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President Trump has been threatening to “take back” the Panama Canal since he regained power. In this episode, listen to testimony from officials serving on the Federal Maritime Commission who explain why the Panama Canal has become a focus of the administration and examine whether or not we need to be concerned about an impending war for control of the canal. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via Support Congressional Dish via (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes Current Events around the Panama Canal March 5, 2025. the Associated Press. Sabrina Valle, Suzanne McGee, and Michael Martina. March 4, 2025. Reuters. Matt Murphy, Jake Horton and Erwan Rivault. February 14, 2025. BBC. May 1, 2024. World Weather Attribution. World Maritime News Staff. March 15, 2019. World Maritime News. July 29, 2018. Reuters. Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 U.S. Department of State. The Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative” Michele Ruta. March 29, 2018. World Bank Group. The Trump-Gaza Video February 26, 2025. Sky News. Laws Audio Sources Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation January 28, 2025 Witnesses: Louis E. Sola, Chairman, Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) Daniel B. Maffei, Commissioner, FMC , Professor, Scalia Law School, George Mason University Joseph Kramek, President & CEO, World Shipping Council Clips 17:30 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Between the American construction of the Panama Canal, the French effort to build an isthmus canal, and America's triumphant completion of that canal, the major infrastructure projects across Panama cost more than 35,000 lives. For the final decade of work on the Panama Canal, the United States spent nearly $400 million, equivalent to more than $15 billion today. The Panama Canal proved a truly invaluable asset, sparing both cargo ships and warships the long journey around South America. When President Carter gave it away to Panama, Americans were puzzled, confused, and many outraged. With the passage of time, many have lost sight of the canal's importance, both to national security and to the US economy. 18:45 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): But the Panama Canal was not just given away. President Carter struck a bargain. He made a treaty. And President Trump is making a serious and substantive argument that that treaty is being violated right now. 19:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): President Trump has highlighted two key issues. Number one, the danger of China exploiting or blocking passage through the canal, and number two, the exorbitant costs for transit. 19:20 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Chinese companies are right now building a bridge across the canal at a slow pace, so as to take nearly a decade. And Chinese companies control container points ports at either end. The partially completed bridge gives China the ability to block the canal without warning, and the ports give China ready observation posts to time that action. This situation, I believe, poses acute risks to US national security. 19:50 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Meanwhile, the high fees for canal transit disproportionately affect Americans, because US cargo accounts for nearly three quarters of Canal transits. US Navy vessels pay additional fees that apply only to warships. Canal profits regularly exceed $3 billion. This money comes from both American taxpayers and consumers in the form of higher costs for goods. American tourists aboard cruises, particularly those in the Caribbean Sea, are essentially captive to any fees Panama chooses to levy for canal transits, and they have paid unfair prices for fuel bunkering at terminals in Panama as a result of government granted monopoly. Panama's government relies on these exploitative fees. Nearly 1/10 of its budget is paid for with canal profit. 21:25 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Panama has for years flagged dozens of vessels in the Iranian ghost fleet, which brought Iran tens of billions of dollars in oil profits to fund terror across the world. 21:40 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): And Chinese companies have won contracts, often without fair competition, as the infamous Belt and Road Initiative has come to Panama. China often engages in debt trap diplomacy to enable economic and political coercion. In Panama, it also seems to have exploited simple corruption. 32:40 Louis Sola: The Panama Canal is managed by the Panama Canal Authority, ACP, an independent agency of the Panamanian government. The ACP is a model of public infrastructure management, and its independence has been key to ensure a safe and reliable transit of vessels critical to the US and global commerce. 33:25 Louis Sola: In contrast, the broader maritime sector in Panama, including the nation's ports, water rights, and the world's largest ship registry, falls under the direct purview of the Panamanian government. 33:35 Louis Sola: Unfortunately, this sector has faced persistent challenges, including corruption scandals and foreign influence, particularly from Brazil and China. These issues create friction with the ACP, especially as it works to address long term challenges such as securing adequate water supplies for the canal. 33:55 Louis Sola: Although the ACP operates independently, under US law both the ACP and the government of Panama's maritime sector are considered one in the same. This means that any challenges in Panama's maritime sector, including corruption, lack of transparency, or foreign influence, can have a direct or indirect impact on the operations and long term stability of the canal. This legal perspective highlights the need for diligence in monitoring both the ACP's management and Panama government's policies affecting maritime operations. 34:30 Louis Sola: Since 2015, Chinese companies have increased their presence and influence throughout Panama. Panama became a member of the Belt and Road Initiative and ended its diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Chinese companies have been able to pursue billions of dollars in development contracts in Panama, many of which were projects directly on or adjacent to the Panama Canal. Many were no bid contracts. Labor laws were waived, and the Panamanian people are still waiting to see how they've been benefited. It is all more concerning that many of these companies are state-owned, and in some cases, even designated as linked to the People's Liberation Army. We must address the significant growing presence and influence of China throughout the Americas and in Panama, specifically. 35:20 Louis Sola: American companies should play a leading role in enhancing the canal's infrastructure. By supporting US firms, we reduce reliance on Chinese contractors and promote fair competition. 36:55 Daniel Maffei: Because the canal is essentially a waterway bridge over mountainous terrain above sea level, it does depend on large supplies of fresh water to maintain the full operations. Panama has among the world's largest annual rainfalls. Nonetheless, insufficient fresh water levels have occurred before in the canal's history, such as in the 1930s when the Madden Dam and Lake Alajuela were built to address water shortages. Since that time, the canal has undertaken several projects to accommodate larger, more modern ships. In the last couple of years, a trend of worsening droughts in the region, once again, has forced limits to the operations of the canal. Starting in June of 2023 the Panama Canal Authority employed draft restrictions and reduced the number of ships allowed to transit the canal per day. Now the Panama Canal limitations, in combination with the de facto closure of the Suez Canal to container traffic, has had serious consequences for ocean commerce, increasing rates, fees and transit times. 39:30 Daniel Maffei: Now, fortunately, Panama's 2024 rainy season has, for now, alleviated the most acute water supply issues at the canal, and normal transit volumes have been restored. That said, while the Panamanian government and Canal Authority have, with the advice of the US Army Corps of Engineers, developed credible plans to mitigate future water shortages, they also warned that it is likely that at least one more period of reduced transits will occur before these plans can be fully implemented. 41:55 Eugene Kontorovich: We shall see that under international law, each party to the treaty is entitled to determine for itself whether a violation has occurred. Now, in exchange for the United States ceding control of the canal which it built and maintained, Panama agreed to a special regime of neutrality. The essential features of this regime of neutrality is that the canal must be open to all nations for transit. That's Article Two. Equitable tolls and fees, Article Three. An exclusive Panamanian operation, Article Five. The prohibition of any foreign military presence, Article Five. Article Five provides that only Panama shall operate the canal. Testifying about the meaning of the treaty at the Senate ratification hearings, the Carter administration emphasized that this prohibits foreign operation of the canal, as well as the garrisoning of foreign troops. Now, Article Five appears to be primarily concerned about control by foreign sovereigns. If Panama signed a treaty with the People's Republic of China, whereby the latter would operate the canal on Panama's behalf, this would be a clear violation. But what if Panama contracted for port operations with a Chinese state firm, or even a private firm influenced or controlled in part by the Chinese government? The Suez Canal Company was itself, before being nationalized, a private firm in which the United Kingdom was only a controlling shareholder. Yet this was understood to represent British control over the canal. In other words, a company need not be owned by the government to be in part controlled by the government. So the real question is the degree of de jure or de facto control over a Foreign Sovereign company, and scenarios range from government companies in an authoritarian regime, completely controlled, to purely private firms in our open society like the United States, but there's many possible situations in the middle. The treaty is silent on the question of how much control is too much, and as we'll see, this is one of the many questions committed to the judgment and discretion of each party. Now turning to foreign security forces, the presence of third country troops would manifestly violate Article Five. But this does not mean that anything short of a People's Liberation Army base flying a red flag is permissible. The presence of foreign security forces could violate the regime of neutrality, even if they're not represented in organized and open military formations. Modern warfare has seen belligerent powers seek to evade international legal limitations by disguising their actions in civilian garb, from Russia's notorious little green men to Hamas terrorists hiding in hospitals or disguised as journalists. Bad actors seek to exploit the fact that international treaties focus on sovereign actors. Many of China's man made islands in the South China Sea began as civilian projects before being suddenly militarized. Indeed, this issue was discussed in the Senate ratification hearings over the treaty. Dean Rusk said informal forces would be prohibited under the treaty. Thus the ostensible civilian character of the Chinese presence around the canal does not, in itself, mean that it could not represent a violation of the treaty if, for example, these companies and their employees involved Chinese covert agents or other agents of the Chinese security forces. So this leads us to the final question, Who determines whether neutrality is being threatened or compromised? Unlike many other treaties that provide for third party dispute resolution, the neutrality treaty has no such provision. Instead, the treaty makes clear that each party determines for itself the existence of a violation. Article Four provides that each party is separately authorized to maintain the regime of neutrality, making a separate obligation of each party. The Senate's understanding accompanying to ratification also made clear that Article Five allows each party to take, quote, "unilateral action." Senator Jacob Javits, at the markup hearing, said that while the word unilateral is abrasive, we can quote, "decide that the regime of neutrality is being threatened and then act with whatever means are necessary to keep the canal neutral unilaterally." 46:35 Joseph Kramek: My name is Joe Kramek. I'm President and CEO of the World Shipping Council. The World Shipping Council is the global voice of liner shipping. Our membership consists of 90% of the world's liner shipping tonnage, which are container vessels and vehicle carriers. They operate on fixed schedules to provide our customers with regular service to ship their goods in ports throughout the world. 47:15 Joseph Kramek: As you have heard, using the Panama Canal to transit between the Atlantic and Pacific saves significant time and money. A typical voyage from Asia to the US or East Coast can be made in under 30 days using the canal, while the same journey can take up to 40 days if carriers must take alternate routes. From a commercial trade perspective, the big picture is this. One of the world's busiest trade lanes is the Trans Pacific. The Trans Pacific is cargo coming from and going to Asia via the United States. Focusing in a bit, cargo coming from Asia and bound for US Gulf and East Coast ports always transits the Panama Canal. Similarly, cargo being exported from US and East Coast ports, a large share of which are US Agricultural exports, like soybeans, corn, cotton, livestock and dairy also almost always transits the Panama Canal. The result is that 75% of Canal traffic originates in or is bound for the United States. 48:55 Joseph Kramek: We've talked about the drought in 2023 and the historic low water levels that it caused in Lake Gatún, which feeds the canal locks, a unique system that is a fresh water feed, as contrasted to an ocean to ocean system, which the French tried and failed, but which is actually active in the Suez Canal. These low water levels reduced transits from 36 transits a day to as low as 22 per day. Additionally, the low water levels required a reduction in maximum allowable draft levels, or the depth of the ship below the water line, which for our members reduced the amount of containers they could carry through the canal. This resulted in a 10% reduction in import volumes for US Gulf and East Coast ports, with the Port of Houston experiencing a 26.7% reduction. 51:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Are you aware of allegations from some vessel operators of disparate treatment such as sweetheart deals or favorable rebates by Panama for canal transits? Louis Sola: Thank you for the question, Mr. Chairman, we have become aware through some complaints by cruise lines that said that they were not getting a refund of their canal tolls. When we looked into this, we found a Panamanian Executive Order, Decree 73, that specifically says that if a cruise line would stop at a certain port, that they could be refunded 100% of the fees. And as far as I know, that's the only instant where that exists. 53:05 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): So Panama was the very first Latin American country to join China's Belt and Road Initiative, and right now, China is building a fourth bridge across the Panama Canal for car traffic and light rail. Chairman Sola, why should Chinese construction of a bridge near Panama City concern the United States? Louis Sola: Mr. Chairman, we all saw the tragedy that happened here in the Francis Scott Key Bridge incident and the devastation that had happened to Baltimore. We also saw recently what happened in the Suez Canal, where we had a ship get stuck in there. It's not only the construction of the bridge, but it's a removal of a bridge, as I understand it, called the Bridge of the Americas. It was built in 1961 and that would paralyze cargo traffic in and out of the canals. 53:55 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Panama also recently renewed the concessions for two container ports to a Chinese company, Hutchison Ports PPC. Of course, Chinese companies are controlled by the Communist Party. How does China use control of those ports for economic gain? Louis Sola: Mr. Chairman, I am a regulator, a competition regulator. And the Chinese ports that you're referring to, let me put them into scope. The one on the Pacific, the Port of Balboa, is roughly the same size as the Port of Houston. They do about 4 million containers a year. They have about 28 game tree cranes. The one on the Atlantic is the same as my hometown in Miami, they do about 1 million containers. So where Roger Gunther in the Port of Houston generates about $1 billion a year and Heidi Webb in Miami does about $200 million, the Panama ports company paid 0 for 20 years on that concession. So it's really hard to compete against zero. So I think that's our concern, our economic concern, that we would have. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Commissioner Maffei, anything to add on that? Daniel Maffei: Yeah, I do too also think it is important. I would point out that you don't have to stop at either port. It's not like these two ports control the entrance to the canal. That is the Canal Authority that does control that. However, I think it's of concern. I would also point out that the Panamanian government thinks it's of concern too, because they're conducting their own audit of those particular deals, but we remain very interested as well. 56:25 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Would the facts discussed here be considered violations of the neutrality treaty in force right now between the United States and Panama? Eugene Kontorovich: So I think Senator, I think potentially they could, but it's impossible to say definitively without knowing more, in particular, about the degree of Chinese control and involvement in these companies. I think it's important to note that these port operation companies that operate the ports on both sides, when they received their first contract, it was just a few months before Hong Kong was handed over to China. In other words, they received them as British companies, sort of very oddly, just a few months before the handover. Now, of course, since then, Hong Kong has been incorporated into China, has been placed under a special national security regime, and the independence of those companies has been greatly abridged, to say nothing of state owned companies involved elsewhere in in the canal area, which raised significantly greater questions. Additionally, I should point out that the understandings between President Carter and Panamanian leader Herrera, which were attached to the treaty and form part of the treaty, provide that the United States can, quote, "defend the canal against any threat to the regime of neutrality," and I understand that as providing some degree of preemptive authority to intervene. One need not wait until the canal is actually closed by some act of sabotage or aggression, which, as we heard from the testimony, would be devastating to the United States, but there is some incipient ability to address potential violations. 58:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): If the United States determines that Panama is in violation of the treaty, what is the range of remedies the United States would have for that treaty violation? Eugene Kontorovich: So I think it may be shocking to people to hear today, but when one goes over the ratification history and the debates and discussions in this body over this treaty, it was clear that the treaty was understood as giving both sides, separately, the right to resort to use armed force to enforce the provisions of the treaty. And it's not so surprising when one understands that the United States made an extraordinary concession to Panama by transferring this canal, which the United States built at great expense and maintained and operated to Panama, gratis. And in exchange, it received a kind of limitation, a permanent limitation on Panamanians sovereignty, that Panama agreed that the United States could enforce this regime of neutrality by force. Now, of course, armed force should never be the first recourse for any kind of international dispute and should not be arrived at sort of rationally or before negotiations and other kinds of good offices are exhausted, but it's quite clear that the treaty contemplates that as a remedy for violations. 1:03:20 Louis Sola: I believe that the security of the canal has always been understood to be provided by the United States. Panama does not have a military, and I always believed that there's been a close relationship with Southern Command that we would provide that. And it would be nice to see if we had a formalization of that in one way or another, because I don't believe that it's in the treaty at all. 1:05:05 Daniel Maffei: While we were down there, both of us heard, I think, several times, that the Panamanians would, the ones we talked to anyway, would welcome US companies coming in and doing a lot of this work. Frankly, their bids are not competitive with the Chinese bids. Frankly, they're not that existent because US companies can make more money doing things other places, but even if they were existent, it is difficult to put competitive bids when the Chinese bids are so heavily subsidized by China. 1:06:10 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): What would China's incentive be to heavily subsidize those bids to undercut American companies and other companies? Daniel Maffei: Yeah, it's not a real short answer, but Senator, China's made no secret of its ambitious policies to gain influence of ports throughout the globe. It's invested in 129 ports in dozens of countries. It runs a majority of 17 ports, that does not include this Hong Kong company, right? So that's just directly Chinese-owned ports. So it has been a part of their Belt and Road strategy, whatever you want to call it, the Maritime Silk Road, for decades. So they believe that this influence, this investment in owning maritime ports is important to their economy. 1:07:05 Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE): In 2021, Hutchison was awarded those two ports, Port Balboa and Port Cristobal, in a no-bid award process. Can you tell me, does the United States have any authority or recourse with the Panama Canal Authority under our current agreement with Panama to rebid those terminal concession contracts. And perhaps Mr. Kantorovich, that's more in your purview? Louis Sola: Senator, both of those ports were redone for 25 years, until 2047, I believe. And they have to pay $7 million is what the ongoing rate is for the Port of Houston- and the Port of Miami-sized concessions. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE): And it can't be rebid until after that date? Louis Sola: Well, I believe that that's what the comptroller's office is auditing both of those ports and that contract. That was done under the previous Panamanian administration. A new administration came in, and they called for an audit of that contract immediately. 1:20:10 Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Are the companies now controlling both sides of the Panama Canal, the Chinese companies, subject to the PRC national security laws that mandate cooperation with the military, with state intelligence agencies. Does anyone know that? Eugene Kontorovich: They're subject all the time. They're subject to those laws all the time by virtue of being Hong Kong companies. And you know, they face, of course, consequences for not complying with the wishes of the Chinese government. One of the arguments -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Wouldn't that be a violation of the treaty? And isn't that a huge risk to us right now that the Chinese -- Eugene Kontorovich: That is a threat to the neutrality -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): If they invaded Taiwan, invaded the Philippines, they could go to these two companies saying, Hey, shut it down, make it hard, sink a ship in the canal. And wouldn't they be obligated to do that under Chinese law if they were ordered to by the PLA or the CCP? Eugene Kontorovich: I don't know if they'd be obligated, but certainly the People's Republic of China would have many tools of leverage and pressure on these companies. That's why the treaty specifically says that we can act not just to end actual obstructions to the canal. We don't have to wait until the canal is closed by hostile military action. Thatwould be a suicide pact, that would be catastrophic for us, but rather that we can respond at the inchoate, incipient level to threats, and then this is up to the president to determine whether this is significantly robust to constitute -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): So aren't we kind of walking up to the idea of a suicide pact, because we've got two big Chinese companies on both ends of the Panama Canal, who, if there's a war in INDOPACOM, Taiwan that involves us and China, these companies would be obligated to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party and PLA? I mean, are we kind of walking up to a very significant national security threat already? Eugene Kontorovich: Yeah, certainly, there's a threat. And I think what makes the action of the Chinese government so difficult to respond to, but important to respond to, is that they conceal this in sort of levels of gray without direct control. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Let me ask you on that topic, as my last question, Professor, let's assume that we find out. And again, it wouldn't be surprising. I think you can almost assume it that these two companies have Chinese spies or military officials within the ranks of the employees of the companies. Let's assume we found that out, somehow that becomes public. But I don't think it's a big assumption. It's probably true right now. So you have spies and military personnel within the ranks of these two companies that are controlling both ends of the Panama Canal for you, Professor, and Chairman Sola, wouldn't that be a blatant violation of Article Five of the neutrality treaty, if that were true, which probably is true? Eugene Kontorovich: Yeah, I do think it would be a clear violation. As former Secretary of State, Dean Ross said at the ratification hearings, informal forces can violate Article Five as well as formal forces. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): Is there any evidence of Chinese spies or other nefarious Chinese actors embedded in these companies? Louis Sola: Senator, we have no information of that. That's not under the purview of -- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): But you agree that would be a violation of Article Five of the neutrality treaty? Louis Sola: I do. 1:26:25 Daniel Maffei: Senator Sullivan was talking about Hutchison Ports. That's actually the same company that runs terminals on both ends of the canal. I am concerned about that. However, if we want to be concerned about that, all of us should lose a lot more sleep than we're losing because if there are spies there, then there might be spies at other Hutchinson ports, and there are other Hutchinson ports in almost every part of the world. They own the largest container port in the United Kingdom, Felix Dow, which is responsible for nearly half of Britain's container trade. They control major maritime terminals in Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Myanmar, the Netherlands, South Korea and Tanzania. If owning and managing adjacent ports means that China somehow has operational control or strategic control over the Panama Canal, they also have it over the Suez, the Singapore Straits, the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel. 1:35:45 Louis Sola: The fees that I think we are looking at, or have been looked at, the reason that we went there was because of the auctioning of the slots. And so what Panama did is they had a smaller percentage, maybe 20% allocation, and then they moved it up to 30% and 40% because it became a money maker for them. So as they were doing -- Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): Okay, let me interject here. The auctioning of the slots gives these the right to skip the queue? Louis Sola: Yes, ma'am. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): Okay, so just for the record there. Continue. Louis Sola: So the auctioning of the slots. Under maritime law, it's first come first serve, but Panama has always put a certain percentage aside, and they started to put more and more. So we got a lot of complaints. We got a lot of complaints from LNG carriers that paid $4 million to go through, and we got a lot of complaints from agriculture that didn't have the money to pay to go through, because their goods were gonna go down. So if you look at the financial statements -- I'm a nerd, I look at financial statements of everybody -- the canal increased the amount of revenue that they had from about $500 million to $1.8 billion in the last three years just because of those fees. So this is what is very concerning to us. 1:39:20 Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN): Do you know of any instances where the United States has been singled out or treated unfairly under the neutrality treaty in the operation of the canal? Daniel Maffei: I do not. I would add that one of the reasons why saying the US is disproportionately affected by raises in Canal fees and other kinds of fees at the canal is because the United States disproportionately utilizes the canal. 1:44:55 Louis Sola: We have a US port there, SSA, out of Washington State that I actually worked on the development of that many years ago, and helped develop that. That used to be a United States Navy submarine base, and we converted that. As far as the two ports that we have, they're completely different. One is a major infrastructure footprint, and also a container port that's moving 4 million containers a year. That's really phenomenal amount. That's more than Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and you've probably got to get Tampa and a little bit of Jacksonville in there to get that type of volume. And on the other side, we have a very small port, but it's a very strategic port on the Atlantic. So how are the operations done?I don't know how they don't make money. I mean, if you want to come right down to it, if they've been operating the port for 20 years, and they say that they haven't made any money, so they haven't been able to pay the government. That's what concerns me is I don't believe that we're on a level playing field with the American ports. 1:58:50 Eugene Kontorovich: I think the charges and fees are less of an issue because they don't discriminate across countries. We pay more because we use more, but it's not nationally discriminatory. 1:59:00 Eugene Kontorovich: The presence of Chinese companies, especially Chinese state companies, but not limited to them, do raise serious issues and concerns for the neutrality of the treaty. And I should point out, in relation to some of the earlier questioning, the canal, for purposes of the neutrality treaty, is not limited just to the actual locks of the canal and the transit of ships through the canal. According to Annex One, paragraph one of the treaty, it includes also the entrances of the canal and the territorial sea of Panama adjacent to it. So all of the activities we're talking about are within the neutrality regime, the geographic scope of the neutrality regime in the treaty. 2:00:30 Daniel Maffei: I actually have to admit, I'm a little confused as to why some of the senators asking these questions, Senator Blackburn, aren't more concerned about the biggest port in the United Kingdom being run by the Chinese. Petraeus in the port nearest Athens, one of the biggest ports in the Mediterranean, is not just run by a Chinese-linked company, it's run directly by a Chinese-owned company, and I was there. So you're on to something, but if you're just focusing on Panama, that's only part. 2:01:45 Louis Sola: About a year ago, when we were having this drought issue, there was also a lot of focus on Iran and how they were funding Hamas and the Houthis because they were attacking the Red Sea. What the United States has found is that Iranian vessels are sometimes flagged by Panama in order to avoid sanctions, so that they could sell the fuel that they have, and then they can take that money and then they can use it as they wish. Panama, at the time, had a very complicated process to de-flag the vessels. There was an investigation, there was an appeals process. By the time that OFAC or Treasury would go ahead and identify one of those vessels, by the time that they were doing the appeals and stuff like this, they've already changed flags to somewhere else. So when we went to Panama, we met with the Panamanian president, and I must say that we were very impressed, because he was 30 minutes late, but he was breaking relations with Venezuela at the time because the election was the day before. We explained to him the situation. The very next day, we met with the maritime minister, with US embassy personnel and Panama actually adjusted their appeals process so to make it more expedient, so if the United States or OFAC would come and say that this Iranian vessel is avoiding sanctions, now we have a process in place to go ahead and do that, and 53 vessels were de-flagged because of that. 2:06:05 Sen. John Curtis (R-UT): Is there any reason that China can't watch or do whatever they want from this bridge to get the intel from these containers? And does that concern anybody? Louis Sola: Well, it definitely concerns Southern Command, because they've brought it up on numerous occasions that there could be some sort of surveillance or something like that on the bridges. 2:20:30 Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): We segregate ourselves artificially in a way that they do not. We segregate ourselves. Let's talk about military. Let's talk about intelligence. Let's talk about economics. They don't. China doesn't work that way. It's a whole of government approach. They don't draw a delineation between an economics discussion and a military one. And their attack may not look like Pearl Harbor. It may look like an everyday ship that decides, you know, it pulls into the locks and blows itself up. And now the locks are non-functional for our usage, and we can't support an inter ocean fleet transfer, and our ability to defend it, as you referred to Chairman, is now inhibited by the fact that we no longer have the military infrastructure around the canal that we did just as recently as 1999. 2:21:10 Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): So from a commercial perspective, do the shipping companies have concerns over the security of the narrow waterways? We've the Strait to Malacca, we've got the Suez Canal, we've got Gibraltar, we've got Panama. Is that a concern that's thrown around in the boardrooms of the largest shipping corporations in the world? Joseph Kramek: Senator, I think it's something they think about every day. I mean, really, it's drawn into sharp relief with the Red Sea. It was what I call a pink flamingo. There's black swans that just come up and there's pink flamingos that you can see, but you don't act. But no one really thought a whole lot that one of the most important waterways in the world could be denied, and moreover, that it could be denied for such a sustained period. The good news is that -- Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT): And denied, I might add, by a disaffected non-state actor of Bedouins running around with rocket launchers, who also managed to beat us in a 20 year war in Afghanistan. My point to saying all this is we're just debating operational control of the canal, yet it seems very clear to all of us that a very simple act can debilitate the canal and eliminate our ability to use it in a matter of minutes with no warning, and we have no ability to intervene or stop that. To me, that means we do not have operational control of the canal. 2:30:40 Daniel Maffei: I will say that certainly we need to look at other kinds of ways to get US companies in positions where they can truly compete with the Chinese on some of these things. Blaming it all on Panama really misses the point. I've seen the same thing in Greece, where Greece didn't want to give the concession of its largest port to a Chinese company, but because of its financial difficulties, it was getting pressure from international organizations such the IMF, Europe and even maybe some of the United States to do so. So I just ask you to look at that. 2:31:20 Daniel Maffei: Panamanians are making far more on their canal than they ever have before. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it's going to the right place. But where they're really making the money is on these auctions, and that is why it remains a concern of mine and I'm sure the chairman's. That is where we are looking at, potentially, using our authority under Section 19 of the Merchant Marine Act where we could, if we can show that it is a problem with the foreign trade of the US, it's interfering with foreign trade of the US, there are certain things that we can do. Senate Foreign Relations Committee January 15, 2024 Clips 4:01:40 Marco Rubio: The thing with Panama on the canal is not new. I visited there. It was 2016. I think I've consistently seen people express concern about it, and it's encapsulized here in quote after quote. Let me tell you the former US ambassador who served under President Obama said: "the Chinese see in Panama what we saw in Panama throughout the 20th century, a maritime and aviation logistics hub." The immediate past head of Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, said, "I was just in Panama about a month ago and flying along the Panama Canal and looking at the state owned enterprises from the People's Republic of China on each side of the Panama Canal. They look like civilian companies or state owned enterprises that could be used for dual use and could be quickly changed over to a military capability." We see questions that were asked by the ranking member in the house China Select Committee, where he asked a witness and they agreed that in a time of conflict, China could use its presence on both ends of the canal as a choke point against the United States in a conflict situation. So the concerns about Panama have been expressed by people on both sides of the aisle for at least the entire time that I've been in the United States Senate, and they've only accelerated further. And this is a very legitimate issue that we face there. I'm not prepared to answer this question because I haven't looked at the legal research behind it yet, but I'm compelled to suspect that an argument could be made that the terms under which that canal were turned over have been violated. Because while technically, sovereignty over the canal has not been turned over to a foreign power, in reality, a foreign power today possesses, through their companies, which we know are not independent, the ability to turn the canal into a choke point in a moment of conflict. And that is a direct threat to the national interest and security the United States, and is particularly galling given the fact that we paid for it and that 5,000 Americans died making it. That said, Panama is a great partner on a lot of other issues, and I hope we can resolve this issue of the canal and of its security, and also continue to work with them cooperatively on a host of issues we share in common, including what to do with migration. 4:38:35 Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT): Now, President Trump has recently talked a little bit about the fact that there are some questions arising about the status of the Panama Canal. When we look to the treaty at issue, the treaty concerning the permanent neutrality and operation of the Panama Canal, we're reminded that some things maybe aren't quite as they should be there right now. Given that the Chinese now control major ports at the entry and the exit to the canal, it seems appropriate to say that there's at least an open question. There's some doubt as to whether the canal remains neutral. Would you agree with that assessment? Marco Rubio: Yes. Here's the challenge. Number one, I want to be clear about something. The Panamanian government, particularly its current office holders, are very friendly to the United States and very cooperative, and we want that to continue, and I want to bifurcate that from the broader issue of the canal. Now I am not, President Trump is not inventing this. This is something that's existed now for at least a decade. In my service here, I took a trip to Panama in 2017. When on that trip to Panama in 2017 it was the central issue we discussed about the canal, and that is that Chinese companies control port facilities at both ends of the canal, the east and the west, and the concerns among military officials and security officials, including in Panama, at that point, that that could one day be used as a choke point to impede commerce in a moment of conflict. Going back to that I -- earlier before you got here, and I don't want to have to dig through this folder to find it again, but -- basically cited how the immediate past head of Southern Command, just retired general Richardson, said she flew over the canal, looked down and saw those Chinese port facilities, and said Those look like dual use facilities that in a moment of conflict, could be weaponized against us. The bipartisan China commission over in the House last year, had testimony and hearings on this issue, and members of both parties expressed concern. The former ambassador to Panama under President Obama has expressed those concerns. This is a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted. The second point is the one you touched upon, and that is, look, could an argument be made, and I'm not prepared to answer it yet, because it's something we're going to have to study very carefully. But I think I have an inkling of I know where this is going to head. Can an argument be made that the Chinese basically have effective control of the canal anytime they want? Because if they order a Chinese company that controls the ports to shut it down or impede our transit, they will have to do so. There are no independent Chinese companies. They all exist because they've been identified as national champions. They're supported by the Chinese government. And if you don't do what they want, they find a new CEO, and you end up being replaced and removed. So they're under the complete control of their government. This is a legitimate question, and one that Senators Risch had some insight as well. He mentioned that in passing that needs to be looked at. This is not a joke. The Panama Canal issue is a very serious one. 4:44:30 Marco Rubio: In 2016 and 2017 that was well understood that part of the investments they made in Panama were conditioned upon Panama's ability to convince the Dominican Republic and other countries to flip their recognition away from Taiwan. That happened. Jen Briney's Recent Guest Appearances Travis Makes Money: Give and Take: Music by Editing Production Assistance

Half-day trading is conducted today given how it is Christmas eve, and Singapore shares started trading in positive territory this morning, mirroring overnight gains in global markets. The Straits Times Index (STI) opened 0.2 per cent higher at 3,760.29 points after 49 million securities changed hands in the broader market. In terms of companies to watch today, we have Seatrium, after the offshore and marine specialist was awarded a contract by BP Exploration and Production for a deepwater new-build floating production unit (FPU) in the US Gulf of Mexico. Elsewhere, from how TSMC shares touched a record high to how Microsoft is reportedly adding internal and third-party artificial intelligence models to power its flagship AI product Microsoft 365 Copilot to diversify from OpenAI and reduce costs – more international and corporate headlines remain in focus. On Market View, Money Matters’ finance presenter Chua Tian Tian unpacked the developments of the day.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The rise in availability of TMX volumes in Asia, specifically in China, has affected the US Gulf coast but not in the ways that had been expected. Canadian crude prices and flows into the US have not changed all that much, but the US Gulf coast medium sour markets are certainly now feeling the pinch. Mars exports to China are at an all-time low, weighing on their prices and impacting medium sours that either price against it or compete as an alternative supply into regional refineries.    Key topics covered in the podcast:   Volumes of Canadian crudes coming into the US and impacts on Cushing   Canadian heavy prices at Houston   How medium sours are feeling the pinch from increased Chinese buying of TMX volumes

Get up to speed with the US refined oil products export market with a look at medium range (MR) tanker rates from the US Gulf coast and the west coast. Listen to US Products Associate Editor Jason Metko and Americas Freight Deputy Editor Ross Griffith as they discuss topics including: Panama Canal transit update Fourth quarter MR tanker demand outlook Shifting trade flows for west coast Americas US east coast imported gasoline demand

Joe's Premium Subscription: www.standardgrain.comGrain Markets and Other Stuff Links-Apple PodcastsSpotifyTikTokYouTubeFutures and options trading involves risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone.

David Appleton seats with LPG editor, Amy Strahan, to discuss recent multi-year highs in the spot cargo market out of the US Gulf coast and what it means for the winter outlook.

While there is a "tsunami" of liquidity currently flowing that can power stocks higher into year end, in the near term, stocks are looking over-bought and a (short-term) sell signal was triggered this week says portfolio manager Lance Roberts. So between now and the election, be prepared for stocks to trade sluggishly and/or weaken. Other than that, though, the developments this week have been largely favorable for the economy. Very strong jobs numbers (if we can believe them), a resolution to the longshoremen strike that threatened to paralyze ports along the US Gulf and East coasts, and a potential resumption of student loan forgiveness. We talk about all that and more, including Lance's firm's latest trades, in this week's Market Recap. WORRIED ABOUT THE MARKET? SCHEDULE YOUR FREE PORTFOLIO REVIEW with Thoughtful Money's endorsed financial advisors at https://www.thoughtfulmoney.com #jobsreport #liquidity #bearmarket --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thoughtful-money/support

Wall St finished the week mixed as traders overnight digested the two biggest news stories – US PCE inflation came in slightly below expectations and China unveiled further fiscal stimulus measures to reignite its struggling economy. Dow Jones up 138 points or 0.33%, NASDAQ down 0.39% and the S&P 500 down 0.13%. For the week, the Dow Jones gained 250 points, the S&P 500 rose 0.62% and the NASDAQ finished up 0.96%.ASX SPI up 24COMMODITIESIron ore logs over 10% weekly gain on China rate cuts, stimulus prospects.Oil settles higher but falls on the week on firmer supply outlook.Rate cuts set gold on track for best quarter in eight years.About 24% of oil production shut in US Gulf of Mexico due to Hurricane Helene.Mining industry struggles with valuation gap amid shift to copper.Indian steelmaker group warns of rising Chinese imports after US tariffs.Aluminium at 16-week high, driven by China's stimulus measures.Why not sign up for a free trial? Get access to expert market insights and manage your investments with confidence. Ready to invest in yourself? Join the Marcus Today community. 

Welcome to the CavasShips Podcast with Christopher P. Cavas and Chris Servello…a weekly podcast looking at naval and maritime events and issues of the day – in the US, across the seas and around the world. This week…It's no secret the US Navy is seeking ways to find better ways to build ships - but what are some of these efforts producing? And where is the accountability for billions of dollars going to – a non-profit organization? We'll talk about some of the elements with Sam LaGrone of USNI News, who will also review his recent trip with Chris Cavas to visit shipbuilders along the US Gulf coast. Please send us feedback by DM'ing @CavasShips or @CSSProvision or you can email chriscavas@gmail.com or cservello@defaeroreport.com.

Welcome to CNBC-TV18's Marketbuzz Podcast. Here are all the top news from around the world ahead of the trading session of September 12 -Even as the Nifty witnessed selling pressure yesterday the moment it crossed 25,100 intraday, this morning the market is likely to start on a higher note following positive global cues. GIFT Nifty was higher this morning, trading at a premium of more than 100 pts from Nifty Futures Wednesday close, indicating a gap-up start for the Indian market. -Yesterday, the Nifty not only failed to defend the 25,000 mark, but at one point even broke below 24,900, before eventually closing above that mark after final adjustments. 24,800 on the downside and 25,100 on the upside has become the current range for the Nifty. Even Gautam Shah of Goldilocks Premium Advisory told CNBC-TV18 yesterday that 25,150 is now a very important near-term barrier for the Nifty, that it needs to cross for further upside. -Selling pressure came from all corners, be it Metals, Autos, PSU banks and even the entire CPSE basket, which continues to move lower from its August 1 peak. Even the midcap index, which was an outperformer till the start of the second half of the day, ended in the red. -Though the US markets closed higher overnight, US CPI for August came in at 2.5%, which was the lowest since February 2021, while core CPI can be hotter than expected. The major benchmarks rebounded from intraday lows as core CPI rose slightly more than expected and investors changed their bets for a quarter-percentage-point-cut by the Fed next week. -This morning, stocks in Asia rose as a tech-fueled rally on Wall Street spread across the region, supported by expected Federal Reserve rate cuts next week. Equities in Japan and South Korea advanced, with the Topix up the most in almost a month. A region-wide gauge of tech stocks rose more than 1%. The gain for share benchmarks in Tokyo partly reflected the yen's reversal from its strongest level against the dollar since December. -Oil, meanwhile, held gains from Wednesday as Hurricane Francine ripped through key oil-producing zones in the US Gulf of Mexico, prompting traders to cover bearish bets. Spot gold was little changed. -India is poised to release its August consumer price index late Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters expect it to rise 3.5% year-on-year, compared to 3.54% in July. -Stocks to watch: Adani Ports, IndiGo, Route Mobile, BPCL, NBCC, HPCL, Olectra Greentech, Wipro Tune in to the Marketbuzz Podcast for more cues

US equities rose overnight after PPI data reinforced expectations for a 25bps cut by the Fed next week. The Dow Jones finished near session highs, up 235 points (+0.58%). Up 246 points at best. Down 196 points at worst. The S&P 500 gained 0.75%, with all sectors ending higher and the NASDAQ rose 1.0%, with Nvidia +1.9% leading gains in chipmakers, but Micron Technology slid 3.79% on a broker downgrade. The more economically sensitive small-cap Russell 2000 outperformed, adding 1.22%. PPI data rose 0.2% MonM in August following a downwardly revised flat reading in July, a touch above expectations of a 0.1% rise. Initial jobless claims came in line with expectations rising 2k from the previous week to 230k. PPI and Initial jobless claims were effectively repeating yesterday's CPI data, clearing the way for next week's 25bps cut.ASX to rise. SPI Futures up 45 points (+0.56%). COMMODITIESVale sees 10% of its iron ore production coming from tailings by 2030.Gold hits all-time high as Fed rate-cut hopes bolster appeal.IEA cuts 2024 oil demand growth forecast on China slowdown.Oil rises 2% as storm batters US Gulf of Mexico production.Copper jumps to almost two-week high on signs of firmer Chinese demand.Why not sign up for a free trial? Get access to expert market insights and manage your investments with confidence. Ready to invest in yourself? Join the Marcus Today community. 

Stay informed with Fuels Focus, the essential podcast from Argus that delivers timely analysis and key highlights from the US refined products marketplace. Each week, our experts break down the most significant developments affecting gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, RINs and ethanol prices – equipping you with the knowledge to navigate the market complexities with confidence. In our second episode, we dive into: US Gulf coast diesel cash prices reach a low | Read more Retail fuel prices continue price declines | Read more A major airline's flight attendants authorize to strike | Read more Groups push EPA to amend Valero's Houston refinery permit | Read more Tune in every Monday for your weekly recap of the stories shaping the road fuels market. Your Go-To Source for Reliable Road Fuel Prices As a trusted source in the industry, Argus delivers accurate, timely pricing for gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, RINs, ethanol, and more. Our data equips buyers, sellers, and refiners with the precision necessary to operate confidently in the dynamic market. Explore our services and discover how we can support your business in mastering market dynamics. Learn more

The new 590,000 b/d Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline has the potential to shift export patterns for heavy sour Canadian crude away from the US Gulf coast by adding new capacity out of Vancouver's Westridge terminal, but some obstacles persist. Join Argus' crude and LPG editorial manager Gus Vasquez and deputy editor Amanda Hilow in discussing the new pipeline, its purpose and early trade patterns surrounding its deliveries. Key topics covered in the podcast: Canadian crude buyers seek a more efficient route to market Lingering logistical constraints after the commencement of TMX Crude grades being delivered via the pipeline  

Get a look at what's happening now in the US refined oil products export market as medium range (MR) tanker rates in the US Gulf coast rebound from 2024 lows, in this podcast. US Products Associate Editor Jason Metko sits down with Americas Freight Deputy Editor Ross Griffith, to discuss a series of topics including: Shifting trade flows on geopolitical turmoil Rising Mexican refinery output Panama Canal disruptions and demand outlooks for 2024

Hear Argus' analysis of ammonia market developments, including a focus on US ammonia capacity expansion, the downturn in European ammonia production and the impact on global trade flows. Join Mike Nash, Senior Editor, and Ruth Sharpe, Editor of Argus Ammonia and Group Editor, Raw Materials as they discuss these topics and more in the latest episode of Argus' Fertilizer Matters podcast series.   Key topics covered in the podcast:   Update on market sentiments from the Argus Clean Ammonia Europe conference US: Expansion of ammonia capacity and exports, and the impact on global trade flows Russia: The loss of Russian ammonia supply and impact on global trade flows Europe: Downturn in ammonia production, high production costs and increased reliance on imports New Ammonia fob US Gulf price assessment from Argus   Related links Webinar: Clean ammonia long-term cost and price modelling Request a sample report/more information Ammonia price reporting, short and mid to long-term outlook services Free sign up: Fertilizer Focus MagazineOther complimentary fertilizer content

The Rice Energy Finance Summit (REFS) is an annual student-led conference promoting forward-looking discussions on the most relevant energy finance, investment and strategy topics affecting the global energy industry. And founders Jan Goetgeluk and Jesús Patiño say it's just another example of what you can do with the support and resources found within the Rice community & network. Jan is originally from Belgium, where he earned a bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering from Ghent University, and came to Houston in 2007 as a project engineer for Katoen Natie, a Belgian petrochemical logistics conglomerate. Jan is the founder and CEO of Virtuix and the developer of the Virtuix Omni, the first virtual reality interface to move freely and naturally in video games and virtual worlds. Jesús has over 15 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He began his career in the oil field with M-I SWACO in his home country of Mexico before expanding into deepwater drilling assignments in the US Gulf of Mexico, Equatorial Guinea, and Ghana. Jesús is a strategy and business development consultant at AerMill Solutions. He previously worked at Oceaneering International as a commercial manager for intervention services. They join host Scott Gale ‘19 to discuss how they first met at Rice international student orientation many years ago, how Hurricane Ike affected the first year of the conference (as well as their friendship), and the importance of swinging big.Episode Quotes:A reflection on rich experiences during and after Rice16:40 [Jan] It's such an incredible rich experience being at Rice Business School. It's a unique time in your life, and for me, it's still today the best time of my life. [Jesus] And that goes definitely to the program and also for the alumni life, right? Once you're an alum, there's always something interesting going on. And being outside Houston, it's harder to remain involved, but attending the events outside Houston and trying to be part of it. You always get more than what you put in.Ideas are like buses 18:39 [Jan] If you want to organize a conference and make it a big success, it's just a matter of doing it. A lot of people have a lot of ideas in life. And I always say that ideas are like buses. There's another one every five minutes. You have to do it, and you have to execute and make it happen.The Rice Business School advantage13:05 [Jesus] Every time I speak with a student, nowadays, I always tell them that there's only two years in their lives where they are going to be able to start an email saying, "I am a Rice MBA student that wants to speak with you." And that line is powerful because it really resonates with people; you get their attention, and that's a door opener that you shouldn't let go.Show Links:TranscriptGuest Profile: Jan Goetgeluk LinkedIn Profile Jesús Patiño's Professional Profile on Rice University Other links: About the Rice Energy Finance Summit  Virtuix

Debates about the US commitment to Gulf security are skewed by confusion, miscommunication, and contradictory policies.

Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried during a private service in his home town of St Petersburg. Also: Evacuation orders are issued in parts of Florida as an extremely dangerous hurricane heads towards the US Gulf coast, and could music from Mozart help to reduce pain in babies?

In this week's episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Eric Kort, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, about methane emissions from the US oil and gas industry. Kort discusses the emissions that occur during the extraction of oil and gas at onshore and offshore facilities, aerial methods of measuring these emissions and identifying methane leaks, and the increasing concentration of methane in the atmosphere. References and recommendations: “Excess methane emissions from shallow water platforms elevate the carbon intensity of US Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production” by Alan M. Gorchov Negron, Eric A. Kort, Yuanlei Chen, Adam R. Brandt, Mackenzie L. Smith, Genevieve Plant, Alana K. Ayasse, Stefan Schwietzke, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Catherine Hausman, and Ángel F. Adames-Corraliza; https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2215275120 “Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth” by Oliver Jeffers; https://www.oliverjeffers.com/here-we-are

Brought to you on the Oil and Gas Global Network, the largest and most listened to podcast network for the oil and energy industry. Enjoying the show? Leave me a review here Don't forget to ask a question for our next First Friday Q&A. You ask the questions and we answer them. Have a question? Click here to ask. This week Mark and Paige cover  News articles IEA Still Predicts Record Oil Demand in 2023 https://www.rigzone.com/news/iea_still_predicts_record_oil_demand_in_2023-18-apr-2023-172554-article/ Will ChatGPT Affect Oil and Gas Jobs? https://www.rigzone.com/news/will_chatgpt_affect_oil_and_gas_jobs-13-apr-2023-172518-article/#:~:text=There%20is%20absolutely%20no%20question,the%20overall%20need%20for%20people”. These are the countries that will be ‘most hit' if oil prices reach $100 https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/06/these-countries-will-be-most-hit-if-oil-prices-reach-100.html Shell's restart of Pierce field “crucial” for UK energy security https://www.worldoil.com/news/2023/4/18/oeuk-shell-s-restart-of-pierce-field-crucial-for-uk-energy-security/ Equinor begins production at subsea oil field offshore Norway https://www.worldoil.com/news/2023/4/17/equinor-begins-production-at-subsea-oil-field-offshore-norway/ California City Can't Enforce Natural Gas Ban, Appeals Court Says https://pgjonline.com/news/2023/april/california-city-cant-enforce-natural-gas-ban-appeals-court-says Poland Sets Exclusion Zone Around Swinoujscie LNG Terminal https://pgjonline.com/news/2023/april/poland-sets-exclusion-zone-around-swinoujscie-lng-terminal Tennessee raises felony charge for ‘interfering' with oil and gas pipeline projects https://wpln.org/post/tennessee-raises-felony-charge-for-interfering-with-oil-and-gas-pipeline-projects/ Technip Energies awarded contract for Juhua's chemical complex in China https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/petrochemicals/17042023/technip-energies-awarded-contract-for-juhuas-chemical-complex-in-china/ Europe's extraordinary good fortune with winter weather https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/europes-extraordinary-good-fortune-with-winter-weather-kemp-2023-04-18/ BP Kicks Off Argos Platform Production in US Gulf of Mexico https://gcaptain.com/bp-kicks-off-argos-platform-production-in-us-gulf-of-mexico/ Boarded Tanker is Found https://www.rigzone.com/news/boarded_tanker_is_found-18-apr-2023-172559-article/   The Weekly Rig Count by Baker Hughes https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview  More from OGGN ...PodcastsLinkedIn GroupLinkedIn Company PageGet notified about industry events     Paige Wilson LinkedInMark LaCour Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

The OPEC+ oil cartel's surprise decision to cut oil production has the potential to cause all kinds of trouble for the global economy, and may increase geopolitical frictions between longtime allies – the US and Saudi Arabia. So what happens to US-Gulf ties when the desert kingdom turns off the tap?   Ray Suarez sits down with Jim Krane, author of “Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Persian Gulf,” to unravel what these escalating tensions mean.   Guest:   Jim Krane, author of “Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Persian Gulf”, journalist, and the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.   Host:     Ray Suarez   If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

US Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 259, held at the end of March, was closely watched as the first oil and gas auction offered in that area since November 2021. And given that expectations weren't too high, the auction actually turned out quite well. It attracted 353 bids across 313 blocks and captured $264 million in apparent high bids – the highest total in six years. S&P Global Commodity Insights senior editor Starr Spencer spoke with George Laguros, a senior research analyst with S&P Global, about the some of the “surprising” results of the offshore lease sale and some interesting, if not unusual, bidding patterns pursued by some of the participants. Stick around after the interview for Binish Azhar with the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil market drivers.

The WTI Houston pipeline market price is directly connected to the waterborne WTI price at the US Gulf coast and international market factors. This has been highlighted as some importers diversify away from Russian crude and pipeline premiums rise. Recently high freight rates and shipping costs are weighing on the US pipeline-assessed prices in recent days, further demonstrating its connectedness to the global market. 

This podcast takes a deep dive into the minor bulk trade in the Americas, and touches on the shifting global grain trade including Asia-Pacific's increasing focus on South American grains over US Gulf coast and west coast North American suppliers. Shipbroking firm Pacific Rim's Kelle Horn speaks with Argus dry bulk freight reporter Ross Griffith about everything you ever wanted to know about the minor bulk trade in 2022, but were too afraid to ask.   Learn more about the Argus Freight Service

The asphalt US Gulf coast price levels changed during the Covid-19 pandemic, affecting Latin American demand. And the Russia-Ukraine conflict worsened the scenario, reducing material availability and increasing crude and oil products prices.   Join Josh Vence, Argus' Business Development Manager for Latin America, and Kauanna Navarro, journalist for the Argus Americas Asphalt report, as they discuss the dynamics of asphalt supply and demand in Latin America and around the world.  

In this episode, Amanda Smith, Argus Deputy editor Americas crude, and Scott Phillips, Argus Market reporter Americas crude, will discuss the US Gulf coast sweet-sour price spread and how that's tightened with the recent shift in US Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to mostly sweet crude offerings from mostly sour as Libyan production returns to pre-blockade levels. 

Brought to you on the Oil and Gas Global Network, the largest and most listened to podcast network for the oil and energy industry. Don't forget to ask a question for our next First Friday Q&A. You ask the questions and we answer them. Have a question? Click here to ask. This week Mark and Paige cover  News Stories Governor Newsom is banning oil production in California as President Biden travels to the Middle East to ask other countries to send us more of their oil https://www.wspa.org/messagefromca/ New OPEC Secretary General Takes Office https://www.rigzone.com/news/new_opec_secretary_general_takes_office-02-aug-2022-169842-article/ Senator Sinema Key to Passing Schumer-Manchin Bill https://www.rigzone.com/news/senator_sinema_key_to_passing_schumermanchin_bill-03-aug-2022-169851-article/ NOCs, Not Big Oil, Are Responsible For Most Emissions https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/NOCs-Not-Big-Oil-Are-Responsible-For-Most-Emissions.html Chinese Top Battery Maker Halts N. American Plans After Pelosi Visit To Taiwan https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Chinese-Top-Battery-Maker-Halts-N-American-Plans-After-Pelosi-Visit-To-Taiwan.html Freeport LNG To Restart Most Production By October https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Freeport-LNG-To-Restart-Most-Production-By-October.html Hess makes oil discovery in US Gulf of Mexico https://www.upstreamonline.com/exploration/hess-makes-oil-discovery-in-us-gulf-of-mexico/2-1-1269639 High-Impact Exploration Up With Most Wells Expected Since 2019 https://www.rigzone.com/news/highimpact_exploration_up_with_most_wells_expected_since_2019-04-aug-2022-169858-article/ OPEC+ answers Biden's request for oil with ‘minuscule' output hike https://www.worldoil.com/news/2022/8/3/opec-answers-biden-s-request-for-oil-with-minuscule-output-hike/ Projects announced to expand Permian natural gas capacity https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/05082022/projects-announced-to-expand-permian-natural-gas-capacity/ U.S. Department of Energy announces $32 MM to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas sector https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2022/08/us-department-of-energy-announces-32-mm-to-reduce-methane-emissions-from-oil-and-gas-sector Inflation Reduction Act Methane Emissions Charge https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47206  Turkey Agrees To Pay For Russian Gas With Rubles https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Turkey-Agrees-To-Pay-For-Russian-Gas-With-Rubles.html The Weekly Rig Count https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview   The Weekly Rig Count by Baker Hughes https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview  More from OGGN …PodcastsLinkedIn GroupLinkedIn Company PageGet notified about industry events     Paige Wilson LinkedIn Mark LaCour Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Brought to you on the Oil and Gas Global Network, the largest and most listened to podcast network for the oil and energy industry. Don't forget to ask a question for our next First Friday Q&A. You ask the questions and we answer them. Have a question? Click here to ask. This week Mark and Paige cover  News Stories Governor Newsom is banning oil production in California as President Biden travels to the Middle East to ask other countries to send us more of their oil https://www.wspa.org/messagefromca/ New OPEC Secretary General Takes Office https://www.rigzone.com/news/new_opec_secretary_general_takes_office-02-aug-2022-169842-article/ Senator Sinema Key to Passing Schumer-Manchin Bill https://www.rigzone.com/news/senator_sinema_key_to_passing_schumermanchin_bill-03-aug-2022-169851-article/ NOCs, Not Big Oil, Are Responsible For Most Emissions https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/NOCs-Not-Big-Oil-Are-Responsible-For-Most-Emissions.html Chinese Top Battery Maker Halts N. American Plans After Pelosi Visit To Taiwan https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Chinese-Top-Battery-Maker-Halts-N-American-Plans-After-Pelosi-Visit-To-Taiwan.html Freeport LNG To Restart Most Production By October https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Freeport-LNG-To-Restart-Most-Production-By-October.html Hess makes oil discovery in US Gulf of Mexico https://www.upstreamonline.com/exploration/hess-makes-oil-discovery-in-us-gulf-of-mexico/2-1-1269639 High-Impact Exploration Up With Most Wells Expected Since 2019 https://www.rigzone.com/news/highimpact_exploration_up_with_most_wells_expected_since_2019-04-aug-2022-169858-article/ OPEC+ answers Biden's request for oil with ‘minuscule' output hike https://www.worldoil.com/news/2022/8/3/opec-answers-biden-s-request-for-oil-with-minuscule-output-hike/ Projects announced to expand Permian natural gas capacity https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/05082022/projects-announced-to-expand-permian-natural-gas-capacity/ U.S. Department of Energy announces $32 MM to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas sector https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2022/08/us-department-of-energy-announces-32-mm-to-reduce-methane-emissions-from-oil-and-gas-sector Inflation Reduction Act Methane Emissions Charge https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47206  Turkey Agrees To Pay For Russian Gas With Rubles https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Turkey-Agrees-To-Pay-For-Russian-Gas-With-Rubles.html The Weekly Rig Count https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview   The Weekly Rig Count by Baker Hughes https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/rig-count-overview  More from OGGN ...PodcastsLinkedIn GroupLinkedIn Company PageGet notified about industry events     Paige Wilson LinkedInMark LaCour Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Kia ora,Welcome to Thursday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news the NZD has leaped, and an aggressive risk appetite is back in favour on equity markets, as the perception grows that the global inflation surge is past its peak and will ease from here. But so far, the bond market isn't so sure and seems to be sitting this one out.Triggering the sudden mood change was an unexpected easing in the American CPI inflation rate.Analysts had expected the American headline inflation rate to ease from 9.7% in June to 8.7% in July. But it actually came in under that, at 8.5%. This was largely because petrol prices have retreated more than expected. But food prices haven't shown the same retreat. So their 'core' inflation rate (headline, less food and energy) is unchanged at 5.9% year-on-year.Equity markets like this news because it might mean the US Fed will take its foot off the rate-rising accelerator sooner. That does seem unlikely any time soon, however.But in a building worry, American wholesale inventories keep on rising, up by +US$182 bln in the year to June, which is a +25% surge. But to be fair, sales have risen sharply too on a nominal basis (+20%), so the inventory-to-sales ratio, while higher, isn't yet out of range.US mortgage applications rose marginally last week because there was a +3.5% jump in refinancing, offset by a -1.4% fall in those wanting to buy a home. Meanwhile, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased 4 bps to 5.47%.We have noted it before, but the spectacular budget repair by the US Government has extended into July, although slowing somewhat. In July 2021 they had a -US$302 bln deficit. This July it was -US$211 bln, a 30% improvement.Also helping the mood in financial markets was a short statement from the Chinese military saying they have completed their exercises around Taiwan.China's annual inflation rate rose to 2.7% in July from 2.5% in June, but this was below market forecasts of 2.9% for July. Even so, this was the fastest rise in consumer prices there since July 2020, mainly due to a surge in food prices with cost of pork bouncing back sharply. Beef prices held, but sheep meat prices fell sharply. Milk prices are stable.Meanwhile, China's producer price inflation eased to a 17-month low of 4.2% in July, an easing from 6.1% in June and less than market consensus of 4.8% for July. The latest figure represented the 19th straight month of slowing producer price rises, from a drop in raw material costs as construction activity slowed.Germany confirmed its July CPI inflation rate and it held at 7.5%, 8.5% on an EU harmonised basis. Given the Russian energy threats, this is actually a very creditable outcome for them.The EU's ban on Russian coal that begins very soon will boost their demand for imports from other countries like Indonesia and Australia. Coal prices are at historic highs.And shipping costs for mid-size oil tankers from the US Gulf to Europe are near the highest levels since early in the pandemic as energy flows change rapidly.In Australia, they are preparing for a record winter grain harvest. This comes at a lucky time for them as international demand is rising just as international supply is constrained because of war and drought.The UST 10yr yield starts today at 2.78% and -2 bps lower than this time yesterday. Wall Street is up in its Wednesday trade with the S&P500 up a strong +2.0% from this time yesterday. The price of gold will open today at US$1796/oz which is up another +US$2/oz from this time yesterday.And oil prices start up +US$1.50bbl from this time yesterday at just over US$91.50/bbl in the US, while the international Brent price is now just under US$97.50/bbl.The Kiwi dollar will open today at 64.3 USc which is an overnight jump of +1½c from this time yesterday. Against the Australian dollar we are up +¼c at 90.6 AUc. Against the euro we are +¾c higher at 62.3 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today at just on 72.3, up +110 bps and now well above the tight range we have been in for the past month - in fact, our highest in more than three months.The bitcoin price has moved up from this time yesterday, up +3.9% to US$23,929. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been high at just over +/-3.3%.You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.And get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we'll do this again tomorrow.

As hurricane season 2022 unfolds in the US Gulf of Mexico, the implications for oil and gas infrastructure in the region are wide-ranging. More than ever, the whole world is watching the US Gulf as energy from the United States grow their presence in global markets. Americas gas news manager Joe Fisher sits down with natural gas editor Alan Lammey and oil editor Jordan Blum to discuss what the forecast says and what tropical activity could mean for natural gas, LNG and oil. This Commodities Focus podcast was produced by Jennifer Pedrick in Houston.

St James, Louisiana, was once the gateway for imported and domestic crude into midcontinent markets. However, as shale production, pipeline reversals and legislation have changed to allow US crude exports, the role of the old hub has changed. St James still has extensive blending operations with service to major US Gulf coast refining capacity, but it is now set to better compete in the US export market.   Learn more about the Argus Crude report

Join Argus VP of business development Jeff Kralowetz and Americas crude editor Gus Vasquez for this podcast on the rapid rise of the WCS Houston price assessment as a benchmark for sour crude throughout the Western Hemisphere, and beyond.  The podcast looks at rising Canadian oil sands production, increased pipeline capacity to the Gulf coast, and the potential for growing competition between Padd 2 (US Midcontinent) and Padd 3 (US Gulf coast) refiners for Canadian crude. It also provides updates on the potential for increased re-exports of Canadian heavy crude from the Gulf coast to Asia, and the possible impacts of the TMX project in western Canada and closure or change of ownership at Lyondell's Houston refinery. Learn more about the Argus Crude report.    

The ongoing conflict between Russian and Ukraine has prompted a need to replace Russian Urals and ESPO. Sour crude demand from Latin America and the US Gulf coast has increased to help fill the gap left by bans on Russian supplies.  As price volatility increases amid geopolitical tensions, Argus also re-launches two Latin American price assessments. Learn more about the Argus Crude report

Amb. Gerald Feierstein, Bilal Saab, and Karen Young join guest host Brian Katulis to discuss their recent MEI policy paper, US-Gulf Relations at the Crossroads: Time for a Recalibration, and why they believe now is not the time to disengage from the region. Read the paper here: https://www.mei.edu/publications/us-gulf-relations-crossroads-time-recalibration

Russia's invasion of Ukraine spotlights seemingly widening differences between the United States and its closest Middle Eastern allies, sparking eulogies for an era of bygone American regional dominance.

Today's guests are Steven Henderson, Co-Founder & CEO, and Mike Carter, Co-Founder & COO of Fleetzero.Fleetzero is building battery-electric cargo ships that operate with 5X higher net margins than fossil fuel ships. The startup's increasing the efficiency of existing diesel ships by converting them to battery-electric while pioneering innovation with the MVE7 - an electric ship designed for trans-pacific cargo delivery. Fleetzero'sbattery technology is the only pathway to decarbonizing the $1.3 trillion shipping industry without a green premium. Steven is a marine engineer by background and has managed a wide range of businesses and operations in the marine environment, including cargo ships, a hospital ship, and one of the largest offshore facilities in the US Gulf of Mexico. He has a bachelor's of science in Marine Engineering Systems from the US Merchant Marine Academy and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Steven served in the US Navy Reserve as a Strategic Sealift Officer.Mike is a marine engineer and enterprise sales professional. He graduated from the US Merchant Marine Academy with a BS in Marine Engineering Systems and received an MBA from Rice. Mike brings expertise in marine engineering, ship operations, and significant business experience in energy and shipping. He is also proud to have served as an officer in the US Navy Reserve.In the episode, Mike and Steven walk me through Fleetzero's unique solution, why the ships are challenging to decarbonize, and what let them to found the startup. We also discuss why battery swapping is a viable solution, Fleetzero's funding to date, and the company's customer base. This is a fantastic episode for those looking to learn more about decarbonizing the shipping industry.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@mcjcollective.com, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded March 11th, 2022To learn more about Fleetzero, visit: https://www.fleetzero.com/To learn more about this episode, visit: https://mcjcollective.com/my-climate-journey-podcast/fleetzero

Hatim El-Hibri of George Mason University joins Marc Lynch on this week's podcast to discuss his new book, Visions of Beirut: The Urban Life of Media Infrastructure. In the book, El-Hibri analyzes how the creation and circulation of images have shaped the urban spaces and cultural imaginaries of Beirut. (Starts at 0:44). Kevin Koehler of Leiden University discusses his latest article, "Who fakes support for the military? Experimental evidence from Tunisia" (co-authored with Sharan Grewal and Holger Albrecht) published in Democratization. (Starts at 33:58). Kristian Coates Ulrichsen of the Baker Institute on the ongoing tensions between the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. (Starts at 48:58). Music for this season's podcast was created by Bashir Saade (playing Ney) and Farah Kaddour (on Buzuq). You can find more of Bashir's work on his YouTube Channel.

On February 11, 2022, the total US drilling rig count was reported to reach 635, the most since April 2020. This increase was led by the prolific Permian basin, where output is expected to hit a record this month.  In this episode of The Crude Report, our senior vice president Matthew Oatway and vice president James Gooder discuss the rising importance of the US Gulf coast as a focal point for light sweet crude pricing across the world, and how it is developing into the world's marginal barrel.  Sign up to the Argus crude oil newsletter Register for the Argus Oil Markets Forum 2022

On this edition of Parallax Views, Dr. Mitchell Joseph Valdés-Sosa, the director of the Cuban Neuroscience Center, joins Parallax Views to discuss the 60-year embargo by the U.S. against Cuba, the story of Cuba's response to the pandemic and development of the Cuban Abdala and Soberana 02, and pushing back against conspiracy theories about the "Havana Syndrome". Dr. Valdés-Sosa begins by explaining the origins of the Cuban Neuroscience Center and the late Fidel Castro's hopes and vision for public health and scientific research in Cuba. In this regard we also address the differences between the health systems of Cuba and the United States. From ther Dr. Valdés-Sosa discusses the effects of the U.S. embargo against Cuba and how it has affected the Cuban response to the pandemic. February marks the 60th anniversary of the embargo. We then discuss the story of vaccine development in Cuba during the pandemic and the efforts of Cuba to share their vaccine with the Global South. And finally, Dr. Valdés-Sosa addresses the question of "Havana Syndrome" both scientifically and politically. He explains why the claims that "Havana Syndrome" is caused by exotic weapons, particularly microwave or sonic weapons, should be ruled out. In this part of our conversation, we discuss the Fray effect as well as the ways in which Cuba is misunderstood by the U.S. at numerous different levels. Dr. Valdés-Sosa expresses the belief that U.S.-Cuba relations has been hijacked by reactionary factions but expresses hope in light of the solidarity ordinary people and organizations have had with Cuba during the pandemic. In the second segment of our program, Giorgio Cafiero, founder and CEO of Gulf State Analytics, joins Parallax Views to discuss his Al Jazeera article "What next for world powers in war-torn Libya?". Giorgio details the recent history of turmoil in Libya dating back to NATO interventions and the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. Foreign interventions, Giorgio says, have not ended in Libya. They are not, however, of the U.S. variety right now. Instead, there is both a Turkish and Russian presence in Libya. In relation to the Russian presence, Giorgio specifically talks about the private organization known as the Wagner Group and its relationship to Russia. During the course of our conversation Giorgio also discusses the recent postponement of the Libya elections, the candidates (with special focus on Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and military official Khalifa Haftar), the possibility of partition, the Civil War in Libya and the possibility it could happen again, and much, much more. Additionally, Giorgio gives an update on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the Houthis, the geopolitics around it involving the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and the potential changing nature of Gulf politics in light of cooperation between the UAE and Israel. "Does Israel-UAE cooperation show what a post-US Gulf will look like?" by Giorgio Cafiero - TRT World - 2/3/2022 "Yemen: Intensifying war worsens world's worst civilian crisis" by Giorgio Cafiero - Al Jazeera -2/7/22

In with WTI Midland, and out with Brent and Forties – this is BP's prescription for the future of the Dated Brent benchmark. But is the market ready for Brent-free Brent? Opinions remain sharply divided.  In this episode of The Crude Report, Vice President James Gooder and Argus Crude Editor Michael Carolan discuss the complications of adding WTI into the Brent forwards market and go over some of the ways this could all play out, from the Brent market fragmenting to global benchmarking switching to the US Gulf coast. 

Yesterday, the ASX200 lifted 0.6% despite mixed employment figures. The unemployment rate fell to a 12-year low of 4.5% in August, from 4.6% in July. The drop is believed to be attributed to the participation rate falling 2.4% as Australians gave up looking for work during lockdown and therefore weren't counted as unemployed.In the US, the market was mixed. We saw the Dow Jones & S&P500 down about 0.2%, while the Nasdaq was able to gain 0.1%. US investors digested mixed economic readings released on Thursday. August retail sales exceeded the market's expectations and rose 0.7% from the month prior. Meanwhile, first-time jobless claims last week came in at 332,000, which was higher than the forecasted 320,000.Following a mixed session overnight in the US, the Aussie share market is set to fall 0.24% if you go by the futures.What to watch today:Australia's new partnership with the US and UK will continue to be in focus today as countries and individuals voice their opinion on this strategic alliance. And the uranium price is now trading at a 9-year high, after lifting 8% to US$48.55. In the last month, the uranium price has lifted a huge 60% and yesterday, some ASX uranium stocks made big gains, including Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL), up 8% and 92 Energy, up nearly 9%.Companies going ex-dividend today include Carsales.com (ASX:CAR) and National Tyre & Wheel (ASX:NTD).The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients yesterday, included Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG). Its share price continued to come under pressure, falling 3.2% yesterday, as Chinese steel cuts speed up. Local lithium player, Ioneer (ASX:INR) was another highly traded stock at Bell Direct. INR shares fell 18% yesterday after the company announced a new joint venture with a multinational precious metal miner Sibanye Stillwater, with INR raising additional funds at a 70% higher price than when it undertook a capital raising via a placement in March. This further supports how red hot the lithium market is.The oil price remained steady after hitting that 7-week high yesterday. This comes as the threat to US Gulf crude production from Hurricane Nicholas receded. The gold price fell 2.2% driven by a rise in the US dollar, while the iron ore price continued to plunge, falling 3.4% to about US$120 a tonne. Trading ideas:Bell Potter has maintained its BUY recommendation on death care servicer Propel Funeral Partners (ASX:PFP) and has increased its price target by 9% to $4.65 (previously $4.25). PFP fell about 1% yesterday to $4.05, which implies about 15% share price growth. Bullish charting signals have been identified in Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR), James Hardie Industries (ASX:JHX) and Technology Metals Australia (ASX:TMT) according to Trading Central.

Economic Costs Accumulate as Countries Worried by Delta Variant Extend Border Closureshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/economic-costs-accumulate-as-countries-worried-by-delta-variant-extend-border-closures-11631387873Is the Delta wave over? Or has it not hit the Northeast?Can we assume that economic activity and travel isn't going to go back down?City in China restricts movement amid outbreakhttps://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-digest-city-in-china-restricts-movement-amid-outbreak/a-59157352City closures will impact gasoline and jet fuel in ChinaOil prices in the low $70s put pressure on Chinese economyNearly 185,000 b/d of US Gulf oil production returns as Ida recovery continueshttps://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/091021-nearly-185000-bd-of-us-gulf-oil-production-returns-as-ida-recovery-continuesStill 50% of offshore production offlineShell having particular difficulties getting things back onlineEconomic Costs Accumulate as Countries Worried by Delta Variant Extend Border Closureshttps://www.wsj.com/articles/economic-costs-accumulate-as-countries-worried-by-delta-variant-extend-border-closures-11631387873European Power SituationAnalysis: Expensive winter ahead as Europe's power prices surgehttps://www.reuters.com/business/energy/expensive-winter-ahead-europes-power-prices-surge-2021-09-10/Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowinghttps://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-prices-in-europe-hit-records-after-wind-stops-blowing-11631528258German Power, Carbon Rise to Record on Soaring Gas Priceshttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/german-power-carbon-rise-record-080615144.htmlRussia is pumping a lot less natural gas to Europe all of a sudden — and it is not clear whyhttps://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/russia-is-pumping-less-natural-gas-to-europe-as-nord-stream-2-nears-completion.htmlCharging points for electric cars will be preset to turn off for NINE HOURS a day amid fears they will cause blackouts if government hits target for phasing out petrol and dieselhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9982253/Charging-points-electric-cars-preset-turn-NINE-HOURS-day.html- Is Gazprom deliberately putting the squeeze on the European Union to get Nord Stream II started up?- Consumers don't have extra money to pay prices?

The effects of the cold snap in February are still being felt today in polymer markets outside of the Americas. Hurricane Ida impacted the production of key plastics producers in the US Gulf. How will this affect markets globally? Tune in to find out as Argus Vice President, Global Business Development Muhamad Fadhil sits down with US polymer editor Michelle Klump, southeast Asia reporter Yee Ying Ang and south Asia and Middle East reporter Matt Rajendra to discuss the implications in this special podcast edition of Global Polymer Conversations.

Investors seemed jittery this week as two storm clouds lingered over markets, including the Federal Reserve's potential tapering of asset purchases and the literal bad weather caused by Hurricane Ida – the latter of which led to closures of key oil refineries in the US Gulf. In today's episode, Kevin Prins, Chris McHaney and Matt Montemurro discuss how fixed income and equity markets are responding to the changing environment, offering numerous trade ideas to help investors stay on the right side of the oil prices – and the yield curve. They also dive into trade balances, recent GDP numbers and strategies to make the most of a slowing economy. Read the episode summary. Kevin Prins is the Head of ETF & Managed Account Distribution at BMO Global Asset Management. He is joined on the podcast by Chris McHaney and Matt Montemurro, both Portfolio Managers and ETF Specialists at BMO Global Asset Management. The episode was recorded live on August 31, 2021. Fixed Income ETFs mentioned in the podcast: BMO Short-Term US TIPS Index ETF (Ticker: ZTIP) BMO Long-Term US Treasury Bond Index ETF (Hedged Units) (Ticker: ZTL.F) BMO Long-Term US Treasury Bond Index ETF (USD Units) (Ticker: ZTL.U) BMO Aggregate Bond Index ETF (Ticker: ZAG) BMO Short-Term US IG Corporate Bond Hedged to CAD Index ETF (Ticker: ZSU) BMO Mid-Term US IG Corporate Bond Hedged to CAD Index ETF (Ticker: ZMU) BMO BBB Corporate Bond Index ETF (Ticker: ZBBB) BMO High Quality Corporate Bond Index ETF (Ticker: ZQB) BMO Laddered Preferred Share Index ETF (Ticker: ZPR)   Equity ETFs mentioned in the podcast: BMO S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF (Ticker: ZCN) BMO Low Volatility Canadian Equity ETF (Ticker: ZLB) BMO Clean Energy Index ETF (Ticker: ZCLN) BMO Equal Weight Oil & Gas Index ETF (Ticker: ZEO) BMO MSCI USA High Quality Index ETF (Ticker: ZUQ) BMO MSCI All Country World High Quality Index ETF (Ticker: ZGQ) BMO MSCI Europe High Quality Hedged to CAD Index ETF (Ticker: ZEQ)    Disclosures: The viewpoints expressed by the Portfolio Manager represent their assessment of the markets at the time of publication. Those views are subject to change without notice at any time without any kind of notice. The information contained herein is not, and should not be construed as, investment, tax or legal advice to any party. Investments should be evaluated relative to the individual's investment objectives and professional advice should be obtained with respect to any circumstance. Any statement that necessarily depends on future events may be a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investments in exchange traded funds. Please read the ETF Facts or prospectus before investing. Exchange traded funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. For a summary of the risks of an investment in the BMO ETFs, please see the specific risks set out in the prospectus. BMO ETFs trade like stocks, fluctuate in market value and may trade at a discount to their net asset value, which may increase the risk of loss. Distributions are not guaranteed and are subject to change and/or elimination. BMO ETFs are managed by BMO Asset Management Inc., which is an investment fund manager and a portfolio manager, and a separate legal entity from Bank of Montreal. ®/™Registered trade-marks/trade-mark of Bank of Montreal, used under licence.

The baking and burning of the western US continues while Hurricane Ida is being steered toward the US Gulf coast. How many are aware of the fact that the US military has been involved in hurricane manipulation since 1947?. On the 16th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Ida is scheduled to again decimate New Orleans. From climate engineering to CV-19, covert forms of warfare are being waged on populations all over the world. Official narratives of total deception are unraveling on countless fronts, the global power brokers are losing their stranglehold of control on public consciousness. Rapidly accelerating global environmental collapse is further fueling the entire equation, the controllers are now more desperate and dangerous than ever before. Can a critical mass of public awakening be achieved in time to make a difference? The latest installment of Global Alert News is below.

How did the US butadiene market become the global price leader and how long will this trend continue? In a twist, US butadiene (BD) prices are the highest globally because of ongoing supply constraints, planned and unplanned cracker maintenance globally and strong demand. Typically the world market looks to Asia for price direction. But North America has yet to fully recover from a mid-February winter storm that unexpectedly shut US Gulf coast BD production for several weeks. As such, the US has purchased spot volumes primarily from Europe but also Asia-Pacific. This, in turn, has supported higher prices in other regions.  In this episode of Chemical Conversations, Ron Baughman and Angie Joe walk listeners through the developments leading up to current conditions and take a peak to see what lies ahead. Related Links Argus Butadiene Argus Butadiene Outlook Argus Butadiene Analytics Argus petrochemicals services

More than one year after the Nymex Cushing benchmark sank below zero for the first time ever, crude oil demand remains weak as a poor arbitrage from the Permian basin limits sell-side opportunities. Permian spot trade liquidity at the US Gulf coast has shifted toward refinery supply rather than exports, ultimately deteriorating the pipeline arbitrage and weighing on spot trade liquidity as speculative buying dies out. In this episode of The Crude Report, Argus Americas Crude Associate Editor Amanda Hilow and Deputy Editor Amanda Smith, discuss the Midland-to-Houston spread, key elements weighing on market opportunities and expectations going forward. Related links Argus WTI Houston price assessment Argus Petroleum Transportation North America

Started this week with that crazy Israeli stampede with dozens dead, and then got into a little-noticed confrontation between the US and the Iranian navies. Then it was an all-time classic racial rant, Burkina Faso ambushes, Indonesian General killed in action, NRA botched elephant hunt, and a rapist who tried to assault his own niece was lured to a pig farm by her boyfriend... where they cut off his genitals and fed them to the pigs. Music: Korn/"Beg For Me"

Petcoke prices out of the US Gulf have doubled since this time last year. Prices continue to rise amid tight supply, and volatile freight markets within the region add fuel to the flames. S&P Global Platts coal and shipping editors discuss the impetus behind this price rally, in what has been one of the most notable commodity bull-runs of 2020/2021.

Much has been said about US president Joe Biden’s rejection of the Keystone XL project. The now-suspended project would have provided 830,000 b/d of pipeline capacity from Canada’s oil sands to the US midcontinent, but after years of delays, Canadian crude oil producers have been forced to seek other means of transportation. Crude-by-rail was an early outlet for incremental barrels, but other pipeline expansions are also underway. In this episode of The Crude Report, our reporters Alex Endress and Brett Holmes discuss how the Canadian crude market has moved along despite Keystone XL and how Canadian crude prices are faring from Hardisty to the US Gulf coast. Don't miss news and analysis like this - sign up for our free newsletter to stay updated on Argus' latest crude oil content. Visit us: ArgusMedia.com  LinkedIn  Twitter   Facebook

The transparency of locational spreads between the various US Gulf coast terminals that make up Argus AGS has proven quite popular, as it helps to highlight each connection’s unique market fundamentals. In this episode of The Crude Report, Argus Associate Editor Amanda Hilow and Argus Americas Crude Editor Gus Vasquez explain Argus AGS’ newest methodology changes and what factors have contributed to the downward trend between locational spreads.

Today on the podcast, lets tackle grief together to support our crewmates. Over 50 years ago, Winston Rice stepped on board a drilling rig in the US Gulf of Mexico. This experience ignited his passion for the maritime and offshore energy industries. Today, you can call him Chaplain or Father Winston Rice, serving those who […] The post Grief Onboard, Episode 40 appeared first on Women Offshore. Related posts: Raising the Profile of Women on the Water, Episode 42 A Pledge to Change an Industry, Episode 35 Happy New Year, Episode 32 2019 UNITE Conference Recap, Episode 15

Global monoethylene glycol (MEG) markets deal with fallout from US storms in February, causing all US glycol suppliers to declare force majeure. Asia prices increase to the highest level in over two years, European concerns over March and April imports mount. Melissa Hurley talks to Cindy Qiu, Judith Wang and Antoinette Smith. - Asia MEG rises by over 5% on short supply, strong buying - China import volumes limited in March - US supply nowhere to be found as all glycol suppliers declare fore majeure - US domestic MEG demand still going strong - Water treatment plants shut for over a week, driving bottled water demand MEG is primarily used in the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle resins, polyester fibres and films. MEG is also used in the production of automotive anti-freeze and coolants.

The Ice ARV paper swap, which settles on Argus WCS Houston, has seen a rapid rise in open interest and trade volume over the past 6 months. What in the physical market is supporting this growth?In this episode of The Crude Report, vice presidents of business development Jeff Kralowetz and Bruce Fulin discuss the connection between the physical and financial markets for heavy Canadian crude oil at the US Gulf coast.

From electric vehicle policy to emissions regulations, what will fuel travel look like in 2021? What will the incoming Biden Administration mean for travel and for vehicle sales in the U.S.? Hosted by: Donovan Woods, Director of Operations, Fuels Institute and John Eichberger, Executive Director, Fuels Institute About our Guest: Dave Ruisard, U.S. Products Editor, Argus Media From gasoline to residual fuel oil to distillates to crude oil, David Ruisard has extensive experience in the US markets. He first became a market reporter when he joined Platts in 2001 as their US Gulf coast gasoline and distillates reporter. Before the oil markets, David was an award winning news reporter and is a proud graduate of Baylor University.

Transportation arbitrage economics from Canada to the US Gulf coast began improving in the back half of 2020 as international demand for Canadian heavy crude oil grades picked up.In this episode of The Crude Report, our reporters Alex Endress and Brett Holmes discuss the resulting lift in domestic prices which could support a return to crude-by-rail demand in 2021 and how Canadian crude is becoming more competitive on the global landscape.

Locational WTI spreads are tightening across the US Gulf coast as new connectivity options boost total liquidity, ultimately paving the pathway for Argus AGS to succeed as a future benchmark for light sweet crude in global markets. In this episode of The Crude Report, Alex Endress, Argus US Gulf coast physical crude markets reporter is joined by Amanda Hilow, associate editor, to discuss Argus AGS - the up-and-coming benchmark for Midland-quality WTI at the US Gulf coast - in more detail.

Alaskan North Slope (ANS) crude oil exports to China surfaced this year on an interim trade deal signed by Beijing and Washington and as US west coast refining slackens on Covid-19 demand destruction.In this episode of The Crude Report, Alex Endress, US Gulf coast crude markets reporter, is joined by Benjamin Peyton, North American waterborne markets and the west coast reporter - who also heads up Argus' ANS coverage - discuss how much ANS is going into China and some of the driving forces behind the recent uptick.

The Cameron Highway Oil Pipeline System (CHOPS) has been offline since late August, when Hurricane Laura’s damage halted Texas Southern Green Canyon (SGC) deliveries and diverted medium sour flows to Louisiana. Waterborne opportunities and medium sour storage plays were the result. The date for when CHOPS returns online remains uncertain.In this week's episode of The Crude Report, Alex Endress, US Gulf coast crude markets reporter for Argus, is joined by Amanda Smith, Argus deputy editor, who also covers the US pipeline network.

Elana DeLozier and Jerry Feierstein join host Alistair Taylor to discuss prospects for US-Gulf relations and regional policy under the Biden presidency.

The six stand-alone splitters designed to refine ultra-light crude oil condensate at the US Gulf coast should have operating advantages in an environment where gasoline is king – but this theory hasn't quite panned out. Sandy Fielden, Director of Research at Morningstar Commodities and Energy, joins Jeff Kralowetz, Vice President of Business Development at Argus, to discuss the economics of running the units in current market conditions.

The domestic equity market ended around 1 per cent higher on Tuesday, led by gains in financial and FMCG stocks. Further, hopes of higher inflows after MSCI said it will implement the new regime on foreign ownership limits in the MSCI Global Indexes containing Indian securities in the November 2020 Semi Annual Index Review, also boosted investor sentiment.   Among headline indices, the S&P BSE Sensex rallied 377 points, or 0.94 per cent to settle at 40,522 levels while the Nifty50 index ended at 11,889, up 122 points, or 1 per cent. India VIX declined nearly 3 per cent to 22.19 levels.   Among sectoral indices, Nifty Private Bank index gained the most - up over 3 per cent to 13,756 points while Nifty Bank added nearly 3 per cent to 24,769.50. Nifty IT, on the other hand, slipped over 1 per cent to 21,023 levels.   In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index gained 1.65 per cent to 14,954 levels while the S&P BSE SmallCap index rallied 0.6 per cent to 15,090 levels.   Buzzing stocks of the day   Shares of midcap companies were in focus with the S&P BSE Midcap index outperforming the market by gaining more than 1 per cent on the back of strong rally in Shriram Transport Finance Company, MRF and Muthoot Finance, which were up more than 6 per cent on the BSE on Tuesday.   Shares of Ipca Laboratories hit an all-time high during the session. For the April-June quarter (Q1FY21), Ipca had reported over three-fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 446 due to robust sales.   Shares of Nestle India gained 6 per cent to Rs 17233 on the BSE. The stock has risen over 7 per cent in the past two trading days after the company reported stronger-than-expected recovery with double-digit sales growth for the quarter ended September 2020 (Q3CY20).   Global markets   European equities fell in early trade on Tuesday trading as risk-aversion swept markets, with a resurgence of coronavirus cases threatening the global economic recovery and caution ahead of US elections on November 3.   In commodities, oil prices rose towards $41 a barrel as oil companies shut down some US Gulf of Mexico oil output due to a hurricane, although surging coronavirus infections and rising Libyan supply limited gains.

The benchmark indices settled higher for the sixth straight day on Thursday, led by buying in information technology (IT) counters and HDFC Bank.   IT stocks rallied in trade after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported a strong set of numbers for the quarter ended September 2020 (Q2FY21). The TCS board has also approved a buyback of Rs 16,000 crore to buy 53.3 million shares at Rs 3,000 per share.   Among headline indices, the S&P BSE Sensex ended 304 points, or 0.76 per cent higher at 40,183 levels while NSE's Nifty added 96 points, or 0.82 per cent to settle at 11,835 levels.   Among sectoral indices, barring Nifty Media and Nifty FMCG, all other indices ended in the green. The Nifty IT index rallied over 3 per cent to 21,697 levels while Nifty Pharma jumped 2.47 per cent.   In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index gained 0.29 per cent higher at 14,827 and the S&P BSE SmallCap settled 0.26 per cent lower at 15,010 levels.   Global markets   A gauge of Asian shares climbed to a one-month high on Thursday on renewed hopes for more US stimulus, while investors decided a key US political debate ahead of November elections had not altered the odds much.   In Europe, too, stocks inched higher, joining a global rally.   MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6 per cent for its fourth straight session of gains to a level not seen since early September.   In commodities, oil rose above $42 a barrel, supported by output shutdowns in the US Gulf of Mexico and the prospect of more supply losses in Norway, as well as by hopes for some US coronavirus relief aid.

Record volumes of Canadian crude are arriving in Texas, and while some are staying onshore, a fair amount is being exported to markets such as China, India and South Korea.In this episode of the Argus Crude Report, Alex Endress, US Gulf coast crude markets reporter, is joined by Brett Holmes, who covers Canadian crude markets.

*) Over 30 million people have been infected with Covid-19 Coronavirus has now infected more than 30 million people worldwide, according to the Worldometer tracker. The United States has the highest number of Covid-19 infections, followed by India, Brazil and Russia. More than 945,000 people have died from the virus so far, while over 21 million have recovered from the disease. *) Libyan Prime Minister announces plan to resign next month The head of Libya’s internationally recognised government Fayez al Sarraj has announced his intention to resign by next month. Sarraj says he wants to hand over power to a new administration in October amid talks on ending the country’s conflict. His resignation could add to political uncertainty in Tripoli or even infighting among the rivals in the coalition. *) Hurricane Sally drenches US Gulf coast, trapping hundreds Hurricane Sally has slammed into the US Gulf coast, bringing catastrophic flooding to areas in Florida and Alabama. One person has been killed and one other is missing after Sally made landfall as a Category Two storm overnight. Extensive damage has been recorded as wind speeds hit 165 kilometres per hour. *) West African leaders give Mali’s military junta an ultimatum The Economic Community of West African States has demanded the appointment of a civilian president without delay or negotiations in Mali. During a meeting on Tuesday, West African leaders told Mali's junta they have one week to appoint a leader or an embargo will be imposed on the country. The embargo by neighbouring states will begin at midnight September 23, according to Colonel Major Ismael Wague. And finally, *) Highly anticipated Sony PlayStation 5 gets launch date Sony has said its next-generation PlayStation 5 console will launch in November, squaring off against Microsoft rival Xbox. The new PlayStation 5 gaming system will be priced at roughly $500, but will also have a cheaper option that does not include a disk drive, priced at $400. The pricing announcement sets the stage for a year-end showdown between Xbox and PlayStation as players continue to flock to gaming consoles.

Choppy Tuesday in the markets today as huge gains are lost toward the end of the trading session. The S&P 500 gained 0.4% and the Nasdaq moved 1%. The DJIA fell, giving up an over 230-point gain and trading just below the open Crude oil prices jump 2.75% off of nearly 25% of GOM shut in due to Hurricane Sally. Shell said Sept. 15 it shut in production at its Appomattox platform, while also curtailing oil volumes at its large Olympus, Mars and Ursa facilities. Chevron said it has shuttered production at its Blind Faith and Petronius platforms in the deepwater US Gulf. US Shale News Lonestar files Chapter 11 Hurricane Sally Shutting In around 27% of GOM production International Petrobras in talks with SBM Offshore for largest oil production unit in Brazil

According to British Petroleum's latest long-term energy outlook, global fuel demand may have already peaked as the COVID-19 pandemic kicks the world economy onto a weaker growth trajectory and accelerates the shift to cleaner fuels. At the same time, Reuters reported that commander Khalifa Haftar in Libya committed to ending a months-long blockade of oil facilities, a move that would add more supplies to the market. Meantime, oil production in the US Gulf of Mexico could disrupt for the second time in less than a month as Tropical Storm Sally gained strength Sunday and was poised to become a hurricane strength on Monday and Tuesday. At around 04:30 AM GMT, WTI was at crude $37.56 a barrel while Brent crude stood at $39.95 a barrel. --- This episode is sponsored by · Afrolit Podcast: Hosted by Ekua PM, Afrolit shares the stories of multi-faceted Africans one episode at a time. https://open.spotify.com/show/2nJxiiYRyfMQlDEXXpzlZS?si=mmgODX3NQ-yfQvR0JRH-WA Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

The storm, one of the strongest to hit the US Gulf coast, has caused flash flooding and power cuts. Also: the wearing of facemasks in public is to be made compulsory in Paris because of Covid-19, and the London Symphony Orchestra comes out of lockdown and begins rehearsing again.

US president was responding to players' walkout over police violence. Also: Four die as Hurricane Laura batters US Gulf coast; Russian police 'on standby' to enter Belarus; and the world's most expensive sheep.

Kia ora,Welcome to Thursday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news there is a warning that a major hurricane about to hit the US could bring an "unsurvivable" storm surge that could reach many kms inland.But first in the US, their July durable goods orders jumped sharply from the depressed June level but are still -5.0% lower than the same month a year ago. Orders for investment purposes (capital goods) were down -14% on that basis, and the non-defence capital goods orders level were down almost -20%. Despite all this real decline, markets took comfort from the July rise over the depressed June and saw that as a good recovery sign.They however overlooked the declining mortgage application data for last week.And that major hurricane is heading for landfall near Texas and the heart of its oil processing industry.Usually at this time of year we are reporting on the Jackson Hole talk-fest. This year they are still talking, but the event is virtual and doesn't seem to have the same appeal. But it can be a time when some heavy hitters set out their priorities and that can be interesting.In China, rare earth exports plunged -70% in July from the same month in 2019 according to Chinese customs data. That is the lowest monthly volume since January 2015 with a drop all attributed to depressed pandemic demand.South Korea's export sector is feeling better with export-oriented order levels a bright spot in their economy.Singaporean industrial production in July came in way less than analysts were expecting. It is hard making estimates when conditions are volatile, but this is a big miss and far worse than almost everyone assumed.Indonesian motorbike sales were down almost -50% in July from the equivalent 2019 period continuing a trend that reveals how tough it is in the world's fourth largest country by population, and one we tend to ignore. Economic and social stress in Indonesia is a major strategic threat to Australia.In Australia, their reserve bank says a -40% fall in house prices is an "extreme but plausible" scenario in a discussion paper on household debt (see page 18). They also say "banks appear resilient to a severe downturn" and that most household debt is held by those who can afford it.The OECD is reporting that the economies of their members shrank by -11% in Q2-2020 compared to the same period in 2019. The largest decline was in the UK (-22% year-on-year) and the least was in Japan (-8%). They have a grim view of the jobs market ahead.Back in New York, the S&P500 is up +0.9% today in late trade. They follow Europe where results similar. Yesterday, Shanghai fell -1.3%, while both Hong Kong and Tokyo both were unchanged on the day. The ASX200 also closed down -0.7% while the NZX50 Capital Index rose +0.3% although it suffered through a second embarrassing cyber attack.The latest global compilation of COVID-19 data is here. The global tally is 23,979,000, up +259,000 since when we last checked this time yesterday. Global deaths reported now exceed 821,000 (+6,000 in a day).Just under a quarter of all reported cases globally are in the US, which is up +43,000 since yesterday to 5,972,000 and a relentless rise. US deaths are now just over 188,000 and a death rate of 552/mln (+4/mln). The net number of people actively infected in the US fell -15,000 overnight to 2,530,000, so so back to more new infections than recoveries.In Australia, there have now been 25,205 COVID-19 cases reported, another +152 overnight, and still very much concentrated in Victoria. Australia's death count is up to 549 (+24). Their recovery rate is up to just under 80%. There are 4561 active cases in Australia (-158) indicating a turned tide and more recoveries than new infections.The UST 10yr yield is unchanged at 0.69% although it has been unusually volatile in the past 24 hours. The price of gold has risen overnight, up +US$26 to US$1,946/oz.Oil prices are essentially unchanged overnight at just on US$43.50/bbl in the US while the international price is just over US$45.50/bbl. But the US Gulf hurricane could upend markets quickly.And the Kiwi dollar is much firmer this morning, up +½c to 66.1 USc. Against the Australian dollar we are firm too, at 91.4 AUc. Against the euro we are more than +½c at 55.9 euro cents. That means our TWI-5 is up to 69.1 and a two week high.The bitcoin price is up +1.7% from this time yesterday at US$11,466.You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.And get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston. We will do this again, tomorrow. 

Dave Kleckner and Greg Perkins bring you an update on tropical systems Marco & Laura, both of which are expected to cause significant impact to the US Gulf coast over the next week. Also, what the heck is the Fujiwhara effect? Keep up with the latest forecasts from the National Hurricane Center at nhc.noaa.gov. Twitter: @HotAirWeather Facebook: facebook.com/HotAirWeather Podcast: anchor.fm/HotAirWeather

Today we go offshore to talk to Tim Duncan, the President and CEO of Talos Energy.  We start in 2018 with their takeover of Stone, fly back in time to the beginning of Private Equity, to learning as part of a group before leading a team, and end in 2020 with a talk on the opportunities for Talos, Mexico, North America, the Gulf, and what advice he’d give himself in 2003. #hottakeoftheday podcast #57 w/Tim Duncan, Talos Energy https://youtu.be/vsXGdhLujkY Audio Podcast   About Tim Duncan Timothy S. Duncan Talos Energy Inc. President and CEO Talos Energy Inc Corporate offices in downtown Houston, TX. Photos by David Duncan Photography Tim Duncan is the President and CEO and a founder of Talos Energy Inc. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Talos is engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico, including the US Gulf of Mexico deepwater and shelf as well as shallow water offshore Mexico. Talos became a public company in May 2018 following its merger with Stone Energy, transitioning from a private company formed in March 2012 with initial funding commitments of up to $600 million of private equity from Apollo Global Management, LLC and Riverstone Holdings LLC. Talos is the third company built with private equity capital with his partners over the last twenty years. Since inception, Talos has grown from 5 original employees to over 425 employees with approximately 150 MMBOE of Proved reserves and 70 MBOEPD of net production by the end of the 1Q 2019. In 2013, Talos was named by the Houston Chronicle as the #1 Top Workplace in the Houston area for companies under 150 employees and has maintained a position on the list of Top Workplaces for the last seven years. In June 2016, Mr. Duncan was named as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the Energy & Energy Services sector in the Gulf Coast area. Mr. Duncan earned a BS in Petroleum Engineering from Mississippi State University, where he was honored in 2012 as a Distinguished Fellow of the College of Engineering. He subsequently earned an MBA from the Bauer Executive Program at the University of Houston. He is an active member of the SPE, IPAA, NOIA, YPO, and the Houston Chapter of CEO’s Against Cancer. Mr. Duncan also serves on various academically focused boards including the College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and the Foundation Board at Mississippi State University.   Tim's Top 10 Book List Or, "10 Books in addition to The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex Epstein", because that is a must read ~ The Prize – Daniel Yergin The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Tabib The Rational Optimist – Matt Ridley Enlightenment Now – Steve Pinker Boomerang- Michael Lewis David & Goliath – Malcom Gladwell Free to Choose – Milton Friedman Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rynd Oil! – Upton Sinclair All the King's Men – Robert Penn Warren   Dialogue 00:00 - 09:00:  Intro, reading material, books and music 09:00 - 31:00:  Stone and Talos background and history, Gulf of Mexico, relationships and opportunities, early days, growth and learning, understanding financing and capital, private equity 31:00 - 58:00:  Moving into the Gulf of Mexico, onshore vs. offshore, and on listening more and exceeding expectations   Related Mentions Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead Upton Sinclair, Oil!, There Will be Blood Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men Barenaked Ladies Guns N' Roses Nirvana Pearl Jam Lallapalooza Stone Energy Corporation        

Hurricane Concerns Hit US Gulf as Tropical Storm Strengthens

Although the volume of US crude exports is falling, there is still international demand for US crude, most notably in Europe, which has overtaken Asia as the largest regional buyer. Join Jeff Kralowetz, VP, crude and NGLs, as he talks with Amanda Hilow, senior reporter, as they discuss how trade patterns for exports leaving the US Gulf coast continue to evolve. They cover Corpus overtaking Houston as the top export location, waterborne prices diverging from pipelines, and increasing volumes of crude headed to storage in the Caribbean before reaching destinations around the world.

Production cuts have supported Canadian crude prices at Edmonton and Hardisty, with the consequence of closing the arbitrage to the US Gulf coast. Meanwhile, the trade of Canadian crude at Houston has proved a much better reflection of the daily heavy crude value at the US Gulf coast than the Maya formula, which is set monthly on the basis of light crude prices. Brett Holmes, market reporter, and Alex Endress, crude reporter, talk with Jeff Kralowetz, VP crude and NGLs, about the market shifts.

It is early days, but first indications are that the global pandemic is entrenching long-drawn Middle Eastern geopolitical, political, ethnic, and sectarian battle lines rather than serving as a vehicle to build bridges and build confidence.

A decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers like Russia to temporarily end a price war and cut production amounts to a time-out rather than an end to what is likely to erupt at some point in the future as a tripartite war.

Long-stable crude oil price relationships at the US Gulf coast have been upended by the global crude supply/demand imbalance. What is likely to happen next? How much crude can Cushing store? And what does this mean for US exports? Argus VPs for Crude Business Development, Jeff Kralowetz and Bruce Fulin, and Argus Americas Crude Editor Gus Vasquez discuss this and more.

Marine Mammal Scientist and Advocate Sharon Young chats to host Dr. Chris Parsons this week about North Atlantic Right Whale conservation, threatened dolphins on the US Gulf (of Mexico) Coast and issues impacting seals and sealions in the US.  ################################################# Speak Up For Blue Instagram Speak Up For Blue Twitter Check out the Shows on the Speak Up For Blue Network: Marine Conservation Happy Hour Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2k4ZB3x Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2kkEElk ConCiencia Azul: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2k6XPio Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2k4ZMMf Dugongs & Seadragons: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lB9Blv Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2lV6THt Environmental Studies & Sciences Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lx86oh Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2lG8LUh Speak Up For The Ocean Blue: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2m28QSF Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2SJgyiN

Last week, the Trump administration held its latest auction for oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The sale generated high bids of less than $160 million, drawing interest in less than 1% of the total acreage offered. But could those bids be nullified? On today’s podcast, Brettny...

In this episode of Beneath the Subsurface we turn back time with Daniel Orange, our ONE Partner for multibeam technology and seafloor mapping - and incredible storyteller - and Duncan Bate, our Director of Project Development in the Gulf of Mexico and Geosciences. Dan takes Duncan and Erica on an expansive journey through time to meet a special variety of archea that dwell in the impossible oases surrounding sea bottom vents. We also explore the relatively recent discoveries in geoscience leading to seafloor mapping and how seep hunting offshore can enrich the exploration process today. TABLE OF CONTENTS00:00 - Intro03:35 - What is a seep?09:06 - The impossible oasis11:45 - Chemotrophic life24:15 - Finding seeps26:51 - The invention of multibeam technology30:11 - Seep hunting with multibeam32:48 - Seismic vs. multibeam34:43 - Acquiring multibeam surveys44:32 - The importance of navigation46:20 - Water column anomalies49:12 - Seeps sampling and exploration56:23 - Multibeam targets59:12 - Multibeam strategy1:03:11 - Reservoir content1:06:44 - A piece of the puzzle1:10:21 - ConclusionEXPLORE MORE FROM THE EPISODELearn more about TGS in the Gulf of MexicoOtos MultibeamEPISODE TRANSCRIPTErica Conedera:00:00:12Hello and welcome to Beneath the Subsurface a podcast that explores the intersection of Geoscience and technology. From the Software Development Department here at TGS. I'm your host, Erica Conedera. For our fourth episode, we'll welcome a very special guest speaker who offers a uniquely broad perspective on the topic of sea floor mapping. We'll learn about the technology of multibeam surveys, why underwater oil seeps are the basis of life as we know it and how the answer to the age old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg is the Sun. I'm here today with Duncan Bate, our director of projects for the US and Gulf of Mexico. Do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself Duncan?Duncan Bate:00:00:56Sure, yeah, thanks. I basically look after the development of all new projects for TGS in the, in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm here today because a few years ago we worked on a multi beam seep hunting project in the Gulf of Mexico. So I can share some of my experiences and - having worked on that project.Erica:00:01:15Awesome. And then we have our special guest star, Dan Orange. He is a geologist and geophysicist with Oro Negro exploration. Hi Dan.Dan Orange:00:01:24Good morning.Erica:00:01:25Would you like to introduce yourself briefly for us?Dan:00:01:28Sure. Let's see, I grew up in New England, Texas, so I went to junior high school, just a few miles from where we're recording this. But I did go to MIT where I got my bachelor's and master's degree in geology, then went out to UC Santa Cruz to do my PhD and my PhD had field work both onshore and offshore and involved seeps. So we'll come back to that. And also theoretical work as well. I had a short gig at Stanford and taught at Cal State Monterey Bay and spent five years at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Again, pursuing seeps. I left MBARI and started working with the oil patch in 1997 and it was early days in the oil industry pushing off the shelf and heading toward deep water and seeps were both a bug and a feature. So we started applying seep science to the oil industry and have been doing that for oh, now 21-22 years.Dan:00:02:32The entire time that I was at Embargin, and working with the oil patch. And in fact, ongoing, I do research for the US Navy through the Office of Naval Research. It started out involving seeps and canyon formation and it's evolved into multibeam seafloor mapping and acoustics. And that continues. So in the oil patch I was with AOA geophysics, we formed a company AGO to commercialize controlled source EM sold that to Schlumberger. And then we formed an oil company, Black Gold Energy, that would use seeps as a way to, go into oil exploration. And we sold that to NYKO, since leaving Black Gold with Oro Negro. We've been teaming with TGS since 2014 so now going on five years mapping the sea floor, I think we just passed one and a quarter million square kilometers, mapping with TGS as we mapped the sea floor and sample seeps, pretty much around the world for exploration.Erica:00:03:35Awesome. So let's begin our discussion today with what is a seep, if you can elucidate that for us.Dan:00:03:41So a seep is just what it sounds like. It's, it's a place on the earth's surface where something leaks out from beneath. And in our case it's oil and gas. Now seeps have been around since the dawn of humanity. The seeps are referenced in the Bible and in multiple locations seeps were used by the ancient Phoenicians to do repairs on ships they use as medicines and such. And in oil exploration seeps have been used to figure out where to look for oil since the beginning of the oil age. In fact that, you know, there seeps in, in Pennsylvania near Titusville where colonel Drake drilled his first well, where Exxon, had a group of, of people that they call the rover boys that went around the world after World War II looking for places on the Earth's surface that had big structures and oil seeps.Dan:00:04:39Because when you have a seep at the sea floor with or on the Earth's surface with oil and gas, you know that you had organic matter that's been cooked the right amount and it's formed hydrocarbons and it's migrating and all those things are important to findings, you know, economic quantities of oil and gas. So seeps have been used on land since the beginning of oil and gas exploration. But it wasn't until the 1990s that seeps began to affect how we explore offshore. So that's seeps go back to since the dawn of humanity, they were used in oil exploration from the earliest days, the 1870's and 80's onward. But they've been used offshore now since the mid 1990s. So that's, that's kind of, that seeps in context.Duncan:00:05:31But it's actually the, I, the way I like to think about it, it's the bit missing from the, "What is Geology 101" that every, everyone in the oil and gas industry has to know. They always show a source rock and a migration to a trap and a seal. But that actually misses part of the story. Almost every basin in the world has leakage from that trap, either, either directly from the source rock or from the trap. It either fills to the spill point or it just misses the trap. Those hydrocarbons typically make their way to the surface at some point-Dan:00:06:04at some point and somewhere. The trick is finding them.Duncan:00:06:08Yeah, that's the seep. And thus what we're interested in finding.Erica:00:06:12As Jed Clampett from the Beverly hillbillies discovered.Erica:00:06:15Exactly.Dan:00:06:15I was going to include that!Erica:00:06:19Yes.Dan:00:06:19Jed was out hunting for some food and up from the ground came a bubbling crude. That's it.Erica:00:06:27Oil that is.Dan:00:06:29Black gold.Erica:00:06:29Texas tea.Dan:00:06:30That's right. So that's that seep science. So today what we're going to do is we're going to talk about seep communities offshore because what I hope to be able to, you know, kind of convince you of is if oil and gas leak out of the sea floor, a seep community can form. Okay. Then we're going to talk about this thing called multibeam, which is a technique for mapping the sea floor because where you get a seep community, it affects the acoustic properties of the sea floor. And if we change the acoustic properties of sea floor or the shape of the sea floor with this mapping tool, we can identify a potential seep community and then we can go sample that.Dan:00:07:14And if we can sample it, we can analyze the geochemistry and the geochemistry will tell us whether or not we had oil or gas or both. And we can use it in all sorts of other ways. But that's where we're going to go to today. So that's kind of, that's kind of a map of our discussion today. Okay. So as Duncan said, most of the world, he Duncan talked about how in- if we have, an oil basin or gas basin with charge, there's going to be some leakage somewhere. And so the trick is to find that, okay. And so, we could, we could look at any basin in the world and we can look at where wells have been drilled and we can, we can look at where seeps leak out of the surface naturally. And there's a correlation, like for example, LA is a prolific hydrocarbon basin. Okay. And it has Labrea tar pits, one of the most charismatic seeps on earth cause you got saber tooth tigers bubbling outDuncan:00:08:18It's literally a tourist attraction.Dan:00:08:20Right there on Wilshire Boulevard. Okay. And it's a hundred meters long by 50 meters wide. So a hundred yards long, 50 yards wide. And it, that is an oil seep on, on the earth surface in LA okay.Duncan:00:08:32Now, it's important to mention that they're not all as big as that.Dan:00:08:34No, no. Sometimes they're smaller. It could just literally be a patch of oil staining in the sand.Erica:00:08:41Really, that's little.Duncan:00:08:41Oh yeah. I mean, or just an area where there's a cliff face with something draining out of it or it, you know, it could be really, really small, which is easy to find onshore. You know, you send the rover boys out there like you mentioned, and you know, geologists working on the ground, they're going to find these things eventually. But the challenge, which we've been working on with, with the guys from One for the last few years, and now is finding these things offshore.Dan:00:09:06So let's, let's turn the clock back to 1977. Alvin, a submarine, a submersible with three people in it went down on a Mid-ocean Ridge near the Galapagos Islands. And what they found, they were geologists going down to map where the oceanic crust is created. But what they found was this crazy community, this incredible, oasis of life with tube worms and these giant columns with what looked like black smoke spewing into the, into the ocean. And so what they found are what we now call black smokers or hot vents, and what was so shocking is the bottom of the ocean is it's a desert. There's no light, there's very little oxygen, there's not a lot of primary food energy. So what was this incredible, oasis of life doing thousands of meters down on, near the Galapagos Island? Well, it turns out that the base of the food chain for those hot vents are sulfide rich fluids, which come spewing out of the earth and they fuel a chemically based, community that thrives there and is an oasis as there because there's so much energy concentrated in those hot sulfide rich fluids that it can support these chemically based life forms.Dan:00:10:34So that's 1977 in 1985 in the same summer, chemically based life forms, but based on ambient temperature, water, not hot water were found in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Oregon that same summer, 1985 in the Gulf of Mexico, the base of the food chain, what was fueling this chemical energy was hydrocarbons, oil and gas, and off the coast of Oregon, what was fueling it was hydrogen sulfide. So this is 1985, the year I graduated college. And so I started graduate school in 1986 and part of my research was working with the group that was trying to figure out the plumbing that was bringing these chemically rich fluids up to the earth's surface that were feeding this brand new community of life. You know, what we now call cold seeps. So, we, you know, depending on what you had for breakfast today, you know, eggs or pancakes or had your coffee, all the energy that we've got coursing through our veins right now is based upon photosynthesis.Dan:00:11:45We're either eating plants that got their energy from sunlight or we're eating eggs that came from chickens that eat the plants that can, where the came from, sunlight. Everything in our world up here is based upon photosynthesis. So, but the seep communities, the hot vents and the black smokers and the cold seeps, the base of the food pyramid is chemical energy. So they're called chemosynthetic communities or chemoautotrophic because the bacteria get their trophic energy, the energy that they need to live from chemicals. And so the bacteria utilize the chemicals and organisms have evolved to host these bacteria inside their bodies. And the bacteria metabolize the chemical energy to produce the enzymes that these larger organisms need to live. So these larger organisms can include clams, tube worms, the actual bacteria themselves. But, so the kind of how does this work is- let's get, because if we understand how seeps work and we know that seeps can be based upon oil and gas seepage, then you'll understand why we're using these seeps to go out and impact, oil and gas exploration.Dan:00:13:09So the- at the bottom of the ocean, we have a little bit of oxygen, but as we go down into the sediments, below the surface, we, we consume all that oxygen and we get to what's called the redox boundary to where we go from sulfate above it to hydrogen sulfide below it. And so below this redox boundary, we can have methane, we can have oil, but above that redox boundary, the methane will oxidize and the oil will be biodegraded and eaten by critters and whatnot. Now, living at that boundary, are bacteria who metabolize these compounds, and that's where they get the energy they need to live. These bac- Okay, now kind of turned the clock even farther back before the earth had an oxygen atmosphere, the only way that organisms got energy to live was from chemicals. Okay? So before we had algae and we created this oxygen atmosphere that we breathe billions of years ago, the organisms that lived on earth were chemosynthetic.Dan:00:14:13So these bacteria survive today and they live everywhere where we cross this redox boundary. Okay? So there they're actually archaea, which are some of the most primitive forms of bacteria, and I'm not a biologist, so I can't tell you how many billions of years ago they formed, but they're ancient and they're living down there.Erica:00:14:33So they haven't changed since then. They're basically the same?Dan:00:14:36Nope.Erica:00:14:36Wow.Dan:00:14:36They figured out a way to get energy to survive. It works.Erica:00:14:40Why change it?Dan:00:14:41If you're an Archea, right? So they're living down there at that redox boundary. Now, if we have seepage-seepage, is the flow of liquids. You actually lift that redox boundary. And if you have enough seepage, you can lift that boundary right to the sediment water interface. If you step in a pond and you smell that, sulfide, that rotten egg smell, your foot has gone through the redox boundary.Dan:00:15:08Okay? And you've disturbed some archaea down there and they'll get nudged aside. They'll go find someplace else. Okay? So with seepage, we lift the redox boundary to the sediment water interface and, and the bacteria are there and they're ready to utilize the reduced fluids as their source of energy. And so you can see them, we have pictures. You can do an internet search and say, you know, bacteria chemosynthetic bacteria and images and look at and look at photos of them. They it, they look like, okay, when you put the Guacamole in the back of the fridge and you forget it for three weeks and you open it up, that's what they look like. It's that fuzzy. It's this fuzzy mat of bacteria. And those are the bacteria. They're out there. They're metabolizing these fluids. Okay. Now in the process of metabolizing these fluids, they produce the bacteria, produce enzymes like ATP.Dan:00:16:01And I wish my partner John Decker, was here because he would correct me. I think it's adinase triphosphate and it's an enzyme that your body produces and sends out to basically transmit chemical energy. Okay. Now at some point in geologic time, and I'll, I'll actually put a number on this in a second. The larger fauna like clams and tube worms, evolve to take advantage of the fact that the bacteria are producing energy. And so they then evolve to use the bacteria within themselves to create the energy that they need to live. Okay? So, what happens is these seep fauna produce larva, the larva go into, you know, kind of a dormant stage and they're flowing around the ocean. And if they sense a seep, okay. They settle down and they start to grow and as, and then they, they, they, the bacteria become part of them.Dan:00:16:56They're the, the clams. You open a clam in the bacteria live in the gills. Okay. And so they'd grow and, and so these clams and tube worms start to grow and they form a community. Okay. So that a clam, what a clam does these clams, they stick their foot into the, into the sediment and they absorb the reduced fluids into their circulation system. They bring that, that circulating fluid to their gills where the bacteria then metabolize these reduced fluids and send the enzymes out to the tissues of the clam so it can grow. So this clam does not filter feed like every other clam on the planet. The tube worms that host these bacteria in them don't filter feed. So the base of the food chain is chemosynthetic. But the megafauna themselves, don't get their energy directly from methane or hydrogen sulfide. They get their energy from the bacteria, which in the bacteria, you know, the bacteria happy, they'll live anywhere.Dan:00:17:59But sitting here in a clam, they get the reduced fluids they need to live and they grow. Now it's what's cool for us as, as seep hunters is different species have evolved to kind of reflect different types of fluids. So if you know a little bit about seep biology, when you pick up like a batheum Modiolus mussel, you go, Huh? There could be oil here. Okay. Because that particular mussel is found in association with, with oil seeps. Okay. So that we won't go too far down that path, but there are different organisms. The important thing is that these communities, form again an oasis of life, a high concentration of life where we have a seep. Now, the oldest seep community that I'm aware of is Devonian. So that's between 420 and 360 million years. It's found in the high atlas mountains of Morocco.Dan:00:18:58And that seep community, a fossil seep community includes the same types of clams in tube worms that we find today. Okay. But they're also found with authigenic carbonate. Okay. Which is like limestone. And so, and that limestone in cases, this fossil seep community and has preserved it for hundreds of millions of years. So where does limestone come from? So remember we've got methane, CH4 in our, in some of our seep fluids. Well, if that's oxidized by bacteria, cause they're going to get energy from the methane they produced bicarbonate, which is HCO3 as a negative charge on it. And that bicarbonate, if it sees calcium, they like each other. And so they'll form calcium carbonate, limestone. And since sea water is everywhere saturated with calcium, if we have a natural gas seep, the bacteria will oxidize in natural gas and the bicarbonate will grab the calcium to form this cement.Dan:00:20:04Now deep enough in the ocean, it actually is acidic enough that that cement will start to dissolve. So we just have this, we have a factory of of bacteria. It might be dissolving some places, but most of the places we look, the carbonate doesn't dissolve. So we've got clams, tube worms, we've got the limestone authigenic carbonate, and if the pressure and temperature are in the right field, that methane can also form this really cool substance called gas hydrate and gas hydrate is a clathrate the, it's a combination of water and methane where the water forms an ice-like cage and the methane sits in that cage. And so you can light this on fire in your hand and the gas will burn. Nice yellow flame will go up from your hand and the cage will melt. The ice melts. So you get cold water on your hand with flames going up. It, it's cool stuff.Erica:00:21:03Did you bring one of these to show us today?Dan:00:21:06The pressure and temperature in this room are not, methane's not an equilibrium. You need hot, you need high pressure, moderately high pressure and you need very low temperatures. So, if we had-Duncan:00:21:20Neither are common in Houston, (Laughter)Dan:00:21:22No, and we wouldn't be terribly comfortable if that was what it was like here in this room. But the, the important thing for us now as we think about seep science and, and seep hunting is that this, this limestone cement, the authigenic carbonate, the gas hydrate, the shells of a clam, okay. Are All harder. Okay? Harder, I will knock on the table. They're harder than mud. So the sea floor, most of the most of the world's ocean is gray-green mud and ooze from all sorts of sediment and diatoms and plankton raining down onto the ocean floor. So most of the world's oceans is kind of just muddy sandy some places, but sediment, it's where you get these seep communities that now we've, we've formed a spot that some that's harder and rougher than the area around it. And that's our target when we, deploy technologies to go out and, and look at seeps.Dan:00:22:26So, so hot smokers, hot vents were discovered in 1977. Cold seeps were discovered in 1985 and were found to be associated, in the Gulf of Mexico with oil and gas seepage. That's 1985. Those were discovered with human beings in a sub in submersibles. Later, we deployed robotic submersibles to go look at seeps, ROV's and even later we developed tools to go sample seeps without needing to have eyes on the bottom and we'll come and talk and we'll come back and talk about that later.Dan:00:22:57But for kind of recap, a seep is a place where something is leaking out of the earth surface. When we talk about seeps, we're talking about offshore seepage of oil and gas that supports this profusion of chemically-based life forms as well as these precipitants, the authigenic carbonate limestone and gas hydrate. And the important thing is they change the acoustic properties of the sea floor.Duncan:00:23:28Yeah. Then the key thing is that you've gone from having, seeps onshore, which are relatively easy to walk up to and see, but hard to find, to seeps offshore, which are impossible to walk up to or very difficult. You need a submersible to do it. But because of this, chemosynthetic communities that build up around it and our knowledge of that and now gives us something to look for geophysically. So we can apply some geophysics, which we'll get on to talk about next in terms of the multibeam, to actually hunt for these things in a very cost effective way and a very fast manner. So we can cover, as Dan said, right at the start, hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, even over a million now, in a cost effective, timely manner and identify these seeps from the sea surface.Dan:00:24:15Now fishermen, know where seeps are because all of this limestone provides places for fish to leave their larva where they might live, they call them refugia. It's a, it's a place where, you know, lots of little fish and where you have lots of little fish, you have lots of big fish. And since we're also increasing this primary productivity, you get, you get profusions of fish around seep communities. So we've found authigenic carbonate in the front yards of fishermen in areas where that we've gone to study seeps. And if you chip a little bit off it, you can go and analyze it in the lab or if you can get somebody who fishes for a living to tell you their spots. And that involves convincing them that you're not going to steal their spots and you're not gonna tell everybody where their spots are. But if you go into a frontier area, if you can get somebody who fishes for a living to talk to you, you might have some ideas of where to go look for them.Dan:00:25:14So it kind of, one other point that I wanted to make here about seeps is, remember I talked about how seep organism creates kind of a larva, which is dormant and it's kind of flowing through the world's ocean, looking for a seep community, doing some back of the envelope calculations. If, if a larva can survive for about a month. Okay. And you have a one knot current that larva can move about 1300 kilometers in a month, which is about the length of the island of Java. And it might be about the length of the state of California. So if you think now, so if you think about that, then all you need is a seep community somewhere to be sending out larva. Most of which of course never gonna survive. And then if we get a seep somewhere else, the odds are that there's going to be a larva bouncing along the sea floor that is going to see that and start growing.Dan:00:26:08So for us as explorationists as the, the important thing is if there's a seep, there's a pretty good chance that, that a seep community will start to form, if the seepage lasts long enough, it will form a community depending, you know, might be large, might be medium size, but it changes the acoustic properties of the sea floor. Okay, so that, remember we're going to talk about seeps what they, what, what's a seep and that is how it's related to hydrocarbon seepage out of the or natural gas oil, you know, reduced fluids. What we were going to talk about, and now we're going to talk about how offshore we use this technology called multibeam to go and find them. Okay.Dan:00:26:51So back in, back in the Cold War, the air force came up with a tool to map the former Soviet Union called synthetic aperture radar. And when the navy saw the air forces maps, they said, we want a map of the sea floor. And at the time, you know, if you remember your World War II movies, the submarine sends out a Ping, somebody listening on, their, on their headphones and and the ping comes back and the amount of time that it took for the ping to go out and the ping come back is how deep the water is. If you know the speed of sound in water. But that's, that's just one point directly beneath you, that's not good enough to get a detailed map of the sea floor. So, driven by these cold war needs, the navy contracted a company called general instruments to develop a tool to map the sea floor and they develop what's called SASS, the sonar array sounding system, which we now call multibeam.Dan:00:27:49In the 1960s, it was unveiled to the world during a set of, submersible dives to the mid Ocean Ridge, I believe in 1975 as part of the famous project. And the geoscientist looked at that map and it was a contour map of the mid ocean region. They said, holy smokes, what's that? Where'd that come from? And the navy said, well, we kind of developed a new technology and it was first commercialized in 1977 the same year hot smokers were discovered on the world's oceans. And it has been continuously developed since then. And in about the 1990s, it got resolute enough for, for us to take this, this kind of seeps, seep hunting science and take it offshore. So until then, 1980s, we were deploying submersibles. We were going down and looking at them. We had very crude maps. We had some side scan shows, a little bit about, the acoustic properties of the sea floor.Dan:00:28:46But it wasn't until the mid 1990s that we realized that with these tools, these sea floor mapping tools that had acoustic, analyzing techniques that we could identify areas that were harder and rougher and had a different shape, that allowed us to start, instead of just driving around and, and, we're finding one by, by luck or chance actually saying, Huh, there's a, there's an interesting acoustic signature over there. Let's go take a look at it. And deploying submersibles and ROVs and realizing that yes, we had tools that could, be used to, to map the sea floor and identify seeps and driven by their own interests. The Navy, the US navy was very interested in these and, was, was a early, early funder of seep science and they've continued with it as well as academic institutions around the world that got very interested in seep communities.Dan:00:29:45And in fact, NASA, NASA is really interested in seep communities because they're chemically based life forms in what are basically extreme environments. And so if NASA wants to figure out what life is going to look like on a different planet, or a different moon on it, or surrounding a different planet that doesn't have an oxygen atmosphere, here's a, a laboratory on earth that, that they can use. So NASA has been funding seep science as well.Dan:00:30:11So multibeam what is it and how does it apply to, to, to hunting seeps. So multibeam, which is this technology that was developed by and funded by the navy in the 1960s and commercialized in the 70s uses two acoustic arrays of transducers. one array is mounted parallel to the length of a ship. And when you fire off all those transducers, it sends out a ping. And the longer the array is, the narrower that beam is. That's how antennas work. So that that long array sends out a ping, which is narrow along track and a shape, kind of like a saucer. So if you can imagine two dinner plates put together, that's what this, ping of energy looks like. And that's what we call the transmit beam. So then if you listen to the sea floor with an array that's perpendicular to the transmitter ray, we are now listening to an area that's, that's narrow across track. Okay. And it's long elongate a long track. So we've got this narrow transmit beam in one direction that's, that's now perpendicular to the ship. And we've got a narrow receive beam that's parallel to the ship and where those two intersect is what we call a beam. And so with, with lots of different, transducers mounted, perpendicular to the ship, we can listen from all the way out to the port about 65 degrees down below the ship and all the way over to starboard, again, about 65 degrees. And we have lots of beams.Dan:00:31:51So right now the system that we're using, on our project has 455 beams across track. So every time we send out a ping, we ensonify the sea floor on, on these 455 beams. And as we go along, we send out another ping and another ping. And we're basically, we're painting the sea floor. It's, it's like mowing the lawn with a big lawn mower or using a Zamboni to drive around an ice rink. You can just think of it as as a ship goes along. We are ensonifying and listening to a wide patch of sea floor and we typically map, about a five kilometer, about a three mile, a wide swath, and we send out a ping every six or 10 seconds. Depends how, you know, depends on the water depth. And so we're able to map 1000 or 2000 square kilometers a day with this technique. This multibeam technique.Duncan:00:32:48Since a lot of our podcast listeners might be familiar with seismic is that's probably the biggest percentage of the, the geophysical industry. This is not too different. It's an acoustic based technique. I guess the main difference is are we live working in a different, frequency bandwidth. And also that we have both the receiver and the transmitter both mounted on the same boat. So we're not dealing with a streamer out the back of a boat. we have transmitter and receiver are both whole mounted. But after that it's all pretty similar to seismic. We go backwards and forwards, either in 2D lines or in a, in a 3D grid and we build up a picture. Now because of the frequencies we're working with, we don't penetrate very deep into the sea floor. but as, as we mentioned, we're interested in seeing those seep communities on the sea floor. So that's why we this, this is the perfect technology for, for that application.Erica:00:33:40Oh, can you talk a little bit about the post-processing that's involved with multibeam?Dan:00:33:44Well, let me- Erica, Great question. Let me, come back to that later cause I want to pay, I want to pick up on what Duncan talked about in and add one very important wrinkle. So first of all, absolutely correct, the frequencies are different. In seismic, we're down in the hertz to tens of Hertz and in Multibeam we're in the tens of kilohertz and in very shallow water, maybe even over higher than a hundred kilohertz. In seismic, we have air guns that send that radiate out energy. And we, we designed the arrays so that we get most of the energy in the direction that we're looking with multi beam. We have a narrow, remember it's one degree wide in here. If you got kids, see if anybody still has a protractor anymore, grab a protractor and look at how wide one degree is. It's very narrow.Duncan:00:34:39There's probably an iPhone app for that. (Laughter) see what one used to look like.Dan:00:34:43But with, with seismic, the air guns sends out energy and we listened to the reflected energy out on the streamer back behind the ship or on a node somewhere else. It's reflected energy. With multibeam, the energy goes out and it interacts with the sea floor and the shallow subsurface. Most of it gets reflected away and we don't, we don't, hear that it, but some of it actually comes back in the same direction that the sound went out and we call that backscatter. So backscatter energy comes back to you and it's that backscatter that, can increase when we have hard and rough material either on the sea floor or buried below the sea floor. So the way that we process it is since we know the time of length, the time of path on how long it took to get out, hit the sea floor and come back, or you can correct for path lengths, energy radiates outward and spherical patterns. So we correct for spherical spreading. we know the angle that it hit the sea floor, so we correct for angle of ensonification. And then the next and most important things are where was the ship, when the pulse went out? And where is the ship when the pulse comes back, including what's the orientation of the ship? So we need to know the location, the position of the ship in X, Y, and Z to centimeters. And we need to know the orientation of the ship to tenths of a degree or better on both the transmit and the receive. But the key thing is, if we know that path length in the spherical spreading and we correct for all of that and we get a response that's much greater than we expected, we get higher backscatter energy and it's, it's those clams and tube worms authigenic carbonate gas hydrate that can increase the hardness and the roughness of the sea floor that kicked back the backscatter energy.Dan:00:36:46Okay. Now what happens if the oil and gas, or the reduced fluids if they shut off? Well, I'm sorry to say for the clams and the tube worms that they will eventually die. The bacteria will still live at that redox boundary as it settles back below the sediment. And then when we pile some sediment on top of that dead seep community, it's still there. The shells are there, the carbonate's still there. So with the, with multibeam that the frequencies, we use 12 and 30 kilohertz penetrate between two, three 10 meters or so into the sediment. So if you shut off the seepage and bury that seep community, they're still there. And if we can sample that below that redox boundary at that location, chances are we're going to get a oil or gas in, in our sample. And in fact, we encounter live seep communities very, very, very, very rarely, you know, kind of one in a thousand.Dan:00:37:50But, we, we encounter seep fauna down in our sample cores, which we'll talk about later, much more frequently. And, and we, we find hydrocarbons, we are very successful at finding hydrocarbons. And the key thing is we're using seep science to go look in, in basins or extend outward from basins in areas where there may be no known oil or gas production. And that's why the seeps are useful. So multibeam unlike a seismic, we got to collect the data, then we got it and you to do all sorts of processing and it takes a while to, to crank the computers and whatnot. Multibeam we can, we can look at it as it comes in and we can see the backscatter strength. We can see what the swath that it's mapping every ping, every six seconds. And it takes about, it takes less than a day to process a days worth of multibeam.Dan:00:38:47So when our ships are out there working every morning, when we get the daily report from the ship, we see another thousand or 2000 square kilometers of data that were mapped just the previous day. So it's for, those who can't wait, it's really satisfying. But for those of us who are trying to accelerate projects, it's great because when the data come off the ship, they're already processed. We can start picking targets and we can be out there, you know, in weeks sampling. So that's so multibeam it's, it's bathymetry, it's backscatter, but we're also imaging the water column. So if there's, a gas plume, coming out of the sea floor, naturally we can see that gas plume and, so that we can see the water column. We can see the sea floor or the bathymetry, and the backscatter. Erica, you asked, you know, about the processing and I talked about how we have to know the position and the orientation, of the ship, that means that we have to survey in using a laser theodolight.Dan:00:39:54We have to survey in every component of the system on the ship to, you know, fractions of a millimeter. And we drive the surveyors nuts because we are, we are more demanding than the, the BMW plant in South Carolina. And they point that out to us every time. Yes, we're more demanding. But if they have a problem with, with a robot in the BMW plant, they can go out and survey it again, once we put this ship in the water, I can't go survey the array that's now welded to the bottom of the ship. It's there. And so that's why we make them do three replicate surveys and do loop ties and convince us that we've got incredibly accurate and precise system. So that's when we survey the ship. We use, well we go back and we go and we check their math and we make sure all the numbers are entered into the system correctly.Dan:00:40:46We, measure the water column every day so that we have the best velocity data that we use to correct the, that position. We measure the salinity in the water column because it affects how energy is absorbed. It's called the absorption coefficient. We measure the acoustic properties of the ship. So we understand maybe we need to turn off the starboard side pump in order to get better multibeam data. And we evaluate every component of the ship. Something. Sometimes they'll have, you know, the, the waste unit was, was mounted onto the, onto the deck of the ship and nobody thought about putting a rubber bushing between that unit and the hall to isolate the sound. And it just so happens it's at 12 kilohertz. So it swamps your acoustic energy or degrades our data quality because it's all about data quality so that we can find these small, interesting high backscatter targets. We polish the hull. We send divers down every eight weeks or 12 weeks or 16 weeks because you get biofouling you get, you get these barnacles growing in a barnacle in between your acoustic array in the sea floor is going to affect the data. So we send divers down to go scrape the hull and scraped the prop.Duncan:00:42:05So it's probably worth mentioning that this is the same type of multibeam or multibeam data is the same data that is used in other parts of the oil and gas industry as well. So I mean, any pipeline that's ever been laid in the last few decades has had a multibeam survey before it. Any bit of marine infrastructure that an oil and gas company wants to put in the Gulf of Mexico. Certainly you have to have a multibeam survey ahead of time. what's different here is that we're, we're trying to cover big areas and we're trying to get a very specific resolution. So maybe it's worth talking a bit about that. Dan what we're actually trying to achieve in terms of the resolution to actually find seeps.Dan:00:42:42You got it. So we, we can, we can control the resolution because we can control how wide a swath we go and how fast we go. So, if you're really interested in, if you want to do a site survey and you want to get incredibly detailed data of a three kilometer by three kilometer square, you could deploy an autonomous underwater vehicle or an ROV and get very, very, very resolute, like smaller than half a meter of bin size. for what we do, where our goal is exploration, the trade off is between, do I want more resolute data or do I want more data and it that that is a tradeoff and it's something that we struggle with. And we think that the sweet spot is mapping that five kilometers swath and three miles wide, swath at about oh eight to 10 knots. So let's say about 16 kilometers an hour.Dan:00:43:40That gets us a thousand to 2000 square kilometers a day. And by acquiring data in that manner, we get a 15 meter bathymetric bin independent of water depth and our backscatter since we subsample that bathymetric bin for the backscatter, we can get a five meter backscatter pixel. So now if I have four, if I have four adjacent pixels, you know, shaped like a square, that's a 10 meter by 10 meter spot on the sea floor, it's slightly larger than this room. We could, you could see that now you might need a couple of more to be larger than that. So to have a target actually stand out, and that's about how accurate our sampling is with the core barrel. So, the long answer to your question is about a 15 meter bathymetric bin and a five meter backscatter pixel is what we're currently doing for our exploration work.Dan:00:44:32Now we pay attention to what's going on in the navigation and the positioning world because it affects our data quality. So the higher the quality of, of our navigation, the higher the quality of our data on the sea floor. So about a decade ago, the world's airlines asked if they could fly their airplanes closer together and the FAA responded and said, not unless you improve GPS and so sponsored by the world's airlines. They set up ground stations all in, in the, in the most heavily traveled parts of the world that improve the GPS signal by having an independent orbital corrections. What that means is for us working off shore, we take advantage of it. It's called wide area augmentation. And, using this system, which is now it's a, it's add on for a GPS receiver, we're able to get six centimeter accuracy of a ship that's out there in the ocean that surveying.Dan:00:45:27So that's six centimeters. What's that? About two and a half inches. And for those of us who grew up with low ran and very, you know, where you were lucky if you knew where you were to within, you know, a quarter of a mile. it's, it's just astonishing to me that this box can produce data of that quality, but that flows through to the quality of the data that we get on our surveys, which flows through to our ability to find targets. So I think, I told you about sub sampling, the bathymetry for backscatter and I've told, I told you about the water column and we've talked about the resolution. I think we've, we've pretty much hit what multibeam is. It's, it's a real time near real time acquisition, high frequency narrow beam. We image the sea floor and the shallow subsurface. Okay and we use that to find anomalous backscatter targets.Duncan:00:46:20Well, let's talk about the water column a little bit more done because I know we've published some pictures and images from our surveys. Showing the water column anomalies. The backscatter data, in the water column itself can actually help us find seeps. The right mixture of oil and gas coming out of this, an active seep and migrating up through the water column can actually be picked up on these multibeam data also. So that's, a real direct hit that you've got to see and that it's actually still producing oil today,Dan:00:46:53Right, so when, when gas and oil leak out of the sea floor, the gas bubble begins to expand as it comes up, just like a would in a, in a carbonated beverage because there's less pressure. So that gap, that bubble is expanding. If there's oil present, the oil coats the outside of the bubble and actually protects it from dissolving into the water column. And so the presence of gas with a little bit of oil leaking out of the sea floor creates these bubbles that, are big enough to see with these 12 and 30 kilohertz systems. And so when we see a plume coming out of the sea floor, that's natural, a seepage of gas, possibly with a little bit of oil and it provides a great target for us to go and hit. Now those seeps are flowing into the water column and the water column has currents and the currents aren't the same from one day to the next and one week to the next.Dan:00:47:47So if we image a seep a couple of different times, one day it will be flowing in one direction and the next time we see it flowing in a different direction. The area in common between the two is pointing us toward the origin point on the sea floor. And that's what we're going to target. And if you, if you hunt around, look for NOAA studies of, of the US Gulf of Mexico, over Mississippi Canyon near where the deep water horizon, went down because there are, the, NOAA has published, images of the gas seeps in that area where there are natural oil and gas seeps leaking, leaking other, the sea floor. And these natural seeps occur all over the world. Okay? And they're bringing oil and gas into the water column. But remember, nature has basically provided, the cleanup tool, which is the bacteria. So where oil and gas settle onto the sea floor, there are bacteria that will consume it. You don't want a lot of it in one place, cause then then you've got, you know, a real environmental disaster. But natural oil and gas seepage goes hand in hand with natural seep consuming organisms that metabolize these fluids. So a multi beam seeps backscatter okay. That I think we've, we've talked about what the target looks like. Let's talk about how we go in and sample it.Duncan:00:49:12Yeah, no, I think that's the real key thing. Particularly here in the Gulf of Mexico. I mean we talked at the start about how I'm using seeps can tell you whether a basin has hydrocarbons in it or not. Clearly we're decades past the point of knowing whether there's oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico. So even in the deep water gulf of Mexico, especially here in the US side, we know that there's oil and gas, so that information is long gone. We don't, we don't need an update on that anymore. What we need to know is information about the type of oil, the age of the oil, the deep positional environment that the oil is deposited in. And if we can actually get a sample from these seeps, then that's the sort of information that modern geochemistry can start to pull out for us.Dan:00:49:57we've sat in the same meetings where the, the potential client companies have said, why are you, why are you gonna map the deepest part of the Gulf of Mexico? There's no oil out there. And lo and behold, we found anomalous backscatter targets on a diapirs, which are areas, mounds out in the deepest parts of the Gulf of Mexico. And lo and behold, if you, if you look at the data, know that that statement was incorrect. There is oil and gas out there in other parts of the world. We've had companies say, oh, this part's all oil and this part's gas. Well, how do you know that? Well, because we've drilled for oil out here and we don't think there's any oil. Once you get out there and you don't know, you don't know what you don't know until you go map it and sample it and then you come back, you put the data on their desk and they go, huh, hey, we were wrong man. I guess there's oil out there. And, and in other parts of the world where you know, we've done all our exploration close to land or in shallow water, we go out into the deepest part and nobody's ever drilled a well out there. So, you use the seep science to go to basically fill that in.Dan:00:51:09So in order to make money exploring for oil, you had to have organic matter. Originally it had to be, it had to be buried and cooked. Okay. So you needed temperature and pressure. You need time takes time to do that, then it needs to migrate. Okay. With the exception of unconventionals, we're not gonna talk about unconventional today with the exception of unconventionals, the hydrocarbons have to migrate, so they're concentrated so that you can go drill them and recover them. And they need to be in a reservoir.Dan:00:51:41And it has to be sealed. And so when we find a seep and all of that goes into what we talk about in oil exploration as the risk equation, like what's the probability of success? If you don't know whether you have a migration, you have maximum uncertainty and that flows through into your, into your risk. Well, if we find a seep, remember we've proven that there was organic matter. We've proven that it was buried and cooked for the right amount of time to create oil and gas and that it's migrated. We can't tell you anything about reservoir or seal or timing, but we can, we can materially impact the risk equation by finding a seep. Okay. So right before you drill a well, wouldn't you like to know whether or not there's oil or gas in the neighborhood? Cause a well can be a can be $100 million risk.Dan:00:52:34Okay. Usually you wouldn't, wouldn't you like to know? So remember when we started looking at seeps, 1977 for the hot vents 85 for the cold vents, we used human beings in a submersible. Later we shifted to using robotic submersibles where a human being sit on a ship in a control room, operate the ROV with joysticks, and you watch the videos come through. Well, those are great, but they're really expensive and you can't look at much sea floor on any given day because you're limited to how fast you can move across the sea floor and how much you can look at. So if we surveyed 2000 square kilometers in a day, we want to be able to evaluate that in less than 20 years. We want to be able to evaluate that in, you know, in a similar length of time, a day or two. So what we've done is we've shifted toward using what we, what's called a piston core, which, which is a six meter long, 20 foot long tube with about a thousand kilos on a 2,000 pounds.Dan:00:53:37And we lower it through the sea floor, operating it with a winch from a ship. And by putting a navigation beacon on that core, we can track it through the water column in real time. And if we have this high backscatter target on the sea floor, we can lower it to the water column. Once we're about fit and we're within 50 meters, 150 feet of the sea floor, we can see whether we're on target and then we let it go. When the pist- when the, it has a trigger weight on it, you can look this up, how to, how do piston cores work, that the core, lets go and it free falls that last little bit and it penetrates the sea floor. You haul it back to the surface. Now if it had gas hydrate in it, if it has oil in it, if it has gas in it, you can see it right away. when you pull the clear liner out of the core, and there it is, you know, whether or not you've got success, for most cores, there's no visual evidence of hydrocarbons that we sample that core tube, three different samples. One of them, we take a sample into what we call a gas can and seal that. And then we put a couple of hockey puck size chunks of sediment into Ziploc bags and everything goes into the freezer. And you ship that back, from the next port call. And about a month later you get a spreadsheet in your email, that says, oh, guess what you found methane, ethane, propane, butane, and Pentane. And look at this, you've got enough fluorescents that this is a guaranteed oil hit. So, again, you think about the time we map a couple thousand square kilometers a day.Dan:00:55:18We mapped for a month, we'll look the data for a month. We go out and core for a couple of weeks and a month later the Geochemistry starts flowing in. So real quick, multibeam as we've, as we've discussed as a way to get a detailed map of the sea floor, both the shape of it and the hardest roughness, acoustic properties. So any company laying a fiber optic cable across the world's oceans is acquiring multibeam data. Any, municipality that's worried about how deep their ports are and whether there's enough space for the ships to come in, is acquiring multibeam data. The corps of engineers who pays companies to dredge sand in the Mississippi River has to have a before and after multibeam a map, when MH370 went down and needed to be hunted for before they deployed the real high resolution tools. They needed a map of the sea floor and that was a part of the ocean that has never been mapped in detail before.Dan:00:56:23So most of the world's oceans have net have never been mapped in the detail that we're mapping them. We're using the tool to go hunt seeps. But there are all sorts of other uses of, of that multi beam technology. So, what are we looking for when we, when we, when we're looking for seeps, you know, what have, where have people found oil and gas leaking out of the sea floor? What does it look like? Or what are the targets? Well, if the gas burps out of the sea floor, it creates a pockmark. And those are targets, in many parts of the world, the Apennines of Italy, Azerbaijan, there are what we call mud volcanoes, where over pressured mud from deep down in the earth is kind of spewing out gently, slowly and continuously at the earth's surface. And lo and behold, it's bringing up oil and gas along with it. So mud volcanoes are known, oil and gas seeps onshore. Of course we're going to use them, offshore. Any place where we have a fault, you can create fracture permeability that might let oil and gas up. Faults can also seal, but a fault would be a good target, an anticline, a big fold that has a, can have seeps coming out of the crest of, it's similar to the seeps that were discovered early in late 18 hundreds. And in, in the USA, we can have areas where we have oil and gas leaking out of the sea floor, but it's not enough to change the shape of the sea floor. So we get high backscatter but no relief. Those, those are targets. So when we go out and we sample potential seep targets, we don't focus on only one type of target because that might only tell you one thing.Dan:00:58:04So we spread our, our targets around on different target types and we'll spread our targets around an area. Even if we, if we have more targets in one area than another area, we will spread our targets all the way around. Because the one thing that we've learned in decades of seep hunting is we're not as smart as we think we are. Nature always throws a curve ball. And you should, you should not think that you knew, know everything before you go into an area to analyze it because you might, you probably will find something that's, that startles you. And you know, as someone who's been looking at seeps since 1986, I continue to find things that we've never seen before. like our recent projects in the Gulf of Mexico, we found two target types that we've never seen before. The nearest analog on earth, on the surface is called a Pingo, which is when ice forms these really weird mountains up in the Arctic. And the one thing I can guarantee you that's not on the bottom of the world's ocean is an ice mound similar to what's forming the Arctic. But, but it had that shape. So we went and analyzed it and lo and behold, it told us something about the hydrocarbon system.Dan:00:59:12So those are all different types of target types so that the core comes back, we send it to the lab, we get first the very, what call the screening geochemistry, which is a light gases, methane through Pentane. We look at how fluorescent it is, cause that'll tell you whether or not you, you have a chance of of having a big oil hit. And we also look at what's called the chromatogram, which is a gas chromatography. And that tells us between about C15 and C36 C being the carbon length. So the, all your alkanes. And by looking at a Chromatogram, a trained professional will look that and say, oh, that's biodegraded oil. Or, oh, that's really fresh oil cause really fresh oil. All the, alkane peaks get smaller as they get bigger. So it has a very, very distinctive shape. Or they can look at it and they can tell you, you can, you can figure out the depositional environment. You can figure out whether the organic matter came from a lake, lacustrine, or maybe it's marine algal. We can say something about the age of it because flowering plants didn't evolve on earth till about the end of the age of dinosaurs. So at the end of the cretaceous, we got flowering plants. And so flowering plants create a molecule called oleanane. And so if there's no oleanane in the oil, that oil is older than cretaceous. So now we're telling something about a depositional environment.Dan:01:00:39We're saying something about the age, we can say the, the geochemist can say something about the maturity of the oil by looking at the geochemistry data. So all of this information, is now expanding what we know about what's in the subsurface and everything we know about seepage is that it is episodic in time. And it is distributed on earth's surface, not in kind of a random scattered, fashion. You get seepage above above a mud mud volcano, but for the surrounding hundred square kilometers around this mud volcano, we don't find any seep targets. Okay. So, our philosophy is that in order to find, in order to analyze the seats, we have to go find where we've got the highest probability of seepage and leakage. And that's where we target. So if you went out and just dropped a random grid over an area, you have a very, very low chance of hitting a concentrated site of seepage. And so, our hit rate, our success rate is, is high because we're using these biological and chemical indicators of seepage to help us guide where we sample. We have very precisely located sampling instruments this core with this acoustic beacon on it. And so we have, we have a very, very high success rates. And when we get hydrocarbons, we get enough hydrocarbons that we can do all of this advanced geochemistry on it.Duncan:01:02:13That's a good point Dan, even with- even without just doing a random grid of coring, piston coring has been done in the the US Gulf of Mexico for a long time now. And using seismic information, to target it. So like you say, looking for the faults and the anticlines and those type of features and very shallow anomalies on the seismic data. Even even guiding it with that information, typically a, a 5% hit rate might be expected. So you take two or 300 cores you know, you're going to get maybe 5%-10% hit rate, where you can actually look at the oils, and the geochemistry from the samples that you get. Using the multibeam, we were more like a 50 to 60% hit rate. And that's even with like Dan said, we're targeting some features where we know we're not going to find oil. so we could probably do even better than that if we, if we really focused in on finding oil. But obviously we're trying to assemble all the different types of seeps.Dan:01:03:11One of the things that we're asked and that we've heard from managers since we started working in the oil industry is what is this sea floor seep tell me about what's in my reservoir. And there's only, there have been very few, what we, what we call the holy grail studies published where a company has published the geochemistry at the reservoir level and the geochemistry on a seep that they can tie to that reservoir in the Gulf of Mexico. We collected dozens of seeps that can be tied to the same basin where there is known production. So in that Gulf of Mexico Dataset, a company that purchased that data and who had access to the reservoir oils could finally have a sufficient number of correlations that they could answer that question. What is the sea floor seep? Tell me about the reservoir. Because once you're comfortable in the Gulf of Mexico, that that seep is really telling you what's down in your reservoir.Dan:01:04:08Now you go into other parts of the world where you don't know what's in the reservoir before you drill and you find a good, a fresh seep with fresh oil right at the sea floor. Now you're confident that when you go down into the reservoir that you're going to find something, something similar. So let me talk a little bit about other things that you can do with these cores. And I'll start by kind of looking at these mud volcanoes. So this mud volcano, it had over pressured mud at depth. It came up to the surface of the earth and as it came up, it grabbed wall rock on its way up. So by analyzing a mud volcano, if we then go look at, say the microfossils, in all the class in a mud volcano, we can tell you about the age of the rocks that mud volcano came through without ever drilling a well.Dan:01:04:54So you can look at, at the, at the vitrinite reflectance, you can look at the maturity of the, of these wall rocks that are brought to you on the surface. You can look at heavy minerals. And when we go out and we do field geology, you know, you remember you're a geologist has a rock pick they and they go, the geologist goes up to the cliff and, and she or he chips a rock out and they take it back to lab and take a look at it. And that's how they tell something about what's in the outcrop. Well, it's hard to do field geology on the bottom of the ocean using a multibeam map and - acoustically guided core. We can now go and do field work on the, on the ocean floor and expand our knowledge of what's going on in a field area.Duncan:01:05:42So maybe it's worth talking a bit Dan about how we're jointly using these technologies or this group of technologies, at TGS, to put together projects. So the, I think generally the approach has been to look at, basin wide study areas. So we're not just carving off little blocks and doing, one of these, one of these projects over, over a particular block. We'll take on the whole Gulf of Mexico. So we, we broke it up into two. We looked at the Mexico side and the US side. But in total, I think it was nearly a million square kilometers that we covered and, about 1500 cores that I think we took, so we were putting these packages together in different basins all over the world, whether they're in mature basins like the Gulf of Mexico or frontier areas like places we're working in West Africa at the moment. But I think we're, we're looking to put more and more of these projects together. I think the technology applies to lots of different parts of the world. Both this side of the Atlantic and the eastern side of the Atlantic as well.Dan:01:06:44So since 2014, five years, we've mapped, we as in One and TGS have mapped, I believe over 1,250,000 square kilometers. We've acquired over 2000 cores. Oh. We also measure heat flow. We can use - is how the earth is shedding heat. And it's concentrated in some areas in, and you want to know heat flow if you're looking for oil, cause you got to know how much your organic matter has been cooked. So we've, we've collected thousands of cores, at dramatic success rates and we've used them. We've used these projects in areas of known hydrocarbon production, like the shallow water Gulf of Mexico, but we've, we've extended out into areas of completely unknown hydrocarbon production, the deep water Gulf of Mexico, the east coast of Mexico over in the Caribbean. We're looking at northwest Africa, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and the area, that's a jointly operated AGC. And we're looking at other frontier areas where we can apply this to this technology in concert with traditional tools, multichannel, seismic, gravity and magnetics to help, our clients get a better feel for the hydrocarbon prospectivity. You've got to have the seismic cause you've got to see what the subsurface looks like. But the, the multibeam which leads to seep targets, which leads ultimately to the geochemistry is what then affects the risk going forward into a basin.Duncan:01:08:20That's a good point, Dan. We don't see this as a technology that replaces seismic or gravity or magnetics or anything else, but it's another piece in the puzzle. And it's a very complimentary piece as well.Dan:01:08:31It is. And any areas you could argue that probably the best places to go look are where, your colleagues and other companies have said, oh, there's no oil there. Well, how do you know? Well, we don't think there's oil because we don't think there was a organic matter or we don't think that it was cooked enough. Well, you don't know until you go there and you find, so if you found one seep in that field area that had live oil and gas in it, you would know that that premise was incorrect. And now you have a competitive edge, you have knowledge that others don't and that can, that can affect your exploration, strategy in your portfolio. we haven't talked about cost. Multi beam is arguably one of the least expensive tools per square kilometer in the geophysical toolkit. Just because we don't need chase boats. We're not towing the streamer, we're going 10 knots. We're covering a couple of thousand square kilometers a day. So it's, it's, it's a tool that's useful in frontier exploration. It is complimentary to seismic, and it's a tool that, that you can use to guide where you want to spend money and how much money if you, if we survey a huge area and let's say half of it has no evidence of oil and gas and half of it has excellent hydrocarbon seeps, both oil and gas. I would argue that as a company you might want to spend less money on the first and more money on the second. You migh

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Kia ora and welcome to Tuesday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect New Zealand. I'm Rebecca Caroe and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz. This podcast is supported by Hatch. With Hatch, anyone can invest in the US share markets. Last week, Kiwis buying shares on Hatch backed the tech industry and emerging sectors. Here are the top 10 most popular shares on Hatch: Starting at 10, we have: Google Apple Disney Facebook Microsoft Amazon AMD Beyond Meat Slack And the most popular share on Hatch last week was Tesla. Visit hatchinvest.nz to buy any of these US-listed shares. Invest dollar amounts to buy as much or as little as you like, even if it’s a fraction of a share. Today this podcast leads with news of a fall in growth in the Chinese economy. But first in the US, the latest regional factory survey, this time from New York, has interrupted the negative trend we have seen recently. They report an uptick in June, but that was from a very low May result. The overall downtrend is still in place it seems. Canadian home sale volumes were flat in June interrupting a string of gains in the previous four months. Prices were flat too. Some have called this market 'boring', a major change from a year ago. But there are still wide regional variations with the East generally rising, and the West declining. China’s economy officially grew 6.2% year-on-year in the second quarter this year, exactly as analysts forecast, down from 6.4% growth in the first quarter. While that rate may be the envy of the West, that is a 27 year low for them. Within that however, they claim retail sales growth rates were higher at 9.8% year-on-year and that industrial production growth picked up too in June, to 6.3%. New home prices in China rose at their fastest pace in five months in May, complicating government efforts to keep frothy housing markets under control as it rolls out more stimulus for the slowing economy. In India, there is a significant credit crunch underway and that is affecting their mortgage and home building industry in a major fashion. And India is showing signs of trade stress too. Exports fell almost 10% in June from a year ago, imports were down 9%. Today, Wall Street is holding on at its record high position reached on Friday, but unmoved from these lofty heights today. Overnight European markets opened the week firmer, generally up about 0.3%. They followed Asian markets which gained a similar amount. But it was all lower yesterday in Australia and New Zealand. If you invest in the local bond market, we have a daily update of prices and yields. Right on the same page you can find sparkline charts giving you an easy view of how yields on specific issues are moving. You can find it at interest.co.nz/bonds-data/issues In Australia, their businesses and regulators are whining about New Zealand regulation of Australian businesses operating here, suggesting we are now "anti-Australian". They conveniently forget the outsized influence their markets and regulators have on us. First it was the RBNZ suggestion that Aussie bank shareholders should back their NZ banks with more capital. Now it is the RBNZ refusing to rubber-stamp a bad deal to sell off the NZ arm of AMP Life which in turn jeopardises the whole AMP Life sale. The UST 10yr yield will open today at 2.09% and 3 basis points lower than this time yesterday. Gold is down $4 overnight to $1,412 per ounce. US oil prices are falling today as the impact of the US Gulf production recovers after its storm, and the weak Chinese GDP suggests demand may be tailing off. They are now down to $59.50 per barrel. But the Brent benchmark is little changed at $66.50. The Kiwi dollar is stronger yet again against all the majors and now just on 67.2 USc. On the cross rates we are also firmer at 95.5 Australian cents. Against the euro we are up at 59.7 euro cents. That all pushes the Trade Weighted index up to just on 72 and a three month high. You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes. Get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz and subscribe to receive this podcast in your favourite podcast app - we're on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or subscribe on our website. Tell your friends and leave us a review - we welcome feedback from listeners. I'm Rebecca Caroe. We'll do this again tomorrow.

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