Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN December 8, 2021 California is also importing more oil from the Amazon rainforest than any country in the world. WATCH THE NEW Oilprice Videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnH6QL7JCDRp9HBXtm4mqxg/videos https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/california-addicted-oil-amazon California Is Addicted To Oil From The Amazon by Tyler Durden Tuesday, Dec 07, 2021 - 11:45 AM Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com, California is by far the most ambitious U.S. state when it comes to things like emission standards, EV sales, and renewable energy. California is shutting down its nuclear power plants to double down on wind and solar. California Is Addicted To Oil From The Amazon By Irina Slav - Dec 06, 2021, 2:00 PM CST Join Our Community California is by far the most ambitious U.S. state when it comes to things like emission standards, EV sales, and renewable energy. California is shutting down its nuclear power plants to double down on wind and solar. It is also importing more oil from the Amazon rainforest than any country in the world. Ecuador accounted for a little over 24 percent of California’s oil imports as of 2020. That equaled 55,219 barrels daily, according to the California Energy Commission. Interestingly, this is a substantial increase from the previous year, when Ecuador accounted for 18.22 percent of California’s oil imports, and from the year before, when Ecuador accounted for 14 percent. This oil from Ecuador, according to a recent investigation by NBC News, comes from the Amazon rainforest—an area that is the target of massive conservation efforts and yet remains one of the most exploited parts of the world because of its natural resource wealth. Ecuador is home to the Yasuni National Park, which contains some of the most diverse ecosystems globally, including two uncontacted indigenous tribes. For these tribes, the government even approved a so-called Intangible Zone—a border not to be crossed in order to protect these tribes. But that was before 2019. Two years ago, the government of Ecuador approved a plan to open up Yasuni National Park to oil and gas drilling. Ecuador is a frequent reference in oil news, but the South American country has proven crude reserves estimated at 8.3 billion barrels, which makes it the third-largest oil country in Latin America, after Venezuela and Brazil. Yet, it doesn’t produce anywhere close to what Brazil pumps and what Venezuela did before the U.S. sanctions. Its average for 2020 was 483,000 bpd, according to the Energy Information Administration. But this is changing. The president of the tiny South American nation, who took office this May, pledged to double the country’s oil production and is working on this through some major reforms aimed at facilitating the participation of private companies in Ecuador’s oil industry. According to Argus Media, the rush aims to monetize the country’s oil assets before the energy transition kills demand for the fossil fuel. Yet judging from California’s appetite for Ecuadorian oil, this killing might take a while. According to the NBC investigation, which was based on a report by Stand.earth and Amazon Watch, 66 percent of the oil produced in Ecuador is exported to the United States, and most of that ends up in California. As the two environmentalist groups put it, 1 in 7 tanks of gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel sold in California came from the Amazon rainforest. And that’s not all. Some of the biggest corporate users of Amazon oil in California are PepsiCo, Costco, and Amazon. All three have made emission-related pledges, with PepsiCo vowing to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2015 levels by 2030 and net-zero status by 2040 and Amazon promising billions in investment to become a net-zero emitter by the same year. “This is no longer one of those things where we’re supposed to have sympathy for a crisis that’s happening somewhere else,” Angeline Robertson, a senior researcher at Stand.earth and the lead author of the report, told NBC. “It’s occurring in California, and it’s linked to Amazon destruction.” It is also the latest proof that moving away from oil and gas is a lot easier said than done. For all of its anti-oil rhetoric, California is a major importer of the commodity. Before Ecuador became its top source of the commodity, it was importing most of its oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq and smaller amounts from Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Angola. California, therefore, is very much like any other oil importer in the world with one difference: while other importers simply do not have the domestic production to use, California is purposefully squeezing its oil industry. There are plans in place to ban fracking by 2024, with Governor Newsom saying in May that “As we move to swiftly decarbonize our transportation sector and create a healthier future for our children, I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that future and, similarly, believe that California needs to move beyond oil.” This move would necessitate weaning the state off the more than 200,000 bpd of foreign oil it imports on top of more than 460,000 bpd in local production. It’s going to be difficult. There is also a proposal to ban offshore drilling after an oil spill in October added fuel to arguments about whether oil had a future in California or not. In Ecuador and in the Yasuni National Park, oil definitely has a future, unlike an attempt by a previous government to save its unique ecosystems by calling on the international community to provide $3.5 billion for conservation efforts. NBC recalls the government of Rafael Correa abandoned its plan to protect its share of the Amazon six years with international donations after it only managed to raise a tenth of what was needed. And then it lifted the drilling moratorium for Yasuni, with President Correa saying, “The world has failed us.” By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Multi-Billion Dollar Start Of A Nuclear Fusion Boom Natural Gas Bulls Hit Hard By Warm Weather Reports The Oil Price Crash Has Taught U.S. Shale A Valuable Lesson Latest articles from Irina Traders Bet On U.S. Oil Export Ban Published 08 December 2021 | viewed 3,219 times Traders are betting on the possibility the U.S. administration will ban oil exports, Bloomberg has reported, citing a pile-up in options contracts that would yield… Oil Prices Steady On Minor Crude Draw, Products Build Published 08 December 2021 | viewed 1,789 times Crude oil prices stabilized on Wednesday morning after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 0.2 million barrels for the week to December… Sentiment Shifts In Oil Markets As Hedge Fund Selling Spree Ends Published 07 December 2021 | viewed 9,564 times The news of another coronavirus variant that prompted some countries to close their borders frightened traders who exited their bullish positions on the commodity in… SPR Tender Attracts Two Foreign Bidders Published 07 December 2021 | viewed 3,417 times The tender of crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve of the United States has attracted at least two foreign refiners as bidders, Bloomberg has… Aramco CEO: Rushed Energy Transition Could Spark Social Unrest Published 07 December 2021 | viewed 2,766 times A rushed transition into renewable energy would cause spiraling inflation and social unrest, the chief executive of Aramco warned at the World Petroleum Congress in… California Is Addicted To Oil From The Amazon Published 06 December 2021 | viewed 6,556 times California is by far the most ambitious U.S. state when it comes to things like emission standards, EV sales, and renewable energy. 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Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN December 8, 2021 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/biden-official-heckled-oil-group-155245248.html Biden Official Heckled by Oil Group After Urging Shale Boost (Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration’s No. 2 energy official was heckled at an international oil conference after admonishing U.S. drillers to step up production in the industry’s de facto hometown. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk told shale explorers on Monday that the government already has done its part to lower fuel prices by offering up part of its strategic crude reserve. “Now there’s needed leadership by our domestic producers,” Turk said in opening remarks at the World Petroleum Congress in Houston. “The reality is the Biden administration is not standing in the way of increasing domestic oil production to meet today’s energy needs.” His remarks provoked a heckler in the audience: “Why don’t you help us then?” Turk, whose comments preceded presentations by the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. -- the nation’s largest oil explorers -- came on the same morning that refiners’ bids for crude from the strategic reserve were due. “The top 54 publicly traded companies earned over $30 billion in the second quarter of this year, slightly more than just before the pandemic, and production has not yet recovered,” Turk said. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jay McKinsey + 1,490 December 9, 2021 On 12/8/2021 at 1:12 PM, Tom Nolan said: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/biden-official-heckled-oil-group-155245248.html Biden Official Heckled by Oil Group After Urging Shale Boost (Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration’s No. 2 energy official was heckled at an international oil conference after admonishing U.S. drillers to step up production in the industry’s de facto hometown. Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk told shale explorers on Monday that the government already has done its part to lower fuel prices by offering up part of its strategic crude reserve. “Now there’s needed leadership by our domestic producers,” Turk said in opening remarks at the World Petroleum Congress in Houston. “The reality is the Biden administration is not standing in the way of increasing domestic oil production to meet today’s energy needs.” His remarks provoked a heckler in the audience: “Why don’t you help us then?” Turk, whose comments preceded presentations by the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. -- the nation’s largest oil explorers -- came on the same morning that refiners’ bids for crude from the strategic reserve were due. “The top 54 publicly traded companies earned over $30 billion in the second quarter of this year, slightly more than just before the pandemic, and production has not yet recovered,” Turk said. What they want more subsidies? They can't increase oil production without gov't help? What kind of commies are they? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN December 10, 2021 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Natural-Gas-Producers-Hit-Back-At-Hypocritical-Opponents.html Natural Gas Producers Hit Back At Hypocritical Opponents By Irina Slav - Dec 09, 2021, 5:00 PM CST The U.S. natural gas industry has come under fire for its rising investment and production, with government officials and others wanting to see renewable investment instead The natural gas industry has responded to these claims by claiming it has the potential to reduce far more emissions far more quickly than renewable energy does The criticism from the government and environmentalists may have a positive effect on the natural gas industry, forcing producers to be as clean as possible Join Our Community Natural gas, the energy source that was once hailed as the bridge fuel of the future, is now starting to face resistance from certain groups. One Sierra Club official was very clear in labeling new investments in natural gas as a “mistake” and arguing that what was really needed was an investment in renewables and related technologies. As this negative pressure mounts, the natural gas industry is now fighting back. Earlier this month, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to almost a dozen oil and gas companies, accusing them of corporate greed and profiteering for exporting record amounts of natural gas instead of keeping it at home to keep prices low. “The cause of rapidly rising energy prices for consumers and manufacturers is clear: some of the nation’s largest and most profitable oil and gas companies are putting their massive profits, share prices and dividends for investors, and millions of dollars in CEO pay and bonuses ahead of the needs of American consumers and the nation’s recovery from the pandemic,” Sen. Warren wrote, citing reports in the Wall Street Journal about record export rates. And yet, at the same time, there is often strong opposition to more natural gas use in the United States. New York’s now-former governor Andrew Cuomo, for instance, was a vocal opponent of new gas infrastructure and put a lot of effort into killing a new gas pipeline project, the final blow delivered just last year. At the same time, two years ago, amid a gas crunch, Cuomo threatened New York’s grid operator with the revocation of its license if it didn’t supply enough power for everyone even though the company cited the shortage of pipeline capacity that is required to supply the gas used to make the electricity. Like with oil, the feeling of some consumers towards natural gas seems to be “We hate you, but we need you”. And like oil, gas producers are making an effort to clean up their image. BP, for instance, recently won A-grade certification for its gas from MiQ, an independent certifier of methane emissions, which, according to its senior advisor Georges Tijbosch, can help both gas producers and regulators by providing the former with a competitive edge if their gas is low-emission and the latter with the necessary information to tighten control over emissions. It appears that with the growing awareness of emissions, buyers of energy commodities are also becoming more sensitive to their carbon footprint. So, certification and efforts to lower the emission footprint of natural gas production will pay off by making the company’s product more attractive, albeit more expensive, for buyers. But some in the industry argue that, even without certification, gas has done a huge amount to help the reduction of emissions by simply replacing coal. In response to Sen. Warren’s letter this month, the chief executive of EQT Energy, Toby Rice, wrote that “The emissions reduction from coal to gas switching seen in the United States between 2005 and 2019 is the equivalent of actually electrifying approximately 190 million cars, or roughly 70% of the total number of cars in the United States. We are currently projected to have global sales of 31.1 million electric vehicles in 2030.” He also wrote that the higher domestic prices for natural gas were not the result of record exports, saying the ramp-up of these exports had “the potential to be the biggest green initiative on the planet, and it’s not even close.” “Ramping LNG in a manner that specifically targets the replacement of foreign coal, particularly in China, represents the largest, fastest and most proven opportunity for the United States to address global climate change,” Rice wrote. “That’s the prize—reducing emission levels at a pace we’ve never seen, while simultaneously providing the world with cheap, reliable and clean energy.” That’s an impressive return of the ball to Warren’s — and other politicians’ —court. Put simply, the choice for politicians like Warren is this: you can either have dirt cheap gas at home and be selfish about it or share the low-emission commodity with the world to help lower global emissions, because whatever the arguments against gas, nobody is arguing that it is dirtier than coal. At the end of the day, unless the federal government passes legislation to limit exports of natural gas, there is nothing it can do to limit the corporate greed that is part of capitalism. Just the suggestion of more emissions-focused legislation appears to be prompting companies to make greater commitments in this respect, both in oil and gas. Perhaps the tensions between the U.S. administration and the energy industry could have a positive outcome. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Multi-Billion Dollar Start Of A Nuclear Fusion Boom JP Morgan Predicts The End Of Covid, A Strong Economy, And $125 Oil The Oil Price Crash Has Taught U.S. Shale A Valuable Lesson Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Nolan + 2,443 TN December 10, 2021 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/US-Shale-Slams-Bidens-Oil-Policies.html U.S. Shale Slams Biden’s Oil Policies By Tsvetana Paraskova - Dec 09, 2021, 7:00 PM CST Join Our Community U.S. shale producers have been disappointed with the Biden Administration’s policies regarding the oil and gas industry for nearly a year now, and they voiced their disappointment, once again, at this week’s World Petroleum Congress in Houston. While the U.S. Administration was calling repeatedly on OPEC+ to pump more oil to stop the rally in U.S. gasoline prices, which hit a seven-year high a few months ago, it failed to reach out to domestic producers first for more supply, shale executives and industry associations say. Instead of asking OPEC+ and counties like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Russia to pump more oil, the Administration should have laid the foundations for a faster recovery of U.S. oil production, which producers curtailed last year in response to the crash in demand and oil prices, executives say. Not that everyone would have listened. The oil companies have now switched to a “shareholder returns mode” from “record production mode” to finally reward investors after years of splurging on record production and seeing little (or in many cases, negative) cash flows. Shale executives started to express their criticism of the Biden Administration weeks ago, when officials openly pleaded with OPEC+ to increase supply to relieve prices at the pump in the United States. Now many of those executives gathered in Houston to reiterate their view that “you should have called us first.” “Enormous Profits” “[T]he energy industry is making enormous profits. They’re back up to above where they were before the pandemic started. So, they have taken advantage of that moment — the profits — to be able to engage in shareholder buybacks, for example,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last month when President Joe Biden announced plans for a release of 50 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in a bid to lower gasoline prices. “But we want to encourage them to increase supply. We want supply to be increased both inside the United States and around the world so that we can reduce the pressures at the pump,” Granholm added. The U.S. shale patch, however, is not racing to boost supply too much. One reason is the still widely prevalent capital discipline. But another is wariness and uncertainty about the Biden Administration’s policies toward oil and gas, and said Administration’s calls on OPEC+ to pump more while imposing restrictive measures on drilling on U.S. federal land. Pioneer Natural Resources CEO: “They have not called me” “Their first response was to call Opec and ask them to pump more oil. They have not called me,” Pioneer Natural Resources’ CEO Scott Sheffield told the Financial Times on the sidelines of the Houston energy conference. “And we’re the largest Permian producer,” Sheffield added. Pioneer Natural Resources and many other public oil and gas producers cannot change capital budgets and drilling plans overnight, especially now that they are scrutinized by investors demanding higher returns. The U.S. shale has not been happy with the Administration’s continued engagement with OPEC+ on oil supply, while there is such—and it is abundant—in America. “I think first you, you stay home, you ask your friends, and you ask your neighbors to do it. And then if we can’t do it, you call some other countries,” Occidental’s CEO Vicki Hollub told CNBC last month. U.S. Producers Grapple With Uncertainties Beyond Oil Prices The shale patch is keeping disciplined spending because of their changed priority to return cash to investors first and because of the high uncertainties on the global oil market with oversupply looming early next year and uncertain impact of Omicron (or other) COVID variants on demand. But U.S. oil producers also face heightened uncertainty with this Administration, which pushes for renewable energy and looks to impose more restrictive policies on the fossil fuels industry. When the Biden Administration intensified calls on OPEC+ to boost production to alleviate surging gasoline prices in the U.S., the American Exploration and Production Council said at the end of October, “The worst thing an Administration can do to energy prices is restrict supply by implementing policies that make it harder to produce energy.” The Administration also called for an investigation into whether oil companies are allegedly colluding to make gasoline prices the highest in seven years. In a comment following President Biden’s renewed request for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate rising gas prices, Frank Macchiarola, Senior Vice President for Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs at the American Petroleum Institute (API), said in mid-November: “This is a distraction from the fundamental market shift that is taking place and the ill-advised government decisions that are exacerbating this challenging situation. Demand has returned as the economy comes back and is outpacing supply. Further impacting the imbalance is the continued decision from the administration to restrict access to America’s energy supply and cancel important infrastructure projects.” “Rather than launching investigations on markets that are regulated and closely monitored on a daily basis or pleading with OPEC to increase supply, we should be encouraging the safe and responsible development of American-made oil and natural gas,” Macchiarola added. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Multi-Billion Dollar Start Of A Nuclear Fusion Boom JP Morgan Predicts The End Of Covid, A Strong Economy, And $125 Oil The Oil Price Crash Has Taught U.S. Shale A Valuable Lesson Latest articles from Tsvetana U.S. Shale Slams Biden’s Oil Policies Published 09 December 2021 | viewed 6,072 times U.S. shale producers have been disappointed with the Biden Administration’s policies regarding the oil and gas industry for nearly a year now, and they voiced… Traders Rush To Dump European Diesel Contracts Published 09 December 2021 | viewed 3,687 times Open interest in Europe’s main diesel futures contract has plunged by more than one-third since the beginning of October as traders are getting out of… U.S. Gasoline Prices Finally Start To Fall Published 09 December 2021 | viewed 5,629 times U.S. gasoline prices are finally falling after the major correction in international crude oil prices at the end of November driven by fears of the… Asia Is Not Rushing To Buy Extra Crude Oil From Saudi Arabia Published 09 December 2021 | viewed 4,106 times Higher Saudi prices for January, lower overall demand for crude amid the Omicron uncertainty, the Chinese crackdown on illicit practices at its independent refiners, and… Russia’s Gazprom Neft Expects Record Oil, Gas Production In 2021 Published 09 December 2021 | viewed 1,883 times Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom, expects a record high oil and gas production this year, as demand recovers and OPEC+… Record EU Carbon Prices Could Rally Further Published 08 December 2021 | viewed 1,919 times EU climate rules and the use of more coal to replace natural gas at sky-high prices in power generation have resulted in a massive rally… The U.S. Looks To Beat Qatar To Become The World's Top LNG Exporter In 2022 Published 08 December 2021 | viewed 5,136 times The United States will have the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity next year, exceeding the capacity of the top LNG exporters Australia… Oil Investment Must Rise To $525 Billion Per Year To Avoid Supply Crunch Published 08 December 2021 | viewed 5,045 times Upstream oil and gas investment must rise to the pre-pandemic levels of around $525 billion per year through the end of the decade so that… JP Morgan Predicts The End Of Covid, A Strong Economy, And $125 Oil Published 08 December 2021 | viewed 16,315 times Next year could lay the foundation for "a far more vibrant economic environment" and COVID transitioning from a pandemic to an endemic disease, JP Morgan… Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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