Energy News As Reported to 13 July 2022. WTI Falls Back Below $100
IEA has warned that, despite the current energy crisis being potentially the worst ever, it is still far from being over.
Neptune Energy awarded ‘gold medal’ by EcoVadis for ESG performance
Neptune Energy today announced it has been awarded gold medal status from the environment, social and governance (ESG) ratings organisation, EcoVadis. The score places Neptune in the top 5% of all 95,000 global companies assessed by the organisation.
EcoVadis assesses companies’ policies, actions and performance disclosures in the areas of environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.
In its scorecard, EcoVadis highlighted Neptune’s disclosure of emissions data and quantitative targets, which include Neptune’s ambition to store more carbon than is emitted from its operations and the use of its sold products by 2030. It also highlighted Neptune’s strong environmental management practices and comprehensive labour and human rights policies and procedures.
The scorecard recognised Neptune’s commitment to transparent ESG disclosure, stating that “the overall score has increased thanks to the publication of additional sustainability reporting.” It also noted the improvement Neptune made in sustainable procurement, with a “comprehensive policy that integrates commitments, qualitative and quantitative objectives on the management of its sustainable procurement issues”.
The improved score from EcoVadis follows an upgrade by Sustainalytics in April this year, which put Neptune in the top 3% of all oil and gas companies rated by the organisation. Read More
The seven first Hywind Tampen turbines will come on stream this year as planned. The final four will be installed next spring.
Supply chain bottlenecks, most notably related to the global market for steel, preclude delivery of the final four tower sections for the wind turbines until September 2022. This will be too late in relation to the installation weather window for the year, postponing installation of the remaining four turbines until next year.
“Seven turbines have been assembled and four are now installed on the field. The plan is to start production during the year and supply electricity first to Gullfaks, then to the Snorre field,” says project director Olav-Bernt Haga.
Once Hywind Tampen is completed, it will be the world’s largest floating wind farm and the first to supply electricity to oil and gas platforms. The wind farm has a system capacity of 88 MW and is expected to meet 35 per cent of the electrical power demand on the Gullfaks and Snorre fields. The seven first turbines will deliver electricity to both Gullfaks and Snorre and have a capacity of about 60 MW, already making Hywind Tampen the world’s largest floating wind farm.
Siemens Gamesa is the supplier of towers, nacelles and blades, all subject to rigid quality control measures. Deviations in steel quality in four tower sections were found, and corrective actions were immediately implemented. The difficult market situation for steel has however delayed delivery. Siemens Gamesa is working closely with their suppliers and Equinor to expedite all deliveries. The seven turbines already assembled have been thoroughly tested and meet all quality specifications. Read More–>
Neste to receive funding from the EU Innovation Fund for chemical recycling project in Porvoo
Neste has received a positive grant decision for up to EUR 135 million from the EU Innovation Fund for the company’s project to build chemical recycling capacities at its Porvoo refinery in Finland. Project PULSE (“Pretreatment and Upgrading of Liquefied Waste Plastic to Scale Up Circular Economy”) aims to implement Neste’s proprietary technologies to pretreat and upgrade liquefied waste plastic and integrate the technologies into the refinery operations. The PULSE project targets pretreatment and upgrading capacities of 400,000 tons per year, contributing to Neste’s goal of processing over 1 million tonnes of waste plastic per year from 2030 onwards. A feasibility study evaluating the investments related to PULSE was announced in March 2022. Investment decision readiness is targeted for 2023 and gradual implementation is expected to start in 2024.
Project PULSE plays an important role in commercializing chemical recycling of waste plastic as it allows scaling up chemical recycling and bridging the quality gap between unprocessed liquefied waste plastic and the petrochemical industry’s raw material requirements. Once scaled up, chemical recycling can contribute to combating waste plastic pollution by increasing recycling rates for plastics and reducing dependence on virgin fossil resources.
“We are excited to be among the projects selected by the EU Innovation Fund,” says Mercedes Alonso, Executive Vice President Neste Renewable Polymers and Chemicals. “While showing recognition for and faith in our work on chemical recycling, the funding also highlights the importance of the approach itself. If we want to move towards a circular economy for polymers and chemicals, chemical recycling will have a major role to play.”
The EU Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies. This year, the Fund grants more than EUR 1.8 billion to 17 large-scale projects contributing to a low-carbon society. Following the positive grant decision, individual grant agreements will be prepared with the European Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Executive Agency (CINEA) in charge of the Innovation Fund. Read More
American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a large build this week for crude oil of 4.762 million barrels, while analysts predicted a draw of 1.933 million barrels.
The build comes as the Department of Energy released 6.9 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in Week Ending July 8, to 485.1 million barrels.
U.S. crude inventories have shed some 63 million barrels since the start of 2021 but the net losses have been negligible since the start of 2020, according to API data.
In the week prior, the API reported a build in crude oil inventories of 3.825 million barrels after analysts had predicted a draw of 1.1 million barrels.
WTI continued to slide on Wednesday on recession fears, and fears of a China demand slump on the presence of the new Covid variant there. WTI was trading down 8.23% on the day at 2:50 p.m. ET in the runup to the release at $95.52—a roughly $2.50 slide on the week. Brent crude was trading down 7.48% on the day at $99.09—a nearly $2 drop on the week. Read More
Oil Falls Back Below $100
| Oil and Gas Blends | Units | Oil Price $ | change |
| Crude Oil (WTI) | USD/bbl | $96.84 | Down |
| Crude Oil (Brent) | USD/bbl | $100.60 | Down |
| Bonny Light | USD/bbl | $118.10 | — |
| Saharan Blend | USD/bbl | $117.77 | — |
| Natural Gas | USD/MMBtu | $6.26 | Down |
| OPEC basket 05/07/22 | USD/bbl | $114.30 | Down |
U.S. Rig Count up 2 from last week to 752 with oil rigs up 2 to 597, gas rigs unchanged at 153 and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 2.
The U.S. Offshore Rig Count is unchanged at 17, unchanged year-over-year.
Canada Rig Count is up 9 from last week to 175, with oil rigs up 7 to 116, gas rigs up 2 to 59.
| Region | Period | Rig Count | Change from Prior |
| U.S.A | 08 July 2022 | 752 | +2 |
| Canada | 08 July 2022 | 175 | +9 |
| International | June 2022 | 824 | +7 |
OilandGasPress Energy Newsbites and Analysis Roundup |Compiled by: OGP Staff, Segun Cole @oilandgaspress.
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