** A record heat wave put California in a fossil fuel conundrum: The state has had to rely more heavily on natural gas to produce electricity and avoid power outages while Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration moves toward ending the use of oil and gas.
** When power was lost at a Los Angeles TV station amidst California’s heat wave, the Oil & Gas Workers Association replied to the station’s tweet, “Get somebody to bring you 5 gallons of wind turbine.”
** Wholesale gasoline prices are expected to keep falling in coming months as U.S. refiners overproduce fuel to try to rebuild low stocks of diesel and heating oil, according to analysts and traders.
** Top oilfield services company Schlumberger on Wednesday said North American oil and gas activity was growing at a faster pace than expected, as customers have largely shrugged off concerns about a looming recession.
** Jeep will start selling two fully electric SUVs in North America and another one in Europe over the next two years. The new EVs, Jeep’s first, are part of the Stellantis brand’s plans to convert half of its U.S. sales and all of its European sales to battery-electric vehicles by 2030.
** An analysis of federal data shows that ethanol plants produce twice as many carbon emissions per gallon of fuel capacity than oil refineries, in part the result of a history of industry-friendly federal regulation.
** In a court filing, the Biden administration agrees to consider greenhouse gas impacts in a new environmental review for oil and gas leases on 58,000 acres of federal land in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
** BP restarted its Whiting, Indiana, refinery over the weekend following an Aug. 24 fire that idled the plant and squeezed gas supplies in the region.
World
** Energy affordability in Europe is reaching a “tipping point” that could peak next year, with total spending on bills across the continent growing by 2 trillion euros ($2 trillion), a Goldman Sachs research team, led by Alberto Gandolfi and Mafalda Pombeiro, said in a note published Sunday.
** Hope is dimming in Germany that it will be able clinch more gas solidarity agreements with European Union partners beyond the ones already in place with Denmark and Austria, a potential further hindrance to Berlin’s ability to mitigate the effects of the energy crisis.
** Germany is relying more on coal to produce electricity as Europe’s energy crisis worsens. Coal-generated electricity rose by 17.2% year-on-year in the first half, per Destatis data. Meanwhile, Germany only derived 11.7% of its electricity from natural gas, down from 14.4%.
** Two floating liquefied natural gas terminals are setting up in a Dutch port, the first in a wave of the specialist tankers that Europe is banking on to ease the worst energy crunch in decades.
** Russia is selling liquefied natural gas from the Sakhalin-2 project in the Far East to China at a 50-percent discount and still making a profit on it, Bloomberg has reported, citing unnamed traders.
** Members of a Nigerian oil workers’ union are threatening to go on strike if the government does not do more to stem widespread oil theft they say is putting their safety at risk and has cut exports by hundreds of thousands of barrels.
** The head of Ukraine’s atomic energy operator accused Russia on Thursday of trying to “steal” Europe’s largest nuclear plant by cutting it off from the Ukrainian electricity grid and leaving it on the brink of a radiation disaster.
