Emerging oil nations reject climate curbs on exploration, pursue rapid development
By Paul Homewood
HOUSTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) – The world’s newest oil-producing nations grabbed the spotlight at this week’s Offshore Technology Conference with ambitious plans to tap oil and gas discoveries in a race against a global energy transition to lower-carbon fuels.
At the conference highlighting renewable and cleaner-burning fuels and investors moving bets away from fossil fuels, Brazil, Ghana, Guyana, and Suriname laid out agendas to pump massive oil and gas discoveries that could reshape their economies – if they can get them to market before values erode.
The contrast between their goals and governments moving to impose net-zero carbon emissions rules by 2050 was clear in the first large U.S. oil technology conference and exhibit since the pandemic.
Historically a place for oil firms to boast of deepwater breakthroughs, this year’s Houston conference showcased cleaner fuels and the urgency of emissions reduction, accentuating low-carbon tech, offshore wind and clean-burning hydrogen.
OIL KEY TO FUTURE
“We have millions of people without electricity in Africa,” said Ghana Energy Minister Matthew Opoku Prempeh in an address echoed by other emerging energy producers. “Energy transition does not mean we’ll see our resources unexploited.”
With three-quarters of Guyana covered by forest, carbon emissions from massive oil and gas discoveries just beginning to be tapped can be absorbed, Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s vice president, told the conference.
“We have been called to leave our oil in the ground. We believe that’s totally unfair,” said Jagdeo. “Being a small country, we will not have the capacity and the framework for an optimum operation of the oil industry right now, but we will continue improving.”
What is certain is that if the oil is pumped, it will be consumed, somewhere by somebody.
Meanwhile, the West, who are busy going down the dead-end of hydrogen and wind power, will be left behind.
I agree that to some extent wind is not the answer but may have a place in large scale battery storage. Hydrogen is different as like oil it can be burnt but is also the fuel for fuel cells so the question becomes more of cost & logistics which will be addressed as electric vehicles increase and any spare generation capacity is exhausted.
Hydrogen is a horrible substance to store. Best convert it to ammonia (NH3) and burn that.
Energy production will evolve, but not by authoritarian control. By the free market.
Oil reserves, like gas reserves, coal, precious metals gems and assets. Big money pulling the strings behind every sickening leader, won’t turn their back on assets. The “shutting down” of exploration or use of value assets bankrupts a country. And then when the country is broken, assets fall into the hands of the puppeteers, either at fire sale value or transferred from land locked up by the leftys by so called indigenous people, but managed by the lefty politicians.
All moves are financial. Moves are not political, not driven by ideology, religion, hate, climate change, being kind, protecting the planet or any other horse shit. It is all a giant con. Covid-19 is just another chapter in the Global Con Artists handbook. The Vaccines are the previous chapter. Covid-19 was the mechanism to enable the vaccines, so was designed after the vaccines as the catalyst to invoke the vaccines.
If Jacinda really was passionate about planting 1BN trees (net not gross) she would be out every weekend setting an example.
If she was passionate about helping the poor, she would donate a greater portion of her salary to charity, just as John Key did. Clarke probably earns enough for both.
If she was passionate about climate change and helping poorer nations AND was humble, she would never fly overseas and dine on Caviar and Champagne, instead holding meetings by Zoom and insisting the cost of the Flights, Hotels, Caviar and Champagne be given to the countries they are supposed to be helping.
Judge her and others by what they do, not what they say.
The Carbon scam continues,and the third world remains poor.
Seems economic policies and management are becoming more and more twisted by the day.
This will inevitably create more global unrest.