The Oilholic writes this blog while taking in a view of Downtown Houston's Discovery Green from the Hilton's fourth floor glass windows with CERAWeek 2024 having concluded. There were loads of interesting deliberations, panels and debates aplenty on day(s) IV and V.  Alongside these, several emerging energy and cleantech technologies were showcased. But if yours truly were to pick one out for 2024 - then it was perhaps the delivery of near real-time methane monitoring services from high-altitude balloons and satellites that stood out.  For context, the scientific community is united ..read more

As the end of day III of CERAWeek nears, for the Oilholic one panel session stood out in particular - Oil Demand: How will it look in a decade? This emotive and extremely polarizing subject turned hot late last year after the International Energy Agency issued a forecast predicting a peaking of oil demand in the 2030s.  Naturally, OPEC blasted the IEA and said demand would continue to grow for many, many years. It also offered a bullish scenario of 116 million barrels per day in global oil demand by 2045.  If the Oilholic were to offer his tuppence, oil will indeed continue t ..read more

The Oilholic writes this blog well towards the end of the second day of CERAWeek with no sign of any OPEC ministers or the Secretary General of the producers' group. This is in stark contrast to previous years.  However, many of the bosses of their state-owned oil and gas companies are here in fine voice, most notably, Amin Nasser, CEO of Aramco, Nawaf Al-Sabah, CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, and Mele Kyari, CEO of Nigerian National Petroleum Company.  One notable absentee among their ranks was Sultan Al Jaber - the President of COP28, UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change and ..read more

The Oilholic is back in town for CERAWeek 2024 and the first day has been pretty interesting. Key moments included - Aramco's CEO Amin Nasser wanting the world to ditch "fantasy" economics of phasing out oil and gas (full report for Forbes here) and Shell's CEO Wael Sawan telling delegates there is way more politicisation of oil and gas than is necessary.  Sawan also took the opportunity to stress that Shell sees LNG as a massive opportunity. "We're heading for a multidimensional energy mix of the future. While we are stabilizing our oil business, we are actively growing our LNG busines ..read more

Looking like another rainy morning departure from @HeathrowAirport; waiting @British_Airways South Galleries Lounge for BA195 to Houston, watching hustle & bustle of airport. Cheers to a productive week ahead. Looking forward to meeting old friends & making news ones at #CERAWeek pic.twitter.com/WKR5DdXZfd — Gaurav Sharma (@The_Oilholic) March 17, 2024 Brent crude oil is lurking north of $85 per barrel as the Oilholic heads down south (from London) to Houston for CERAWeek 2024. The current level would make it a 4-month high. It's what two geopolitical variables and tight inventories ..read more

Earlier this month, The Oilholic had the pleasure of visiting industrial software firm AVEVA's London office for a long overdue meeting with its Chief Executive Officer Caspar Herzberg. Theme(s) of the riveting discussion, which extended way beyond the time allocated, touched on the proliferation of AI, IIoT, digital twin tech, big data and predictive analytics in the energy industry.  All have been exponentially deployed in recent years by major energy operators conscious of their carbon footprint. Many have done so in partnership with AVEVA and the pace of adoption is only going to a ..read more

Last week the Oilholic headed out for a rather unique site visit to the Brightlands Chemelot Campus - an innovation hub in Geleen, The Netherlands - where cleantech firm Coolbrook is running a pilot project premised on the idea of an 'electric factory.'  Yes indeed, you read that one correctly dear readers - an 'electric factory' concept that could in the fullness of time lead us to re-imagine the industrial complex and substantially lower the carbon footprint of heavy industries and petrochemical plants.  To make sense of it all, the company's CEO Joonas Rauramo kindly agreed to ex ..read more

Earlier this morning, The Oilholic had the pleasure of attending Economist Impact's 9th Annual Sustainability Week in London, albeit briefly, given commitments elsewhere in what is turning out to be a very hectic March.  In a day packed with interesting sessions, three of which this blogger found time to attend, the expected conjecture was that there aren't any viable commercial models to leave things as they are in a world facing climate change. So, should you buy that supposition, the next inevitable question is how to finance the energy transition? To this end, an afternoon session ..read more

Last week The Oilholic headed to sunny Scotland for a very interesting visit to one of OEG Energy's industrial sites in Aberdeen, with none other than its Chief Executive John Heiton.  The scene of the walkabout was the global mission critical offshore logistics group's state-of-the-art Cairnrobin chemical plant. This impressive six acre site, just south of Aberdeen's city centre, serves as OEG's storage, servicing and processing hub for a wide range of chemicals and aviation fuel on behalf of a veritable-who's-who of the energy business. It was fascinating to observe the place ..read more

In what's coming up to mid-February, oil benchmarks are largely holding on to geopolitical risk gains made since the start of the month. That's after the U.S. response to an attack on its military base in Jordan allegedly by Iranian-backed militia and Israel's rejection of a ceasefire in Gaza. Of late, Brent futures have found support around $80 per barrel mark but it remains to be seen whether the level will hold. For what its worth, the global proxy benchmark still remains in technical backwardation. It was though bemusing to read a recent Financial Times editorial declaring "The days ..read more