[[{“value”:”
Daily Standup Top Stories
High Gas Prices Spell Tough Start to 2025 for European Consumers
End of Russia-Ukraine transit will add strain to tight market Higher prices set to last longer with futures showing premium European gas prices are up about 45% this year, adding to the burden on households […]
Ukraine To Quadruple Gas Transport Fees After Russia Deal Expires
Ukraine will quadruple its domestic gas transmission tariffs for consumers from Jan. 1. Previously, Russia said it’s willing to continue supplying gas to Europe via Ukraine. The EU has warned member countries to prepare for […]
U.S. Natural Gas Futures Soar Ahead of Historic Cold Front
US natural gas futures spiked due to forecasts of an arctic blast and polar vortex expected to hit the eastern US in mid-January. The extreme cold weather is predicted to last for weeks and significantly […]
Texas coal plant to switch to solar + storage by 2027
A coal plant in Texas will soon transition into a solar + storage facility to provide clean renewable energy to 47 rural South Texas counties. Electric Cooperative Inc. (SMECI) has been awarded a more than $1.4 billion investment by […]
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro
01:14 – High Gas Prices Spell Tough Start to 2025 for European Consumers
03:09 – Ukraine To Quadruple Gas Transport Fees After Russia Deal Expires
04:20 – U.S. Natural Gas Futures Soar Ahead of Historic Cold Front
05:02 – Texas coal plant to switch to solar + storage by 2027
06:58 – Outro
Follow Stuart On LinkedIn and Twitter
Follow Michael On LinkedIn and Twitter
– Get in Contact With The Show –
Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Stuart Turley: [00:00:11] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat daily. Stand up. My name’s Stu Turley President and CEO of the Sandstone Group. And today is December 31st. This is the last podcast for the year. It has been an absolute wonderful year. Thank you so much for all of our great listeners, all on YouTube, on the X, on all of our different substack. We sure appreciate everybody listening and giving us great feedback. I’ll tell you what, we’ve got some stories here that are just going to be spicy. High gas prices spell tough start to 2025 for European customers. Ukraine to quadruple gas transport fees after Russia deal expires. U.S. natural gas futures soar ahead of historic cold front coming in. Get ready to buckle up. Texas coal plants switch to solar and storage by 2027 thanks to the poor keyless bill or the Inflation Reduction Act. And I’ve got a few comments on that one. [00:01:14][63.1]
Stuart Turley: [00:01:14] So let’s get rolling over here. High gas prices spell tough start to 2025 for European consumers. The end of the Ukraine. In Russia, transit will add strain to the tough market. I covered a little bit about that yesterday, but European gas prices are up 45% this year, adding to the burden on households and industry as they strive to recover from the worst cost of living crisis in decades. There’s likely to be more bad news on the way. High prices inevitably strained industrial competitiveness and economic performance, And the Met group told me a sad note on Monday. Looking forward delays, capacities and additions in stronger than demand from Asia driven by economic recovery or cold weather, could tighten the market even worse. The 15,000,000,000m³ of gas that Russia sends through the Ukraine each year makes up less than 5% of overall need. Still, it’s been clearly signaled losing one of the last remaining rounds for Russian pipeline gas would put more pressure on a tight gas market and propel global prices higher. This is at a time when in President Trump is saying, hey, we’ll sell you all the LNG that you want. If you buy LNG from us, we won’t put tariffs on you. I really you cannot compare LNG compared to cheap Russian natural gas on a pipeline. So the de-industrialization of Germany will continue. Kind of like that old saying that the beatings will continue until morale improves. Well, unless you get new people in power and elect them out, you are going to continue to deindustrialization. [00:03:07][113.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:03:09] Let’s go to Ukraine. Ukraine to quadruple gas transport fees. After Russia deal expires, the Ukraine will quadruple its domestic gas transmission tariffs from customers from January 1st. That means they will quadruple adds that domestic gas transmission tier of as it tries to offset the impact of lost revenue after its gas transit deal. Now, again, this transit deal was about 5% of their GDP. That is an amazing number. In 2024, 85% of our revenue came from transporting gas originating in the Russian Federation. It means that only 15% for US domestic customers. This is actually going to turn the Ukraine into a fourth world status. I’ve got a series that I’ve been recording with George Macmillan and he said, this is going to turn Ukraine into a fourth world country status for energy. As it is, it is coming around the corner. So you’ll have to want to watch that. [00:04:20][70.8]
Stuart Turley: [00:04:20] But gas US natural gas futures soar ahead of historic cold front. The U.S. natural gas spike due to a forecast of an Arctic blast and polar vortex expected to hit the eastern mid January. The extreme cold as predicted the last four weeks and significantly increase heating demand. Private weather forecast B.A. warns of historic cold and dangerous conditions. See here. Cold arrives on January 1st. Extreme cold on the seven. Dangerous cold. The eighth through the 12th. Bigger storm mid-month. Pretty impressive. This is from Zero Hedge. [00:05:02][41.9]
Stuart Turley: [00:05:02] Let’s roll over to Texas coal plant to switch to solar plus storage by 2027. Coal plant in Texas will soon be a solar plus storage facility to provide clean energy, renewable energy for 47 rural South Texas counties. Electric cooperatives. S m ECI has been awarded more than 1.4 billion investment by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the USDA Rural Utility Services Rust Program, which provides grants and low interest loans to expand energy that prioritizes greenhouse gas reductions. The Empowering of Rural America New Era program is offered through the Inflation Reduction Act. This is actually a boondoggle, in my opinion. Reclamation is a vital part of mining operations and culture for an s m e c i passion the cooperative work closely. So we take a coal plant that is really critical to the Texas Ercot grid. We’re going to strip it out. We’re going to put solar plus storage in there at $1.4 billion. And that is absolutely a lot of money. We’re going to be increasing our demand. We’re doubling the demand in less than five years. On Ercot. I’m going to go out on a limb. They’re not going to bring that coal plant down. So we’re going to spend 1.4 billion. They add storage and solar and keep the coal plant. Bookmark this podcast because that’s probably what’s going to have to happen in order to keep Ercot going. The Ercot and the US grid is in trouble because of the amount of non dispatchable power that’s out there right now. [00:06:57][115.0]
Stuart Turley: [00:06:58] So with that, this will be a fun one to watch in the next few years to see how this one turns out with that like subscribe. And again, thank you. I just really appreciate Michael and I and the entire team at Sandstone. Wish everyone a Happy New Year and look forward to a very prosperous. Only 25 banks and have agreed that. [00:06:58][0.0][403.8]
– Get in Contact With The Show –
The post European Gas Prices appeared first on Energy News Beat.
“}]]
Energy News Beat