Daily Energy Standup Episode #285 – Weekly Recap: Unveiling Myths, Merger Moves, and Global Dynamics

Daily Standup Weekly Top Stories

A Natural Gas Plant Guarding US Northeast From Winter Blackouts Is at Risk – Consumers at mortal risk

January 7, 2024 Stu Turley

Nicola Sturgeon’s Flagship Hybrid Ferry Now Only Runs on Diesel As Battery Too Expensive to Fix

January 9, 2024 Mariel Alumit

Stuart Turley: [00:00:07] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast. My name’s Stu Turley, president CEO of the sandstone Group. We just appreciate everybody on this week. This is the weekly energy recap on Saturday the 13th. It was a crazy week. We had everything from bricks expanding, had LNG, uh, we had, uh, hybrid ferry, uh, that wouldn’t work any more. And they’re spending in, in Scotland 246% extra for these ferries. Then we had mandates. We had regulatory actions. Uh, I’ll tell you what. The central bank, uh, currency is a huge deal. We had some fantastic things, had some great podcast coming out. Michael Yon with security issues. Hold tight for this series. We had China embedded into the grid, and we have China also on some other security issues. You, uh, the grid is under attack, so don’t miss these in the, uh, series. Always, always. Thank you for everybody. If you’re an energy expert and you want on this podcast, I don’t care. Any energy type, any energy. Um, geopolitical. Uh, we want to talk energy and eliminate, uh, humanitarian poverty and get the lowest cost kilowatt per hour out there. Thank you so much. And enjoy the weekend. Um, and, uh, we’re turning this over to the staff. Have a great day. [00:01:46][98.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:01:47] Natural gas plant guarding us northwest from winter blackouts is at risk. Michael. This is actually sad. Um, this came from Bloomberg. Uh, this is actually the LNG import facility right out of Boston. And here’s where it gets really sad. They have had to use this. Everett is the LNG import facility, and it has kept the North eastern folks alive. I am not kidding about that alive. They it kept the power plants going. Yep. And the facility shut down underscores the challenges facing the American grid transition to cleaner energy as it accelerates. Climate change triggers wilder weather here. Uh. [00:02:39][52.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:02:40] Let me some Bloomberg baby. Love me some Bloomberg. Oh, yeah. [00:02:42][2.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:02:43] But he they bring up some great points. Everett was a key resource in providing additional gas supplies to New England during extreme coal, said Gary Cunningham, director of market research at risk for Traditional Energy. Um, here’s where it gets in with the FARC, Michael. They have been saying all along that our grid is near breaking point because of adding the renewables without the storage, which we can’t afford. I just threw that in. He didn’t say it. There are going to be facilities that are fossil based and climate damaging, that are going to go off line, and they’re going to be replaced with alternatives that public policy and markets now have chosen. Here’s where Governor Hochul, you have heard me laugh. I mean, talk about governor, uh, Hochul saying that she’s got a 20% increase in energy this year, which is 2023. They got another one coming up in 2024. And then in 2025, they’ve got gas. For how much? Oh 100%. [00:03:52][69.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:03:53] So it’s it’s pretty. Here’s what I think is is hilarious is Bloomberg’s trying to say really really without saying it. They’re trying to say, oh this is not a great idea. Everybody else is in favor of it. I mean, there see you got one quoting here. Gas is often seen as the transition fuel as the world moves to more environmentally friendly ways to generate heat and power. Everett sign is a. Everett’s closure is a sign of that shift. But they’re shutting natural gas. So on one breath, they’re trying to say, well, you know, really natural gas is the transition fuel, but closing it down is a shift away from that, which is not good, because we’re going to just jump from one iceberg to the other. Again, we have to transition into it. It is hilarious how, you know, I mean good luck there. Good luck in New York. [00:04:41][48.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:42] Good luck. You know what, uh, one of the funniest lines that I got feedback, which is one of the rare times that I am funny, is, uh, we took a poll, and that was all those in favor of letting, uh, New York go with 100% no fossil fuels. That. That means anything delivered with diesel. Anything. You see where I’m going with it? You’d have no clues. No, uh. No clothes, no food. Um, all those in favor, let. New York without fossil fuels, 100% renewable. I’m in. Let’s try it. [00:05:16][34.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:05:17] Let’s move over to the next, um, proposed merger. Southwestern Chesapeake, near $17 billion merger. I think, you know, just to give you guys an idea, this deal is roughly, um, uh, valued at $17 billion. This merger of equals, it would create one of the largest natural gas producers in the United States. The deal could come together as early as next week, according to people familiar with the situation. This is according again to our friends over at router’s southwestern had a market capitalization on Friday of roughly about $7 billion. Chesapeake was a little bit more than $10 billion. Um, southwestern stock rose about 7%. Chesapeake um shares rose nearly three percentage points. Um, you know, this would be about seven point 4,000,000,000 cubic feet of gas per day. This would basically, uh, leapfrog effect, making it probably the largest natural gas producer in the United States. You know, they their existing positions, both in the Haynesville and Louisiana, would allow it to kind of refocus on some liquefied natural gas, uh, exports on the Gulf Coast. Uh, you have to remember, guys, um, you know, Chesapeake was founded by Aubrey McLennan. You know, if you talk about spending money back, I love to spend money, um, you know, millions of, uh, millions of acres across the country, uh, you know, laden it with probably the most insane debt structure of all time. That finally led to the thing being, um, uh, filing for bankruptcy, uh, in 2022, they were able to reduce their debt by more than $7 billion through that process and prioritize, quote unquote, returning cash, um, to shareholders through a bunch of divestitures and exiting its Haynesville position, um, which is down there in Louisiana, East Texas area. They also sold a bunch of oil assets in Texas. They bought, um, a bunch of other stuff. One of the matter is, guys, they’ve been tinkering, uh, they needed to do something. They’ve got an insane amount of debt load. Um, can we go ahead and throw this tweet up? This is from WTI realist. Um, it’s I think it says all you need to know about what this, uh, merger would look like. Staggering a pro forma Chesapeake would be at 2 billion or 2 million cubic or boe per day and still almost worthless. Uh, that goes to show you the, you know, of course it’s a boe. We’re talking boe. So what’s that? You know, to be about 7.4 BCF per day? Being natural gas business is hard. You gotta love to see these. Uh uh, natural gas prices go above $3. That does make everything a lot more profitable. But, um, you know, this is a merger of equals. It’d be interesting to see what happens to the names. Um, I saw a few tweets go out there about, you know, can’t really get. Can you really get rid of the Chesapeake name? It’s just so it’s just so legendary in the industry’s thinking about, you know, all of the history behind it. Southwestern has been around for a while, but I’m just gonna have to come up with a with a new, um, new, new name or something, because, you know, I don’t, you know, or, you know, because this is definitely a merger. It’s going to be interesting to see how this all shakes out southwestern with, uh, a lot less debt than Chesapeake, but Chesapeake with a larger market cap. So I wonder what the concession will be. [00:08:31][194.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:08:31] Just be like Hollywood dating. So it’d be South Cheek or oh, West West. Eek. Uh, West check. [00:08:40][8.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:08:41] Uh, my guess is they keep the Chesapeake name, but in in in. I would think they would keep the Chesapeake name, but there’s going to be not a lot of concessions, but southwestern. If you’re if you’re a shareholder, if you’re on that management team, you’re you’re you’re you’re coming in saying we’re equals here and. Right. You know, but I do think that my guess would be they keep the the Chesapeake name. We’re definitely going to, uh, cover Apache Callen on the deal spotlight. If this merger comes through with Southwestern and Chesapeake, we will definitely make sure to cover that as well. So this gives us two great deals. Um, to outline. [00:09:13][32.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:14] You and I have talked on the podcast about our buddy, uh, Gavin Newsom. Uh, if he dives into the, uh, ocean there, they’re going to blame it on Exxon for an oil spill. He’s got so much oil in his hair, I guarantee you, you know, penguins would be dying. [00:09:29][15.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:09:30] Yeah. It’s the most prolific oil field in California is Gavin Newsom hairpiece. [00:09:34][3.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:34] Oh, yeah. They just kind of go do, uh, get it out of his durag. I love me a durag out there. I always wore one when the kids were okay. Myth number one. Uh, Newsom’s energy policy drives progress. Oh, uh, I don’t think that I’m going to vote on that. All of our listeners that listen to the podcast, if you have any others that should be added, this list, call us myth number two. Supporters of fossil fuel are climate change deniers and, uh, climate changes. It’s called seasons. Okay. [00:10:11][37.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:10:12] Uh, um, and remember I say this. I’ve said this briefly. I’m not that old, but I’m old enough to remember when it was global warming and they did the sleight of hand to climate change. [00:10:23][10.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:25] It’s the shell game. My God, I talked about it this morning on the on the energy, uh, realities. Now that instead of that. And it’s the shell game with no PE and all you’re doing is move it around. Okay, so let’s go to the next one. Myth number three, 97% of climate scientists agree that we face a climate crisis that requires the rapid elimination of fossil fuels. Uh. The gong. Uh, no, that is not true. In fact, uh, we love our, uh, interview with Patrick. Uh, more he’s now. I mean, that is one sharp cat founder of, uh, communities. Myth number four, California is a climate leader. Mm. Yeah. Um. No. In fact, they are a leader in the highest prices of energy to the consumers. And the greatest, highest prices for U-Haul trucks leaving California. I’m not kidding. Okay, let’s go here. Myth number five. The U.S. should lead cop 28 and committing to net zero by 2050. Hmm. [00:11:40][74.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:11:40] I love what it says. Truth net zero by 2050 is a death sentence to any economy that adopts it. China won’t. In the developing world that doesn’t need fossil fuels. U.S. should be leading the way in energy freedom, which I like. [00:11:54][13.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:11:54] And oh yeah, look at the myth number six. There is a graphic. If we could have our producer pull this graphic in installed electric capacity in California solar and wind in 2013, there’s the yellow bar. That’s about, what, 10%, uh, estimated there. Then you have 20, 22 solar and wind goes to probably 65, but the reliable capacity drops down. And I wonder how much money that was. Let’s go to myth. Just a few. [00:12:26][31.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:12:26] Trillions. No words. [00:12:27][0.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:27] Really. And what’s a few trillion between friends? Uh, California’s grid is the model for the US. Look at that graph. Chart. Uh, miss producer, if you could pull this in residential electricity prices, it is going up at a dramatic price. Uh, California is myth number eight. Solving solar and winds with batteries. One day of world energy. Uh, 460,000,000MW. 1 trillion in Tesla mega packs 190 trillion. Next. I’m not even gonna argue that one. Myth number nine. Uh, ice ban is a model for the US. [00:13:11][43.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:14] We gotta get the picture up here. August 25th, 2023 CIA announces gasoline car ban. Seven days later, California tells citizens not to charge their EVs. [00:13:25][11.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:27] Oops. Um. Oh, and and then there was another California man. Uh, two months ago, he ordered in a Tesla. I want me a Tesla Cybertruck. It’s bulletproof. I need one. Just, you know, our fans love me, but not that much. And so when I, when I, what I want to do is, uh, when you sit back and take a look, this man ordered a ev. He then, uh, the electric company told him that he had to have another complete 100 Meg circuit come into his house, and then he wanted to add another, uh, something else, EV. And they said, oh, you got to have a third. But yet we don’t have any available, so you can’t even get an EV to charge at home. So California cannot add enough power. I thought that was pretty cool. So let’s go on to myth number ten. Cars. Anti oil efforts are a model for the US. Look at this graphic. These oil companies are ripping us off. They think that the oil companies are actually ripping them off when it’s actually uh how they’re doing all their policies. [00:14:35][67.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:37] I don’t know who wrote, um, Gavin Newsom’s energy policy, but, uh. [00:14:41][3.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:41] He was definitely some, um, um, er, guy that week they got fired. So, um. [00:14:47][5.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:48] Former er, guy that we. [00:14:49][1.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:49] Let’s go to bricks. Hey, you heard it here a second the other day when I said that, uh, Putin’s going to be the, uh, new president. It is now official. Uh, Putin is the president of BRICs for this year, and it is going to be expanding. Uh, this is just amazing. August, the bloc had announced that it would be admitting six new members. Um, but now Putin um, is really sweeten in the pot for I believe it’s 30 more. Let me look at the number here. [00:15:23][33.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:15:24] Are we now that Putin is president of BRICs? So we finally going to get able to apply as a podcast? [00:15:28][3.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:15:29] Uh, yes. I think Putin’s actually going to sponsor the podcast because he’s seen our, uh, imitations of him. He, you know, he’s he’s all jealous that, uh, he’s now watching the shark over the tank. So as the five, uh, let’s see, where is it? He said, I think it was about 30 that he’s planning on bringing on board. That’s huge. [00:15:49][19.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:15:50] It is. Uh, it’s going to be absolutely crazy. BRICs is becoming kind of the new powerhouse in the world, considering you have the G7 on one side, which is the, you know, in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Japan, and then you have all of these other countries, these BRICs members. You know, I definitely think Argentina is going to be one country to watch out for, to get in there. We know Saudi has now joined. We know that the BRICs is almost becoming the new OPEC in terms of global oil control. [00:16:18][28.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:20] Yep, it will be. Uh, because. Uh, also, uh, you heard it here. Second Japan. Maybe this is my opinion. Don’t have the facts in yet. What? I’m. Uh, trying to say is when you sit back and take a look. Um. Japan. You heard it here first. Japan may be leaving the G7 in a few years. Because if if the United States weaponizes, uh, more pipelines to China, I mean, to Japan. Japan is already, uh, grumpy enough at the U.S.. They’re taking energy deals in setting them up, being quiet about it. I guarantee you, Japan is going to be in bricks, in Japan is going to go away from the G7 because we. [00:17:10][49.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:10] Interesting. So now that’s a prediction right there. [00:17:12][2.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:13] That is you heard it here. Second. And I guarantee you I’ve gone on the record. If that happens you’re going to go back. Stu was right twice. [00:17:21][7.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:23] Blind Mice bites cheese every once in a while. [00:17:24][1.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:25] Flagship hybrid ferry now only runs on diesel. This is an amazing story. Uh, this is a ferry in, uh, in Scotland now. Uh, one of the funny things about in Scotland is, uh, they have cut down millions of trees in order to put in wind farms. Now, uh, this is called the MV hollow. It was the first in the world to use a system without carbon emissions by 20%. When it was launched in 2012, it is an A battery machine, a battery ferry that also had dual fuel, which is a, uh, diesel powered engine. But you can hear right there that it was only 20%, so the batteries didn’t last that long. The batteries broke on the the $10 million vessel and it would cost, um, six years. Now, the problem in the ferry is the MV Glen Rossa, which are six years overdue in 260 million overbudget, which is additional ferries that they’re buying in this configuration. He said the strategy was flawed and it makes a lot of sense having a dual fuel that you want to film, uh, you want to run on batteries and then use the diesel doesn’t really get you that much because the batteries weigh so much. And then they broke down and now they are more expensive. And so they’re just running on diesel, dragging around all this weight. The report claims that the total running cost of the hybrid ferries is 259% more than a diesel only equivalent. Uh, the Sturgeon was designed as a ship’s godmother and said the time it symbolized everything Scottish Government is striving to achieve. Well, kind of like the U.S. government if you’re trying to achieve going broke. Looks like we’re, uh, rolling right along on that. So I’m all in on hybrids, and, uh, I think hybrids are the way to go, but you can’t run them this way. Possibly there was a better design. And now that they’re better designs out there, I think I would stop production on those other ferries. [00:19:56][151.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:19:57] This part is really kind of wild when you say Russia announces 30 new member countries for BRICs. Wow. BRICs started out with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and it is expanding out. It is going to be well over half the population of the world. Before too long at all. This is a huge financial, uh, agreement between these, um, countries. Uh, it is going to take the U.S. dollar down. People are saying it’s not going to happen soon. I think it’s going to happen sooner than later based off of our geopolitical issues. Take a look at this one. Uh, Putin being the president. It’s going to be pretty interesting. He’s the president of BRICs this year. [00:19:57][0.0][1158.9]

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