Offshore Wind: Floating Wind is the Future (31 January 2023): $3 billion forecast to be invested in new anchor handlers to meet floating wind demand. Floating wind is an emerging technology. Currently being tested in small scale demonstration and pilot projects, global floating wind commissioned capacity at the end of 2022 was less than 200 MW. By 2030, close to 11 GW of commercial scale wind farms are planned to be commissioned in Europe and the Asia Pacific Region. 2030-2035 will see a period a high commissioning activity as the USA joins established European and Asia Pacific markets. Floating installed capacity is forecast to reach 63 GW by 2035, which translates to the installation of close to 4,000 floating turbines, over 16,000 anchors and close to 17,000 mooring lines. ... (Source: AOG)
ExxonMobil awards FEED for world's largest low-carbon hydrogen facility (30 January 2023): ExxonMobil announced the next step in the development of the world’s largest low-carbon hydrogen production facility with a contract award for front-end engineering and design (FEED). A final investment decision for the project is expected by 2024, subject to stakeholder support, regulatory permitting, and market conditions. ExxonMobil has awarded the contract to Technip Energies who will be responsible for the next stage of front-end engineering and design of the low-carbon hydrogen project. ... (Source: HP)
UAE Sees Investment Opportunity After $68 Billion Adani Wipeout (30 January 2023): By ZeroHedge - Adani Group published a 413-page rebuttal on Sunday, condemning Hindenburg Research's 100-page short report last week. Hindenburg responded overnight, indicating the rebuttal only answered 62 of 88 questions and sidestepped key questions. Adani's rebuttal wasn't enough to calm investors as most stocks and bonds tied to the Indian group plummeted for the third session. However, bucking the bear trend, Abu Dhabi's royal family is bullish on Adani. Since Hindenburg accused Adani Group of "pulling the largest con in corporate history," having "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades," a three-day selloff has wiped out more than $68 billion of market capitalization from Adani Group companies. ... (Source: Oil Price)
How New Tech Is Transforming Finance In Emerging Markets (28 January 2023): By Oxford Business Group - Even as the global economy grapples with inflation, supply chain constraints and high commodity prices, new payment solutions are helping billions in emerging markets access and deploy much-needed capital. Driven by a decline in cash payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, digital payments skyrocketed in line with the growth in e-commerce, as the financial technology (fintech) sector expanded to provide consumers with a wider variety of payment options. The growth of digital payments has been strongest in emerging markets, where noncash retail payments increased by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% between 2018 and 2021, compared to 13% globally for the same period. A young, tech-savvy population and demand access to financial services are driving growth. Digital payments are expected to continue to expand globally, with a projected CAGR of 15% for 2022-26. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Scientists Invent Hydrogen Producing Solar Cell (26 January 2023): By Brian Westenhaus - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne chemical engineers have invented a solar-powered artificial leaf, built on a novel electrode which is transparent and porous. The artificial leaf is capable of harvesting water from the atmosphere for conversion into hydrogen fuel. The semiconductor-based technology is scalable and easy to prepare. The paper reporting the results has been published in Advanced Materials. A device that can harvest water from the air and provide hydrogen fuel – entirely powered by solar energy – has been a dream for researchers for decades. Now, EPFL chemical engineer Kevin Sivula and his team have made a significant step towards bringing this vision closer to reality. The team has developed an ingenious yet simple system that combines semiconductor-based technology with novel electrodes that have two key characteristics: they are porous, to maximize contact with water in the air; and transparent, to maximize sunlight exposure of the semiconductor coating. When the device is simply exposed to sunlight, it takes water from the air and produces hydrogen gas. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Will Geothermal Energy Ever Become Scalable? (25 January 2023): By Haley Zaremba - Th most cutting-edge approach for saving the planet from climate disaster doesn’t sound like it’s ripped out of the pages of science fiction. In fact, it doesn’t even sound like it’s ripped from the headlines. Far from new but nonetheless noteworthy, the ancient energy technology of using heat from the Earth’s core is finally ready for its close-up. While geothermal energy is already used around the world in relatively small-scale operations, scientists are working on scaling what could potentially be a clean, abundant, and cost-effective form of energy production suitable for almost anywhere on the planet. Currently, the United States is the largest producer of geothermal energy in the world. This says a lot more about how little geothermal energy is produced worldwide, considering that geothermal accounts for just .4 percent of the United States’ total electricity generation, and only 2 percent of renewables. Only seven states have geothermal energy plants, producing a total of about 16 billion kilowatthours (or 16,238,000 megawatthours) all together. This is, in large part, because until now geothermal energy production has only occurred where it is easy and obvious to build a plant, such as in places where there are naturally occurring geysers and hot springs. ... (Source: Oil Price)
The Energy Crisis Is Fueling A Nuclear Energy Renaissance (24 January 2023): By Haley Zaremba - Is this the dawn of a new nuclear era? Across the world, there are rumblings of a new push for nuclear as a solution to decarbonizing global energy production, even from environmentalist groups, representing a stark turnaround for many. Even the most anti-nuclear countries, such as Germany and Japan, have been extending the lives of their existing nuclear plants, flying in the face of their previous pledges to phase out the divisive technology altogether. While nuclear power never died in some key economies, such as China and Russia, more influential world leaders in the West are now getting on board, signaling a potential sea change for the nuclear power industry. ... (Source: Oil Price)
EU Gas Price Cap Could Trigger Significant Changes In Markets (23 January 2023): By Tsvetana Paraskova - The upcoming price cap on the benchmark European gas contract could abruptly change the gas market and impact the functioning of other markets as well as financial stability, according to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). ESMA was expected to announce on Monday the assessment of the consequences of the gas price cap on the markets. “It could trigger significant and abrupt changes of the broader market environment, which could impact the orderly functioning of markets, and ultimately financial stability,” ESMA was expected to say, according to the opinion seen by Bloomberg ahead of its publication. After months of negotiations, the EU finally agreed in December to set a price cap on natural gas to protect consumers from excessive price spikes and limit inflationary pressure and industrial damage to European economies. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Upstream Spending To Rise To $485 Billion In 2023 (21 January 2023): By Alex Kimani - Over the past three years, the majority of U.S. energy companies have avoided spending big to expand production in the aftermath of the 2020 oil crisis, prioritizing returning more cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks. Most oil and gas companies have only announced small increases in their capital spending for the current year, and also plan to grow production modestly. But this does mean that these companies won’t try to capitalize on oil prices that remain at multi-year highs. In its 2023 outlook, Energy Intelligence notes that global upstream capex will hit $485B in the current year, good for 12% Y/Y increase and a near 30% recovery from the 2020 trough. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Scientists Tap Artificial Intelligence To Revolutionize Battery Chemistry (19 January 2023): By Brian Westenhaus - Argonne National Laboratory scientists explain upgrading the hunt for electrolytes with artificial intelligence that could enable revolutionary battery chemistries. A new paper published in Science, Meng and colleagues laid out their vision for electrolyte design in future generations of batteries. Designing a battery is a three-part process. You need a positive electrode, you need a negative electrode, and – for the critical connection – you need an electrolyte that works with both electrodes. An electrolyte is the battery component that transfers ions – charge-carrying particles – back and forth between the battery’s two electrodes, causing the battery to charge and discharge. For today’s lithium-ion batteries, electrolyte chemistry is relatively well defined. For future generations of batteries being developed around the world and at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, however, the question of electrolyte design is wide open. ... (Source: Oil price)
UK Wind Farms Are Producing Too Much Energy (18 January 2023): By City A.M - National Grid forked out £82m to operators of wind farms last month to constrain supplies and reduce output amid blustery conditions, to prevent the UK’s energy network from being overwhelmed. This is on top of £122m it has paid out over the first 11 months of 2022 – as part of £1.34bn it spent to manage supplies last year. Contrary to popular perception, wind turbines do not thrive in stormy or overly windy conditions – as National Grid typically tells producers to reduce output to stop power spiking across the grid and to reduce pressure on the network. The latest data on constraints from National Grid’s electricity system operator (NGESO) comes amid reports of record wind power generation this month. NGESO has revealed that wind power generated record amounts of energy last Tuesday, topping 21 gigawatts (GW) for the first time ever. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Emerging Markets Look To Capitalize On Shifting Supply Chains (17 January 2023): By Oxford Business Group - Macroeconomic forces such as inflation, geopolitical tension punctuated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and spikes in commodity prices heightened supply chain disruptions in 2022, which included capacity constraints, higher freight costs, labour shortages and port slowdowns. According to a survey of logistics and supply chain professionals conducted in December 2022, some 71.8% of companies were dealing with supply chain disruptions, while 57.7% were trying to navigate transport capacity shortages. Of these respondents, 93% expected these challenges to continue into 2023. International trade surged in 2021 as countries reopened from the Covid-19 pandemic’s lockdowns, and this momentum carried over into the first half of 2022. Global trade volume reached a record $32trn for the year, buoyed by high energy prices, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report “Review of Maritime Transport 2022”. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Why Copper Prices Are Rebounding In 2023 (16 January 2023): By Ag Metal Miner - In recent days, copper prices managed to break prior highs after experiencing several weeks of pullback. Prices managed to hit short-term demand zones, which typically induce bullish strength. This confirmed the recently-formed uptrend in the copper market, ending the macro downtrend that started earlier in 2022. New data indicates the start of a bullish market, increasing the potential for further upside price movement. However, buyers should not rule out pullbacks, as prices remain historically high. Overall, the Copper Monthly Metals Index (MMI) rose 3.19% from December to January. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Energy Efficiency Is Now Critical For Europe (12 January 2023): By Felicity Bradstock - Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent global shortage of oil and gas – due to sanctions imposed on Russian energy – governments worldwide have rushed to find alternative sources, as well as encouraging the public to massively reduce their energy usage in a bid to enhance energy security. Political leaders have rapidly introduced new energy policies to increase funding for renewable energy projects, nuclear power, and alternative oil and gas supplies, as well as encouraging energy firms and industries to come up with innovative solutions to help boost energy security. However, as we go into 2023, shifting towards the existing alternatives to Russian energy will not be enough to provide the power and heating needed as demand rises. Therefore, political powers worldwide are encouraging greater frugality when it comes to energy consumption, in a war-like effort to tackle the crisis. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Oil Prices Steady As Chinese Demand Counters Huge Crude Build (11 January 2023): By Irina Slav - WTI oil held steady at $76 per barrel, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an inventory build of 19 million barrels for the first week of the new year. At 439.6 million barrels, inventories of crude have turned about 1 percent above the average for this time of the year. The report follows a moderate build of 1.7 million barrels for the last week of 2022, as reported by the EIA, and another, even smaller build of 700,000 barrels for the week before that. A day before the EIA’s report came out, the American Petroleum Institute estimated that crude oil inventories in the U.S. had added an impressive 14.87 million barrels in the first week of 2023. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Europe’s Warm Winter May Not Be Such Good News For Energy (9 January 2023): By Irina Slav - The last month has been a month of celebration in the European Union. Gas demand is down because of the unusually warm weather. As a result, prices are down, and the crisis, according to analysts, appears to be averted. The problem is that some of those analysts are adding the qualifier “For now.” The European Commission boasted an over 20-percent decline in demand in gas consumption on the continent over the period between August and November last year. This was not just a result of warm weather but also concerted action by European governments to discourage more demand. Then December turned out to be as warm as October, and demand fell naturally, as did prices. Some began talking about an end to the crisis and an end to the winter, even though in December, the astronomical winter was just beginning. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Why Hydro Energy Storage Is Needed Despite Its Shortcomings (9 January 2023): By Haley Zaremba - Depending on who you ask, pumped hydro energy storage is either the future of the clean energy industry and the key to decarbonizing the global economy, or it's an ecological disaster that needs to be stopped. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between – but friends and enemies of pumped hydro tend to espouse either one narrative or the other with inadequate attention to the nuanced trade-offs and potential synergies that pumped hydro storage presents to the renewable energy industry. The issue is this: building dams is good for clean energy storage, which is good for the environment; but on the other hand, the dams themselves tend to be extremely bad for the environment and the surrounding communities. We’re talking about massive dams that flood whole valleys, irreversibly changing the ecological balance of the area and often displacing humans as well as animals. These dams can seriously harm or eradicate crucial habitats for birds, fish, and plants. ... (Source: Oil Price)
Where Are Oil Prices Heading In 2023? (7 January 2023): By Tsvetana Paraskova - At the beginning of 2023, several factors are at play in determining the short and medium-term trend in oil prices this year. Supply and demand concerns, tightening monetary policy globally, expectations of a material slowdown in economic growth and possible recessions, and China’s reopening with a Covid exit wave are all impacting crude oil prices. During the first week of the year, oil prices tumbled by 9% in the first two trading days for the worst start to a year since 1991. The price of Brent Crude dipped to below year-ago levels for the first time in two years, possibly suggesting that “broader inflation has peaked and could fall rapidly in the coming months,” Reuters columnist Jamie McGeever notes. The annual change in the U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, has also turned negative several times over the past two months. The base effects, that is, prices and the inflation rate compared to the same time last year, are falling and could signal deflation in energy commodities, which could intensify the drop in broader inflation to closer to the Fed’s 2% target, according to McGeever. (Source: Oil Price)
Renewables Financing Tops Fossil Fuel Lending For The First Time Ever (5 January 2023): By Tsvetana Paraskova - Banks arranged and underwrote more capital for the development of renewable energy projects than for oil, gas, and coal firms for the first time ever last year. Last year’s slump in capital raised by the fossil fuel industry doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a marked shift away from oil and gas lending. It may have just been the result of healthier balance sheets of oil and gas firms amid soaring commodity prices and the tapping of alternative financing, such as from private equity or asset-backed securitization transactions. (Source: Oil Price)
U.S. Oil Majors Focus On Cost Discipline In Spending Plans (4 January 2023): By ZeroHedge - As Exxon and Chevron focus more on shareholder returns and less on speculative spending, they are both reining in investments in large international oil projects and focusing more on investing in the Americas. Chevron says it'll use 70% of its capital allocation for production on oil fields in the U.S., Argentina and Canada, while Exxon says they will allocate a similar portion of their budget to places like the Permian Basin, Brazil and LNG projects, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Both companies are moving out of places like Asia, West Africa, Russia and parts of Latin America, the report says. ... (Source: Oil Price)
The Oil Market Crisis Sparked By Russia’s Invasion Is Nearing Its End (2 January 2023): By Alex Kimani - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine back in February triggered a major market crisis. Oil and gas prices soared to multi-decade highs; coal prices grew by nearly 70%, global wheat prices increased by over 60% while prices of metals exported by Russia, such as nickel, palladium, and aluminum all increased significantly. Meanwhile, the euro fell below parity with the dollar for the first time in over two decades on fears that the war would trigger a global economic crisis. Now, however, there are growing signs that the disruption could be coming to an end, with crude oil, natural gas, and food prices having all fallen back to prewar levels while the euro has staged a 7% rally against the dollar over the past three months to $1.06. ... (Source: Oil Price)