2024-09-11 12:20
Sept 11 (Reuters) - The amount of natural gas flowing to U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants was on track to dip to a two-week low on Wednesday as energy firms cut back on feedgas to their plants in Louisiana before Hurricane Francine crashes into the state's coast, according to data from financial firm LSEG. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-lng-feedgas-dips-ahead-hurricane-francine-reductions-louisiana-plants-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 12:04
SINGAPORE, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Japan's top utility and largest power generator JERA plans to invest in a natural gas-fired power plant in Vietnam, a senior executive told Reuters on Wednesday, as it bets on a transition from coal to cleaner fuels in Asia. Power plants using domestic gas and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) are set to become a crucial source of power in Vietnam by 2030, jumping to 37.33 GW, or 24.8% of its total installed capacity, with LNG accounting for the lion's share. "We are now trying to collaborate with a local partner and also try to discuss with the Vietnam government," said Izumi Kai, JERA Asia's chief executive, adding that it was also open to investing in existing projects. Southeast Asian countries have laid out plans in recent years to expand LNG infrastructure to address growing demand, but coal still remains the main source of power and its share in power generation has been growing. Kai said Vietnam was trying to start operating multiple LNG projects in a very challenging time frame, adding that JERA was focusing on the best designs to work around potential delays. "The government of Vietnam really wants to expand LNG infrastructure instead of coal ... But it is not so easy". JERA Asia's investments in LNG or gas power projects in Asia hinge on energy transition policies and dwindling domestic natural gas reserves, said Kai, adding: "The shift towards LNG for power, this trend will continue". JERA Asia, which has investments and assets in Bangladesh, is also closely monitoring political developments in the South Asian nation, where a new interim government has assumed power after its former Prime Minister fled following jobs protests. Kai expects commercial operation of JERA's delayed Meghnaghat power plant to take a "few more months", as the country of over 170 million people faces a natural gas shortage. This comes amid weather damage at one of Bangladesh's floating storage regasification unit (FSRU), which acts as an LNG import terminal, owned by its local partner Summit Power. Also facing uncertainty is JERA's $1 billion Matarbari onshore LNG project, which it planned to develop with Summit. "The government has been reconsidering the exact location of the Matarbari onshore terminal, partially because of the FSRU that got damaged," Kai said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/appec-japans-jera-considering-vietnam-gas-fired-power-plant-investment-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 11:41
FRANKFURT, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Prices of emissions-free trucks need to fall by as much as half to make them an affordable alternative to diesel models, a study by consultancy firm McKinsey published on Wednesday said, a necessary step to help achieve European Union climate targets. Less than 2% of the EU's heavy freight vehicles are now electric and hydrogen-powered. To meet the bloc's carbon emission reduction targets, the share should rise to 40% of new sales by 2030, the study released before the IAA Transportation 2024 truck show in Hanover showed. Currently production costs for electric trucks are 2.5-3 times higher than for diesel ones, the study said, and with logistics firms unwilling to accept higher costs for emissions-free freight, that goal is still distant. To overcome that, prices for new electric trucks should be no more than 30% higher than for diesel models, McKinsey said, which would require a technological leap in batteries. For successful implementation of the EU's CO2 strategy, a 25% cut in charging costs is also needed, the study showed, with 900,000 private charging points to be installed in Europe by 2035, which would require a $20 billion investment. Chinese manufacturers present another challenge for European truckmakers, as they offer competitive products at cheaper costs. They have already gained a 20% share of the bus market. "I don't think it's impossible that this could actually happen in electric trucks over time," said Anna Herlt, head of commercial vehicle consulting at McKinsey, who co-authored the study. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/emissions-free-truck-prices-need-drop-by-50-compete-with-diesel-study-says-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 11:33
JAL, New Mexico, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Flying over the desert landscape of southeastern New Mexico in a four-seat helicopter, Stephen Aldridge could count around a dozen man-made lagoons brimming with toxic wastewater glistening between drill rigs and pumpjacks. While it is a growing hazardous waste problem from the region’s booming drilling industry, the mayor of the tiny town of Jal - nestled near the border with Texas in the heart of U.S. oil country - viewed the sweeping scene as an opportunity: a source of water in the second-biggest oil producing state suffering from worsening drought. "Our future is going to depend on the future of that produced water," he said. Aldridge is among a growing group of New Mexico politicians who want the state to develop regulations allowing for the millions of gallons of so-called produced water gushing up daily alongside the Permian basin's prolific oil and gas to be treated and used, instead of discarded, and who are encouraging companies to figure out how to make it happen cheaply, safely and at scale. In 2022, the oil and gas industry in New Mexico produced enough toxic fracking wastewater to cover 266,000 acres (107,650 hectares) of land a foot (31 cm) deep. While the state’s drillers reuse over 85% of their produced water in new oil and gas operations, the rest is pumped underground. With injection wells filling up, however, New Mexico has begun restricting deep-underground disposal, which has triggered earthquakes. The state is now expected to export over 3 million barrels of that water per day by the end of 2024 - a strange dynamic in a water-scarce state. Around 10 wastewater treatment firms in New Mexico are taking up the challenge under a state-supported pilot program , opens new tab that has so far spurred projects to grow crops like hemp and cotton and irrigate rangeland forage grasses. While completed pilots have shown the technology works, it is currently too expensive for widespread adoption. The companies and their backers also face a tough political battle. The debate over how this water should be used is one of the most divisive political questions facing New Mexico, with opponents mainly worried about the unintended human health consequences and subsidizing the oil industry's waste issue. New Mexico’s Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham introduced legislation late last year that would have created a strategic water reserve out of treated produced water. The bill was defeated by state lawmakers but will be brought up again in the next legislative session in January. Neighboring Texas is also dealing with growing problems around wastewater disposal, including an epidemic of exploding orphan wells as subsurface pressure rises, raising worries about a potential crackdown there too. The Permian basin, which straddles Texas and New Mexico, is the top U.S. oilfield. "It’s getting close to this point of criticality," said Rob Bruant with energy consultancy B3. Other states such as Colorado and California already use treated produced water in small amounts for agriculture. But New Mexico's situation is unique because the volumes are overwhelming and the water itself needs much more intensive treatment because it is unusually briny - three times saltier than the Pacific. CRYSTAL CLEAR FISH TANKS Aldridge stands out in dusty New Mexico, with shoulder-length white hair and a bushy beard, often wearing bright West African tunics. His chopper tour in late-July was part of a site visit to one of the state’s wastewater treatment pilot project run by a company called Aris Water Solutions (ARIS.N) , opens new tab. At the mobile trailer field office of the Aris project, Aldridge admired fish tanks on display filled with crystal clear water run through Aris’s treatment technology, and home to around two dozen minnows. Before it is treated, though, the water is dangerous. Employees on site are required to wear flame retardant clothing and carry portable monitors to detect deadly gases. The untreated water is trucked in by local drillers and held in two large storage tanks before getting piped through a membrane filter to remove solids, and then distilled. The process yields clear water, and leaves behind a highly toxic rust-colored mud that is reinjected underground at a registered saltwater disposal site. The water, Aris says, is free of pollutants or radionuclides, and fit for industrial and agricultural uses. Starting next year, Aris will begin growing non-food crops like cotton as part of a $10 million grant it won this year from the U.S. Department of Energy. "We look at the concept of desalinating produced water and creating a new water resource for the Permian region in a similar way to how the water industry was able to demonstrate that municipal wastewater could be safely treated and used for many purposes that society could become comfortable with," said Lisa Henthorne, chief scientist at Aris. The main problem for Aris and others is cost. A barrel of Aris’ treated water costs over $2 a barrel, many times higher than what industrial or agricultural water users typically pay. Aris says its goal is to bring costs down to $1 - still representing a big bill for users. Massachusetts-based Zwitter, which recently finalized a separate water treatment pilot project in New Mexico, said treated water may never be cheap, but could become viable if it becomes cheaper than disposal. "It is unlikely that agriculture or other water users will be able to pay more than cents per barrel. Therefore, the value of desalination will be driven by saving disposal costs and could be from $2 to $3/BW (per barrel of water) in the future," it said in the final report on its project. Disposal currently costs cents per barrel, but that could rise as injection sites fill up and waste needs to be trucked or piped ever further. Aris has strategic agreements with Permian oil majors including Chevron (CVX.N) , opens new tab, ConocoPhillips (COP.N) , opens new tab and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab to develop and pilot technologies for treating produced water for potential reuse. Exxon subsidiary XTO has also partnered with Infinity Water Solutions, another water treatment firm running a pilot project in the Permian. "I can tell you, the H2O molecule has no value until you run out of it," Infinity CEO Michael Dyson added. TERRIFIED OF GETTING IT WRONG Avner Vengosh, a professor of environmental quality at Duke University, said unknown safety risks are also a key concern. Under federal law, U.S. producers are not required to disclose all the chemicals they introduce to oil wells while drilling, raising worries that water treatments and testing are missing some dangerous components. "There are a lot of technologies that can treat the water but the question is how can we evaluate all possible contaminants in produced water? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I am saying it needs to be done correctly," he said. Infinity's Dyson agreed the industry needs to tread carefully. "We know we're only going to get one real chance of getting this right, and if anything, I think most of us are terrified of getting it wrong," he said. The state’s environment department is updating its 2019 Produced Water Act with the aim of firming up water reuse rules and expanding research and development for use outside the oil and gas sector. During a week of hearings on the effort in early August, divisions were huge, with environmental groups and some scientists questioning how safe the end-product could be. Daniel Tso, a former Navajo Nation Council member, told Reuters the Navajo had been stung before in New Mexico when decades of uranium mining on their land in the last century led to widespread radioactive pollution. “Now the industry is trying to make this a public problem and the public has to really scrutinize the effects,” he said of produced water. James Kenney, New Mexico’s environment secretary, told Reuters that the advances in technology over the last five years give him confidence that treated produced water can be safe, but acknowledged New Mexico’s poor record. "We have to acknowledge our history of things like uranium mining, the promise of wealth and the failure to protect health. So communities are right to be skeptical," he said. For Aldridge, though, the more he learns about wastewater treatment technology, the more willing he is to fight for the state to open up more uses for the water. "Am I 100% convinced? No, but they're taking a step to convince me and I need to take those steps with them," he said. His own rural town of Jal, he said, could become home to "industries of the future" like data centers or green hydrogen projects, businesses that need ample supplies of water. Or it could dry up, like the drilling industry will when the Permian empties of oil and gas. “I just can't abide by the idea that small rural communities like Jal can just vanish." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/arid-new-mexico-rural-towns-eye-treated-oil-wastewater-solution-drought-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 11:28
BEIJING/DUBAI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman discussed cooperation in several sectors including energy, investment and trade in a meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported. Earlier, Li had urged Beijing and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to accelerate free trade negotiations. Li made his remarks in a meeting in Riyadh with GCC Secretary General Jasem al-Budaiwi, Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. SPA reported that al-Budaiwi had stressed the importance of moving forward and finalising the trade talks in the "near future". The free trade negotiations have stalled over concerns by Saudi Arabia about cheap Chinese imports, with sources telling Reuters in May that the talks were at an impasse. Saudi Arabia is worried that a wave of lower cost Chinese versions of products that it hopes to manufacture domestically would be damaging to its industrial agenda, the sources said. China and the GCC, which also includes Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, started free trade negotiations nearly 20 years ago. Li is also due to visit the UAE this week. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/riyadh-chinas-premier-li-calls-accelerated-gulf-trade-talks-2024-09-11/
2024-09-11 11:22
Russia's Rosatom building Turkey's first nuclear plant Energy minister says few months delay Siemens Energy cites export rules for decision Rosatom seeking equivalent parts in China, minister says ANKARA, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The opening of Turkey's first nuclear plant has been delayed after Germany's Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE) , opens new tab withheld key parts, prompting Russia's Rosatom, the builder and owner, to buy them in China, the Turkish energy minister said on Wednesday. Siemens's non-delivery will delay launching the Akkuya power plant's first reactor by a few months, Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told state-run Anadolu agency. The decision likely stems from Western sanctions over Russia's war in Ukraine, he added. Though Turkey had initially planned to start up Akkuyu's first reactor in 2023, delays have pushed that back to next year, with the remaining reactors to come online by the end of 2028. A Siemens Energy spokesperson confirmed that some parts were not delivered to Turkey due to German export regulations. Bayraktar said that Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear energy company, has already struck deals with Chinese companies to produce equivalent parts, though he provided no company names. "There are alternatives. Rosatom already ordered alternative parts from Chinese (firms), and they will come from China," Bayraktar said. Turkey could consider fines against Siemens Energy over the delay, even though it has worked with the German company for years, he said. "This attitude will make us question their position in future projects," he added. Rosatom has been building the Akkuyu plant in the Mediterranean province of Mersin under an agreement with Ankara dating back to 2010. The $20 billion, 4,800 megawatt (MW) project includes four reactors, and would bring Turkey into the small club of nations with civil nuclear energy. Siemens Energy gave no official reason for withholding the parts, Bayraktar said. It said Turkey understands that it could be related with sanctions on Moscow. Germany's sanctions and trade policies appear to be incongruous, he said. The Siemens Energy spokesperson said: "Some parts were delivered a long time ago, but not for a good year now, due to export/customs licenses that have not yet been issued. We must of course comply with the export regulations." Efforts by both Rosatom and Turkey to secure the delivery of the equipment failed and "Rosatom therefore ordered the equipment from Chinese manufacturers to keep up with project deadlines" Rosatom's subsidiary Akkuyu Nukleer said. Turkey, maintaining close ties with both Moscow and Kyiv, opposes the European and U.S. sanctions on Russia, which were imposed after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Last year, nuclear fuel was loaded into the first power unit. The plant is ultimately expected to produce around 10% of local electricity production. Turkey and Russia signed the inter governmental agreement for Akkuyu in 2010. Construction began in 2013 and picked up speed in 2018. The agreement limits local ownership of the plant at 49%, requires the first reactor to be commissioned in 2025 and includes a power purchase agreement at a guaranteed price. In July, President Tayyip Erdogan said Germany was delaying some parts required for the Akkuyu plant at customs. "This has seriously bothered us. I reminded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of that in our bilateral meeting," Erdogan said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/turkish-nuclear-plant-delayed-by-withheld-siemens-parts-china-supply-2024-09-11/
