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

Here’s what hit the wires today:

• 🔫 A coup d’etat in Gabon

• 😬 Germany’s industry struggling under high energy prices

• 💨 Hurricane Idalia en route

• 📉 Wind industry woes piling up

and much more. Let’s get to it…

📈 The numbers

Oil prices have edged up slightly on falling US crude inventories and the possibility of outages caused by Hurricane Idalia in the US GoM.

🗞️ Well-headlines

 🇺🇸 North America

• Chevron is evacuating non-essential staff from its Blind Faith, Petronius and Genesis platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Idalia. Kinder Morgan is also shutting various pieces of infrastructure, including the Central Florida Pipeline System. The Cat 4 hurricane is expected to make landfall later today in northwest Florida.

• Equinor has acquired a 25% stake in the Bayour Bend carbon capture and storage (CCS) project on the Gulf Coast of Texas from Carbonvert. The under-development facility, operated by Chevron, is set to be one of the largest CCS projects in the US.

• API figures estimate that US crude inventories fell by 11.5 mmbbls last week. Gasoline and diesel stocks, meanwhile, rose by 1.4 and 2.5 mmbbls, respectively.

🇪🇺 Europe

• Over half of German businesses are suffering under high energy prices, according to a government survey. Germany’s foolish energy policy has resulted in the country having some of the highest power prices in the world, hitting its famous industry and forcing many companies to move operations abroad. Energy ignorance has its consequences…

• Despite efforts to wean itself off Russian gas, the EU is set to import record levels of Russian LNG this year, mostly from the Yamal LNG project. Russian LNG accounted for 21.6 mncm, or 16%, of the EU’s total LNG imports between January and July.

• EDF and Total have commented that France should have sufficient gas supplies for this winter but that prices are likely to remain high and markets “fragile” until 2026. Let’s hope we have another warm winter in Europe otherwise things could get nasty…

• Eni and Repsol have reportedly reached a deal with Venezuela, with US approval, to import crude oil in return for supplying Venezuela with refined products. There seems to be an ongoing effort to bring Venezuelan volumes back to market. Watch this space.

• Norway’s latest annual exploration licencing round has attracted 25 bids, including from Shell, Conoco, Equinor and others. The majority of the 92 blocks on offer are in the Barents Sea.

🇸🇦 The Middle East

• All quiet today on the Middle Eastern front…

🇨🇳 Asia

• India’s oil minister has commented that the country will buy oil from whoever offers the “lowest possible price”. India has been enjoying discounted Russian crude and is ignoring Western efforts to curb Russian oil sales. The comments serve as a reminder that, for many, energy affordability and reliability are the top priorities.

• Retail gasoline prices in Japan have reached an all time high of of 185.6 yen ($1.27) per litre due to a weaker yen and rising global oil prices. Don’t feel too sorry for them though, here in the UK we’re lucky if it ever falls below $2 a litre.

• Shell and Petronas have announced first gas from its Timi gas field in Malaysia. The field is expected to reach peak production of 50 kboe/d.

📍Everywhere else

• Unions at Chevron’s Wheatstone and Gorgon LNG facilities in Australia have said that they would begin strike action from 7th September after weeks of negotiations have so far failed to reach an agreement. The facilities account for about 5% of total global LNG supply.

🌍 Geopolitics & macro

• The military has seized power in Gabon, saying they were annulling the results of recent elections, and ending over 50 years of power by the Bongo family. This would be the seventh coup in Africa since 2020. Gabon is an OPEC country, producing ~210 kb/d of oil.

💨 Carbon, Climate & other energy stuff

• Orsted, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, has announced expected impairments of $2.3bn at its US wind business, citing increased costs caused by supply chain problems and rising interest rates. The disclosure is the latest in a spate of bad news across the global wind industry.

🛢️Bottom of the barrel

Most people take for granted how important hydrocarbons are to their daily lives. The world would be a dark, slow, harsh place without them…

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