Daily Energy Standup Episode #302 – Nuclear Shifts, Arctic Adventures, and Geopolitical Tensions

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After scrapping nuclear reactors, Germany to spend billions on new gas power plants

Highlights of the Podcast

00:00 – Intro
01:21 – After scrapping nuclear reactors, Germany to spend billions on new gas power plants
03:32 – Steinberg Embraces Nuclear Energy, Supports Third Nuclear Reactor at Millstone
06:55 – Nuclear Icebreakers Escort Russian LNG Modules Through Thick Arctic Ice
08:27 – Relying on interconnectors for imports carries risks
10:40 – China objects to UN fund warnings on solar’s forced labour risks
14:48 – Markets Update
18:34 – Outro

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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Michael Tanner: [00:00:14] What’s going on? Everybody, welcome in to the February 6th, 2024 edition of the Daily Energy News Beat standup. Here are today’s top headlines. First up, after scraping nuclear reactors Germany to spend billions on new gas power plants. Next up Steinberg embraces nuclear energy, supports third nuclear reactor at millstone. Staying along the nuclear trend, nuclear icebreakers escort Russian LNG modules through thick Arctic ice. Next up, over to the grid. Relying on interconnectors for imports carries risk. And finally flying over to China. China objects to UN funds warning on solar force labor risks. It’s funny China coming out to stand up for labor rights. But, we’ll dive into all of that. You’ll then toss it over to me. I’ll quickly cover what’s going on in the oil and gas finance segment. But as always, I’m Michael Tanner, joined by the executive producer of the show, Stuart Turley. Let’s kick this off. [00:01:14][59.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:01:14] Hey, let’s go rumbling over here to my buddies over there in Germany. You can’t buy this kind of stupid Michael. After scraping nuclear reactor Germany to spend billions on new gas power plants. Michael, as I get into this article, you know, they just had the Nord Stream blow up. Okay, we don’t we allegedly don’t know who did it. So they’re really short of LNG. And then our beloved, diaper Dan, I mean, president is banning the LNG exports, and now they have no LNG exports coming in. Berlin, listen to this. Has agreed to spend 16 billion to build four new major national natural gas plants to meet electricity demand and a major overhaul of the energy grid. They’re taking down wind, and they’re building coal plants as well, too. They’re not talking about the coal, but the natural gas is in here. The energy firm Uniper, which expects to be involved in the construction, said it was revealed that the coalition has reached a political consensus. It means that they’re about to get voted out of office. Is what that translates to in in English. [00:02:31][76.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:02:33] It’s it’s just it’s true. I mean, we love we love our good Chancellor Sergeant Schultz over there. [00:02:38][4.6]

Stuart Turley: [00:02:39] It’s and it and they they in last April Michael. They could have extended 20 years on their nuclear reactors. They’ve they shut them down early. The three nuclear reactors last April in the, they’re going to miss their target by cutting their greenhouse emissions by 65%. [00:02:58][19.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:03:01] I love this this quote. Granted, it’s from the environmental groups. They remain skeptical, though, with Greenpeace saying this is a perfect example around the hype around hydrogen is just a smokescreen for more fossil gas. [00:03:15][13.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:03:16] They have no idea that hydrogen, the Hindenburg burn, blew up for a reason. So as we say in, Texas, Oklahoma talk, it blew up for a really big reason. So hydrogen is not going to go anywhere. All right. Let’s go to Steinberg embraces nuclear energy and supports a third nuclear reactor at millstone. This is pretty darn cool. When we take a look at the, representative, the Jonathan Steinberg, Democrat out of Westport is now one of the staunchest supporters. I’m pretty thrilled when we have people on both sides of the aisle work together, quote unquote. This is from him. When I first came to the legislature, I didn’t know about energy like anyone else. I flipped the switch and the lights came on. He said then there was a little skeptical of nuclear. We thought it was always yesterday’s kind of energy. But as soon as I started doing my homework, I discovered that nuclear was a viable option. It’s carbon free, and if you do a really good managing it, the environment and the safety concerns, it should be considered in the mix. Hat’s off to the Democrat. I like him. I mean, I don’t like I don’t know him, but at least I liked what he said. [00:04:33][77.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:04:33] Yeah, I mean it’s about time somebody came out. And exactly what did he say? He just flipped the lights on and just assumed they come on. He didn’t really think about the chain reaction that goes down. So again, we applaud people for doing their education. There’s still a I think the problem is when people just say, well, nuclear is the answer. Well, if it was the answer, don’t you think we would have gotten there at this point? [00:04:57][23.3]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:58] I did, only know only, no, only because it was harder to, siphon funds off of nuclear because it was, bigger. Building projects and stuff. The new Green New Deal allowed for a lot of money transitioning from the wealthy to the wealthy, and off of the backs of the middle and, lower class. So the answer is nuclear is too stable. [00:05:26][28.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:05:27] It definitely is. You know, and and I applaud him. And, you know, again, we applaud Steinberg for coming out here and doing this. You know, all the money that they’re trying to send Ukraine right now is could could have poured that into nuclear and had a few of these guys up and running. [00:05:42][14.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:43] Well it’s just an absolutely and he I Steinberg also noted that the nuclear power can also reduce risks of blackout and brownouts. And thank goodness for, Meredith thing one on the shorting of the grid. I love, I love her, but she also talked about you got to have that baseline on the grid, Michael. No baseline and all. Bad. [00:06:04][20.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:04] So let’s go to the Arctic. [00:06:06][1.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:07] Hey, speaking of Putin, you know, they they were trying to, call ahead a, you know, I’m glad I was able to get Tucker and Putin all set up, but did you know that Tucker just put out on Onyx that the, CIA was hacked into his signal account and they said, you got to come get approval if you’re going to go interview Putin. [00:06:31][24.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:31] I am he ran that on Fox News, a, in in November. Right. He came out and said that on on Fox one of his monologues. [00:06:38][6.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:39] Oh yeah. But no, this was and this was when he just had a release and on it was like, Holy smokes, dude, that they’re, they’re watching him. [00:06:46][7.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:47] Well, we appreciate you brokering that. [00:06:48][1.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:06:49] Oh, yeah. Not, I do not need them listening to me. Nuclear reactors. Nuclear icebreakers escort Russian LNG modules through thick Arctic ice. Michael, there’s also a gigantic move on this. And this. This story ties, along with our other LNG that the Biden administration is hampering. Germany needs it going to be kind of funny because they’re going to end up buying it from Germany that is brokered through another carrier group, and they’re going to start laundering LNG. It’s a little tougher than, oil, but they’re going to start doing it. Here’s the advantage for China is that the Arctic routes go up over. And the icebreakers, they have four huge nuclear icebreakers. The I’m I love these things. The and the, the Arctic LNG two project is moving full steam. And the U.S. came back in and we tried to claim another 500,000 acres or something like that in the Arctic, but yet we’re not going to drill it. Here’s a quote. The difficulty in making progress is certainly due to the compressed hamachi ice pack, which forms the compression ridges, which is very difficult to move forward even for the nuclear icebreakers. So it’s not easy going through, but I guarantee you throw in a, nuclear ice, fleet in there. They Russians know what they’re doing. [00:08:25][95.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:08:26] Yeah. No, absolutely. [00:08:26][0.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:08:27] Let’s go to the interconnect. This one I got to give a shout out to Tammy Nemeth. From the Nemeth report. This goes along with another story. Michael. Britain, just had the 1.4GW Viking link with Denmark became commercial at the end of December. This is really, pretty wild. This is the Secretary of State for energy. Claire. Cool. Otto. Great news. Today is the Viking link energy interconnector starts to transport energy between Denmark and the UK under the North Sea. 475 mile cables. The longest land and subsea electricity cable in the world and will provide cleaner, cheaper, more secure power up to 2.5 million homes in the UK. It will help British families save 500 million on their bills over the next decade while cutting emissions. Okay, that is almost pie in the sky, except for the fact that, there’s a lot of hydro in coming in from there, a lot of natural gas coming in from there. Now, for these, from the power plants and stuff. So hydro and natural gas. Here’s the problem. Hydro. They’re having a little bit of a drought over there. [00:09:49][81.7]

Michael Tanner: [00:09:52] And catch a break, you know. [00:09:54][1.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:09:54] So you’ve now got your interconnect going under the sea, and then the hoodies and the blowfish threatened to cut, intercontinental internet cables running along the Red sea bottom. And that was from yesterday, Michael. Now. What they’re also doing is there’s another group that is threatening to cut pipelines and interconnects, energy interconnects. I do not want to do business with the U.S. under this current administration, and I would not want to have undersea pipelines at all. Know where anybody. [00:10:27][32.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:10:29] Ukrainian seals might take them out? [00:10:30][1.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:31] Oh, yeah. On a on a, yacht, on a three. They went for a three hour cruise to take it out. Okay, let’s go to the last one here, buddy. China objects to you in fun. Warnings on soldiers, forced labor risks. You know what? If you know, this one just kind of really gets me kind of worked up in the hypocrisy range here. China has opposed the green projects by the UN’s flagship climate fund, because their documents mention the risk of forced labor in the Chinese dominated supply chains of solar panels. There is more to this article than what is in the article. Let me just tell you this. It’s unacceptable. China’s. I’m going to butcher this one. Boy, this is bad. Michael, it’s Yang Zi Lui, said the unsubstantiated allegations or so-called forced labor allegations in the solar Apple II change included project document. It’s unacceptable to have this presumption of guilt and stigmatization of the, PB photogenic, supply chain. Chinese PV should be treated as fair, just, nondiscriminatory manner. And I just, I got tickled at this. But, Michael, the real story behind this, is because China, even though the you in it. This is trying to stop the, Belt and Road Initiative, which I’ve covered with George. McMillan, is the fact that the you in the WEF, in the, in the UN and are trying to finance renewable projects around the Belt and Road Initiative. So the UN is trying to cash in on this. And so they’re throwing rocks at China, which is pretty stupid. [00:12:30][119.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:12:31] Yeah. And you know, I don’t think this is something that gets talked about nearly as much as it should. I mean, we know it. We know the we’re all familiar with the forced labor that’s going on with the Congo in the conflict minerals. You know, that probably we haven’t talked about as much. But this is the other side of the coin. I mean, the problem is you have in this, Xinjiang region, which is the source of the two of the world’s solar grade polysilicon, and that’s a key input into solar. Yes. Problem is, we know that there’s what can probably you know, what you know, the what’s been reported by the UN is a serious human rights violation going on there, specifically against the Uyghur population. So, you know, obviously China is going to push back. They’re not a huge fan. All to that, I say once your companies stop having to stop having to construct nets around the building so that people don’t have to jump and catch them, then I’ll take your human rights. But as long as I’m seeing nets, I’m not believing any of that. [00:13:31][60.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:32] So we’re going to take them off the sandstone headquarters. Yeah, we’re going to Sydney. [00:13:35][3.3]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:37] But, you know, somewhere else I’d like to take the nets off of. [00:13:39][2.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:13:40] But that’s where you guys are. But, but, you know, you sit back and kind of go, I just lost my train of thought, but it was good. That was a good one. Like. [00:13:47][7.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:13:48] Absolutely. So we’ll now we’ll go ahead and move over to finance here. But before we do that we’ll go ahead and pay the bills here. Guys. As always, the news and analysis that you, have been hearing is brought to you by the world’s greatest website, Energy News. Become the best place for all your energy and oil and gas news. Stu and the team do an outstanding job of making sure that website stays up to speed with everything you need to know to be the tip of the spear when it comes to the energy business. What? How do you. [00:14:16][28.4]

Stuart Turley: [00:14:16] Wherein where? Miss, satellite hat? I just did some interviewing with them, and, CEO is cool. Cat man. So awesome. Gotta get gotta show some swag. If you send us some swag, we will put it on the air. [00:14:29][13.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:30] We will wear it for an ad read for another company. Just kidding. But but know guys energy news beat.com dashboard.energynewsbeat.com the best place to go ahead and find all your data news combo. Check out the description below. To see all the time stamps, links to the articles and get in contact with the show. I don’t really have much for the for the finance sections do. We did see, overall stock market was only down about 3/10 of a percentage point. Nasdaq only about one tenth of a percentage point. dollar index. Stay strong. About a half a percentage. We did see, an interview last night that, that came out on 60 minutes, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. You know, nothing crazy came out of that other than maybe some. Read between the lines about where he thinks rates might go, specifically if and if the target inflation rate is 2%. Back in the napkin math. What they’re looking at. We may not see the rate cuts that we expect because they might be exactly where they want to be. So I think the markets are are kind of bracing a little bit for that. We did see a about a $1 increase in the late trading session on oil currently sitting at 7268. We did see Brant Oil up all the way over $79. You know, maybe, you know, it really comes off the back that what what’s going on in the Middle East right now. Tensions have seem to continue to ramp up a little bit. We do know that you know, we’ve you know, the United States has increased its drone activity. They came out this morning and said they’ve conducted some successful drone operations. You know, no cease fire between Israel and Hamas. And, you know, they did. You know, there’s a quote is that those tensions, you know, in those oil producing regions are going to continue and set to linger. You know, these the you know, Stu says, the who and the Blowfish, as they continue to do attack shipping vessels. That’s going to obviously not not not play too kindly, to a lot of these, oil trading routes and, and we, we did see that Ukrainian drone struck the largest oil refinery, in the country’s south. That’s coming out of Kiev. And that’s also, you know, after a series of long range attacks on those facilities, mainly attempting to reduce their export of, naphtha, which is a petrochemical feedstock that helps in the refining business. Quote, out of John Kill cliff partner at again capital. These attacks on Russia oil supplies are starting to take a toll. And he also said there’s only so much the market can discount before yet to say that we’re not pricing the geopolitical risk accurately. I wonder what John Club Cliff wants prices to go. Sounds like something Stu would say. I’m just kidding. Point of the matter is, as we continue to see prices, stay where they’re at, we’re going to have to constantly wonder again what is priced in or not. The only other oil and gas news that I saw today Vital Energy. They went ahead and closed their second transaction to Bowen, up their additional work to Bowen, up some working interest related to their recent Permian Basin acquisition. If you if you remember about a couple months ago, they were acquired some assets from Henry LP Morrison, Henry Partners and Henry Resources, which you can kind of collectively think of as Henry. They go ahead and add on another $78 million to that, which brings up their working interest, to an average of about 70, or they’re due to shore up their working interest. This was, not a public deal. Henry is not a public company, but it was. It was funded specifically through, common stock on this one. So that $78 million came out and about, 879,000 shares, which valued basically those shares were valued about 54, not, $54.96. So gives you guys an idea of what they decided to do. They also gave some, some mandatory 2% cumulative convertible notes. And they don’t really expect any transitions, associated with the, with the tagalong rights quote from, Jason Pigott, who’s the guy who’s the president and CEO of they we are pleased to have closed our second transaction, increase working interest in high value properties associated with the Henry acquisition. You know, these these are, 51% oil wells. And then the goal they’re hoping to is, is those 54 wells do somewhere around 2000 boe a day, but again, that’s about 51% oil. What else you got, Stu? We’re getting ready. Head to nape tomorrow. [00:18:36][246.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:18:37] Give me a lot of fun. I’m excited. We’ve got, some all star CEOs that we’re going to be interviewing. We are supposed to be scheduled with the governor of Oklahoma and governor of Texas. We mean, we got to confirm. But, you know, they may look at me and go, no humpbacks allowed. So. [00:18:55][18.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:18:56] Yeah. No. Absolutely. Abso. It’s going to be fun. Check us out. Booth 1957. Come check us out. We’ll be there with one of our favorite guys representing Peco country operating. [00:19:05][9.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:19:06] And I’m like, when. [00:19:07][0.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:19:08] David Blackman’s going to be there, all the podcasters are going to be there. So if you want to get on a show, swing by Booth 1957, you’re going to be a lot of fun with that. We’ll let you guys get out of here, get back to work, finish up your Tuesday. Appreciate you checking us out. Energynewsbeat.com for Stuart Turley I’m Michael Tanner. We’ll see you tomorrow folks. [00:19:08][0.0][1102.2]

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