Been super busy, which is why I’ve only just updated my recent articles.
I’m still working with The Economist on one long project.
I also hope to get back to the geopolitical thriller I’ve been toying with.
I’m writing about Venezuela again next month for Petroleum Economist — so if anyone would like to get in touch about that, please do so.
Another big project is an upcoming trip to the oil sands in Canada, where I’ll be travelling extensively and writing a large portion of a big study of the country’s energy sector. Again, I’m keen to talk to anyone and everyone about that subject.
Finally, I’m writing several chapters for the latest edition Tom Nicholls’s annual book, How the Energy Industry Works.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: oil sands, the economist, Venezuela
The global economy isn’t out of the woods yet, but China’s looks like it might be. I think the broader recovery will start there. This was an analysis piece for PE’s June issue (the full thing is on the website, as all PE’s articles are).
Chinese oil imports are on the rise again. But are they the first signs of economic recovery in the country – and for global energy markets? Derek Brower reports
IT SEEMS an age ago now, but during the commodity boom that turned to bust last year, one country dominated the market’s sentiment. China was a gift to the oil market’s speculators and producers, and the bugbear of green activists. Petroleum exports to the country soared, China’s oil companies greedily gobbled up overseas assets and its energy sector belched out a new coal-fired plant every week. Keep reading →
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: China, Credit crunch, energy supply, Oil, oil supplies, recession, recovery
Analysis piece for PE’s June issue on the UK’s budget and its energy implications. The government is almost toast — and will be within a year — but their energy policy is a good one.
The UK government has put clean coal and other environmental initiatives on the country’s agenda, reports Derek Brower
SPRING is the time for green shoots in the UK. Still in the deep-freeze of the global recession, the government has proposed a series of initiatives to promote clean energy and avert climate change. The main announcement was a decision to put carbon capture and storage (CCS) at the centre of plans to build a new generation of coal-fired power plants. If it works, it could make the UK a world leader in clean coal. CCS, an emerging technology that could one day capture all power-plant carbon emissions, will now be mandatory for any new coal facility in the UK. The government wants four prototype plants built quickly. Keep reading →
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: climate change, energy policy, Miliband, renewable energy, UK
A focus for PE’s June issue on Venezuela’s latest move… Chavez is a gift to journalists.
IF YOU thought the fall in the oil price had dented the petro-nationalists’ verve, think again.
Last month President Hugo Chávez launched a new assault on private-sector and foreign energy firms in the country, seizing the assets of oil services companies and publishing a new expropriation law. “To God what is God’s, to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” said Chávez, paraphrasing the word’s of Jesus to announce the latest offensive against investors in the country’s oil sector. “Today we say: to the people what is the people’s.” Keep reading →
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Chavez, Oil, oil services, Schlumberger, Venezuela
An analysis piece for Petroleum Economist’s May issue (available on the website) about Australia’s booming coal-bed methane sector. File under “boring but important”.
Australia’s CBM sector is booming, but plans for an LNG-export industry face several obstacles, writes Derek Brower
GAS IN the coal shaft was once a danger to the miners. So they carried canaries in cages when they went in: a dead one told them it was time to clear out, and quickly. No-one carries birds down the shaft anymore – hand-held gas detectors replaced them decades ago. But miners still want to know if gas is in the air, because suddenly it is valuable. Keep reading →
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Australia, CBM, China, Energy, LNG
An April leader on Opec’s problems, to accompany the long piece Tom and I did on the cartel (below). As ever, the full article is available on Petroleum Economist’s website.
STOP going on about renewables. They’re a distraction from the real business of supplying energy: they lack the energy density and user friendliness of petroleum, which will continue to make an unmatched contribution to the smooth running of society. Keep reading →
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: oil supply, Opec, Petroleum Economist, renewable energy, renewables
A long analysis of Opec’s problems, which are all connected to the market power of consumers following the oil-price crash. NB. Since Tom Nicholls and I wrote this, oil prices have almost doubled. But don’t be fooled: Opec still has medium-term problems to resolve. Global demand is still weak and the group alone has about 6.5m b/d of spare capacity. The full article was in Petroleum Economist’s April issue (accompanied by the leader, above), and is available on the site.
The oil-price collapse has weakened Opec. The cartel is scrambling for a response, write Derek Brower and Tom Nicholls from Vienna
FACED WITH a depression in oil prices, Opec’s strategy has always been to cut production. But the cartel’s ability to effect a supply side rescue has, this time, been overwhelmed by the fundamental shifts under way in the global economy. Demand rules the game, and Opec’s cards are suddenly very weak. Keep reading →
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A Backpage profile for Petroleum Economist’s April issue on Herr Schroeder.The full thing is on PE’s website.
The former German leader now includes Russia’s TNK-BP and Gazprom among his employers. It is not a post-political career that everyone respects. Derek Brower writes
GERHARD Schröder has been called many things, not all of them kind, but no-one has ever really considered him a genuine energy executive. Yet the last few months have seen him popping up around the world to trumpet the cause of his employer, Gazprom – the Russian gas monopoly – and its global interests. He might once have walked the corridors of German power as head of government, but now he’s completed his transformation into a corporate mogul. Keep reading →
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: EU, Gazprom, Gerhard Schröder, Germany, Nord Stream, pipelines, TNK-BP
Credit worries and other problems are hurting small oil and gas firms, which is the theme of this piece about London’s AIM board. Full thing in Petroleum Economist’s April issue.
IT WAS ONCE the darling of investors and the envy of other financial capitals. Now London’s Alternative Investment Market (Aim) seems trapped in a limbo dance, valuations falling with each passing day. In fourth-quarter 2008, the market capitalisation of oil and gas companies on Aim fell collectively by 52%, according to accountancy firm Ernst & Young (E&Y), which tracks an index of the sector on the board. For the whole year, it fell by 62%. On 24 December, E&Y’s index was down by 75% on the high seen six months earlier, when oil prices reached record highs. Keep reading →
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: AIM, Energy, LSE, oil and gas, oil firms
A fairly sceptical take on plans to pipe Nigerian gas to Europe across the Sahara, for Petroleum Economist’s April issue. The full thing — and one of PE’ justly famous maps — is on the websiste (www.petroleum-economist.com), for subscribers.
France’s Total says it wants to build another gas-export facility in Nigeria. But piping natural gas across the Sahara desert to supply Europe faces big problems, writes Derek Brower
EUROPE’s energy planners, stuck in their rut of energy-security worries, like the sound of it. So, apparently, do five of the world’s biggest energy companies.
But the project – a pipeline to export gas across the Sahara desert, from the Niger Delta through Algeria and on to Europe – will be expensive, difficult to arrange and a target for saboteurs. It might even not make much sense for Nigeria, the country that would provide the gas.
Yet the project, which has been under discussion for decades, has a bit of momentum behind it again. Last month, France’s Total said it wanted to participate in building the trans-Sahara gas pipeline (TSGP). Russia’s Gazprom and Anglo-Dutch major Shell are also interested, and so are the state oil companies of Nigeria and Algeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Sonatrach.
For sheer ambition, the TSGP project takes some beating. (…) Rest for subscribers, I’m afraid.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Energy, EU, EU gas, Petroleum Economist, Russia, Total, Trans-Sahara pipeline
