28th April 2025

Morning all. Here’s what went down in all things oil, gas, and energy while you kicked back over the weekend:

• 🟢 Exxon’s low carbon splurge

• 🎉 Is the M&A party over?

• 🚩 Conquering sand banks

• 🐀 Hinkley’s rodent problem

• ➕ plus a huge power outage in Spain; trust the experts; China’s building more nuclear power; China’s huge renewable capacity; no luck for Total in Namibia; legal challenge to save Gryphon; and barrels more.

Let’s jump in

📈 THE NUMBERS

🗞️ WELL-HEADLINES

 🗽 North America

• Exxon ups low carbon spending - the US major is set to spend more on low carbon projects than European counterparts like BP and Shell as it pumps more money into technologies such as carbon capture, biofuels, hydrogen and lithium. Meanwhile European majors are retreating from their low carbon plans to focus on profitability from their core oil & gas business.

• Shale M&A party is winding down - after a frenzied few years for M&A in the US shale patch, activity is starting to slow due to falling oil prices, concerns over trade tariffs, and most of the good opportunities having been snapped up.

• Energy Secretary tries to reassure oil companies - Chris Wright, himself previously the head of Liberty Energy, a large US oilfield services company, said at an energy conference in Oklahoma “The uncertainty you are seeing around tariffs — that’s a short term issue…We’re doing everything we can to encourage production”.

• Some Q1 earnings highlights - Phillips 66 posts bigger than expected loss; SLB reports “subdued” earnings and warns of activity slowdown; Galp surpasses analyst expectations; Woodside revenue dips.

• US rig count edges up - despite lower oil prices, the number of active US oil rigs climbed last week by 2 to 483. Gas rigs were up by 1.

🏰 Europe

• Giant power outage in Spain - large parts of Spain and Portugal are without power for an unknown reason. Phone lines, traffic lights etc etc are all down, bringing the countries to a standstill.

• Legal challenge to postpone Gryphon FPSO shutdown - Nobel Upstream is trying to stop Total from decommissioning the vessel which will force Nobel’s nearby fields to have to shut down too.

• Germany lines up energy exec as Economy Minister - the former E.ON exec might help finally bring a bit of sanity to Germany’s terrible energy policy.

• Saipem wins big contract with Eni - the $478m contract involves work on Eni’s Liverpool Bay carbon capture and storage facility in the UK.

🕌 The Middle East

• ADNOC raising $1.5bn in bonds - the UAE national oil company was inundated with demand for the bonds priced at 0.6% above US Treasury bonds and will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

⛩️ Asia & Oceania

• Rig rates sinking in India tender - some bidders offered rock-bottom rates in a jack-up tender opened by ONGC. Such low rates have apparently not been seen in the past seven to eight years.

🦁 Africa

• Total comes up dry in Namibia - the Marula-1X probe in the Orange Basin failed to hit hydrocarbons. No luck for Total just days after Rhino Resources hit the jackpot with an exploration well on a neighboring block.

🗿 Central & South America

• A quiet weekend here.

🌍 GEOPOLITICS & MACRO

• Iran “extremely cautious” of US nuclear talks - “The negotiations are extremely serious and technical ... there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Iran’s foreign minister said. Talks are set to continue this week.

• LNG companies can’t comply with Trump rules - the industry has warned the White House that new levies aimed at forcing them to use US vessels instead of Chinese-built ones will dramatically increase costs.

• China and Philippines going tit for tat in the South China Sea - both countries have claimed various small islands in the contested waters, and posed for flag waving photos, as tensions between the two countries ramps up. Chinese state media released various photos of its coast guard on a 200 sq meter sand bank…well done lads, you’ll be heroes back home.

💨 CARBON, CLIMATE, & OTHER ENERGY STUFF

• China has more wind and solar capacity than thermal - the country announced the milestone last week. However, despite renewables now accounting for more than half of China’s installed electricity capacity, they still delivered just 22.5% of actual power consumption in Q1. Why? Intermittency and grid bottlenecks.

• Hinkley Point’s got a rat problem - alongside spiraling costs and long delays, the under-construction nuclear plant in the UK is now dealing with a rodent infestation. This project can’t catch a break.

• China green-lights ten more nuclear reactors - the expected cost of these 10 reactors is $27bn. By comparison, the 2 reactors at Hinkley point are set to cost $60bn! Your regular reminder that high costs and long lead times for nuclear plants in the West are bureaucratic and regulatory symptoms, not a technical one.

🛢️ BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

Trust us, this time I promise we’re right.

👋 BEFORE YOU GO

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

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