Daily Energy Standup Episode #263 – Opt-Outs, Copper Surges, EV Challenges, and Global Transition Struggles

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Chevron, Exxon opt out of funding COP28 methane-reduction fund

00:00 – Intro02:36 – Chevron, Exxon opt out of funding COP28 methane-reduction fund05:18 – Copper climbs to 11-week high on Panama mine risk, shortfall07:58 – Why Repairing Your EV Is So Expensive11:06 – Germany is the sick man of Europe – and the prognosis is grim13:20 – The Dangerous Futility of the Energy Transition in a Single Graphic16:26 – Markets Update19:40 – Outro

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

Michael Tanner: [00:00:14] What is going on, everybody? Welcome to another edition of the Daily Energy News Beat Standup here on this gorgeous Tuesday, December 5th, 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, energy news beat, Stuart Turley, my man, how are we doing today? [00:00:37][23.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:00:37] It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood up here in Bear country. [00:00:39][2.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:00:40] Absolutely know awesome show. And we have an awesome menu lined up for the day. First up, Chevron, Exxon, opt out of funding at Cop 28 methane reduction fund. Who in the in the throngs of Cop 28, Chevron and Exxon make a name. Next up copper climbs to 11 week high on Panama mine risk and shortfall. We don’t cover the minerals markets as much as maybe we should, but do. Great article you’ve got on what’s going on with copper right now and why it’s really so expensive. Talking about that, speaking about copper being expensive, why repairing your EV is so expensive, may not. Not much have to do with the price of copper, but it has a lot to do with the supply chain system. We’ll dive into all that. Next up, Germany is sick of the man. A man in Germany is the sick man of Europe, and the prognosis is grim, unfortunately. So Stu will play doctor and talk to us about the health of Germany. And then finally, the dangerous futility of the energy transition in a single graphic. So, you know, an excellent show lined up stool. Toss it over to me. I’ll quickly then cover what happened in the oil and gas financial markets. Not much really happened, to be honest with you. So it’ll be pretty a late segment on my own and then we’ll let you guys get out of here, get back to work and start your day. As always, guys, before we begin the stories and analysis, you are about two years brought to you by the world’s greatest website www.energynewsbeat.com the best place for all your energy news. Doing the team do a great job of curating that website, make sure stays up to speed with everything you need to know to stay up to speed and at the tip of the spear. When it comes to the energy business, you can hit the description below, see the links to the articles, the timestamps, and check out all of our resources. You can follow us wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Podcasts, Spotify or you can find us at YouTube at Energy News Beat Dashboard.EnergyNewsbeat.com data news combo product. You can email the show questions@EnergyNewsBeat.com I’m going to bet those two. Where do you want to begin? [00:02:33][112.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:02:33] Hey, let’s get rolling over there. Buddies over there. Chevron and Exxon opt out of funding at Cop 28 Methane Reduction Fund. Michael, this is an absolute. Who? Ursula, our good buddy over there, who’s in charge of the EU, made a comment that this fund is going to be into the billions there. The commitments have been about $100 billion over cop is their target. She says that’s not enough. We need trillions. I think that might have been the trigger for Exxon and Chevron to go, No, our checkbook is not that big. Let’s go through this here. A global flaring and methane reduction partnership that will run by the World Bank with initially 255 million earmarked to help developing countries and their oil companies stifle leaks on that potent greenhouse gas. Okay. I can understand why Exxon and Chevron later. Now, in the article, they say we’re not sure we want to donate to a fund that’s going to be controlled by our competitors. I applaud them for that decision. That’s pretty crazy. And so when you sit back and think you have BP and I Equinor, Occidental, Shell, Total and UAE, all of that was 100 million US put in 2 million, Germany put in 1.5 and Norway was one. [00:04:04][91.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:04:05] Wow. Yeah. I mean, if you’re Exxon, Chevron, I think the you know, from their perspective, they’re doing all they I mean, if you don’t think Exxon and Chevron are not trying to on their own reduce emissions because they understand that if they make that if they reduce emissions and produce sustainable oil and gas, it’s the best of both worlds. They’re probably spending more than 25 million to lower their emissions. So the fact that they have to now put it up is probably where they’re like, well, we don’t need you know, we don’t just need to just lose 25 million when we’re already doing. [00:04:38][32.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:38] I applaud them for that. Absolutely. And where I they were in there and Exxon said they join the pledge. But we’re going to give our expertise and what we’re already doing. Michael, I applaud them for standing up. We’ve got to have more of that kind of thing in our great Chevron and Exxon are doing better than my buddy Putin, you know, and you sit back and kind of go, eh, you know, Gazprom is leaking like a sieve. I mean, that’s like me in a Speedo. I’m leaking everywhere. [00:05:10][31.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:05:11] Okay, that’s on that lovely note. [00:05:13][1.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:13] So let’s go to the next A copper set. I just threw up copper climbs to an 11 week high in Panama. A mind risk shortfall. This is the ENB thread tonight. You’ll see this here in just a second to go in where this is fitting in. The Panama government said it will shut first quantum Merrill’s Cobra operation, which is 1.5% of the world’s supply in time. Michael, you take 1.5% of anything off and in a world supply, it’s going to start impacting it. That’s a bunch, Yeah, yeah. Chile, Chile and Peru or the others. Copper Climb 4.4 November As a slew of stimulus in China improve the outlook for commodity demand, this is going to impact everybody. This is big. [00:06:01][47.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:01] Yeah. No and I mean luckily copper is is is there’s other sources of copper available to go out and get. It’s not like we’re talking about a lithium mine. It’s not like we’re talking about one of these smaller minerals like neodymium, which I’m sure you’ve never heard of, but is probably the most critical mineral in your entire life. You know, there are multiple sources to go get copper. It’s one of the reasons why, you know, way back when, currency was backed on gold and not copper, because the amount of the amount of supply of copper was increasing too rapidly went right. Ironically, it’s what the monetary base is doing right now. So, yes, I do think that these these high copper prices are concern. I do think, as you mentioned, Chile and Peru and some of these other nations, as a lot of these other copper mines, wouldn’t be able to pick up the output. I do think in 2024 that we’re probably going to see a larger shift. And that’s going to, again, as you said, as we move into the next article, bleed into the markets. There still is a lot of copper. It’s not the main one. We were talking about a lithium mine, but you know, or a critical lithium mine. You know, we’d see if prices would shoot do this is going to have a long range affect and not just on Eads. This is I mean, copper used in wiring. Copper is an industrial process. Again, it’s one of the reasons why we don’t we don’t we wouldn’t want to eventually. You know, people always talk about, well, how do we pick something to back our currency up? Well, if you if you chose copper, the problem is it’s too it’s too prevalent in industry, not just EVs everywhere. I mean, you’re say I’m sitting in apartment right now. I bet you there’s miles of copper flying around me. So it’s going to have a long tail effect. Not necessarily just the EVs, but it will make them more expensive. [00:07:31][89.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:32] You you alluded on several of my comments that I was trying to go for, and that is all of the renewable projects. There are 24,000 renewable projects waiting to get attached to the grid in the US right row. And what is being attached to the grid? We’re talking power lines. Oh, Oops. So, okay. Electric vehicles. Why repairing your EV is so expensive? Michael, Remember about two months ago, you and I talked about insurance. Insurance companies are even more shark like than sharks. They actually understand dollars and cents. And so this is where it gets a little bit funny. If repairs following collision can cost thousands of dollars more than their gas counterparts because it tends more moving parts, the vehicles are more complicated and fewer people do side repairs. Michael I love my 43 willies. It was a 43 Willys Flathead. It was the only year they it was a first year they made the jeep. And I mean, it was the first four wheel drive car ever made. That thing would go. I pulled out people out of the mud in it. It was an old World War two Jeep. I loved it. I could work on it. Can’t work on anything since now. [00:08:58][86.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:08:58] Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s. I mean, obviously the eve is going to be a little bit harder to fix than the Model T, which was the Stu’s first car, but. Okay, what’s crazy is this 51 year old San Francisco guy, whatever his name is, Scott McFerrin. Right. All he had was a bumper issue, a dent on the size of a bowling ball underneath a real tail amp. Two and a half months to fix $22,000 worth of wrong business. Do we have to shut it all down and become mechanics? Oh. [00:09:29][31.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:31] Let’s see. Podcast host Evie Mechanic. There’s work involved with one of those. Nothing point. [00:09:37][5.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:09:39] In. In their defense, it is a rivian, which is one of those those new style cars. But you know, I love how they say down here, Stu, that the average cost of preparing an EV is about $6,500, which is about $1,500 more than the average car, lot $4,200. You know, and as you mentioned, it comes with the increased cost of just a lot of stuff. What’s interesting is that Hertz is even saying after entering an agreement to purchase a lot of Teslas and have a decent amount of Teslas in their fleet, they actually mention that part of the reason their third quarter profit. Was smaller than expected was due to the fact that they spent so much on repairing electric models, which just again goes to show you the UN economics of EVs at its finest. [00:10:20][40.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:20] Now, I will say I want a cybertruck and I ads. After I saw this video on TV, a guy came out and he actually there’s two videos that I thought were great. And I want to give Elon Musk a shout out. And that is they brought out a Tommy gun and shot 40 fives at the thing in it. Actually, it did fine. So I want me a bulletproof cybertruck. Now the other one was the showed these Tesla robots running around shooting at it and that actually was greenscreen and CGI and everything else. And people were thinking that that was real, that they had Tesla robots driving a cybertruck. So there are two different ones, but I do want a Cybertruck Okay, let’s go. Next, let’s go to Germany. Germany is the sick man of Europe and the prognosis is grim. Oh, yeah. Oh, clear. Hey, watch this. For our podcast listeners, I have two of my 30 mice that are normally on my desk. Clear cut. We got to have. [00:11:21][60.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:11:21] That 20 ccs stat. [00:11:22][1.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:11:23] Stat. Okay. German government, Germany, they had their BASF fertilizer plant closed. They’ve had the oldest steel mill in jaw in the EU closed this year. Volkswagen has absolutely shut down. And why, Michael? High cost of energy, their energy cost have continued to go through the roof. Former Chancellor Angela merkel like to evoke the idea of frugal what’s been housewife when she lectured others on sensible economics. It was her government that earned a debt break into the Constitution. She was good about some things. She didn’t like a little bit of a sharp pencil on the budget. She did some other things that were questionable. But let’s go in here. The necessary cuts will hit Germany amid cost living crisis. This is a new reality will bring more economic problems piling on pressure on a fragile and unpopular government. We’re now seeing that energy, high energy costs shut businesses down. They have less tax revenue coming in. People leave your countries and Germany’s economy. So goes Germany’s economy goes the EU. So this article is pretty scary for the EU. [00:12:49][86.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:12:50] Yeah, I mean, but they’ve done it to themselves, unfortunately. I mean, they’ve they’ve put themselves in the straitjacket and now they’re just jumping off the riverbank and. [00:12:59][9.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:00] Yeah. Guess who put themselves in the straitjacket with them. Newsom. Newsom has also done it, and Governor Holcomb is trying to do it to New York. So if you’re in one of those two states, you get you a cybertruck because the governor is going to shoot you. Yeah. So let’s never mind. Okay. Let’s go to the last article here, Michael. Dangerous futility of the energy transition in a single graphic. This goes back to Cop 28 and that’s I get to interview tomorrow. It’ll come out Thursday. You know, it’ll be 11:00 our time. It’ll be 9 a.m. in Dubai. Great stink with She’s Miss America and the nuclear thing and the reason that the energy transition to net zero you got to have nuclear and you got to have natural gas until 30 years from now until wind and solar can actually be made without printing money. Look at this graphic. If you, Andy, we can have you as our producer. Slide this in. Look at this map You have the green buttons are net decrease and the red is net increase. Look at that map. You have Europe, the EU and Russia and the United States, Michael, all reducing emissions. Look at the rest of that map. It is China. China looks like a python that eight an entire golf ball or something. I mean, is that just a giant game? Yeah, it’s like, wow. And then you take a look at at India’s below up. I mean, you know, you take a look at that. It’s wow, painful. So when you take a look, the false and heavily subscribed to energy transition has nothing to do with the climate or the environment. It’s the fact the most advanced transfer of wealth and national security in human history. That is from the author of this Oh, Steven team David Blackman. [00:14:58][118.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:59] Oh, well, we love him. I mean, if they if they say the picture is worth a thousand words, then this picture really is. [00:15:05][6.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:15:05] Worth it is it’s. [00:15:06][0.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:15:06] Worth more because it clearly shows us where. The emissions are coming from anybody who’s sitting in the United States saying we are not doing enough to curb emissions. You’re just not necessarily informed. Now, the problem is our net decrease in emissions is offset by huge net increases over in. But what do you expect India and China and Indonesia and Vietnam and the Philippines, what would you expect them to do when you. [00:15:29][23.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:15:29] Expect them to lower the. [00:15:31][1.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:15:31] Cost of energy for their citizens? What do you expect? [00:15:33][1.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:15:33] I don’t expect them to do anything different except use more natural gas and more nuclear. You can handle this very easily if you don’t have the world economic or the World Bank charging exorbitant rates to put in renewable that has a higher cost. So there is a way around this. Let’s help Africa use their own natural gas, charge a higher natural gas and help them export that and charge that and let that money go back to Africa. There is a way in order to get to net zero if we work together. David Blackman Follow him on blackman.substack.com. He is a cool cat. [00:16:14][41.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:15] Yeah. No, absolutely. We love that. [00:16:16][1.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:17] Our favorite random guy on Substack. [00:16:19][1.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:20] Favorite random guy on Substack. Is that all you got? [00:16:22][2.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:23] That’s all I got, man. [00:16:23][0.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:24] Well, I’ll keep it short on my side. Guys, we saw, you know, over on the finance markets today, we saw stock market drop about fell by about half a percentage point. Nasdaq or S&P down about, as I mentioned, half a percentage point, 45, 69. Nasdaq down about a full percentage point, 1589, which represents again, about 157 point drop. Crude oil dropped about two and a half percentage points from opening somewhere around 74, 75, currently trading 7326 as we record this about 557 here on the fourth. We did see natural gas stay fairly steady at about $2.70. Brant oil 7918 We did see bitcoin spike over 42,000, currently trading about 4197 right now. So for all you bitcoins enthusiast out there right now, a price is through the roof. Gold also hit, what, 21,008. So if you’re in if you’re in many of your metals, hey, it’s a good day for you. You know, as far as what’s holding, again, oil prices down, it’s really the fact that OPEC plus will probably not make more cuts. I mean, that that seems to be the sentiment out there right now. But it also as as it’s come out multiple times, OPEC plus has had to tamp down rumors that none of its countries are actually abiding by the supply cuts. The you know, the the Saudi prince came out today or the Saudi energy minister came out today and said, well, we think they’re abiding by the cuts. You think you really do your thing? I don’t think so. We’ve covered extensively on this show. They’re not, you know, talk about the Dark Fleet and all that stuff. But that’s really I think the market is starting to, you know, and again, $120 oil chirping. I’m not seeing it anywhere. Still. I’m looking hard, but I’m not I’m not seeing it anywhere. So we’re still working on putting that segment together. Point of it is, I think, you know, really as low, you know, I don’t know. I would have told you 75 is the floor. Stu So this is a little bit shocking in terms of me, but how low we’ve gone again, can’t complain. $73 oil. I won’t complain about that. But it’s interesting considering, again, the fact that most people were were were hoping for a 100 and $2,050 oil. So you know, we know you had a pegged at that. So it’ll be interesting to see see how things turn. But you know I this is not is not bullish coming in the end of the year do know. [00:18:34][129.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:18:34] Now Brazil just got accepted into OPEC plus and the head of Petro Bob Ross basically came out and said we’re a member of OPEC plus, but you’re not going to put a quota on us and we will produce as much as we possibly can. Oops. So welcome to the new member. And that just validates everything else that there is no quota. [00:19:00][25.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:19:01] Yeah, no, the only quota is only quotas on coal plants in China and that’s up. You know that. [00:19:06][5.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:19:07] No, the only quota is that we are going to cut all of ours. You know, our buddy Carrie has also, by the way, if anybody wants to know, I did put that on Twitter. Our staff over there at Cop 28 found a picture of Kerry. He got Photobombed and in a pool. So anyway, that being said, Kerry has agreed to cut all of our coal plants out. So that means blackouts. [00:19:33][26.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:19:34] Some issue. But we will have plenty of catch up. [00:19:37][2.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:19:37] That’s exactly right. Burn your catch up. [00:19:39][1.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:19:40] All right. What else do what what’s your big takeaway from Cop 28 first day? [00:19:43][2.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:19:44] It’s disgusting. I applaud the the oil companies for standing up. I applaud them. They Ursula from the EU. I’ve reached out to her invited her on the podcast but I don’t know that she’ll be here. She said, you know, billions are not enough. We need trillions. I’m like, You should be open. [00:20:06][22.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:20:07] I’ll help you. Brilliant. You’re right. It’s probably. 3 trillion. Give me a trillion, I hope. [00:20:11][4.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:20:11] Yeah, yeah, yeah. What’s a few trillion between friends? You and I started the podcast years ago going, What’s a few billion between friends with a. [00:20:19][8.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:20:20] Million between friends. Now it’s it went to billions and now it’s trillions now. [00:20:24][4.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:20:24] Unbelievable. So what should people wonder about? I’m interviewing Grace Stankey, Miss America 11:00 and it’s it’s 9:00 her time. So anyway, it’s gonna be a lot. [00:20:39][14.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:20:39] Of fun now. It’ll be great. But I appreciate you all. Your hard work will be covering Cop 28 and everything around the oil and gas and energy markets here. But we’re gonna let you guys get out of here. Finish up and start or finish up or start your day, depending on when you’re listening to this for Stuart Turley I’m Michael Tanner. As always, guys, we appreciate it. We’ll see you tomorrow. [00:20:39][0.0]First Fir[1201.6]

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