Capitol Crude: The US Energy Policy Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Nigeria's Dangote refinery, built at a cost of $20 billion and is Africa's largest, has started exporting naphtha to North Asian markets at a time when the clean tanker market is witnessing prolonged firmness. The naphtha flow from Dangote is adding to the ton-mile demand in the clean tanker sector and this could be boosting the clean tanker market in the short- to medium term.

Associate editorial director for Asia Freight, Pradeep Rajan, discusses about West African naphtha flow and its impact on the clean tanker market with Sameer Mohindru, senior editor, Asia clean tanker market, and associate editor Zoey Ng, who covers Asia naphtha market.

Economic power-house China has set out 10 targets for 2024, which is pro-growth for oil demand, keen on energy security, and prioritizing accelerated industry modernization and development of new productive forces.

In this episode of Platts Oil Markets podcast, Managing Editor for refined oil products, Wanda Wang has invited China experts Grace Lee, Asia analyst from the AltView team, Sijia Sun, Associate Director, China Oil Market, and Oceana Zhou, Oil Market Specialist, to discuss the oil-market related highlights following China’s “Two Session” meetings -- the biggest annual political gathering in the country, which happened over March 4-11.

In October, the US agreed to ease sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for progress toward a fair election next year. But Venezuela has not fully held up its side of the US sanctions deal, and now it is threatening to annex the oil-rich Essequibo region of neighboring Guyana.

David Goldwyn, president of Goldwyn Global Strategies LLC, joins to podcast to discuss the status of US sanctions on Venezuela and what comes next.

Stick around after the interview for Starr Spencer with the Market Minute, a near-term look at oil market drivers.

Capitol Crude is taking a break for the holidays. We'll be back with new episodes in January.

A broad cross section of the energy industry has been in battle with the Federal Communications Commission over a band of airwaves, called spectrum, that tech and telecom companies gained the right to operate their mass-market wireless devices on last year. Because this spectrum is finite, it is allocated by the federal government, with the FCC managing commercial spectrum licenses.

But the energy sector has argued that the FCC doesn’t consider criticality as it’s doling out those airwaves. And this has created a situation in which power, oil and gas companies contend that the FCC has taken actions that could harm their ability to bolster grid and pipeline reliability.

Senior editor Jasmin Melvin spoke with American Public Power Association CEO Joy Ditto about the implications of an FCC order that was adopted last year despite vocal opposition from almost every major power and gas trade group and pushback from both the Department of Energy and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Stick around after the interview for Starr Spencer with the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil market drivers.

The pandemic interrupted a steady surge in global air travel demand, when passenger numbers tripled in just over 20 years.

Jet fuel demand remains below pre-pandemic levels and is not expected to fully recover until late 2025 or 2026, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. Yet the race is still on to limit aviation emissions growth because there are no quick fixes for decarbonizing this sector.

The International Energy Agency expects aviation emissions to be 12% above pre-pandemic levels in 2030, even if airlines and governments meet their announced sustainability goals.

Rep. Sean Casten, Democrat-Illinois, spoke with Platts senior editor Meghan Gordon about the policy outlook for sustainable aviation fuel, whether the US can meet the Biden administration's supply and emission targets, and some of the challenges could stand in the way.

They spoke a day after Casten joined the CEOs of United Airlines and Marathon Oil, along with other officials, on the first passenger flight fueled by 100% SAF.

Stick around after the interview for Chris van Moessner with the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil market drivers.

Reducing carbon emissions has been a central tenet of the Biden administration’s climate agenda. But methane is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide emissions in terms of global warming potential. Roughly a quarter of the warming occurring now is driven by methane, and the oil and gas sector is the single largest source of those emissions in the US.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that methane garnered a lot of attention at the global climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland last month. And domestically, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed tougher methane regulations while Congress is weighing the imposition of a fee on methane emissions above certain emissions intensity targets.

Senior editor Jasmin Melvin spoke with Kyle Danish, a climate lawyer and Clean Air Act expert, about the proposed methane regulations and a pending Supreme Court case that could send shockwaves through US climate policy.

Stick around after the interview for Jordan Blum with the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil market drivers.

The year is nearly over and the US Environmental Protection Agency has yet to formally propose biofuel blending requirements for 2021, and will miss the Nov. 30 deadline to finalize Renewable Fuel Standard volume requirements for 2022 as well. The Biden administration has also already missed a Nov. 1 deadline to issue a multi-year rule setting renewable fuel volumes for 2023 and beyond.

The country’s leading association of biofuel producers has put the EPA on notice that this is unacceptable. Growth Energy gave the EPA 60 days to meet its statutory obligations, after which it plans to sue the agency. That clock started running Nov. 2.

Senior editor Jasmin Melvin spoke with Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor about the group’s notice of intent to sue and the impacts of this delayed action on ethanol producers and consumers.

Stick around after the interview for Chris van Moessner with the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil market drivers.

The latest US inflation data showed energy costs jumping 30% in the 12 months through October. The trend is expected to continue through the winter, as home-heating costs rise across the board.

The US Energy Information Administration predicts propane will see the biggest price spike in percentage terms, with heating costs surging 46%, compared with 39% for heating oil, 29% for natural gas and 6% for electricity.

Senior editor Meghan Gordon spoke with Andrew Neal, manager of global NGLs for S&P Global Platts Analytics, about some of the dynamics behind the higher prices.

They talked about strong global demand for US propane exports, the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline controversy in Michigan, and calls by some in Washington to limit US energy exports in the face of high domestic prices.

Stick around after the interview for Jeff Mower with the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil market drivers.

US gasoline prices remain high well after the summer driving season. Domestic oil production isn't coming back fast as investors remain wary. And now President Joe Biden has struck out asking OPEC to put more oil supply on the market to help ease prices.

OPEC+ decided Nov. 4 to stick to its original plan of increasing its production quotas by 400,000 b/d in December.

Senior editor Meghan Gordon spoke with Herman Wang, managing editor for OPEC and Middle East news, about the meeting's outcome and its implications for global oil supply and demand heading into next year. They spoke about US oil diplomacy, the possibility of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve release and the outlook for OPEC+ spare capacity.

Stick around after the interview for Starr Spencer with the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil market drivers.

The UN Climate Change Conference taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, has been hailed as the world’s best last chance to get a handle on the climate crisis. In the US, groups like the Electric Power Research Institute are working on climate solutions and advancing energy technologies to meet increasingly ambitious decarbonization goals set by companies and governments. As part of that effort, EPRI, along with its natural gas counterpart, launched the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative, an international R&D collaborative aimed at finding an energy carrier suitable for a decarbonized, sustainable future.

 Senior editor Jasmin Melvin spoke with Neva Espinoza, EPRI’s vice president of energy supply and low-carbon resources, about the organization’s work on deep decarbonization and progress towards deployment of low-carbon fuels of the future.

 Stick around after the interview for Chris van Moessner with the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil market drivers.