Energy Voice – Out Loud

Strategy, supplies and sales

The UK has published its new energy strategy. While its timing gave little thought to Allister’s attempts to stop work before midnight, it has given some much-needed succour to North Sea developers. Among those taking increased heart is Ithaca Energy which, the next day, announced its move to buy Siccar Point, the owner of environmentalists’ bane – and perennial podcast favourite – Cambo.  
Europe is going to need more gas if it is to keep the pressure up on Russia. An appealing option would be Africa, home of substantial gas reserves. However, after so many net zero pledges, is there enough commercial support to develop these resources? There is a price to be paid for not developing affordable gas and that is likely to be coal.  
Similar challenges are facing the new crop of LNG importers in Southeast Asia. Once held up as the future of LNG demand, countries such as Vietnam have been caught wrong footed by price volatility. The best response to high global responses will be local supply – a lesson for all.  
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

New nuclear, new LNG, new oil?

With Allister otherwise occupied, Ed takes the reigns for this week’s episode and is joined by Damon and Hamish to explore energy projects old and new across the globe.   
Energy security is the phrase of the moment, and in Japan and South Korea, it is no different. Nuclear is making a comeback in both countries - whether it can trump LNG is another matter. Sticking on LNG, construction on Tellurian’s major facility in Louisiana has got underway. It comes at an apt time, with European countries looking to ease their energy woes; Ed tells all.  
Finally, it wouldn’t be an EV podcast without some mention of Cambo. The licenses for the scheme have been extended, given Siccar Point more time to decide its next move.  
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

Cambo, Jackdaw back in vogue, windfall relief and LNG demand

Just when you thought you could hear the death knell... Jackdaw and Cambo are back in vogue this week, along with high impact exploration in the North Sea, courtesy of Shell. 
The Chancellor's mini budget had no reference to any windfall tax (perhaps unsurprisingly given ministers  *repeatedly* saying it's a bad call while visiting Aberdeen in the last week).   
And Germany is rushing to get LNG up and running as it seeks to rapidly wean itself off Russian supply. LNG will likely be there to support it, but what of the price? 
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

Bigger, Faster, Better 03 – UK vs Denmark on offshore wind

Wind might be a curse if you’re having a picnic, but it promises to be a mainstay of the UK and Denmark’s shift to net zero. Technology has become mature, reducing that risk. The next hurdle, though, will be demand. Can the players ensure that the power gets to where it’s needed at the right time?
What’s not in short supply is industry interest. Big Oil is transforming into Big Energy and offshore wind is going to play a major part in that. In this episode of Bigger Faster Better, Anthony Alderman of paid partners Womble Bond Dickinson and Ulrik Stridbæk of Ørsted get together to talk about how the UK and Denmark measure up.
The sector has proved its commerciality, but it is clear that government intervention will continue to play a major role in setting the terms for this maturing sector.
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

Boris Johnson’s cognitive dissonance, Myanmar exits, and South African LNG deals

This week we explore the different exit routes pursued by Chevron and TotalEnergies in Myanmar following a brutal military coup last year. Significantly, the Energy Voice team ask whether the withdrawal processes underway in Myanmar can offer a glimpse into the divestment strategies of other big Western oil companies in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. 
Elsewhere, Andrew makes his debut on the pod and casts the spotlight on the UK’s efforts to boost energy security after Boris Johnson hosts oil and gas CEOs to discuss boosting supply from the North Sea. The team also ponders the Prime Minister’s cognitive dissonance as he jets around authoritarian regimes in the Middle East to shore up oil supplies. 
And last, but by no means least, Ed, walks us through how miners in South Africa are cleaning up their act by moving towards LNG in their operations to replace coal-fired power, which dominates the country’s energy mix.  
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

Staying in, looking out and eyeing more

Western companies have fled Russia in droves, following the invasion of Ukraine. Japanese companies, though, are staying put, Damon explains this week, saying energy security concerns and a desire for governmental direction has staved off such departures. 
The European Union is trying to come to terms with the energy security challenge. On the one hand, it needs gas – at least in the short term. On the other, relations with Russia have become increasingly frosty, if not frostbitten. North Africa looks like it could play a role, but it is clear that an unwillingness to opt for long-term LNG contracts is coming back to bite the EU on its regasification terminals.  
Finally, at home, PM Boris Johnson has been talking a good game about more North Sea oil and gas production. This will go down well in the highways and byways of Aberdeen, but will do nothing for the next 12 months of high prices and resulting human misery.
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

Bigger, Faster, Better 02 – UK vs Abu Dhabi on hydrogen

Hopes are high around hydrogen, but shifting from the energy industry’s mainstay of oil and gas to this feedstock poses some particular challenges.
The UK has set some big targets, but concrete construction plans are largely still at the design phase. Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, has taken the plunge. The state has already sent a blue cargo to Japan, and its heavyweight energy companies are taking the plunge on demonstration plants.
In this episode of Bigger, Faster, Better, Richard Cockburn of Womble Bond Dickinson and Dr Alexander Ritschel of Masdar get together to talk about how the UK and Abu Dhabi measure up.
Meeting industrial demand is an obvious first step but the two also talk over innovations in supply and demand, including the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
 
About Bigger, Faster, Better and Womble Bond Dickinson
Womble Bond Dickinson is a transatlantic law firm with a keen focus on the energy sector. As part of its re:build Britain campaign, Womble Bond Dickinson is looking at the energy transition and its role in the UK achieving its net zero ambitions. This podcast series will explore how the UK performs in comparison to other countries in key renewable technologies.
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

Ukraine

There’s only one place to go in the global energy conversation this week and that’s the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
The team get together to discuss interviews and coverage to date, including a Ukrainian whose family has had to flee Kharkiv, as well as further sanction steps which could be taken.
Hamish runs through the Big Oil exodus from Russia, and the arguments behind TotalEnergies retaining its investment.
And Ed discusses Nord Stream 2 and the implications of dependence of Russian gas for Europe and the wider world. 
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

Pricey oil, the next Cambo and INTOG

Allister and Hamish, feeling fresh after a few libations at the Subsea Expo Awards, are joined by Ed to chew the fat from the week’s events.  
Russia’s actions in the Ukraine has led to oil crashing back through the $100 mark for the first time in years, sending analysts into overdrive.  
In the North Sea Equinor has lined up an FPSO for its Rosebank project. But unless they can find a way to get the oil with in an environmentally friendly way, it could become the next Cambo.  
And Scotland’s next offshore wind leasing round is on the horizon, with Crown Estate Scotland outlining the plans for INTOG. There’s talk too of Subsea Expo as the team (finally) get back to in-person events.  
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.

The COP Shop 5: Battery Bonanza

Battery storage is on the agenda as a very special guest – Ben Guest of Gresham House – joins The COP Shop.
Ben takes the team through the potential and importance of this technology for a UK energy system which is growing in reliance on intermittent renewables as it strives to reach net zero.
Joining him in the virtual pod booth is NatWest Head of Climate Change James Close and EV’s Europe Editor Allister Thomas, to discuss the challenges around financing and credit-risking new technologies, as well as reflections on COP26 now the dust has well and truly settled.
 
About Energy Voice
Energy Voice investigates and reports on what matters in global energy, helping sector leaders understand the geopolitical and economic factors underpinning current events, and giving them a view on what’s coming over the horizon. Each year, 3.4m professionals use Energy Voice as a trusted source of breaking news and insight.
For more information on how you can speak to those professionals across multiple platforms to build your brand and generate actionable business leads, visit energyvoice.com/content-services.
For a 30 day free trial subscription to the Energy Voice website and app, visit energyvoice.com/subscriptions.