Source: ENB
Daily Standup Top Stories
Florida is most gas dependent State in the Country
While many discuss electricity generation & emissions as though there is a national solution, when you look at the generation maps generated by the FMPA Team, you understand the generation mix varies dramatically depending on […]
U.S. Electricity Demand Jump Catches Power Utilities Unaware
U.S. electricity demand is growing faster than anticipated, driven by data centers, manufacturing, and electrification. The Inflation Reduction Act is boosting U.S. manufacturing, adding to the electricity demand, but delays in projects and rising electricity […]
The Energy Transition Is Powered By — Wait for It — Coal
In what should be one of the least surprising developments, global electricity demand is soaring everywhere as the world moves to electrify everything. Out go gasoline cars, in come electric vehicles; out go gas boilers, […]
California’s energy dilemma and how new laws might spark even higher gas prices
Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a law aimed at preventing gas price spikes in California, but experts say the new regulations could have unintended consequences that harm consumers and the industry. The recent closure announcement […]
Qatar Faces Rising Competition in Asia From Flexible LNG Suppliers
Shorter-term and more flexible LNG contracts offered by sellers from the United States, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Oman are challenging Qatar’s dominance in liquefied natural gas supply to north Asia, trade sources have […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
01:03 – Florida is most gas dependent State in the Country
03:36 – U.S. Electricity Demand Jump Catches Power Utilities Unaware
05:44 – The Energy Transition Is Powered By — Wait for It — Coal
07:34 – California’s energy dilemma and how new laws might spark even higher gas prices
09:55 – Qatar Faces Rising Competition in Asia From Flexible LNG Suppliers
11:29 – Outro
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Stuart Turley: [00:00:10] Hello, everybody. Welcome. The Energy News Beat daily. Stand up. My name’s Stu Turley President and CEO of the Sandstone Group. Today is October 22nd. Hold on. It is a rocket ride today. Florida is most gas dependent state in the country. Wow. US electricity demand jump catches power utilities unaware. Imagine that the energy transition is powered by wait for it coal. This one’s from Harvey. A blast from Bloomberg. It’s a good article. California’s Energy Dilemma and how new laws might spark even higher prices. You got to love that one. Michael and I talked about that on yesterday’s show. Qatar faces rising competition in Asia from flexible LNG suppliers. It’s going to be pretty dicey out there. [00:01:03][52.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:03] But let’s go to Florida’s most gas dependent state in the country. This one really kind of caught my attention. It was on LinkedIn and a shout out to Jacob Williams on LinkedIn. I saw this on his posts. And when we take a look at natural gas, natural gas, 40% of natural gas use generation is the most used in the area. It looks like the chart is showing that 76% is very heavily weighted, that it needs natural gas. Natural gas is greater than 50% of generation in the eastern of the U.S. and Gulf Coast and 45 in the southwest in California. California, gas is a fundamental source for low cost or reliable power for most of the country. I couldn’t agree more with that. And when you take a look at nuclear, nuclear in that same region is only 9% in the Texas area. And then you’ve got the southeast area, 29%. But for the United States, 18% of our power comes from nuclear. And first, for us to have such a nuclear that has such a black eye, could you imagine losing 18% of your ability to produce power? It would be nuts 14% of the U.S. energy mix from wind and solar is pretty mind blowing to me. When you take a look at this chart. The chart is in the Midwest. You look at 24% of the energy mix in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana is from wind, solar. And that just to me is amazing. And you take a look at the southeast, 4% in there. They really need that natural gas in there. So this article really is telling when you say, wait a minute, or is everybody using wind? Is everybody using it? No, I’ll tell you what. But at what cost? We have spent trillions around the world trying to get to we renewable energy. And we all know that wind and solar is not truly renewable energy because it has to be constantly updated in order to to maintain the fleet, the wind fleet. So it’s pretty interesting there. [00:03:36][152.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:36] Let’s go to the next story here. US’s electricity demand jump catch is power utilities unaware. US electricity demand is growing faster than anticipated. Guess why? It’s all about data centers and AI, the Inflation Reduction Act, boosting US manufacturing and adding electricity demand. But delays in projects and rising electricity cost may hinder further growth. It’s called the industrialization. When you add renewable energy to the grid is what it’s called. The report cited a burgeoning data center development, burgeoning data center development, a resurgence in U.S. energy intensive manufacturing and great transport and heating electrification, driving electricity demand growth not seen since the 1990s as factors driving demand growth. The firm and analysts then point out that while certain rates of demand growth would be welcome by the power utilities, any faster growth represents a problem because of the necessary upgrades to the grid would take years to bring in plan to the field. We have about 24,000 projects waiting to be approved to be added to the grid. So the Department of Energy is not helping this out. In the power sector, however, new infrastructure planning takes 5 to 10 years. As in the industry, is only now starting to plan for growth, with McKinsey’s vice chairman of power and renewables, Chris Siebel said. Meanwhile, demand is growing right now as much as 24GW in new datacentre capacity announced in the first half of the year. According to the WoodMac report, since January 2023, we have a. This is from Irina Slav and Oilprice.com. I’ll be talking to her on Thursday this week. So again, this is absolutely an outstanding article from Irina Slav [00:05:43][127.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:44] Energy transition is powered by wait for it coal energy consumption is accelerating faster than renewable resources, which we just talked about can provide for an edge. Though the world keeps turning to the dirtiest form of fossil fuels. Coal King Coal is still here. I really like have your blogs from Bloomberg. He writes an outstanding article under former U.S. climate envoy John Kerry America read the sordid detail and tangle with China about the energy transition. The unwritten deal involved China giving up coal over time. With hindsight, it feels like Beijing played Kerry really, who was desperate for a deal at the time, Cop26 Summit in Glasgow. He got played like a fiddle. It’s time for a new approach. The world can’t claim moving forward in the right direction until coal consumption has dropped meaningfully to the levels of 2000. On our current trends, that’s what’s likely to happen until well beyond 2050. Let me explain what we’ve been working on here. That is, we have seen trends over the last four years. Michael and I have been on this podcast and we have seen the more we go to renewable energy, the more fossil fuels we use. The death of oil and gas is not here yet. King Coal is still going gangbusters, and we are wasting trillions upon trillions of dollars on the what I call a wealth transfer in the renewable energy space. Well done. Have your calling it out like a bank. Called it like it is a well done. [00:07:33][109.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:34] Let’s go to California’s energy dilemma and how new laws might spark higher, even higher gas prices. The recent closure announcement of Phillips 66 refinery in Los Angeles is just one example of how stringent environmental regulations are driving refineries out of business with strict rules on emissions operating costs. Many California based refineries can’t compete with their cheaper counterparts elsewhere, leading to dwindling number of domestic refining operation. The new law requires oil refineries to remain higher, fuel inventories, plan for maintenance outages and allow the State Emergency Commission to approve maintenance schedules. That’s what we need. While intended to stabilize gas prices and prevent manipulation, critics argue this could lead to higher storage costs. Optimum, durational and operational constraints. This is really important. California’s reliance on foreign oil raises several concerns. I’m going to take it one step further. While China has been increasing their downstream capabilities, they have been increasing their gasoline and diesel. I’m willing to bet and bookmark this that you’ll be able to see China importing gasoline and diesel. Who’s going to be making money on it? I want to follow the money. Is that money going to go back to Governor Newsom in his reelection campaign? We need to know because none of these decisions are made are good for Californians. They’re absolutely not good for the environment by having the bring it all the way. And so China is importing an Iranian oil. It’s coming in all the way from Iran. It goes to the refineries and then the gasoline is going to be shipped to California. That’s good for the environment. Or remember, California is still buying 70% of the oil that is produced out of the rainforest. They’re stripping their rainforest and they’re bringing that oil into California from China. It’s all public information. [00:09:54][140.3]
[00:09:55] Let’s go to Qatar here around the next story. Qatar faces a rising competition in Asia from flexible LNG supplier. The big thing is short term and more flexible LNG. Contracts offered from sellers in the United States, The United Arab Emirates, the UAE, Oman, Oman are challenging Qatar’s dominance in LNG gas supply to North Asia, the trade sources told Reuters. Buyers in South Korea and Japan, for example, now prefer the flexibility in the shorter term deals to procure the LNG. There is a real reason why South Korea and Japan is preferring shorter term contracts is because of the rumblings that they may be getting pipelines from Russia. Imagine if they got pipelines from Russia. They wouldn’t even need to be buying that higher priced LNG. This article has a few hidden nuggets in it and I think it’s pretty telling. Last year, Qatar Energy President and CEO Sid Share Del Alchemy said that 40% of the new LNG that will come to market by 2029 and all our projects are up and running is going to be from Qatar Energy. I had hats off to them. I hope that they are successful, but I think they’re going to have a run for their money as more and more US projects come on board. And in fact, Canada is really going to start. I think you’re going to see Canada flip and start producing some more as well too. [00:11:29][93.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:29] So like subscribe share and let us know if you have any news things out there. If you’re an oil and gas expert, I want to talk to you on Conversations in Energy with Stu Turley, please. Have a great day and look forward to visiting with you soon. [00:11:29][0.0][675.8]
Energy News Beat