Energy/Automotive News Dec. 21, 2023| WTI Crude $74.33/bbl, Brent $79.87/bbl, Opec $81.24/bbl
London, 21 December, 2023, (Oilandgaspress): – Crude oil prices up as tensions in the Middle East continued to rise and Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping shows no signs of easing,
Citroën is renewing its SpaceTourer MPV, the statutory expression of a functional vehicle with a fluid, attractive silhouette. It has enhanced its status by adopting a new front end with a more modern, graphic and powerful design, consistent with the new Citroën identity. Designed to make everyday life easier for private individuals and professional people-transporters with busy lifestyles, its dashboard has been upgraded to showcase the technology of a new 10-inch touchscreen and make it even more practical to use, with optimised storage. In tune with the times, it embraces the absolute best in infotainment and connectivity: intuitive, responsive control of all media applications, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto mirroring, induction smartphone charger Read full article
During the period from December 11 to December 15, 2023, Eni acquired on the Euronext Milan no. 6,852,308 shares (equal to 0.20% of the share capital), at a weighted average price per share equal to 14.8639 euro, for a total consideration of 101,852,129.15 euro within the second tranche of the treasury shares program approved by the Shareholders’ Meeting on 10 May 2023, previously subject to disclosure pursuant to art. 144-bis of Consob Regulation 11971/1999. On the basis of the information provided by the intermediary appointed to make the purchases, here below a synthesis of transactions for the purchase of treasury shares on the Euronext Milan on a daily basis: Read full article
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd., Mr. Mele Kyari, has said that the company will utilise Nigeria’s abundant gas resources to revolutionize the nation’s power and industrial sectors.
Kyari disclosed this during a signing ceremony of a Shareholders Agreement (SHA) between the NNPC Ltd., UTM Offshore (an indigenous company), and the Delta State Government on the development of the first Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility in Nigeria, held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja, on Tuesday.
“In the next 2-3 years, we will use gas to bring about a revolution in our country. The outcomes will be clear on the table; there will be prosperity, and value will be created. Not just creating gas for export but progressing on all our initiatives of bringing gas into the domestic market. Our backbone infrastructures are almost ready to ensure we achieve that. Once that happens, we will see the immediate impact on the power sector, gas-based industries and several other collateral value that this will create,” the GCEO stated. Describing the FLNG project as a task that must be done, Kyari said Nigeria is a gas country whose abundant gas resources have been under-utilised. He stressed that the new focus is to monetise such gas resources for the benefit of the country and the world. He said the FLNG Project clearly fits into the Federal Government’s gas aspirations under the Decade of Gas Initiative and in line with Mr. President’s clear agenda to create a gas hub so that value can be maximised, and Nigeria achieves the prosperity that it deserves. Read full article
As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the Biden-Harris Administration announced on Wednesday $600 million for 11 selected Grantmakers under EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking program, created by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in climate action in history. This new grant program, which will make it easier for small community-based organizations to access federal environmental justice funding, responds to community feedback about the need to reduce barriers to federal funds and improve the efficiency of the awards process to ensure communities that have long faced underinvestment can access the benefits of the largest climate investment in history. Communities will be able to apply to a Grantmaker for a subgrant to fund a range of different environmental project activities, including (but not limited to) small local clean ups, local emergency preparedness and disaster resiliency programs, environmental workforce development programs for local jobs reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fenceline air quality and asthma related projects, healthy homes programs, and projects addressing illegal dumping.
President Biden is delivering the most ambitious environmental justice agenda in our nation’s history. Vice President Kamala Harris and EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan were joined by Dr. Robert Bullard, a Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University to announce the historic Grantmaker awards. The Grantmakers will work in collaboration with EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights to issue subgrants to community-based nonprofit organizations and other eligible organizations representing disadvantaged communities. The 11 Grantmakers will design comprehensive application and submission processes, award environmental justice subgrants, implement tracking and reporting systems, and provide resources and support to communities. The subgrants are expected to become available by summer of 2024. Read full article
Vattenfall, one of Europe’s largest producers and retailers of electricity and heat, and Vestas have signed agreements to elevate the partnership between the two companies and their offshore wind business towards 2030. The agreements are another step in the right direction for offshore wind energy in the UK and follow the UK Government’s recent announcement about the parameters for the next Contracts for Difference Auction round, which sent a very positive signal to renewable energy investors. The agreements for the three projects include a preferred supplier agreement (PSA) for the 1,380 MW Norfolk Vanguard West project, comprising 92 of Vestas’ V236-15 MW offshore wind turbine. Vattenfall and Vestas have further signed exclusivity agreements for the Norfolk Vanguard East and Norfolk Boreas projects with a total installed capacity of 2,760 MW. The two latter projects will potentially feature up to 184 V236-15 MW turbines. Once installed, the agreements also include that Vestas will service the projects under long-term Operations and Maintenance (O&M) service contracts. The agreements are another step forward for what will be one of the largest offshore wind zones in the world, with a capacity to power over 4 million UK homes. Read full article
General Motors Co. is making several changes to its product development team and creating a new role to oversee its global regions. These moves will streamline the organization, allow for faster implementation of new vehicle and technology programs, and accelerate the company’s go-to-market strategies.
This realignment is driven by the retirement of Doug Parks, GM executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, after a nearly 40-year career at the company. Parks started at GM in 1984 and led various engineering teams responsible for the development of dozens of vehicles across all GM brands and regions, including the foundation of our current generation EVs.
Ken Morris, currently vice president, Global Vehicle and Propulsion teams, will be promoted to senior vice president, Product Programs, Product Safety and Motorsports. Morris retains his current responsibilities leading global vehicle programs and will add global product safety, launch excellence and motorsports product development.
Josh Tavel, currently global vice president of Customer Care and Aftersales, will be promoted to senior vice president of Energy Storage and Propulsion, R&D, and Manufacturing Engineering. This role will integrate GM’s products and processes in key areas critical to accelerating the company’s electrification strategy, including battery development and manufacturing engineering activities. Rory Harvey, currently executive vice president and president, GM North America, will move to a newly created role as executive vice president and president, Global Markets. Harvey will work with the global regional teams to bring the right vehicles, software and technologies to customers around the world.
Marissa West, currently president and managing director, GM Canada, will join the Global Markets leadership team as senior vice president and president, GM North America, reporting to Harvey.
All leadership changes will take effect on Jan. 2, 2024. Read full article
Reference made to filings in June 2019 regarding the incident at the Kjørbo hydrogen station outside Oslo, and the related release dated 16 February 2021 regarding notice of fine. Following the incident, a subsidiarity of Nel ASA (Nel, OSE:NEL), and an entity formerly partly owned by Nel, received notices of fines of NOK 15 million and NOK 10 million, respectively. The total potential direct impact on Nel was NOK 20 million, for which the company has made provisions. The revised notices of fines now received are significantly reduced to NOK 1 million and NOK 500,000 for the subsidiary of Nel and the entity formerly partly owned by Nel, respectively, totaling a liability for Nel of about NOK 1.2 million. Consequently, Q4 2023 will see a positive one-off P&L reversal of about NOK 18.8 million related to this. Read More
Harbour Energy plc is pleased to note operator Mubadala Energy’s announcement that the Layaran-1 well has made a significant gas discovery on the South Andaman licence (Harbour 20 per cent), offshore North Sumatra, Indonesia. Layaran-1 is the first of a four well exploration campaign targeting the same Oligocene play as the successful Timpan-1 well drilled on Andaman II (Harbour operator, 40 per cent) in 2022. The rig will now move to drill the Harbour operated Halwa and Gayo wells on Andaman II. Read More
Harbour Energy on [Wednesday 20 December] responded to the UK Government announcement providing clarity on the process for emitter sequencing to CCS projects. Gustavo Baquero, Harbour Energy’s Executive Vice President of Strategy, Business Development and Energy Transition said:
“Today’s announcement marks another significant step forward for CCS projects like Viking CCS and Acorn and the development of the UK’s carbon capture and storage industry, which is critical to delivering the energy transition. It is important that momentum is maintained and the selection of the anchor emitters to individual clusters are assigned as quickly as possible, which will enable businesses like Harbour to make vital investment decisions to help enable the UK to meet its legally binding emissions reduction targets.” Read More
Neste welcomes the French government and Senate’s decision to increase the share of renewable energy within the overall energy consumption of the transport sector. This decision will pave the way for important steps forward in the efforts to combat climate change.
In January 2024, the required minimum share of renewable energy will increase from 8.6% to 9.2% to further accelerate greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions in the transport sector. This increase comes as a welcomed solution to support the transport sector’s decarbonization roadmap in France and is in line with the EU’s revised binding targets for renewable energy. By 2030, 29% of the energy consumption in the transport sector of all Member States will have to come from renewable sources, or achieve a 14.5% reduction in the sector’s greenhouse gas intensity through the use of renewables.
“The ambition shown by the French government in increasing the required share of renewable energy in the transport sector in France is a great example of how environmental and industrial policies can be reconciled,” says Katja Wodjereck, Executive Vice President, Renewable Products at Neste. “In France, transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for more than 30% of all such emissions. For France to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, all solutions are needed to reduce the emissions,” Katja Wodjereck continues. Neste’s commitment to reduce the transport sector’s emissions was illustrated in November with the signing of agreements with two fuel distributors to sell Neste MY Renewable Diesel in the French market. Fuels such as Neste MY Renewable Diesel™, produced from 100% renewable raw materials, are a ready-to-go solution for emission reductions. They are widely available and their use helps reduce emissions from the existing fleet of both light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles in Europe and elsewhere. They are an essential piece of the sustainable mobility puzzle.
With Neste MY Renewable Diesel™, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced by as much as 75% to 95%* over the life cycle of the fuel compared to fossil diesel. Neste MY Renewable Diesel is fully compatible with all diesel engines and the existing fuel distribution infrastructure. Neste MY Renewable Diesel has a similar chemical composition to fossil diesel, making it a drop-in replacement to it. Neste’s renewable diesel can be used unblended (100% concentration, i.e. “neat”) without the need for any changes in the diesel-powered vehicles or their engines. The use of 100% renewable diesel is widely approved by vehicle and engine manufacturers. Read More
Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) on behalf of NAOC Joint Venture has donated medical equipment to tertiary health institutions and hospitals in its four states of operations in Niger Delta, Nigeria.
The commissioning and handover ceremonies were held recently during which the equipment were given to the medical facilities located in Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Imo States. In particular, eleven (11) mobile ventilators were donated to hospitals in various cities. The initiatives were implemented to promote efficient health care delivery in the states and the communities in order to contribute to development of the regions through a healthy population.
The company and the institutions will establish a joint monitoring and evaluation team that will review periodically the performances and feedback on the utility and impact of the machines to the health care delivery in the institutions. The company and its partners implement initiatives such as infrastructure, health, education and capacity building targeted at local socio-economic development to promote the sustainable development of the communities and states where it operates.
The Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) operates in the land and swamp areas of the Niger Delta under a joint venture agreement, popularly referred to as the NAOC JV. The NAOC JV includes the NNPC E&P Limited (NEPL), NAOC and Oando. Read More
Independent power producer Red Rocket has placed a 108 MW order for the Witberg Wind Farm, to be located in Western Cape, South Africa. The contract includes the supply and installation of 24 V136-4.5 MW wind turbines, as well as a 15-year Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) agreement.
“Red Rocket recently affirmed its position as a leading Independent Power Producer in South Africa by successfully achieving financial close for the Witberg Wind Farm, located in the Western Cape with a 108 MW nameplate capacity. This project will be the largest private wind farm constructed in South Africa to date, and it will contribute significantly to South Africa’s energy landscape. The private off-taker for this venture is Sibanye Stillwater. For this historic project, we are partnering with Vestas and believe that renewable energy, such as wind power, is the key to a sustainable and greener future for the region”, said CEO Red Rocket, Matteo Brambilla. “I would like to thank Red Rocket for their trust in Vestas’ 4MW platform. We are glad to see how the versatility of our portfolio continues to contribute to the country’s energy transition. We are convinced that wind power can play a paramount role in achieving a more reliable, affordable and sustainable energy mix in South Africa”, says Vestas Managing Director, Novani Ganess-Johnson.
Turbine delivery is expected by the second half of 2024 and commissioning is planned for the first quarter of 2025.
Vestas leads the South African wind power market with over 1.4 GW of installed and under construction capacity. Read More
| Oil and Gas Blends | Units | Oil Price US$/bbl | Change |
| Crude Oil (WTI) | USD/bbl | $74.33 | Down |
| Crude Oil (Brent) | USD/bbl | $79.88 | Up |
| Bonny Light | USD/bbl | $82.03 | Up |
| Saharan Blend | USD/bbl | $81.12 | Up |
| Natural Gas | USD/MMBtu | $2.42 | Down |
| OPEC basket 20/12/23 | USD/bbl | $81.24 | Up |
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OilandGasPress Energy Newsbites and Analysis Roundup | Compiled by: OGP Staff, Segun Cole @oilandgaspress.
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