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By David Gaffen, Editor, Energy Markets

Hello Power Up readers! The oil market continues its back-and-forth in the quietest part of the year, but the real action is taking place in Oz, where the threat of a strike at Chevron LNG facilities is growing louder. Let’s take a look at that first.  

Today’s top headlines:

• Thyssenkrupp’s Nucera targets growth to meet green hydrogen demand
• Sinopec not interested in acquiring Shell’s Singapore assets
• Eni begins oil and gas production at Ivory Coast Baleine field

That’s the Chevron logo at the LNG 2023 energy trade show in Vancouver. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

A third group of workers at Chevron’s major liquefied natural gas facilities in Australia just voted to strike – joining two others that had already authorized such action – that could disrupt the supply of the super-cooled fuel if the strike does take place, as Lewis Jackson reports here.  

Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone facilities in Western Australia, along with Woodside Energy Group’s projects in the same area, account for about 10% global LNG supply. Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of the fuel, which is used primarily in Asia and Europe for power and heating as many nations attempt to reduce their reliance on coal or oil. The 37 workers at the Wheatstone offshore platform that decided in favor of industrial action now make it more likely a strike could take place. 

The Offshore Alliance (OA), which combines the Maritime Union of Australia and Australian Workers’ Union, now has the mandate to engage in stoppages – though they are not obligated to do so. Last week, more than 99% of the 450 or so workers at Chevron’s Gorgon LNG facility and Wheatstone’s downstream processing facility voted to allow unions to call strikes.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

The biggest refiners in India aren’t afraid of declining fossil fuel demand eventually, especially as demand keeps rising in one of the world’s largest consumers of oil. Reliance Industries, which operates the world’s biggest refining complex located in western India, expects to keep operating its refineries and petrochemical projects profitably despite the move to cleaner energy, Chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Friday, as Nidhi Verma reports.

“We have already put in place a comprehensive strategy to ensure that all our investments and all our assets remain not just safe, but actually become profitable even as fossil fuel demand wanes,” Ambani said. 

Separately, Indian refiner Bharat Petroleum has $18 billion in spending plans on growing its oil business and expanding its renewable energy portfolio, Chairman G Krishnakumar said on Monday. India is the third-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, and while it is investing tons in greener tech, it is also spending heavily on fossil fuel development to boost petrochemical and fuel processing capacities as demand rises.

Brent crude’s been bouncing around after trying to push to $90. (Graphic by David Gaffen)

Oil continues its meandering ways, buffeted on one side by the weakness in Chinese economic figures and problems with that nation’s property sector that is sapping consumption, and OPEC’s efforts to hold down supply. Brent crude had at one point neared $85 a barrel but that rally has since fizzled out, even though numerous experts believe crude stocks are likely to decline in coming months.  

Two weeks ago, Brent got close to $88 a barrel but it has since backed off a bit. Demand in the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer, has remained strong, but its production has also continued to rise. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is expected to extend its voluntary oil output cut of 1 million barrels per day into October, analysts told Reuters last week.

Why is this man smiling? That’s Bernard Looney, BP CEO, big on the energy transition. Or not.  REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Bernard Looney, CEO of BP, has moderated his tone of late. Whereas he once was singing the gospel of energy transition, now his tune is closer to “all of the above” given he runs a giant oil and gas company. Looney in India over the weekend said the world must keep investing in oil and gas to avoid sharp price spikes while also pushing the energy transition, as Nidhi Verma and Mohi Narayan report here.  

Global gas prices were up sharply in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and since then European oil CEOs who talked a big game about transition have backed off from their aggressive stance. Looney is among those, as he now says that “we need to invest in today’s energy system responsibly and, at the same time, we must invest in accelerating the energy transition.” Looney said his company would invest 40% of its capital on energy transition projects by the middle of this decade and 50% by the end of the decade.  

“We were surprised and disappointed that the County of Maui rushed to court even before completing its own investigation.”  

Shelee Kimura, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, on Maui’s decision to sue the utility following the devastating wildfires on the island. 

A storage tank fire at a Marathon Petroleum oil refinery that had triggered temporary evacuations of residents was still smoldering over the weekend after two giant tanks of naphtha caught fire on Friday at the Garyville, Louisiana, plant. The refinery is the third largest in the U.S., with a capacity to process nearly 600,000 barrels per day of oil. Officials had to evacuate in a two-mile radius after the fire started, as Gary McWilliams reports here. 

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