Alcoa and Ignis are close to signing a joint funding agreement for Spain's aluminium plant
Alcoa announced on Wednesday that it is "progressing", towards a strategic agreement of cooperation with the Spanish renewable energy company Ignis, to fund the operations of the U.S. Metal Producer's aluminum plant in northwest Spain. Alcoa announced that the proposed agreement would see Alcoa contribute 75 million Euros ($81 million), and Ignis make an initial 25 million Euro investment, giving Ignis 25% ownership of San Ciprian in Galicia. Alcoa, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said it would provide up to 100 million more euros if needed, prioritizing future cash flows.
Baker Hughes reports that US drillers have added oil and gas rigs to their fleet for the first time in 4 weeks.
Baker Hughes, a leading energy services company, said that the U.S. added oil and gas rigs this week for the first time since four weeks. The number of oil and gas rigs, a good indicator of future production, increased by one in the week ending October 11. Baker Hughes reported that the total number of rigs was down by 36 or 6% compared to this time last. Baker Hughes reported that oil rigs increased by two this week to 481. Gas rigs dropped by one, to 101. Pennsylvania saw two drillers reduce their rigs to 13 - the lowest number since July 2016.
Natural gas producers ask Harris for answers on the battleground state
Drillers from Pennsylvania, an energy-rich state, called on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris this week to explain her stance on natural gas. The energy industry touts it as a clean fuel but climate activists claim that the fuel is a threat to global warming. In January, President Joe Biden froze new LNG export permits to examine their environmental impact. This was a move made in the election year in order to gain support from the green voting blocs of his party. Harris is now facing Donald Trump, a Republican who has stated that he will immediately lift the freeze on permits if elected.
Money losing natgas producer BKV revives US IPO
BKV Corp, a natural gas producer in the red, said it plans to raise $315 million via an initial public offer of shares. This comes nearly two years after BKV first filed to sell its shares publicly. BKV said it will offer between $19 to $21 per share. The company aims to achieve a valuation up to $1.77bn in its IPO. Companies waiting to list shares have a new window of opportunity due to the recent increase in natural gas prices in the United States from their more than 30-year low inflation adjusted. This company was one of the U.S. producers who were hard hit by low natural gas prices during the past two years.
EIA: US natgas production to decline by 2024, while demand will rise to record levels
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook for 2024 predicts that natural gas production in the United States will decrease in 2024, while demand will reach a new record. EIA projects that dry gas production in the US will fall from a record high of 103.8 billion cubic foot per day (bcfd), in 2023, to 103.4 bcfd by 2024. This is because several producers have reduced drilling activities following spot gas prices at Henry Hub benchmark. In March, the number of people in poverty fell to its lowest level for 25 years. EIA's projected production for 2025 is 104.8 bcfd.
Rystad reports that US oil and gas M&A will reach a record in 2023, with the focus shifting away from Permian.
Analysts at Rystad, a consultancy, said that the appetite of U.S. producers for deals is close to last year's level, as a rise in interest in smaller oilfields offsets sluggish activity in the Permian Basin, which produces most oil. According to Rystad's analysis of the U.S. market through August, nearly $100 billion was spent on mergers and purchases (M&As) by U.S. producers. Another $46 billion worth of assets is currently up for sale. Rystad says that a record-breaking $155 billion in production and exploration deals were signed by 2023.
Senators ask Biden to reduce South Korean import quotas for piping products
Three Democratic U.S. Senators called on the Biden Administration on Friday to lower the current import quota for oil and gas drilling pipe from South Korea. They said it had impacted businesses in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey, and John Fetterman, senators from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania, all noted that the market for Oil Country Tubular Goods - used in drilling, extraction, and transportation of oil and gas - has decreased, resulting in layoffs at companies operating within the United States.
EIA: US oil demand for June was the lowest since 2020
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Friday that U.S. oil use in June was at its lowest levels for the season since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The EIA's proxy of demand, crude oil and petroleum product supply, dropped 2.7% from one month to the next, reaching 20,25 million barrels a day (bpd), in June. This is the lowest June level since 2020. The sharp drop comes after consumption reached a seasonally high of 20,80 million bpd during May. The EIA data also showed that distillate demand was at its lowest seasonal level since 2020.
Harris' energy strategy is ambiguous from a strategic perspective, say her aides
Since Vice President Kamala Harris joined the White House race 25 days ago, she has been keeping energy executives on their toes. Was she the anti-pollution and climate change warrior Attorney General of California? Or was she the pragmatic number two in the Democratic Biden Administration that oversaw record U.S. production and exports of oil? Seven times in her speeches, she mentioned climate, but never energy, fracking, or oil. Polls indicate that climate change is a topic of great interest, particularly among younger voters. Her campaign is aimed at avoiding alienating any side.
U.S. Natgas Demand, Price Nosedive Continues
U.S. natural gas futures held near a 21-month low on Tuesday, keeping the contract on track for its second-biggest monthly drop in history, as a decline in output from this week's extreme cold offset forecasts for warmer weather and less heating demand next week than previously expected.Gas prices have been depressed for weeks due to a growing belief that the country has more than enough gas in storage for the rest of the winter and expectations that Freeport LNG's liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Texas is…
US Unveils $1.15 Billion for Abandoned Oil and Gas Well Clean-up
The Biden administration on Monday said it would make $1.15 billion available to states to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells as part of a broad effort to reduce U.S. climate warming emissions and improve health and safety in nearby communities.The money represents a portion of the $4.7 billion for well clean-up that was included in the infrastructure law passed in Congress last year. The program is a pillar of U.S. President Joe Biden's pledge that fighting climate change will create jobs and revitalize neighborhoods harmed by aging fossil fuel infrastructure.The White House said 26 states were eligible to apply for the funding…
Intelatus: The long-tenured, New Name in Market Intel & Planning
Intelatus Global Partners is a new name in energy, marine and industrial market analysis and strategic planning, a ‘new name’ with nearly 50 years of experience and proven results.Founded by the merger of International Maritime Associates (IMA) and World Energy Reports (WER), Intelatus is a firm of business consultants with unique experience of nearly five decades across the entire maritime supply chain, producing multi-client analytical studies for sectors including offshore oil and gas, renewables and the energy transition…
EXIM Bank Amends Mozambique LNG Loan. Earmarks $1.8B for Offshore Work
The U.S. EXIM Bank has amended its previously approved September 2019 direct loan supporting U.S. exports for the development and construction of the Total-operated LNG project located on the Afungi Peninsula in northern Mozambique.The original scope of the $4.7 billion loan for the project has been amended from exclusively the onshore portion of the LNG plant and related facilities to also allocate an estimated $1.8 billion to support the project’s offshore production. "As a result, the transaction now will support an increased number—16…
USA to Make Paris Climate Exit Official
The Trump administration will file paperwork with the United Nations as early as Monday to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, marking the first formal step in a one-year process to exit the global pact to fight climate change.The move would finalize a decision President Donald Trump promised early in his term to unfetter America’s domestic oil, gas and coal industries."What we won’t do is punish the American people while enriching foreign polluters,” Trump said at a shale gas industry conference in Pennsylvania on Oct.
U.S. To “Drown The World” In Oil
A staggering 61% of the world’s new oil and gas production over the next decade is set to come from one country alone: the United States.According to a report by Global Witness, the sheer scale of this new production dwarfs that of every other country in the world and would spell disaster for the world’s ambitions to curb climate change – the effects of which we’re already witnessing through massive heat waves, flooding, and extreme weather.Earlier this year, we crunched the numbers from the latest climate science and…
KY Gasline Erupts in Flames, One Dead
A natural gas line erupted in a ball of flames that could be seen for miles over a residential community in rural Kentucky on Thursday, killing one person and setting several houses on fire, a local sheriff said.The blast, in Moreland, a community about 40 miles (65 km) south of Lexington, was the second so far this year on Canadian energy company Enbridge Inc's Texas Eastern natural gas pipeline following an incident in Ohio in January that injured at least two people.A woman killed in Thursday's explosion was found outside her home, Lincoln County Sheriff Curt Folger said.
Kinder Morgan: Bankrupt Refiner Owes $1.5 mln
Kinder Morgan Liquids Terminals LLC says Philadelphia Energy Solutions failed to make payments for fuel storage and other services totaling nearly $1.5 million since December, roughly seven months before the Pennsylvania refiner filed for bankruptcy.In a Wednesday filing, Kinder asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to allow it to sell fuel stored by PES at its Carteret, New Jersey, facility to pay itself back for the missed payments.PES, which shut its last crude unit this week, currently has 27…
Mainstream Names Asia-Pacific Head
Irish wind and solar projects developer Mainstream Renewable Power has appointed Raghuram Natarajan chief executive of its Asia-Pacific business."This key appointment to the Group’s Leadership Team, based out of its newly opened regional headquarters in Singapore, comes ahead of significant expansion plans for the region," said a press release.Natarajan brings a decade and a half of senior leadership experience in the wind and solar industry across India, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan…
Fire burns out of control at Philadelphia refinery
A fire was burning out of control at an oil refinery in Pennsylvania on Friday morning, a Philadelphia fire department official said, as local media reported a series of explosions on site.NBC Philadelphia said the "massive" blaze at the 335,000 barrels per day Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery was visible from miles away and triggered explosions that were felt as far away as South Jersey.The crude section at the Girard Point portion of the refinery was shut down due to the fire, intelligence provider Genscape said.There were no immediate reports of casualties at the complex, which the NBC affiliate said employs around 1,000 people.A com
Worley Wins Rhode Island OWF Contract
Denmark's offshore wind giant Ørsted has awarded WorleyParsons a core role in its Revolution Wind project, which will see the design and installation of a 700-megawatt offshore wind farm, located 15 kilometers south of the Rhode Island coast.The project, which commenced in March 2019, with installation expected in 2022, will see Worley complete the engineering and design of two offshore wind topside substations.For the project, Worley said it devised a unique approach that drew upon a combination of our digital, new energy and offshore hydrocarbons expertise.
