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By David Gaffen, Editor, Energy Markets

Hello Power Up readers! What change a week can bring. Crude oil prices were not long ago flirting with the $90-per-barrel mark (or at least, in striking distance), and now, Brent is just managing to crest $80 a barrel in a marked change in a short period of time. Let’s start with the world of natural gas, where one of the biggest buyers is doing some selling … 

Today’s top headlines:

• OPEC says oil market remains strong despite negative investment
• Chevron says resumes supplying customers from Israeli natgas field
• Iraq expects deal to resume Kurdistan oil output within three days

A liquified natural gas (LNG) tanker leaves the dock after discharge at PetroChina’s receiving terminal in Dalian, Liaoning province. REUTERS/Chen Aizhu

China is the world’s top importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – but lately it’s selling those cargoes, as Chen Aizhu, Emily Chow and Marwa Rashad report here. The country has recently struck a bunch of long-term supply deals with Qatar and U.S. exporters, so they’re now actively trading LNG more frequently. 

And right now, with demand a bit weak in China, they’re electing to sell – finding buyers in South Korea, Thailand, and several other nations. Chinese customs data shows that China reloaded 617,000 metric tons of imported LNG during the first nine months of this year, compared with 576,000 tons in all of 2022. It’s not a big part of their overall portfolio, but it’s more than nothing. 

I mean, it’s the COP28 logo in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

The United Nations’ annual COP28 climate negotiations are scheduled in a few weeks in Dubai – and many are increasingly worried about the lack of progress in keeping global temperatures from rising too much. So the United Arab Emirates, along with the U.S. and EU, are trying to rally countries to commit more to boosting renewables – which many look set to do, as Valerie Volcovici and Kate Abnett report here. 

There are more than 60 countries that back the deal, sources told Reuters, which is meant to boost renewables along with a pledge for the “phase down of unabated coal power,” according to a draft of the pledge. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel and is heavily relied-on in China, India and numerous emerging economies. Some major emerging economies like Nigeria, South Africa and Vietnam will join the pledge, the officials told Reuters.  

You can send this dormant oil rigs dead flowers in the morning. Dickinson, North Dakota. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen

The oilfield service giants that cater to U.S. shale oil and gas producers are much less positive on fourth quarter demand, as Arathy Somasekhar reports here, noting that producers are doing only enough to keep production flat and boost profit margins rather than expand operations.  

“Recovery hasn’t been quite what we or our customers had hoped for North America,” Clay Williams, CEO of the fourth-largest U.S. oil equipment and services supplier NOV Inc told investors two weeks ago. Consultancy Rystad Energy expects about 225 fracking fleets to be active in the U.S., excluding Alaska and Hawaii, in the fourth quarter, down from 230 in the third quarter. That’s even though overall U.S. crude output has reached all-time records of more than 13 million barrels per day – but it’s just that there’s no expectation that investment will increase.  

Those are Shell and Venture Global’s exhibition booths at the Gastech 2023 conference in Singapore. REUTERS/Florence Tan

Large global natural gas producers like BP, Edison and Shell want a U.S.-EU energy group to intervene in a dispute with liquefied natural gas exporter Venture Global LNG over the U.S. firm’s failure to deliver contract supplies of the fuel, as Gary McWilliams reports here. The three of them are among the customers in an arbitration battle over a lack of gas supplies from Venture Global, which says its plant in Louisiana is not fully operating because it is doing repairs on faulty power equipment. 

The companies reached out to the U.S.-EU Task Force on Energy Security last month to pressure the company to honor its contracts – and some went so far to suggest that the plant shouldn’t be allowed to operate. 

“We have enough energy resources, in this regard we feel at peace. The question is how much future attacks can affect supplies.” 

Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko, to Ukrainian national television, on the outlook for winter 

China has caught a lot of criticism for boosting coal capacity ahead of COP28, but no matter – they’re also guaranteeing payments to coal-fired power producers, as Andrew Hayley and Colleen Howe report here, in order to maintain stability of supply even as they try to boost renewable energy installations.  

The move was largely anticipated by analysts and means coal plants in most regions can recover around 30% of their capital costs between 2024 and 2025, the nation’s state planner said. The companies will receive a payment based on their capacity installed – and boosts grid flexibility, analysts said, even as others said it risks making China’s inefficient coal power a bigger part of the energy system. 

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