Saudi Arabia - joining the dots

A series of blog entries exploring Saudi Arabia's role in the oil markets with a brief look at the history of the royal family and politics that dictate and influence the Kingdom's oil policy

Wednesday, 24 April 2024

Ithaca Energy and Eni UK merge to create UK North Sea powerhouse

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Thursday, 7 March 2024

UK Offshore Wind CFD Strike Prices for AR6/2024

The UK has increased offshore wind maximum strike prices to £73/MWh for fixed-bottom offshore wind installations for the 2024 AR6 Allocation Round.This is a substantial increase from the £44/MWh set for the AR5 round in 2023 which was too low to attract bids with no capacity being awarded to offshore wind.The higher price is designed to compensate for a higher cost and interest rate environment.Source: S&Phttps://www.spglobal.com/marketintel...

Monday, 11 December 2023

EU (and UK) faces headwinds on higher hanging decarbonisation fruits

EU is ontrack to fully decarbonise power by 2050The EU is making good progress and remains the leader on decarbonisation. Focus over the past decade has been on renewable power installation which has been a massive success - only 61% of EU electricity was from renewable sources in 2022 with only 39% from fossil fuels. Power generation accounted for c.25% of emissions in 2021. With continued roll-out of renewables, which is now cost competitive with...

Thursday, 3 March 2022

Chart of the week: Bilateral Hydrogen Trade Agreements and MOUs

 Source: IRENA, as of November 2...

Wednesday, 26 January 2022

Jersey Oil & Gas next in line to be Canned?

 Following the UK Government's rejection to approve the Cambo development in the West of Shetlands, leading to Shell's exit from the field, and the scrapping of the Rosebank development by Equinor, it is clear that the UK Government is increasingly turning its focus away from North Sea Oil & Gas. The UK Government is laser focused on the Energy Transition and is supporting the renewable energy development, hydrogen and carbon capture.Against...

Friday, 16 July 2021

SSE and Equinor developing plans for hydrogen storage in West Yorkshire

 SSE Thermal and Equinor are developing plans for one of the world’s largest hydrogen storage facilities at their existing Aldbrough site on the East Yorkshire coast. The facility could be storing low-carbon hydrogen as early as 2028.The existing Aldbrough Gas Storage facility, which was commissioned in 2011, is co-owned by SSE Thermal and Equinor, and consists of nine underground salt caverns, each roughly the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Upgrading the site to store hydrogen would involve converting the existing caverns or creating new purpose-built...

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

European gas prices hit decade highs

 NBP is at 75p/therm (~33% increase YTD)TTF is at €30.4/MWh (~65% increase YTD)Despite the sharp rise in European gas prices and arbitrage opportunity for US LNG into Europe, LNG cargoes are being pulled to Asia where prices remain elevated and fetching premiu...