20 years ago today your Prez said "Russia will be an energy superpower". Today we're selling oil for 13% less than it costs us produce and for about 40% less than what our budget needs. I remain a master strategist.

Oil for water deals. I don't know my Mad Max lore but isn't this a thing in that world?

Dominion Energy is unhappy at the latest US windfarm stop order news.dominionenergy.com/press-releas...

Swedemason lives. Merry Christmas to all of us youtu.be/zRuzs8Syrf0?...

Ukraine says it's attacked a Russia-linked oil tanker off the coast of Greece, the first time it's done this outside the Black Sea www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4...

U softened its approach to North Sea oil and gas in November's budget, and Ithaca is the first to give the new regime a go. It's begun the process of getting approval for the Fotla field, a two-well tie-back to existing infrastructure www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

BP's CEO Murray Auchincloss is out, Woodside's Meg O'Neill is the new boss www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

LIBYAN OIL BIZNESS: Gaddafi-era contract clauses allow NOC affiliates to sell crude directly, keeping the central bank out of the loop. Under this proxy-payment mechanism, crude worth $200mn has gone to a company the UN says is controlled by Saddam Haftar www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

LIBYAN OIL BIZNESS: Gaddafi-era contract clauses allow NOC affiliates to sell crude directly, keeping the central bank out of the loop. Under this proxy-payment mechanism, crude worth $200mn has gone to a company the UN says is controlled by Saddam Haftar www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

"What I’m seeing in China isn’t just “demand destruction.” It’s structural shift w/ far deeper implications for global energy market Numbers almost unfair Chinese #fleet running these mixers pocketing 3× diesel-level savings—& that’s only teaser trailer for horror movie now playing in oil-market"

Crude hovering either side of $60/bl getting a lot of attention, but in Products You Can Use the European benchmark gasoline price is down >20pc in a month. Market structure flipped yesterday, with prices for prompt delivery now lower than those for future delivery

Ineos gets public money to keep its ethylene plant open at Grangemouth. Compare and contrast the Ratcliffe quotes in the government press release (l) and Ineos' own release (r)

Rush Hour 4 getting greenlit

Oil below $60/bl for only the third time this year. Hasn't finished a day in the 50s since *February 2021*

Vorsprung durch whatsit. Germany wins on EU internal combustion engine rule changes www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

Finland's Neste has been the poster child for refinery decarbonisation. But it's paring back its ambitions to "ambitious but realistic", not out of ideology but because it just hasn't got the money for more www.neste.com/news/neste-r...

So begins my annual Big Thread of what's what next year in the energy space. 🧵 The UK offshore will see more consolidation aka huddling together for warmth www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

Big surprise here is how cheaply they have been bought.

Officer: A specific bit of the movie, or any of it? Me: Any, but some are more likely - rugs tying the room together, the Eagles, strongly-vaginal art. Officer: So they don't know they're referencing it? Me: No, they can't know. It's like accidental Partridge, you know? Office: Partridge? Me: ...

if it's of interest, I got an email letting me know what the world record for fastest time to peel and slice a pineapple was broken - nay, SMASHED - recently in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire

some excellent details in here - funny and infuriating at the same time. your revolution is over, Mr Looney. Condolences. The bums lost giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

IEA attempts to explain oil pricing disconnects. Big supply surplus isn't showing up in Brent futures because there's not much stockbuilding going on where that price is formed. Also, there's a lot of NGLs www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

And of course entirely unlikely. Somalis went through a phase of hijacking VLCCs

Important new retail concept in south London: the pot offie. cc @deserterblog.bsky.social

Brrrr

Rockhopper Exploration has made a final investment decision on its long-delayed Sea Lion oil field development offshore the Falkland Islands. Targeting peak of 50,000 b/d at a price of at least $1.8bn and admits "some uncertainty around actual project costs" www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

Today marks *nine years* since a group of oil producing countries from outside Opec agreed with Opec to limit their output *for six months* in order to balance the market. www.opec.org/pr-detail/16...

Drunk drivers, dodgy roofs, a tattoo artist and a little Shih Tzu. Ukraine's drone attack on Russian airfields www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Blog on decarbonising air travel: "For as long fossil jet fuel prices fail to reflect its environmental cost, the structural price gap to cleaner alternatives will remain, requiring long-term policy support to bridge." www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

Shot/chaser: Opec+ working to restore what it withdrew; Exxon just ploughing on through

it should come as no surprise that this bit of the US NatSec strategy that came out overnight has little in common with facts. Far from German chem firms piling into China because the absence of Russian gas in Europe, they have been there for years

managed money has been piling into European diesel futures, seeing the volatility that's been entirely absent from Brent crude: www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

Gas giant Qatar has published its climate plan, big emphasis on carbon capture and storage www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

UK construction sector PMI data, via S&P. Not good.

Glencore's going big on copper, the price of which hit an all-time high yesterday www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

Oil it up www.reuters.com/business/for...

Desperate times in Venezuela. Maduro writes to Opec seeking "your best efforts" to dissuade the US from whatever it is the US wants to do. Says this could 'threaten world supply' of oil, although Opec may not see VZ's 1mn b/d as being all that crucial www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

Opec has hired an as-yet unnamed US consulting firm to assess and update member country crude production capacities, as it looks to shake up baseline targets beyond 2027 www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

#KI hilft bei der Automatisierung....

Smoke on the water. Turkey's directorate for maritime affairs says this is the result of an oil tanker meeting an "external impact" in the Black Sea. Puts it as the Kairos, which is on UK and EU sanctions lists under its previous name, Katiuska

Data centre issue halts CME

Chelsea could be on the brink of an era of domination, if you believe the club can only be successful when its owner has a ink with Russian hydrocarbons www.wsj.com/business/dea...

very po-faced from the FT. Timing isn't everything for the OBR. But getting figures right is - it didn't do that yesterday and has adjusted hugely overnight its calculation of the budget measures' effects on EV sales

Think you've had a bad week? imagine being the OBR. It confirms it 'corrected' its EV sales projection, without saying why. Now sees the budget's effect on EV sales as a net 120,000 reduction by 2030-31, from a net 310,000 reduction in the original document.

OBR appears to have silently revised overnight its projections for the pay-per-mile effect on UK EV sales. On the left, the existing document forecasting a net 120,000 drop in sales; on the right, yesterday's projection of a net 310,000 fall 🤷‍♂️

Remarkably, there's not much money in storing gas in Europe www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

UK’s EV tax adds confusion to mandate targets www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

FYI: this happened today after a late session price COLLAPSE (0.8p/th wiped off) so we are now officially in multi year low territory.

Busy day in the UK, where the government has published a North Sea Future plan www.gov.uk/government/n....

Office of Budget Irresponsibility, amirite?