Bloomberg (paywalled): Global Oil Demand Hits Record and Prices May Climb, IEA Says
Global oil demand has surged to a record amid robust consumption in China and elsewhere, threatening to push prices higher, the International Energy Agency said.
World fuel use averaged 103 million barrels a day for the first time in June and may soar even higher in August, the agency said in a report. As Saudi Arabia and its partners constrict supplies, oil markets are tightening significantly.
TC Energy, which I still think of as TranCanada, from back when I built pipelines for them, is spinning off its oil pipelines, which is principally the Keystone system.
I was searching for the best metaphor. “Like hot garbage,” kept coming to mind. I settled on dumping an ex-wife. My column on this: TC Energy dumping Keystone Pipeline like a despised, soon-to-be-ex-wife. The Keystone name is so verboten, it is barely mentioned in the press release or slide deck.
This is entirely because the anti-pipeline, anti-oil movement won on Keystone XL and Energy East. Can’tada and BANANAS USA won, and this is the result. (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone, Seriously, U Stup1d A@#$#@#)
Timelapse of drilling & fracking a well (Texas).
Your tips thread begins.
1) Data indicates that future demand for oil and gas is UNDERESTIMATED, while demand destruction is HYPED.
2) Global energy demand is increasing, making decarbonization more difficult to achieve, and the process of replacing fossil fuels slower.
3) Despite massive spending on renewables in the last two decades, fossil fuels remain the dominant source of energy in the world, even in Europe.
4) Coal remains the dominant source of electricity in India and China.
5) Oil is rarely used in power generation in the OECD, China, and India. Doubling or tripling solar and wind energy sources will have a very limited impact on oil demand. However, the failure of renewable energy, and consequent power shortages, will have a significant impact on oil demand.
6) As LNG prices reached a record high in 2022, oil use in power generation increased. The level of substitution among various energy sources last year was unprecedented.
Other than that, the fossil fuel industry is finished.
What are you waiting for?
If it wasn’t clear before, it is now.
The Trudeau government doesn’t want to just reduce emissions in our energy sector, they want to completely shut down our energy sector. https://t.co/X635j5V1Ga
— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) July 15, 2023
Open letter: CCS is needed and ready to address climate change. This is from the Regina-based International CCS Knowledge Centre.
In response to some of the comments yesterday – carbon capture, as practiced in Saskatchewan, actually has a substantial benefit besides whatever climate issues one might be concerned about. The Weyburn Unit, one of the largest and most prolific oil plays in this country, has been in operation for 65 years. If it had no CO2 injection, it would probably be producing around 6,000 barrels per day. It’s currently doing around 24,000 as a direct result of CO2-enhanced oil recovery. That’s a gain of around 18,000 bpd. At $75/bbl., that’s about $1.3 million per day in gross revenue. It means hundreds of jobs in Weyburn, including my daughter, who started working as a heavy duty mechanic apprentice for an oilfield service company which has been working in the Unit for 62 years. If the CO2 continues to flow, that oilfield is expected to continue on likely for her entire career, if she stays there.
This can be applied on a much broader scale, dramatically extending the life of any oilfield it is applied to. CO2 increases recovery factors from around 20% to 40%+.
Just pumping CO2 into the ground – that’s another story.
… you can’t stop at just one.
Ontario made its second major nuclear announcement last week, and it has direct implications on SaskPower and Saskatchewan.
We are inundated with claims about the “energy transition.”
In February, E&E News, reporting on the State of the Union speech said, “President Joe Biden laid out his vision for the energy transition Tuesday night.” In March, a reporter for Politico declared “The U.S. energy transition is well underway.”
Also in March, during a speech at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that “As this transition progresses, our energy mix will change.” Or consider the March 9 press release from the White House, which said “The Administration is continuing to implement the Inflation Reduction Act, which is already galvanizing our clean energy transition and making clean and energy efficient technologies more affordable for American families.”
I could list many more examples like the ones above. But the hard truth is this: the energy transition isn’t. The numbers from the just-released Statistical Review of World Energy show, once again, that despite rapid growth in wind and solar, those two forms of energy are not even keeping pace with the growth in hydrocarbons. That’s true both globally and in the U.S.
Related: Where has the wind gone?
On Wednesday morning, the Province of Ontario and Bruce Power announced they were beginning planning for a massive expansion of “large nuclear” in that province. How big? One quarter more than Saskatchewan has ever produced on its highest usage day. Just one of these reactors would be as large as the four SaskPower is currently considering, combined.
Oh, and while he was here, Jonathan Wilkinson announced federal money for four Indigenous renewable energy projects, plus one at Carrot River. Here’s the first four, and here’s the last one.
Globe and Mail- Norway’s government approves more than US$18-billion in oil, gas investments
Norway’s government said on Wednesday it has given approval for oil companies to develop 19 oil and gas fields with investments exceeding 200 billion Norwegian crowns ($18.51-billion), part of the country’s strategy to extend production for decades to come.
Norway’s parliament in 2020 introduced temporary tax incentives to encourage petroleum investment at a time of low activity, triggering a rush of applications from energy companies.
The climate, or perhaps weather, struck back at oil and gas on Monday, with lightning striking an oil battery northeast of Stoughton, Saskatchewan on Monday. Mother Earth gets her revenge about once or twice a summer.
U of R professor Jim Warren writes in Pipeline Online: What can supporters of the conventional energy industry do to stem the tide of public opinion flowing against them? “Catch up”. This is part 4 of 4, concluding this series.
As promised, here is the federal Conservative response to the Natural Resources Committee just transition report. They want to expand oil and gas, not make it go away.
Entitled “Creating a Fair and Equitable Energy Transformation,” The 56 page report outlines nothing short of the utter transformation of Canada, its economy and workforce, by way of transitioning away from fossil fuels to a largely electric economy, with the possibility of hydrogen usage as well. In doing so it means to largely do away with the fossil fuel industry which is one of Canada’s largest industries and contributors to GDP, exports and wealth. The report provides recommendations as to what to do with the people involved in that industry, but not so much the companies who employ them, create those jobs or that wealth.
On Thursday, I’ll have the detailed Conservative response from MP Shannon Stubbs.
…has executed a near flawless energy policy. It produces more than 90% of its electricity from carbon-free hydropower, with the balance coming from other renewable resources like wind. The country’s nearly 1,700 hydroelectric dams are buttressed by approximately 1,000 water reservoirs that collectively represent a backup power supply equivalent to 70% of its annual consumption. Norway produces so much clean electricity that it routinely exports a meaningful amount to its neighbors in Europe. Most Norwegian homes are warmed in the winter using heat pumps or electric heaters, and more than 90% of its new vehicle sales are either full battery electric (BEV) or plugin hybrids (PHEV). In essence, Norway is an “electrify everything” green utopia.
Norway is also blessed with an abundance of oil and natural gas reserves—far more than it could ever consume domestically— and the country has been incredibly thoughtful as to how it exploits its resources and who ultimately benefits from them. In 1990, the Norwegian parliament passed legislation creating what is now the Government Pension Fund Global, and surplus revenues from its petroleum sector have been swept into it ever since. The fund is used to dampen the impact of economic volatility on government budget planning, diversify the country’s wealth beyond its borders, and secure the well-being of its future generations. As of March 31, 2023, the fund had a value of $1.36 trillion, or approximately $250,000 per citizen.
Given this fact set, the data on Norway’s annual oil consumption may come as a surprise.
“Every molecule of fossil fuel produced worldwide will be burned by somebody somewhere, and local efforts to restrict consumption merely relocate the enjoyment of that privilege.”
Prior to the widespread proliferation of the steam engine, mining for coal was back-breaking work. The industry relied on human and animal strength, with laborers using primitive tools, to extract the stuff from hand-dug mineshafts. The work was as dangerous as it was dirty, and fatalities were commonplace. Then, a revolution unfolded. A step-change improvement to existing steam engine design, engineered by James Watt, allowed miners to leverage machinery such as pumps, hoists, and ventilation systems to alleviate significant portions of direct human effort. Pumps that used Watt’s engines were particularly effective at draining water from deep mineshafts, making vast and previously inaccessible coal reserves economically viable. The genius of his invention was in delivering far more work per quanta of fuel.
What did these advances in energy efficiency do to the demand for coal? Did society limit itself to doing the same amount of work as it had done before, just more economically so? Quite the contrary.
This is a good one, worth sharing around. More discussion here.
Believe it or not, there are successful oil companies growing substantially in Saskatchewan.
Also, Quick Dick McDick goes branding. This video has way too much about prairie oysters. Way too much.
A few years ago the Weyburn Oil Show Board created a new honour called Southeast Saskatchewan Legends. There are a number of people who, over several decades, were key players in building the Saskatchewan oil industry. Many of them started and operated not one, but several oilfield service companies, and coincidentally, almost every single one of them farmed on the side. You could call them “serial entrepreneurs.”
Ron Wanner of Estevan was one of the first to be honored as a “Legend,” back in 2017. He started wheeling and dealing surplus oilfield equipment, and ended up having a trucking company, an oil company, a drilling rig and a service rig company. He passed away a few days ago. He also had a policy of buying long-term employees their own vehicle after a certain number of years. I remember around 2010 he bought a Hemi Challenger SRT/8 for the engineer who successfully built his oil company from nothing. This is his obituary, as published in Pipeline Online. They don’t make many like Ron Wanner anymore.
Geez, wonder who the federal government likes best? Federal government gives $86 million to convert Newfoundland oil refinery to biofuel.
And you know it likes Newfoundland because when they wanted to open up a major new oilfield, the federal Liberal government bit their tongue and said, “Sure!”
But now Newfoundland will also got a taste of what Alberta usually chews on – delays on energy projects. The Bay du Nord sailed through federal approvals (sailed – see what I did there?) , only to find out that Norwegian proponent Equinor is going to delay it three years. Didn’t they know the federal government is supposed to delay oil projects three years, not the oil company?