Daily Standup Top Stories
China Leans On Coal As Hydropower Slumps
Despite massive investments in renewable energy, China is turning to coal to cope with increasing power demand caused by a significant decline in hydropower capacity due to insufficient rainfall. China’s total power generation rose by […]
Biden Officials May Be Blowing America’s Shot At Rare Earth Independence
A recent story in the Wall Street Journal chronicles the fact that, for this energy transition to succeed, the United States is going to need massive quantities of cobalt, among other energy minerals. Yet, the Australian owners of […]
Russian oil exports are at a post-invasion high. But which countries are buying?
Russia recently exported more oil than at any other time following its invasion of Ukraine last year. Russian oil exports hit their highest level in April compared to any other month after it invaded Ukraine […]
Nigeria’s rising number of drilling rigs signals more oil investments
Nigeria’s oil industry is experiencing a positive upturn as the country’s oil rig count reached its highest point in three months, increasing by 7.69 percent compared to the previous month, according to data from the […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
01:57 – China leans on Coal as Hydropower Slumps
04:54 – Biden officials may be blowing America’s shot at rare earth Independence
10:10 – Russia oil exports are in a post invasion high, But which countries are buying?
12:20 – Nigeria’s number of drilling rigs signals more investments
16:02 – Outro
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Stuart Turley: [00:00:07] Hello, Everybody Welcome to the Energy News Beat Daily Stand up. Today is July 26th it is Wednesday it’s hump day. And I think that everybody is looking forward to the weekend already. So we’re yet to get through just three more work days and we’re there. Hey, I got a really great show for you Michael’s on assignment and he’s doing great. [00:00:34][26.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:00:34] So today we’re going to talk about China leans on Coal as Hydro is failing. Biden officials may have blown the critical mineral issues, this is critical if they’re trying to support their EV migration. [00:00:53][18.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:00:54] Mines and Minerals supports this article from the Manhattan Institution and also we’ve got another one from David Blackmon and get some little tidbits on that one so. [00:01:09][15.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:11] Russia oil exports I got a great article on that one and Nigeria is increasing Drilling. All of these have a trail along these stories now we’ve that here in just a sec. [00:01:24][13.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:25] But first let’s think all of our listeners that are making this show such a wonderful success. We are so appreciative of everybody listening and it’s just been a phenomenon. I want to give a shout out to Armando Cavanha he’s got his own podcast with The Energy Transition and I was just on his today. So shout out there thank you very much. [00:01:51][25.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:52] So with that, let’s start with the first article, China leans on Coal as Hydropower Slumps. This is pretty big because China is building, everybody says 2 coal fire plants a week We had to try to fact check that and get the right numbers. But they’re really leaning on all forms of energy and coal these numbers are pretty wild. [00:02:23][31.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:02:24] China’s total power consumption rose by 5.2% in the first half of 2023, with coal fired power output compensating for the decreased hydropower output, bringing the share of thermal power generation to 71% of the generation of china’s electrical output. [00:02:51][27.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:02:52] That’s crazy. China’s all coal production rose 4.4% in the first half of 2023 compared to the previous year. It’s also it’s massive investments in renewable it’s turning to coal to increase with the rising demand. [00:03:18][25.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:19] They can’t even though they’re making it, they make more money selling it to the U.S., to the UK for all the components and then used coal. And that’s how they’re making their money and they’re not doing the environment any good. [00:03:35][16.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:36] So total China’s total power generation rose by 205 billion kilowatt hours or 5.2% between January and June 2023. But hydropower plunged by 23%. This is just really not good. I love hydro, hydro is fantastic but you’re at the mercy of rain. [00:04:06][30.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:08] So when you take a look at ESG they use the natural gas they’d be better off than using coal, using coal to manufacture all of the Wind and Solar and all of the devices ship them out, make more money and pollute more. [00:04:28][19.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:29] So this one if you have any supporting information on this if you’re an industry thought leader, if you’re a CEO of a company for recycling for energy Oil, Gas, Nuclear. I want to talk to you and see if we can come up with some solutions. [00:04:47][18.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:49] The next piece of this puzzle fits in and is. Biden officials may be blowing America’s shot at rare earth Independence. This one’s kind of crazy it is actually from Forbes David Blackmon is the author and he had a great interview here let me get the quotes in here. [00:05:17][28.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:19] Um, the mine that they’re missing on this is actually from Greenland. This is critical Christopher Messina, CEO of. Tanbreez, David just interviewed him this is the quote out of it. [00:05:39][19.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:40] This mine is one that could basically drive civilization over the next 20, 30, 50 years. Christopher Messina said CEO of Tanbreez, told me in a recent interview. David Blackmon for the United States and its needs that is no probably no exaggeration giving the resource was recently ranked by mining.com as number one on the list in top ten rare earth mining projects in the world. [00:06:11][31.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:12] This is huge nobody in the private sector the article comes on down in here where David’s article says. Just one problem nobody in the private or public sector sector seems interested to be the first to take on the risk of funding the project. [00:06:32][19.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:33] Massina says it had funding secured in early 2020 from prominent backers on such project but in a setback the person died of COVID, so he lost anyway. It’s hard to get that one out. [00:06:54][21.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:55] But it’s a situation where everyone cannot wait for five years, ten years to get these things rolling. At least he has a good sense of humor of it. Forbes article Fantastic go read it well have the link to it in the show notes. [00:07:12][17.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:14] And so when you take a look at Rare Earth Minerals also the Biden administration is not helping on any of the permitting. So when you come in and take a look at it, we’ve got to have permitting reforms and allow for the investing of these kind of projects in order to try to get Rare Earth Minerals and critical earth minerals to the United States. [00:07:43][28.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:44] And let’s make our own gear rather than.letting China sell us the gear at a higher price and then use coal in order to manufacture the things. [00:07:55][11.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:56] So when you take a look at the Manhattan Institution mines minerals and and green energy reality check. So when you take a look at this I believe this is Mark Mills and some of the things in this article are just phenomenal. [00:08:14][17.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:08:15] The material cost of clean tech he has in here the material requirements to build different energy machines. This is critical when you sit back and take a look at how many materials used in tons per kilowatt hour. You got to look at the kilowatts produced by resources and that’s exactly what they’re looking at here. [00:08:41][26.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:08:42] So in Solar PV you’re looking at about 16 million tons per pair per terawatt hour. Hydro is about 14.2, wind is about 10.1. Geothermal is down around 5. Natural gas is is under. Uh, a thousand. [00:09:21][39.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:23] So when you sit back and take a look your energy delivered to the consumers is significantly less and less impactful on the environment using natural gas, let’s use natural gas and get to carbon net zero using renewables. [00:09:43][20.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:44] But you’re not going to do it with China and coal we’re got to have a plan. So all these stories fit in and you got to look at all the different places they fit in. [00:09:56][12.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:09:58] Let’s come back around to Big Oil, Big Oil is really taking a look. I had the pleasure of visiting with some folks from croatia and they’re involved in things in Germany and all that. Russia oil exports are in a post invasion high, But which countries are buying? [00:10:17][19.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:18] This is kind of interesting when you take a look. Sanctions don’t work. Russia exported an average of 8.3 million barrels of oil a day in April. It’s an increase of 50,000 barrels per day. [00:10:35][16.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:10:36] Russia when you sit back and take a look at sanctions they’re increased their amount of oil going out. It did cut profits or sales because they’re having to sell to India, they’re selling to China they’re selling to Asia they’re selling to Spain at reduced rates. So exports are up there’s still got lots of revenue coming in. [00:11:10][33.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:10] And so it’s increasing the volume but revenue has not mirrored it. Moscow’s oil exports earned €13.9 million this past month. It’s up from the previous month, yet made close to 6 million less than a year previous year when it was higher oil. [00:11:35][24.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:36] So the exporting at the discounted rate which we know is well below you know, I’ve heard numbers ranging from 35 to 55, so we don’t know. And it’s being traded in rubles, one in other areas other than the U.S. dollar. So. Anyway, this one is really showing. [00:12:03][27.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:03] Now where is everybody going? We’ve had Shell, we’ve had Exxon, we’ve had a lot of increases. BP, a lot of folks are increasing their CapEx spending right now. Where’s it going? [00:12:19][15.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:20] Nigeria’s number of drilling rigs signals more investments this is pretty important. Nigeria’s oil industry is experiencing a positive upturn as the country’s oil rig count reach its highest point in three months increasing 7.69% compared to the previous month. [00:12:46][25.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:47] According to the latest OPEC market report nigeria’s oil rig count rose from 13. In May to 14 on a one year basis, though it is 27.2%, 7% this is from Emmanuel Energy Sector. [00:13:07][20.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:09] He says the increase in the rig count shows that investment international oil companies IOCs, are making offshore in production as an indication of the impact in recent changes especially as it regards the unification of exchange rates as it regards implementation in unitisation of measuring out the output by the regulator. [00:13:41][31.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:42] Other recent changes include the political will of the government to tackle organized, organized crude oil theft from flow stations to terminals, especially in high pressure tapings. [00:13:54][11.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:13:56] What you’re seeing is a pattern. Big oil is moving away from the other areas that they’ve been using and we’re going to Africa. Here’s where I get a little chat, why are we forcing the African countries to buy renewables from China instead of using their own natural resources? [00:14:22][26.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:14:23] If you take a look at Mark Mills report and you can see that natural gas pipelines are a fraction of the impact on the environment. And then you take a look at the cost per kilowatt hour. You look at the the entire damage done to the environment. We are not doing energy poverty any justice in. Africa by only funding renewable projects. [00:14:55][31.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:14:56] We need to fund all the projects at reduced rates but let’s get all of the power that we possibly can to the greatest number of citizens of the world with the least amount of impact on the environment. [00:15:10][14.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:15:11] The only way to do that is use all of the above that really focused on natural gas and nuclear. We got to help out all the people out of energy poverty. [00:15:23][11.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:15:24] So with that, thank you. Subscribe light. If you’re an energy expert, if you have any expertise or opinion renewable, solar, wind, nuclear coal, I want to talk to you because I want to hear all sides of the energy environment. [00:15:44][20.5]
Stuart Turley: [00:15:45] So thank you for stopping by the daily update today and have an absolutely fantastic day. Thanks look forward to speaking to you soon. [00:15:45][0.0]
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