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Old 01-05-23, 12:30 PM   #241
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Europe Gets a Warm New Year Gift to Tackle the Energy Crisis

Europe is heading into the hottest January in decades, a boon for politicians, consumers and central bankers alike as they get some relief from a bruising energy crisis.

The mild weather which ended 2022 is likely to spill into the new year, and send heating demand to below the 10-year average, forecasters say. That could help nations send even more gas into storage — an unusual thing for the middle of winter — and help keep stockpiles relatively full for when it’s time to replenish them again for next year.

That would be a huge relief for almost everyone in Europe after what was a brutal 2022. Gas and power prices had surged to records, driving inflation to the highest in years and bringing economies to the brink of recession. Central banks have been forced to hike interest rates in an attempt to quell prices.

But price pressures are easing for now. Benchmark gas closed at the lowest since October 2021 on Wednesday, and is at about half the average level of 2022. Power prices have also declined sharply. Gas inventories are fuller than normal, while imports continue to be strong.

Inflation in France and Germany slowed last month. Data due on Friday for the entire euro area is also expected to show a slowdown, which will be a respite for the European Central Bank. As yesterday’s blog pointed out, the British government’s energy subsidy bill could drop by tens of billions of pounds from April as gas prices decline.

Still, it’s not yet time to fully celebrate because the energy crisis is far from over. The weather could turn quickly, and bring back all the concerns about blackouts and draining stockpiles too quickly. Despite predictions for a warm January, temperatures in the Baltics and parts of the Nordics could drop below normal in the next few days. Britain could also see “some colder interludes,” said Nicola Maxey, a Met Office meteorologist.

Then there’s the risk with Russian shipments. Pipeline flows to the EU from its previous top supplier are down around 80% compared with this time last year, and there is a real risk the remaining shipments will be halted, according to a report by the bank ING. While LNG imports have been high, and countries like Germany and Italy are boosting purchases from elsewhere, replacing the volumes from Moscow is going to be difficult.

Adding to it all, while the warm weather has been a blessing, the unusual heat has also raised concerns about climate change. It shows the work needed by governments to quell the energy crisis, without having to depend on a warming world.

But for now, cities across Europe are enjoying the balmy weather. Temperatures in Berlin reached 16C (60.8F) on New Year’s Day, a January record, while the Czech Republic registered its warmest ever New Year’s Eve. France and Germany are forecast to range between 2C to 5C above normal through to the middle of this month.

“The first half of the month could rank among some of the warmest on record over the last few decades if things unfold as expected,” said Matthew Dross, a meteorologist at forecaster Maxar Technologies Inc.
—Rakteem Katakey
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/e...uverify%20wall
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Old 01-08-23, 07:03 AM   #242
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The Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes:
----------------------------------
"Russia has lost the energy battle," says International Energy Agency chief.

What better place for the International Energy Agency's (IEA) headquarters in Paris than near the Eiffel Tower? The iron structure could also pass for a big rig in an oil field. Last year, however, Fatih Birol, the director of the IEA, probably had little time to look directly at the French landmark from his office. Drastic increases in energy prices and supply fears over the war in Ukraine kept him too busy.

This year, things are likely to get even trickier for the Turkish economist. "The key word right now is conflict when it comes to energy," Birol says in his calm manner. The 64-year-old IEA director is fully aware of the impact of his words, traveling incessantly from one international meeting to the next to provide data, reports and advice to the wealthy, mostly Western governments that make up the IEA's membership. Birol may have started his career at Opec, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But today he strongly promotes a shift to renewable and other low-emission energy sources such as nuclear power.

He hopes governments will learn from the conflict. "Europe in particular needs to practice self-criticism. It was not a good idea to be so dependent on one country. It could have been any country, this time it was Russia," he says. For months, Birol has been warning against neglecting energy security in energy and climate policy. Governments should no longer be guided only by which energy source appears cheap at first glance, Birol says. Other long-term variables also need to be factored in, he said.

Germany's dependence on Russian natural gas is a lesson in this, and one that is now costing all of Europe dearly. "Until now, we in Europe have received cheap gas from Russia - for years. But the costs we are now paying are enormous," Birol says.

Birol knows what he is talking about. The IEA is a child of the crisis. The organization had been founded in 1974 by the industrialized countries as a counterweight to Opec of the petro-states because of the oil price shock at the time. The 29 members of the IEA, including Switzerland, have committed themselves to maintaining a stockpile of oil equivalent to at least 90 days of today's normal consumption. In this way, the consumer countries have prepared themselves for emergencies. The IEA coordinates the release of reserves.

However, the crisis is not only concentrated in Europe or the Western industrialized countries. The consequences of the war in Ukraine are being felt globally, creating new geopolitical tensions and deepening existing rifts. Added to this are the effects of climate change, which are hitting poorer countries particularly hard. He illustrates this with an example: The summer in Pakistan was exceptionally hot, with temperatures reaching 54 degrees Celsius. Air conditioning systems were in constant use, and electricity demand soared. Pakistan covers an important part of its energy needs with liquefied natural gas (LNG) for electricity production. But because Europeans were paying 20 percent more for the gas, the LNG destined for Pakistan was diverted. "Put yourself in Pakistan's shoes," Birol says.

The example also highlights that fossil fuels are far from being eliminated from the global energy system. Moreover, when trade flows for energy goods are diverted, it can cause enormous shockwaves and unintended consequences. In a global energy crisis, poorer countries often lose out, even as richer countries feel they are in the eye of the hurricane. The gap between low-income developing countries and the wealthy West deepens.

But the biggest change may initially affect Moscow itself. Until February 24, Russia was still one of the world's largest energy exporters. It will lose this important role in the next few years. Birol even says, "Russia has lost the energy battle." By this he also means that Russian companies are dependent on Western technologies for oil and gas production. Without these, Moscow has problems maintaining or expanding production volumes. In addition, he said, Russia will need several more years, especially in gas supplies, to redirect flows to China. But Birol says Russia may also have lost its reputation in Beijing for being a reliable partner.

In international climate policy, however, the centers of power are also shifting. For years, the EU, which often perceives itself as the climate champion, had complained that the U.S. was not following suit. In August, Democratic President Joe Biden signed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. This is accompanied by the most comprehensive climate program in American history. For Birol, it is even the biggest climate policy action since the international Paris climate agreement, which was adopted in 2015. With around 370 billion dollars, Washington wants to boost the production and also the purchase of green technologies - be it batteries, electric cars, renewable energies or hydrogen.

For Birol, however, it's clear: "It's not just about climate policy, but also about giving American industry the first starting place in the race for clean technologies in the future." In doing so, the U.S. wants to put the brakes on China's dominance in many key new technologies. However, Europeans are also affected by the new American program, which has a protectionist effect.

A counter-program is already being worked on in Brussels. In Birol's view, European countries need an overall plan for green technologies for two reasons: First, energy costs in Europe are likely to remain high in the coming years. For energy-intensive industries such as petrochemicals, steel, cement or aluminum, it will be difficult to keep up with competition in the U.S., China and India, he says. The second reason, according to Birol, is more structural: producers of batteries, electric vehicles or electrolysis are also to be strengthened in Europe.

The IEA director, meanwhile, brushes off concerns about a European industrial policy that could further drive a subsidy race. "Europe has to respond to the industrial policies of other countries like the U.S.," Birol says. While he hopes for healthy competition between economic blocs, he nevertheless speaks warningly of many countries erecting trade barriers: "The name of the game right now is protectionism." So Birol also sees more conflict in trade policy in the years ahead, even though cooperation would be the most beneficial way to deal with climate change.

Nevertheless, international cooperation lives on. For example, the idea of a climate club has been circulating in politics for years. In such a club, like-minded countries would unite to push through common climate goals. The G-7 countries, the seven largest Western economies, agreed on such a club in December under the chairmanship of Germany. The IEA has been given the task of installing a secretariat for this association. Especially in the industrial sector, coordination on how to decarbonize globally could be helpful.

"But the success of such a club depends on how many of the emerging economies will participate," Birol says cautiously. He is addressing the problem of China and India not being part of it. The original idea of a climate club was also to introduce punitive tariffs against countries whose climate policies are not as strict as those of the club members. Birol, however, argues against punitive tariffs, saying, "It should be a nice club." Participating countries should instead commit to reducing the carbon footprint of their industrial sectors.

Another new dividing line was provided last year by Opec, which, along with other petro-states such as Russia, Mexico and Kazakhstan, decided to cut production despite American threats and cajoling. And this in the midst of an energy price crisis. It is clear that producer states always want higher prices and revenues, Birol says.

But states have mostly taken a responsible position in their past decisions, he says. "The cut in production in November was a surprise. In doing so, petrostates accepted a deterioration of the global economy." Are petrostates flexing their muscles? Birol says it may be a sign "that they are looking for a new oil policy."

But it is not Europe that suffers most from high energy prices, but poorer nations. In many countries in Asia and Africa, however, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is not seen as the reason for high energy and wheat prices. Birol spoke with many government officials in Indonesia, India and African countries who perceive a struggle between Russia and the West. "The difference in perception could be an important geopolitical fault line between the West and many developing countries," Birol says.

But the economist also finds it incomprehensible when Europeans lecture African countries. Climate policy could thus deepen the fault lines even further, for example if it is stipulated that African natural gas reserves should not be exploited. Birol calculates, however, that Africa's share of global emissions would only rise from 3 percent to 3.4 percent over the next ten years if all fields were tapped. Birol shakes his head, "We can't dictate to Africans what they should do."

But competing realities also exist in the energy policies of Western countries. Two IEA reports, released in December in quick succession, once said that global coal consumption was at an all-time high, and another said that renewable energy expansion was at an all-time high. The world will add as much electricity from renewables in the next five years as it has in the past twenty. It also fits the picture that Birol clearly sees nuclear power making a comeback worldwide. But the IEA director is convinced that the current crisis will accelerate the energy transition. "The obituary for the 1.5-degree Celsius climate policy target is premature," Birol says.

For some time, there has been debate about whether the 1.5-degree maximum global warming target is even achievable. Last year's climate summit in Egypt put a further damper on expectations in this regard. Birol, however, considers this discussion irresponsible. For him, sticking to an ambitious target is necessary to keep the momentum going. Birol feeds his optimism by looking at the data. He says a new and clean energy economy is forming.

First, he says, investment in security of supply is currently the biggest driver of renewable energy growth. Countries want to reduce their dependence on oil and gas imports. Second, countries are using industrial policy to promote green technologies. And third, climate policies are being pushed forward, he said. "We will remember 2022 not only as a sad year of the Russian invasion, but also as a historic turning point in the use of clean energy," Birol says with conviction.

Birol is already getting restless; he has other appointments. How he himself saves energy, he reveals only in small doses. He says that he has never bought a car because he doesn't have a driver's license. The IEA director, however, takes governments to task; they should use price signals and mandatory requirements to ensure that the population saves energy. Birol says, "But I don't trust people completely."

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Old 01-09-23, 11:26 AM   #243
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About wombats.
------------------------





There was once this Woody Allen movie about everything you always wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask. I'm sure you've cleared up all your questions on the subject by now. However, I strongly suspect that you are highly naive in another area - and you know exactly what I'm talking about.

It is here and now about this problem of mega-giga-tera-watts or watt-hours, which even overtaxes the cognitive abilities of our top-class personnel in politics and media. I will now answer all your questions about this, without taboos and in simple language.



Moving things

If we want to move things in everyday life - repair the car or go on a trip - then we need money to do it; we can't do it without it. That's the driving force behind all the changes we want to make. Even in the technical-physical world, all changes need such a magical force, without which nothing works.

It's called energy, and it can come in different forms - motion, heat, radiation, electricity, etc. These different "currencies" of energy can also be exchanged for each other, but not always without losses.

A particularly pleasant form of energy is electricity. It can be easily transported and transformed into the other forms of energy without any losses. It can be used to heat the water for your morning coffee, run a Tesla car, light a Christmas tree or make a computer calculate. And as with money, we need different amounts of this magical power for different applications.



The wombat in action


Morning coffee water requires less energy than the ICE train on the journey from Munich to Frankfurt. And just as we have defined units for the quantity of money, for example the Euro (Eu) or the Wumms (Wu), we also need a unit to describe quantities of energy. Temporarily, I would like to give this unit the name "Wombat (Wb)", in reference to the Wumms. I try to use simple language here

For the morning coffee, about one tenth of a Wombat = 0.1 Wb is consumed. Together with the refrigerator, heater, and other helpful appliances in the house, we draw something like 350 Wb from the various outlets each month; this figure may vary somewhat from household to household.

For each Wombat, we pay the manufacturer a certain price, say around 0.30 euros.


An unfortunate name


Now, it can be interesting to know how many Wombats come out of the socket at each moment, just as it is interesting to know how much distance we cover each moment when driving a car. We call this the "speed" and measure it in kilometers per hour (km/h), even if we are not driving for a whole hour. Correspondingly, we measure the instantaneous energy consumption in wombats per hour (Wb/h), and call that "power".


As the devil would have it, the engineers have come up with their own name for the "wombats per hour", namely the "kilowatt" = 1000 "watts" . But for the wombat itself there is still no name. One helped oneself now with it, by saying, a Wombat is the quantity of energy, if one hour long the achievement of a kilowatt from the plug socket flowed. And then one gave the poor animal the name kilowatt times hour, or briefly "kilowatt hour".

So:

Power: 1 wombat per hour = 1 kilowatt.

Or 1 Wb/h = 1 kW

and

Energy: 1 wombat = 1 wombat/hour x 1 hour = 1 kilowatt x 1 hour

Or 1 Wb = 1 kWh



Is it because of the big numbers?

Those who deal with the matter professionally have either understood the correlations over time or have at least become accustomed to them. However, the more "energy", or rather "energy problems", determine everyday life and politics, the more frequently misunderstandings occur.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the issue often involves very large numbers. If you want to know how many wombats = kWh all German households consume in a year, for example, you have to multiply the average monthly consumption by 12 and then by 40 million, i.e.

350 kWh x 12 x 40 000 000 = 168 000 000 kWh = 168 000 000 MWh = 168 000 GWh =168 TWh

The prefixes k = kilo = thousand, M = mega = 1 million, G = giga = 1 billion, T = tera = 1 trillion make it easier to write the big numbers.

How many nuclear power plants would we need to supply all these households? To do this, we calculate the power needed, which is wombats per hour = kilowatts, which is the total annual energy consumption divided by the 8766 hours of the year:

168 000 000 kWh / 8766 h = 19 160 000 kW = 19 160 MW = 19 GW.

A nuclear reactor emits something like 1.2 gigawatts (GW), so you would need 19 GW / 1.2 GW ≅16 reactors. There were already that many in Germany at one time. What there weren't back then were electricity problems and fear of freezing and blackout. But we're saving the planet today.


https://think-again.org/was-sie-scho...issen-wollten/
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Old 01-15-23, 08:15 AM   #244
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India offers Russian oil a back door into Britain

India offers a back-door for imports of Russian oil into Britain, new figures suggest, blunting Britain’s efforts to restrict funding for the Kremlin.

British energy buyers have stepped up imports from India’s biggest refinery, which itself has stepped up crude imports from Russia, according to trade data.

It suggests buyers have replaced some imports directly from Russia with imports from Russian-fed refineries, indirectly supporting Russian oil flows.

Such a supply chain is entirely legal under UK rules, but the data has raised concerns that British efforts to cut off cash to the Kremlin are being undermined.

Oleg Ustenko, adviser to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, said companies were “exploiting weaknesses in the sanctions regime”.

“The UK must close the loopholes that undermine support for Ukraine by allowing bloody fossil fuels to continue flowing across our borders,” he said.

China and India have stepped up purchases of discounted Russian oil shunned by some traders in the West since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

The giant Jamnagar refinery on India’s west coast imported 215 shipments of crude oil and fuel oil from Russia during 2022, four times as much in volume as it bought in 2021, Kpler data analysed by Global Witness shows.

At the same time, the UK has imported 29 shipments, or 10m barrels, of diesel and other refined products from Jamnagar since the war began, compared to seven shipments, or 4m barrels, during 2021. Buyers include Shell, BP, Trafigura, PetroChina and Essar.

Refineries tend to import from several sources and mix fuels together, meaning crude oil from Russia is likely to have been used to make diesel exported from India to the UK, though it is not possible to say for certain exactly what goes into each barrel.

“Pre-conflict, it was pretty rare for Indian refiners to process Russian crude,” says Alan Gelder, refining expert at Wood Mackenzie. “Now, about one in five barrels of the crude oil that they process is Russian.

“They [Indian refiners] have always exported to Europe, but they are exporting more now because it’s more attractive as Europe’s diesel prices are higher: it’s shorter of diesel because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“A big chunk of that diesel they produce now will be based on Russian crude oil.”

Steve Sawyer, director of refining at Facts Global Energy, says India and China “are exporting diesel - and some of it will have come from Russia.”

He stresses that Western restrictions on Russian oil were not designed to stop Russian oil exports altogether, because of their importance to the global market.

The UK only banned Russian oil and diesel imports on December 5. Under those rules, an imported barrel is deemed to have come from the last country where “substantial processing” took place.

This means that crude oil from Russia that is refined into diesel elsewhere, such as in India, can perfectly legitimately be imported into the UK. The rule stems from longstanding tax rules, though campaigners fear it amounts to a loophole that supports Russian coffers.

Seven shipments from Jamnagar have arrived in the UK since the ban on Russian oil and diesel imports came into force last month.

Louis Wilson, senior campaigner at Global Witness, said: “Exploiting this loophole by bringing Russian oil in the back door puts money in the Kremlin’s pocket, violates the spirit of the UK’s embargo and undermines BP and Shell’s condemnation of the war in Ukraine.’’

Shell said: “Shell made its decision to withdraw from all Russian hydrocarbons with conviction. We are delivering on this, in line with guidance from European governments, including the UK, and in full compliance with sanctions, applicable laws and regulations.

“Under continued guidance from such governments and through our tight internal controls, including strict no Russian-origin product contract clauses with suppliers, we are seeking to avoid fuels that may contain products refined in Russia.”

BP said: “BP takes compliance with sanctions and export controls very seriously and seeks to comply with all applicable regulatory frameworks around the world. We continue to have very strict processes and controls for maintaining compliance with applicable trade sanctions, including the UK’s Russia sanctions.

“We conduct thorough checks on all trading counterparties and certificates of origin and other documents are used to evidence the origin of products.”

A Government spokesman said: “In light of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and weaponisation of energy, the Government has taken steps to end all imports of Russian fossil fuels including a ban of oil and oil products. Importers must be able to provide proof that goods are not of Russian origin.”

Trafigura, PetroChina and Essar did not comment.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...2f9b2d704dd070
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Old 01-16-23, 06:51 AM   #245
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The boss of Norwegian energy giant Equinor has said he does not expect gas and electricity bills to return to the levels they were before Covid.

Anders Opedal told the BBC this was down to the costs of moving from fossil fuels to less damaging energy sources.

He said also that windfall taxes on energy firms were affecting investment in projects in the UK.

Equinor, like many other energy companies,has reported record profits because of higher gas prices.

The firm, which makes most of its money producing oil and gas, is one of Europe's biggest energy companies, with operations in 36 countries around the world including the UK.

In its most recent financial results, it reported pre-tax profits of $24.3bn (Ł19.8bn) between July and September compared to $9.7bn in the same period the year before.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64270157
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Old 01-16-23, 07:07 AM   #246
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The most obvious reason why prices will not go back to previous levels, surprisingly gets not mentioned often: LNG gas is much more expensive than pipelined gas. Simple. That was the argument why nobody in the German industry wanted to increase buyings of overpriced American LNG gas, while Russian gas was much cheaper. Now we must buy it, we have no choice anymore. Also, many sales of LNG to 'Asia have been rechnalled to Europe - by placing much higher heaps of money on the table than the Asians did. Same with Africa, where LNG now is rare.
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Old 01-17-23, 10:57 AM   #247
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Garzweiler coal mine furore symbolises European governments' energy conundrum

Germany's Garzweiler mine could hardly be more symbolic of the conundrum facing much of Europe right now.

A country partially run by the Green Party is tearing down wind turbines to make way for more coal extraction.

From an environmental point of view this is fairly obviously not good. Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels.

But those in charge of Europe's most important economy, for now, have had to sacrifice climate change policies in order to keep the lights on.

It comes as riot police backed by bulldozers removed scores of activists from buildings in an abandoned village during a second day of confrontations over the expansion of the Garzweiler mine.

Officers climbed ladders to reach protesters perched on roofs and walls in Luetzerath, which energy firm RWE wants to clear to expand its energy facility.

The problem is that coal may be dirty but it is cheap and reliable and the infrastructure to get it out of the ground and into power stations already exists and functions perfectly well.

And in the aftermath of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent energy shock, particularly due to the availability of Russian gas, Germany believes it could be the difference between business as usual and rolling blackouts.

This is also why the country has extended the lifespan of some of its nuclear power stations, despite promising to close them.

Germany is not alone.

Poland is expanding coal production and Bulgaria is extending the life of its coal mines.

The UK has done the same for a number of coal fired power stations to ensure security of supply this winter.

In fact global coal consumption rose to an all-time high in 2022.

The good news is that there are many who believe this is a blip.

The International Energy Agency says that the global energy crisis will, in the end, accelerate the clean energy transition.

It predicts that emissions of fossil fuels will peak by 2025 as coal use falls over the coming years and demand for natural gas plateaus by the end of the decade.

Germany, for its part, says it will still phase out coal by 2030, although that doesn't lessen the symbolism of what's happening at Garzweiler.
https://news.sky.com/story/germany-g...ndrum-12785239
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Old 01-19-23, 01:50 PM   #248
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I just learned that the mini-series in six parts "Blackout", based on the bestselling novel "Blackout" by Mark Elsberg, already was broadcasted on cable TV Joyn last year. It is now coming to uncoded open TV, station is Sat-1. Every Thursday from January 26th on.





Not to be mistaken with a movie of same title from 2020.

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Old 01-21-23, 06:41 AM   #249
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Natural gas in 5th week of freefall that has more than halved its value

Investing.com -- Five weeks running and the bulls in natural gas aren’t catching a break yet from the weather.

Futures of the heating fuel on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Henry Hub were headed for a 5% drop in the latest week, adding to their 48% drop over four previous weeks, as temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere remained unseasonably high for a winter.

The front-month February gas contract on the Henry Hub hovered at $3.19 per mmBtu, or metric million British thermal units, as Friday’s close approached. It fell to as low as $3.11 during the session, sending gas bulls up gasping for air on fears of the market tumbling to $2 levels. Fortunately, for the longs, the moment passed, with the $3 support holding.

Bulls in natural gas have experienced their most painful month in years after the start of what the industry is calling the warmest winter in two decades.

Analysts say there is still time to fix the market, but Mother Nature had to cooperate — and quickly too.

“There is still the remainder of January, as well as the months of February and March, left to go before the end of the winter withdrawal season, therefore, weather will still play a large role in the bullishness or bearishness of NYMEX gas futures prices,” analysts at Houston-based energy trading consultancy Gelber&Associates said in a note to their clients in natural gas.

“But without meaningful, extended cold periods in the longer-range forecasts, it sets up end-of-season gas storage to potentially land in notably bearish territory by April 1,” the note said.

Gelber’s analysts observed that through the initial 2.5 months of the winter withdrawal season, natural gas inventories have fallen by a total of 760 bcf or billion cubic feet — which was 213 bcf bearish versus the five-year average.

“Even with the potential for at least another two sizable bearish withdrawals on the horizon, unless there are some big surprises from Mother Nature over the next few weeks, the 2022-23 winter will retain its position as the smallest to-date draw in the last five years well into February,” the analysts said.

Gas production, comparatively, was up more than 5 bcf per day year-over-year.

The conventional wisdom on the Henry Hub seems to be that in order for the bulls to find any upward trajectory, February needs to come in colder than average, culminating in at least one more 200-plus bcf storage withdrawal this season.

Another bullish catalyst would be if the Freeport LNG terminal — closed for months now, stalling consumption of 2 bcf per day or 60 bcf per month — came back in full force by February, putting back on course exports of liquefied natural gas.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...3ff2ce56c8ad47
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Old 01-22-23, 02:54 PM   #250
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Old 01-22-23, 05:12 PM   #251
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There is a chance that some polar windstream system will collapse in February. If that is the case, so the long range weather forecast says, it would mean that cold polar air gets pressed to Middle Europe that could push temperatures over here down to -20°C and deeper - nationwide.



However, the same weather frogs predicted in summer that due to El Nina it would be an extraordinarily cold winter from all beginning on.
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Old 01-23-23, 05:40 PM   #252
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I thought they already had.


Netherlands To Shut Down Europe's Largest Gas Field

By Irina Slav - Jan 23, 2023, 7:30 AM CST


https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...Gas-Field.html

Quote:
The Dutch government plans to close the Groningen gas field this year despite Europe’s precarious supply position. Groningen is the largest gas field in Europe.

The field is dangerous, a government official from the Hague told the Financial Times, and the government has no plans to boost production from it.

“We won’t open up more because of the safety issues,” Hans Vijbrief told the FT. “It is politically totally unviable. But apart from that, I’m not going to do it because it means that you increase the chances of earthquakes, which I don’t want to be responsible for.”

Production from Groningen has been curtailed substantially, and there were plans in place to phase out production altogether because of increased seismic activity in the vicinity of the field even before the energy crisis began in 2021.

As gas prices began to climb in the autumn of 2021 and then took off in the spring of 2022, some began speculating that the Netherlands could keep the field operating to contribute to filling the gap in gas supply left by Russian pipeline deliveries.

The Dutch government was skeptical about that from the start and instead suggested production be extended, although at a minimum rate of some 2.8 billion cu m. Now, this, too, is being reconsidered.

“It’s very, very simple: everybody who has some knowledge of earthquake danger tells me that it’s really very dangerous to keep on producing there. I’m quite convinced it’s wise to close it down,” Vijbrief told the FT.

Since the 1980s, the FT notes, there have been some 100 earthquakes annually around Groningen, resulting in more than 150,000 claims for property damage. The operator of the field, a Shell-Exxon joint venture, was ordered to start reducing output in 2013 with a view to shutting the field down eventually.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Old 01-28-23, 07:17 AM   #253
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Old 01-28-23, 08:01 AM   #254
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird View Post

A nuclear reactor emits something like 1.2 gigawatts (GW),
A nuclear reactor emits BTU's (aka: heat).
The reactor needs to be cooled by water, sodium, thoughts-and-prayers, what-ever so it doesn't melt into a heap of slag.

This cooling medium is then use to heat water into steam which is used to turn turbine generators at the proper speed to generate electricity so you can run your air conditioner.

Free energy is mostly a myth unless you wrap a bunch of wire around an old Volkswagen and bury it under a power line.*

I just wanted to clear that up.


*- This works until you get caught.
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Old 01-28-23, 04:01 PM   #255
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ET2SN View Post
A nuclear reactor emits BTU's (aka: heat).
The reactor needs to be cooled by water, sodium, thoughts-and-prayers, what-ever so it doesn't melt into a heap of slag.

This cooling medium is then use to heat water into steam which is used to turn turbine generators at the proper speed to generate electricity so you can run your air conditioner.

1. I know that, in principle.

2. Its a bot translation. Better dont be too pedantic, therefore.

3. We can run this conversation in German, if your prefer, then I need not messing around with foreign languages and bot translators and can be most precise in terminology chosen.





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