In the global energy landscape, the narrative of a swift “transition” away from fossil fuels to renewables has dominated headlines. However, a closer examination of demand trends, investment patterns, and infrastructure realities reveals a different story: we are in an era of energy addition. Renewables like wind and solar are expanding rapidly, but oil, natural gas (including liquefied natural gas or LNG), and other fossil fuels continue to grow or hold steady to meet rising overall energy needs.
This isn’t a zero-sum game where clean sources displace fossils overnight; instead, we’re layering new capacity onto an existing foundation dominated by hydrocarbons.
I wrote about this in the sbstack article “We are in an Energy Addition, Not Transition,” and just as a teaser, think about ERCOT for a moment. We have 181 GW name plate capacity on the grid, and the peak power demand in 2025 was 83.9 GW. So the additional 100 GW has to be justified somehow, and the money. Wow. At a price tag of $139 billion to get wind and solar on the grid, think what we could have done by going the nuclear route.
Daily Standup Top Stories
We Are in an Energy Addition, Not Transition
Math is not Mathing Up to Investors or Consumers – Billions Wasted
BP’s New $25 Billion Investment in Iraq’s Kirkuk Fields Is Far More Than an Oil Project—It’s a Geopolitical Pivot
In a bold move that underscores the intertwining of energy ambitions and regional politics, British Petroleum (BP) has activated a massive $25 billion redevelopment project in Iraq’s northern Kirkuk region. This investment, formalized earlier in […]
Iraq Secures First Floating LNG Import Platform Deal with U.S. Firm
In a landmark move for Iraq’s energy sector, the country has inked its inaugural agreement for a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal with U.S.-based Excelerate Energy, Inc. This deal, valued at approximately $450 […]
Oil Giants Join OPEC in Boosting Production with Earnings Confirmations This Week
In a market grappling with tumbling crude prices and an oversupply of oil, major oil companies are aligning with OPEC’s strategy by ramping up production. This week’s earnings reports from industry heavyweights like ExxonMobil, Chevron, […]
TotalEnergies Bolsters US Gas Presence with 49% Stake in Anadarko Basin Assets
In a strategic move to deepen its integration across the natural gas value chain, French energy giant TotalEnergies has acquired a 49% interest in key gas-producing assets in Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin. Announced on September 29, […]
Lower Oil Prices Hit Equinor’s Q3 Profits and They Miss Analysts Estimates
Norway’s energy giant Equinor, a major player in the global oil and gas sector, released its third-quarter 2025 earnings on October 29, revealing a challenging period marked by declining oil prices that weighed heavily on […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
00:15 – We Are in an Energy Addition, Not Transition
06:20 – BP’s New $25 Billion Investment in Iraq’s Kirkuk Fields Is Far More Than an Oil Project—It’s a Geopolitical Pivot
07:56 – Iraq Secures First Floating LNG Import Platform Deal with U.S. Firm
08:45 – Oil Giants Join OPEC in Boosting Production with Earnings Confirmations This Week
12:17 – TotalEnergies Bolsters US Gas Presence with 49% Stake in Anadarko Basin Assets
14:27 – Lower Oil Prices Hit Equinor’s Q3 Profits and They Miss Analysts Estimates
16:47 – Outro
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Stuart Turley: [00:00:00] We are an energy addition, not an energy transition. That and what does it mean to investors on the Energy Newsbeat Daily Standup? [00:00:08][7.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:00:15] We are in an energy addition, not a transition. Math is not mathing up to investors or consumers. Billions of dollars wasted. This is an amazing story. When you sit back and take a look, the energy global landscape, the narrative of swift transition away from fossil fuels to renewables has dominated the headlines. However, a closer examination of demand trends, investment patterns and infrastructure realities reveals a different story. We’re in an era of energy addition, not transition. Renewables like wind and solar are expanding rapidly, but oil, natural gas, including LNG, on other fossil fuels continue to grow. Hold on to your seats. This one’s a big story. Let’s start with the first part of this article. Trilly tried to go over Texas ERCOT and we say, wait a minute, the nameplate capacity over purchase, nobody’s talking about. Let’s talk about this. The Texas ERCOT system is an excellent review of nameplate capacity overpurchase. You sit back and take a look as of approximately 181. Gigawatts of that they have thermal which is natural gas coal nuclear diesel 87.5 gigawatts 40 gigawattes of wind 34.5 Gigawatte of solar energy storage 14.7 Gigawattes Hydro 0.6 gigawatte Biomass 0.7 gigawats DC ties or imports 1.2 Gigawatt so You start mathing up what this is, this is what they normally reached for context, the system’s all time peak in 2025 this year was 83.9 gigawatts in August. So we have 181 gigawatte of nameplate capacity, but we only used 83 gigawattes in a peak format. Forecasted peaks were somewhat higher, about 90.5 gigawatts, but actuals came in lower. So when you look at that, let’s match up the investment. ERKONT had $60 billion in wind since 2000, cumulative capital for solar is $58 billion, then they had $6.9 billion in total overruns in order to support the getting the power to the grid. So you take a look at that, that’s $134.9 billion spent on Texas wind and solar installations. What could you do with that and put in nuclear plants instead? We would be in a different situation. We would with ERCOT, but let’s match that to the next part of that. And that is oil and gas supply demand. Nobody’s talking about the demand. The demand peak oil is not here yet. And the 2024 IEA forecast demand growth about 960,000 barrels per day revised down to sluggish. But when you sit back and take a look at peak demand, we’re not even there yet. Natural gas demand, including LNG, tells a similar story that it is also growing. So you take a Look and go, wait a minute, what else is growing coal? We just had another one. Electrical generation provides a key lens for comparison. We take a. Look at how all this plays out. Fossil fuels and global consumption. You take a look in 2023, that’s where the latest numbers were on. That was 17,000 point 690 terawatt hours. Renewables was 8,700 terawatts hours and nuclear was only 2,610. Here’s where they’re rubbed and that goes back to How much extra of the wind and solar is out there and then how much has to be put back in. So let’s take a look at where the coal is. I even put a coal map in here where all the coal plants are going and you have megawatt hours 1684 Megawatt is being produced or in process plants under construction or approved. Very important around the world. That is a lot maximum 221 megawatt hours under construction. This is huge. So when you take a look and sit back and go, wait a minute, we are not in an energy transition, quit kidding yourself. We are an energy addition. We are adding energy. So let’s. Quit paying subsidies for wind and solar and say, if you guys can stand on your own rock on let’s install all the wind and you possibly can, but no subsidies. And I want to say it out loud. This is the quiet part. Quit paying power companies to shut off or not produce and have a total redo of electrical system because what we are seeing is what I’ve said before. Microgrids and grids coming in behind the meter are becoming a major major consideration on the grid because then you lose the scalability and the lower cost to consumers when it comes behind the grid. How much gas is going to be like the data center in Abilene, Texas? How much extra is going be lost because the demand pull for natural gas and those natural gas turbines is not going to go to the open market. It’s going to contract based. [00:06:19][363.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:20] So let’s go to next story. BP’s new billion dollar investment in $25 billion investment in Iraq’s Kirkirk field is more than an oil project. It’s a geopolitical pivot. I’ll tell you what, this is a- critical life-saving event. For BP. BP has really got some interesting things going on. I saw a lot of articles on this and Bloomberg, shout out to Bloomberg. They had some good information on it. This investment and formalized earlier in 2025 and kicked into gear October 2nd, isn’t about exaggerate extracting crude. It’s a strategic play that could reshape power balances in the Middle East in bolster Iraq’s energy independence and ripple through the global markets. This is important. These fields hold immense potential with estimates suggesting they could collectively produce up to 750,000 barrels per day at peak through the initial tart, although the. Initial target is almost 320,000 barrels per day. The $25 billion figure represents BP’s projected spending over the project’s lifetime, covering everything from infrastructure upgrades to enhanced recovery techniques. BP is on, it’s got a toe tag on it, and this is a life-saving thing for them because they are being shut down in so many different ways with their. Poorly run UK government, I’m surprised that they’re still not in the US yet. Got a map in here on this. [00:07:56][96.2]
Stuart Turley: [00:07:56] And when you look at the next story here, Iraq also secured the first floating LNG import deal with the US firm. And an import can also be export and when you take a look at this, this is for trying to get LNG as an import or export, depending on how it goes. We’ve seen that with Egypt, import and export facilities can work both ways. So you can take a Look at that. So the regasification unit, the FSRU hole 3407 is under construction by the heavy industries in South Korea and slated for delivery in 2026. This is because unfortunately Iran, their neighbor is not doing so well on natural gas and they need to be able to import the natural gas. [00:08:45][48.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:08:45] So let’s take a look here at the next story. Oil Giants want Join OPEC in boosting production with earnings confirmations this week. This is a big story when you sit back and say, lining OPECs amid market challenges, OPECS and its allies have announced an increasing output, contributing a global surplus to an estimated 1.9 million barrels per day January to September, with projections rising 4 million barrels per day in 2026. But we take a look at the US numbers that were released today. We had a huge draw and some of those numbers I’ll go into here in a minute. But with that, let’s go ahead and cut to our commercial and have a commercial word from Reiss Energy Consult. [00:09:33][47.9]
ENB Ad: [00:09:34] As always guys, the news and analysis you just heard. Is brought to you by world’s greatest website, www.energynewsbeat.com. Stu and the team do a tremendous job making sure that website stays up to speed. Everything you need to know to be the tip of the spear when it comes to the energy and the oil and gas business. Go ahead and hit the links in the description below for all links to the timestamps, links to articles, and specifically subscribe to the show on YouTube,subscribe to this show on Apple iTunes. Give us a follow there. Subscribe to our show on Spotify. Please leave comments there and subscribe to our sub stack, www.energynewsbeat.substack.com. That’s probably the best place to support the show. Stu does a great job of releasing two to three articles a week that really encompass the big themes that are going on. We also drop all of our podcasts there, which give a little bit of a breakdown. We just had a great, great podcast. So I highly, highly recommend everybody subscribe to the energy newsbeat.sub stack.com We’d also like to thank friends of the show Reese Energy Consulting for supporting the show guys. Reese Energy Consulting is the foremost midstream expert. Guys, if you had at all. Are dealing with issues in the midstream space, whether you’re an upstream company and need help with your first purchaser’s contract or renegotiating your gas contracts or figuring out where you’re gonna tie in your next pad because you’ve got multiple different options and you’re trying to break it all down. Reese Energy Consulting can help. If you’re in the mainstream space, I need an extra pair of hands, need some permitting or regulation help, or need some red team analysis on a final investment decision, guys. They have the team that can help you check out ReeseEnergyConsulting.com They have clients everywhere and all throughout the country from two people in a garage all the way up to the largest publicly traded companies in the world. So if you’re wondering, are you a good fit for them? The answer is yes. ReeseEnergyConsulting.com And finally guys, investinoil.energynewsbeat.com We are coming up on the end of the year. And I promise you guys, you do not wanna be paying money to Uncle Sam. You wanna keep as much money in your pocket. You wanna diversify your portfolio a little bit and you want to get some dividends. You can do that by investing in oil and gas. Check out investinoil.energynewsbeat.com Fill out our portfolio survey and our tax calculator. And guess what, you guys, you guys are gonna get and get a nice ebook that tells you here’s what you should look for when you invest in oil and gas. And also figure out what your tax burden is and figure out how much you might save relative to your tax burn if you did invest in Oil and Gas, guys. We practice what we preach here, guys, we do this stuff ourselves. Investin oil.energy newsbeat .com Don’t give your money to Uncle Sam. Figure out and find out if oil and gas investing is for you. Depending on if you qualify, we will, again, send you all that information and we may or may not point you in the right direction. Again, investin oil.energynewsbeat.com. [00:12:16][162.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:12:17] Total Energy, as we say on the Energy Newsbeat podcast, bolsters U.S. Gas presence with 49% stake in Anadarko Basin Assets. This is pretty cool. As Steve Reese over at Reese Energy Consulting, go over to ReeseEnergyConsulting.com and check them out. If you’re, as our ad says, if you are looking to move molecules, they know who to and how to help you out there. Total energies has acquired 49% in key gas assets in Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin announced on September 29, 2025 with a deal independent continental resources are not totally public on how all that’s shaken out. Got a hand at the Harold Ham, that is a big deal. The assets in question are non-shale properties located in Anadarko Basin and the Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Colorado with a focus in Oklahoma’s play in the scoop and stack formations. This is very, very important. When you sit back and take a look, how many other countries are doing this? We’ve seen Japan’s Jira, I believe, doing this as well. We’ve seen Saudi Arabia looking at doing this as well. This is critical when you take a look at what investors are looking for. They’re looking for investments in the energy stocks. Total Energies has really had a real heartburn because they went totally green on the non-energy transition. And you can see a pattern according to the podcast this morning. And that is that you’re seeing that Total Energetics went totally Green and failed. BP went totally green and failed and now they’re investing billions in going into Iraq. And, and you look at the other things going on there, taking a look at production ramp up costs and the assets. There are some real issues going on their, but when you take a look total energies and we’ll go into some of the more of that later on, after we take a look at some of their other announcements, I’ll have that more information later. [00:14:26][130.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:14:27] Let’s go to the last story for today. Lower oil price prices hit Equinor’s Q3. Profits and they miss analyst estimates. Norway’s energy giant Equinor, a major player in the global oil and gas sector, released its third quarter earnings in October 29th, revealing a challenging period marked by declining oil prices that weighed heavily on profitability. The company reported a net loss of $204 million, a stark contrast to the $2.285 billion net income in the same quarter of last year. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.37, falling short of analyst expectations from around 57 to 62 cents per share. This miss underscores the total upstream focus to companies to company-wide price swings as Equinor demonstrated operational resilience with record production, but the lower energy oil prices got them. However, Adjusted operating income declined 10% to $6.2 billion, while adjusted net income plummeted 57% to 932 million. This downturn was, like I said, lower realized liquid prices. So when you sit back and take a look at this. The big boys are expanding out and you want to take a look at Exxon and Chevron. They have, they’ve stayed their course and you take a look at BP, Shell and Total Energy that went the green route and failed and have come back home to roost. You’re sitting a major change. Companies want to give investors their money back so that they will turn around and invest again. And when you compare the real returns to investors in wind and solar and hydrogen, they’re not there. You’re getting it from the utility companies. Utility companies are a great investment when you look at cashflow. And when we take a look at the companies that are getting into cashflow businesses, their profitability comes from different ways. [00:16:46][139.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:16:47] So anyway, with that, I do appreciate everybody. Like, subscribe, share, and have an absolutely wonderful day. Go to energy newsbeat.co or the energy news beat.substack.com and we are booked up through all the way through the end of the year on the podcast with my interviews. I just finished a great interview with. Doomberg and David Blackman, and if you are a energy CEO and you want to hop on the podcast, please reach out and go to theenergynewsbeat.substack.com and become a founding member and we will reach out. And say, Hey, wait a minute, we’ll get you onto the podcast earlier. And that is one way around the waiting list because we have so much going on. So… With that, like, subscribe, talk to you guys soon. [00:16:47][0.0][995.7]
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