Saudi energy minister says oil supply cuts are not about ‘jacking up prices,’ as Brent hovers at $95 a barrel
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary, Canada, on Sept. 18, 2023.
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Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Riyadh and Moscow’s decision to extend crude oil supply cuts is not about “jacking up prices,” as Brent futures hover near $95 a barrel and analysts predict further rises into triple digits.
“We can reduce more, or we can increase, that has been a subject that we want to make sure that the messaging is clear, that it’s not about, again, this jacking up prices,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Monday at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary.
“It’s about … making the decision at the right time, when we have the data, and when we have the clarity that would make us in much more of a comfort zone to take that decision.”
Some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, are implementing 1.66 million barrels per day of combined voluntary declines — which falls outside of unanimously agreed OPEC+ policies — until the end of 2024. Topping this, Saudi Arabia and Russia announced they will apply respective voluntary declines of 1 million barrels per day of production and 300,000 barrels per day of exports until the end of the year.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest seaborne oil exporter and relies on hydrocarbon revenues to support so-called giga-projects designed to diversify its economy.
Shrugging off the inertia of the first half of the year, oil prices have gained ground amid supply cut announcements in recent months, as the market braces for a potential volume deficit in the latter part of 2023. Ice Brent crude futures with November delivery were trading at $95.00 per barrel at 9:19 a.m. London time Tuesday, up 57 cents per barrel from the Monday close price. Front-month October Nymex WTI futures were at $92.65 per barrel, up $1.17 per barrel from the Monday settlement. The increases have rallied some analysts around speculation of a short-term return to oil prices at $100 per barrel.
Asked on the possibility of hitting that threshold, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth on Monday admitted oil prices could cross into triple digits in a Bloomberg TV interview.
“Sure looks like it. We’re certainly moving in that direction. The momentum, you know, supply is tightening, inventories are drawing, these things happen, gradually you can see it building. And so I think, you know, the trends would suggest we’re certainly on our way, we’re getting close,” he said, acknowledging an impact on the world economy. “I think the underlying drivers to the economy in the U.S. and frankly globally remain pretty healthy. I think it’s a drag on the economy, but one that thus far, I think the economy has been able to tolerate.”
Energy prices have repeatedly underpinned higher inflation in the months since the war in Ukraine and Europe’s gradual loss of access to sanctioned Russian seaborne oil supplies.
Peak feud
Abdulaziz once more struck out at Paris-based watchdog the International Energy Agency, whose Executive Director Fatih Birol last week said in a Financial Times op-ed that “the IEA was wary of such premature calls, but our latest projections show that the growth of electric vehicles around the world, especially in China, means oil demand is on course to peak before 2030.”
“None of the things that they were warning about has happened. And name me any time that their forecasts were as accurate as one would have hoped for. But, you know, they’ve moved now from being forecasters and assessors of market to one of political advocacy,” Abdulaziz said Monday.
The IEA did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi state-controlled oil giant Aramco, likewise on Monday said that the notion of peak oil demand is “wilting under scrutiny,” noting “many shortcomings in the current transition approach that can no longer be ignored” and stressing that carbon capture “can no longer be the bridesmaid of transition.”
The comments come two months ahead of a pivotal session of the United Nations climate change conference, which is set to controversially convene on the territory of major oil producer the United Arab Emirates, starting on Nov. 30.
Climate change positioning has been a key hurdle of the increasingly fraught relationship between Saudi Arabia and the IEA — in a landmark 2021 report, the energy watchdog argued for no investment in new fossil fuel supply projects, if the world is to stave off an incoming climate crisis. Riyadh meanwhile champions a dual approach to decarbonization with simultaneous investment in oil and gas and renewables, in a bid to avoid an energy deficit.
U.S. stance
Higher prices at the pump have historically put pressure on the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, which in October last year waged an intense war of words over the OPEC+ production strategy that levied accusations of coercion against Riyadh.
But Washington has stayed comparatively silent over the latest OPEC+ reductions, even as Biden mounts his campaign for re-election next year. The U.S. must balance domestic interests against foreign policy objectives to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, while Riyadh has increasingly slipped Washington’s influence after resuming ties with Iran in China-brokered diplomacy earlier this year and earning an invitation to the China and Russia-backed emerging economies group BRICS in August.
In a further blow to the U.S., Saudi Arabia remains tightly bound to Western-sanctioned OPEC+ heavyweight producer Russia. Most recently, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by phone on Sept. 6 and “noted that specific agreements on reducing oil production, combined with voluntary obligations to limit raw materials deliveries, made it possible to stabilize the global energy market.”
British Columbia got its first 400 kW DC fast charger last week at Canadian C-store chain On The Run, but that’s not the good part. As part of a limited time offer, these chargers are FREE!
The Canadian convenience store chain just took the wraps off its new, ABB-developed, 400 kW chargers earlier this month, but they’re already planning to bring the ultra-fast 400 kW dispensers to at least four more locations in BC this spring, and have them online just in time for the summer road trip season – something On The Run hopes its customers will appreciate.
“The A400 charger delivers an enhanced customer experience, with reliability and performance from a 32-inch screen to higher power charging sessions and power sharing,” reads the company’s official announcement, via LinkedIn. “Download the Journie Rewards app to start the charge – free for a limited time.”
On The Run’s new 400 kW ABB DC fast chargers are compatible with CCS and CHAdeMO plugs, and can accommodate Tesla and other NACS-equipped vehicles with an adapter. That said, the company seems to imply that Tesla drivers in particular will have a maximum charging speed of “just” 50 kW, which feel hilarious (given the current state of affairs between Tesla and the Canadian government), but probably isn’t.
In addition to the ABB A400 400 kW units shown here, On The Run locations also employ the ABB Terra 184 dispensers rated at 180 kW. On The Run plans similar deployments at the four BC locations mentioned above, as well as two more each in Quebec and Ontario slated to go live towards the end of this year.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla’s controversial CEO Elon Musk once mocked 350 kW charging speed as being “for a child’s toy,” despite the fact that, nearly nine years later, his own cars and Superchargers can barely make it to 325 kW while others have sailed right on past. I made fun of that fact on the Quick Charge episode shown, above – and, while I do think it’s funny and relevant, the much more relevant piece of news here is that companies like BP Pulse, Revel, and Wallbox are actively deploying 400 kW solutions, today (while others hit the same mark as far back as 2017).
It’s just a fact: Tesla has fallen way behind.
SOURCE | IMAGES: On The Run, via Electric Autonomy.
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Terawatt Infrastructure‘s first medium- and heavy-duty electric charging truck stop in California is now online, in Rancho Dominguez.
Located 12 miles north of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the private Rancho Dominguez site, which is shared among multiple fleets, will support electric trucking fleet operations in and out of the largest container ports in the US.
First customers include Dreaded Trucking, Hight Logistics, PepsiCo, Quick Container Drayage, Southern Counties Express, Tradelink Transport, and WestCoast Trucking & Warehousing.
Terawatt’s electric charging truck stop features 20 pull-through and bobtail DC fast charging stalls with a capacity of 7 megawatts (MW), enabling charging for up to 125 trucks per day using a simple reservations system. Terawatt’s site features a proprietary charge management system, in-house technicians, 24/7 customer service, and onsite parts management.
“This launch underscores growing collaboration between enterprises, shippers, carriers, and charging infrastructure providers to advance sustainable technologies across logistics and transportation operations, especially in the medium and heavy-duty sectors,” said Neha Palmer, CEO and cofounder of Terawatt. Palmer added that the company will bring another charging site online in Rialto, California, in June.
Terawatt joined some of the world’s largest shippers and carriers in September 2024 to launch the I-10 Consortium heavy-duty EV operations pilot, the “first-ever US over-the-road electrified corridor.” Terawatt is providing charging infrastructure, including software, operations, and maintenance support at six of its owned charging hubs along the I-10 corridor.
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In its most aggressive attack against offshore wind yet, the Trump administration halted the $5 billion Empire Wind 1, already under construction off New York’s coast.
Norwegian developer Equinor announced yesterday that it received notice from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) ordering Empire Wind 1 to halt all activities on the outer continental shelf until BOEM has completed its review. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted this tweet yesterday:
Burgum gave no indication of what insufficiencies there were in the approval process for the fully permitted offshore wind project, despite Trump’s recent declaration of a national energy emergency that speeds up permitting processes.
The commercial lease for the 810-megawatt (MW) Empire Wind 1’s federal offshore wind area was signed in March 2017 during the first Trump administration. It was approved by the Biden administration in November 2023 and began construction in 2024.
The project is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Empire Wind 1, which was due to come online in 2027, has the potential to power 500,000 New York homes.
“Halting construction of fully permitted energy projects is the literal opposite of an energy abundance agenda,” said American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet in a statement. “We encourage the administration to quickly address perceived inadequacies in the prior permit approvals so that this project can complete construction and bring much-needed power to the grid.”
As Electrek reported, Equinor secured $3 billion to finance Empire Wind 1 in January. The total amount drawn under the project finance term loan facility as of March 31 was around $1.5 billion.
As of March 31, Empire Wind has a gross book value of around $2.5 billion, including South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (pictured above), which was expected to become the US’s largest dedicated port facility for offshore wind.
In response to BOEM’s stop work order, New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued the following statement:
Every single day, I’m working to make energy more affordable, reliable and abundant in New York and the federal government should be supporting those efforts rather than undermining them. Empire Wind 1 is already employing hundreds of New Yorkers, including 1,000 good-paying union jobs as part of a growing sector that has already spurred significant economic development and private investment throughout the state and beyond.
As Governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand. I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future.
Equinor says it’s considering appealing BOEM’s order.
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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
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