It’s the first day of CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, one of the biggest events on the calendar for the energy industry, with over 1,000 CEOs, policymakers and financiers due to speak.
(Bloomberg) — It’s the first day of CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, one of the biggest events on the calendar for the energy industry, with over 1,000 CEOs, policymakers and financiers due to speak.
This year’s event is framed around the so-called trilemma facing global energy: ensuring security of supply amid war and geopolitical tensions, while also transitioning toward a zero-carbon system and keeping energy affordable.
All time stamps are Houston.
Tellurian’s Souki Says He Isn’t Speaking to Chinese LNG Buyers (11:37 a.m.)
The chairman of Tellurian Inc. said he isn’t negotiating with Chinese buyers, despite the reopening of the country’s economy post-Covid.
Instead of inking long-term contracts, as is common in the global LNG market, Chinese companies will have to buy gas on the open market and compete with European countries for the fuel, Charif Souki said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
“I didn’t like the experience I had with them when I was at Cheniere,” said Souki, who was previously CEO of US LNG exporter of Cheniere Inc. before co-founding Tellurian. Tellurian is looking to raise about $3 billion in financing for its Driftwood LNG project.
UAE Minister Calls for More Aggressive Decarbonization (11:01 a.m.)
Sultan Al Jaber, the head of Adnoc and the president of this year’s UN climate summit, called on oil and gas executives to move more aggressively, insisting the industry needs to “rapidly decarbonize its own operations” and should play a “vital role” in decarbonizing its customers, too.
Al Jaber, who has faced questions as an oil company executive leading the global climate negotiations in Dubai, insisted that the United Arab Emirates has diversified its energy mix and is “embracing” the energy transition.
Adnoc is aiming for a 25% reduction in its carbon intensity by the end of the decade, but is also seeking to boost crude production by 1 million barrels a day by 2025 — a dynamic that means the company’s total greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase in the coming years.
China to Drive Worldwide Oil Demand Growth, Gunvor CEO Says (10:41 a.m.)
About 75% of global oil-demand growth will come from China this year, according to the CEO of commodity trader Gunvor Group Ltd.
The so-called ghost fleet of tankers seeking to move Russian oil despite international sanctions includes 300 to 400 vessels, Chief Executive Officer Torbjorn Tornqvist said during a presentation.
In other markets, Tornqvist foresees competition for liquefied natural gas cargoes intensifying between Asia and Europe as soon as this summer.
Cenovus CEO Says Canada Needs Its Own IRA (9:45 a.m.)
One of Canada’s biggest oil sands producers said the country’s government needs to enact a law similar to the US’s Inflation Reduction Act if it wants to meet its climate goals and remain competitive.
An investment tax credit in last year’s Canadian budget is welcome but would only cover about 15% of the oil industry’s carbon capture costs to 2050, Alex Pourbaix, chief executive officer of Cenovus Energy, said in an interview. By contrast, the IRA would cover two-thirds of costs, he said.
The IRA is “refreshingly simple,” he said. Pourbaix warned that if Canada failed to step up its fiscal help for industry, it would lose competitiveness to its southern neighbor.
“If we don’t, we’re just going to see that capital flee the country and go to the US where they have such an attractive process and mechanism for companies to reduce their emissions.”
Banks Setting Too High a Bar on Green Loans in Asia, Petronas CEO (9:40 a.m.)
Lenders are making it too expensive for Asian governments and companies to finance energy-transition ventures and creating conditions that will delay moves to forestall climate change, said Petronas CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik.
“As you go into Asia, credit committees layer on a huge risk premium,” Taufik said during a panel discussion Monday. “You are dangling the carrot of financing but making it inaccessible.”
Petroliam Nasional Bhd, as Malaysia’s state oil company is formally known, has set aside 20% of its capital spending to so-called green projects over the next half decade.
SLB Sees Middle East as Biggest Area for Global Crude Growth (9:30 a.m.)
SLB, the world’s largest oil services company, says some of the biggest greatest growth in oil activity this year from the Middle East, where record spending from customers there is expected to address global supply needs.
“There is an uptick that has materialized in the last six months in Middle East that is here to stay, and that will support the new engine of growth in the industry,” Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said Monday in a Bloomberg TV interview.
The company, which is not investing ahead of the current growth cycle, is seeing delays of as much as a year around the world, Le Peuch said. Prices charged for its work in international markets are expected to be up by double digits this year, he said.
Chevron Eyes Mediterranean as New Gas Source for Europe (9:15 a.m.)
Chevron will spend the rest of this year working through options to export natural gas to Europe from its Leviathan field off the coast of Israel, Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said.
The US oil giant is evaluating three options: a multibillion-dollar pipeline, exporting via existing facilities in nearby Egypt and floating liquefied natural gas. The latter is the simplest because it doesn’t rely on multiple governments but will take more time and money before an final investment decision is reached, Wirth said.
Gas markets have “structurally changed” since the Ukraine war, meaning Europe will need non-Russian sources for the long term, Wirth said.
BP Says it Verified the Intensity of its Methane Emissions (9:07 a.m.)
Nonprofit global methane certifier MiQ said it audited and certified BP Plc as the first oil major in the US to verify the intensity of methane emissions from its US onshore natural gas portfolio.
Dave Lawler, who heads BP’s US operation, told reporters the MiQ certification shows how BP is in the process of further eliminating methane from the Permian Basin, making it a leader in offering a lower-carbon barrel of oil.
(Corrects claim that BP has eliminated methane in the Permian Basin)
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