In the early 2000s, presidents Putin and Bush convened two U.S. – Russia Commercial Energy Summits. Igor Yusufov, Russia’s energy minister from 2001 to 2004 now emphasizes how the two countries could cooperate to stabilize a volatile oil market and hopes that President Donald Trump will restart the high-level meetings…
China’s crude oil demand will grow by 3.4 percent this year to a record of 11.8 million barrels per day, according to a China National Petroleum Corporation forecast. Total refinery throughput will rise by 3.3 percent to 11.2 million bpd, with refiners adding 702,000 bpd of net capacity. This rising refinery demand will lift crude imports by 5.3 percent to 7.95 million bpd. CNPC predicted that net exports of diesel will surge by 55 percent this year to about 450,000 bpd.
As China’s foreign exchange reserves threaten to tumble below the critical $3 trillion mark, there are fears that it will set off a vicious cycle of more outflows and currency depreciation.
A five-year plan, 2016-2020, to save energy and cut emissions was issued by the Chinese State Council, setting a goal to cut energy consumption by 15 percent in 2020 compared with 2015.
Carnival Corp & plc, the world’s largest leisure travel company with 10 cruise line brands traveling to all seven continents and nearly 750 ports of call, has ordered a total of seven fully LNG-powered cruise ships – a first for the industry. The ships, the first of which will set sail in northwest Europe and the Mediterranean, will feature dual-fuel engines that will burn LNG both in port and at sea. The company’s senior VP talks about the rationale behind the change from marine diesel to LNG.
ExxonMobil has developed cMISTTM technology, which dehydrates natural gas using a patented absorption system inside pipes and replaces the need for conventional dehydration tower technology. This new technology reduces corrosion and equipment interference helping to ensure the safe and efficient transport of natural gas through the supply infrastructure and ultimately to consumers. It has been licensed to the Chemtech division of Sulzer, a leading player in separation technologies, to facilitate deployment across the oil and gas industry.
Solar power is now cheaper than coal in some parts of the world. In less than a decade it could be the lowest-cost option almost everywhere.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission are revising the foreign investment industry catalogue.
The Chinese economy stabilized during the middle of 2016, but there is disagreement about the country’s growth outlook.
China has lost the top position as an investment destination to India, and has now opened up more sectors for foreign investors in order to catch up in the race between the two countries.
The decision by Total E&P do Brasil to expand operations in Brazil with annual investments of US$1 billion comes on the heels of Total agreeing to acquire assets from Petrobras as part of the latter company’s asset sales program. Technical cooperation will be strongly reinforced between the two companies including joint assessment of the exploration potential in key prospective areas in Brazil, and the development of new technologies. Total will also enter the integrated gas and power market in Brazil. Petrobras and Total jointly participate in 19 E&P consortiums worldwide.
According to BP, electric vehicles are not likely to be a game changer for the growth of oil demand over the next 20 years where the increasing prosperity in emerging Asia is likely to swamp the impact of even a very rapid increase in electric cars. In fact, there may well be more cost effective methods of reducing CO2 emissions over this period, for example greater improvements in vehicle efficiency, a switch away from coal in the power sector, or increased investment in Carbon Capture and Storage. But these considerations should not detract from the many potential benefits that electric vehicles may bring.
According to the director of the Center for Economic Diplomacy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China’s reputation as the world’s factory is increasingly threatened by rising costs, the accelerated manufacturing resurgence in various developed countries and the growing competitiveness of emerging economies. This situation has prompted numerous Chinese manufacturers to move their factories offshore. Manufacturing has long been at the foundation of China’s rise into a global economic power and the country needs to consolidate this manufacturing foundation. Otherwise China will risk hollowing out its real economy before it grows strong enough.
A transformation is happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting: solar power is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.
After the biggest oil-market deal in a decade, OPEC faces a new balancing act in 2017: boosting prices without igniting shale. But the biggest threat to OPEC’s plan could come from within: if Nigeria and Libya were to reach their potential next year, then their additional barrels would almost wipe out OPEC’s supply cuts; and Iran could be making up for several years of sanctions. Another challenge could come from the now leaner and more efficient U.S. drillers – a bigger boost in prices could mean a million-barrel shale surge.
The collapse in world oil prices since mid-2014 has reinforced two imperatives for the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE: First, the need to raise revenue in order to balance state budgets; and second, the strengthened focus on the understanding that diversification away from dependence on oil is both essential and long overdue. Thus, many of the GCC governments have been discussing and attempting to promote economic reform, with a particular emphasis on the need for wide-ranging privatization.
Latin America is leaping ahead into a renewables-led future: Chile is currently the leader of this pack, but Brazil has moved fast on capturing and exploiting the growth in renewable energy markets. In Africa, Egypt is one of the most attractive destinations in the renewables market, whilst Kenya is eager to be a regional clean energy leader and geo-thermal superpower. In Asia, the push for a giant leap towards renewable energy in Taiwan has come all the way from the top of the government, thanks to the President’s de-nuclearization policy.
OPEC is not the name it was compared to the early 1970s when it controlled more than 50% of global market share. Its recent deal to cut production has kept the oil price above $50 a barrel, but gains will be effectively capped once low-cost shale producers ramp up production again. And this is happening when oil is waning in importance in the global energy mix; when U.S. domestic production has almost doubled because of the shale revolution; and when Canada has become the major supplier of oil to the U.S.
In 2016 there were more than 260 anti-dumping measures or investigations against Chinese goods. This year’s number represents a roughly 17.7% rise from 2015. The measures were aimed at a wide range of Chinese goods but the main target was Chinese steel products. “All these countries like to blame China for their own problems in the steel industry, but China didn’t create the problems for them, it’s sluggish global demand amid weak economic growth that caused the problem,” said a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
Saudi Arabia’s long-awaited drive to free up more oil revenue by shifting to solar power generation is expected to pick up speed next quarter, according to local developers eyeing contracts.
