Main Feature

Trump’s new Energy Czar is closely Connected to Australian ‘Top End’ Fraccing Companies

10/12/2024 Posted by Dale

By Dale Granger

US President-elect Donald Trump continues to ruffle feathers in Washington by tapping fraccing company executive Chris Wright to be secretary of energy, a key position in his new White House administration and a man with close ties to Australia.

Wright, in his capacity as chief executive of Liberty Energy, is closely linked to Australia as an investor in both Empire Energy and Tamboran Energy’s hydraulic stimulation initiatives in the Betaloo Basin in the Northern Territory.

Trump said in a statement he had picked oil executive and climate change sceptic Wright to be the secretary of energy, a role in which he is expected to promote fossil fuel development and reverse many Biden-era initiatives.

Keystone State will open Door to The White House with Fossil Fuel and Fraccing a Focal Point

03/11/2024 Posted by Dale

By Dale Granger

With the 2024 US election on the cusp of being announced, energy is once again front and centre in the tussle between Kamala Harris’s Democrats and Donald Trump’s MAGA movement for the keys of the White House.

At the time of going to press the election was balanced on a knife edge with all eyes focussed on Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral college votes, notably the prolific Utica and Marcellus shale basins, fraccing and the other “swing states”: Arizona, Georgia Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Nevada, that have traditionally defined USA ballot box battles, boasting an accumulative 93 electoral college votes and perceived as purple with the potential to flip either red or blue.

From Russia with Oil … As Yet

10/10/2024 Posted by Dale

By Eugene Kharkutov and Ellen Starostina

The history, current state and prospects of development of the Russian oil market and its world impact are considered and analysed. The author uses methods of systematic and comparative analysis in the context of the global, and Mideast oil industry. The main conclusions of the article are that, despite the imposed sanctions, the highly motorized market of Russia performs so far quite well and will adapt a wider use of domestically produced natural gas. Though it has shrunk, Russian oil exports have shifted from the usual Western destinations to the East.

Source: https://www. morethanshipping.com [2]

Figure 1.

Ford Goes back to the Fossil Fuel Future Putting Dorado in the Spotlight

10/09/2024 Posted by Dale

Ford’s announcement in August that it would be shifting its focus from all electric vehicles to hybrid models has changed the gears of the world’s energy dynamics with other carmakers hinting at the possibility of adopting similar strategies.

“As the global leader in pickup trucks, we are future proofing this valuable franchise across all sizes with hybrid, electric and other electric propulsion giving individual customers and businesses choice based on how they used their trucks,” explained Ford President and CEO Jim Farley.

In the process, Ford will reduce its annual capital expenditure on electric technology from 40% to 30% with hybrid vehicles delaying the carmaker’s next generation electric F-150 by 18 months to 2027, when the first all-electric Ford Ranger is set to be launched.

Acreage Release Restrictions Reading the ‘Last Rites’ on Offshore Exploration in Australia

15/08/2024 Posted by Dale

The ink had barely dried on the Federal Government’s Future Gas Policy announced in May and the euphoria was short lived barely a month later when Canberra belatedly announced new exploration export permits for the 2022 offshore acreage release.

Those with a glass half full attitude might toast Resources Minister Madelaine King – who often appears to be fighting a lone crusade in Canberra on behalf of the mining and oil and gas sector – for reaching this milestone two years later, but for many others in the geosciences sector the alarm bells started ringing.

The Department...

So near, yet so FAR as Woodside flows first offshore oil from Senegal’s Sangomar

12/07/2024 Posted by Dale

Former FAR Energy MD Cath Norman and associates of the once revered junior Melbourne explorer would be forgiven for feeling a touch of nostalgic envy in June as Woodside flowed first oil – as well as the first cargoes of black gold offshore Senegal - from the Sangomar field.

Instead, the reaction from afar was one of jubilation as former colleagues at the company reacted with euphoria, even though FAR was no longer part of the journey crossing the finish line celebrating the climax of an odyssey that FAR had starred in at the very beginning.

“It is indeed a historic day for Senegal and I congratulate #Woodside and #Petrosen for achieving this milestone,” Norman said in a post on her Linkedin, social media site.

Australian carbon storage hub a $600 billion opportunity: Wood Mackenzie

25/05/2024 Posted by Dale

Australia could unlock up to $600 billion in revenue by creating a carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry and becoming a storage hub for the Asia-Pacific region, according to a leading global energy research firm, Wood Mackenzie.

In an article published in the 2024 Australian Energy Producers Journal, Wood Mackenzie emphasised that Australia’s CCS opportunity is rooted in facilitating other countries’ net zero ambitions.

According to the article, Australia has far higher geological CO2 storage potential than it needs to store emissions from its power generation and industrial sectors from 2030 to 2050.

Meanwhile, Australia’s key trading partners such as Japan and South Korea have limited opportunities to store all their emissions domestically and are looking for regional storage sites to support their net zero goals.