Daily Standup Top Stories
Oil markets are still volatile, U.S. energy chief says, calling for further supplies – But will they allow drilling?
Volatility is still weighing on oil markets, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Saturday, reiterating calls for additional supplies. Jennifer Granholm said she expects oil demand in the U.S. to increase to 12.5 million barrels […]
EVs For All? If The Dream Was Met, Would It Help The Environment?
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com, Even if you are 100% convinced in man-made climate change, the idea the EV’s will help reduce CO2 emissions is nonsense… The Impossible Dream Hello climate change advocates, please […]
How California’s electric cars can feed the grid and help avoid brownouts – is this possible?
Stay up-to-date with free briefings on topics that matter to all Californians. Subscribe to CalMatters today for nonprofit news in your inbox. As a historic 10-day heat wave threatened brownouts across California last summer, […]
Saudi Aramco Buys $3.4 Billion Stake In Chinese Petrochemical Firm
Saudi Aramco said on Friday it had completed the purchase of a 10% stake in a Chinese petrochemical firm for the equivalent of $3.4 billion as the Saudi oil giant continues to expand its downstream footprint in […]
World’s Biggest Wind Power Projects Are in Crisis Just When World Needs Them Most
Offshore wind farm project developers stumble amid inflation Governments want green energy to cut costs and carbon Offshore wind projects are facing an economic crisis that erased billions of US dollars in planned spending this […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
03:05 – Oil markets are still volatile, U.S. Energy Chief says, calling for further supplies – but will they allow drilling?
07:12 – EV for all if the Dream was met, would it help the environment?
11:53 – How California’s Electric Cars can feed the grid and help avoid brownouts – Is this even possible?
16:28 – Saudi Aramco buys 3.4 billion stake in Chinese petrochemical firm.
19:02 – ESG is Dying it’s Inevitable Death but will it open up capital for energy investments?
21:48 – Market Updates
24:56 – Outro
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Michael Tanner: [00:00:07] What is going on Everybody, Welcome into another edition of the Daily Energy News Beat Stand up here on this gorgeous Monday, July 24th, 2023. As always, I’m your humble correspondent, Michael Tanner, coming to you from an undisclosed location here in Dallas, Texas, joined by the Executive Producer of the show the Purveyor the show and the Director and Publisher of the World’s Greatest Website, EnergyNewsBeat.com Stuart Turley, my man, How are we doing today? [00:00:32][24.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:00:33] Its a beautiful day in neighborhood and I got to go by my in-laws and sit in a massage chair. Holy smokes! A full body massage, I’m purring right now. [00:00:42][9.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:00:43] Yeah, that seems like both I working the mind and the body, but we absolutely have a great show for you guys lined up, Stu’s got a great menu. First up, Oil markets are still volatile, US Energy Chief says, but calling for further supplies the real question is, will they allow Drilling?. Stu, will dive into this, this article with a very nice amen is supportive of Secretary Grahanholm. [00:01:05][21.7]
Michael Tanner: [00:01:05] Next up EVs for all If the Dream was met, would it help the Environment? A great breakdown of EVs in the environment specifically related to global mining industry capacities Stu will cover it all. Next step How California’s electric cars can feed the grid and help avoid Brownouts – Is this possible? I hope one of our favorite segments, which is the looming electric car debacle going on in California right now, Stu, will cover this latest angle. [00:01:33][28.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:01:34] And then finally, Saudi Aramco stays smart, buys a $3.4 billion stake in Chinese Petrochemical firm, our two favorite countries teaming up together. He’ll toss it over me I’ll cover really sprawling for the fourth straight week mainly off some tightening supply. And we’ll take a look back and see what to expect the upcoming year in oil prices will cover quickly what happened with rig counts and then we will let you get out of here and start your Monday. [00:01:59][25.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:01:59] But before we do that, guys, again, all of the articles you about to see comes from the world’s greatest website www.EnergyNewsBeat.com the best place for all your Energy in Oil and Gas News. Stu does a great job of curating that website make sure stays up to speed with all the latest and greatest news. [00:02:16][16.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:02:16] Dashboard.EnergyNewsBeat.com the best place for all of your Data and Energy News Combo. Stuart does a great job of and the team really does a great job of making sure that any time you hit, whether it’s Dashboard Energy News, all the stuff’s there, all of the articles you’re about to hear in the description below. [00:02:33][17.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:02:34] You can get a hold of us Questions@EnergyNewsBeat.com or take hit the link below. I’m out of breath though. Stu, Where do you want to begin? We’ve got a nice show lined up for Everybody. [00:02:42][8.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:02:43] Oh, it’s a fantastic show, Michael, but let’s start with my buddy Jennifer Granholm. And I can’t I keep Pat myself on the back and if she ever got married to Fetterman, it’d be better. Graham or Graham better? I don’t know. [00:03:00][17.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:00] But anyway, she is sitting there looking at this article Holy Smokes. Oil markets are still volatile, U.S. Energy Chief says, calling for further supplies – but will they allow drilling? This one is hypocrisy at its finest, volatility is still weighing on oil markets, as Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Saturday, reiterating calls for additional supplies. [00:03:25][24.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:26] Here’s where it gets a couple quotes that just drive me nuts. She says that oil demand is going to go up to 12.5. Currently, we’re doing around the 11 range. So in that 11 range now, remember, we have to import the heavy because there’s no Keystone pipeline we could get the heavy out of the Canadian oil sands. Just thought I’d throw that little miserable piece of news out there. [00:03:51][25.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:52] Here’s where she comes up with this, We want prices to come down the President is really focused on the impacts of real people who need to get to work and cannot afford that premium Granholm highlighted. [00:04:07][15.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:09] Here’s a little bit of tidbit, they’re thinking of pulling even more out of the SPR. And the SPR is at the lowest it’s been in 30 years to 300 million barrels somewhere in that range. They still want to draw down, even though they can’t afford to put the oil back in like I told you a little while ago. [00:04:34][24.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:35] So let’s come in to this one, We want to see more supply it gets dangerous when the prices are so high. I think the prudent course is to ensure that transportation is affordable for people and that course means making supply is stable. She doesn’t understand how pricing works in the oil and gas market. [00:04:56][21.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:04:56] Well, I think she understands exactly how it works, she just can’t come out and say we want to produce more oil and gas because it would go against the stated goals of this administration. It’s a catch 22 it’s like a fat person nominating their Doctor in attempting to tell them how they’re going to keep their horrible diet up. [00:05:15][19.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:05:16] It’s like the doctor’s got to come out and say, well, you know, really four bags of MNMs is actually in our case, it could be good, you know, for all these five. I mean, the tap dancing that they have to do around to come up with the idea of. [00:05:27][11.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:05:27] Well, we don’t want the consumers paying too much for energy we expect demand to increase, but we don’t want any more drilling. [00:05:33][5.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:34] Right. [00:05:34][0.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:05:34] They want they want to restrict the they want to restrict the amount of drilling of oil and gas capital that it’s available in the industry. Yet they also keenly understand that supply, that demand is going to increase to 12.5. They want their cake they want to eat it, too. It’s. [00:05:50][15.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:52] Heres…. [00:05:52][0.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:05:52] I feel sorry for her because I think she actually knows what the solution is. More investment in drilling, more barrels coming out of the U.S. ground. The problem is she’s hamstrung she can’t say it. She can’t go out and say the answers drill more Stu, she can’t what do you expect her to say? [00:06:06][14.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:08] I expect her not to laugh like she did when she asked that one question. How are you going to drill more oil? And she just started laughing like your Vice President. [00:06:17][9.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:06:18] I’m not saying she’s I’m not saying she’s a great person, but I’m just saying, like, I think we keep expecting her to come out and say what we all already know. [00:06:26][8.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:26] Okay. But here’s the here’s the last line, Michael. We have to do everything everywhere, all at once. Deploy, Deploy, Deploy Clean Energy because if we don’t, our planet is on fire and we must address it. [00:06:40][13.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:06:40] And she loses all credibility when she says our planet is on fire. [00:06:43][3.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:44] Oh, done. And so here’s here’s my take. You know, I’m a big fan of Grenelily Debra Wold they can do renewable energy time and time again without this. So if Granholm called Jennifer Wold, I mean Debra Wold she ought to be our next secretary of energy. [00:07:08][23.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:08] Let’s move over to this Ev one. [00:07:10][1.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:11] Okay. EV for all if the Dream was met, would it help the environment? It might make some kids less abused but let’s start here. Even if you’re 100% convicted in a manmade climate change, the idea that of EVs will help reduce CO2 is emissions is nonsense. This was authored by Mike Shed log as Mishmash.com. I thought this was pretty interesting. Let’s go in here to the. [00:07:45][34.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:46] Well anyone who starts out quoting Mark Mills I’m a fan of. [00:07:49][3.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:50] I am, too. I saw that and that this goes right on end. So No one knows how much, if at all, CO2 emissions will decline as Evey uses rise. Every claim for EVs, reducing emissions is a rough estimate or outright guessed based on Averages, Approximation or Aspirations. I Love that line. [00:08:14][24.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:08:17] And here’s the thing Biden’s got all of his tax incentives that very few of them will actually meet on this. And last week, Michael, we covered there’s all these EVs piling up on the new car lots. Oops. [00:08:35][18.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:08:36] Now. The the CO2 emissions directly associated with EVs begin with all the upstream industrial processes needed to acquire materials and fabricate a battery that batteries an awful toxic beast. [00:08:56][19.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:08:59] And so we come in here, listen to this, Lithium brines contain point one for 14% lithium so that entails £20,000 of brines to yield £30 of pure lithium needed for one car. And cobalt or green means £60,000 of or dug up or battery. Michael Nickel means £10,000 of Ore for one battery Graphite, £2,000 of or Copper £12,000 of or that is not Green or Eco Friendly. Holy smokes. [00:09:46][47.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:09:48] Well, I think anybody who looks at the situation just wait a second they’re pushing us from drilling for oil and gas to mining for minerals. And if you actually were to see those two processes with your own eyes, you’d look at oil and gas looks like it’s a little footprint smaller, you know, out a lot quicker. You know, you’re the. [00:10:11][23.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:12] You know what the problem is? [00:10:12][0.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:10:14] What? [00:10:14][0.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:14] NIMBY, not in my backyard. [00:10:14][-0.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:10:15] Good Point! [00:10:15][0.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:15] Yeah. We can’t do the mining here. We do it in China where we abuse, they abuse the kids, and then we do it in the Congo where the kids are abused this is about the kids, they don’t care so that’s why. [00:10:29][14.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:10:30] I also find it interesting that places like Indonesia and some of those heavy, heavy, heavy countries in terms of of large stockpiles are banning exports of exactly critical minerals. [00:10:43][13.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:44] And here’s the other thing. Moore’s Law in the comic book view, I really like the fact that they have misquoted continually Moore’s Law. You know, Moore’s Law is. [00:10:56][11.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:10:57] Yeah, it’s and I’m probably going to misquote it, but isn’t it something along where at some point it’s like the doubling of technology and it’s like an infinite curve of like the technology or something like that there so good in associating with it. [00:11:12][14.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:12] There is. and Moore and Andy Grove started Intel. Moore’s Law says every 18 months to two years, the number of transistors it double that means in the expense of creating wafers and chips is not a healthy process either. Yeah so they misquoted in here I just thought I’d give a shout out that I actually knew one thing out of the article. [00:11:45][32.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:45] Okay, let’s go to here’s how this next article folds into this one and I get really tickled every time I talk about California. How California’s Electric Cars can feed the grid and help avoid brownouts I added, Is this even possible? [00:12:02][16.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:03] Let’s go into this one this is a hoot. Okay. Not only does our Vice President love busses, she goes there, They’re yellow and they hot kids. I love that one when she was giving us a technical description that what they’re trying to do and I’m going to kind of cover this before I get into the more of the details. [00:12:26][23.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:28] In here about the third paragraph down there, talking about the eight school busses provided enough for 452 homes each day of the heat wave and then the busses recharge, recharge during off hours. [00:12:45][17.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:46] Okay. Do you know how much weight is in a bus battery and how much it has to it? It’s a lot of extra money to have the bi directional charging capabilities to those things, a lot of extra money added into it. [00:13:02][16.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:03] There’s only a couple of models for cars that have the bidirectional charging capability where they can power your house. The Ford F-150 is one of them and if not, it’s at least 2 to $5000 per car to add that in and then you have the other expense to the house not everybody can afford that. [00:13:24][21.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:25] Now, on the bus side of things, when you have busses trying to fit into this, the brownouts in the heat waves, eight busses charging, having these 450 to the kilowatt per hour and the kilowatts used does not match up, so this is pie in the sky. [00:13:47][22.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:50] I mean, this is just something it should be on the menu of options that California has. I do like options I don’t like the government telling us what to do. Is it going to be the number one option? Definitely not. [00:14:03][12.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:14:04] One of their part of their problem is on this article, Michael, is they don’t know how to pay people for delivering power back to the grid. Talk about a complex system think about that. You plug your car in and your EV and then you drain it during the day to help save a brownout and then you try to charge it that night. And I mean, every time you take a battery and discharge it and then you bring it back in and charge it, that wears the battery down. So. [00:14:35][31.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:14:35] You know, using batteries, they they degraded over time. So I’m with you. I think there’s I think there’s two big areas where there’s going to be a lot of money made. One smart grid technology in terms of out coming up with the, I don’t want to say infrastructure, but coming up with the application which manages the exact situation you talked about. [00:14:56][20.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:14:56] How do you manage discharging from me back into the Grid is that just free? And I’m just giving free energy back to the greater free energy back to my house so I don’t have to draw from the grid. [00:15:07][10.4]
Michael Tanner: [00:15:08] And I think Second is battery degradation you’re going to actually do something, if you’re going to actually think about using these cars and in this case, in these school busses, which I’m not against electric school busses. You want to go to electric school busses? Go ahead, Don’t drain my batteries the point we’re now you’re causing brownouts for me because you want to plug your car, your your school busses in during the day. [00:15:28][20.2]
Michael Tanner: [00:15:28] Now, what’s nice is they did say that they were charging these during at night and they haven’t necessarily been causing tap outs of the grid. But again, when all of the when we start the unintended consequences of moving to all EVs, we don’t know yet. [00:15:43][15.1]
Michael Tanner: [00:15:43] We just talk about in the last article, we don’t know all of these existential, you know, second, third, fourth order effects they’re going to come down. You know, I love talking about them we don’t know what those are going to be. And the more we get closer to this switch from oil to, you know, from Gas powered cars to EVs, more of these situations are going to come up. [00:16:04][20.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:16:04] Exactly. I and again I love me smell Elon. I love a Tesla. I want a Tesla as my second or even third car. I don’t want it as a primary or have to depend on. [00:16:14][9.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:16:15] Okay. Speaking of EVs, talk about Saudi Aramco. [00:16:17][1.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:16:18] Okay, You want to do the ESG first or go to Saudi? [00:16:21][3.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:16:22] Let’s go to Saudi. [00:16:22][0.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:16:23] Okay we like Saudi except for their human policies. Okay. Saudi Aramco buys 3.4 billion stake in Chinese petrochemical firm. This is huge, Michael. Even though it’s buying a stake in the Chinese, it’s not the one that Hunter owned. [00:16:44][21.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:16:45] Saudi Aramco said that it had completed the purchase of 10% of a Chinese petrochemical firm for 3.4 billion in the Saudi oil giant continues to expand. Our strategic partnership with Ronsheng advances Aramco’s liquid chemical strategy while growing our presence in China and showcases our importance of reliable super crude supplier of crude oil. Mohammad Khatami. He’s the downstream president. It’s pretty cool. It’s only 10% of that refinery. [00:17:31][45.4]
Michael Tanner: [00:17:32] Again, it’s continually to it’s continuing to in the you know, Saudi Arabia‘s doing whatever they can to create long term supply contracts for both oil, natural gas and LNG abroad and not with us. The smartest thing they can do is now turn around and do this same thing in India, which they will probably do. [00:17:53][20.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:17:53] And here’s the thing. This is probably the most important paragraph in here. Saudi Aramco announced earlier this year that two major refinery and petrochemical deals in China, which not only give the world’s largest oil firm a share of the Chinese downstream, but it also an additional export outlet for 690,000 barrels per day of Saudi. [00:18:21][28.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:18:22] This is actually guaranteeing a customer I mean, this is kind of cool. It’s just like we’re seeing those 20 and 23 year contracts for LNG. They’re get they’re protecting their energy and their sales. It’s pretty smart business. [00:18:39][16.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:18:41] Yeah. No, I think it’s I think it’s extremely smart and I and you know, will they keep they keep on, you know when they come by a stake in energy news beat for 3.4 billion then I’ll be impressed. [00:18:54][13.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:18:56] Storyline. Hey. Okay. The next last article for me is the ESG is Dying it’s Inevitable Death but will it open up capital for energy investments? This could be open for energy or renewable or, you know, anything. So this is really just not about oil and gas and everything else it’s just this harebrained thing. [00:19:21][25.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:19:24] Larry Fink, he’s good buddy hes a friend of the show had a BlackRock, ESG scoring and mandates remain a subject we’ve contested since it sprang into life in 2020. It’s actually before that. The push of woke activism and and by companies to meet nebulous or artificial standards has led to various bad outcomes, let’s see here. [00:19:51][26.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:19:52] The U.S. Sustainable Fund flows noticed in that chart for our readers. We’ll have our producer flow this in. The fund flows are bailing out big in Q4 of 2022. Those are negative, That is negative. [00:20:09][17.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:20:11] So what has happened in the First Quarter of 2022, BlackRock lost 1.7 trillion by Q3. People are kind of going like Scoob, they got a Scooby Mony and went home and they started rolling in and we’re seeing even more of that now and that’s evidenced by BP total and Total Energy. You know, as we say in Texas. [00:20:39][28.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:20:41] Both of those are in Shell are all now following Exxon and and moving off into and moving into oil and gas. And the number one area that they’re investing in, Michael, is Africa. So all of this is just amazing to me. [00:21:03][22.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:21:04] So ESG investing has given people a black eye. Here’s where it’s really going to get interesting and I want to watch for this over the next we get a story that we’re going to talk about. The world’s biggest wind power projects are in crisis just when the world needs the most. Funding for offshore projects for wind, whether you like them or not, is down. [00:21:29][24.8]
Michael Tanner: [00:21:29] Going down,. [00:21:30][0.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:21:30] It’s going down. People got to make money. And so it’s about talking to each other Michael. It’s about let’s have a conversation right or wrong, I don’t care. Let’s talk and treat each other like humans. All right. Thanks for letting me rant today. [00:21:46][15.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:21:47] Absolutely, Stu anytime. Yeah, I’ll start by covering quickly what happened last week in the oil markets. We did see about a 2% rise on Friday to finish with the fourth consecutive weekly rise. Again, buoyed by supply shortages, mainly tealeaves of supply shortages, we discovered an article covering our favorite Secretary Granholm, talking about this inevitable supply shortage. [00:22:13][26.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:22:13] So a lot of what you’re seeing right now in the oil markets, we currently sit at about 76,83 that’s going to be again, due to the fact that we’re not sure. Exactly where oil prices are going to end up. But we do feel and specifically myself feel very bullish. [00:22:32][19.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:22:33] You know, we also are seeing some stimulus measures going on in China so they’re taking a playbook from the Fed, going to start their own version of quantitative easing so that can only go well. [00:22:42][9.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:22:43] We did see on Friday rig counts come out, Stu, another drop we saw six rig counts drop week over week seven on the oil and gas side or seven on the oil side two on the gas side. We actually did see a vertical we get a vertical rig did get picked up so on net, we see about six. No offshore rigs dropped, only onshore rigs so that is another interesting made. [00:23:04][21.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:23:05] But but mainly, Stu, everyone’s watching the bullishness on oil this week. I think the real question is do we or do we not see 80 this week? Where do you stand? Are we seeing anything this week? [00:23:19][14.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:23:19] I’ve been wrong a lot and my wife would attest to that, but when you sit back and go, I think we could, um, were, you know, I don’t know where I think it’s going to be dependent is how soon the finance and issues are coming around. [00:23:39][19.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:23:39] They just launched Fed now and Fed now has 35 banks that are now going to Digital currency. It’s the first step to go to Digital currency. You have a Digital currency and it’s now live. Who knows what pricing was going to go? [00:23:58][19.4]
Michael Tanner: [00:24:00] Yeah. You can’t get on Digital currency at any one that’s got to avoid digital currency its you. [00:24:04][4.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:24:07] It? No, it’s the United States needs to [00:24:09][1.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:24:10] I know, I know [00:24:10][0.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:24:11] If you want to eat. [00:24:11][0.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:24:13] What else are you watching for this week’s Stu? [00:24:14][1.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:24:15] Well, trying to get a grip on world supply and demand. I mean, I’m trying to get a grip on it. I got no clue. [00:24:24][8.3]
Michael Tanner: [00:24:25] I wish we did, guys. Well, we appreciate with you checking this out this week, guys. We’re coming up on our on on a great week. Lots of great stuff coming up so we appreciate you checking us out, but we’ll go on let you get out of here start your Monday, guys you can survive. [00:24:39][14.0]
Michael Tanner: [00:24:39] Hopefully, there’s only a few meetings on this Monday you can get out of here and we will check back with you guys on Tuesday. We’ll get out of here, guys for Stuart Turley I`m Michael Tanner we’ll see you tomorrow. [00:24:39][0.0]
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