The US Supreme Court recently held oral arguments in a case that the oil and gas industry is hoping will end some of the back-and-forth regulatory scramble over whether certain wetlands and water sources fall under federal jurisdiction. The high court is examining whether the Waters of the US regulation, or WOTUS, uses the proper test when evaluating wetlands. In Sackett v. EPA , the Supreme Court could clarify how WOTUS is defined, with that determination potentially affecting pipelines and oth...
Oct 24, 2022•16 min
There has been a lot of back and forth lately over whether political factors motivated the recent OPEC decision to cut crude oil production . One thing that’s for certain is that supply risks to the global oil markets are running high, and the coming EU ban on seaborne Russian crude and G7 implementation of a price cap on Russian exports are adding another layer of uncertainty and potential volatility as no one knows what the market dislocation will be from these unprecedented events. Phil Flynn...
Oct 17, 2022•24 min
OPEC and its allies slashed production targets for the next 14 months by 2 million b/d, signaling that the bloc is set on managing global production in a way that maintains a higher oil price, according to market analysts. At higher prices, oil companies are continuing to produce enormous amounts of free-cash-flow, and that bodes well for long-term investors in the sector like Equinox Partners, according to Sean Fieler , the company’s president and chief investment officer. Fieler joined the pod...
Oct 10, 2022•13 min
Rotting food, farm waste and sewage don’t sound all that appealing, but they’re the bread and butter of the biogas industry – an industry that believes it has a pivotal role to play in providing green solutions to address the energy crisis spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impending food crisis. Danish company Nature Energy touts itself as the largest producer of biomethane in the world, and has ambitions to invest in new large-scale biogas plants throughout Europe and North Americ...
Oct 03, 2022•18 min
Development of the Greater Sunrise gas and condensate fields, first discovered in the Timor Sea in 1974, has been stalled for decades. With a maritime border dispute between the Southeast Asian island country of Timor-Leste and Australia solved, the project continues to be held up over a disagreement on whether the gas should be piped to Timor-Leste or Australia for processing and eventual export. The head of Timor-Leste ’s national oil company recently came to Washington to garner both technica...
Sep 26, 2022•23 min
Texas is one of the largest emitting states in the US and stands to become ground zero of the carbon management industry. But unlike other states, Texas law provides no clarity on ownership rights of pore space -- the empty underground cavities where companies can pump and permanently store captured CO2. While surface rights and mineral rights are crystal clear, Texas hasn’t defined who owns those underground pore spaces. Carbon Neutral Coalition Executive Director John Colyandro joined S&P ...
Sep 19, 2022•20 min
Voters will head to the polls November 8 where control of the US House and Senate are at stake along with the potential to flip the leadership in several states. The outcome of those contests will shape the second half of President Joe Biden’s term and influence the pace of change in US energy and climate policies. S&P Global Commodity Insights editors Maya Weber, Ellie Potter and Kate Winston joined the podcast to share how these federal and state contests may weigh on the future energy mix...
Sep 12, 2022•17 min
Oil and natural gas industry groups were not pleased with the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law Aug. 16, despite some positive elements for the sector, including provisions to ensure more oil and gas lease sales and expand carbon capture tax credits. Among their main objections are the new 15% corporate minimum tax; the expansion of Superfund excise taxes to crude oil and petroleum products; a methane fee; and increased fees tied to federal oil and gas leasing. So what do these provisions...
Aug 29, 2022•12 min
The oil and gas sector and policymakers in Texas and New Mexico are on high alert over a notice posted to the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory agenda that they fear could have a crippling impact on domestic oil production. That notice revealed that the EPA is considering redesignating portions of the Permian Basin as ozone nonattainment areas under the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standard. A redesignation could impose new requirements on producers and even cause some facilities...
Aug 22, 2022•21 min
So far this summer, power demand in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market has set 11 new all-time records as the grid has faced weeks of 100-plus degree temperatures. With that has come power scarcity conditions and high power prices, both affected by state policymaker actions. S&P Global senior editor Mark Watson spoke with Alison Silverstein , an Austin-based independent energy market consultant and former advisor to chairmen of both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and ...
Aug 15, 2022•26 min
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would make available $369 billion in energy security and climate change spending over the next decade. The bill offers a mixed bag of wins and losses for an array of stakeholders. But the biofuel industry feels they made out pretty well. Growth Energy Vice President of Government Affairs John Fuher joined the podcast to weigh in on how the ethanol industry could put the new funding and tax credits for renewable fuels to use, if the legislation passes. He also ...
Aug 08, 2022•19 min
So, what exactly would a climate emergency declaration free the Biden administration to do? Senior editor Jasmin Melvin posed that question to Liz Craddock , a partner at the Holland & Knight law firm. She joined the podcast to explain what authorities President Joe Biden would newly have at his disposal, the key energy statutes that could possibly come into play and the potential political pitfalls as well as legal risks and challenges the administration would face from taking such action. ...
Aug 01, 2022•17 min
As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine , the Biden administration is contemplating ways to starve the Russian economy of revenues, the bulk of which come from Russian oil and energy exports. As part of that effort, the US Treasury Department has been lobbying European and Asian leaders to support a price cap on Russian oil. Details of how that would be structured and enforced have been scant, but the idea is that a price cap would allow Russian crude supplies to continue to flow to the glob...
Jul 25, 2022•20 min
US President Joe Biden just wrapped up a trip to the Middle East with a closely watched visit to Saudi Arabia. His national security director signaled that the success of his oil diplomacy will be judged in the coming weeks, not immediately. So will OPEC+ agree to increase production at its Aug. 3 meeting to help ease global prices? Ellen Wald, president of Transversal Consulting and senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center, spoke with senior editor Meghan Gordon ...
Jul 18, 2022•17 min
The International Energy Agency, in its road map for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, set a near-term target for the deployment of carbon capture capacity at 1.7 billion metric tons by 2030, a level that is more than 40 times the global capacity in 2021. The most significant action the US has taken towards reaching that goal has been to provide funding for various types of carbon management technologies and infrastructure through the bipartisan infrastructure law. Specifically, the bill giv...
Jul 11, 2022•22 min
Consulting firm ScottMadden’s latest energy industry update, fittingly titled “Under Pressure,” outlines how rising post-pandemic energy demand, ambitious decarbonization targets, soaring commodity prices, and geopolitical tensions have all combined to put immense pressure on the global energy industry. As a result, the US power sector is seeing its resolve to hold to more aggressive climate goals challenged. With the run-up in natural gas prices, coal generation has risen; wind and solar projec...
Jun 27, 2022•23 min
Global energy markets have gone through dramatic shifts since Russia's invasion of Ukraine , and the risks around high prices and tight supply are not expected to ease anytime soon. Atul Arya, chief energy strategist for S&P Global Commodity Insights, spoke with senior editor Meghan Gordon about those challenges. They discuss how the war has changed the pace of the energy transition away from fossil fuels, whether the focus on energy security is on the rise, and how today's energy crisis com...
Jun 13, 2022•18 min
The Texas Railroad Commission -- which regulates the state's oil and gas industry, not railroads -- just went through perhaps its highest profile election. Chairman Wayne Christian faced oil and gas lawyer Sarah Stogner who posed tough questions about his enforcement record and the commission's response to the 2021 Texas blackout. Christian won with 65% of the vote, but the campaign raised the profile of the arguments against him. Now he's facing Democrat Luke Warford in the November general ele...
Jun 06, 2022•16 min
The new geopolitical scene is shaking up the outlook for LNG globally. The club of LNG suppliers has greatly expanded, with the US and others looking to increase their export capacity. This has created an environment for more favorable prices and contracts for importers as the desire for energy transition and energy security is boosting global demand, including in countries that have historically not had natural gas, according to AG&P CEO Joe Sigelman . AG&P is a private LNG and infrastr...
May 31, 2022•21 min
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney recently made the rounds in Washington, talking to lawmakers and State Department officials about the role Canada, and specifically Alberta’s oil sands, can play in ensuring North American energy security and easing American drivers’ pain at the pump. And his frustration with the lack of proactive outreach by the Biden administration to Alberta, which accounts for over 60% of US oil and gas imports, was clear. Kenney joined senior editor Jasmin Melvin on the podcast ...
May 23, 2022•19 min
As the US and Europe move to cut methane emissions, will the demand pull for cleaner LNG spread to price-sensitive Asia? Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published a report this month looking at how concerns about methane emissions might spread elsewhere in the world, and how the focus on methane could reshape the LNG market. Cahill argues that it will take some time before the market -- and Asian buyers in particular -- start paying a premium fo...
May 16, 2022•18 min
As Europe aims to phase out Russian oil imports within months, attention is starting to shift to whether the US will impose secondary sanctions on Russian oil customers. Edward Fishman, who was the Russia and Europe sanctions lead at the State Department during the Obama administration, argues the US should take that step. Fishman, nonresident fellow at Columbia's Center for Global Energy Policy, outlines how escrow accounts can be used to keep oil revenues from going to Russia without threateni...
May 09, 2022•21 min
The shipping sector faces a massive challenge in decarbonizing to meet global climate goals. To accelerate those efforts, leaders at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow last year agreed to develop at least six green shipping corridors by 2025 and many more by 2030. The Biden administration has fully supported the plan and is urging private industry to also get on board. One of the more significant corridors to emerge is between the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest container port in th...
May 02, 2022•28 min
The energy sector has found itself in the crosshairs of what’s been called a rare and dangerous state-sponsored malware threat capable of disruption, sabotage, and potentially physical destruction of energy assets, with LNG and electric facilities believed to be the initial target. Meanwhile, a collaboration between oil and gas companies and the R&D arm of the Department of Homeland Security, called The Linking the Oil and Gas Industry to Improve Cybersecurity program, is working to bolster ...
Apr 25, 2022•22 min
President Joe Biden’s executive order on tackling the climate crisis, among other things, launched a review of existing fossil fuel leasing and permitting practices. Climate and conservation groups had hoped the review would drill down into federal oil and natural gas leasing activity’s impact on climate change, but the report issued Nov. 26 was mostly silent on climate. Now, groups represented by the Western Environmental Law Center are suing Interior to find out if the report was scaled back t...
Apr 11, 2022•21 min
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission will soon get an infusion of four new voices, as the Senate voted March 28 on nominations that will bring the derivatives regulator back to a full complement of five members. Some hope this will jumpstart action at the agency after a year of being relatively quiet on energy derivatives regulation. Tyson Slocum, energy program director at Public Citizen, is among stakeholders pushing the agency to engage publicly on the implementation of its regulation ...
Apr 04, 2022•22 min
Global food security, just like energy security, has emerged as a major risk from Russia's war in Ukraine. Today we're looking at the shakeup in agriculture markets with Peter Meyer, S&P Global's head of grain, oilseed and feedstock analytics. He explains the role of Russia and Ukraine in growing wheat, corn and other crops for the world, how major buyers like China are reacting, whether US farmers will be able to meet any of these new demands, surging fertilizer costs and how farmers are na...
Mar 28, 2022•24 min
US oil supply is expected to increase this year, and new tools tracking upstream emissions will bring interesting new insights. Deb Ryan, head of low-carbon market analytics for S&P Global Commodity Insights, explains her team's monthly carbon-intensity estimates, which rank upstream emissions from 104 oil fields around the world. She's watching what will happen in the Permian Basin as drillers potentially respond to higher prices but face challenges with gas takeaway capacity. The US Energy...
Mar 21, 2022•14 min
The oil markets’ reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been dramatic to say the least as global oil and gas supplies, already struggling to keep up with the strong post-pandemic recovery in fuel demand, were further tightened as countries pulled away from Russian resources. And the Analytics team at S&P Global Commodity Insights has said “there are not sufficient sources of incremental supply to cover a substantial prolonged loss of Russian oil.” Senior editor Jasmin Melvin spoke with...
Mar 14, 2022•17 min
The Russia crisis has upended the energy world in significant ways, posing massive new risks for supply, demand and prices. Joe McMonigle, secretary-general of the International Energy Forum, joined us to discuss some of those important shifts. He doesn't see actual oil supply disruptions stemming from the Russia crisis so far, and he continues to view insufficient upstream investment as the top risk to energy markets ahead. We also asked him about current dynamics between OPEC+ and oil-consumin...
Mar 07, 2022•23 min
