Energy News Beat

 

Climate and clean energy advocates weighing in on CenterPoint Energy’s ideas to decarbonize its natural gas business in Minnesota applaud the effort but say it falls short of what’s needed to meet the moment.

The state’s largest gas utility submitted an “innovation plan” last summer to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which is taking public comments on the plan through March 15. Over the course of hundreds of pages, the utility proposes 18 pilot projects — from tree planting and geothermal to carbon capture and hydrogen blending.

Altogether, the utility is asking to spend more than $105 million on 18 pilot projects that it estimates will reduce the equivalent of around 330,000 metric tons of carbon emissions over the five year plan, which would represent about a 4% reduction, according to calculations by clean energy organizations.

The plan “is going to move us, but it’s not going to move as fast enough,” said Melissa Partin, climate policy analyst with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, one of several groups that have submitted comments on the plan.

The docket (M-23/215) stems from the Natural Gas Innovation Act, a 2021 state law that, among other things, authorizes gas utilities to collect money from ratepayers for projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Xcel Energy submitted a similar plan to state regulators late last year for its natural gas utility.

Gas utilities are expected to make up a growing share of the state’s climate pollution as the state’s electric utilities transition to 100% clean power by 2040. Two out of every three households heats their home with natural gas, and many industries rely on the fuel to operate medium and heavy machinery — a potentially daunting challenge as the state seeks net-zero climate emissions by 2050.

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and other advocates have asked the Public Utilities Commission to supplement the pilot project spending with emission-reduction targets for the utilities.

While many of CenterPoint’s ideas look promising and some could eventually scale up to make a bigger impact, Partin said the Natural Gas Innovation Act will not alone drive the state across the finish line for its climate goals.

Other strategies will be needed, such as updating commercial and residential building codes, improving energy efficiency standards for appliances, and considering a ban on allowing any natural gas in new buildings, which, Partin said, “will be difficult in Minnesota’s current political climate.”

Utilities are somewhat hamstrung by the act’s requirement that half the budget for the initial plans must go to alternative fuels, which “stacks the deck” in favor of renewable natural gas and hydrogen, Partin said.

CenterPoint is already blending hydrogen into its system from a downtown Minneapolis facility, and so proposing additional such projects does not seem to fit the definition of “innovation,” Partin said. Meanwhile, a recent study by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research found little to no climate benefit from blending hydrogen in existing gas supply lines, in part because hydrogen is less energy dense and more prone to leaking.

Joe Dammel, managing director of buildings for Fresh Energy, said CenterPoint’s plan “is definitely not a silver bullet; it’s not going to get us where we need to get.”

Energy News Network is an independent journalism service of Fresh Energy.

Fresh Energy staff, board members and funders do not have access to or oversight of the Energy News Network’s editorial process. More about our relationship with Fresh Energy can be found in our code of ethics.

While praising the utility for its yearlong stakeholder process and for proposing new resources and changes to its business model, the plan shows that CenterPoint will not contribute “their fair share of the emissions reductions needed based on this,” Dammel said.

CenterPoint’s pilots for weatherization and retrofitting homes look promising, he said, but ideas for purchasing carbon offsets, selling gas-powered heat pumps and injecting hydrogen into the existing gas system have little chance of success.

CenterPoint’s proposal to create green hydrogen, produced from renewable energy, and blending it into the gas distribution system is not “scalable” and has limitations. Commercial gas heat pumps “are not a very viable technology,” Dammel said. Instead, the utility should focus on applying hydrogen technology to decarbonize industrial end users.

Dammel added that to reach the state’s 2050 carbon neutrality goal CenterPoint’s first plan would have to increase its emissions reduction six-fold, from 4% to 27%.

Audrey Partridge, policy director for the Center for Energy and Environment, said the pilot programs will lead to better data and a greater understanding of the potential energy sources and their carbon emissions.

“I’ve heard people describe it as throwing spaghetti at the wall,” Partridge said. “But we need to come up with all the possible solutions and pursue them on a small scale to see which ones are going to stick. These aren’t necessarily mature ideas, as you would see in other areas of energy. They’re very, very new.”

The pilots that could yield important advances include using heat pumps for large loads and electrification of low and medium heat processes in the industrial sector, she said. Residential deep energy retrofits and geothermal technologies will likely reduce natural gas consumption.

“We do hope that CenterPoint and Xcel get approval to move forward on these plans so that we can start to learn from them,” Partridge said.

The docket could begin a new path for CenterPoint, which only sells gas. The Minneapolis Deputy Commissioner of Sustainability, Healthy Homes and Environment, Patrick Hanlon, said CenterPoint’s plan allows the utility to provide “heat as a service,” a crucial distinction that gives room for innovations the city supports, including ground source networked geothermal systems, district energy and other approaches.

“Heat as a service allows CenterPoint to move away from natural gas and move towards some alternative, more climate-friendly sources of heat,” Hanlon said. The city also wants to ensure that residents are “not burdened” with the cost of the innovative pilots or switching to a different level of service, he said.

The attorney general’s office, which represents ratepayers, suggested the cost for some pilots outweighed the carbon benefits while suggesting the commission modify or deny sections of the plan.

“Portions of CenterPoint’s plan are not yet ready for primetime: several of the proposals lack necessary partners, and many lack sufficient detail to establish their prudence,” the office wrote. “Other proposed projects are unlikely to achieve the greenhouse gas savings CenterPoint suggests and unlikely to justify the astronomical cost to ratepayers.”

The attorney general and clean energy groups also raised concerns about CenterPoint’s request to exceed pilot budgets by as much as 25% without statutory approval. Clean energy groups also seek modifications to CenterPoint’s plan to recover the cost of projects.

The Public Utilities Commission is expected to hold hearings later this year before deciding on the plans for both utilities.

Source: Energynews.us

Take the Survey at https://survey.energynewsbeat.com/

1031 Exchange E-Book

ENB Top News 
ENB
Energy Dashboard
ENB Podcast
ENB Substack

The post Minnesota ‘innovation plans’ call on gas utilities to imagine their clean energy future  appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

Daily Standup Top Stories

Even the World’s Biggest Electric-Vehicle Market Is Slowing

Highlights of the Podcast

00:00 – Intro
01:04 – Even the World’s Biggest Electric-Vehicle Market Is Slowing
05:46 – Government Approves Construction Permit for New Type of Nuclear Reactor for First Time in Decades
07:34 – Shocking development: Biden plans to roll back rule designed to juice EV push on country
10:04 – Why Toyota May Have the Best Strategy in the EV Race
15:20 – Two Wind Farms Received Over $100 Million To Switch Off
17:46 – Why California’s climate disclosure law should doom green energy
22:38 – Outro

Follow Stuart On LinkedIn and Twitter

Follow Michael On LinkedIn and Twitter

ENB Top News

ENB

Energy Dashboard

ENB Podcast

ENB Substack

– Get in Contact With The Show –

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

Stuart Turley: [00:00:14] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast. My name Stu Turley, president CEO of the sandstone Group. Today is Saturday the 24th. February 24th. Already we had a crazy wild week in the news. And I mean, it is crazy. There are some things going on though. I got to give a shout out to, Andrew Corbett, you and he had put out on his Substack CNN attempt to smear India for purchasing Russian oil fell flat. In the words of Serena’s love, sanctions don’t always work as intended. This was a pretty good article on energy news. Meet not go. Have a great day. Have a great Saturday, hug your family, hug your dog, and pass the word along. Thanks, Michael, and I’ll see you next week. [00:01:03][49.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:01:04] All right. Hey, let’s get rolling around the country here. Excuse me? The world, even the world’s biggest electric vehicle market is slowing. Boy. Michael, you take a look at that big picture. Well, that’s a lot of EVs on racks, man. That looks like, Hot Wheels just all lined up. The explosion growth. Michael is just nuts on what they were trying to do to the rest of the world, as they were just building the cheap EV cars. And now they’re, just proliferating around the world, and they’re piling up everywhere. This is an interesting point. B why did the crown jewel, the, the Chinese carmakers is backed by Warren Buffett? Interest added in a factory capacity alone by December to churn out 4 million cars a year. But California can’t put any, charging stations in. So I find this quite humorous. That figure is a million more than it’s sold in 2023. That is not that goes along with our next story coming around the corner. It’s foreign, factory making EVs, delivering cars from Uzbekistan. And a second in Thailand starts in July. Brazil and Hungary in the coming years are setting up a plant in Mexico which would consider exporting to the U.S. that sells for $11,000 in China. Is that a scooter? Is that you know, for I don’t know, man, is that Holy smokes. [00:02:42][97.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:02:43] Well, I think the first thing that that’s interesting is that there’s a, you know, there’s a map. You know, there was this boom of buying electric vehicles around the world. I mean, there’s a reason guys like Warren Buffett got in on it. You know, the last I would say, outside of 2023, 2018 to 2022, there was quote unquote, this explosive growth in EVs. But now that growth has slowed. And as Stu mentioned, you’re you’re cranking out 4 million cars a year when you’re only selling 3 million. That’s where it’s going to get you. You know, Miss Producer, you can throw up this the the head image. That’s where you get the Hot Wheels. You know, you can just pick em out right there and just start running them down the tracks. Point is, this is now going to only make EVs cheaper. And if they plan on moving and trying to take market share in the United States, it’ll be interesting to see if that happens, because I’m not convinced. I mean, I’m with you. I wouldn’t want to get in an $11,000 car. That’s really a scooter. I mean, it’s like every European movie. You see, when the bad guys run and buy any slams into one of those, like, smart bikes, all I can think about is now I’m just, oh, no, I’m going to end up on, get my car stolen as an extra in an action movie. But what this will do is, is only make it cheaper. And I wonder what this will do to Tesla’s dominance in the United States. You know, another interesting point of this article is they point out that Tesla is not the major EV provider worldwide. They’re only the major EB provider in the United States. And what happens when these these cars will inevitably make themselves make it into America? It’s just going to happen. Like Hyundai, like Toyota, it eventually things just migrate into the United States, from overseas in terms of top brands. So it’ll be interesting to see how consumers differentiate. I mean, I think, oh yeah, Tesla has going forward is the autopilot in the self-driving. And you could argue that that is the reason Tesla is more valuable than the fact that it’s an EV. It’s that they know it’s at least theoretically revolutionary technology that could allow us to basically all stop driving. [00:04:41][117.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:41] Which would be, I’ll tell you, I don’t know enough about this one yet. But, Michael, the insurance around the world for EVs is doubling and tripling. And so I think you’re going to see a slowdown in EV purchases because of insurance. And, quite honestly, when you have an EV break, all you have to do is crack one small, battery panel and then in the EVs total. Yeah. So. You know, I don’t know. [00:05:11][30.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:05:12] I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to own. I’m not owning an EV. I think and I think what this article points out specifically is that there’s a there’s kind of an inflection point coming with EVs where the supply is outpacing demand. And that as an economist, that always leads to a massive price drop. So maybe this will allow more people who want an EV to get it. The question is where do those price cuts come into? Is it. [00:05:36][24.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:37] Testing. Yeah. [00:05:37][0.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:05:38] Prices or is it China? And is BYD pushing really hard to get its cars into the United States because they have the price advantage? [00:05:46][8.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:46] Government approves construction permit for a new type of nuclear reactor. First time in decades. This is huge. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a construction permit for a new type of nuclear test reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Molten fluoride salt instead of water is a coolant. This is really huge. Kairos power is, thrilled to have, its archive and its major regulatory milestone. As for some final preparations to start construction at the Hermes site next year, said Mark LaFleur, Kairos Power chief executive, I’m going to reach out to him and see if I can get him on fact, I already have. I’ll have to reach out again to. That’s pretty darn cool. [00:06:32][45.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:33] Yeah, it’s it’s going to be very interesting. And they specifically mentioned, our favorite Miss America. Gray. Stanky. [00:06:39][5.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:39] Oh, yeah. She’s got the article. [00:06:41][1.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:42] We got to give a look. We’ve had her on the podcast multiple times. I mean, this is good, you know, because talking about the cheapest and most efficient form of energy that really is nuclear. You know, guys like Doug Sandridge have accurately laid out why, if we could do this properly, nuclear is the best move. The problem is you’ve got these regulatory commissions, you know, legislation through regulation. It’s making it’s becoming it’s so hard to permit these that we we get all excited when just a new construction permit is there. It’s a test reactor. As much as I’d love to jump up and down. What’s that going to? It’s a test reactor. [00:07:21][38.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:21] You’re still 5 to 10 years away. [00:07:23][1.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:07:23] And then you got to get another permit to build the actual one, right? So we need to. You know, once I hear about nuclear regulation reform, then I’ll get excited. [00:07:34][10.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:35] Hey, let’s start around here with our buddy Biden. A shocking development Biden plans to roll out back rule designed to juice EV push on the country. In our picture of I’m going to just leave that alone. But he’s hanging out of his head and he can’t even drive. The Biden administration is planning to slow down the rollout of a rule that was designed to juice the United States transition to electric vehicles. Michael, this is, very much do you remember, the prime minister of the UK took a beating because he did the same thing. The EPA just rolled this out. The new car rule last year would require nearly 70% of new car and truck sales to have no tailpipe emissions by 30. 2032. The critics claim the sudden shift would devastated the US auto industry, so they’re going to give them a reprieve by a couple of years. Michael and I think that this is going to be a little bit of a black guy. We know they’re, pandering to the climate activists, and this is going to be a big problem. They can say, oh, we’re not quitting, but we are pushing it out because of the EV failure. [00:08:57][82.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:08:58] Yeah. Well, it’s it’s funny how they wait a year too long to roll out with stuff. It’s it’s sometimes like a little too little too late, unfortunately, because you’ve still got California going full steam ahead with their with their plans, which yes, as on a countrywide it doesn’t matter. But you still have the individual states which we’re all in favor of state power here. [00:09:23][24.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:23] He there are 17 states that have added legislation, Michael, that says anything California does they can be is stupid. So so goes California. So goes 17 stupid states. [00:09:36][12.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:09:37] So this is this is but you have to remember this was just a leak of a potential announce. They haven’t said anything yet. [00:09:42][5.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:43] Oh there they this was a flag to throw out there to see how bad it got. And I guarantee you they’re going to have to because the unions, the one union boss that is out there is costing a lot of jobs out there, and he’s got to do something to appease them and realize that. Let’s go to Toyota. Michael, I’m going to brag on me and you here for half a second. Why? Toyota may. Had the best strategy in the EV race. You and I have been on this for quite a while and that is why are we not putting EVs? I mean, secondary and I again, I love Elon, I love Woody Allen’s doing. And why don’t we just go to the Toyota hybrid model? Let’s go through some of the numbers in here. The four quarters Tesla has generated total revenue and earnings of 96,000,000,015 billion, for, respectively, for Toyota. Toyota’s revenue roughly three times larger. Oh, excuse me, at 299 billion, in 44 billion, profits. But yet Tesla’s market cap is more than double that of Toyota. And that’s because of the carbon credits and and everything else in there. [00:11:04][81.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:11:06] So it’s it’s extremely fascinating why Tesla trades at such a multiple relative to the other carmakers. You know one would say I would say it’s a lot to do with they were a tech company masquerading as a you know they’re they they’re trying to brand themselves as a tech company when they’re really a car company. The problem is they really are a tech company with autopilot. And a lot of the stuff they’re doing on the software space. I don’t have a problem with valuing Tesla higher than I do other automakers, because if they figure out autopilot and are able to license that software to other companies, they will far and away become larger than the physical automakers. Now they also come out with really cool cars. It is interesting the model, and this is where comparing comps becomes a tricky issue. We saw this in in you, in in a soon to be released deal spotlight with John Farrell. We, we we highlighted the difference of the multiples between pioneer what pioneer guy and, being bought by Exxon and what Diamondback paid for endeavor. But it’s hard to compare them because there’s so much extraneous stuff around it that multiples don’t necessarily make sense. Being able to pick comparable companies to say this is a comparable transaction. Therefore, this is how much I should be valued. He’s tricky. Should you look at Toyota like Tesla? No. In fact, they’re two different businesses that may not have any relation with each other except for the fact that they build cars. [00:12:34][88.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:35] Here’s, two big things, takeaways out of this article. Michael EV drawbacks. Kelley Blue Book, claims the five year cost to own an EV versus, Ice vehicles is 15% higher. I disagree because I think it’s the insurance is just now starting to go through the roof on this. You take EVs lose an average of 43,515 in value. Ice, internal combustion engines depreciate, by 27,883. So, then you have the batteries are less efficient in those kind of things. But the obvious benefit is fuel costs. The EV owners will save approximately 5000 and gas, but that’s going to be made up in insurance very easily in a year and a half. Yeah. And part. [00:13:32][56.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:32] Of why, you know, Tesla, you know, if we can scroll down here in the fundamentals chart, we can throw up here Miss Produce who you’ll see on you’ll see really key into that growth area. You talk about revenue growth one year Tesla at 18 Toyota at 1005. Year is 33% relative to only 1.1 for Toyota. So we’re toilet where Toyota is eating. It really is the fact that they over a five year span, they have not necessarily grown revenue. And 1.1 percentage points is a rounding error. So from a percent of how much they’re growing, the growth theoretically is probably being looked at by Toyota as cap. Now the problem is if they do if hybrids do become the thing of the future, they’re poised to be on top of that. So this is also we’re coming down to where do you think the market is going and applying that future market to the current fundamentals of either of these companies. And that’ll give you a pathway to valuation. [00:14:35][63.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:36] Let me throw this at you just a little bit. And that is Ford. Ford is having to Ford is having to retool. You’re having the unions. They’re shutting down their plants. Let’s take the deindustrialization of Germany. All of the EV plants are backing off and closing down. You have your parts, and then the other stories are coming in about the mining and everything else. Toyota is not having any of those expenses. So they you take. Go rent. Take a look at. In the next two years. Toyota is going to springboard. I think it’s going to go right on through the roof. See you heard it here. Second, Michael. [00:15:20][43.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:15:20] Let’s go ahead and dive right in though. Two wind farms receive over 100 million to turn off. This is again as I mentioned this is an opinion piece from Andrew Monfort. We’ve we’ve we’ve segmented him on the show today. You know, and he says regular readers will know that I’ve long been concerned over the extraordinary levels of payments that force wind farms to switch off. These are so-called constraint payments and are deemed necessary when the wires in the transmission grid have inadequate capacity to get a generators power to market. He goes on to talk about this idea that and not this idea. What happens is, is when there’s not enough grid capacity to hold the electricity that’s coming from the wind farms, it’s not just the wind farms are turned off, it’s that they are paid to get turned off. And a gas fired power station is paid to get turned on. That’s closer, so that the end user of the electricity is not, as he said, left short. And he has a chart here. I don’t know, Miss Produce. If you don’t mind pulling this chart up, total constraint payments on wind farms have risen in 2023 to $382 million for a volume of about 4.3 terawatt hours, which is roughly four days of electrical demand thrown away entirely. I mean, it’s absolutely unbelievable. If you go talk about the the you know, he then breaks down the 2023 bill, we can pull up that next piece. These are wind farm constraint payments specifically to, the specific segments you’re seeing that the largest one, Maura East, gets $54 million, cannot be turned online that constrained that volume, ends up being 590GW, which is like 20% of its output, I mean, 20% of its output. It’s absolutely insane. This is the problem when you don’t have the grid ready to, to really take advantage of, even if renewables was working. And in this case it’s not working. But in this case it’s trying to supply power to the grid. And the unfortunate part is the grid can’t handle. So now not only do we have to just not have the wind farm and lose whatever benefits we might have for also now paying them to shut down, it comes back to, we’re all for the cheapest amount of energy, and the problem is the way we’ve designed this whole renewable shift, we haven’t necessarily found the cheapest. So great article out there. [00:17:46][145.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:46] Last article for today is why California’s climate disclosure law should doom green energy. I’ll tell you what this is a quite honestly, a despicable, law that they are putting in California, is putting in this, to lower the state’s carbon footprint. The legislature passed a law requiring all companies over 1 billion in business within California to publicly disclose by 2026, all their direct greenhouse gas emissions stemming from fuel combustion they utilize, as well as indirect greenhouse gas emissions derived from the electricity, heating or cooling they consume. Holy smokes, this is such a cost increase that this is absolutely going to be miserable for companies. They’re going to pass this on to the consumers, or they’re not going to do business in California. And California stands to lose major products. You won’t be able to buy a lot of products in California. Let me, also go here. Since zero emission vehicles can be sold in California after 2035, the state must have 100% clean energy by 2045. That’s not going to happen. I hate to warn anybody, but you only have 10% at Diablo Canyon by 2045, and Diablo Canyon is going to be passed its second, extension. So you have 10% right off the top. Then you have wind and solar are not capable of keeping the grid alive. You have all the refined products, being that are, in my opinion, going to be bought from China. China, has, in my opinion, cut deals. And they are going to, buy refined products from China as opposed to making it in the U.S with better ESG and less impact on the environment than buying from China. They would rather buy from China and have. A feel good moment, rather than understanding that they are hypocritically impacting the environment. So I, for one, would like to have the lowest kilowatt per hour delivered to all people of the planet with the least amount of impact on the environment. And in order to do that, this law does not impact wind or solar. But yet they have even worse impact. Than does oil and gas and natural gas. How much natural gas? Excuse me? How much diesel does it take to mine everything for an EV? How much does it take in order to get the cobalt, carbon, everything else? Copper? None of that is going to be calculated. How much is it going to cost? When a wind farm only lasts eight years. And if you’re a wind expert and you would like to visit with me on my podcast, please come out. I want to visit with you. I have not found anyone that has refuted those timeline. Wind farms are not fiscally responsible from day one without tax subsidies. They then start failing on an overwhelming, note at the eight year mark. And like the Inflation Reduction Act, the David Blackman has brought out the big point that you are now able to get those that extra funding if you update these things at the end, when they’re ready to be updated at eight years when the tax subsidies run out. So now the consumer gets to pay for these things twice, and it is not doing the environment any good because they are not recyclable. So if we can get wind and solar in a recyclable, technologically friendly way without printing money, I am all in. Please understand I’m energy agnostic, but natural gas? Nuclear. You can’t make a iPhone out of a windmill. You can’t do it. You cannot make an iPhone out of solar. So I want to talk physics, fiscal responsibility and humanity in a positive way. [00:17:46][0.0][1035.9]

– Get in Contact With The Show –

The post Daily Energy Standup Episode #315 – Weekly Recap: EVs, Nuclear Reactors, and California’s Climate Conundrum appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

 

US-based researchers are working on speeding up the process of identifying metal-organic framework materials (MOFs) that are suitable for carbon capture and storage.

MOFs are porous materials that can selectively absorb carbon dioxide and have three kinds of building blocks in their molecules—inorganic nodes, organic nodes, and organic linkers. These can be arranged in different relative positions and configurations. As a result, there are countless potential MOF configurations for scientists to design and test.

To quickly determine which configurations work, the scientific team comprised of researchers from the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Chicago, is using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to dream up previously unknown building block candidates.

They are also testing a form of AI called machine learning and a third pathway that is high-throughput screening of candidate materials. The last is theory-based simulations using a method called molecular dynamics.

By exploring the MOF design space with generative AI, the team was able to quickly assemble, building block by building block, over 120,000 new MOF candidates within 30 minutes. They ran these calculations on the Polaris supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF).

They then turned to the Delta supercomputer at UIUC to carry out time-intensive molecular dynamics simulations using only the most promising candidates. The goal is to screen them for stability, chemical properties, and capacity for carbon capture. Delta is a joint effort of Illinois and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

The team’s approach could ultimately allow scientists to synthesize just the very best MOF contenders.

“People have been thinking about MOFs for at least two decades,” Argonne computational scientist Eliu Huerta said in a media statement. “The traditional methods have typically involved experimental synthesis and computational modeling with molecular dynamics simulations. But trying to survey the vast MOF landscape in this way is just impractical.”

A supercomputer may provide the answer

Even more advanced computing will soon be available for the team to employ. With the power of the ALCF’s Aurora exascale supercomputer, scientists could survey billions of MOF candidates at once, including many that have never even been proposed before. What’s more, the team is taking chemical inspiration from past work on molecular design to discover new ways in which the different building blocks of a MOF could fit together.

“We wanted to add new flavors to the MOFs that we were designing,” Huerta said. “We needed new ingredients for the AI recipe.”

The group’s algorithm can make improvements to MOFs for carbon capture by learning chemistry from biophysics, physiology and physical chemistry experimental datasets that have not been considered for MOF design before.

To Huerta, looking beyond traditional approaches holds the promise of a transformative MOF material—one that could be good at carbon capture, cost-effective, and easy to produce.

“We are now connecting generative AI, high-throughput screening, molecular dynamics, and Monte Carlo simulations into a standalone workflow,” Huerta said. “This workflow incorporates online learning using past experimental and computational research to accelerate and improve the precision of AI to create new MOFs.”

The atom-by-atom approach to MOF design enabled by AI will allow scientists to have what Argonne senior scientist Ian Foster called a “wider lens” on these kinds of porous structures.

“Work is being done so that, for the new AI-assembled MOFs that are being predicted, we incorporate insights from autonomous labs to experimentally validate their ability to be synthesized and capacity to capture carbon,” Foster said. “With the model fine-tuned, our predictions are just going to get better and better.”

1031 Exchange E-Book

ENB Top News 
ENB
Energy Dashboard
ENB Podcast
ENB Substack

The post AI to help determine best carbon capture material appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

When I get to have a live broadcast, it is fantastic. When it is with Dan Gualteri it is even better. This is the third podcast where Dan stopped by and we had a blast in Houston at NAPE. We covered lots of important energy topics. Some of them included what CEOs need to reduce costs and how to obtain accountability for the Net Zero regulations being imposed across all layers of the energy production chain.

We covered everything from AI to how we can get the next generation excited about the energy field for high-paying jobs. ComboCarbon and ComboCurve were some fun parts of the conversation as we use them as part of our software stack to evaluate oil and gas deals. Not all deals are created equally, and my team requires the best tools.

Please follow Dan on his LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dagualtieri/

Check out ComboCurve and ComboCarbon here: https://combocurve.com/

Thank you Dan for stopping by the podcast pavilion at NAPE! I had a blast. – Stu

 

 

Highlights of the Podcast

00:00 – Intro

00:48 – Dan Gualtieri expresses excitement about the podcast and recent achievements.

01:24 – Recap of Indy symposium and collaborative evaluation process in oil and gas industry.

03:39 – Preview of Dallas events for hands-on learning and industry collaboration.

06:05 – Importance of practical learning alongside traditional education.

07:22 – Discussion on mentorship’s significance in knowledge transfer.

09:04 – Advancements in AI and automation in energy sector and their impacts.

11:25 – Integrating data and workflows across different industry aspects.

13:54 – Personal experience with F3 workout program and encouragement to participate.

16:11 – Supportive networks and meaningful discussions for motivation.

18:26 – Gratitude for network connections and discussions.

21:30 – Outro

 

The following is an automated transcript, and we disavow any mistakes unless they make us smarter or better-looking.

 

Stuart Turley [00:00:00] Welcome to the Energy Newsbeat podcast. My name’s Stuart Turley, president of the Sandstone Group. We are live at Nei and I mean this is absolutely. Brett and I had a dear friend of mine come by. He has been on the podcast before, got van tastic. Feedback. And we’re going to have a general energy discussion. But do you want to know what is going on in the market? Do you ever want to know what there is going on? He has phenomenal reach and insight.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:00:33] Wow. That’s that’s impressive.

 

Stuart Turley [00:00:35] Take it. Hang on. Buckle up, and I’ll probably ring according to some troubles you just did, man. Yeah, we just did our 500th publish of an article this year.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:00:48] Oh, I love it.

 

Stuart Turley [00:00:49] Isn’t that.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:00:49] Fun? I love it. Last time. You know, that’s a milestone.

 

Stuart Turley [00:00:53] A milestone. And we also had over, 1,000,001 downloads of the podcast. Last year, we’ve had over 7.5 million reads of the, transcript publishing articles. I got great feedback on our other one. We had so much fun. We had so much fun. I’ll tell you what, Dan, you’re with Campbell Kerr, but you’re also just an industry thought leader. You had an event that you just did. What was that?

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:01:24] I did. So we had an Indy symposium. We had different groups from within the oil and gas industry to get together land, business development. It was really engineering, asset management, finance. And I did a duo evaluation on a set of roles with roof racks. And we did a roof rack model and the story of every as well as we had two flat candidates for the team environment. We had five teams evaluate these things during fair market evaluation, as well as an assessment and pitch to a board. The board was stellar.

 

Stuart Turley [00:01:57] In that.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:01:58] Were great people. That was entirely volunteer. And our next event is in Dallas February 13th.

 

Stuart Turley [00:02:05] No way. What’s out there?

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:02:06] Same story. Do evaluation on the board. We have some really killer people. Yeah, and I wrote our capital, blueprint chapter. We’ve got the US Dollar Corp. We we got some, noble ratings. Really? Core people. Senior level capital. Volunteer their time. Wow. Listen to a pitch, and people run from that discussion. Have you thought about the land cost? Have you thought about this? Why do you want that? This way. And that dialog is actually really going on because you don’t see this. You want to see what’s an approach that you’re not going to see this. You’re not going to do this in school. So that was sort of the goal was to get people to collaborate and then hear what the executive team. Yeah, the ones that have been through hundreds of deals, like, yeah, I’ve read this before, but remember that.

 

Stuart Turley [00:02:49] You know, Dan, I am so excited about this because what this is doing is one of my passions and that is, helping people learn the new technology stuff.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:03:01] Absolutely.

 

Stuart Turley [00:03:02] So this gets the younger generation involved into all forms of energy. And, there’s a product out there called Combo Curve that we.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:03:12] Use on our because, the.

 

Stuart Turley [00:03:13] Valuations we use well, database, we bring that information in seamlessly. And the staff over there with Armando and I love his podcast with that.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:03:24] Oh nice.

 

Stuart Turley [00:03:25] But I want to share it. This is cool because there’s a shortage of people that are excited about coming in. Well it’s true. And so this that program, how do people find you to do that program?

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:03:39] You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. We’re going to come back to Dallas about the corporate is it’s a hands on event. It’s not lectures. It’s not a panel. Let me get your fingers on it. You’re going to be able to run it. You’re going to have people here that have done this part before. And from the banking side, you have people that will help you, buys you on how to, valuation. And then you can literally pitch to a board again. This is really, really cool stuff. Hands on. You’re not going to get this anywhere in the industry. So that’s why we do this. This is our fourth one. The Dallas is a fourth one. We’re gonna have one in Denver and Oklahoma City Hall and then Tulsa next. So.

 

Stuart Turley [00:04:10] You know what? We are doing the homeschool project, and we’re taking a lot of pass since we’re, working on getting funding for the programing because we’re rolling this thing up. And what we’re going to do is take all of our content, create that, test curriculum, make it affordable for the, homeschool market, the, apprenticeships right in, the like, getting helping the unions out there, cleaning jobs and people experience and, and so this is going to tag in to what you’re doing. Oh.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:04:52] Cool. Absolutely. These are things that will complement any engineering curriculum no matter what discipline your in. Even if you’re on the it will come and play. To talk to people in the room, the dynamics of why different people in different parts of the industry talk to me to talk to one another. Right. And those intricacies. Yeah, there’s not a class on this in college. There really isn’t no hands on. And it’s networking in relationships, being comfortable to talk to somebody that you don’t understand what they do just yet, but they ask those questions, what are you doing? How are you doing this? Why does this matter? And and then listen and hear what people have to say.

 

Stuart Turley [00:05:24] Oh, and the problem is you’re not only the mentorship is so cool. I’m sorry for getting on. Oh, yeah, I’m getting excited because you get the mentorships out there and you get the, older people like me and and you help get that knowledge transfer.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:05:43] Absolutely. We have the CEO, Carly Gillespie. Todd, because he was going to be one of the judges, and he you can tell these judges want to give back. They don’t have a lot of time. But how do they get engaged in these type of venues? They can get engaged. They can talk to people, they can share their knowledge, and then they can get on to their big danger, the things that they have to do for a living, right, to make their business successful. I want the successful people to talk to. I crowd to my to other people to get them excited about.

 

Stuart Turley [00:06:12] Great what.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:06:13] Drove, what drove them to do certain things right. And this is what the learn the means process.

 

Stuart Turley [00:06:18] On the spot. Okay, okay. You ready? Yep. Okay, I am okay when you are on my podcast. A few days after the podcast came out, you were at a dinner or a lunch and somebody came up to you, right? Yesterday I saw you broadcast. Yeah.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:06:38] It is fine. This was a so I volunteer with ESP businesswomen group in Houston. Somebody came up at that event and said, hey, I saw this event you did with story still has great depth and reach. And he was like, I just wanted to say I learned something and this was through. This was really, really exciting for me because this is somebody out of the blue. That’s all my name is, like, hey, wait a minute, steeped in something interesting. Yeah, absolutely. No. Yeah. It was really cool to to engage people and the number of people I have coming up to me saying, hey, I’m interested in learning this or would you give me some guidance? I love giving an opinion. I mean, get a lot of opinions, ask people things, but don’t be afraid to engage people that that care. And you will learn some things in the process.

 

Stuart Turley [00:07:22] You know that I have so been happy getting to know you and, learning from you on the industry. And I, our passion because I’m saying, yes, you know, we got a little bit of, mobster in us to try to get it out.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:07:39] That’s right.

 

Stuart Turley [00:07:40] And I just love what you’re doing, and I love the technology that’s out there as well, too. So what do you see coming in the overall industry? Because, you know, like all around the world.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:07:52] I talk to a lot of people Automation’s coming more deep AI type technologies are coming to fruition. You know, they’re kind of cool today. They’re going to get better. Right? This is really the infancy of that whole technology and workflow. We do have a lot of automated workflows. Comcast made its claim to fame because we’re automated. We’re easy to use. We’re intuitive. We can do a evaluation in our that would take seven days. Ten days. I mean, that fast. It’s going to get better, it’s going to get more automated. And the fact that I can script and run workflows that fast. Now I’m just going to start my own sensitivities. We’re going to do massive sensitivities and then the engineers are still needed. This wasn’t replace engineering knowledge, but a lot of the engineers to dive into the specifics in more detail and understand the data and the trends. That’s what matters. That’s what you want these experts to do. Geo. The GEOs need to be there. The geophysicists, the reservoir engineers, the production engineers, that combination working together in an environment where what I call conversational analytics, right. I want to have a conversation about the data and tweak that data model and see the results while we’re talking, while we’re having a conversation. And that’s that. Technology technology’s here today. It’s just got to it’s got to be getting pulled together in more in some more depth.

 

Stuart Turley [00:09:04] I tell you, you know, what’s fun is when you take a look at the change that’s going on in the energy market, Occidental Petroleum has probably set the curve. You know, we had the, BP Beyond Petroleum and now they kind of swung back. Right. And they’re now going back to their roots. You have, total energy. So I. Oh, okay. Tex Tex Okie Tex is not so good. They bought enough natural gas plants in Texas to power, equivalent of two nuclear reactors. So they’re now putting money in kind of quietly at. And then you have Blackrock and everybody. It’s okay now to invest in natural gas and energy.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:09:47] I’m gonna put some money. Yeah. Now you get into this natural gas market right. Because now’s the time. It’s, the commodity prices are the.

 

Stuart Turley [00:09:56] Number of LNG tankers has gone through the roof.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:10:00] Right. They’re sold out, baby.

 

Stuart Turley [00:10:01] Right. Isn’t that in there?

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:10:03] That’s on the high side. Another side? That’s my argument.

 

Stuart Turley [00:10:06] And so it’s here to stay. And it is. It’s no longer at transition fuel. And there in the cool thing is that it’s lowering the carbon footprint. It’s somewhere with it is accidental. They actually have kind of they went instead of going renewables, they went into the carbon sequestration, the carbon capture, the carbon tax kind of a thing. They can actually went through their whole portfolio. If you’re listening out there, I’d love to have, her on here to talk.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:10:37] I absolutely.

 

Stuart Turley [00:10:38] Yeah. And and that was fun. Oh. Would be. Well, I have to do that. Yeah. Now. So when, you sit back and look at that, that’s why Warren Buffett has bought and, more millions of EV investment into oxy because the federal dollars for tax credits, the ability to do that. And I think, combo curb has something called carbon, com carbon carbon.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:11:04] And it’s all about modeling carbon exposure tied to resource program and environmental research. Do I have separate databases? Where so I mean, when we are integrated technology wise. Right. But don’t have two sets of books. Right. Just more head like it. And it is it also, makes people collaborate. Right. You’ve got the ESG side. You got the production field engineering something David Brightman walking by David Blackman.

 

Stuart Turley [00:11:30] Yeah.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:11:33] But you have these, integrated models that will enable people to integrate. We one as a, as a senior level person in oil and gas company, you want your teams to collaborate. Well, you could edict it. You could try to put, people in place to do it, put processes in place that enable the conversation. I want my field engineers to run economic models using concepts from a resource database to understand improvements for hydrogen sulfide, for carbon exposure, using the same data that the company already has at his fingertips. Yep, don’t do it in Excel. No right excels at the proof of concept.

 

Stuart Turley [00:12:06] And with the, legislation through regulatory processes that our current administration is going on, which is, despicable. I’m going to I’m I’m going to do my, presidential Imma take this. I’m not sure if it’s Yoda work.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:12:24] What are you going to be.

 

Stuart Turley [00:12:26] Be worried anyway? That regulatory process on the methane being able to track it. Yes. You being able to measure it, being able to account for it is going to cost a lot of money unless you have the rules. In order to do that.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:12:44] Use the process and automate what you can and understand that you will have leaks. You deliver those, you monitor those. But now we can monitor those and say, how did I improve? And again, in a common data kind of solution, I could say, well, that was my baseline, how much money I put into my facilities and where am I at today and why, and then be able to document that that journey I times you develop NASA.

 

Stuart Turley [00:13:07] I talk to CEOs and they asked me, you know, they’ll ask me, okay, what do you guys use? I use this tool, I use this tool, I use this tool. I don’t have my hands on carbon. Combo carbon yet, so I can’t, I can’t like, let’s.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:13:22] Let’s set up a model on one of our assets, a choice and go through it.

 

Stuart Turley [00:13:25] Oh, yeah. Right. We’ll talk.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:13:27] About this. But the fun part is with just, like, kind of curves based platform, it’s an easy, intuitive and in a few minutes the model to some of these workflows and just say, here are the outputs I.

 

Stuart Turley [00:13:37] Would love to see the bolt on. So but you know, when we sit back and we take a look at that kind of integration and the openness, com combo curve makes a difference because when a CEO was asking me for a deal, even. Yes. And he’s saying, is this actually a good deal, I don’t care, I don’t push the button.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:13:59] I get it, you know, you have the best people I’ve seen. Mr.. When driven at a lot of energy in and name is energy.

 

Stuart Turley [00:14:08] Oh, and I’ll tell you I don’t know who’s more excited about him, me or you. But I’ll tell you what, what’s fun is on our podcast, we will sit back and take a look at those, but a CEO will ask me on my staff as well, and they’ll sit back and say, hey, wait a minute. What about this? How does this happen? And I want to give a shout out to Jay Young as well.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:14:34] Jared James don’t contain any.

 

Stuart Turley [00:14:35] Great. Absolutely. And Jay has been one of the ones that asked me and said, hey, what about this? He does not care about anything unless it’s information that he can give to his investors. And he is a typical CEO. And when you bring data from, scatter and you bring it from the wellhead through to the investor, that’s right. You’ll drop it off in a cash right, and you give that information to the CEO for thought leadership that matters and nothing else.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:15:08] Absolutely. So so they can have the knowledge of the models. And so the sensitivities and the can you sense in the restaurant see the price tag changes. What happens if you do a what are your expense models change. What happens if this tax comes and you. Run all of these simultaneously and have that output. And you’ll see. So we can talk intelligently about the ads and saying, here’s the window, right? Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly. And that kind of a high price point that I understand where I’m going to be economic, where I’m going to break even. But we’re going to make better offers. We’re going to make better offers and be more comfortable about them, less risk.

 

Stuart Turley [00:15:37] Absolutely. And, my, Michael and I and our deal spotlight. On Saturdays, we run days and we’re rolling through this. He’s a hyperactive brat child, and I, you know, miss.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:15:47] Absolutely. Miss.

 

Stuart Turley [00:15:49] Mama. Tina, I love you, so don’t get mad at me. Papa. Don’t worry about it as well. I love the Tanners. Right. But, they spawn on that hyperactive rad child, and I. And he and I just, you know.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:16:02] I love working with people like that because they a passion. Yes, that’s the little shit factor. Like, if you don’t give a shit, I’m not sure I want to work with, you know, the people that care, the people that truly, truly care are people you want to be around. You want in your world. Yes. Those are the people that you can feed off of.

 

Stuart Turley [00:16:17] And and you know, the fun thing about Nate, the excitement yesterday was phenomenal. I mean, we’re probably going to crank out 30, podcasts, all the way through the night. But the feeling Dan was so cool of, like, Nate being back and deals.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:16:34] Oh, yeah.

 

Stuart Turley [00:16:38] RT from Peco’s operating. We’re in our booth as well. And they were talking deals, and then we had, well, database running the podcast, talking to CEOs. And I love John over there. Well, database and, the partnership with them, they are supporting us like you wouldn’t believe. It I love it. Cool, I love it. And, we’ve actually gotten some great feedback from them because when we do the deals, we can export directly into Combo Curve. And, they’ve been able to show us some things by working with us on things that help speed that, that kind of integration with a, technology company makes a difference.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:17:17] Absolutely. Got a lot of workflows we can deploy, and they do make a difference. And when we move them, you have at your fingertips.

 

Stuart Turley [00:17:24] That’s right. So if, executives are out there and they’re getting frustrated disparate systems between accounting, your geologies and sometimes they don’t talk so well together.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:17:37] Different set of books, right. When there’s not there’s not a mechanism or a reason for them to have a conversation. Send me the dirt. I want that file. Give me the spreadsheet, I’ll import it. Kind of crap is transformed companies at certain levels, because a collaboration is a tool that enables collaboration. So you don’t have to put process in place, and you have the people that can actually collaborate using the same data, leveraging that knowledge of workflows to make better decisions in your organization. Without the C-suite saying, you guys really should talk more.

 

Stuart Turley [00:18:07] And I’m going to be quite honest, we have employee operators reaching out to us that want to work with us, and I won’t do it. I’ll take a look at their deals and.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:18:15] I.

 

Stuart Turley [00:18:16] I don’t want my name on it, but and and so, I need tools. Yeah. If I don’t get support, I don’t want you.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:18:24] Oh, let’s claim the same for what we do. We always listen to your supporters. Pretty dumb. Yeah. I’m going to make an outreach on the mineral management side of science. We have a mineral initiative, and mineral workflows are so impressive to do a screening, do the evaluation to price something that cuz you can actually spin off a copy of an investment portfolio, your investors can touch it and look at it and play with it.

 

Stuart Turley [00:18:47] Michael and I have had to do some in about 15, 20 minutes, and I’m.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:18:50] Kind of serious.

 

Stuart Turley [00:18:53] Men like the other CEO’s like, give me that, I want.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:18:57] That, I want that.

 

Stuart Turley [00:18:58] I’m like.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:18:59] Come on, let go and shout out what? So, so personally, for me, I started a program called F3, F3, F3, and it’s a, it’s a workout program, low cost Google F3 nation.com. Okay. But it really transformed myself and my perspective on certain things. But we get together Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings when you have time 5 a.m. we need as a group mentally right. No cost. And you have a bonding faith fellowship fitness night. And we work out cardio, traditionally in a parking lot, at a park or in church for an hour you have that morning. If you don’t show up for one day, they’re going to be trying. You say, hey, you don’t. Okay, hey, but I’ve been doing this since I met Earth, and it’s really changed my I’ve seen changes in myself. So I’m gonna reach out to people, think about F3, Google it, find one in your area. They’re all over the world. And it was such a game changer. So that’s that’s my personal testimonial.

 

Stuart Turley [00:19:58] I’ll tell you what. The entire energy sector, the entire oil and gas sector, they’re on the front lines. Hug a lineman.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:20:09] Hey, man.

 

Stuart Turley [00:20:10] I mean, you are Landon. Landon. Absolutely.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:20:13] I have to say, the friendliest people I’ve ever met.

 

Stuart Turley [00:20:16] But, you know, what’s nice is when you sit back and you take a look, they’re delivering the lowest cost kilowatt per hour. And the inspiration that, I get from, like, the, Steve Reese’s of the world. Yeah, yeah. The Keith Stelter of the.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:20:32] World is.

 

Stuart Turley [00:20:33] The Warrens of the world. Yes. That are out there.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:20:36] Yes, absolutely.

 

Stuart Turley [00:20:38] That helps me because I’ve had down days. Yeah. And I’ve been in. I don’t believe we’re.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:20:45] Yeah. Really? Are we so happy? Always. Always.

 

Stuart Turley [00:20:48] I play poker very well.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:20:52] That’s what friends are for. They’ll pick you up. You have a little fire. You and I have a network of people around me like yourself. Yeah. I call you up when he answers the phone. I’m like, as busiest there is. It’s like we talk and it’s, like, really meaningful. So thank you. Thank you for sharing. Well, thank you. For me personally, because I really enjoy the discussions that we’ve had as well as online.

 

Stuart Turley [00:21:12] And I’m a nice guy. And, that was almost my brute intimidation. There you go. I don’t know. I’ve been warned that my Putin imitation is horrible. So the CIA is not going to tap into me for doing a good, imitation. [00:21:30]Well, Dan, thank you so much for staying here. [2.5s]

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:21:33] It’s been wonderful. Thank you for having me and enjoying all of our conversations.

 

Stuart Turley [00:21:37] Oh, there’s more things you and I can talk about. Like next.

 

Dan Gualtieri [00:21:39] Week. Amen. So God bless you. God bless everyone. Thank you.

 

The post ENB #193 The Driving Force of Integration: Using Data to Transform Energy Operations appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

19 companies have filed bids for nearly 34 billion cubic meters of natural gas in a new joint purchasing tender for multi-year deals, European Commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič said on Thursday (22 February).

In the new tender scheme launched last week, companies were able to bid for gas supplies for up to five years until October 2029, Šefčovič said in a statement.

Altogether, 19 companies – including industrial consumers of gas – have submitted requests for a total volume of almost 34 bcm, he added.

More than 15.3 bcm was liquefied natural gas while more than 18.3 bcm was requested for delivery via pipeline, the statement said.

Suppliers will be able to respond with offers on 26 February.

The EU launched a joint gas purchasing mechanism called AggregateEU during the energy crisis in 2022 when Europe lost nearly all of its Russian gas supplies, sending prices skyrocketing. The EU held four short-term tenders in 2023.

The new mechanism serves as a matchmaker and companies must conclude deals privately. Last year, 42 bcm of demand was matched through AggregateEU, Šefčovič said.

“AggregateEU is now going to become a permanent instrument under our newly agreed gas market regulations, building on its success as a crisis management tool last year”.

Read more with Euractiv

1031 Exchange E-Book

ENB Top News 
ENB
Energy Dashboard
ENB Podcast
ENB Substack

The post Companies bid for 34 bcm of gas in new joint EU tender appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

LNG trader Vitol has signed a long-term deal to buy natural gas from US oil and gas producer EOG.

Under the sales and purchase deal, EOG will supply 180,000 MMBtu/d of natural gas, or about 1.25 million tonnes of LNG per year, to Vitol for a period of 10 years staring in 2027.

Geneva-based Vitol said EOG will supply 140,000 MMBtu/d at a purchase price indexed to Brent Crude Oil and the remaining volumes indexed to Brent or a US Gulf Coast gas index.

“Vitol has a long history of serving LNG customers world-wide and this transaction underscores Vitol’s ability to provide innovative gas and LNG solutions to North American gas producers looking to access global markets,” Ben Marshall, head of Vitol Americas, said.

He said that Vitol continues to strengthen its position in the LNG industry as global LNG demand is experiencing “significant growth”.

Prior to this deal, US shale gas producer Chesapeake Energy has signed a heads of agreement with Vitol to supply the latter with LNG from a liquefaction plant in the US.

Under the 15-year deal, Chesapeake Energy Marketing will supply up to 1 mtpa of LNG to Vitol with the purchase price indexed to Japan Korea Marker (JKM).

Vitol has a global LNG portfolio with long-term LNG supply from North America, Africa, Middle East, and Asia, and charters a fleet of LNG carriers.

In 2022, Vitol physically delivered about 14 mtpa of LNG.

The firm recently signed a deal with India’s GAIL to deliver 1 mtpa of LNG to the latter for a period of about 10 years starting in 2026.

 

The post EOG, Vitol seal long-term natural gas supply deal appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

US liquefaction plants shipped 26 liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes in the week ending February 21, while natural gas deliveries to these terminals decreased compared to the week before.

The US EIA said in its weekly natural gas report that 26 LNG carriers departed the US plants between February 15 and February 21, the same as in the week before.

Citing shipping data provided by Bloomberg Finance, the agency said the total capacity of these LNG vessels is 97 Bcf.

Average natural gas deliveries to US LNG export terminals decreased by 1.9 percent (0.3 Bcf/d) week over week, averaging 13.6 Bcf/d, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Natural gas deliveries to terminals in South Louisiana decreased by 4.5 percent (0.4 Bcf/d), to 8.7 Bcf/d, while natural gas deliveries to terminals in South Texas increased by 4.6 percent (0.2 Bcf/d) to average 3.5 Bcf/d.

The agency said that natural gas deliveries to terminals outside of the U.S. Gulf Coast were essentially unchanged week over week at 1.2 Bcf/d.

Cheniere’s Sabine Pass plant shipped nine cargoes and the company’s Corpus Christi facility sent four shipments during the week under review.

Sempra Infrastructure’s Cameron LNG terminal shipped four cargoes while Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal and the Freeport LNG terminal each shipped three cargoes during the period.

Also, the Elba Island terminal sent two LNG cargoes and the Cove Point LNG terminal shipped one cargo, the agency said.

This report week, the Henry Hub spot price rose 9 cents from $1.51 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday to $1.60/MMBtu this Wednesday.

The price of the March 2024 NYMEX contract increased 16.4 cents, from $1.609/MMBtu last Wednesday to $1.773/MMBtu this Wednesday.

According to the agency, the price of the 12-month strip averaging March 2024 through February 2025 futures contracts climbed 19.1 cents to $2.608/MMBtu.

The agency said that international natural gas futures decreased this report week.

Bloomberg Finance reported that weekly average front-month futures prices for LNG cargoes in East Asia fell 77 cents to a weekly average of $8.65/MMBtu.

Natural gas futures for delivery at the Dutch TTF fell 51 cents to a weekly average of $7.75/MMBtu.

In the same week last year (week ending February 22, 2023), the prices were $15.34/MMBtu in East Asia and $15.64/MMBtu at TTF, the agency said.

 

The post US weekly LNG exports reach 26 cargoes appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

[#item_full_conent]

The post Use of natural gas-fired generation differs in the United States by technology and region appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

The post Fractal and Beks included in latest UK sanctions appeared first on Energy News Beat.

 

Energy News Beat

The post Houthis vow to escalate attacks – is the world imune to Terrorists? appeared first on Energy News Beat.