IEA presents the mortality and other benefits if coal, oil, and gas clamp down quickly on methane emissions: A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), published in tandem with the United Nations Environment Programme and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, has outlined how significant health benefits alongside cost savings of US$260 billion could accrue if the fossil fuel sector undertakes “immediate, targeted” steps to reduce methane emissions. ‘The Imperative of Cutting Methane from Fossil Fuels’ report calculates that cuts to emissions could lead to the prevention of nearly one million premature deaths due to ozone exposure, 90 million tonnes of crop losses, and about 85 billion hours of lost labor — equivalent to 41 million full-time jobs — due to heat exposure by 2050. Reduced ozone exposure, the report states, would also avoid nearly 3 million asthma-related emergency room visits and 50–60,000 hospital admissions for people aged 65 and over. Coal, oil, and gas operations were each responsible in 2022 for roughly 40 million tonnes (Mt) of methane emissions out of total global emissions of approximately 580 Mt. “The fossil fuel sector likely holds the largest potential for rapid and low-cost reductions in methane emissions,” the report argues, while further estimating that “more than 80 Mt of annual methane emissions from fossil fuels can be avoided by 2030 using existing technologies, often at low — or even negative — cost.” (IEA [Pdf], Bloomberg)

More than half of Biden administration “clean hydrogen hub” picks feature gas: Spread across 16 states and set to collectively receive US$7 billion in federal funding, the U.S. Department of Energy’s much-anticipated selection of seven “clean hydrogen hubs” has been met with a torrent of criticism from clean energy and environmental groups. Among the concerns is that the heavy presence of gas in the hub plans will undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While details remain relatively scarce for now, and with most of the hubs planning to involve the production of hydrogen from two or more sources, the broad outline is that five of the seven winning proposals include the manufacture of green hydrogen from renewable energy, two will produce pink hydrogen from nuclear power, while four will see blue hydrogen derived from gas with carbon capture and storage. The White House expressed confidence that the public subsidies will help to catalyze more than US$40 billion in private investments for the hubs. The industries expected to use the hydrogen range from chemicals and fertilizer production to shipping, trucking and power generation, according to officials. Each of the hubs features a mix of private sector groups and U.S. state governments. Among the winning consortia members, and further amplifying the criticism of the funding scheme, are ExxonMobil, Chevron, Xcel Energy, Marathon Petroleum, and TC Energy. (Hydrogen Insight, Canary Media, E&E News, Hydrogen Insight)

U.S. gas plant plans rub up against environmental and social justice: A gas-fired power plant planned for an already polluted low-income area in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which has been opposed by a wide coalition of residents and environmental and social justice (ESJ) groups, has been canceled by its promoter. Competitive Power Ventures, which already operates a gas plant in Woodford Township, attributed its decision to poor market conditions and the non-availability of subsidies from New Jersey state. Meanwhile, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast a rise this year in additional U.S. gas-fired generation capacity, in South Memphis the ESJ battle against gas power further intensified as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced more new plant plans in a highly climate-vulnerable community. TVA’s latest 200 megawatt (MW) proposal adds to its announcement over the last 12 months of 6,100 MW of new gas generation, part of the utility’s planned US$15 billion gas spending spree in the next three years. (Associated Press, U.S. Energy Information Administration, WPLN News, Southern Environmental Law Center)

The perils of industry self-reporting: A freedom of information request to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the UK’s main offshore regulator, has revealed that oil and gas companies operating in the area are largely left to submit their own extraction and emissions data. While North Sea licenses awarded to companies contain rules on both how much oil and gas can be extracted and the amount of emissions produced in the process, the NSTA responded to the investigative news outlet DeSmog that it “does not undertake offshore inspections to ensure compliance with production consents” and instead defers responsibility to companies to declare if they breach production limits. As for emissions, North Sea companies are expected to self-report while receiving annual reminders of their obligations from the NSTA. In an echo of this light touch regulatory environment across the Atlantic, academic researchers in Pittsburgh have uncovered major discrepancies between the volumes of toxic and radioactive waste that oil and gas operators in the state of Pennsylvania reported they’d sent to landfills and what the landfills reported receiving. An assessment of records for 2019 found that around 800,000 tons of hazardous waste from Pennsylvania oil and gas wells was “missing” due, the researchers argue, to industry self-reporting and understaffing at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. (DeSmog, Environmental Health News) 

Mountain Valley Pipeline construction and protests continue: As the promoters of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) strain to complete its construction in the U.S. state of Virginia before the end of the year, legal challenges and protests against the US$6.6 billion gas project are continuing. Virginia landowners, led by Cletus and Beverly Bohon, have filed an emergency motion calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to immediately stop the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the pipeline developer from acquiring their property. Three protestors this week became the latest to be arrested by Virginia State Police after locking themselves on to equipment at an MVP worksite. With construction still required to cross more than 300 water bodies along the pipeline’s route, questions backed by photographic evidence are also being asked about the quality of the corrosion-proof coating on pipe sections that remain to be buried. (The Roanoke Times, Politico, WDBJ7.com, Common Dreams)

New documents show how U.S. gas industry cooked up confusion to avoid stove regulations: Going back to “Operation Attack” in the late 1960s, an American Gas Association-led campaign to reverse a trend toward electric cooking ranges, newly uncovered documents have shed more light on the gas industry’s long history of using tobacco industry-style tactics to sow doubt about research linking gas stoves and respiratory illness and to fend off regulation. As awareness of the detrimental effects of nitrogen dioxide produced from gas stoves grew, such as increased risk of asthma in children, the U.S. gas utility industry set about flagging uncertainties for the public, according to an investigation by NPR and the Climate Investigations Center, and often relied on compliant researchers and public relations firms who were also assisting the tobacco industry to obfuscate scientific research. The industry’s success in blocking consumer protection efforts in the past is now being replicated by a similar but intensified strategic drive as the warnings from scientific studies grow louder and a number of U.S. state authorities have indicated their intention to get tough on or ban domestic gas appliances to meet climate goals. (NPR)

Australia: Following Woodside Energy’s legal defeat in September over seismic blasting for its Scarborough gas project, the company’s chief executive, Meg O’Neill, has called for the federal government to urgently overhaul its environmental approval process for offshore gas developments. 

China: Oil major Sinopec intends to become the latest international company to file an official complaint against U.S. company Venture Global LNG for failing to honor its export contracts at the Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana. 

France: The world’s first turbine that can run on pure hydrogen, gas, and any mix of the two has been successfully tested by a European consortium led by Siemens Energy. 

France: Announced in a blaze of publicity last year, French industry voices are expressing doubts about the prospects of the BarMar hydrogen pipeline project proposed to link Spain and France.

Iran: Oil Minister, Javad Owji, has announced a significant gas discovery in Fars Province, reportedly the largest dry gas field ever recorded in the country.

Japan: The head of trading house Mitsui, one of Japan’s top LNG traders, believes that the current global pipeline of LNG supply projects under development won’t be enough to satisfy stronger than expected demand for the fuel over several decades. 

Lebanon: Exploration work carried out since August by TotalEnergies, Eni, and QatarEnergy at the offshore Block 9, next to the newly delineated maritime border between Lebanon and Israel, failed to find gas, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

Norway: KLP, the influential Norwegian pension fund and one of Equinor’s largest shareholders, is calling on the government to halt the opening of new oil and gas fields, arguing that current expansion plans are inconsistent with global climate goals and not a good long-term investment.

Norway: ConocoPhillips has started production from the Tommeliten A field in the North Sea six months early. 

Qatar: In a similar deal to that agreed with TotalEnergies last week, QatarEnergy has signed two 27-year supply agreements with Shell for up to 3.5 million tonnes a year of LNG starting in 2026. The LNG will be delivered to the Gate LNG terminal in the port of Rotterdam.

UK: A group of independent government advisors has warned the UK government that gas boilers, which currently heat around 88% of buildings in England, need to be phased out and replaced by heat pumps in order to meet net zero goals.  

New data forecast booming oil and gas investments post-energy crisis: A “base-case” scenario from BloombergNEF has forecast that global investments in oil and gas will hit a record high of US$880 billion this year as a result of the windfall profits amassed across the sector during the 2022 energy crisis. From this year’s high, spending in the sector is expected to decline gradually through 2050 though will likely remain at an elevated level. Under BloombergNEF’s net zero scenario, investment in the sector reaches a low of US$165 billion by 2050, a still significant amount needed to meet future demand, especially from non-energy applications such as petrochemicals and materials. The research company also calculated disaggregated investment totals for 2022 across the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors, with US$501 billion going to oil supply and US$260 billion to gas supply. (Upstream)

Latest strike threat averted but Chevron’s Gorgon terminal under investigation for biodiversity destruction: Chevron’s problems with Australian LNG workers may be over after an eleventh hour deal averted the resumption of strike action this week, but the U.S. company is facing fresh headaches as Western Australia’s environmental regulator probes potentially illegal environmental failures at the Gorgon LNG export terminal on the Barrow Island nature reserve. A carbon capture and storage facility attached to the A$88 billion (US$55 billion) project has notoriously failed to function properly over the last seven years. Now the state’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation is undertaking three investigations into the terminal’s role in the erosion of nesting sites for vulnerable flatback turtles, contamination of soil and water with the toxic “forever chemical” PFAS from firefighting foam, and breaches of quarantine measures intended to preserve the island’s ecosystem. (Reuters, WAtoday)

Hungary and Serbia accuse Bulgaria of “adversarial step” over Russian gas transit tax: A joint statement from the Hungarian and Serbian governments has hit back at Sofia’s rapid introduction of a significantly steep €10 (US$10.76) fee per megawatt-hour — a 20% price hike — for transiting Russian gas that enters Bulgaria from Türkiye via the TurkStream pipeline for further shipment to southern Europe. The statement described the move as “an adversarial step against Hungary and Serbia.” Indications from Bulgaria, which stopped importing Russian gas for domestic use last year after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, are that the new fee is aimed at reducing Gazprom profits while also encouraging Hungary and Serbia, two of Europe’s most pro-Russian governments, to look elsewhere for gas supplies. “Because most Gazprom contracts are priced at the point of delivery in a given country, the tax will most likely have no impact on gas prices downstream,” commented Asen Vassilev, Bulgaria’s finance minister. “It will only reduce Gazprom profits.” Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic has disagreed, describing an “appalling” price increase that would be taken up directly with Sofia. (Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times [Paywall], Business New Europe) 

Conflict casts doubt over ADNOC–BP US$2 billion East Med gas deal: In spite of public statements that they remain committed to acquiring Israeli gas producer NewMed Energy, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and BP are facing increasing uncertainty about the deal following the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The joint bid for NewMed, which owns a 45% stake in Leviathan and 30% in Aphrodite, two major East Mediterranean fields, has been seen as cementing the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. However, a recommendation from an independent committee in early October for ADNOC and BP to raise their US$2 billion bid by 10–20% was badly received by the companies, according to industry sources. With negotiations currently in limbo, NewMed’s share price has dropped by almost 20% since the conflict began. (Reuters, Energy Intelligence, World Oil)

EBRD takes emergency gas financing for Moldova to €500 million: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced it is providing a new €199 million (US$210 million) finance package to allow Moldova to procure gas from the EU. The multilateral development bank said that this additional gas financing for Moldova, following a €300 million loan arranged last year for strategic gas acquisitions, would allow the country to diversify its gas supply. Most of Moldova’s gas imports have come from Gazprom, with which it has a contract that expires in 2026, but which are vulnerable to potential interruption as a result of the war in Ukraine. Historically, the EBRD has invested more than €2 billion in 168 Moldovan projects, including a €20 million equity investment in 2020 to support a now operating gas interconnector between Romania and Moldova. In 2022, the bank made record high investments of €13.1 billion across the 38 countries in which it offers financing. (EBRD, GEM.wiki) 

Prospective Beetaloo fracker announces tax haven move: Amid doubts over its financial health and growing opposition to its plans to extract and export gas from the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin, the U.S. fracking company Tamboran Resources has notified the Australian stock exchange of its intention to create a new parent company that will be domiciled in the U.S. state of Delaware, one of the world’s biggest tax havens. In 2022, Australia’s previous federal government provided Tamboran with an A$7.5 million (US$4.7 million) taxpayer grant to support gas exploration in the Beetaloo, though there have been recent reports of disappointing results from the company’s exploratory fracking in the basin’s fields. Following the announcement of the Delaware move, Frack Free NT’s Phil Scott called on the company to return the federal subsidy. “There is massive public opposition to fracking in the NT, the Beetaloo is a very remote place, making operations very expensive, and there are early signs to suggest Tamboran is not delivering the results it expected,” Scott said. “It will be far harder for the Australian public to scrutinize Tamboran’s corporate activity if it is successful in delisting.” (Michael West Media)

Gas versus coal emissions calculator, RMI, October 11, 2023.

A new online calculator allows users to determine the emissions parity between specific gas and coal resources and operations worldwide. 

Misguided: U.S. Supports Financing of Fossil Gas at World Bank Group, Friends of the Earth US et al, October 17, 2023. [Pdf]

This 54-page report describes how the U.S. Department of the Treasury has flouted criteria it established only two years ago in its subsequent support for gas plant projects — two in Mozambique, one in Bangladesh, and one in Uzbekistan — financed by the World Bank Group.