By Todd Petersen, Special to EnergiesNet
HOUSTON
EnergiesNet.com 03 19 2024
Energy executives, government officials and other dignitaries are gathered in Houston for CERAWeek. This year the theme is “Multidimensional Energy Transition: Markets, climate, technology and geopolitics.” It is a who’s who of professionals. The turnout is larger than in the last several years which were affected by COVID. There are people from 80 different countries.
CERAWeek has been divided in two for several years, CERA and innovation agora. Both are focused on energy, but agora leans more towards new fuels, technology, the cloud and AI. An example is AWS (Amazon Web Services) which has presentations about advancements in satellites, generative AI, edge computing, decarbonization to name a few different subjects.
In a session today we heard from the Hon. Jennifer M. Granholm, ex-Governor of Michigan and current Secretary of Energy, United States Department of Energy under the Biden Administration. She spoke on several subjects but focused on the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act). The main goal of the IRA is to clean up the environment. This can be accomplished by reducing carbon/methane emissions. The best way to do this is by eliminating fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Gasoline burning cars are large contributors to climate change and should be replaced by EV’s (electric vehicles). The Secretary mentioned the 17 National Lab’s that are under the DOE and their contribution to reducing climate warming. She also mentioned the National Labs are the largest employer of PHD’s.
The Secretary admitted that permitting is a challenge for new projects, but the Department has hired 800 project managers to speed up the approval process. AI should also help the process. She added that funding for AI and more government employees is being deployed as fast as possible. By cleaning up the environment the government is convinced that more jobs and manufacturing will be brought back to the USA and prices and inflation will come down.
When asked about energy security the Secretary mentioned recent international events which have brought our allies together and will lead to energy security.
There were several sessions focused on natural gas and LNG. In one, there were representatives from Sempra, Chevron and Trafigura. An infrastructure company, a major oil company, and a worldwide trading company. They covered gas molecules from start to finish. The general feeling was that natural gas was clean burning and a transition fuel to the future. The demand for energy will continue to increase, especially in developing countries. Long term growth will be in the Far East but midterm in Europe. Trafigura pointed out that the USA will also continue to grow given the price differentials. Today the price of natural gas is $1.70/MMBtu in the US and $9.00/MMBtu in Europe. This difference should make companies want to relocate and increase local demand.
When asked about the Biden Administration pause on approving LNG export projects, they all felt that it would only be temporary.
EnergiesNet.com 03 19 2024
