Daily Standup Top Stories
Biden Grants First New LNG Approval Since Freezing Permits
New Fortress Energy receives five-year license to sell LNG Climate groups blast White House, permit-pause appeal ongoing The Biden administration granted the first liquefied natural gas export license since the Energy Department halted LNG export permits in […]
Saudi Aramco Continues to Pursue Downstream and LNG Deals
September 3, 2024 Mariel Alumit
Saudi Aramco is actively seeking M&A opportunities in the downstream and LNG sectors. The company has recently entered the Chinese and Pakistani markets through acquisitions. Aramco aims to expand its international presence and secure additional […]
Volkswagen’s 87-Year Streak of German Production Hangs in the Balance
September 3, 2024 Mariel Alumit
Volkswagen is considering closing factories in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history due to falling profits and rising costs. The potential closures could lead to a clash with powerful unions and further […]
The Taxpayer-Funded Illusion Of ‘Cheap’ Renewable Energy
September 3, 2024 Mariel Alumit
Wind and solar advocates claim renewables are cheaper, so why are electricity prices skyrocketing in states that are moving toward them? I have had many posts on the soaring consumer electricity costs suffered by the […]
Why Kamala Harris Will Not Bring Prices Down… Her Plan Needs Inflation
September 3, 2024 Mariel Alumit
In a recent interview with CNN, Kamala Harris said that Bidenomics is working and that she is “proud of bringing inflation down.” However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published the latest CPI at 2.9%, despite annual inflation […]
U.S. Oil, Gas Drilling Activity. Oil Production Slip
September 3, 2024 Mariel Alumit
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell again this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday. The total rig count fell by […]
Highlights of the Podcast
01:32 – Biden Grants First New LNG Approval Since Freezing Permits
04:24 – Saudi Aramco Continues to Pursue Downstream and LNG Deals
05:59 – Volkswagen’s 87-Year Streak of German Production Hangs in the Balance
07:50 – The Taxpayer-Funded Illusion Of ‘Cheap’ Renewable Energy
11:47 – U.S. Oil, Gas Drilling Activity. Oil Production Slip
14:27 – Market Updates
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Michael Tanner: [00:00:10] What’s going on, everybody? Welcome into the Wednesday, September 4th, 2024 edition of the Daily Energy News Beat stand up. Here are today’s top headlines. First up, Biden grants first new LNG approval since freezing permits. Wow. Talk about a change of direction there. Next up Saudi Aramco continues to pursue downstream and LNG deals. Next up Volkswagen ends said 87 year streak of German production as it hangs in the balance. Ooh interesting. Next up the taxpayer funded illusion. Cheap renewable energy. This is a great, great, very long opinion piece by William de ho over there at Unsplash. Oh no wait, that’s the author. The author writes from the Manhattan Contrarian. We love those guys. Yes we do. Next up, why Kamala Harris will not bring down prices. Her plan needs inflation. Who could have told you that much? We’ll do a quick U.S. oil and gas drilling activity update, along with showing U.S. oil production slipping Stu, then toss it over me. I will quickly cover what happened with oil and gas prices. A broader markets and oil had a pretty, pretty brutal day today. And then we’ll briefly touch on API crude oil inventories. Well that’s really it guys. So as always I’m Michael Tanner joined byLinkedIn. What do you want to begin. [00:01:32][81.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:32] I’ll tell you what I did not have Evan Biden Grant’s first new LNG approval since freezing permits on my bingo card this morning, Michael. So, no, I did not know. Fortress energy receives a five year license to sell LNG. But here’s where it gets dicey. Their climate group got upset. Holy smokes. They were like, what is going on? The USDA Department of Energy granted a five year license Tuesday to West Eden’s company, New Fortress Energy, which is developing small scale LNG export known as fast LNG onshore near Altair Mira Mexico, is key for U.S. LNG. Here’s a quote. It’s ridiculous that the Department of Energy would issue this license despite the administration’s ongoing incomplete public interest review of such exports, said Mitch Jones, a managing director at Food and Water Watch or Progressive Environmental Group. The department is now under no obligation to approve these ill advised proposals now or ever. I got a message for you there, Mr. Mitch Jones. You’re welcome on the podcast any time. Let’s talk about how much LNG can actually save the planet in CO2 emissions by getting this out there, instead of having your expertise in food and water, which is a waiter, I think, I’m not sure. But if you’re a waiter and you’re an expert in LNG or carbon, please, I want you on this podcast. How’s that? [00:03:16][103.5]
Speaker 1: [00:03:16] Sorry, it’s a waiter. [00:03:17][1.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:18] Oh, yeah. It’s just by reading his bio, it was like, dude, you never graduated college and you’re a waiter and you’re trying to say, do you know how much carbon the LNG markets are saving because they’re putting coal plants out of business? [00:03:33][15.4]
Michael Tanner: [00:03:34] Yeah, I mean, it’s I could have said it better. I, you know, all I’ll add to this is that it is kind of crazy to see the Biden administration’s complete 180 on LNG export. You wonder if, you know, you wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that he’s now a lame duck and he’s actually, you know, ironically, reading the facts or somebody in his administration is reading the facts. I mean, he gotta give credit where credit’s due. [00:03:56][21.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:56] I’m going to take it. Yeah. And say, yeah, I did have to give him a shout out just because he was a waiter. I was a waiter and I was a great waiter. But when you sit back and take a look at this, Michael, I think that they did improve it only because of the Chevron deference that it has been going on. They’re having to appeal it. And so they this was one of those they just threw it out there to shut people up. [00:04:19][22.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:04:20] Well hey, hey the way credit where credit’s due, we’ll take this. Let’s talk Saudi. [00:04:24][4.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:24] Let’s go to Saudi. Aramco continues to pursue downstream and LNG deals Saudi Aramco is actively seeking M&A opportunities in downstream and LNG sectors at MIT, aims to expand its international presence, secure additional outlets for its crude oil, quote unquote. The downstream business is where we have M&A opportunities and now LNG as well. Yes, the Free Aramco’s executive vice president for products told Reuters. We have targets and markets. It’s pretty important. They entered into discussions with the Hal Gangi Group and regarding the potential acquisition of another 10% in held Guinea Petrochemical. [00:05:08][43.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:05:09] Pretty cool. No, they’re all over the place. Remember? They also did sign that non-binding agreement with Sempra and their Port Arthur LNG project, and may or may not acquire another 25% whenever that enters phase two. So super interesting there. I mean, Saudis made it clear they see a lot of growth in the LNG segment, and they want to wrap their I mean, they’re their true monopoly. They want to wrap themselves off the entire value chain. So, you know, they’re going to continue, you know, as they’ve said, to push this and continue to wrap up a lot of this downstream. You know, they’re you know, they’re doing what they should from a Saudi Aramco standpoint, locking up that entire value chain. [00:05:45][35.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:45] And and they’re looking at energy as an entire process from the wellhead to downstream to renewables to hydrogen. And that’s the way it should be looked at. Absolutely. [00:05:58][12.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:05:59] All right. Let’s let’s talk about Volkswagen. [00:06:00][1.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:01] Volkswagen 87 year streak of German production hangs in the balance. Michael, yesterday you and I talked about renewable energy and the destruction of an economy. And here it is. Volkswagen is considering closing factories in Germany. And for the first time in its 87 years, due to falling profits and rising costs. These rising cost, Michael, are energy costs. They are going through the roof. Ooh, the economic environment is become tougher and newer players are pushing into Europe, the Chinese, which is absolutely driving them nuts. Bloomberg noted any shutdowns would mark the first closures in Germany, the first 87 year history setting VW up for a clash with powerful unions. How are you going to clash with a powerful union when you shut your plant down? [00:06:57][55.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:06:57] Well, hey, it’s it goes to show you, we talked a lot about labor history. Labels become labor has become a huge, huge cost associated with a lot of this stuff. You know, I I’m always partial of Volkswagen. The first ever car I drove was a Volkswagen Passat. I’ll always have love for those vehicles. Even if they were. [00:07:14][17.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:14] New love wagon. [00:07:15][0.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:16] Even they were a little too low to the ground. What’s interesting is that VW delivers about 20% of their vehicles to China, even amid the broader decline in, quote unquote, hetero powered vehicles. This is not good year. You got to have a spokesperson tell Reuters, quote, we do not expect an easy year. [00:07:31][15.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:32] Ooh, ooh. [00:07:32][0.4]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:33] Never good when you’re either. Hey I our guy of the week right there. Hey, at least, you know. [00:07:37][4.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:38] Maybe he maybe he was like, maybe not going to. Having a good year is beautiful language for we’re going to take it in the kneecaps. [00:07:47][8.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:48] Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. All right. What’s next. [00:07:50][2.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:50] Let’s go to the Manhattan here. The taxpayer funded illusion of cheap renewable energy. I gotta hand it out to an ex again. I just said, can you create a picture of cheap renewable energy? And I expect to see unicorns. And, you know, fairy dust in this picture is pretty cool looking picture. But anyway, let’s go on to the story here. Germany, UK, California, and now new Jersey and New York or consumer electric prices are double to triple the U.S. average. But what the difference are they’re raised to convert wind and solar. Here’s where the numbers come in. Important. Later on down in here it says South Dakota as is number one says renewable supply 95% of the demand. Yet the state is ninth lowest energy price. Do duplicity do publicly available data back that up? No they don’t look at coal’s 36%. There’s a numbers game problem going on. They’ve got large hydro. They’re so on the wind provided 55% of it and they’ve got wind. So according to 77 South Dakota generation, not the 95%. They kind of like excluded the coal. [00:09:10][79.4]
Michael Tanner: [00:09:10] Yeah I mean it’s. [00:09:12][1.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:12] Just don’t look you won’t see this coal plant. [00:09:14][2.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:09:15] You don’t see anything. It’s one of the penguins from. What’s that movie I forget. [00:09:20][4.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:20] Oh the Madagascar. [00:09:21][0.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:09:22] Yes. Madagascar. You don’t see anything. It’s really true. Again, I love this quote. The influential academic says renewables alone can hold the climate crisis. Wind, water and solar can provide rentable, plentiful and cheap power, he argues, ending carbon emissions that driving climate crisis. I mean, I mean, some of these people, these people just say things that there’s no basis to be able to even make that quote. [00:09:46][24.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:47] Exactly. If it and I think it’s because of who they are, they’re getting paid by. And it’s almost like everybody that is out there saying they’re climate alarmists are being paid by somebody. [00:09:58][10.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:09:58] They definitely are being paid by somebody. All right. Let’s talk about our favorite Vice President, Kamala Harris. [00:10:02][4.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:03] Going to this next story. This one is going to be a quick one. Why Kamala Harris will not bring prices down. And her plan needs inflation. This is a very interesting article from Zero Age. I love the guys over there is zero ID and this one is first there’s about three bullet points. And let’s just go through these. Kamala Harris will do nothing to cut inflation because she wants inflation to disguise the monster deficit and debt accumulation. In the latest figures, the deficit has soared to 1.5 trillion in the first ten months of the fiscal year. Public debt has soared to 35 trillion. In the administration’s own forecast, they will add another 16.3 trillion deficit from 2025 to 2034. I can’t afford what’s going on now, let alone when we keep on this. [00:10:54][51.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:10:55] No, I mean, it’s it’s clear you want to give $25,000 away for new home buyers. Well, guess what, the $300,000 home is now just 325,000. Thank you very much to all the sellers in America. We’re just giving them a subsidy for their homes. I mean, it’s again, I don’t think a lot of this stuff that she’s saying and. [00:11:12][17.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:13] Oh, no. And the sad part, if. [00:11:14][1.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:11:14] I was a conspiracy theorist and I’ll be know I’m not, but if I was, I would say they’re trying to buy votes. [00:11:20][5.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:21] But in a conspiracy theorist, if you were a conspiracy theorist, might say that if you’re giving that $150,000 on a loan that you don’t have to pay back to illegal aliens, only you’re importing voters and then bribing them with a $150,000 house. [00:11:43][22.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:11:44] Good thing we’re not saying that it’s. [00:11:45][1.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:45] A good thing. We’re not saying that. All right, let’s go to the next one before I throw up. U.S. oil and gas drilling activity, oil production slip this bill. Nice article again from oil price. Oil prices fell on Friday on rumors that OPEC would unwind its production cuts is unplanned beginning in October, and I was surprised to see it. Michael, at the time this recording was $70 for WTI and Bryn is 73. Holy smokes. The number of rigs have only fell to 2 to 583. Four years ago, you and I were worried we were going to hit 700. [00:12:23][37.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:12:24] Yeah. Here’s the thing. I think a lot of what happened and we’ll talk about oil prices specifically in the finance segment. I think what you’re seeing is a pretty structural change. I think this this article also points out the frac count spread, which is basically an estimate of the number of completion crews that are working on wells that haven’t been turned on line yet fell from the week that ends August 23rd, from 234 down to 229. So the number of, you know, you know, rig crews are slowing down completion, crews are slowing down. But we also saw according to the EIA, we’ve surpassed 13.3 million barrels per day on average for a new record. So we continue to beat highs. Rigs continue to drop. It’s only it’s only a matter of decline. Show up now on the counterfactual. You know production at all time. High rigs at a steady state. Maybe that means we’re getting more production from each of these wells, which is true. Everyone’s moving to the three. We also talk about the infamous four mile lateral, which everybody’s talking about specifically in the Bakken. You know, you’re seeing a lot of stuff going on in the Uinta Basin right now that day that it is having some pretty incredible results that we’ve talked about. So I don’t want to just quick I don’t want to just jump to the conclusion that we’re had. We’re headed off a cliff for oil production. We always seem to to grow. It is you know, we’ll talk about with prices Libya. It’s all back online now. So a lot of interesting stuff going on. But this is a great breakdown over by Julianne Geiger there on oil price.com. [00:13:47][83.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:49] You betcha. All right. Off to you. [00:13:50][1.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:13:51] All right. Well we’ll go ahead and cover some oil and gas finance stuff guys, before we do that, as always, we got to pay the bills around here. Thank you for checking out energy news beat.com. All the news and analysis you’ve just heard is brought to you by that website’s doing the team do a tremendous job making sure it stays up to speed everything you need it up to be the tip of the spear when it comes to the energy and the oil and gas business. Hit that description below for all the links to the timestamps links to the articles and check us out at. Investinoil energynewsbeat.com to get access to our exclusive working interest program that we are so happy to be a part of, but let’s go ahead and jump over here guys. [00:14:27][36.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:14:27] Overall markets in the big swing today S&P and Nasdaq both down two and three percentage points mainly off the back of tech stocks getting slaughtered. Reports out of Bloomberg was that Indivior and other chipmakers were received a notice of potential antitrust violations, as served by the US Department of Justice and other and the FTC or the FDA. Yeah, the FTC, which is pretty, are not FTC. Excuse me, the federal FTC. It’s been a long day, folks. Been a long day. But you know, that that drove you know, basically India was down 9% while the trading day was open. They’re down another 2% in after hours trading. So a total of 11% absolutely drag markets going to be. Thing to see. I don’t know how you know, obviously, Indivior, you know, being a US based company, but they have most of their manufacturing overseas going to be very interesting. You know, Linda Cohn, I think she knows that she’s out of a job here if Trump wins. So it’s going to be spicy to see what she ends up doing from that standpoint. Let’s go ahead and move on to a ten year yields absolutely flat dollar index up about a 10th of a percentage point. Bitcoin down two percentage points. Crude oil absolutely slaughtered today down five percentage point. Brant oil about basically down the same percentage points. Natural gas actually saw a nice spike today. We’re down below $2.11 all the way up to $2.22. But crude oil by 70 after opening the day just above $74. Libya coming out and basically saying, oh, we’re back. Which again, why that wasn’t already priced in is kind of crazy. Oil drops down five percentage points currently trading 7033. That’s right, $70. Even in 37%. It’s going to be completely interesting to see where things go from here, because I just find it interesting that nobody had this already priced in. It’s like, well, what did you expect? I mean, what did you expect? Libya was always going to bring the production back on line. So the fact that we have to have a $5 swing or a $4 swing because of blue production, it goes to show you there’s something deeper under the hood here. And I go back to what we’ve been talking about, which is people are embracing and getting ready. And oil is right sizing itself for Saudi to unwind the cuts. Remember, the oil price is always a factor of what is future supply and demand look like. And I think people are speculating that the future supply is going to be a lot more than what they’ve currently priced in. Saudi is down to turn the taps back on, or so they think. So that is where I think the majority of the movement comes, even though if you were to hit up our friends at routers, they might tell you that it was Libyan oil coming back along. But I think that is a little bit of a smoke and mirrors. We actually get API crude oil in the north inventory numbers tomorrow, considering Monday was Labor Day, so we get a little reprieve there, we’ll make sure to cover all that and a bag of chips tomorrow. But other than that stew, pretty, pretty chill for me. Nothing else. We’re kind of in in the lull. No M&A, no M&A to be heard. Nothing. Nothing really crazy. Yeah I mean nothing nothing really interesting to do. Anything else that you think we’re missing today. [00:17:25][177.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:17:25] No, I think we’re going to have a great day tomorrow though. It’s going to be a short week. [00:17:28][3.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:17:29] Yeah. It’s going to be a nice short week. We love it. We’ll get you out of here on that. Guys. We appreciate you for checking us out here on the World’s Greatest Podcast. Again check us out www.energynewsbeat.com for Stuart Turley I’m Michael Tanner. We’ll see you tomorrow folks. [00:17:29][0.0][1014.7]
LNG Plant Approved?!