** About half of U.S. oil pipeline space is sitting unused, heating up competition for barrels in higher-output areas like the Permian Basin in Texas. Reuters reports that overall U.S. pipeline capacity utilization is at around 50%, compared with a range of 60% to 70% headed into early 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic hit, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
** Enbridge Energy moved Wednesday to shift to federal court a Michigan lawsuit seeking shutdown of an oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes.
** Onshore gas flaring in the US nosedived in the third quarter of 2021, falling to its lowest level since at least 2012*, a Rystad Energy analysis shows. Flaring activity reached 380-390 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) in September, a roughly 24% fall from the prior month alone.
** The EIA predicts U.S. dry natural gas production will increase from 95.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in October 2021 to 97.5 Bcf/d by December 2022, a new record high. The previous monthly record of 97.2 Bcf/d was set in November 2019.
World
** Natural gas prices in Europe soared higher after Germany indicated this week it had no intention of approving the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project before requirements under German law were satisfied.
** Shares in EDF plunged on Thursday after the French power giant found faults at a nuclear power station and shut down another plant using the same kind of reactors, leading it to cut its core profit goal for this year.
** The Netherlands may build two nuclear reactors, its government-in-waiting said on Wednesday, signalling a possible radical shift in energy policy as it seeks to keep a transition to a carbon-neutral economy on track.
** Another new long-term contract for Qatar to supply China with liquefied natural gas (LNG) was signed last week, this time between QatarEnergy and Guangdong Energy Group Natural Gas Co for one million tons per annum of LNG starting 2024 and ending in 2034, although it can be extended.
** Poland supports gas and nuclear power as sources of energy the European Union should allow governments to invest in, in the EU’s transition to zero net CO2 emissions in 2050, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday
