This is an important story that is evolving as we speak.
Stu Turley wrote about this a year ago, and it is now evolving into a mix of how the global finance market is morphing into gold-backed securities rather than a security based upon nuclear military might. This is a huge change, and when you look at Saudi Arabia’s move to secure nuclear guarantees and the amount of gold bought for global stability in countries, a pattern starts to emerge.
This is an important change, and Stu Turley has several podcasts lined up to talk about the changes.
Daily Standup Top Stories
Is the US Petrodollar Dead, or Just Wounded?
In the ever-evolving landscape of global energy markets and finance, few concepts have sparked as much debate as the “petrodollar.” Coined to describe the system where oil is predominantly priced and traded in U.S. dollars, […]
The IEA Now Thinks Oil Demand Will Keep Rising Until 2050. Energy Reality is Setting In.
In a striking reversal that underscores the enduring grip of fossil fuels on the global economy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has updated its forecast, now projecting that oil demand will continue to climb until […]
America’s Strategic Energy Asset: Why the Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania Region Must Be Prioritized for Power, Prosperity, and National Security
I just interviewed Nathan Lord, President at Shale Crescent USA and wow.
The Rhyme and Reason behind Rising Electricity Prices
ENB Pub Note: This article is from the Energy Bad Boys themselves, Mitch Rolling and Isaac Orr. I have reached out to them to get them on a podcast, as this is a huge topic, […]
The World’s First Thorium Molten Salt Reactor in China
In a groundbreaking advancement for nuclear energy, China has successfully achieved the world’s first thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion in an operational thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR). This milestone, announced on November 1, 2025, by the Shanghai […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
00:13 – Is the US Petrodollar Dead, or Just Wounded?
05:01 – The IEA Now Thinks Oil Demand Will Keep Rising Until 2050. Energy Reality is Setting In.
08:57 – America’s Strategic Energy Asset: Why the Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania Region Must Be Prioritized for Power, Prosperity, and National Security
11:39 – Rising Electricity Prices Started Long Before AI, and Should Not Be Politicized Incorrectly
14:28v – The Rhyme and Reason behind Rising Electricity Prices
17:26 – The World’s First Thorium Molten Salt Reactor in China
22:11 – Markets Update
24:12 – SM–Civitas Merger Move
26:24 – Outro
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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Michael Tanner: [00:00:00] Is the petrol dollar dead or just wounded? Find out next on the Energy Newsbeat stand up. [00:00:05][5.4]
Stuart Turley: [00:00:13] Is the US petrodollar dead or is it just wounded? This is a wild story. I originally reported on this almost a year ago in the ever-evolving landscape of the global energy markets and finance. Few concept have sparked much debate as the petrodollar coined to describe the system where all oil is predominantly priced and traded in US dollars. Michael, this arrangement underpinned American economic dominance for decades. But what happened just recently to spark a rewrite of this article, Michael? Saudi Arabia just signed a deal with Pakistan to have energy security with their nuclear missiles. So I go through this article and I talk about how this has worked out. The other estimates peg the US dollar share in global reserves, a slow bleed. A key metric for the US petrodoll is the US dollar’s dominance in foreign exchange reserves. As of Q2 of 2025, the dollar holds 56.32% of the allocated reserves down from 57 and Q1 in a peak of 73% in 2000. This is a slow bleed by a thousand cuts. And when you sit back and take a look at the there’s a chart in here, Michael, the gold rush. The central banks hedge against the US dollar uncertainty. And I go into further in here, the U.S. Has done it to ourselves. Over the last 10 years of sanctioning and the weaponization of oil sanctions, we are following the same path as the British sterling pound. And when you sit back and take a look, are we dead yet? No. At the middle of this article, I talk about the new trading blocks that you’ve heard me talk about. I think what we saw last week with the huge investment from Saudi Arabia in the United States. I think as we build our remanufacturing onshore, the US dollar can be replaced instead of the petrodollar, we can have it really fan out. Is it dead? It’s wounded, but not out yet. [00:02:31][137.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:02:31] Yeah, I I think you’re right. I don’t think it’s out. I don’t know if it’ll ever be out completely. You know, you look at the the share of the global reserve currencies. That chart’s really interesting. I highly recommend people checking that out on energynewsbeat.com. You know, there’s definitely a contraction since kind of the peak in twenty fourteen to twenty sixteen, but that’s really only because gold has taken more share away than any other currency. You know, this chart, well, one of the reasons I love a good stack. Bar chart at 100% is you can see the the the market share and every you know the French franc is falling, the you know the sterling hasn’t really increased much, and the other one in there, the yen hasn’t increased much at all. The only thing that’s changed is the ratio of gold really in the last 15-20 years of the ratio of gold to the US dollar. So I think it’s it’s slightly it’s slightly different to say that the euro obviously has taken some market share away from both gold and the US when it was introduced. But no, I I don’t think the petrol dollar is going to necessarily be dead. It’s it’s obviously the weaponization that has happened with the dollar, both in the you know, in in the Obama, Biden, and and now Trump administration, how they’ve weaponized the dollar has forced a lot of these countries now to figure out other ways to do that. I mean, that’s like shooting yourself in the foot because in the left foot because your right foot hurts. It’s like what what pain do we want? So, no, do I think we’re going away from this? Absolutely not, but I do think our power from a global reserve currency standpoint hurts. And and that hurts, you know, you, the investor. I mean, you think about Specifically from the standpoint of energy investing, if the commodity in which you are investing in is not priced in the currency in which you is your your currency, United States, that makes we’ve seen what happened to these country or to these companies based in London trade at a discount relative to their US counterparts. If that happens, you’re going to find United States companies trading at a discount relative to their international peers. Now, do I think that’s going to happen? Absolutely not, but that’s the fear. [00:04:41][129.7]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:42] You bet. Hey, I I found a lot of this information from Jack Rondell. I visited with him last week while he was in Sweden. And he’s got the merchant news substack. And I’ve got a podcast in December that I’ll be talking with him about more of that worldwide type stuff. So very hats off to him. Michael, let’s go to the next story. The EIA now thinks oil demand will keep rising until 2050. I’m not quite dead yet, is another theory that we’ve got going along here. Energy reality is setting in a striking reversal, underscoring the enduring grip of fossil fuels on the economy. The International Energy Agency, the IEA, and not the EIA has updated its forecast, projecting that oil demand will continue to climb until at least 2050 or longer. Under its current policy scenario, the CPS, the IEA anticipates global oil consumption reaching a hundred and thirteen million barrels per day by mid-century, a 13% up from 2024. So anybody that’s Michael’s out there going ding dong, oil’s dead, no, it’s not. And neither is Nat Gas. The molecules are actually changing and the feed stocks are going to become even more and more important. I loved Armin Nasir, CEO of Saudia Ramco has been vocal in advocating for a transition strategy reset. Holy smokes, what a great thing. A transition strategy reset. And I think Bill Gates must have talked to him because when Bill Gates flopped, worse than an NBA basketball player. You see Bill Gates flopping on the ground. It’s because he’s looking for a donut. It’s not because he’s flopping for a foul. Speaking of various forums, NASA has emphasized that the global oil demand could still exceed 100 million barrels per day by 2050. And I think this is going to be fun. Renewable investments paradox, more green spending, more fossil fuels. This is the old Turley’s law and action, man. The more people keep thinking, I keep seeing people we’ve got to spend more on wind and solar. No. There’s a lot more to that story, but we’ll go into that later. So anyway, we’re gonna have a lot of fun. What we are seeing, Michael, and I think you can take this to the bank, you’re going to see natural gas become no longer seasonal, no longer a summer and a high. You’re gonna see year-round prices of high demand for net gas. [00:07:16][154.4]
Michael Tanner: [00:07:17] No, I I think you’re right. We’re already in a period right now where net gas is over, you know, four fifty right now, which is pretty unbelievable relative to Exactly what happened. So I I think you’re right, natural gas is going to continue to be more expensive, specifically as we’re able to export more and more of this stuff. I think you’re seeing people lean into that now. You know, are am I shocked that the IEA has reverse coursed here? No. I mean, they’re the part of what they’re doing is their funding comes primarily from governments that don’t like oil and gas. And it’s the it’s the international energy administration. So their political leanings were to push wind and solar. I mean, if that wasn’t obvious back then, it’s obvious now with this reversal. And the reason why they’re late to the party, I mean, the party’s already left. They’re already at the after party. These are the people that show up at the party, and everyone’s left the party because they’ve moved on to the after party and they’re standing there like, well, wait, I thought where’s the party? You the boat and the train has already left relative to where the EIA shows up. So I think if you’re shocked by this decision and you’re shocked by that the IEA has reversed course, I mean it’s exactly what they’re going to do. They’re going to be a little too late, a little too, a little too less, a little too early relative to this, but at least they’re showing up to there. And I love under its current policy scenarios. I thought oh, peak oil was in 2030. Now all of a sudden they’ve got, you know, 13% jump in from 2024 levels until 2050. I mean, the reversal would make, you know, would make anybody proud. [00:08:50][93.3]
Stuart Turley: [00:08:51] Oh, absolutely. This is this is better than an NBA flop. I’ll tell you what, you you can’t buy this kind of entertainment. Let’s go to our Substack story. America’s strategic energy asset why the Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania region must be prioritized for power, prosperity, and national security. I just interviewed Nathan Lord, president at the Shale Crescent USA. And holy smokes, Batman, that man knows his stuff. That was a fun podcast. I turned it into production. It’s gonna be out in a couple weeks. But I’ll tell you what was really, really cool. They’ve got a mission. And when you sit back and take a look at those three states that I mentioned, Michael, the Shale Crescent US of those three states has the third amount of gas compared to Russia, US, and they’re even we’re even ahead of Iran with those three states. That’s a lot of gas up in that corner. And when you take a look, the crusk of this article is saying why should the industry send all their stuff when let’s say we want to make a baby, a a chair or a plastic seat that goes in the car. Why send the raw materials, the natural gas pellet, and the the materials needed that you use from oil? The petrochemicals and everything else that you use, why send that to China, have them press that out into a toy and then ship it back. Why don’t you put your manufacturing using the feedstocks of oil, gas, and all the petrochemicals that you need right on top of what you need, which is those three states? And when you talk about having it there, the economics for having your plant in the United States avoids guess what? Trump tariffs, it avoids all that shipping around the world, and you manufacture it for a fraction of the cost. Now we do pay a little bit more in labor, but Michael, that’s changing with automation. Elon and the robots and everything else is changing it. You’re still gonna have a lot of great manufacturing jobs in the United States. You’re still gonna have a lot of great things, and we are not gonna be relying on China. This is a [00:11:07][136.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:11:07] This is absolute I love this shale crescent carve out here between West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. I mean, truly, if AI is going to become a thing, I I would say the fact that we haven’t seen data centers move to that that area, I think we’re going to start seeing more of that, assuming they can get some of this legislation ripped out. It’s unbelievable. This is a great interview, and I can’t wait for it to drop. Let’s jump to the next one, though. I want to hear about these rising electricity prices. [00:11:32][24.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:11:33] Oh, you can’t buckle buckle up, but I this one is gonna be a hair this one’s gonna be a little short, and then I’m gonna jump to the next story after that. Rising electricity prices started long before AI and should not be politicized incorrectly. Buckle up if you can’t stand a politician. I’m gonna say I don’t like both parties, just just to be very clear. In recent months, skyrocketing electricity bills have become a flashpoint in American households and political debates alike. With average residential prices climbing around 13 cents per kilowatt hour from 2020 to 19 cents per kilowatt hour in 2025. Consumers are feeling the pinch. Depends on where you are in the United States. Some areas, Michael, in the United States, back east where they have government data centers are seeing a two, according to Bloomberg, a 200% increase in electricity bills. Tulsa, Oklahoma had a 100% increase, and they’ve got all kinds of gas. To set the record straight, let’s examine the data and drivers behind these price hikes, drawing on the analysis. When you take a look, electricity prices were remarkably stable for nearly decade prior to 2020, hovering around 10 to 13 cents per kilowatt nationally. But starting in 2020, steady climb accelerating to 28% increase over the subsequent five years, reaching 13.454 cents by kilowatt by 2025. This is before AI. These increases were most pronounced in states like California, New York, where prices hit 40 cents per kilowatt compared to Europe’s high cost, like 45 cents. You cannot reindustrialize in Germany when you got this kind of kilowatt hour. The real drivers, renewable energy and transmission costs and policies. Remember, you and I were stunned when we found out that New York or New Jersey had natural gas and nuclear. But they’re in that high price range because of what? Energy policies. Let’s take Texas ERCOT for a second. Just as a brief reminder to our listeners, there’s 181 gigawatts of name plate capacity on Texas ERCOT. We’ve only had an 82 gigawatt demand peak in 2025. That is a lot of extra production capability that is on the Texas ERCOT. You pay for all of that and the extra eight billion dollars in transmission lines to get that free energy you’ve paid eight billion dollars to get to your house. And it ain’t cheap. Let’s go to the next story, Michael, unless you got thoughts. No, I’m gonna have thoughts after this one though. Let’s get some solar panels up there, baby. The rhyme and reason behind rising electricity prices. Now, Michael, on that story, I want to make sure that we. Get the story out there because it is being politicized. The Democrats are saying this is an affordability issue by the Trump administration. The Trump administration inherited an albatross by the giggling psychopath of our previous secretary of energy that absolutely had no clue how to run that. Let’s go into this one. The Ryman reason behind electricity prices. Blame clean energy mandates and out of control utility spending, not the OBBA ABBA. This is from the energy bad boys. I’ve reached out to them, and we’re going to set up a podcast on this bad dog. They are phenomenal. Many people are looking at the wrong places to point the pinpoint the blane, specifically Democrats and wind and solar advocates looking to place their feet at Donald Trump and Republicans for accelerating the phase out of wind and solar. Michael, wait for it. One, two, three subsidies in the one big beautiful bill act, the OBBBA and others are pointing to fingers, demand growth for data centers and AI. Michael, this is incredible. When you sit back and take electricity rates to re lead increases to higher rates, they outline it in here beautifully. [00:15:56][263.7]
Michael Tanner: [00:15:57] No, they they really do. We we do love the energy bad boys. It’s it’s been it’s been fun to get to get to know them. But I mean this this rate increase chart they have here in the substack is just I mean it’s from their sources SP Gold, but it’s unbelievable. I mean it’s just absolutely going incredible. And that’s in the millions. So I mean we’re you’re talking millions and tens of millions of dollars coming from rate increases. And am I shocked that California and New York have higher electricity prices? No, because they have absolutely terrible energy policy. [00:16:27][29.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:16:28] It’s all about the policy baby. But when I just finished my interview with Dr. Lars Schaukenhauer, he is brilliant. And he’s really said the grids were designed for AC. And when you sit back and look at wind and solar, they’re DC. And when you have all this DC current, you have asynchronous control or cycles going on the grid that everything you have, turbines that turn, and they are 60 gigahertz in the United States. They’re 50 everywhere else in the world. Japan is half 50 and half 60. Then you throw this DC current into this mix and it makes for a balancing authority nightmare that adds all these costs to the grid. Under the current technology, wind and solar add cost to the grid, period. [00:17:21][53.5]
Michael Tanner: [00:17:22] No, absolutely. It’s it’s pretty unbelievable. Let’s jump to this last one here. [00:17:25][3.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:17:26] Hey, woo-hoo, gotta love a good China story. The world’s first thorium salt reactor in China. This is actually kind of a groundbreaking technologically advanced as if successfully advanced the first thorium to uranium fuel conversion in operation Thorium Molten Salt Reactor, a TMSR, this milestone announced on November first, 2025, by the Shanghai Institute of Implied Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences marks a significant step towards sustainable and abundant nuclear power. This is really pretty darn cool. But I added in this article that China’s nuclear mix with hydropower can contributes. 14 solar has surged to 11, reflecting rapid growth. Let’s see here. Coal still account for 55% of the generation. We have got, Michael, we have got to really buckle up and get our nuclear power plants rolling again. We currently have 92 power plants. We have in the next few years, maybe three, four coming online. China has 10 coming online. They’re gonna pass us. I talked to Todd Royal, an author, an outstanding resource for me. And he says they’re gonna pass us. So Secretary Chris Wright is getting my invitation saying, Hey, dude, we need to have a talk. I need to find out from you where we are going because this is important. [00:18:58][91.9]
Michael Tanner: [00:18:58] No, absolutely. I think if we’re going to at all be a player in the AI space, yes, we need to embrace natural gas. I think we’re doing that, but we also need to figure out nuclear and we need to figure out battery technology. And I don’t feel like the combination of those three are being talked about as much as they should. Maybe they are in certain circles, but from a national conversation, we absolutely need to have the Hey, it was fun bumping into to good Todd Royal and our clients’ offices on Friday. That was fun. Cool. All right. Off to you, man. All right. Well, let’s let’s talk we gotta talk oil and natural gas prices on the other side, guys. But first let’s go ahead and pay the bills here. [00:19:29][30.7]
[00:19:30] 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 [00:22:08][158.8]
[00:22:11] All right. We’re back, guys. Oil prices Friday Stu took an absolute dump. You know, we were beginning of the week, we were slightly above sixty. There appeared to be some sort of strength. We closed it at 58.06. Market looks to open as as it opens here in about two hours. We record this about two o’clock here on the 23rd. Looks to open slightly below 58. Who knows? I think there’s a little bit of probable strength that heads in over the nightly session. Natural gas has jumped four dollars and fifty-seven cents after closing just or after closing at forty or four dollars and fifty-eight cents. XOP, which is our EMP securities contract, has continued to rise. I mean, it’s a it’s unfortunate from an oil side that we’re you know, this I don’t want to say unfortunate, but taking into account the fact that we’re getting closer probably to a Russia Ukraine peace deal. It it seems to be Zelensky’s getting getting pushed around a little bit. Putin seems a little bit more willing to negotiate and maybe give some stuff up on his end. Who knows where that all ends? But if that does happen, that’s part of what. The weakness you’re seeing in oil prices, the fact that that geopolitical reefs begin to fall. I mean, I mean, we did see crude stocks fall. We saw gasoline and distillate inventories still rise. So there’s some quote unquote oversupply. It was a larger than expected draw that we saw on the crude oil side. We did see on a real crazy note, Stu, we saw rig counts jump by five and frack count spread jump by four. So wow. Obviously, you know, this is a little bit, it’s a trailing number because the rig count numbers that come here. I mean, they’re they’re they’re from last week and people are making the decisions two, three, four weeks a month down the line. So to say this is reflective of what’s going on this week is a little disingenuous. I do find it a little crazy that five frack rigs are running and and and and or four frack rigs, frack crews are running, and you’ve got five rigs running. I mean, I think at these prices, I’d be hard pressed to see why we continue to add rigs, but I’m gonna leave that up to the management team’s earnings have finished up, Stu. You know, really the the the only thing I’ve been watching is this SM Civitas merger. I mean, it’s it’s really interesting. You know, Civitas is gonna, they’re gonna keep the name Civitas. Like that’s that’s going to be the name of the company going forward, but they’re basically absorbing SM’s management team. The entire SM management team is going to become the new management team of Civitas. And it is, it is interesting. You know, it’s almost like an aqua hire if you take a look at this. From the standpoint of the they’re just merging it all in. They are targeting about one billion of divestitures. So I think to something to look out for. And that was actually pointed out by a really good another Substack newsletter I subscribed to AFE Leaks. Great article. I I’d highly recommend people subscribing to them. I agree with his analysis that I think their Eagleford asset, SM’s Eagleford asset, is going to be up for sale. And I bet you that will fetch the majority of that one billion in quote unquote expected, you know, expected divestitors, but we’ll see where that all goes. Otherwise, that’s due. It’s it’s Thanksgiving week. Everything’s a little all quiet on the Western front. What’s got you up this week? What what are you watching out for? [00:25:18][186.6]
Stuart Turley: [00:25:18] Oh, not me, nothing. It’s going to be a fantastic Thanksgiving week. And we’ve got I’ve got a couple things. Do you know if those were I’m looking at Baker Hughes and they don’t have it broken out by net gas on the screen? Was it a net gas rigs that were added or were they oil rigs added? And I have a feeling my theory is gonna say they were adding net gas rigs. Okay. So, and the reason I say that is because if they were in the Hainesville or Pennsylvania, there’s a lot more net gas being drilled. So that would go and explain some of your theories there. The other thing you had mentioned that we had a blowout on oil prices, and I it it looks bad enough to be a nadler. I mean, when you talk about a nadler blowout, that’s a blowout. [00:26:03][44.6]
Michael Tanner: [00:26:03] Yeah. No, it it it truly is. It it truly is. I think it’s it’s going to be interesting. So well with that guys, we hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Are we gonna have a show Wednesday? Are we gonna do a show Wednesday? [00:26:12][9.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:26:13] Yeah, we’ll do a show because I’ll we’ll do that on our new format. [00:26:15][2.4]
Michael Tanner: [00:26:16] Great. We’ll do a show Wednesday and then we will jump. We probably won’t do a weekly recap on Saturday. And then so you’ll just be back in the chair and we will see you Monday. As always, guys, thank you for checking us out here on the world’s greatest podcast, energynewsbeat.com for Stuart Turley, Michael Tanner. We’ll see you later, guys. [00:26:16][0.0][1556.4]
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