Excelerate Energy said its full-year net profit landed at $153 million, up from $126.8 million for 2023. The company attributed the increase to various charter rate increases and full-year earnings for the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Excelsior, as well as lower depreciation expense driven by an update to the company’s FSRU useful life assumption in the fourth quarter of 2023. These were partially offset by high operating costs related to scheduled maintenance in the fourth.
The $1.3 billion project will likely replace hundreds of trucks that travel across the length and breadth of the country to move the fuel from refineries to bottling plants, raising the risk of accidents. A tanker overturned in Coimbatore last month, bringing the southern city to a partial halt. In December, 20 people were killed, 45 injured and three dozen vehicles damaged after a truck hit Indian Oil’s vehicle in the northwestern city of Jaipur.
West Texas Intermediate futures slid almost 1% to settle below $70 a barrel and wrapped up the month 3.8% lower. Trump affirmed the March 4 start of levies on imports from Canada and Mexico, which are the biggest suppliers of foreign oil to the US. He also threatened to double an existing tariff on imports from China, and Mexico is offering to follow suit in an attempt to stave off US levies. Beijing vowed countermeasures.
The US energy industry faces $560 million in fines this year for continuing methane leaks, according to Environmental Protection Agency projections, though the amount is forecast to fall thereafter as companies fix leaks and adjust production processes. Critics say the overall cost of complying with the regulation would likely be much higher.
The RRC said in the statement that the well will be utilized in electricity generation by the San Miguel Electric Cooperative to serve its customers. Sage Geosystems has entered into a land use agreement with the cooperative to develop a three-megawatt Geopressured Geothermal System energy storage facility, the RRC added.
Trump’s 25% tariffs on most US imports from Canada and Mexico were set to take effect Feb. 4, then pushed back by a month after those countries’ leaders announced new border security measures. Trump said in a social media post Thursday that the levies are on track to go into place on March 4, saying drugs from the US’s North American neighbors are still entering “at very high and unacceptable levels.”
The offensive against methane began early in President Biden’s term. Widely considered a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide even though its effect is much more short-lived, methane got into the crosshairs of the federal government as a target in its transition policies. Oil and gas companies were the natural prime target for climate regulation in this respect, and the regulation promptly came, mandating financial penalties for so-called methane leaks.
Natural gas is mostly methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas that is over 25 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 100-year period. The Global Methane Pledge from COP26 acknowledges that methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, responsible for a third of current warming from human activities.
There was a 1-rig bump in drilling activity in the Permian Basin, landing at 305 in the most prolific basin—a figure that is 10 fewer than this same time last year. The count in the Eagle Ford saw no change to the number of active drilling rigs, hovering at 48. Rigs in the Eagle Ford are 4 below where they were this time last year.
“Oil prices came under pressure in February as trade war uncertainty overshadowed sanctions-related supply risks,” ING’s commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said this week.