Recycling Renewables and Sustainable Business 44

Friday, July 17, 2020

Recycling Renewables and Sustainable Business 44

1          Value of storage goes up with share of renewables but costs declines still vital
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/value-of-storage-goes-up-with-share-of-renewables-but-costs-declines-still

The value of energy storage increases with growing shares of renewable energy on the grid, but the availability and cost of storage will determine how successful decarbonisation with renewables can be.

That’s one of the key takeaways of a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment (ACEE), supported by General Electric (GE). Researchers examined battery storage to determine the key drivers behind its present economic value, as well as the likely dynamics of what happens when deployment increases and what that implies for the long-term cost-effectiveness of energy storage.

2          Data Science: The Key Tool Cities Need To Reduce Carbon Emissions
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ankitmishra/2020/07/13/data-science-the-key-tool-cities-need-to-reduce-carbon-emissions/

In November 2019, the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Wuhan, China. During the early days of the outbreak, local authorities attempted to clamp downon sharing information about the virus, but as the transmission strengthened in the region, the government imposed lockdown measures across China’s Hubei province to control the spread of Covid-19. On January 22, Wuhan became the first major city under quarantine, and in the months that followed, many cities followed suit that caused a shock to the global economy. In June, the OECD projected that the global economy would contract by 6% this year if the second wave of the virus is avoided. However, in the case of a second outbreak, the global economy would contract to 7.6%.

3          Smart Cities Will Revolutionize Energy Consumption After The Pandemic
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Smart-Cities-Will-Revolutionize-Energy-Consumption-After-The-Pandemic.html

Technology and innovation are an integral part of helping cities to make more efficient use of energy, while many parts of the world are moving toward increased environmental awareness and a strategic push to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

During the pandemic, governments are using investment in technology to help curb the spread of the coronavirus and to help the economy after the COVID-19 fallout, ARC Advisory Group said earlier this month. Despite the current headwinds, many cities continue to pursue investment in ‘smart city’ technology, which could be a boon to economic recovery, the advisory said.

4          Hydrogen: The great energy hope, or a whole lot of hype?
https://reneweconomy.com.au/hydrogen-the-great-energy-hope-or-a-whole-lot-of-hype-16691/
Hydrogen has some very large difficulties to overcome if it is to be successful as an export fuel for electricity production in Asia.

It’s very likely that every Asian country will want to be as energy independent as possible. Locally produced wind and solar [VRE] offers energy independence, but for many Asian countries the land mass or population density does not suit the mass deployment of solar or wind in the way we are rolling it out in Australia. Hence some hydrogen hype.

5          Why The Hydrogen Boom Is Good News For Natural Gas
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Fuel-Cells/Why-The-Hydrogen-Boom-Is-Good-News-For-Natural-Gas.html

After decades of stagnation and multiple false dawns, the hydrogen economy is finally taking off, with some experts predicting that hydrogen could become a globally-traded energy source, just like oil and gas. A growing number of countries and industries are proactively investing in hydrogen technologies; none, however, can rival the EU’s zeal.

The European Union has set out its new hydrogen strategy as part of its goal to achieve carbon neutrality for all its industries by 2050.

6          Is This The Best Way To Produce Cheap Hydrogen?
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Fuel-Cells/Is-This-The-Best-Way-To-Produce-Cheap-Hydrogen.html
When the European Union recently announced large-scale hydrogen production plans as part of its green energy future, many in the solar, wind, and natural gas industry rejoiced. But there is also an emerging avenue for hydrogen production and its rubbish. Literally.

7          World’s largest oil firm joins alliance to reduce industry’s carbon emissions
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/16/worlds-largest-oil-firm-joins-alliance-to-reduce-industrys-carbon-emissions

The world’s biggest oil company, Saudi Aramco, has joined an alliance of oil companies to set the first industry-wide target to help tackle the climate crisis by setting carbon emissions goals.

Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant has agreed to reduce the carbon intensity of its business as part of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) which includes Shell, BP and ExxonMobil.

8          G20 Commits $Billions to Energy
https://www.rigzone.com/news/g20_commits_billions_to_energy-16-jul-2020-162735-article/
G20 countries have committed at least $267.1 billion to support different energy types through new or amended policies since the beginning of the pandemic, as of July 15, according to energypolicytracker.org.

These commitments include $120.56 billion for unconditional fossil fuels, through 129 policies, $72.22 billion for conditional clean energy, through 47 policies, and $30.25 billion for conditional fossil fuels, through 16 policies. They also include $27.66 billion for other energy, through 28 policies, and $16.41 billion for unconditional clean energy, through 47 policies.

9          French developer sees opportunity in using U.S. coal plant transmission infrastructure for solar projects
https://ieefa.org/french-developer-sees-opportunity-in-using-u-s-coal-plant-transmission-infrastructure-for-solar-projects/

A utility-scale solar developer is acquiring land rights near U.S. coal-fired power plants, hoping the facilities will close sooner than expected and open up lucrative transmission connections.

Photosol US, a subsidiary of a French company, has purchased options near plants in Nebraska and Kansas, as well as the San Juan Generating Station in northern New Mexico. While the San Juan plant has approval from state regulators to shut down in 2022, the Nebraska and Kansas plants, completed in the early 1980s, do not have retirement dates.

10        Improving electric vehicle economics
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/making-electric-vehicles-profitable

The future looks bright for electric-vehicle (EV) growth. Consumers are more willing than ever to consider buying EVs, and sales are rising fast. Most major markets have consistently registered 50 to 60 percent growth in recent years, albeit from small bases. More new models from a growing cadre of automotive OEMs make finding a suitable EV easier: in 2018 alone OEMs launched about 100 new models and sold two million units in total globally. Likewise, performance improvements continue with respect to range, performance, and reliability. Regulations in major car markets—namely China, the European Union, and the United States—compel OEMs to produce more EVs and encourage consumers to buy them.

11        The Biofuel Boom Was Doomed From The Start
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Biofuels/The-Biofuel-Boom-Was-Doomed-From-The-Start.html
Why haven’t biofuels taken off? For years they have been touted as the fuel of the future, with high-profile commercial aircraft making headlines for pioneering all-biofuel international flights and promising a greener future for air travel. The first transatlantic flight powered solely by biofuel, a Gulfstream G450 owned by Honeywell International Inc., took place nearly a decade ago, in 2011, and was lauded as a harbinger of green jet fuel for all.

12        Car tyres are major source of ocean microplastics
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyres-are-major-source-of-ocean-microplastics-study

More than 200,000 tonnes of tiny plastic particles are blown from roads into the oceans every year, according to research.

The study suggests wind-borne microplastics are a bigger source of ocean pollution than rivers, the route that has attracted most attention to date. The analysis focused on the tiny particles produced by tyres and brake pads as they wear down.

It estimated that 550,000 tonnes of particles smaller than 0.01mm are deposited each year, with almost half ending up in the ocean. More than 80,000 tonnes fall on remote ice- and snow-covered areas and may increase melting as the dark particles absorb the sun’s heat.

13        More bad news for BPA: Novel analysis adds to evidence of chemical’s health effects
https://www.ehn.org/bpa-effects-on-human-health-2646417888.html
Exposure to minuscule amounts of bisphenol-A can cause a multitude of health problems, including effects on the developing brain, heart, and ovaries, according to a paper published on Thursday that integrates data from several animal studies.

14        Summers could become ‘too hot for humans’
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53415298
Millions of people around the world could be exposed to dangerous levels of heat stress – a dangerous condition which can cause organs to shut down.

Many live in developing countries, and do jobs that expose them to potentially life threatening conditions.

These include being out in the open on farms and building sites or indoors in factories and hospitals.

15        Joe Biden Promises ‘Historic Investments’ In Clean Energy
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Joe-Biden-Promises-Historic-Investments-In-Clean-Energy.html
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden proposed a $2 trillion clean energy and climate change package on Tuesday, a plan that would overhaul transportation, electricity, and heavy industry. Some of the highlights include making the entire electricity sector 100 percent carbon-free by 2035, retrofitting four million buildings over four years, building 500,000 EV recharging stations, and funding for researching a variety of carbon capture and storage as well as advanced nuclear power technologies.

16        Methane rises to highest level on record
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/livestock-farming-and-fossil-fuels-could-drive-4c-global-heat-rise

Animal farming and fossil fuels have driven global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane to the highest level on record, putting the world on track for dangerously increased heat levels of 3C to 4C.

Since 2000 discharges of the odourless, colourless gas have risen by more than 50m tonnes a year, equivalent to 350m cars or double the total emissions of Germany or France, according to the latest Methane Budget study by a global team of scientists.

17        Say Hello to the Biggest Battery in America (for Now)
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/say-hello-to-the-new-biggest-battery-in-the-us
Things are moving fast in the grid battery industry — and nowhere faster than California.

That’s where LS Power, a private equity firm that develops grid infrastructure, hooked up the new most powerful battery in the country last month.

The Gateway Energy Storage Project turned on an initial tranche of 62.5 megawatts/62.5 megawatt-hours near San Diego on June 9, according to the California Independent System Operator.

18        Offshore wind energy investment quadruples despite Covid-19 slump
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/13/offshore-wind-energy-investment-quadruples-despite-covid-19-slump

Global offshore wind investment more than quadrupled in the first half of the year even as the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented economic shock.

A report has found that investors gave the greenlight to 28 new offshore windfarmsworth a total of $35bn (£28bn) this year, four times more than in the first half of 2019 and well above the total for last year as a whole.

19        IHS Markit: Oil and Gas Operations Turn to Renewables
https://solarindustrymag.com/ihs-markit-oil-and-gas-operations-turn-to-renewables
Oil and gas companies are starting to utilize zero-carbon sources to reduce carbon emissions associated with operations, according to a new database and analysis by IHS Markit of these types of renewable energy projects.

“There is a striking pace of growth over the past few years and a dynamic commercial environment for delivering renewable energy to oil and gas operations,” says Judson Jacobs, executive director of upstream energy at IHS Markit.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 73

Friday, July 17, 2020

Business Intelligence and Analytics 73

1          Data Science, Quarantined
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/data-science-quarantined/
The economic impact of COVID-19 is unprecedented, dramatically changing markets and prospects for economic growth. Supply chains, transportation, food processing, retail, e-commerce, and many other industries have transformed overnight. Unemployment in the U.S. has reached levels unknown in recent memory, and GDP is expected to fall around the world. As one economic journalist summed up the situation: “Nearly everything in the world is super-weird and disrupted right now.”

2          The Future of Data Analytics -Big Data Analytics News
https://bigdataanalyticsnews.com/low-code-platforms-future-of-data-analytics/
In this modern age, advancement in the field of computer sciences demands an easier approach to building new applications. Thankfully, the answer lies in low-code development. As low-coding development environment makes non-coders to develop applications without facing difficulties. The future of low-code platforms is improving which eliminates the progression of the hard side of coding. The trend of low coding is now evolving towards data sciences and analytics. It can reduce the pressure on the IT teams with minimal code. Low code reduces time, cost, and power for developing applications.

3          AI Transformation — Take Baby Steps or It Will Fail
https://medium.com/@nurit.coheninger/ai-transformation-take-baby-steps-or-it-will-fail-574b088863f
There are no shortcuts when it comes to understanding the value of AI in transforming your organization. First, assess how the benefits of this technology will meet your organization’s strategy. One way of doing this is by choosing the most frequent processes and analyzing ways to reduce costs. Another way is to look for a competitive advantage and create an enlargement of your revenuethrough automation.

4          The great acceleration
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-great-acceleration

The fault lines between industries and business models that we understood intellectually before the COVID-19 crisis have now become giant fissures, separating the old reality from the new one. Just as an earthquake produces a sudden release of pent-up force, the economic shock set off by the pandemic has accelerated and intensified trends that were already underway. The result is a dramatic widening of the gap between those at the top and the bottom of the power curve of economic profit 1 —the winners and losers in the global corporate-performance race.

5          Technology in the Pandemic: Recreate the Office or Repurpose It?
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/technology-in-the-pandemic-recreate-the-office-or-repurpose-it/
In the office, we socialize on the fly, flit from meeting to meeting seamlessly, and establish routines and patterns that not only work for us but jell with those of others. One of the important decisions that managers confront now, as working remotely becomes standard practice, is how to use technology to recreate these dynamics. Should they attempt to replicate life as it was in brick-and-mortar offices, or does the drastic switch to virtual work necessitate that they try something different?

6          Speaking Truth to Power 2.0 — Taking a Stand as an Agile Practitioner
https://www.business2community.com/strategy/speaking-truth-to-power-2-0-taking-a-stand-as-an-agile-practitioner-02327345

Do you need an emergency fund as a change agent—whether you are acting as Scrum Master, Product Owner, or agile coach—because conflict is inevitable, but change is not? Speaking truth to power probably comes at a price.

In my experience, speaking truth to power, pointing at the emperor’s new clothes and the reality in the trenches, is necessary a trait for every change agent — including Scrum Masters and agile coaches — in organizations that lack strong leadership.

7          Unlocking enterprise efficiencies through zero-based design
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/unlocking-enterprise-efficiencies-through-zero-based-design

Across virtually every industry, startups are gaining ground, if not disrupting the status quo, with new operating models that allow them to design, test, and scale better products and services, faster than ever. This ability has raised customer expectations, putting added pressure on incumbent businesses.

Of course, startups have an innate advantage: a clean slate from which to design operations and processes. Incumbents, on the other hand, contend with rigid and ingrained processes and systems, and a well-worn, usually siloed, organizational structure that slows decision making.

8          How to choose between a Linear or Nonlinear Regression for your dataset
https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-choose-between-a-linear-or-nonlinear-regression-for-your-dataset-e58a568e2a15

Any Data Scientist starts their journey with regression analysis because it forms the basics of all predictive modeling and one can easily connect with the math and stats behind the scenes which is essential for any Machine Learning model. It is also necessary to know the different varieties of regression techniques to implement on your dataset to attain good accuracy with minimum error rate

9          ANOVA vs Regression in One Picture
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/anova-vs-regression-in-one-picture
If you scour the internet for “ANOVA vs Regression”, you might be confused by the results. Are they the same? Or aren’t they? The answer is that they can be the same procedure, if you set them up to be that way. But there are differences between the two methods. This one picture sums up those differences.

10        Lean management or agile? The right answer may be both
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/lean-management-or-agile-the-right-answer-may-be-both

Has there even been a time when customers were more demanding of the companies serving them? Industry 4.0 technologies—many barely imaginable only a decade ago—have already enabled genuine breakthroughs in cost, convenience, and customization, creating extraordinary value for buyers while raising the performance bar for producers ever higher.

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 72

Friday, July 10, 2020

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 72

1          Monday Was A No-Good, Terrible, Very Bad Day For The Pipeline Business
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2020/07/07/monday-was-a-no-good-terrible-very-bad-day-for-the-pipeline-business/

Monday was a no good, terrible, very bad day for the midstream sector of the domestic oil and gas industry.

First, Dominion and Duke Energy announced over the weekend that they have cancelled plans to complete the $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. The pipeline would have carried natural gas produced in the Marcellus Shale region across the Appalachian Mountains to markets a long the East coast of the U.S.

The cancellation of the project comes weeks after the companies had actually won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that gave them the right to build the pipeline underneath the Appalachian Trail, a route that anti-development groups had opposed. But that expensive litigation helped to increase costs related to the project to levels that would have diminished its profitability.

2          Oil Market Recovery Threatened By Weaker Fuel Demand
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Oil-Market-Recovery-Threatened-By-Weaker-Fuel-Demand.html
Gasoline demand appears to be weakening in some parts of the United States, as the coronavirus continues to spread. The states hardest hit by the surging number of infections are also some of the largest, with tens of millions of drivers. Much of the country continues to see a slight uptick in gasoline consumption. But in Arizona, Texas and Florida, where the coronavirus is raging, a growing number of people are staying home. Cases are rising in more than 30 states.

3          Global recession will hasten refinery rationalisation
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-kemp-idUSKBN2481WD
Coronavirus and the cyclical slump in petroleum consumption are accelerating a long-term rationalisation of the global refining industry and a shift eastwards in its centre of gravity to Asia.

Refinery margins for making middle distillates such as gasoil and jet fuel have plunged to their lowest since 2009 as lockdowns and recession have cut fuel consumption by millions of barrels per day.

Much of this is cyclical and will unwind if and when the major economies and their fuel consumption recover and stocks of gasoline and diesel return to more normal levels.

4          Did COVID Kill LNG Natural Gas Dreams?
https://www.fxempire.com/forecasts/article/did-covid-kill-lng-natural-gas-dreams-660124
The current minimum amount of positive figures or green shoots are swiftly removed by new depressing figures of crude oil stock volumes in USA or lower estimates of OECD and MENA region GDP figures for 2020. The total impact is still unclear, but one thing has become obvious, energy demand and supply is under pressure, but not yet balancing out the right way.

At present, the main focus when talking about energy demand destruction is on crude oil and its products. Clearly, oil is struggling, but its sister, natural gas is totally on life-support.

5          Multibillion-dollar gas projects in jeopardy as global market collapses
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/07/multibillion-dollar-gas-projects-in-jeopardy-as-global-market-collapses

Plans for new terminals may be abandoned because of glut of fossil fuel supply, says study

A multibillion-dollar pipeline of projects aiming to ship gas around the world on giant tankers could be in jeopardy because of a collapse in the global gas market, according to a report.

A study by Global Energy Monitor has found that spending on new gas terminals needed to ship super-chilled liquified natural gas (LNG) on seaborne tankers has more than doubled in the past year, from $82.8bn (£66.3bn) to $196.1bn.

6          U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico set to rise with completion of the Wahalajara system
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44278
Exports of natural gas by pipeline are the largest component of U.S. natural gas trade, accounting for 40% of all U.S. gross natural gas exports in 2019. EIA expects these exports to increase with the completion of the southern-most segment of the Wahalajara system, the Villa de Reyes-Aguascalientes-Guadalajara (VAG) pipeline. VAG began operations in June 2020, connecting new demand markets in Mexico to U.S. natural gas pipeline exports.

7          Making The Most Of Low Prices: A Short Guide For Natural Gas Importers
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2020/07/08/making-the-most-of-low-prices-a-short-guide-for-natural-gas-importers/

Prices of natural gas have fallen precipitously in recent months as the global COVID-19 pandemic deepened the already existing misalignment between growing supply and relatively sluggish demand. Post-COVID-19 recovery should increase the demand through 2022, but a soft market is expected to continue through 2025. These conditions could provide an unprecedented opportunity for natural gas buyers/importers. However, while enjoying the benefits of a buyer’s market, they should consider the deleterious effects that ultra-low gas prices can have on gas producers/exporters and the natural gas market as a whole.

8          Weekly Resin Report: July Trading Starts with a Bang
https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/weekly-resin-report-july-trading-starts-bang/118442603763291
The spot resin markets ended June with a flurry and began July with a bang, writes the PlasticsExchange in its Market Update. Despite the shortened week, participants still came to transact and closed a significant number of deals, as prices for polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) ticked higher. Producers implemented their $0.04/lb price increase on to June PE contracts, while PP contracts were steady to a half-cent higher based on market/index.

9          Covid-19 brought sudden productivity hikes to chemical operations
https://www.bicmagazine.com/departments/operations/pu-covid-19-brought-sudden-productivity-hikes-to-chemical-op/

While Covid-19 has been mostly associated with negative impacts, particularly on decreased product demand as well as project deferments, the productivity increase is an unexpected positive side, as reported by Petrochemical Update.

New ways to work adopted by petrochemical companies as part of the Covid-19 response resulted in productivity increases so significant that many of the new practices are likely to remain well after the pandemic.

10        Asia petrochemicals outlook, w/c July 6
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/petrochemicals/070620-asia-petrochemicals-outlook-wc-july-5

The Asian petrochemicals market outlook remains mixed in the week started July 5, with propylene and methanol markets expected to receive support on resilience in restocking needs and tight spot supply. Other markets, such as paraxylene and purified terephthalic acid, are seen staying bearish as they grapple with a supply glut and sluggish demand.

11        The Next, ‘Natural’ Evolution in Thermoplastic Expandable Microspheres
https://www.plasticstoday.com/sustainability/next-natural-evolution-thermoplastic-expandable-microspheres/71974718263289

Thermoplastic expandable microspheres (TEMS), launched in the early 1980s, are spherical particles that consist of a polymer shell that encapsulates gas. They are, in a sense, micro “balloons,” and upon heating, a tremendous volume and density change takes place.

This feature is a consequence of the tailor-made combination of:

A thermoplastic shell softening at the glass transition temperature, and

a blowing agent with a suitable boiling point (normally a hydrocarbon) simultaneously expanding when heated that, in turn, puts pressure on the shell walls. When inflated, this dramatic increase in volume of the microsphere makes it a great blowing agent, a filler providing surface effects, performance flexibility, and weight reduction.

12        Oil Falls After EIA Confirms Large Crude Inventory Build
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Oil-Falls-After-EIA-Confirms-Large-Crude-Inventory-Build.html
Crude oil inventories in the United States swelled by 5.7 million barrels in the week to July 3, the Energy Information Administration reported, but gasoline inventories drew down.

Analysts had expected an inventory decline of 3.114 million barrels for crude oil in the period, while the American Petroleum Institute reported a crude build the day prior, to the tune of 2.048 million barrels.

13        Opec production was the lowest on record in June
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2121703&menu=yes
Opec production was the lowest on record in June, when three Mideast Gulf countries made additional voluntary cuts and others improved their output restraint.

Overall group output fell by 1.82mn b/d from May to 22.28mn b/d in June, the most depleted level since Argus began keeping records in January 1998.

14        Long delayed polyethylene units in U.S. Gulf Coast set to start up but timing won’t help
https://www.bicmagazine.com/departments/operations/pu-long-delayed-polyethylene-units-in-u-s-gulf-coast-set-to-/

South Africa-based Sasol will put online by September a 420,000-tonne long-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit in Lake Charles, Louisiana while Taiwan-based Formosa should be on the final stages of completion of a 400,000-tonne LDPE plant it had intended to start in April in Point Comfort, Texas, as reported by Petrochemical Update.

15        Petrobras to launch tender for Brazil’s largest-ever FPSO
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/report-petrobras-to-launch-tender-for-brazils-largest-ever-fpso/
Brazilian oil company Petrobras will be launching a tender for the construction of Brazil’s biggest floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

According to an article by Reuters which cited two people with knowledge of the matter, the state-controlled oil firm will announce the tender by the end of August.

The news agency explained that such vessels cost between $2.5 billion and $3 billion to build. Winners of the tender build and own the platforms, and lease them to Petrobras in contracts with daily rates of up to $1 million that often last longer than 15 years.

16        Talos Energy Forced To Share Massive Zama Oil Find With Mexico’s Pemex
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Talos-Energy-Forced-To-Share-Massive-Zama-Oil-Find-With-Mexicos-Pemex.html

Talos Energy has been ordered to come to some agreement with Mexico’s state-run oil giant, Pemex for the development of its massive Zama oil field made back in 2017.

The Zama discovery is so large—potentially 670 million recoverable barrels large–that it is the largest discovery in Mexico by a private company in decades.

The hitch for Talos, however, who won offshore Zama back in 2015, is that the oil in Zama perhaps bleeds into the neighboring block, operated by Pemex. At least that’s the narrative Pemex is telling.

17        Mexico’s Pemex plans $22.4 billion debt swap
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-pemex-idUSKBN24836M
Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos said on Tuesday it will offer a swap for $22.4 billion worth of bonds maturing between 2027 and 2060 as the state oil firm seeks to manage its massive debt load.

The company, known as Pemex, which had financial debts of nearly $105 billion at the end of March, announced the swap in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The document did not specify when the offer would go into effect.

18        Shale companies receive more than $2.4 billion in pandemic assistance
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/7/7/shale-companies-receive-more-than-24-billion-in-pandemic-assistance

The shale industry is getting at least $2.4 billion in loans from the U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program aimed at helping businesses that are struggling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The program will benefit more than 16,000 oil and natural gas explorers and service providers, according to data released Monday and compiled by Bloomberg. Mach Resources LLC, the gas producer run by Chesapeake Energy Corp. co-founder Tom Ward, is among companies listed as receiving loans of $2 million to $5 million.

19        Big Oil’s Investment Risk Is Spiking
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Big-Oils-Investment-Risk-Is-Spiking.html
The major integrated oil companies: Shell,(NYSE:RDS.A, RDS.B); ExxonMobil, (NYSE:XOM); BP, (NYSE:BP); Chevron, (NYSE:CVX), and a few others, so named for their vertical stewardship of the hydrocarbon molecule from initial extraction to final refining, have come under increasingly accurate fire from climate change advocates. In the past organizations like Greenpeace and a host of other conservation organizations, have used direct measures to interdict oil company operations. Measures that were flashy, as they drew a lot of attention from the global press, but over the long haul did little to achieve their goals of stopping oil and gas exploration.

20        Coronavirus pain drives Big Oil’s dash for record debt
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oilmajors-debt-idUSKBN2481KF
The world’s top oil and gas companies locked in cheap borrowing rates to raise a record amount of debt in the second quarter of 2020 and boost cash reserves as a buffer against a collapse in revenues because of COVID-19.

The dash for debt piles pressure on company balance sheets and the issue is particularly acute for BP (BP.L) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L). Already burdened by high levels of borrowing, they also face the disruption of a major shift towards renewables and low-carbon.

The world’s top seven energy firms – BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Chevron (CVX.N), Equinor (EQNR.OL), Total (TOTF.PA) and Eni (ENI.MI) – raised $60 billion in debt in the quarter, nearly half of the $132 billion in oil and gas sector borrowing over the period, Refinitiv data showed.

21        Oil producers will fight for market share as consumption growth slows
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-kemp/oil-producers-will-fight-for-market-share-as-consumption-growth-slows-kemp-idUSKBN24716P

Slower growth will intensify intra-company and intra-company competition for market share putting downward pressure on prices, revenues, investment and employment over the next two decades.

Petroleum has always been a deeply cyclical business and there is no reason to expect any lessening of cyclical volatility (“Oil prices, or how I learned to stop worrying and embrace the cycle”, Reuters, April 25, 2018).

But consumption growth has been progressively slowing since the early 1970s and that underlying trend looks set to continue through the 2020s and 2030s

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 43

Friday, July 10, 2020

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 43

1          How Warren Buffett’s Money Is Doing Environmental Double Duty With $10 Billion Pipeline Deal
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2020/07/09/how-warren-buffetts-money-is-doing-environmental-double-duty-with-10-billion-pipeline-deal/

From pig manure power to windfarms, Virginia’s Dominion Energy is transforming itself into a renewable energy powerhouse — Berkshire Hathaway’s cash will only accelerate the process.

“Pigs are extremely efficient,” says Kraig Westerbeek, who oversees renewable energy production for Smithfield Farms, the world’s biggest pork producer. For what farmers put into them, they get a lot out. “They eat 2.4 pounds of feed per pound of gain,” he says. “And they produce more gas per pound of live weight.”

2          CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere nearing levels of 15m years ago
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/09/co2-in-earths-atmosphere-nearing-levels-of-15m-years-ago

The amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is approaching a level not seen in 15m years and perhaps never previously experienced by a hominoid, according to the authors of a study.

At pre-lockdown rates of increase, within five years atmospheric CO2 will pass 427 parts per million, which was the probable peak of the mid-Pliocene warming period 3.3m years ago, when temperatures were 3C to 4C hotter and sea levels were 20 metres higher than today.

3          Siemens Energy to set out plan to exit coal-generated electricity: CEO
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-siemens-power-idUSKBN24A10Q
Siemens (SIEGn.DE) Chief Executive said on Thursday he wanted the future managing board of Siemens Energy to quickly set out plans to exit coal-generated electricity

“The fight against climate change requires a decisive change in power generation, as it is responsible for about 40 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions,” Joe Kaeser told an online general meeting on spinning out the power business.

4          In a World First, Hyundai Fuel Cell Semis Ship to Customers
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/07/07/in-a-world-first-hyundai-fuel-cell-semis-ship-to-customers/
This could be big for Hyundai. Investors are always looking for “the next big thing.” That new technology or “killer app” that will multiply their dollars again and again — and it looks like that thing might be green trucking. Nikola’s IPO last month rocketed the fuel-cell semi company to a market cap of more than $26 billion, after all, and the next stock to keep an eye may be Hyundai’s. That’s because the first examples of its hydrogen fuel cell semis are on their way to Switzerland as I type this.

5          Tesla’s Ambitious Plan To Ditch Cobalt
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Teslas-Ambitious-Plan-To-Ditch-Cobalt.html
Lithium-ion batteries have proven to be a key link in global supply chains, placing these unassuming electronics at the crux of the future of electric vehicle markets around the world. And lithium is not the EV sector’s only problem element. The electric car supply chain is also heavily dependent on cobalt, a pricey metal that makes electric cars so prohibitively expensive for most consumers, with the battery’s cobalt content accounting for an astonishing 40 percent of the car’s total value.

6          JV launched to pair 4GW with ‘world’s largest green hydro project’ in Saudi Arabia
https://www.pv-tech.org/news/jv-launched-to-pair-4gw-with-worlds-largest-green-hydro-project-in-saudi-ar
A joint venture project has been launched to develop what intends to be the world’s largest green hydrogen project, using up to 4GW of solar and other renewables as its power source.

Renewables developer ACWA Power is among the parties assembled by Air Products under an agreement to assemble a green hydrogen-based ammonia production facility in Saudi Arabia’s NEOM with the intent of turning the area into a green hydrogen powerhouse.

7          Spain Just Closed 47% Of Its Coal Power Plants, & Will Be 73% Soon
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/07/08/spain-just-closed-47-of-its-coal-power-plants-will-be-73-soon/
Sometimes it feels like the world is asleep and not jumping on the tremendous potential of low-cost solar power and low-cost wind power to stop global heating and catastrophic climate change. Sometimes you want to jump up and clap with enthusiasm at strong actions moving us forward. Luckily, this story should lead to the clapping.

Spain just closed down 7 of its remaining 15 coal power plants on June 30. That’s a flick of the switch (or something a few switches perhaps) and 47% of the country’s coal power plant capacity was shut down. And more will shut down soon.

8          Activists Not Only Slow Oil Pipelines, But Also Power Lines Needed For Renewable Energy
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottcarpenter/2020/07/09/oil-pipelines-hit-a-dead-end-so-do-power-lines-needed-for-renewable-energy/

Builders of oil and gas pipelines suffered a trio of setbacks over legal challenges in the space of just 36 hours between Sunday and Monday. An $8 billion natural gas pipeline was cancelled, the Dakota Access oil pipeline was ordered to shut down for up to 13 months, and the Supreme Court declined to greenlight the infamous Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Pipeline builders nodded grimly: growing environmental opposition and expanded federal environmental reviews mean it’s simply not as easy as it once was to build pipelines.

9          The Future Of EV Charging May Be At 50KW, Not The ‘Gasoline Thinking’ of 250KW
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2020/07/09/the-future-of-ev-charging-may-be-at-50kw-not-the-gasoline-thinking-of-250kw/

Carmakers and charging stations have been engaging in a “mine’s bigger than yours” competition with their high speed DC charging stations. Tesla paved the way by installing a network of 120KW chargers which later were upgraded to 150kw. Porsche demonstrated a 350KW charger for its Taycan. Tesla upgraded its newest stations to deliver 250KW. Non-Tesla networks started with 50KW stations, but as the CCS charging system improved, new deployments, particularly on the “Electrify America” network have gone to 150KW with a few even higher.

10        Siemens spins off its gas turbine and wind power business
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/7/9/siemens-spins-off-its-gas-turbine-and-wind-power-business
Siemens AG shareholders approved a spinoff of the company’s energy business, one of CEO Joe Kaeser’s last major moves to reshape the German industrial stalwart.

More than 99% of shareholders approved the motion to create an independent Siemens Energy AG at an extraordinary shareholder meeting on Thursday. The company, with almost 29 billion euros ($33 billion) in annual revenue, is scheduled to begin trading on Sept. 28.

11        Shell’s shipping study confirms LNG as transition fuel
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/shells-shipping-study-confirms-lng-as-transition-fuel/
The report named “Decarbonizing Shipping: All Hands on Deck” is a joint research by Shell and Deloitte.

Shell says the report lays a “roadmap of solutions to help the industry meet the International Maritime Organization’s ambition to reduce carbon emissions”.

Deloitte interviewed 82 senior shipping executives from 22 countries across Europe, Asia and North America for this research project.

12        Three major policy trends to watch for in China’s renewable energy market
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/three-major-policy-trends-to-watch-for-in-chinas-renewable-energy-market/581344/

In the U.S. and around the world, leading companies increasingly recognize the critical role they must play in addressing climate change. More step forward every day to commit to bold climate and renewable energy targets, not only for their direct operations but also for their supply chains.

Across sectors — from retail, to textiles and apparel, technology and many others — global supply chains often lead back to China. For that reason, leading international companies have long been looking for cost-competitive renewable energy sourcing options there.

13        US installed more solar in Q1 2020 than ever before
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/07/10/us-installed-more-solar-in-q1-2020-than-ever-before/
The United States installed more solar in the first quarter than in any previous first quarter ever, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). Almost 2 GW of utility-scale solar, 1.96 GW in total, were installed in the first three months of 2020, up more than 65% from the total installed in the first quarter of last year.

14        Nissan Leaf owners should be able to power their homes with their cars later this year
https://reneweconomy.com.au/nissan-leaf-owners-should-be-able-to-power-their-homes-with-their-cars-later-this-year-20809/

Nissan Australia says owners of the new generation Nissan Leaf electric cars should have vehicle-to-home and possibly vehicle-to-grid capabilities towards the end of this year.

The new Nissan Leaf is the only car that is factory-approved to use its battery to power the home and provide services to the grid, but so far the 590 buyers of Nissan Leafs since they arrived on the Australia market last August have not had access to the bi-directional chargers needed to use their car as a battery on wheels.

15        Honda invests in China’s CATL to jointly develop EV batteries
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-catl-honda-idUSKBN24B0ZU
Japan’s Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T) will buy a 1% stake in Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) (300750.SZ) and the two will jointly develop EV batteries, the companies said on Friday.

The move comes at a time when auto manufacturers and EV battery makers are joining forces in pursuit of an electric future. CATL, based in Ningde, said last year it would develop batteries with Honda and also supply batteries to Tesla (TSLA.O), Toyota (7203.T) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE).

16        Electric car maker Fisker eyes deal to go public
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spartan-energy-m-a-fisker-exclusive-idUSKBN24A2HZ
Electric vehicle maker Fisker Inc is in talks to go public through a sale to a so-called blank-check acquisition company, modeled after a successful deal earlier this year by peer Nikola Corp NKLA.O, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Nikola shares are up more than 60% since it went public last month through such a deal, as investors place bets on which startup will be the next Tesla Inc (TSLA.O). Earlier this month, autonomous vehicle technology company Velodyne Lidar agreed to be bought by blank-check company Graf Industrial Corp (GRAF.N) for $1.6 billion, fuelling a rally in the latter’s shares.

17        NREL Researchers Develop Novel Machine Learning Tech
https://solarindustrymag.com/nrel-researchers-develop-novel-machine-learning-tech
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a novel machine learning approach to quickly enhance the resolution of wind velocity data by 50 times and solar irradiance data by 25 times – an enhancement that has never been achieved before with climate data.

18        U.N. chief seeks end to financing of coal to smooth clean energy shift
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-idUSKBN24A1FI
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged countries on Thursday to stop financing for coal and commit not to build new coal-fired power plants to enable a shift to clean energy.

He spoke at a virtual clean energy transition summit of 40 countries representing 80% of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. They discussed steps to buoy economies, cut emissions and make energy systems more resilient to climate change.

19        Pan-European solar rooftop programme proposed by European Parliament Committee
https://www.pv-tech.org/news/pan-european-solar-rooftop-programme-proposed-by-european-parliament-commit

A proposal for a pan-European solar rooftop programme has been adopted by the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

It forms part of a wider report on energy efficiency that has been adopted by the Committee, with the European Parliament set to vote on the report during its September Plenary, which is scheduled for the week of the 14 September.

The report calls for a “massive” solar rollout, as part of the EU’s Renovation Wave initiative, which is set to begin in September 2020.

20        EU lawmakers ban nuclear from green transition fund, leave loophole for gas
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-eu-transitionfund-idUSKBN2472HN
European Union leaders are split over which fuels deserve support from the bloc’s flagship green energy fund, after lawmakers on Monday called for rules that could allow the money to be spent on some fossil gas projects.

The European Commission wants to launch a 40 billion euro ($45 billion) Just Transition Fund using cash from the bloc’s coronavirus recovery fund and its budget for 2021-27, to help carbon-intensive regions launch green industries and retrain workers currently in polluting sectors.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 72

Friday, July 10, 2020

Business Intelligence and Analytics 72

1          The Great Innovation Deceleration
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-great-innovation-deceleration/
The rise of the West is often traced back to the Black Death of the mid-1300s, which killed over 40% of Europe’s population. For example, some historians think that the resulting labor scarcity increased the bargaining power of peasants in the West, which led to the end of serfdom and to higher standards of living but failed to bring about institutional change in the East.

Many parallels between COVID-19 and the Black Death have been drawn, but most of them are unhelpful. In a medieval economy, fewer people meant more land per person and a higher income for the average citizen.

2          Taking supplier collaboration to the next level
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/taking-supplier-collaboration-to-the-next-level

Buyers and suppliers can work together to develop innovative new products, for example, boosting revenues and profits for both parties. They can take an integrated approach to supply-chain optimization, redesigning their processes together to reduce waste and redundant effort, or jointly purchasing raw materials. Or they can collaborate in forecasting, planning, and capacity management—thereby improving service levels, mitigating risks, and strengthening the combined supply chain.

3          Some Revelations in Consumer Behavior Since COVID-19
https://www.business2community.com/consumer-marketing/some-revelations-in-consumer-behavior-since-covid-19-02325856

A recent Morning Consult/Bloomberg News poll had some fascinating stats to share regarding the impact of Covid-19 on consumer behavior. There’s nothing here that’s surprised me, but the shift in purchasing habits is significant and worthy of a closer look.

Some business folks in general have been worried by these figures, which is why I wanted to take a moment to discuss it. In my view, the survey overall gives no reason to panic—but it does offer plenty of incentives to pay attention and adapt.

4          The Cost of Confidence
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-cost-of-confidence/
The COVID-19 pandemic has knocked consumer confidence hard, with profound and far-reaching implications. It has disrupted every aspect of daily life, including employment, consumption, and freedom of movement, creating uncertainty about what is safe and what lies ahead. Standard business has been upended, vaporizing certain norms consumers have always expected and assumed. This has created challenges and opportunities to which every organization — brand owners, especially — must now respond.

5          Reduce Contact Center Traffic by 19% and Increase Customer Satisfaction
https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/reduce-contact-center-traffic-by-19-and-increase-customer-satisfaction-a-qa-02325875

What’s driving your contact center demand?

It’s a simple question, and no harm to remind ourselves. Most callers look to clarify something. Maybe they just received a notice around revised terms for an insurance policy. Questions typically relate to these three things: payments, charges or queries around a specific product or service. For all these categories, clarity of communications is key. And conversely, complex communications drive increased calls, and increased costs.

6          Pull and Analyze Financial Data Using a Simple Python Package
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/07/pull-analyze-financial-data-simple-python-package.html
Stock market analysis and good investing (for long-term growth) require careful examination of the financial data. Various metrics and ratios are often used in such analysis i.e. to assess the inherent quality of a stock. You may have heard about some of them in the talk from financial and investment experts.

For example, the Price-over-Earning ratio or PE ratio. It is the ratio of the share price over the annual earnings/share.

7          Demystifying modeling: How quantitative models can–and can’t–explain the world
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/demystifying-modeling-how-quantitative-models-can-and-cant-explain-the-world

One of the many impacts of the COVID-19 crisis has been to highlight the role of quantitative models in our lives. Ideas associated with modeling, such as flattening the curve of disease transmission, are now regularly discussed in the media and among families and friends. Across the globe, we are trying to understand the numbers and what they mean for us.

8          Motivating Your Workers With Opportunity Marketplaces
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/video/motivating-your-workers-with-opportunity-marketplaces/
The COVID-19 crisis has made organizations vastly more aware of the need for greater flexibility, adaptability, and communications in the distributed workplace.

Getting work done well and on time is job one, but what needs to come next? How do you quickly, cheaply, adaptively, and thoughtfully set yourself up for a future requiring unprecedented workplace and workforce agility? One promising idea revealed by recent MIT SMR research is opportunity marketplaces. These internal project marketplaces offer transparency and visibility around opportunities within organizations and use data and assorted analytic techniques to make matching recommendations between opportunities and people.

9          Crisis leadership: An agenda for troubled times
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/from-a-room-called-fear-to-a-room-called-hope-a-leadership-agenda-for-troubled-times

Leadership matters most—and is hardest to do well—when people face objective threats, when old ways of working are no longer possible, and when confusion and anxiety abound. These are brutal and relentless facts of organizational life for tens of thousands of leaders who feel heightened responsibility for billions of people as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

10        The urban job escalator has stopped moving
http://news.mit.edu/2020/urban-job-escalator-stopped-0708
The great U.S. economic boom after World War II was an urban phenomenon. Tens of millions of Americans flocked to cities to work and forge a future in the nation’s middle class. And for a few decades, living in the big city paid off.

By 1980, four-year college graduates in the most urban quartile of job markets had incomes 40 percent greater, per household, than college graduates in the least urban quartile. And workers without four-year college degrees (“non-college” workers) in the same urban areas had hourly wages 35 percent higher than their rural counterparts.

11        How AI Motivates A Remote Workforce
https://insidebigdata.com/2020/07/06/how-ai-motivates-a-remote-workforce/
The COVID-19 virus has caused millions of white-collar knowledge workers to work from home, and while this could be seen as a boon to productivity, unfortunately it is not.  These remote workers battle hundreds of daily distractions from helping children to making dinner along with the usual online breaks.  Over time, these non-company activities add up and can yield at least 3-4 hours of unproductive work time.

12        Reviving High-Touch Business Models for the Social Distancing Era
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/reviving-high-touch-business-models-for-the-social-distancing-era/
The demand for many products and services has evaporated over the past several months as consumers have altered their typical patterns while adhering to stay-at-home orders and social distancing practices. But a unique set of businesses that may evoke feelings of nostalgia for some — including milk and frozen-food delivery services, and drive-in theaters — are attracting renewed interest. Such business models were quite prominent in the past but fell out of favor due to excessive costs, inconvenient distribution, or changes in consumer behavior. In the current era of social distancing, however, their high-touch, high-contact features are very desirable.

Energy Petrochemicals and Plastics 71

Friday, July 3, 2020

Energy Petrochemicals and Plastics 71

1          Weekly Resin Report: Higher Price Cycle Now Underway
https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/weekly-resin-report-higher-price-cycle-now-underway/199583329363268

As the end of the second quarter drew near, completed volumes were better than year-ago levels but fell short of our first-quarter average, reports the PlasticsExchange in its Market Update. Both polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) prices were firm and the bottom end of both of those markets continued to lift. The flow of fresh railcars slowed as producers seek to raise prices in July; some PE and PP grades have become outright scarce.

2          Oil falls below $43 on virus fears, still heads for weekly gain
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKBN244030
Oil fell below $43 a barrel on Friday as a resurgence of coronavirus cases raised concern that fuel demand growth could stall, although crude was still headed for a weekly gain on lower supply and wider signs of economic recovery.

The United States reported more than 55,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, a new daily global record for the pandemic. The rise in cases suggested U.S. jobs growth, which jumped in June, could suffer a setback.

“If this trend continues, oil demand in the region is at risk,” said Louise Dickson of Rystad Energy.

3          Oil Refining – Facing Up To Structural Overcapacity
https://www.woodmac.com/news/the-edge/oil-refining-facing-up-to-structural-overcapacity/
Refining was rejuvenated in the early years of this century. Overcapacity and depressed margins forced refiners to focus on costs and managing for margin. Proof of success was the resilience of refining profitability after the oil price crash of 2014, and the elevation of downstream leaders to the very top of Big Oil.

The current downturn is tougher than any experienced before, and may even be providing a glimpse into refining’s long-term challenges when oil demand eventually enters decline. I asked Alan Gelder, Head of Downstream Oil, and Gerrit Venter, Corporate Analysis, how the industry will respond this time.

4          Pandemic hastens threat of closure for struggling oil refineries
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-refining-capacity-idUSKBN2431VC
The collapse in oil demand from the COVID-19 pandemic is hastening the reckoning for those refiners already struggling as new capacity overtakes demand, posing an existential threat to many, particularly Europe’s ageing plants.

Even before the pandemic struck, which at its height destroyed over 20% of global oil demand, analysts expected global refining capacity would have to rationalise, particularly in Europe.

5          Big Oil’s Nightmare Is Coming True
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Big-Oils-Nightmare-Is-Coming-True.html
Royal Dutch Shell said that it could cut the value of its oil and gas assets by as much as $22 billion, as it takes a dim view of the state of the oil market. The move adds more evidence to the notion that a huge slice of oil reserves will wind up as stranded assets.  Shell cut its Brent oil prices forecast from $60 per barrel to $35 for this year, and lowered its 2021 and 2022 forecasts to $40 and $50 per barrel, respectively, down from $60 previously. The lower outlook reflects the expected damage to the oil market due to the coronavirus and the negative impacts on the global economy, Shell said.

6          Goldman Sachs sees oil demand returning to pre-coronavirus levels by 2022
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-research-goldman-idUSKBN2430IE
Goldman Sachs said on Thursday a pick-up in commuting, a shift to private transportation and government efforts to improve economies with higher infrastructure spending should help global oil demand return to pre-coronavirus levels by 2022.

Demand is expected to fall by 8% this year, before rebounding 6% in 2021 and fully recovering to pre-pandemic levels by 2022, the U.S. bank said in a note.

7          OPEC basket oil price rises above $40 for first time in four months
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-prices-idUSKBN2432FV
he Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ basket oil price rose above $40/bbl for the first time in four months, reflecting higher official selling prices, according to the group’s data.

The basket price stood at $42.66/bbl on July 1, almost 12% higher than the previous day, and the highest since March 3, the data showed.

8          Are Oil Bulls In For A Disappointing July?
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Are-Oil-Bulls-In-For-A-Disappointing-July.html
The oil market continues to tighten, but the surge of coronavirus cases in the U.S. could derail the rally in crude prices.  OPEC+ can claim most of the credit for engineering an oil price rally, keeping upwards of 9.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) offline for several months. The one-month extension through July added to the effort, as did the improved compliance. “Although there is still the danger of demand outages in view of increased new cases of Covid-19, OPEC+ seems to have the market under control at the moment,” Commerzbank wrote in a note on Wednesday.

9          China’s manufacturing sector helping boost oil demand
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2119674&menu=yes
China’s manufacturing sector continued to strengthen in June, helping boost oil demand.

The Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for China increased to 51.2 in June from 50.7 in May, in what was the second successive monthly increase. A reading above 50 indicates an expansion in the sector. Demand also picked up, with the sub-index for total new orders expanding for the first time since January.

10        US aluminum sees bright spot amid coronavirus crisis
https://blogs.platts.com/2020/07/02/us-aluminum-demand-coronavirus-pandemic/
The US metals market, in particular, saw the removal of an estimated 33,000 vehicles per day from production as all major auto producers across the country halted operations in response to government mandates and concerns over the welfare of workers.

Because the transportation sector is the largest end user of aluminum, accounting for around 35% of aluminum consumption, it is easy to see why so many market participants expressed concern over the lingering effects coronavirus would have on the health of the industry.

11        US petrochemical industry forced to rethink investment decisions amid COVID-19 pandemic
https://www.bicmagazine.com/industry/investment-banking/globaldata-us-petrochemical-industry-forced-to-rethink-inves/

The COVID-19 outbreak and crude oil price crash have pushed petrochemical companies in the US to announce project delays. With major complexes such as Shell Beaver County Complex and Formosa St. James Parish Complex having already been affected, prevailing uncertainties and economic slowdown due to the outbreak could push companies to make more such announcements over the short-term, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

12        Worldwide offshore rig count in June down 65 units year over year
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/worldwide-offshore-rig-count-in-june-down-65-units-year-over-year/
The worldwide offshore rig count in June 2020 dropped by 65 rigs year-over-year and 2 rigs sequentially, according to a report by Baker Hughes.

Baker Hughes splits its report into an international and North America one, which combine into a worldwide rig count.

The international rig count for June 2020 was 781 down 24 from the 805 counted in May 2020, and down 357 from the 1,138 counted in June 2019.

13        Non-Pemex imports of refined products into Mexico facing delays
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2119717&menu=yes
Non-Pemex imports of refined products into Mexico are facing more bureaucratic delays in recent weeks, according to shippers, with customs officials putting holds on diesel cargoes in particular.

Excessive delays in customs have been long been a complaint among Mexican importers. One private-sector Mexico City-based importer said he had to move away from truck deliveries to rail in order to see fewer delays.

14        OPEC cuts June oil exports by 1.84 million bpd: Kpler
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-opec-idUSKBN24318C
OPEC cut oil exports in June by 1.84 million barrels per day (bpd) from May levels as it works to implement an output reduction agreement with Russia and other allies, according to estimates from Kpler, which tracks oil shipments.

OPEC’s crude exports averaged 17.2 million bpd last month, Kpler said in an emailed report. Saudi exports accounted for almost half of the month-on-month drop, falling by 979,000 bpd.

15        Exxon signals second quarterly loss in a row on production, refining hit
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-outlook-idUSKBN2431M1
Exxon Mobil Corp’s (XOM.N) oil and gas producing and refining businesses will report operating losses in the second quarter, it said in a regulatory filing on Thursday, setting the stage for the company to post another quarterly loss this year.

Oil prices are down 35% since January as the Covid-19 pandemic slashed demand and a global glut forced widespread production cuts. Rivals Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and BP Plc (BP.L) have disclosed massive spending cuts and writedowns due to the price drop.

16        Braskem Completes Construction of World-Scale PP Facility in LaPorte, Texas
https://www.ptonline.com/news/braskem-completes-construction-of-world-scale-pp-facility-in-laporte-texas
Braskem (Philadelphia) has completed construction of its newest, world-class PPproduction facility in La Porte, Texas.  Said to be the first new PP facility built in North America since 2003, Braskem’s facility has a designed production capacity of over 1-billion lb/yr and has the capability to produce the entire PP portfolio including including homopolymer, impact copolymer and random copolymer.

17        Asia naphtha draws support from sturdy demand; premiums firm
https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2020/06/30/10524383/asia-naphtha-draws-support-from-sturdy-demand-premiums-firm

Asia naphtha prices are finding support from healthy downstream sectors, helping to underpin spot cargo premiums, with supportive near-term demand likely to be sustained.

Open-specification naphtha prices for first-half August averaged at $385/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Japan at early hours session on Tuesday, reversing the losses from the previous session on 29 June to climb by over $18/tonne.

18        South Korean steam crackers to use more LPG feedstock from July as discount to naphtha widens
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/petrochemicals/070120-south-korean-steam-crackers-to-use-more-lpg-feedstock-from-july-as-discount-to-naphtha-widens

The diverging price spread between LPG and naphtha in recent weeks has incentivized South Korean petrochemical producers to partially switch feedstock from naphtha to LPG from July, market participants said.

South Korean naphtha buyers Hanwha Total, LG Chem, Lotte Chem and YNCC have all purchased LPG to take advantage of the cheaper feedstock, company sources have confirmed in recent days.

“Most of the South Korean crackers have bought LPG,” a South Korean naphtha end-user said.

19        IEEFA update: Problems mount for PTTGCA petrochemical plant
https://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-foot-dragging-over-pttgca-petrochemical-complex-project-in-ohio/
New disclosures by Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical America (PTTGCA) regarding its proposed petrochemical plant planned for Belmont County, Ohio, illuminate the financial risks facing the project. Interested citizens, community advocates and elected leaders should understand these risks and the disturbing implications for the future of the community.

20        Saudi Arabia Eyes Total Dominance In Oil And Gas
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Saudi-Arabia-Eyes-Total-Dominance-In-Oil-And-Gas.html
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz claimed last week that the Kingdom will be the world’s biggest hydrocarbon producer “even” in 2050.

“I can assure that Saudi Arabia will not only be the last producer, but Saudi Arabia will produce every molecule of hydrocarbon and it will put it to good use … It will be done in the most environmentally sound and safe way and the most sustainable way,” Abdulaziz said when asked about the oil market outlook in 2050 during a virtual conference convened by Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII-I).

Recycling Renewables and Sustainable Business 42

Friday, July 3, 2020

Recycling Renewables and Sustainable Business 42

1          Second Life: Car Makers and Storage Startups Get Serious About Reusing Batteries
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/car-makers-and-startups-get-serious-about-reusing-batteries
Batteries aren’t dead when they come to the end of their useful life in an electric vehicle.

Reused or “second-life” lithium-ion batteries still have a lot of juice left in them, but so far using these batteries in stationary applications has yet to gain real market traction. New research, growing automotive industry interest and an expanding startup ecosystem suggests that could now finally be changing.

2          IEA report appears to acknowledge 2050 net zero may be beyond us
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/07/02/iea-report-appears-to-acknowledge-2050-net-zero-may-be-beyond-us/

Under the ‘sustainable development scenario’ outlined in today’s Special Report on Clean Energy Innovation, the IEA considers the technological advancement required to reach a net-zero-carbon world by 2070, rather than the 2050 s**t-or-bust deadline outlined in so many previous publications. Reaching net zero in 50 years’ time would give us a 66% chance of limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.8 degrees Celsius, is the chastening conclusion reached.

3          Invest in the green economy and we’ll recover from the Covid-19 crisis | Joseph Stiglitz

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/02/invest-in-the-green-economy-and-well-recover-from-the-covid-19-crisis

Although it seems like ancient history, it hasn’t been that long since economies around the world began to close down in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Early in the crisis, most people anticipated a quick V-shaped recovery, on the assumption that the economy merely needed a short timeout. After two months of tender loving care and heaps of money, it would pick up where it left off.

4          Eyes in the sky: Investors reach for new tools to gauge climate change risk
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-investments-risks-insi-idUSKBN24319Y
In the twilight years of past civilisations, astrologers would scour the heavens for signs of impending calamity. In an era where climate change is eroding age-old certainties, a new cast of characters is searching for answers in the sky.

A small but growing network of asset managers, academics, start-up entrepreneurs and campaigners are working to harness an armada of recently deployed satellites to better predict the economic impact of global warming.

5          Digitising the solar revolution
https://www.energy-storage.news/blogs/digitising-the-solar-revolution
Our ability to generate renewable energy is scaling up fast, and solutions to integrate that energy will rely on technologies like blockchain to help keep new solutions on track. Power Ledger’s executive chairman and co-founder, Dr Jemma Green, looks at the role blockchain plays within her company’s platform to integrate and automate solar energy trading and balancing.

6          From waste to fuel: the prospects for renewable natural gas in the US
https://blogs.platts.com/2020/06/30/renewable-natural-gas-us-waste-biogas/
While hydrogen initiatives have been grabbing headlines thanks to large-scale national plans and projects at corporate level, renewable natural gas (RNG) also deserves attention as an emerging tool for decarbonization.

RNG comes from capturing biogas from areas like landfills and farms and then cleaning and upgrading that gas to remove excess carbon dioxide to then turn it into biomethane, which is more commonly referred to as RNG. This process is needed to bring the methane portion of biogas to a level that can then be blended with conventional natural gas on existing pipeline infrastructure, to avoid diminishing the quality or heat content of the pipeline.

7          University Researchers Seek Ways to Recycle ‘Unrecyclable’ Polymers
https://www.plasticstoday.com/recycling/university-researchers-seek-ways-recycle-unrecyclable-polymers/60934984363276

George Huber, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, noted in the university’s news publication that he hopes to “close the loop on plastics recycling through a new research venture that leverages his expertise in biofuels” via pyrolysis technology. Huber co-founded Anellotech (Pearl River, NY) in 2008, a company that recently announced a laboratory demonstration of its Plas-TCat technology, which transforms mixed plastic waste directly into chemicals.

8          11 industry majors pave way for accelerating energy transition
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/11-industry-majors-pave-way-for-accelerating-energy-transition/
Eleven industry majors including AWS, Carrefour Group, CMA CGM Group, Cluster Maritime Français, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Engie, Faurecia, Michelin, Schneider Electric, Total and Wärtsilä have formed a coalition for the energy of the future.

The coalition aims to accelerate the development of energy sources and technologies to address the challenges posed by sustainable mobility in the transport and logistics industry by reducing emissions, fighting global warming and protecting biodiversity.

9          Data Scientists Have Developed a Faster Way to Reduce Pollution, Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/07/data-scientists-faster-way-reduce-pollution-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html

Polymeric membranes assist with a wide variety of tasks, including water filtration and gas-vapor separation. Designing a membrane for the desired function is more time-consuming than people may expect.

However, researchers at Columbia Engineering, Germany’s Max Planck Society and the University of South Carolina applied data science to the task to streamline their efforts.

More specifically, they combined big data with machine learning to strategically design polymer membranes to act as gas filters. People frequently depend on plastic films and membranes to separate mixtures of simple cases, such as carbon dioxide and methane.

10        City of Sydney flicks the switch to 100% green power
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/07/02/city-of-sydney-flicks-the-switch-to-100-green-power/
All of Sydney’s operations – including street lights, pools, sports fields, depots, buildings and the historic Sydney Town Hall – will now be run on 100% renewable electricity sourced from local solar and wind projects. The switch is part of a AU$60 million (US$41.5 million) deal with electricity retailer Flow Power, the biggest standalone green energy deal of its kind by a council in Australia.

11        Mexican president orders fraud complaints against green power firms
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-corruption-idUSKBN2413BV
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday ordered formal complaints to be drawn up alleging fraud by mostly renewable power companies, but he gave no evidence backing up the complaints.

Ramping up his repeated allegations of corruption in power generation contracts won by mostly wind and solar power companies, Lopez Obrador said that while he remains open to dialogue with the companies, he also wants his aides to prepare the legal complaints against them.

12        Equinor reveals plans for hydrogen plant with carbon capture in UK
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/equinor-reveals-plans-for-hydrogen-plant-with-carbon-capture-in-uk/
Norwegian energy giant Equinor is leading a project to develop one of the UK’s – and the world’s – first at-scale facilities to produce hydrogen from natural gas in combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The project, called Hydrogen to Humber Saltend (H2H Saltend), provides the beginnings of a decarbonised industrial cluster in the Humber region, the UK’s largest by emissions, Equinor explained in a statement on Wednesday.

13        EU’s renewable hydrogen production
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2119703&menu=yes
Europe is ramping up its development and deployment of hydrogen technologies for power generation, with the European Commission expected to formally present its hydrogen strategy on 8 July, providing a positive medium-term demand signal for several metals, including platinum, chromium and nickel.

The commission calls for the EU’s renewable hydrogen production to reach 0.5mn-1mn t/yr by 2024, with 4GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers installed by then. This figure should increase to 5mn-10mn t/yr by 2040, with 40GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers installed. But in the short and medium term, low-carbon, fossil-based hydrogen will also play a role, the commission said.

14        Biogas – Nature Energy Enters Into Biogas Deal with Shell
https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/biogas/nature-energy-enters-into-biogas-deal-with-20200702
One of the world’s largest energy companies Shell invests in biogas from one of the world’s largest producers of biogas Nature Energy.

The parties have not disclosed the exact size of the agreement, but state that the agreement is the largest biogas agreement in the world to date.

“The agreement is a blue stamp of biogas as an important part of the green transition that is taking place all over the world. We are proud that an energy mastodon like Shell is investing in biogas from us,”says Ole Hvelplund, CEO of Nature Energy.

15        $10bn of precious metals dumped each year in electronic waste, says UN
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/02/10bn-precious-metals-dumped-each-year-electronic-waste-un-toxic-e-waste-polluting

At least $10bn (£7.9bn) worth of gold, platinum and other precious metals are dumped every year in the growing mountain of electronic waste that is polluting the planet, according to a new UN report.

A record 54m tonnes of “e-waste” was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21% in five years, the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor report found. The 2019 figure is equivalent to 7.3kg for every man, woman and child on Earth, though use is concentrated in richer nations. The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world’s population, and only 17% of it was recycled in 2019.

16        Nonfossil sources accounted for 20% of U.S. energy consumption in 2019
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44277
Overall energy consumption in the United States totaled 100 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2019, only slightly less than the record set in 2018 and the third-highest level of annual U.S. energy consumption ever. About 20% of U.S. energy consumption in 2019 came from sources other than fossil fuels. Several energy sources hit record consumption values in 2019, based on data in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Energy Review: natural gas, nuclear, wind, and solar.

17        US Solar Plants Now Expected to Run for More than 30 Years: Berkeley Lab
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/solar-plants-expected-to-operate-30-years
Big solar plants are getting cheaper to run and expectations for their useful operational lives keep getting longer, according to a new survey of U.S. solar industry professionals.

By the end of 2019, a cumulative total of 76 gigawatts of solar had been installed in the United States, according to Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. The learning-by-doing involved with growing the sector is reflected in steadily improving performance benchmarks.

18        EU opens bidding for 1 billion euros from clean technology fund
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-energy-funding-idUSKBN2441EH
Clean technology projects are in line for a billion-euro slice of support from the European Union, which on Friday launched its flagship scheme for funding breakthrough low-carbon technologies.

The EU Innovation Fund will back emissions-cutting technologies such as floating wind farms, carbon capture technology and energy storage, which the EU is betting on to clean up tough-to-decarbonise sectors such as cement and steelmaking.

19        South Pole warmed 3 times the global rate over the past 30 years, new study suggests
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/south-pole-warming-1.5631435
Temperature data shows that the desolate region has warmed at three times the global warming rate over the last three decades up through 2018, the South Pole’s hottest year on record, the researchers report in a study published Monday in Nature Climate Change. Looking at data from 20 weather stations across Antarctica, the South Pole warming rate was seven times higher than the overall average for the continent.

Business Intelligence and Analytics 71

Friday, July 3, 2020

Business Intelligence and Analytics 71

1          12 Essential Strategy Insights
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/12-essential-strategy-insights/
“Strategy, at its heart, is about choice,” write the authors of “Turning Strategy Into Results,” an article featured below, which takes a keen look at how leaders translate the complexity of strategy into guidelines that are simple and flexible enough to execute.

A winning strategy for an organization is not based on an individual choice but an expansive, countless number of decisions happening every day across all parts of a business — product, customers, technology capabilities, and more.

2          US food supply chain: Disruptions and implications from COVID-19
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/us-food-supply-chain-disruptions-and-implications-from-covid-19

Until early 2020, consumer spending on food in the United States had been remarkably stable, growing by around 4 percent over the previous five years. Total sales were roughly split evenly between retail outlets (such as grocery stores and supermarkets) and food-service companies (such as restaurants, hospitals, and schools). And until February, revenues were continuing in the same direction.

3          Warehouse Management System Benefits
https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/warehouse-management-system-benefits
The supply chain management software market is divided into several branches by types of industries, products and regions it serves for. It is segmented into consumer goods, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail, manufacturing, food and beverages, transportation and logistics, and others.

Logistics is a wide branch of the supply chain where each operation plays an important role and influences the quality of customer service.  It is very closely related to transportation, warehousing, and inventory management. Under logistics we understand Inbound and Outbound logistics. The first is all about sourcing and receiving materials that are coming into a business from suppliers. The second is transporting, warehousing, packaging goods going out of a business, a manufacturer who produces and provides end-clients with certain products.

4          Traders thought Apple had ‘the holy grail’ of oil data, but the quest continues
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-apple-data-idUSKBN2430JK
Every day, energy merchants collect and scrutinize whatever information they can find on fuel demand to get a trading edge: from satellite data tracking oil tankers worldwide to thermal images from cameras on pipelines and storage tanks.

Real-time data on fuel demand would be the ultimate prize.

On-the-spot gasoline consumption figures would change the way oil markets trade, because it is “the holy grail of metrics,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

5          Managing the uncertainty of coronavirus
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/choosing-the-right-path-to-unlock-the-economy

In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, we try to answer two urgent questions: How should governments approach the different possible paths to reopening their economies? And what is needed to spur businesses and consumers to start spending again? Two McKinsey senior partners who have been deeply involved in helping companies navigate the coronavirus pandemic discuss the current uncertainty and its impact on economic recovery.

6          Data analytics among top three deployment priorities for enterprises
https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/technology/data-analytics-among-top-three-deployment-priorities-for-enterprises-frost-sullivan-256342/

Under an aspirational forecast scenario, which assumes that COVID-19 is contained by August 2020 and that global markets will recover by the end of the year, the market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.9%, reaching US$68.09 billion by 2025 from $14.85 billion in 2019. Under the conservative forecast scenario, the market is likely to reach US$41.84 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 18.8%.

7          Rethinking Technology Road Maps for the Second Half of 2020
https://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/enterprise-agility/rethinking-technology-road-maps-for-the-second-half-of-2020/a/d-id/1338262

If there was ever a point modern times that one could point to and use as justification for digital transformation, we’ve just witnessed it. The massive disruptions and uncertainty that businesses and the global economy recently endured shows that successful businesses can no longer rely on disjointed tasks and manual processes. Instead, the goal for any business right now should be to streamline, automate and simplify how they conduct their day-to-day operations.

8          Using Data Virtualization in Your API Initiatives
http://www.datavirtualizationblog.com/using-data-virtualization-in-your-api-initiatives/
APIs are everywhere. A user may interact with a single application or website, but behind the scenes, several APIs have been integrated together to make up that application.

In some cases, the use of external APIs may be obvious, such as when a YouTube video is integrated into a news article, or when you click “Pay with PayPal” and are redirected via an API call to a PayPal pop-up to complete your order.

9          Maximizing the Benefits of B2B Supplier Diversification
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/maximizing-the-benefits-of-b2b-supplier-diversification/
As America’s population becomes more diverse and social movements highlighting the need for inclusion have taken center stage, governments, nonprofits, and large companies from a wide variety of industries (for example, Nike, Nordstrom, Pfizer, IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Coca-Cola, Fox News) have responded to these demographic changes with initiatives to promote supplier diversity and inclusion. These B2B programs are intended to make it easier for small businesses or those owned and operated by people from socially or economically disadvantaged groups, such as minorities, women, the LGBTQ community, and veterans, to win contracts and sell their goods and services.

10        Stop training more models, start deploying them
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/06/stop-training-models-start-deploying.html
The rumours that AI (and ML) will revolutionise healthcare have been around for a while [1]. And yes, we have seen some amazing uses of AI in healthcare [see, e.g., 2,3]. But, in my personal experience, the majority of the models trained in healthcare never make it to practice. Let’s see why (or, scroll down and see how we solve it).

Note: The statement ”the majority of the models trained in … never make it to practice” is probably true across disciplines. Healthcare happens to be the one I am sure about.

11        5 Stunning Transactional Emails You Can Steal From
https://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/5-stunning-transactional-emails-you-can-steal-from-02323889

We receive transactional emails all the time. Most brands treat them as the cost of doing business and don’t invest a lot of time or effort into them, which is a mistake.

Whether it’s a marketing one or a transactional one, every email should be looked at as an opportunity to provide useful information to your audience and customers. Here are five transactional emails that unlock the hidden potential of transactional emails.

12        How CTOs Can Innovate Through Disruption in 2020
https://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/executive-insights-and-innovation/how-ctos-can-innovate-through-disruption-in-2020/d/d-id/1338248

CTOs and other IT leaders need to invest in innovation to emerge from the current COVID-19 crisis ready for the next opportunities.

Are you ready for 2021’s opportunities? Are you ready for the new business models that will emerge once the COVID-19 coronavirus is behind us? What strategic technology moves will your organization make today to invest in the innovation to bring your enterprise out of the current crisis, stronger and better?

13        How to Test for Statistically Significant Relationships Between Categorical Variables with Chi Square
https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-test-for-statistically-significant-relationships-between-categorical-variables-with-chi-66c3ebeda7cc

A while back, I was analyzing market research data for a survey my company released to gauge customer sentiments towards a new product idea. Many of the variables were categorical (i.e. male, female, which of these features is most / least appealing) and after some initial research, I decided a chi-squared test for independence would be the best way to discern if there were certain segments of the population more or less likely to like a feature.

14        What is Edge Computing
https://www.socialtalk.co.in/2020/06/what-is-edge-computing.html
In traditional data processing use to have many limitations like storage, speed, server management, data loss, webpage host and server, and a huge setup, to deduce data process response time need to remove. which is not applicable most of the company. So here comes Cloud Computing where we can store our data to the cloud and process itself, we will get improved speed and less time to reach to out consumers.

15        How to Prepare Your Data
https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/06/how-prepare-your-data.html
It is rare that you get data in exactly the right form you need it. Often you’ll need to create some new variables, rename existing ones, reorder the observations, or just drop registers in order to make data a little easier to work with.

This is called data wrangling (or preparation), and it is a key part of Data Science. Most of the time data you have can’t be used straight away for your analysis: it will usually require some manipulation and adaptation, especially if you need to aggregate other sources of data to the analysis.

16        After pandemic, U.S. senators want review of drug supply chain
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-senate-supplychain-idUSKBN2411HI
Republican and Democratic U.S. senators called for a government analysis of foreign influence in the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain on Tuesday, saying the coronavirus pandemic has exposed an over-reliance on China and other countries for the production of essential drugs.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce the U.S. Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Review Act on Tuesday.

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 70

Friday, June 26, 2020

Energy, Petrochemicals and Plastics 70

1          The Next Hard Oil Price Indicator
https://www.rigzone.com/news/the_next_hard_oil_price_indicator-23-jun-2020-162513-article/
The next hard indicator that will weigh on oil prices is the upcoming July OPEC+ meeting, according to Rystad Energy’s Head of Oil Markets Bjornar Tonhaugen.

“It’s the meeting before the end of the deep cuts and an event with authority to make new difficult decisions in case Covid-19 brings again the need for them,” Tonhaugen said in a statement sent to Rigzone on Tuesday.

2          What’s Next For Oil Prices?
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Whats-Next-For-Oil-Prices23906.html
Crude oil has rebounded to $40 per barrel and hoping to stay there. Some analysts have come out with more bullish forecasts for the near-term, but plenty of risks remain. “Good production discipline on the part of OPEC+ coupled with a massive involuntary reduction in production in the US on the one hand, plus the rapid recovery of demand on the other, have caused supply surpluses to be eroded significantly more quickly than anticipated,” Commerzbank wrote in a note on Monday.

3          Buyers of U.S. LNG to cancel 40-45 cargoes for August loading. US LNG Exports Slump
https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/us-lng-exports-slump/
The surge in reported cases is partly a consequence of a successful ramp-up of testing. The last time the US was reporting more than 30,000 new daily cases, it was testing about 220,000 people a day. For the past week, it has been testing more than 520,000 a day.

However, the proportion of test results coming back positive has also been rising. It bottomed out at about 4.4% in the first half of June, but had ticked up to 5.7% by the five days to Wednesday.

4          EIA: Henry Hub dips to record lows
https://www.offshore-energy.biz/eia-henry-hub-dips-to-record-lows/
Citing Natural Gas Intelligence data, U.S. Energy Information Administration notes that the Henry Hub reached $1.38 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on June 16, 2020, the lowest daily Henry Hub price without adjusting for inflation and in nominal dollars since December 1998.

After starting 2020 relatively low, the price at Henry Hub so far this summer has continued to trend low because of high natural gas storage levels and declines in natural gas demand, specifically in exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) feedgas and in the industrial sector.

5          U.S. Oil Industry Lobbies Trump To Keep Mexican Energy Reform
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Oil-Industry-Lobbies-Trump-To-Keep-Mexican-Energy-Reform.html

U.S. oil companies are calling on President Donald Trump to help persuade Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador not to ditch the energy reforms that his predecessor launched, opening Mexico’s oil industry to private investment, including to U.S. energy companies.

6          U.S. and Canadian oil & gas rig count falls to record lows: Baker Hughes
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-rigs-baker-hughes-idUSKBN23Q2WU
U.S. and Canadian energy firms cut the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating to a record low even as higher oil prices prompt some producers to start drilling again.

The U.S. oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell to a record low for a seventh week in a row, dropping by 13 to 266 in the week to June 19, according to data from energy services firm Baker Hughes Co (BKR.N) going back to 1940. RIG-OL-USA-BHI RIG-OL-USA-BHI RIG-GS-USA-BHI

That was 701 rigs, or 72%, below this time last year.

7          BP’s stranded Canadian, Angolan assets expose wider industry risks
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-strandedassets-analysis-idUSKBN23V1ZY
When BP (BP.L) slashed its long-term oil price outlook last week, prospects in Canada and Angola were rendered worthless, company sources and analysts said, exposing broader risks the industry faces as the world pivots to low-carbon energy.

The $17.5 billion write-down, part of Chief Executive Bernard Looney’s drive to wean BP off fossil fuel, was the biggest the London-based company booked since the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

8          Weekly Resin Report: Spot Market Prices Continue to Rise
https://www.plasticstoday.com/resin-pricing/weekly-resin-report-spot-market-prices-continue-rise/135156740263248

Customer demand improved last week and buyers became more comfortable with the higher price level that has crept into the market, reports the PlasticsExchange in its Market Update. The overall spot market could no longer be characterized as loose, and some commodity grades were outright scarce. Spot levels continued to rise, as polyethylene (PE) gained a cent, on average, with some variance seen by grade. Spot PE prices now reflect most of the $0.04/lb June increase. Polypropylene (PP) prices added a cent for the first time in seven weeks, though little change, if any, is expected for June PP contracts.

9          Oil prices erase gains in U.S. trade, set for weekly falls
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKBN23X01R
Oil prices dipped on Friday, erasing earlier gains, on concerns about rising new coronavirus cases in the United States and China and expectations of U.S. output ticking up while crude stockpiles linger at record highs.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures were 13 cents lower at $40.92 at 1342 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures were down 33 cents at $38.39.

The contracts are on track for weekly falls of around 3.1% and 3.6%, respectively, after record U.S. crude inventory data dragged prices down on Wednesday.

10        How The Oil Price Crash Changed Upstream
https://www.rigzone.com/news/how_the_oil_price_crash_changed_upstream-25-jun-2020-162543-article/
This crash, which saw prices dip into negative territory recently, has wiped $1.6 trillion off WoodMac’s valuation of the global upstream industry. The company has slashed its forecast for global upstream development spend for this year by 30 percent, compared to its pre-crash view, and now expects only nine major final investment decisions this year, compared to its pre-crash prediction of around 50 new project approvals.

11        Building Upstream Portfolio Resilience
https://www.woodmac.com/news/the-edge/building-upstream-portfolio-resilience/
What is resilience?

Simply, the ability to thrive through the cycle, making money at the bottom as well as performing well when prices are higher. The financial framework is important – balance sheet strength, liquidity and cash flow, as well as flexibility on spend. It’s also a lot to do with portfolio. Whether in refining, petrochemicals, new energy or upstream, the lowest cost producers will typically be the most resilient, able to generate free cash flow even at depressed commodity prices.

12        Declining U.S. Chemical Industry Output, With Potential Rebound in 2021
https://www.americanchemistry.com/Media/PressReleasesTranscripts/ACC-news-releases/Mid-Year-2020-Chemical-Industry-Situation-and-Outlook.html

Key U.S. chemical industry metrics will be lower this year, according to the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Mid-Year 2020 Chemical Industry Situation and Outlook. Production volumes, shipments and capital spending will fall due to economic and business disruption caused by COVID-19. A rebound in 2021 is projected, although significant uncertainty remains.

13        Tight margins to speed up need for digitalization after Covid-19 proved value
https://www.bicmagazine.com/departments/maintenance-reliability/pu-tight-margins-to-speed-up-need-for-digitalization-after-c/

The need for savings to face shrinking margins should speed up digitalization efforts by oil and petrochemical companies after Covid-19 helped prove the value of past investment, as reported by Petrochemical Update.

Some producers may not survive an environment of challenged margins “because they haven’t digitalized enough,” said Mark Wyszynski, senior information technology advisor to projects and engineering at Shell, during the Petrochemical Update Downstream 2020 conference in June.

14        Recovery programme to phase out solid fossil fuels in EU
https://www.argusmedia.com/pages/NewsBody.aspx?id=2117660&menu=yes
EU member states have agreed on a draft legal text linking a proposed €40bn regional recovery programme to phasing out solid fossil fuels, including coal, lignite, peat and oil shale.

The final legal text governing use of funds under a so-called “just transition fund” still needs to be agreed with the European Parliament. The fund aims to assist vulnerable regions and sectors with their transition to a climate-neutral economy.

15        Shale Oil Recovery Seen Taking Years After Decade of Excess
https://www.oilandgas360.com/shale-oil-recovery-seen-taking-years-after-decade-of-excess/
As oil prices tick up to $40 a barrel following a pandemic-induced plunge, there’s a sense the shale industry is snapping back to life with Continental Resources Inc., EOG Resources Inc. and Parsley Energy Inc. all saying they’re restarting closed wells.

But top industry forecasters are painting a far darker picture. The reopenings, they say, will do little to bring new growth to an industry being increasingly starved of cash by Wall Street after a decade of excess. Even before the pandemic, investors were demanding companies spend no more than they earn. Now, that’s become a major barrier to future growth.

16        Oil Business Activity Index Sinks to Historic Low
https://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_business_activity_index_sinks_to_historic_low-25-jun-2020-162534-article/

Activity in the oil and gas sector continued to deteriorate further during the second quarter of this year, according to responses to the latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey. The business activity index—the survey’s broadest measure of circumstances facing Eleventh District energy firms—fell from -50.9 in the first quarter to -66.1 in the second quarter, marking the lowest reading in the survey’s four-year history.

17        Saudi Arabia’s Oil Price War Cost The Kingdom $12 Billion In One Month
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Saudi-Arabias-Oil-Price-War-Cost-The-Kingdom-12-Billion-In-One-Month.html

Despite record oil exports in April as Saudi Arabia flooded the market with excess oil, the value of the Kingdom’s crude exports plunged by US$12 billion from April 2019 levels as the lowest oil prices in years hit revenues.

In April, the value of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports plummeted by 65.4 percent, or by US$12 billion (45.3 billion Saudi riyals), dragging down the value of the total merchandise exports of the world’s top oil exporter, data from Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Statistics showed on Thursday.

18        Russia takes a leaf out the U.S. shale oil playbook
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-global-russia-insight-idUSKBN23V3CQ
Russia is taking a leaf out of the U.S. shale playbook so it can ramp up oil production quickly and hang on to its share of the global market when demand finally recovers after the coronavirus pandemic.

At least two state-owned banks, Sberbank (SBER.MM) and VEB, plan to lend oil firms some 400 billion roubles ($6 billion) at effectively almost zero interest rates to drill about 3,000 unfinished wells, officials involved in the scheme told Reuters.

19        With contracts canceled and debts mounting, offshore oil drillers face another shakeout
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-offshore-drillers-graphic-idUSKBN23V0J3
A collapse of the offshore industry will have broad impact. Drillers and their suppliers have driven innovation that has helped shale and offshore wind companies by pioneering remote monitoring and control, and last year directly generated about 25% of global oil production.

The offshore services business is the worst performing of the oilfield services sector, with shares of the 10 largest publicly traded down 77% since the start of the year.

20        ADNOC announces $20.7 billion energy infrastructure investment deal
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/23/adnoc-announces-20point7-billion-energy-infrastructure-investment-deal.html

A consortium of six global investors has entered into a $20.7 billion agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the state-owned oil company said Tuesday.

As part of the agreement, the group will invest $10.1 billion to acquire a 49% stake in a newly-formed subsidiary, ADNOC Gas Pipeline Assets, with lease rights to 38 pipelines. ADNOC will hold the majority stake of 51% and will retain ownership of the pipelines. It will also manage operations and remain responsible for capital expenditure.

21        Shale industry to be rocked by $300 billion in losses, bankruptcies: Deloitte
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/22/shale-industry-will-be-rocked-by-300-billion-in-losses-and-a-wave-of-bankruptcies-deloitte-says.html

The U.S. shale industry is about to enter a period of “great compression” as low oil prices hammer the sector, according to a Deloitte study released Monday.

The firm believes that exploration and production companies could  write down the value of their assets by as much as $300 billion as they struggle to breakeven in a lower-for-longer oil price environment. Significant impairments are expected in the second quarter. Based on this, the firm envisions a wave of bankruptcies followed by mass consolidation.

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 41

Friday, June 26, 2020

Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 41

1          Battery makers face looming shortages of high-quality lithium
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/battery-makers-face-looming-shortages-of-high-quality-lithium/580482/
Battery makers are facing a shortage of lithium, and ongoing financial problems in markets suppressed by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry insiders at an Atlantic Council panel on Wednesday.

Shortages of lithium specialty chemicals are expected by the mid-2020’s, “given the current pace of supply development,” Vivas Kumar, a principal consultant with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and former senior manager for Tesla’s battery supply chain, said on the panel.

2          Recent LG Chem, CATL, & SK Innovation Battery News
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/06/23/recent-lg-chem-catl-sk-innovation-battery-news/
The good news in 2020: there’s a lot of battery news! If it wasn’t for other things … ahem … I think we could call 2020 “The Year of the Battery.” A week and a half ago, I published a roundup of 10 battery stories we couldn’t give their own headlines. Many others have gotten their own headlines. Three of the top companies in EV battery world had some notable news at the end of April that never saw the light of day here on CleanTechnica, though.

3          EV Batteries Are About To Get Their Own Passports
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/EV-Batteries-Are-About-To-Get-Their-Own-Passports.html
Back in 2018, tech giant IBM unveiled a unique blockchain-based technology that can track diamonds, gold, and precious stones used in jewelry through all stages of the global supply chain, right from a mine located thousands of miles away to the customer. The technology helps establish the provenance of jewelry for quality assurance and authenticity purposes while limiting the trade of so-called blood diamonds that are mined in conflict zones.

And now, the EV sector has adapted this idea to batteries after launching ‘Battery Passport,’ a global quality seal and verification tool on a digital platform that will share value chain data of EV batteries.

4          Ford plans to go carbon neutral by 2050
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/ford-carbon-neutral-by-2050/580433/
The Ford Motor Company aspires to achieve carbon neutrality globally by 2050, according to the company’s 21st sustainability report released Wednesday. It is working with Ceres and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to set scope 1, 2 and 3 environmental goals in line with the Paris Agreement.

Ford will invest $11.5 billion in its electric vehicle lines through 2022, as well as reducing carbon dioxide production, water use and waste across its facilities and supplier base. These areas are responsible for 95% of the company’s current emissions, according to a press release.

5          Manufacturing industry seeks unity on wafer size
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/25/manufacturing-industry-seeks-unity-on-wafer-size/
Seven solar manufacturers, including tier-1 players, have signed up to a joint initiative aiming to establish a new standard size for silicon wafers at 182mm x 182mm. Conspicuously absent from the initiative is China’s Zhonghuan Semiconductor, which last year introduced a 210mm solar wafer, the largest seen in the industry so far.

6          By 2029, Half of New US Wind Installations Will Be Offshore
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/by-2029-half-of-new-us-wind-installations-will-be-offshore
The United States offshore wind industry is set to ramp up from near-zero today to as much as 25 gigawatts in 2029, according to new Wood Mackenzie research.

That means offshore wind will capture almost half of the US market for new wind power installations by the end of the decade — if the industry can avoid potential permitting and transmission capacity challenges.

On the other hand, if the market moves more slowly, the total build this decade will total just 15 gigawatts.

7          Satellites reveal major new gas industry methane leaks
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-methane-satellites-insi-idUSKBN23W3K4
Last fall, European Space Agency satellites detected huge plumes of the invisible planet-warming gas methane leaking from the Yamal pipeline that carries natural gas from Siberia to Europe.

Energy consultancy Kayrros estimated one leak was spewing out 93 tonnes of methane every hour, meaning the daily emissions from the leakage were equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide pumped out in a year by 15,000 cars in the United States.

8          Well Built Green Stimulus Packages Can Revitalize Economies, Help the Climate
https://about.bnef.com/blog/well-built-green-stimulus-packages-can-revitalize-economies-help-the-climate/
Governments are unveiling trillions of dollars of stimulus measures to revive the economy from a potentially deeper downturn than the 2008-09 financial crisis. Amid great uncertainty, there are known knowns: post-lockdown life will be different from what came before; and the world still needs to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change. But which specific ideas can most effectively drive clean growth?

9          Amazon pledges $2 billion venture capital fund to invest in clean energy
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-clean-energy-idUSKBN23U1OP
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Tuesday it will launch a $2 billion venture capital fund that will focus on technology investments to reduce the impact of climate change and support sustainable development.

The Climate Pledge Fund will invest in companies across industries such as transportation and logistics, energy, storage and utilization, manufacturing and materials, and food and agriculture, the e-commerce giant said.

10        German hydrogen economy to spark traded market for imports: consultants
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-hydrogen-imports-idUSKBN23T1JT
Germany’s push to increase the use of hydrogen as a clean fuel to meet climate targets will require imports and a traded market to supplement home-produced supplies, a consultancy close to protagonists in the emerging industry said.

“There will have to be a mix of domestic and foreign hydrogen volumes, depending on where the cheaper source is,” said Andreas Schwenzer, principal consultant at Horvath & Partners, which advises the gas network Open Grid Europe.

11        Low-cost direct solar-to-hydrogen ambitions see the light
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/22/low-cost-direct-solar-to-hydrogen-ambitions-see-the-light/
Australian National University (ANU) researchers have more than nudged the dial on the efficiency of solar-to-hydrogen production processes which bypass electrolysers and avoid AC/DC power conversion and transmission losses. An ANU-based group say their world record 17.6% efficiency – achieved with perovskite-silicon tandem absorbers – is open to further refinement which could see clean hydrogen production become cost competitive with fuels including brown hydrogen and gas more quickly than expected.

12        EU draft hydrogen plan splits supporters down color-coded lines
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-hydrogen-idUSKBN23W1RQ
Energy industry lobbyists and advocates of renewable hydrogen are divided over whether the bloc should support low-carbon hydrogen produced by fossil fuels ahead of a new EU strategy next month.

The EU’s executive Commission plans to publish its hydrogen strategy on July 8, which will form the basis for EU regulation and funding to scale up production of the fuel to replace fossil fuels in sectors including chemicals and transport.

13        Local Governments Advance Clean Energy Transition
https://solarindustrymag.com/local-governments-advance-clean-energy-transition
As of March, local governments have signed 335 deals to procure a total of 8.28 GW of renewable energy over the last five years – more than the total energy generation capacity of Alaska, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont combined.

This data was compiled by the Local Government Renewables Action Tracker, a new resource launched by the American Cities Climate Challenge Renewables Accelerator that documents renewable energy deals executed by U.S. city, county and tribal governments.

14        ArcelorMittal seeks EU support to make steel greener
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arcelormittal-carbon-idUSKBN23W1W9
Europe’s steelmakers like ArcelorMittal, are under pressure to cut carbon emissions while maintaining profitability in a market where there is fierce competition, mainly from China.

“The support the EU and member states can give to ensure we have a well-designed policy to make large-scale, competitive, carbon-neutral steelmaking a reality, is critical,” Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal said on a call.

15        Millions of Americans can’t afford water as bills rise 80% in a decade
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/23/millions-of-americans-cant-afford-water-bills-rise
Millions of ordinary Americans are facing rising and unaffordable bills for running water, and risk being disconnected or losing their homes if they cannot pay, a landmark Guardian investigation has found.

Exclusive analysis of 12 US cities shows the combined price of water and sewage increased by an average of 80% between 2010 and 2018, with more than two-fifths of residents in some cities living in neighbourhoods with unaffordable bills.

16        10 examples of building performance standards: ACEEE
https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/10-examples-of-building-performance-standards-aceee/580311/
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a white paper on Monday calling on jurisdictions globally to explore mandatory building energy performance standards to meet long-term climate goals, energy savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions.

The report outlined 10 jurisdictions with existing standards, ranging from the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade program to Washington State’s Clean Buildings Bill, to illustrate the many approaches that can be taken in developing a building performance program. ACEEE also outlined a handful of pending building performance standards, as well as details on a number of “stepping-stone” programs in U.S. cities that can lead to whole-building performance standards.

17        Fortum’s new CEO sees natural gas, hydrogen helping green transition
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-fortum-oyj-ceo-idUSKBN23V1HP
The new chief executive of Fortum (FORTUM.HE) said on Wednesday natural gas and hydrogen could help Europe shift to clean energy and promised to present a strategy for the Finnish utility and its newly acquired German rival Uniper by the end of 2020.

The state-controlled group named Chief Financial Officer Markus Rauramo as its new chief executive on Wednesday as it seeks to integrate Uniper (UN01.DE), now 73.4% owned by Fortum after a two-year struggle to overcome resistance from Uniper managers.

18        Tesla’s reluctant commitment to cobalt a warning to others
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-cobalt-ahome-idUSKBN23U20Q
Just when his electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla seemed to be pivoting away from using cobalt in its batteries, it signs a long-term supply deal for the controversial metal with Glencore.

This from the man who has vowed to eliminate cobalt from the Tesla product mix because of its financial cost and the reputational cost of a metal associated with child labour and poor safety conditions at artisanal mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s dominant producer.

19        Trillion-dollar investors warn Brazil over ‘dismantling’ of environmental policies
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/23/trillion-dollar-investors-warn-brazil-over-dismantling-of-environmental-policies

Investors managing trillions of dollars in assets have warned Brazil that escalating deforestation and the “dismantling” of policies to protect the environment and indigenous communities are “creating widespread uncertainty about the conditions for investing”.

Amazon destruction rose to its highest level in more than a decade last year, Brazil’s first under the leadership of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right nationalist who has vowed to develop the region and slash environmental protections.

20        Massachusetts Moves to Follow California, New York in Planning for Natural Gas Phaseout
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/massachusetts-to-follow-california-and-new-york-in-planning-for-natural-gas-phase-down

Massachusetts may become just the third state, after California and New York, to begin planning for a managed decline of its conventional natural gas industry.

This month the state’s attorney general, Maura Healey, asked the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to open an investigation into the future of natural gas in the state.

21        Spain pushes clean energy decree to speed renewable rollout
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-spain-renewables-idUSKBN23U1PE
Spain’s cabinet approved on Tuesday a decree aimed at smoothing the rollout of renewable energy generation, with measures to combat speculation in the market, cut red tape and overhaul an outdated auction system to reassure investors and lower prices.

Spain wants to make use of rich natural resources including prodigious sunlight both to reduce pollution and create jobs, in response to the devastation the coronavirus has wrought on an economy that relies heavily on tourism and cars.