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Archive for the ‘energy policy’ Category

Nord Stream update

Posted in accidents, energy policy, pipelines, tagged , , , , , , , on February 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Germany’s national elections are on 23 FEB. The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which has gained strength in the polls, supports a Nord Stream restart.

–Denmark’s energy agency granted Nord Stream AG permission to conduct preservation work on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea (Reuters). One of the two Nordstream 2 lines is undamaged.

-An Equinor executive stated on February 5, 2025, that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline is “permanently destroyed.”

-The Swiss canton of Zug extended the moratorium on debt restructuring for Nord Stream AG until May 9. The moratorium is seen as a way for the German government to preserve its influence over the future of the pipeline. If the company is liquidated, investors, including the German state-owned energy firm Uniper, would lose control over the pipeline and the considerable funds invested by German taxpayers in its construction.

-Consideration is being given to transporting hydrogen from Finland via the undamaged Nord Stream 2 string. (The H2 might have to be mixed with methane to prevent embrittlement.)

-Resumption of Nord Stream flow could be part of a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal (along with Ukraine’s rare minerals).

-American investor Stephen Lynch continues his pursuit of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

–Chat GPT was asked what the likelihood was of the US orchestrating the Nord Stream sabotage. Response (see below): 60-80%

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WSJ blasts NJ Governor Murphy

Posted in climate, energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , on February 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

WSJ: “How many multibillion-dollar projects must go bust before a Governor comes to his senses? The answer is blowing in the wind, but New Jersey’s Phil Murphy doesn’t seem to be listening.”

Ouch!: Note how it’s always the developers that give up on these projects and never the state, despite the awful prospects for ratepayers. Gov. Murphy has treated renewable energy as a sacred cause no matter the costs since 2018. That includes a bill he signed to let Ørsted pocket federal credits it had promised to pass on to customers, though he clawed money back when the projects died.”

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UK House of Commons Report on carbon capture: “High degree of uncertainty whether risky investment by Govt will pay off”

Posted in CCS, energy policy, UK, tagged , , , , on February 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Key points (the full report is attached):

  • Government’s backing of unproven, first-of-a-kind technology to reach net zero is high-risk.
  • Government should assess whether its full carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) program will be affordable for taxpayers and consumers, given wider pressures on energy bills and the cost of living. 
  • There are no examples of CCUS technology operating at scale in the UK.
  • CCUS may not capture as much carbon as expected.
  • International examples show that CCUS performanc expectations are far from guaranteed.  
  • 3/4 of the almost £22bn envisaged to support the projects will come from levies on consumers who are already facing some of the highest energy bills in the world.
  • The Government’s downgraded target of storing 20 to 30 million tonnes per year of CO2 by 2030 is now seen as no longer achievable

How will the Trump administration view offshore carbon disposal? Some elements of the oil industry see CCUS as a lucrative business opportunity. Budget and inflation hawks, along with most environmental organizations, are strongly (and rightfully in my opinion) opposed.

CCS/carbon disposal posts on BOE.

UKdownloadDownload

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Offshore wind: NJ reluctantly accepts reality

Posted in energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , on February 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Not a single offshore wind turbine will be installed offshore New Jersey during the reign of Gov. Murphy, a leading proponent of offshore wind. How much did his wind advocacy cost NJ taxpayers?

Meanwhile, management of what is left of the Atlantic Shores partnership continues to deny the obvious – that there is no realistic path forward for their projects.

Finally, NJ Congressman Chris Smith is questioning any further action by BOEM on offshore wind projects. See the attached letter.

letter_acting_director_anderson_from_congressman_c._smith_jan_29_2025Download

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BOE was a fan of Chris Wright long before he became Energy Secretary

Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged , , , on February 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Thanks to the Colorado Oil & Gas Association’s tongue-in-cheek “Customer Appreciation Award,” which rivals the Not My Job Award as a means of recognizing extraordinary individual and organizational chutzpah, Chris Wright was on our radar long before he became Secretary of Energy.

He continues to impress:

https://twitter.com/UpdateNews724/status/1887199688409161875

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Another loss of power to the Johan Sverdrup field heightens concerns about Norway’s electrification policy

Posted in accidents, energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on February 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Johan Sverdrup field, 155 km from shore

On Tuesday, Equinor halted all production from the Johan Sverdrup field, western Europe’s biggest producer. An outage in the offshore power system has been cited as the cause.

A Jan. 26, 2022 BOE post questioned Norway’s electrification policy for offshore platforms. Another post discussed a loss of power to the Sverdrup field only 10 weeks ago.

In addition to the production losses, these incidents increase safety risks and onshore electricity prices with no net environmental benefit.

Hopefully, the investigation reports will be posted so that the lessons learned can be shared.

Electric cables from shore power the Johan Sverdrup field

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SECRETARIAL ORDER NO. 3418: Unleashing American Energy

Posted in decommissioning, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged , , , , , , , on February 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Check it out!

Of particular interest are mandated reviews of the:

  • RIsk Management and Financial Assurance Rule: Those who want to gut this rule should come to the table with proposals that better protect the taxpayer from decommissioning liabilities. Pretending that decommissioning financial risks don’t exist or that they are someone else’s (or the govt’s) problem is unacceptable.
  • 5 Year leasing program – This review is urgently needed. See this and this!
  • BOP/Well Control Rule – This keystone safety rule has undergone multiple reviews in recent years. Because of the rule’s importance, further review for continuous improvement purposes may nonetheless be warranted. Here are the blog comments on the current version of the rule.

Not on the list, but should have been: A review of the fragmented regulatory regime for offshore pipelines, and the outdated and inconsistent regulations.

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Norwegian government collapses as Centre Party rejects European energy insanity

Posted in energy policy, Norway, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , , on February 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Centre Party leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum: “What we were clear about all along is that beginning the process of linking ourselves more closely to the EU’s dysfunctional electricity market and energy policy is completely out of the question.”

While looking at electric prices and power sharing, consideration should be given to the desirability of transmitting electricity from shore to distant offshore platforms that have ample natural gas for power generation purposes. This practice increases electric prices for consumers and introduces reliability/safety concerns with no net environmental benefits.

No photo description available.
Picture of Old Stavanger where former colleague and BOE contributor Odd Bjerre Finnestad (RIP) once lived. Stavanger is both a lovely city and the “Oil Capital of Norway.”

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These 18 senators voted against the confirmation of Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior

Posted in energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged , , , , on January 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The Secretary of the Interior is, by far, the most important offshore energy official in the Federal government. Yesterday, Doug Burgum was easily confirmed to be the next Secretary. Nonetheless, the following 18 senators chose to vote against his confirmation:

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WSJ: “Why Climate-Change Ideology Is Dying”

Posted in climate, energy policy, tagged , , on January 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »

link

“For three decades you were labeled a crank, a “climate denier,” someone who pigheadedly rejects “settled science,” if you didn’t embrace the belief that life on earth faces imminent extinction from “global warming” and, later, “climate change.” The possibility that an entire academic discipline, climate science, could have gone badly amiss by groupthink and self-flattery wasn’t thought possible. In many quarters this orthodoxy still reigns unquestioned.“

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