Is It Time To Abandon the Idea of Phasing Out Oil and Gas?

Despite feigning interest, Big Oil still appears to oppose the global green transition and could well stand in its way. As Saudi’s state oil company leader condemns the green transition and calls for long-term oil production, other major industry players are voicing their scepticism around renewable energy and clean tech. Despite large investments into green energy and carbon-cutting projects from several oil and gas majors, Big Oil still appears to be heavily favouring fossil fuel production. This month, the CEO of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco, Amin Nasser, said that the energy transition was failing and called for policymakers to abandon the “fantasy” of phasing out oil and gas, with the demand for fossil fuels expected to continue growing in the coming years. During a panel interview at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston, Nasser stated, “In the ...

More than 20% of global refining capacity at risk of closure

Recent analysis by Wood Mackenzie finds that, based on forecasted 2030 net cash margins, 121 out of 465 screened refineries are at some risk of closure. This represents a cumulative 20.2 million b/d of refining capacity, or 21.6% of global 2023 capacity. The future viability of refinery facilities will be dependent on a combination of factors. First, refining margins will start to weaken by the end of the decade as fossil fuel demand declines. In OECD countries, transport fuel demand will start to fall from 2025, while the unwinding of free allowances for carbon emissions will also impact European net cash margins from 2030 onwards. China will see liquid demand peak by 2027 and start to fall as the country actively electrifies its road transport. Non-OECD countries will enjoy continued demand growth beyond 2030, but their refiners will not be immune as global ...

Charles Hugh Smith Blog: Fire, Then Ice Our Deflationary Future

Lest you weep for those whose phantom wealth will be drained away, recall that few win when a reserve currency dies. Labor can start earning the day after the reset, but the capital lost is gone for good. Outside the "everything's always fine" echo-chamber, the consensus is that easily created fiat currencies will all evaporate as the temptation to continue printing/borrowing money into existence is irresistible: the only way to keep the system from imploding is to devalue the soaring debt and interest payments with inflation, and the dial controlling inflation is money-printing / central banks buying debt and all the related tricks. The problem is that once the dial is turned to 11, inflationary expectations start feeding back into real-world inflation and inflation then escapes the control of central bankers and government treasuries: creating more money to devalue the currency and service the ...

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser says energy transition strategy ‘visibly failing’

Pointing to the still paltry share of renewable energy in global supply, the head of Saudi Aramco described the current energy transition strategy as a misguided failure on Monday. “In the real world, the current transition strategy is visibly failing on most fronts,” Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said at the CERAWeek conference in Houston. Fossil fuels accounted for 82 percent of global consumption last year, according to a report from consultancy KPMG cited by Nasser, who noted that the International Energy Agency has said oil demand could hit a record this year. “This is hardly the future picture some have been painting,” Nasser said. “All this strengthens the view that peak oil and gas is unlikely for some time to come, let alone 2030,” added Nasser, alluding to a medium-term target that has been seen as a potential phaseout date for crude. Joining ...

100 million-degree ‘artificial sun’ sets new records in hunt for energy’s ‘Holy Grail’

Scientists in Korea have sustained plasma at temperatures seven times hotter than the sun for longer than ever before after upgrading a key component, an advance that could provide invaluable data for an international fusion mega-project planned to launch next year. The Korean 'artificial sun', known as KSTAR, sustained the plasma at temperatures of 100 million°C – nearly seven times hotter than the core of our own star – for 48 seconds during recent testing. KSTAR, the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research to use its full name, set its previous record in 2022 when it sustained that temperature for 30 seconds. In its recent testing, conducted between December and February, KSTAR also broke its record for achieving high confinement mode or ‘H-mode’, a plasma state that is stable and better confined than low confinement mode, maintaining this for 102 seconds. Fusion uses the same ...

New England’s last coal plants to voluntarily shut down

Granite Shore Power (GSP) announced an agreement with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) setting a firm date for the voluntary closure of Merrimack Station and Schiller Station, New England’s last remaining coal plants. Merrimack Station has two coal-fired steam units and two kerosene-fueled combustion turbine units for a total of 482 MW (winter capacity). The two coal-fired units serve as seasonal and peak demand resources, while the two combustion turbine units primarily serve peaking roles. Schiller Station has two, dual-fuel units capable of firing coal or fuel oil, a fuel oil-fired combustion turbine, and a biomass boiler, which reach a combined total output of 155 MW (winter capacity). The units serve mainly as peaking resources for the grid with the exception of the biomass boiler, which operates as a baseload unit, according the Granite Shoals Power website. GSP says the plant closures will ...

Kunstler: Oh Say Can You See?

Who was not impressed seeing the sudden and total collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after getting its pylon bonked by the container ship Dali a few hours before the dawn’s early light in Baltimore harbor? In America’s ongoing death-of-a-thousand-cuts, that one literally severed a major artery, but it may take a while to know how badly the wounded colossus known as the USA is bleeding out. “Joe Biden” emerged from his crypt pronto to state that the federal government would pony-up the cost of building the bridge back better, meant to reassure the public, you’d suppose. But perhaps the real reason was to obviate an otherwise requisite investigation of the crash by ship-owner Grace Ocean’s insurance company — since legal wrangling over responsibility would add more years to the already years-long estimated bridge replacement time-frame. And Gawd knows what ...

Kurt Cobb: Can We Find a Balance Between Economic Growth with Environmental Sustainability?

The perils that threaten the continuity of human civilization are so obvious that it is puzzling that so little is being done to counter these perils. In fact, much is being done to hasten their arrival. Climate change, nuclear war, toxic pollution leading to complete loss of human fertility, solar storms and electromagnetic pulse weapons that could take down the entire electric grid, designer viruses against which none of us have defenses, and energy and resource depletion are just some of the extinction-level risks that we face. Now, none of these possibilities are certain to wipe out humanity altogether. But they might very well end modern technical civilization and leave behind only a few scattered groups of humans around the globe. And, then there is the recent hoopla about artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world and extinguishing human beings or, ...

The Mystery of Food Politics and It’s Proposed Extrication

Wars and cross border conflicts are known to stifle food supply mechanisms and impact production on a large scale. Ukraine being foremost exporter maize, oilseeds, wheat among other food commodities stands at an all time high supply risk of essential supplies. Food, famines and farming are conspicuously deeply connected to politics and governance. All policies claim to be designed in way that will assure the end of hunger, enhance nutritional values, ensure food security and promote sustainable agriculture in societies but thought, vision and policy implementation often don’t align with the elemental needs of commoners. In academics, Food Politics isn’t a new subject – it attempts to holistically study governmental and institutional policies that comprise of regulations, control, production, distribution and consumption of food. In recent years, there has been wide scale planning on a gamut of factors like usage ...

Oil slick in the Red Sea from a British-owned ship attack by Yemen’s Houthis, US military says

An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused an 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick, the U.S. military said Saturday. It also warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked on Feb. 18 while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said. The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was transporting more than 41,000 tons of fertilizer, CENTCOM said in a statement. The vessel suffered significant damage, which led to the slick, said the CENTCOM statement, warning that the ship’s cargo “could spill into the Red Sea and worsen this environmental disaster.” “The Houthis ...

How oil and gas execs are still incentivised to grow production despite peaking demand

As the energy transition continues to accelerate, demand for each of the fossil fuels ...

Supreme Court examines cross-state air pollution

As the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday (Feb. 21) held oral arguments on the legality ...

Potassium Depletion in Soil Threatens Global Food Security

Nutrient depletion in agricultural soil is nothing new. There have been numerous studies and ...

World’s largest nuclear reactor aims to power the Earth with unlimited energy

While it may sound like part of the Mandalorian creed, experts at ITER claim ...