Chuyên mục: Oil and gas – Dầu và Khí đốt

How would the Iran crisis play out in a world powered by renewables not fossil fuels?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theconversation.com

Imagine the escalating conflict between the US, Israel and Iran unfolding in a world powered mostly by wind, solar and batteries rather than oil and gas.

In today’s fossil-fuelled economy, markets react to Iran’s attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Gulf and the threat to close the strait of Hormuz. Oil prices jump. Governments brace for inflation. Around a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes through the narrow corridor, linking the Gulf states to the wider world. When tensions rise there, energy markets react instantly.

But in a world where most energy is generated domestically from renewables, would the same threat trigger the same global shock? Would instability in the Gulf still lead to more expensive food and fuel across the world? Or would the economic aftershocks look very different?

To understand what’s at stake, we need to first look at how today’s energy system is structured.

map of middle east
The strait of Hormuz is the narrow point between the Persian Gulf and the open ocean. AustralianCamera / shutterstock

A system built on chokepoints

For about a century, the global economy has depended on fossil fuels produced by a few producers in the Middle East. Chokepoints like the strait of Hormuz carry enormous strategic weight.

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China confirms natural gas find in South China Sea

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

South China Morning Post – 9-8-2024

China announced the discovery of a major natural gas field in the South China Sea on August 7, 2024. Named Lingshui 36-1, the site is said to be the world’s first “ultra-shallow gas field in ultra-deep waters”. Located southeast of China’s southern island of Hainan, the field lies around 1,500 metres below the sea surface. Its discovery is expected to boost energy security for China, the world’s-largest natural gas importer. But developing oil and gas resources in the South China Sea could raise tensions among rival claimants to parts of the disputed waters.

‘Shadow fleet’ oil tankers pose growing risk in SEA

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

southeastasiaglobe.com

An armada of poorly regulated, scrapyard-ready tankers is hauling sanctioned oil through the region’s bustling shipping lanes. With that, they’re carrying an ever-present threat of environmental catastrophe

IAN HOLLINGER AUGUST 29, 2023

‘Shadow fleet’ oil tankers pose growing risk in SEA
Smoke rises from the oil tanker Pablo after it suffered from multiple explosions on 1 May off the coast of Malaysia. The ship was registered to Gabon and was part of the so-called “ghost fleet” of little-regulated tankers. Photo courtesy of the Malaysian coast guard.

On the morning of 3 May, residents of Batam, Indonesia, the largest city of the country’s Riau Islands, woke up to beaches black with oil. 

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Emissions from Oil and Gas Operations in Net Zero Transitions

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

IEA.org

A World Energy Outlook Special Report on the Oil and Gas Industry and COP28

Today, oil and gas operations account for around 15% of total energy-related emissions globally, the equivalent of 5.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. In the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario, the emissions intensity of these activities falls by 50% by the end of the decade. Combined with the reductions in oil and gas consumption in this scenario, this results in a 60% reduction in emissions from oil and gas operations to 2030.

Fortunately, oil and gas producers have a clear opportunity to address the problem of emissions from their activities through a series of ready-to-implement and costeffective measures. These include tackling methane emissions, eliminating all non-emergency flaring, electrifying upstream facilities with low-emissions electricity, equipping oil and gas processes with carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies, and expanding the use of hydrogen from low-emissions electrolysis in refineries.

Upfront investments totalling USD 600 billion would be required to halve the emissions intensity of oil and gas operations globally by 2030. This is only a fraction of the record windfall income that oil and gas producers accrued in 2022 – a year of soaring energy prices amid a global energy crisis. This report aims to inform discussions on these issues in the run-up to the COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai in November and is part of a broader World Energy Outlook special report to be released later in 2023 focusing on the role of the oil and gas industry in net zero transitions.

Full report here

What Big Oil knew about climate change, in its own words

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theconversation.com

Four years ago, I traveled around America, visiting historical archives. I was looking for documents that might reveal the hidden history of climate change – and in particular, when the major coal, oil and gas companies became aware of the problem, and what they knew about it.

I pored over boxes of papers, thousands of pages. I began to recognize typewriter fonts from the 1960s and ‘70s and marveled at the legibility of past penmanship, and got used to squinting when it wasn’t so clear.

What those papers revealed is now changing our understanding of how climate change became a crisis. The industry’s own words, as my research found, show companies knew about the risk long before most of the rest of the world.

Surprising discoveries

At an old gunpowder factory in Delaware – now a museum and archive – I found a transcript of a petroleum conference from 1959 called the “Energy and Man” symposium, held at Columbia University in New York. As I flipped through, I saw a speech from a famous scientist, Edward Teller (who helped invent the hydrogen bomb), warning the industry executives and others assembled of global warming.

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Collective action to release oil stocks in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: IEA confirms member country contributions

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

IEA.org

7 April 2022

Following an agreement on 1 April by IEA member countries for a new emergency release of oil stocks, the IEA Governing Board confirmed today that the total amount committed to date stands at 120 million barrels, making it the largest stock release in IEA history.

The unanimous agreement among IEA member countries on 1 April for a second collective action this year came in response to the significant strains in oil markets resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the days since the decision, each IEA member country has been considering how much it could contribute to the announced response plan, given its domestic circumstances.

The commitments submitted by members reached 120 million barrels to be released over a six month period, demonstrating strong unity. The United States will contribute about 60 million barrels, which are part of the larger drawdown from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) that was announced on 31 March.

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What’s Behind Europe’s Skyrocketing Power Prices

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

bloomberg.com

Europe’s energy ambitions are clear: to shift to a low-carbon future by remaking its power generating and distribution systems. But the present situation is an expensive mess. A global supply crunch for natural gas, bottlenecks for renewable energy and wind speeds in the North Sea among the slowest in 20 years, idling turbines, have contributed to soaring electricity prices. As winter approaches, governments are preparing to intervene if needed in volatile energy markets to keep homes warm and factories running.

1. What’s the problem here?

Energy prices skyrocketed as economies emerge from the pandemic — boosting demand just as supplies are falling short. Coal plants have been shuttered, gas stockpiles are low and the continent’s increasing reliance on renewable sources of energy is exposing its vulnerability. Even with mild weather in September, gas and electricity prices were breaking records across the continent and in the U.K. Italy’s Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said he expected power prices to increase by 40% in the third quarter. In the U.K., CF Industries Holdings Inc., a major fertilizer producer, shut two plants, and Norwegian ammonia manufacturer Yara International ASA curbed its European production because of high fuel costs, as the crunch started to hit industrial companies.

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Asia’s oil refiners aren’t going away anytime soon

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

bloomberg.com

Predictions of peak oil and the impending demise of fossil fuels will hit Asian oil refiners especially hard. The region is home to three of the top four oil-guzzling nations, and more than a third of global crude processing capacity. Yet, Asian refiners are expanding at a breakneck pace, even building massive new plants designed to run for at least half a century.

What is going on?

After a century of powering the world’s vehicles, oil refiners are having to plan for an oil-free future in mobility as cars begin switching to batteries, ships burn natural gas, and innovation brings on other energy sources such as hydrogen. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts oil demand for transportation will peak as early as 2026.

Yet, even as a slew of headlines announce oil major BP Plc selling its prized Alaskan fields or Royal Dutch Shell Plc pulling the plug on refineries from Louisiana to the Philippines, Asia’s big refineries are planning for a much longer transition. Chinese refining capacity has nearly tripled since the turn of the millennium, and the nation will end more than a century of U.S. dominancethis year. And China’s capacity will continue climbing – to about 20 million barrels a day by 2025, from 17.4 million barrels at the end of 2020. India’s processing is also rising rapidly and could jump by more than half to 8 million barrels a day in the same time.

Crude oil exports plunge as resource depletes

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Dat Nguyen   March 24, 2021 | 11:00 am GMT+7 vnexpressCrude oil exports plunge as resource depletesTam Dao 03 oil rig off Vietnam’s eastern coast. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Huy.Vietnam’s crude oil export is plunging, partly because of depleting resources. An industrialist says the situation can only improve after new fields come online in several years.

Crude exports volume from January 1 to February 15 this year fell nearly 50 percent year-on-year to 354,700 tonnes, according to Vietnam Customs.

Most of Vietnam’s oil and gas fields have been harnessed for over 20 years ago and run their course, said Hoang Ngoc Trung, deputy director of Petrovietnam Exploration Production Corporation Ltd.

In the last five years, crude oil prices have been falling, which has affected investment in searching for new fields, he told the Tuoi Tre newspaper.

The corporation’s output was 3.8 million tonnes last year, down marginally from 2019, and the figure is set to fall another 10 percent this year.

However, Vietnam’s crude oil prices remain higher than the global average.

The global average price of Brent crude oil last year was $41.8 per barrel, but Vietnam sold them for $43.7, 4.5 percent higher.

In the first two months, Brent crude was $58.53 per barrel, compared to $59.94 percent in Vietnam.

Trung said exploitation volume is set to recover in the next two or three years with several new fields such as Dai Hung and White Lion coming online.Related News:

A Lesson from Physics on Oil Prices: Revisiting the Negative WTI Oil Price Episode

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

While the episode of negative WTI price is still being actively debated, its proper root cause is yet to be determined. This Comment contributes to the discussion and studies the event by modifying the theory of storage for an oil market with rigid operational infrastructure, where short-term supply and demand are price inelastic. We found that such pricing anomaly can be well characterized by a simple concept borrowed from the physics of extreme events.

The future prices are modelled as a financial derivative of the storage capacity. During normal market conditions, the spread between nearby futures contract is mostly determined by the carry trade and the cost of storage. However, if either inventory or the storage capacity is no longer available, the carry trade breaks down as the futures trader is unable to make or take the delivery of physical barrels. These events are akin to defaults in financial markets and prices leading to them are characterized by the financial squeeze.

We calibrate the model to inventory data at Cushing, Oklahoma and conclude that only a small fraction of the abnormal price move could be attributed to constraints on the storage capacity. The rest of the move was caused by the financial squeeze on long futures positions held against over-the-counter products. We detail the behavior of main market participants that led to negative prices. The Comment also points to several shortcomings of the recent CFTC report on this topic and suggests additional areas where a more granular look at the data could be helpful.

This comment looks at the announcement by the Danish government on 4 December to cancel the 8th offshore licensing round and all future rounds and to phase out all production of oil and gas by 2050. It describes the industry and political background to the announcement, including the ambitious legal target of a 70% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050, and the most recent official projections of offshore production. It concludes that it will shape operators’ investment and management of mature fields but its impact on Danish emissions and upstream production in 2030 and 2050 is likely to be much more modest than at first appears. However, if the reform galvanises the Danish authorities and investors to commit resources to the development of offshore CO2 storage in the period 2025-30, it may contribute significantly to Denmark’s climate objectives.

View full paper https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/A-Lesson-from-Physics-on-Negative-Oil-Prices.pdf

Vietnam Approves Pharos Energy’s Offshore Oil Project

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

oedigital.com 

OE Staff September 11, 2020

Armada TGT-1 FPSO - Image Credit: Pharos Energy

Armada TGT-1 FPSO – Image Credit: Pharos Energy

Pharos Energy said Friday it had received approval from the Prime Minister of Vietnam for the development plan of an offshore oil field in Vietnam.

Pharos, until recently known as Soco International, said that the approval of what is called the TGT Full Field Development Plan represented the “last stage of the required process.”

Pharos has previously said that the plan, which includes drilling of six producer wells, had been approved by all partners in the field, and was awaiting PM’s green light. The PM’s approval, announced Friday, follows the recently granted two-year TGT field license extension to December 7, 2026.

“Ordering of long-lead items can now proceed to enable the commencement of the drilling of six firm development wells contained in the FFDP in Q4 2021 as planned,” Pharos Energy said.

This infill-drilling program is targeted to increase gross production at TGT field off Vietnam from the current levels of around 15,000 boepd to around 20,000 boepd in 2022.
Credit: Pharos EnergyEd Story, President, and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are pleased to have received approval from the Prime Minister of Vietnam for the TGT Full Field Development Plan. This final approval enables us to put plans in place to commence the drilling of the six new producer wells on TGT starting in Q4 2021, allowing us to realize further resources in the TGT field.” Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam Approves Pharos Energy’s Offshore Oil Project” →

Big Oil Took a Big Hit from the Coronavirus, Earnings Reports Show

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

insideclimatenews.org

Companies report billions in losses and decreased value of assets, but still plan to expand oil and gas production going forward.

JUL 31, 2020

Oil companies have lost billions since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to new earnings reports. Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

The world’s leading oil and gas giants this week revealed the scale of the damage inflicted on the industry by the coronavirus pandemic, with top American companies reporting billions in losses while some European companies were able to eke out small profits.

Shell and Total, based in the Netherlands and France, respectively, said a dimming outlook on the long-term demand for oil and gas had forced them to cut the value of their assets by a collective $25 billion. The two companies attributed that lowered outlook to the effects of the pandemic, but also to an accelerating global transition to clean energy

ExxonMobil and Chevron, based in Texas and California, reported large losses as a result of the coronavirus, but made no mention of an energy transition or a looming peak in oil demand.

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Hydrogen and decarbonisation of gas: false dawn or silver bullet?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

This Insight continues the OIES series considering the future of gas. The clear message from previous papers is that on the (increasingly certain) assumption that governments in major European gas markets remain committed to decarbonisation targets, the existing natural gas industry is under threat. It is therefore important to develop a decarbonisation narrative leading to a low- or zero-carbon gas implementation plan.

Previous papers have considered potential pathways for gas to decarbonise, specifically considering biogas and biomethane , and power-to-gas (electrolysis) . This paper goes on to consider the potential for production, transport and use of hydrogen in the decarbonising energy system. Previous papers predominately focused on Europe, which has been leading the way in decarbonisation. Hydrogen is now being considered more widely in various countries around the world, so this paper reflects that wider geographical coverage. Tiếp tục đọc “Hydrogen and decarbonisation of gas: false dawn or silver bullet?” →

ExxonMobil petroleum projects in central Vietnam ongoing as planned

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By Viet Anh   September 12, 2019 | 08:43 pm GMT+7

ExxonMobil petroleum projects in central Vietnam ongoing as planned
Ca Voi Xanh gas field is 88 kilometers to the east of central Vietnam shore. Graphics by Exxon Mobil.

Petroleum projects being executed jointly by PetroVietnam (PVN) and America’s ExxonMobil in central Vietnam are proceeding as scheduled.

“The Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) has said that petroleum projects in central Vietnam, including projects at sea and on land, are being carried out as planned by PVN, Petrovietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP) and ExxonMobil,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said at a press meeting Thursday.

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Vietnam takes a stand in the South China Sea

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Vietnam takes a stand in the South China Sea
A Vietnamese soldier stands watch overlooking the South China Sea. Photo: Facebook

After buckling in previous confrontations, Vietnam is finally facing down Chinese expansionism in its oil and gas-rich waters

Normally, Vietnam would have backed down. In July 2017 and March 2018, when China reportedly threatened military action if Vietnam did not stop oil exploration in contested areas of the South China Sea, Vietnam blinked and withdrew its vessels.

Last year, Vietnam scrapped a US$200 million oil and gas development project with Spanish energy giant Repsol situated within its own exclusive economic zone (EEZ) due to Chinese pressure. However, when a Chinese survey ship and coastguard vessels sailed last month to the contested oil-rich Vanguard Bank, which also lies well within Vietnam’s southeastern EEZ, Hanoi stood its ground. Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam takes a stand in the South China Sea” →