Daily Standup Top Stories
‘African leaders have the right to define their own energy policy’
ENB Pub Note: The following is an excellent article from the Africa Report with NJ Ayuk, from the African Energy Chamber. I just interviewed NJ on the Energy News Beat Podcast, and the staff will […]
China to Refill Oil Reserves Following 2023 Drawdown
China’s onshore oil inventories have fallen, signaling a potential increase in international market purchases. Beijing’s oil consumption and reserve levels are key to global price trajectories, with moderate restocking expected due to economic struggles. While […]
U.S. coal exports account for larger share of a shrinking market
Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), January 2024, and U.S. Census Bureau data As domestic consumption of U.S. coal declines in the near term, we expect exports to account for a larger share of […]
Sanctions nearly always fail: That is the lesson the EU and the United States should take from their vain attempts to curtail Russia and China
The last year has shown significant shortcomings when it comes to West’s ability to use economic statecraft as a tool in international politics. Almost all schemes developed to weaken potential opponents have either failed or […]
The dependency on China and ‘blood minerals’ human rights abuses for EV batteries supported by our government
Many of us had a chance to view the 2006 movie “Blood Diamond” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which portrays many of the similar atrocities now occurring in poorer developing countries in pursuit of exotic minerals and […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
01:48 – ‘African leaders have the right to define their own energy policy’
04:14 – China to Refill Oil Reserves Following 2023 Drawdown
06:27 – U.S. coal exports account for larger share of a shrinking market
07:51 – Sanctions nearly always fail: That is the lesson the EU and the United States should take from their vain attempts to curtail Russia and China
11:58 – The dependency on China and ‘blood minerals’ human rights abuses for EV batteries supported by our government
15:23 – Outro
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Stuart Turley: [00:00:14] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast. My name’s Stu Turley, president CEO of the sandstone Group. And I mean, we got an action packed show. Michaels out on assignment. We’re going to have some fun. [00:00:26][11.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:00:27] African first story out of the block. African leaders have the right to define their own energy policy. That’s a big one. Let’s go to China to refill oil reserves following 2023 drawdown. This is pretty critical. And let’s go to the EIA is putting out that coal exports account for a larger share of the shrinking market. I thought this was a pretty good article from the EIA. Sanctions nearly always fail. That is the lesson of the EU. And the United States could take from their vain attempts to curtail China and Russia. Love this article. Let’s go to the next one. I’ll tell you what. The dependency on China and blood minerals is. Human rights abuses for EV battery supported by our government. This one is, really heart, up to my heart. And, it it’s really sad, but we’re going to talk about it for a moment. Ontario, two announced refurbishment of four reactors at Pickering nuclear plant. This is pretty exciting. Getting some new nuclear life, to an older, site is really, really pretty exciting to get done. [00:01:46][79.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:47] So with that, let’s start off with the African leaders have the right to define their own energy policy. This is talking about energy. And, you know, in one of his, recent interviews, I had the pleasure of interviewing him in the staff is now working on it in production with Cyrus Brooks. This is really important as, he is the head of the African Energy chamber, and he was being interviewed, here. And, there are just some wonderful discussions in here. Africa. His point is, Africa is capable of financing its own future. The world Bank is forcing Africa to try to put in renewable energy. And they won’t fund coal plants. They won’t fund natural gas, they won’t fund pipelines. And, this is where I think he’s bringing out some strategic differences. He’s talking about Africa should change its perspective and not depend on foreign aid. He wants to go ahead. And his big platform is reaching out, developing jobs, developing the technology. And he and I even talked about having the same ability to mine that the the Congo to mine things in Africa, but yet bring the technology in and ship out finished goods from Africa that would bring the jobs to Africa, that would bring the elevate humanity out of poverty in Africa, rather than shipping all their natural resources out. And this article really goes, he says my position is clear. Rather than succumbing to external pressure, African states should exploit their own oil and gas reserves to stimulate growth, create opportunities, job income, and reduce energy poverty. I absolutely love what he is talking about and he’s a man of action. Take a look at this article. It is a fabulous set up for the interview with, that I talked about that will be, releasing here shortly. China to refill oil reserves following 2023 drawdown. Several key points in this article. China’s onshore, inventories have definitely fallen. Their imports are a record high in 2023, but their usage is very critical. According to data from vortex, onshore inventories in the world’s biggest crude importer fell to an eight month low at the start of the year. That’s likely to trigger more purchases on the international market, which has been balanced between Middle East tensions and a transitory surge in US supply. Due to the war on, U.S., production. Producers by the admin. As we take a look at this article, there’s. Some really, really good points in what they’re trying to say. [00:05:14][206.6]
[00:05:14] And, all told, Chinese demand related to refilling the reserves in the first half is likely to be cautious and a disappointment for oil market bulls. This brings up the second order magnitude, and other things that I’ve been saying is that even when China starts wanting to fill in their, oil reserves, it may not impact the market as much as many of the bulls are predicting because they’re going to be buying from the, Durk fleet in the Russia, ghost fleet, if you would. Either way, you want to call it, there’s 5 to 600 tankers that are not included in the OPEC. Market and pricing matrices of the old, old way of doing that. So, I don’t know that it’s, you know, actually matter as far as the 70 and $80 oil that we’re experiencing now is about $79 for Brant, $77 this morning when I took a look at it. So. But an excellent article anyway, take you gotta look at all the sources. [00:06:25][71.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:27] U.S. coal export exports account for a larger share of a shrinking market. Pretty good information from the EIA. We are declining consumption, but the coal consumption will still remain at 482 million short tons in 2024. 29% less. However, the exports will make up 19% of the total demand in 2024 and 21% in 2025 from a share in 2010 for 14%. So that extra 5% going, on, on the exports is making up for a difference. Here’s a key number from the EIA. The U.S. electric power sector will consume 73% U.S. coal and 70% in 2025. That extra 3% is going to be made up by additional natural gas. We’re still not going to see a lot of nuclear coming online yet, but I sure hope nuclear comes in quick. And solar wind is not going to be coming online nearly as fast because of all those issues. So pretty good. Article on that. [00:07:51][84.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:51] And so we’re off to the next one here. Sanctions nearly always fail. That is the lesson the EU and the United States could take from their vain efforts to curtail China and Russia. Quite honestly, the Biden administration has weaponized the sanctions. And, there’s, I believe, 40 different countries between the EU and the, UK that are being that they are sanctioning and it is only going to do one thing. Drive people away from the, U.S, dollar, oil dollar and it’s going to devalue the US dollar. So, it is just unbelievable ban. In conclusion, the G7 price cap on Russian oil was designed with the goal of curtailing Russia’s revenue streams. That did not work. The reality of international trade in the strategic importance of energy has rendered the cap less effective than hope, quite effectively not there. Like I mentioned in the previous, article before the EIA or coal. What you’re seeing is that Ghost fleet, is picking up where these sanctions, were left off, and it’s because of the insurance out of the UK. Most of the tankers around the world, as we’ve talked about, have to be insured, and they’re insured through the insurance companies out of the, England area. And so when you take a look at the UK and England, the insurance companies are sanctioned. Therefore the tankers being the new tankers and all in the fleet cannot be used. Well, the dark fleet, the 5 to 600 tankers that go dark when their, transponders are turned off, and then they’re going to, import oil from other real tankers coming in. Those are not insured. So one of those rust buckets that you get, tetanus from just looking at, has a wreck, it’s going to be whatever country is, self insuring those may or may not clean that up. So this is a real problem in the second and third order of effects. This article goes on further and say quote unquote sanctions as they do not often do turn what is, the former US secretary of state, George Shultz, calls a waiting, a wasting asset. He describes the fact that imposing restrict restrictions on certain goods will only motivate the target country to develop those goods with their own technological capable. When asked about the history of sanctions, the energy expert and analyst, Ali, told the Brussels signal that the story is almost always the same. In the end, they will always fail. And I’m going to add Irene Islam to this mix. I love Irina in. Her comment is absolutely wonderful. Sanctions don’t work as intended. And, I don’t know if you’re trying to take down the United States. They the sanctions, the weaponization of the U.S. dollar and the sanctions may be working as they are intending. So, not as they want to be intended, or as we want. Excuse me, dependency in the next article, dependency on China in blood, minerals and human rights abuses for EV batteries are supported by our government. This is really despicable. And it goes along with this in the energy thread today in between our stories, in his passion for delivering, energy poverty, elimination of energy poverty out of Africa also means let’s set the mining, and provide money for getting rid of the child labor. Let’s bring in good wages. But let’s bring in the technology to Africa for them to refine those products in Africa and sell, the finished goods to the West. If the West wants to be greedy and and take EV battery material away from Africa, let’s pay the premium and not, in in give Africa back their jobs. Let’s not put out handouts. That doesn’t do anybody good. And so let’s talk about once in an EV car. We’ve talked about this a bunch 25 pounds, typical battery, one battery, not the car, weighs 1,000 pounds and includes 25 pounds of lithium, 30 pounds of cobalt, 60 pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 200 pounds of copper, 400 pounds of aluminum, steel and plastic. You’re talking some serious pounds. But listen to what it takes out of mind. Materials 25,000 pounds for a brine of lithium, 30,000 pounds for one or of coal, cobalt, 5,000 pounds for an order of nickel, 25,000 pounds of or for copper. And all told, one Tesla. Every battery requires the processing of more than 500,000 pounds of material somewhere on the planet. This is despicable when you’re talking about elimination of energy poverty. Let’s take a look at all the green, demands that they’re wanting in the Green New Deal. Let’s redefine the energy supply chain that will get us where we need to go. Hey, the next article I’m pretty excited about for Ontario, Ontario to announce refurbishment of four reactors at the Pickering Nuclear Plant. This is pretty darn cool. When you sit back and take a look. It’s a multi-billion dollar refurbishment of the four aging nuclear reactors at its plant east of Toronto. I like this, it is, the two have been dormant for, decades after an aborted refurbishment, and the remaining two are scheduled to shut down permanently this year. But I’ll tell you what. The billions that they’re going to spend in those four reactors are going to make money again and keep the price down. You can amateur rise those $4 billion through a total, restructuring in the low cost over the lifespan of those four reactors. I actually love them and, appreciate them. [00:15:22][450.4]
[00:15:23] So with that, like, subscribe, go to Energy News Beat.com Subscribe for our newsletter there. Subscribe to our Substack if you’re an energy expert, if you’re a CEO, if you’re an author, I want to talk to you about, the energy, eliminating the, energy poverty from around the world. That means using natural gas. Coal, in the right would clean coal. It means using nuclear. It means working on changing the shipping environments in the supply. I changed so that we lower the carbon footprint. Let’s get everything in the environment. The lowest, cheapest kilowatt per hour to everyone on the planet. So with that, you’re going to have a fantastic day and we’re going to have some serious fun. Check out Nate. Next week we will be live. We’ve already got lots of great CEOs lined up with David Blackmon, RT Trevino, Jay Young and we are going to have a blast at the Nape Pavilion. Booth, the curb truth built, pavilion there. And it is 1957, so it’s going to be a great year. It was a good year, and we’re going to have an absolutely wonderful time. Thanks. Talk deals and. [00:15:23][0.0][903.7]
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