Daily Energy Standup Episode #199 – Energy News Highlights: Offshore Wind Challenges, Oil Production Insights, and Controversies in the Energy Sector

Michael Tanner: [00:00:14] What is going on. Everybody, welcome into another edition of the Daily Energy News Beat stand up here on this gorgeous Thursday, August 31st, 2023. As always, I’m your humble correspondent, Michael Tanner, coming to you from an undisclosed location here in Dallas, Texas, joined by the executive producer of the show, the purveyor of the show and the director, publisher of the world’s greatest website, EnergyNewsBeat.com, Stuart Turley, my man, how we doing today? [00:00:38][24.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:00:39] It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Nay, our numbers are still going off. Monikers. Good grief. [00:00:43][3.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:00:43] Yeah, no kidding. Just, you know, it’s it’s it’s you know, it’s only up from zero. So we we only really had one way to go. We appreciate everybody checking us out. We we’ve a packed show for you guys today here on this Thursday. First up on the menu, cruise ship with thousands onboard collide with oil tanker leaving passengers injured. Next up, U.S. offshore wind sector faces key test after weak Gulf of Mexico auction. Next up, China’s involvement in a mega UK wind farm sparks controversy. All hail the CCP. Then we’ll fly over and talk a little bit back home about the energy grid. We’ve got national energy grid facing summer pressures as market operator calls for, quote, urgent investigation into generation them. Interesting. Excited to hear what that one’s about. Not so eco friendly. Paper straws contain, quote, more forever chemicals than a plastic according to a new study. So all those paper straws, they’re killing us. Of course they are. And then finally, oil and gas success in Texas and New Mexico. What does it mean for renewable energies still? Then kick it over to me. I will quickly cover what happened in the oil and gas markets today. We did see crude oil inventories drop yesterday. So I will cover all of that and a bag of chips at the end, guys. But first, check us out online world’s greatest website www.energnewsbeat.com It’s where all the news and analysis comes from. Check us out on Spotify Apple Podcasts subscribe to our YouTube channel we we you know Stuart is a great job and the team does a great job of curating all of our content to make sure it’s up to speed with the best energy news possible dashboard.energynewsbeat.com. You can email the show questions@energynewsbeat.com. We’ve got a big show those too. So let’s kick this off. Where do you want to begin? [00:02:23][99.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:02:23] Hey, let’s start with a cruise ship. Michael, have you ever been on a cruise? [00:02:27][3.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:02:27] Yeah, I hated it. I wanted to jump off, but I’m not a guy. [00:02:32][4.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:02:32] Cruise ship with thousands on board collides with an oil tanker, leaving passengers injured. My goodness. This sounded like that movie. Years and years of The Poseidon Adventure. They were 74 mile winds in Malaga and right outside of Spain. And 321 guests had to be flown home early as the show headed back to Southampton, UK. Southampton. Oh, my gosh, he says. We were at the stairwell next to the Sunset bar, heard a loud crash, came in and the door flung open with people running in. Within seconds there was more crashing following by chaos as people were trying to escape. [00:03:13][40.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:03:13] I bet you it was one of those people on that that thought this was a gift from above because they were in the cruise from hell and now they get flown off early. I bet you these one person having a bad time who got saved by this and I’m here for it. [00:03:26][13.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:27] Oh, yeah. And the Britannia. I thought that was the sister ship to the Titanic that sank as well to never mind. And following the inspections, one third party surveyor confirmed that one of Britannia’s life vests had been substantial structural issues and could not be repaired. [00:03:47][20.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:03:48] Yeah. [00:03:48][0.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:49] So even if they did it, they were starting to have it. It was that was bad. Here is one of the funny ones. We’re so sorry, but these extraordinary circumstances means that the ship is required by maritime regulation to return to Southampton with a reduced number of people onboard. So they were having to check a bunch of people out. And one of the guys said, Oh, by the way, we want to give you a 20% discount on your next cruise. And the guy goes, Not on your life. Nothing was worse than me going 30. [00:04:18][29.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:04:18] You’re going to have to pay me to go on. You’re going to have to pay me to go on a cruise. Was there No crude oil got spilled, though, So we’re good on any spill? [00:04:25][6.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:25] Oh, no, we’re good on this crude oil. But I did have aa1 that I wanted the producer to fly in of a cruise ship coming in of the energy news me cruise ship line. And we’re not going to do. [00:04:40][14.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:04:40] It takes too much time. What’s next? [00:04:42][1.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:43] We’re going to the next one here. This happens only a few days after the UK’s weak auction. People are burned, companies are burned. And so let’s go through some of this low interest in the first ever auction, offshore wind farm development rights in the Gulf. Joe Biden’s green agenda has got a black eye. Here’s. Where the people are really wanting the wind in the Gulf, and that is because of hydrogen plants. They can’t get green hydrogen without the wind. Well, you sit back and kind of go, well, the only way that you’re going to be able to put that in is in Texas, because we got a lot of wind, but only a single bid of 5.6 million emerging from the rights to 102,400 acres, 41,472 hectare acres off Louisiana and two others offer no bids at all. It’s clear that for Germany come. [00:05:49][66.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:05:49] It’s a German company, right? [00:05:50][1.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:51] But they’re coming after W.E.. Yeah, they are coming after the Porkulus bill, the Inflation Reduction Act money. So otherwise it would they wouldn’t even have been on it. [00:06:02][10.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:02] Newsbeat tried to put a pin in, but we couldn’t. We we, we we we faxed it too late. [00:06:06][4.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:07] No, they didn’t like my sarcasm. So anyway, total hesitancy was on full display in Tuesday’s golf auctions. 15 companies have been qualified to make the bids, including Global Giant with Equinor, Shell and total energy. They were qualified. [00:06:23][16.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:24] Nobody did what They could have paid me a lot less money to consult and tell them pass. So glad they did this. Let’s talk about China. What’s next? [00:06:32][8.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:32] You got to love China. And here’s where China is. Got the BRICS and belt and roads and they are now trying to even get into the UK with it. Anyway, it’s kind of funny, actually. The more a west offshore wind farm farm project, wind farm project off of Scotland is 882 megawatt consisting of 60 turbines with the potential to serve 1.33 million homes only 10% of the time because when the wind is blowing or. I’m just kidding that was that part was a joke. But Alisha Kearns, Conservative MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told Citi AM that the origins and components for renewable projects was the key problem for the UK as it felt exposed where its strategic vulnerabilities lie. That’s no kidding. Really? [00:07:28][55.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:07:28] Yes. Okay, I’m going to push back a little bit because this then goes down the road because what’s her quote farther down here? [00:07:35][6.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:35] As we scale up our offshore wind sector, it’s imperative we intensify more of the supply chain to make United Kingdom at home. [00:07:42][6.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:07:42] No, no, no. Instead of relying on imports, we should be incentivizing British projects to use British products. What does that sound a lot like? What’s that? What’s that act that you love? The Jones Act is very similar to this do, and the Jones Act is something you’ve railed against in the past. This screams anti-free market. [00:08:06][24.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:08:07] Yes. Now the Jones Act is just a hair different from this. But as she as I just said, because she wants it to be built in the UK, but they can’t because they don’t have any critical mineral now. [00:08:19][12.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:08:20] Yes, I know. I agree that. I guess what I’m saying is it’s hard to set a policy that says you need to build everything with the stuff that you can source locally. Britain’s not that big. They’re not there. They’re not that lucky. [00:08:32][11.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:08:32] They’re going to go elsewhere. And it’s not that easy, Michael, because in the Porkulus bill, in the Inflation Reduction Act, you also had hang on, you had President Biden putting all of these things where the car had to be made in the U.S. It had to have X number of percent of the battery. It had to be assembled. And there’s only like two cars that actually qualify now with all of those restrictions because none of it’s made in the U.S.. [00:08:57][25.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:08:58] I think what they’re doing is they’re taking the wrong tactical approach to what is a larger problem, which I agree with, is I mean, think about this. They have a $100 million Chinese state owned nuclear facility that’s buying out 20% stake in a company. They also say that, you know, they’ve the Chinese firms have come in and invested in the North Sea oil and gas projects. Now they’re in here in the wind farm. So there’s a broader issue of being too reliant on China. I agree you should get relying off trade, but don’t make bad policy because of that. That’s what I’m just warning that up there is the joke now. [00:09:31][32.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:32] No, absolutely. Bad policy on bad policy equals risky bad policy. [00:09:36][4.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:09:37] Speaking of bad policy, let’s come to our energy grid. [00:09:40][3.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:40] Oh, national energy grid. This is for Australia’s national energy grid, facing summer pressures as market operator calls for urgent investment in generation. Okay, I am sitting here kind of going the Australian energy market operator a m EO It’s also a Sesame Street character. AMO has developed a gloomy outlook. Okay, so when you come down here imminent and urgent Investment Australia is right behind California. And Germany for being stupid with their energy policies. They do so much in coal. They’ve got all the they’ve got nuclear. They’ve got natural gas out the wazoo, which is a little bit shorter than a wombat. They’ve got all of this stuff out there, but they they want to keep putting out the wind farms and everything else and put the money into that. It’s the same thing that the UK is doing. It’s going to be a disaster. [00:10:38][58.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:10:39] Yeah, it was. It’s the same thing the UK is doing and it’s the same thing that the US is already seeing. So if you want to learn a lesson from the United States, it’s make the investments to keep your infrastructure up before it’s too late and before it becomes urgent. [00:10:52][13.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:53] Right. Here’s here’s a quote. After a decade of energy policy chaos, the Albéniz government is implementing a overdue policy to reform and deliver cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy system. [00:11:06][13.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:11:09] I am glad I don’t live in Australia. [00:11:10][1.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:11:11] Oh, no. No kidding. You never know. And then wombats and their mother things. [00:11:15][3.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:11:16] But I don’t need wombats coming to attack me. [00:11:19][2.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:11:20] It’s the platypus that is my favorite. Okay, so you come over here and you go to that. Not. Not so eco friendly. Michael, Always. I always love it when I walk in. You see these people with either steel straws or you see them with their. I bring in my own straw and they get there. They’ve got they put their straw in their cup with their pinkie out. And what a bunch of horse hockey. And you sit down. You realize that the new study that was put out and the food additives and contaminants found and evidence of forever chemicals it’s called a PFA is. I’m not even going to try to say what that is. My Oklahoma accent would just butcher it. [00:12:00][40.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:12:01] For all out guy. [00:12:01][0.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:02] Yeah. Bless you. And so the scientists in Belgium tested 39 straw brands, a straw bamboo, plastic and stainless steel that are in shops. This is horrible. These eco of these plant based straws because they can be considered an additional source of the PFA, as in humans in the environment, this stuff goes into the environment and then the chemicals are found in animals, in people. That’s bad out of these straws. [00:12:38][36.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:12:39] I mean, newsflash paper straws are horrible for you in the environment. I mean, if you actually thought a paper straw was better, I’m sorry. I don’t know how to like. I don’t know how to help you. It’s a What do we say? Hello, McFly. Like where they’re doing, not spraying these. What chemicals are holding these paper together. Paper? Yeah. When paper gets wet, it collapses. So what are they doing? The killing. Of course. They’re spraying with chemicals. This is a no brainer. And the fact that we had to go to Belgium to get the answer to this mind boggling. [00:13:09][29.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:10] Oh, yeah. And here’s where I think it’s funny. Increased cholesterol levels or risk of obesity out of these chemicals. [00:13:16][6.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:17] Blame the straws. Blame the strides. Dry weight. I can only blame the straws for my weight. What’s next? [00:13:23][5.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:24] Okay, Speaking of good things. Oil and gas access in Texas and New Mexico, what does it mean for renewable energies? Let’s go through this one. This one’s got that’s out there. Was you in the Permian. Right now, USA makes 13 million barrels per day out of the Permian, 90 Bcf, Bcf, D, out of that Permian. That’s a lot. [00:13:50][26.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:50] It’s a lot of gas. [00:13:51][0.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:52] Yeah. Now, my finger. [00:13:53][1.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:53] The real question is have we reached peak? When’s peak Permian production in your mind? That’s the real question. So it’s 13 million a day produced. If you go and fly those two first top two charts off oil production and natural gas production, is it at the tops? Do have we really. [00:14:07][13.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:08] Think so. [00:14:08][0.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:08] Do you think? [00:14:08][0.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:09] I think there’s cut I think there’s still a lot more in there. And I think that there’s new technologies coming around the corner. I don’t think we’ve seen peak yet. [00:14:17][8.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:17] You know, we’ve seen peak five and a half billion out of the Permian. Love that that’s what over I it’s like 30 40% of the all the oil we make it’s crazy. [00:14:26][8.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:27] It is a ton dude now when you sit back and take a look there are some other things in here. Texas, the number one state has 4.6 times more crude production than New Mexico. Texas, as a country was number fourth in world oil production. Go tax it renewables production is less than 7% of total energy production in both states, meaning oil and gas dominates as expected, the Permian for the energy. But Texas, as a country ranks number fifth in the world with wind production. [00:15:04][37.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:15:05] Whac-A-Mole in Texas is an example of how both wind and gas should. Play hand in hand. Now, be honest. Now I have my issues with their court. Course everybody does. They’re not that smart. But there is something to be said about Texas is on the path to making both of them work right now. [00:15:23][18.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:15:24] Later on in the article, it says the reason that Texas has gotten so good or has such a base is because they’ve been doing it since 2002. And Governor Perry is the reason and I’m going to throw this out. We’re scheduling him. And Alex Epstein, we’re coming up with both of them. They haven’t broken each other in a long time. We’re sneaking that bad dog out there. We got both of them coming on the show. Love that. Love that. All right. So you sit back and take a look. Texas does it right. Our energy costs are half of what California is. You can have your renewables, You can have your nuclear, you can have your coal, and you can still do it right. [00:16:05][41.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:06] You have it all. You can have your cake and eat it, too. [00:16:08][2.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:08] All right. And I’m not going on a cruise, by the way. [00:16:11][2.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:11] Yeah. No, I. Trust me, we’re not schedule. We’re not scheduling an energy use B cruise. Trust me, we will not be scheduling an energy speak cruise. Can you imagine anything else in the news? Portions to close out for the week? [00:16:22][11.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:23] Oh, no. I just have an absolutely wonderful Labor Day weekend. And we just appreciate everybody as we get geared up for it. Listen to us. I mean, if you’re out there and you got to ignore your wife, I mean, you got to get a little extra time, please tune in like us, subscribe and have fun. [00:16:41][17.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:41] Bash that like. But as we would say. But I’ll close this out with finance here. Steal who? We saw markets up about 3/10 of a percentage point. S&P traded up to about 4514. That’s 3/10 of a percentage point. Nasdaq up 15 for six to that’s about half a percentage point for the day. Mainly blew it off the back of a weaker dollar. And the fact that our ten year yield drop about three two quarters of a percentage point oil drop oil was really rangebound today, 8163. We had a little interesting which comes off the back of a interesting EIA crude oil inventories. Do we thought it was going to be 11 million barrels according to the API they dropped on Tuesday. Yesterday, Wednesday we found 10.6 million barrels. So API basically spot on there. But that’s a pretty, pretty big number. Even though Reuters analysts only expected about three and a half million barrels. So I’m wonder who them talking about talking to Goldman Sachs. So hey you know if I talk to their analysts to get their numbers up just off by a little bit that’s mainly what I think kind of help prices on the back end. You know, Chinese economy is still kind of hampering overall what’s going to go on with oil. But a strong draw from the EIA storage reserves is going to help keep that pricing up. As I mentioned yesterday, really, everything’s kind of all quiet on the western front from oil from in terms of oil and gas news. And, you know, a lot of just a lot of press releases are just announcing, oh, it’s a new board member, It’s oh, we’re presenting it. This conference is oh, nothing do spicy. There are you know, as obviously there are things in the works per usual cycle. We’ll see what decides to trickle out. Stu, as we close the week ups do, what should people be thinking about going into this weekend? [00:18:21][100.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:18:22] Don’t do any trading. Trading right before a holiday is bad news, even though we don’t give investment advice. I’ve always lost my most money, right? Going into the holiday. [00:18:31][8.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:18:32] We don’t give investment advice. So I guys will With that. We’ll let you get out of here by check this out tomorrow. Stu’s going to be dropping. Well, who do we got tomorrow on the podcast do on Friday? [00:18:41][9.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:18:42] It depends on who comes out of production first, but we got a few good ones. I’m hoping that it is Patrick Moore in. [00:18:49][6.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:18:49] Dr. Patrick Moore. [00:18:50][0.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:18:50] Dr. Patrick Moore. So it’s that one is pretty crazy. Yes. [00:18:54][3.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:18:54] We need we need to probably drop Patrick Moore. You’ll hear the weekly recap on Saturday. I’m covering the top segments from this week, so appreciate you guys checking this out. But with that, guys, we’ll get out of here. Appreciate again, you sticking workers through the end of the week. I enjoy your weekend. Have fun. Have a great day, guys. [00:18:54][0.0][1078.9]

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