5 spunti per approfondire (36/2023)

La rubrica settimanale con i consigli di lettura di RivistaEnergia.it, dall’Europa e dal mondo. Forse non le notizie più eclatanti, ma proprio per questo interessanti da approfondire. Settimana 36/2023

It seems like oil ministers, analysts, and oil company executives were only yesterday reveling in China’s opening and the return of a strongly bullish oil market. Eight months later, the crude market is struggling to reach and remain at the mid-$80 price that prevailed in January. China’s economic growth has slowed. By the end of the year, the nation will likely be in recession, although only a few daring economists have issued such projections. The country’s economy is shrinking and will continue to slow. Chinese consumption of oil and other commodities will drop in concert. Worse for oil, China will push hard to maintain certain industries, particularly its electric vehicle (EV) production. It will also push exports, and each exported EV will cut a little more out of global oil demand.

Oil’s China Problem
Articolo – Energy Intelligence

“Chevron Corp started withdrawing contractor workers from its Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on Saturday, shortly after staff went on strike at two major projects in Australia, a union coalition said. “Chevron chartered a special flight this morning to Barrow Island to evacuate 50 blue and white collar contract crew off the Gorgon Project,” Offshore Alliance said in a Facebook post.”

Chevron pulls contract crew from Australia LNG project as strikes begin – unions
Articolo – Reuters

“The European Commission tabled proposals in March to reform the bloc’s electricity market to counter soaring electricity prices that hit consumers hard after Russia invaded Ukraine. Low supplies of Russian gas and French nuclear-generated electricity have meant that other, more expensive sources of fossil-based energy were called as back-up, pushing up the price of all electricity generation in line with the merit order principle. In response, the Commission proposed that newly built renewable and nuclear plants should be able to benefit from guaranteed sales prices through two-way contracts for difference (CfDs), thereby incentivising their development. In June, France even went so far as to suggest that these long-term public-private contracts could be used to finance the refurbishment of France’s existing fleet of nuclear reactors and ensure lower prices for consumers. However, the proposal has fallen on deaf ears, slowing the adoption of the reform that the European Commission and Paris initially hoped to complete before the winter. Speaking to an audience of business leaders and industrialists gathered in Paris by the French Business Confederation (MEDEF), Pannier-Runacher said Paris would activate “instruments that fall within the exclusive remit of the French authorities” if EU negotiations did not lead to a satisfactory outcome.”

France ‘confident’ about EU electricity market reform
Articolo – Euractiv

“Whether to export nuclear power to Saudi Arabia is one of the most complex questions for the United States and the one now entangled in the Biden administration’s ongoing effort to broker better relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. U.S. nuclear power technology and expertise is among the key requests made by the Saudis—to which no unified Israeli response has yet emerged. Since the Saudis began soliciting international proposals for what would be the country’s first nuclear power plant in the late 2010s, the geopolitical environment surrounding Washington’s decisionmaking has significantly changed, with the heightening U.S.-China rivalry and the uneasy U.S.-Saudi relations as the key illuminating backdrops.”

The Saudi Request for U.S. Nuclear Cooperation and Its Geopolitical Quandaries
Commentary – CSIS

“This study aims to analyze China’s energy diplomacy regarding coal imports from Indonesia after restricting coal imports from Australia in 2019. After China limits coal imports from Australia in 2019, the supply of Chinese coal imports will decrease. This makes China need to increase its coal imports from other countries, one of which is Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the largest coal-exporting countries in the world. This can be used by China to meet its coal import needs. The author uses three indicators of Wang & Xu’s energy diplomacy, namely dialogue between countries related to energy, government involvement in energy partnerships, and public energy diplomacy activities. The author uses qualitative research methods and internet-based research as data collection techniques. The findings in this study are: First, the dialogue between China and Indonesia, namely the meeting on 10 April 2019, the cooperation agreement on 24 May 2019 and 25 November 2020. Second, the Chinese government was involved in carrying out a cooperation agreement with Indonesia. Third, two Chinese non-state actors, namely CNCA and CCTDA.”

China’s Energy Diplomacy to Coal Imports from Indonesia After Restricting Coal Import from Australia in 2019
Ricerca – Indonesian Journal of Energy

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