Tag: hydrogen

Best in Energy – 9 March 2023

Tesla plans to eliminate dependence on rare earths

U.S. energy secretary address to Houston CERAWeek

U.S. oil well initial productivity is declining ($WSJ)

Keystone ordered to trim pipeline pressure ($BBG)

U.S./EU embark on race for energy subsidies ($BBG)

U.S. LNG exports projected to grow in 2023 and 2024

Nord Stream sabotaged by pro-Ukraine team ($WSJ)

Russia/NATO energy war enters attrition phase ($FT)

U.K. workforce remains smaller than before pandemic

India tries to improve electric reliability in April/May

(see also formal press release by the power ministry)

China’s refined petroleum exports set to slow

U.S. solar installers forecast to rebound in 2023

U.S. oil firms embrace hydrogen production idea

U.S./Australia submarine sales agreement ($WSJ)

U.S. PETROLEUM INVENTORIES including the strategic reserve increased by +2 million barrels over the seven days ending on March 3. Stocks have increased in 10 of the last 14 weeks by a total of +31 million barrels from their recent low on November 25, 2022, arresting the previous downward trend. Inventories are still -231 million barrels (-12% or -2.15 standard deviations) below the prior ten-year seasonal average. But the deficit has narrowed from -278 million barrels (-15% or -3.05 standard deviations) in November:

Best in Energy – 19 December 2022

U.K. parliament warns hydrogen is not a panacea

Employment transition and future energy system

Europe’s challenge to refill gas storage in 2023

ING bank closes offices to conserve energy ($BBG)

U.S. SPR to purchase small amount of crude oil

U.S. shale chief warns against more drilling ($FT)

China set for surge in coronavirus cases ($BBG)

Australia/China try to mend relations ($BBG)

U.S. southeast prepares for cold snap ($BBG)

U.K. utilities warn of cash crunch risk ($FT)

U.S. WELL DRILLING shows signs of having hit a peak and starting to fall as the sector responds to lower prices. The number of active rigs targeting oil or gas has fallen in the most recent two weeks and is no higher than at the end of October. As a result, the rig count has increased by an average of just +1.0 per week in the last 13 weeks:

Best in Energy – 14 December 2022

EU/UK diesel imports rise pre-sanctions ($BBG)

China braces for exit wave of infections ($WSJ)

China travel rises as quarantine controls end

G7/Vietnam deal on energy transition funds

India’s solar expansion mainly displaces gas

U.K. plans hydrogen-ready home heat ($FT)

Shanxi restarts coal mine production (trans.)

U.S. fusion experiment reaches milestone

U.S. SERVICE SECTOR prices rose at an annualised rate of 6.4% over the three months ending in November. Service sector output is more labour-intensive than manufacturing and prices tend to be more sticky. Services inflation has decelerated from 9.9% in the three months ending in June, but it is still three times faster than the central bank’s target of a little over 2%:

Best in Energy – 5 December 2022

EU sets price cap for Russia crude at $60

(see legal text of EU price cap regulation)

Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers ($FT)

EU sets oil price cap above market ($BBG)

EU cuts gas consumption by 25% ($FT)

U.S. shale production runs into constraints

Saudi/China summit and policy priorities

India’s capital hit by severe winter smog

North Carolina substations attacked ($WSJ)

Japan plans strategic LNG purchasing ($WSJ)

U.S./EU compete to offer green subsidies ($FT)

BP plans big expansion of hydrogen production

U.S. GAS inventories fell faster than the seasonal average in the second half of November. Working gas stocks in underground storage were -178 billion cubic feet (-4.9%) below the pre-pandemic five-year seasonal average on November 25 compared with a deficit of -97 bcf (-2.5%) on November 11:

Best in Energy – 17 November 2022

U.S. hydrogen – funding and technology deployment

Aramco plans downstream investment in South Korea

U.S. diesel inventories at 70-year seasonal low ($FT)

Texas tries to prepare better for extreme winter cold

U.K. inflation accelerates to 11.1% in October

France’s nuclear generation starts to recover

China/Taiwan bilateral communications cease

U.S. PETROLEUM INVENTORIES depleted by -11 million barrels in the week to November 11. Large drawdowns in commercial crude (-5 million bbl), crude in the strategic petroleum reserve (-4 million) and other oils (-3 million) were partially offset by increased stocks of gasoline (+2 million), distillate fuel oil (+1 million) and jet fuel (+0.3 million). Total inventories have depleted by -509 million barrels since early July 2020, the largest drawdown on record and a symptom of persistent under-supply:

Best in Energy – 23 March 2022

Fed’s narrow path to a soft-landing*

Russia sanctions risk diesel shortage

U.S. imports of petroleum from Russia

Russia’s oil exports and global economy

China’s plan for hydrogen development

White House options to cut fuel prices

Russia cuts pipeline oil flows after storm

U.K. inflation rate accelerates to 6.2%

* The Fed’s aggressive rate rises in 1994 helped create a government debt funding crisis in Mexico forcing a devaluation of the peso at the end of the year (the “tequila crisis”). The U.S. central bank was caught unaware (see Fed minutes from an emergency conference call held on Dec. 30, 1994). Rapid interest rate rises in the United States tend to induce extreme stress in the more peripheral and obscure parts of the international system. In 1994, it was the Mexican government’s increasingly heavy reliance on funding its operations with short-duration dollar-linked bills known as “tesobonos” that had to be constantly rolled forward. The causes of the peso crisis was my first semi-serious piece of research when I had to write a 15,000-word thesis on it for my university finals in 1996.

BRENT spot prices and calendar spreads are ratcheting higher again as traders anticipate a prolonged conflict in Ukraine and therefore a prolonged disruption of Russia’s petroleum exports, coupled with the lack of spare capacity in the global oil supply system, leaving it increasingly vulnerable to any more shocks:

U.S. GASOLINE prices have started to converge with Brent after the supply chain was shocked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But retail prices are still rising at one of the fastest rates for 30 years, increasing by around 20% over the last four weeks, which is in the 99th percentile for all four-week periods since 1993:

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