Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image – Page 8

Refreshing realism on the need for Canadian oil — from a Trudeau Liberal – by John Ivison (National Post – July 12, 2022)

July 12, 2022

At the end of the day, the cause of climate change is not fossil fuels themselves. It is the carbon emissions associated with the burning of fossil fuels,’ says minister of natural resources, Jonathan Wilkinson

In the Financial Post last week, my colleague William Watson called for Canada to adopt a more nuanced view of the struggle between reducing carbon emissions and ensuring the lights stay on.

He offered up the example of Birgitte Nyborg, the fictional Danish foreign minister in the brilliant drama Borgen, who, having run on a climate change platform, brazenly shifts her party’s policy to support the development of oil in Greenland (albeit for reasons of personal political survival).

EU lawmakers back gas, nuclear energy as sustainable – by Samuel Petrequin and Raf Casert (Associated Press – July 6, 2022)

July 8, 2022

https://apnews.com/

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to include natural gas and nuclear in the bloc’s list of sustainable activities, backing a proposal from the EU’s executive arm that has been drawing fierce criticism from environment groups and now looks set to trigger legal challenges.

As the EU wants to set the best global standards in the fight against climate change, the decision could tarnish the bloc’s image and question the region’s commitment to reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

OPINION: Natural gas and nuclear power are now considered green investments in the EU. Will Canada follow suit? – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – July 7, 2022)

July 7, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The European Union Parliament has declared that nuclear power and natural gas can be labelled as green for investment purposes, alongside wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.

Environmental activists are not at all pleased, saying including the two energy sources in the EU’s green “taxonomy” will only hamper the fight against climate change. Now the focus turns to other countries, including Canada, hard at work on standards for investments that fit with their own low-carbon transitions.

Natural gas soars 700%, becoming driving force in the new cold war – by Gerson Freitas Jr, Stephen Stapczynski and Anna Shiryaevskaya (Bloomberg News – July 6, 2022)

July 7, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

One morning in early June, a fire broke out at an obscure facility in Texas that takes natural gas from US shale basins, chills it into a liquid and ships it overseas. It was extinguished in 40 minutes or so. No one was injured.

It sounds like a story for the local press, at most — except that more than three weeks later, financial and political shockwaves are still reverberating across Europe, Asia and beyond.

Alberta is flush with cash again — and it will change the race to replace Jason Kenney – by Graham Thomson (Toronto Star – June 29, 2022)

June 29, 2022

https://www.thestar.com/

Alberta’s boom-bust economy is once again booming. It’s a sonic boom, really — one that is shattering records fiscally and promising to wreak havoc politically. The windfall will, among other things, fundamentally change the shape of the United Conservative Party’s race to replace Jason Kenney.

The numbers are staggering. A year ago, the Alberta government predicted it would collect $44 billion in revenue and run a whopping $18-billion deficit in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

The critical need for a comprehensive strategy for North American energy independence – by Derek H. Burney (National Post – June 28, 2022)

June 28, 2022

https://nationalpost.com/

If the Canadian and American governments want to seriously tackle inflation, the most sensible thing they could do is negotiate a comprehensive agreement to ensure energy independence for North America.

Bizarrely, the U.S. now seeks relief from Saudi Arabia even though President Joe Biden labelled the Kingdom a “pariah” during the 2020 campaign. His welcome-mat may not be royal. Similar overtures are being made to Venezuela and even Iran, when the most obvious option for access to more oil and gas lies on America’s northern border.

OPINION: Mistakes were made: Why Germany may freeze in the dark this winter – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – June 24, 2022)

June 28, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

If the West can use sanctions and embargoes as weapons of war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia, so can Russia – in retaliation. And that is precisely what is happening.

In recent weeks, Russia, the main supplier of Europe’s imported natural gas, has been making it more difficult – even impossible – for European clients to buy its gas. First it demanded payment in rubles, not dollars or euros; Moscow ended deliveries to Bulgaria, Finland and Poland, allegedly for their refusal to pay in rubles.

Europe turns back to coal as Russia cuts gas supplies – by ELENA SÁNCHEZ NICOLÁS (Euobserver.com – June 21, 2022)

June 22, 2022

https://euobserver.com/

With Russia reducing natural gas supplies to Europe, several EU countries are considering burning further carbon-intensive coal to secure energy supplies for next winter. Germany and Austria this weekend announced emergency measures to cope with lower Russian gas flows, including the potential use of coal-fired power plants to produce energy.

The move comes after weeks of gas-supply cuts and reduced flows to Europe, which has prompted EU governments to seek alternative supplies and build up reserves. Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom has turned off supplies to several EU countries for refusing to pay for gas in roubles — including Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, and the Netherlands.

OPINION: Hi, my name is Canada. I’m an oil superpower – by Editorial Board (Globe and Mail – May 9, 2022)

May 12, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s latest export data put a clear spotlight on just how big a role oil still plays in our country’s economy. Exports of all goods in March reached a new monthly record of $63.6-billion, Statistics Canada reported, surpassing the previous high of $58.7-billion, set in February.

The surge is powered by oil. Energy now accounts for more than a quarter of Canada’s exports, a level last hit in 2014, when crude prices were also on a tear. Back then, Stephen Harper was a vocal booster of the oil industry, and not much interested in talking about climate change.

Oil has long been used as a geopolitical weapon. Could electrified transport change that? – by Andre Mayer (CBC News – May 2, 2022)

May 4, 2022

https://www.cbc.ca/news/

Petroleum industry associated with wild price swings and armed conflict

Climate scientists have been clear that if we want to reduce carbon emissions and slow the pace of global warming, one crucial step is moving from a transportation system run on fossil fuels to one powered by electricity. But it’s possible that doing so might neutralize other toxic aspects of the petroleum industry, such as volatile prices and armed conflict.

“The ability to electrify transportation and get off combusting fossil fuels, and oil specifically, means we would solve massive geopolitical problems, which have been just a plague for the last 100 years,” said Adam Scott, executive director of Shift, a Toronto-based charity that advocates for sustainable investing.

Which energy assets will be stranded? – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – May 4, 2022)

May 4, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

Coal, oil and gas versus windmills, EVs and carbon sequestration

Oilprice.com covered the latest energy trends Monday with a report that U.S. investment giant Warren Buffett is “betting big on oil and gas stocks.” One assumes that Buffett is not a follower of Mark Carney, former central banker and chief proponent of climate financial strategies based on the assumption that fossil fuels will become stranded assets and should be divested ASAP.

Back in 2015, as governor of the Bank of England, Carney warned of a “potentially huge” risk that reserves of coal, oil and gas could become “literally unburnable.” Carney has continued to present a fossil-fuel doom scenario since his 2015 warnings, telling banks to get out of the oil and gas corporations that risk bankruptcy.

Ukraine crisis reveals hard truth that the world isn’t ready for the energy transition – by Yadullah Hussain (Financial Post – April 27, 2022)

April 29, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

The world has been consumed with combatting climate change for some time. But something changed this year. As Russian troops invaded Ukraine, policy-makers across the world were confronted with a more immediate challenge: energy security.

Moscow’s aggression laid bare the vulnerability of global oil markets, and the ability of bad actors to disrupt energy supply chains. The domino effect of a spike in oil prices has rippled through markets for other commodities and industries, and has already knocked out global economic growth.

U.S. Energy Secretary touts continental alliance to thwart ‘petro-dictators’ – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – April 26, 2022)

April 28, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The United States backs a continental approach to clean energy that would see the U.S. and Canada working together on critical minerals and other resources to bolster security against threats such as the war in Ukraine, says U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

“One thousand per cent,” Ms. Granholm said when asked if she envisioned a dual-nation, continental approach to energy concerns, including securing minerals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles.

OPINION: Angela Merkel deserves as much blame – or more – as her predecessor for making Germany dependent on Russian energy – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – April 15, 2022)

April 19, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Germany has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It has increased its defence budget and sent weapons to the Ukrainian military. It has launched a barrage of sanctions against Russia and some of its billionaires.

This week, in Hamburg, German authorities impounded the superyacht owned by the family of Alisher Usmanov, the Russian oligarch industrialist closely linked to President Vladimir Putin.

“You can print money, but not oil to heat or wheat to eat” – by Izabella Kaminska (The Blind Spot – April 1, 2022)

April 4, 2022

Home

There’s a new Zoltan Pozsar of Credit Suisse report out… and he starts off by saying:
…you can print money, but not oil to heat or wheat to eat. I’m so glad because this rather obvious point seems to be completely missed by economists and analysts for unknown reasons.

Nor do they seem to get that just because the commodity market doesn’t match the scale of the bond or equity market that doesn’t mean it is not significantly more important for the world economy than anything else.