 Mt) y-o-y to 1.85 Mt.

GECF said the drop in Jamaica’s LNG imports was linked to reduced imports from Nigeria, while Puerto Rico’s decline resulted from lower deliveries from Trinidad and Tobago.

Additionally, higher hydro levels lowered gas demand for electricity generation, contributing to weaker LNG imports across the region, it said.

On the other hand, LNG imports in the MENA region surged by 125 percent (0.50 Mt) y-o-y to 0.90 Mt 0.74 Mt, which is a record high for the month, GECF said.

For January and February 2025 combined, the MENA region’s LNG imports jumped by 123 percent (0.91 Mt) y-o-y to 1.64 Mt.

Egypt and Jordan led the increase in LNG imports within the region. Egypt has ramped up LNG imports in recent months, utilizing its installed FSRU as well as the Aqaba FSRU in Jordan, to help offset its gas supply shortfall, GECF said.

GECF said that global LNG exports rose by 0.9 percent (0.31 Mt) y-o-y, reaching 33.95 Mt in February, marking a record high for the month.

The increase was driven by non-GECF countries, which offset a decline from GECF member countries.

For January to February 2025 combined, global LNG exports totaled 71.51 Mt, reflecting a
1 percent (0.70 Mt) y-o-y increase, driven mainly by non-GECF exporters.

GECF said the share of non-GECF countries in global LNG exports rose from 51.9 percent in February 2024 to 53.2 percent in February 2025, while the share of GECF member countries’ LNG exports declined from 47.2 percent to 45.8 percent over the same period.

The share of LNG re-exports was relatively stable.

GECF said the US, Qatar, and Australia remained the top three LNG exporters in February 2025.

The post GECF says February LNG imports climb appeared first on Energy News Beat.

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Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that the country received 4.54 million tonnes last month. This compares to 5.95 million tonnes in February 2025.

Also, the data shows that Chinese LNG terminals took 6.06 million tonnes in January, down 16.1 percent year-on-year.

During January-February, China imported 10.60 million tonnes, a decrease of 19.1 percent compared to the same period last year.

Natural gas imports, including pipeline gas, reached about 20.31 million tonnes in January-February, down 7.7 percent compared to 2024.

China’s pipeline imports rose 7.6 percent year-on-year in February to 5.01 million tonnes, while pipeline imports increased 10.8 percent year-on-year to 4.70 million tonnes, the data shows.

GECF’s February report showed that China’s LNG imports fell to their lowest level since June 2022, driven by weaker gas consumption, higher pipeline gas imports, and increased domestic gas production.

It is worth mentioning here that China said last month it would impose tariffs of 15 percent on imports of coal and LNG from the US after President Donald Trump imposed a tariff on goods from the country.

This includes tariffs of 15 percent on imports of coal and LNG as well as 10 percent tariffs on crude oil.

China’s natural gas imports rose by 9.9 percent to 131.69 million tonnes in 2024, the customs data previously showed, while LNG imports increased by 7.7 percent to 76.65 million tonnes last year, with China remaining the world’s largest LNG importer.

Japan is the world’s second-largest importer of LNG, and it imported 6.64 million tonnes of LNG in January. This is 0.58 million tonnes more than China.

Official data for Japan’s LNG imports in February is not available yet.

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