Good morning team - this is Both Barrels. Your daily dose of all things oil, gas, and energy, without the hot air.

Here’s some highlights from today:

• More US LNG heading to Europe

• US indies keep returning $ to investors

• Iran oil exports rise despite sanctions

• BRICS gather in South Africa

Let’s get to it…

📈 The numbers

Oil prices remain flat but gas prices in Europe and Asia creep higher again today in light of potential Australian LNG disruptions.

🗞️ Well-headlines

 🇺🇸 North America

• US LNG player Cheniere Energy has reached an agreement with Germany’s BASF to supply the latter with 0.8 mtpa of LNG from 2026-2043 from its Sabine Pass project. The US is ramping up LNG exports as capacity comes onstream and it seeks to replace shunned Russian gas.

• An EY report has showed that in 2022 for the first time ever, the 50 largest US indy E&Ps returned more money to investors than they spent on E&P. Under pressure from investors, US E&Ps have been shifting focus towards cost discpline instead of a grow-at-all-costs approach.

• Prairie Energy has reported 285.3 mmboe of possible reserves at its non-producing assets in Weld County, Colorado, following a third party assessment.

🇪🇺 Europe

• Total has acquired a 40% stake in Wintershall’s Luna CCS project in the Norwegian North Sea. The project has the potential to store more than 5 mtpa of CO2 in drilled wells and aquifers below the seabed and is part of a broad strategy across Europe to develop carbon storage assets.

• Liquids production in Norway for July came in 0.6% below estimates at 2.036 mmboe/d. Gas output reached 10.0 bcm, up 2.5 bcm from June.

🇸🇦 The Middle East

• Iran’s oil exports rose to 2.1 mmboe/d in August. An estimated 1.5 mmboe/d of these exports go to China, up from just 0.33 mmboe/d back in 2020. Sanctions working well then…

🇨🇳 Asia

• Equinor is considering the sale of its $1bn portfolio in Azerbaijan that includes the giant Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field which still contains an estimated 5.4 bnbbls of recoverable oil.

📍Everywhere else

• Russia’s Lukoil has asked the government for permission to buy back up to 25% of its shares from non-resident investors at a discount of at least 50%.

• Woodside has announced its H1 results, posting a record H1 net profit after tax of US$1,740 million. Production also hit a new H1 record at 91.3 mmboe. Investors weren’t that excited though. The share price fell by ~2% at the time of writing.

• Suncor’s troubled Terra Nova FPSO has arrived back at location in Newfoundland, four years after leaving for a $500m repair job. Production is due to start later this year.

• Woodside has said that the FPSO, built in China, for its Sangomar oilfield in Senegal did “not meet our expectations”. The vessel will stay in Singapore where more work will be done on piping and vales.

🌍 Geopolitics

• The BRICS nations have gathered in South Africa amid tensions between its members over the role of the group. China and Russia are seeking to develop the group into a stronger counterbalance against the G7, whereas Brazil claims this is not the objective.

• Japan has announced that it will start releasing treated waste water from the ill-fated Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea in the next 48 hours. China has criticized the move, saying the sea is not an “open sewer”, but the water, which will be released gradually over 30 years, is safe enough to drink and poses no threat to people or ecosystems.

💨 Carbon, Climate & other energy stuff

• Surprise. Surprise. Germany is expected to miss its 2030 and 2045 emissions reductions targets. Despite huge investment in wind and solar, its emissions have remained stubborn as it has been unable to phase out coal which is needed to back up the intermittent wind and sunshine

🛢️Bottom of the barrel

The US government has been draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserves at an unprecedented rate over the past few years in an attempt to keep pump prices low and voters happy. I’m pretty sure that’s not what it was intended for…

It’s not much of a safety net if it’s empty so let’s see if the powers that be in Washington find a way to fill it back up again.

👋 Before you go

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Thanks for reading. Have a day out there. 🛢️🛢️