.The Texas Energy Report

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.The Texas Energy Report

Yemen’s Houthis Say Saudi Oil Facilities Continue to Be Targets, But Was It Really Iran? Or Hezbollah? — Report

Bloomberg News Opinion Writer Eli Lake: “As one Hezbollah commander told two George Washington University analysts in 2016: ‘Who do you think fires Tochka missiles into Saudi Arabia? ‘It’s not the Houthis in their sandals, it’s us.'”
 
September 16, 2019

Houthi rebels in Yemen said Sunday night that Saudi Arabian oil facilities are still among their targets.

This, after attacks on Saturday against two key oil sites cut output by the Saudis in half.

Bloomberg News reported Sunday evening that the Iranian-backed rebel group, cited by the Houthi’s television station, said its weapons “can reach anywhere in Saudi Arabia.”……
 

CPS Energy- EPRI Symposium To Help Foster Successful Electrification Initiatives: Press Release

September 15, 2019
Private industry, utility, and government decision-makers have been added to the speaker lineup for “The Electrification Experience” symposium – being hosted by CPS Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on October 2-3, 2019, in San Antonio – to provide added insights on the role of customer engagement and innovative technologies in enabling more widespread electrification adoption…..
 

WTI Up 10%, Brent Up 12% At World Oil Markets Opening Sunday Evening

Update: 8 pm CST: Saudi Arabia aims to restore one-third of its lost oil output by tomorrow; Kingdom had hoped for complete restoration by Monday – Dow Jones

Security is heightened in Kuwait after reports of a drone sighting, nation’s leadership says its investigating and is “co-ordinating with Riyadh” — Thompson Reuters on Sunday night

Regional sources tell CNN #Saudi #Aramco has about 200 million barrels of oil in storage (to help make up for industrial losses because of damaged facilities)

US weighing the possibility of declassifying satellite images to strengthen the case of Iran being behind the recent attack on Saudi oil facilities. Growing evidence points to cruise missiles fired from #Iran or Iraq, not Houthi drones launched from Yemen

Shortly before 5 pm CDT, President Trump said on Twitter he was authorizing the release of crude from the SPR to keep markets well supplied if needed.

He followed that tweet with others, saying, “There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!”

 

September 15, 2019 – 6:32 pm

West Texas Internediate futures contracts jumped more than 10% during the half hour following the open of world crude markets Sunday evening — after a spike of nearly 15% just after opening — on news of the crippling of Saudi Arabian oil facilities by an apparent drone attack on key oil installations in Abqaiq and Khurais……..
 

Natural Gas Shows Signs of Becoming the Fuel of the Future

By Alex Mills

 

September 14, 2019

Natural gas – touted by many energy analysts as the “fuel of the future” years ago – has battled coal as the largest energy source for electricity generation in the U.S. Coal was king until 2016 when natural gas became the leading energy source, and it has increased its market share every year since 2016 with expectations that the trend will continue in the future.

The Energy Information Administration at the U.S. Department of Energy reported this week the share of U.S. total utility-scale electricity generation from natural gas-fired power plants will rise to 37 percent in 2019 compared to 25 percent for coal. EIA also projects natural gas will achieve 38 percent market share in 2020.

Other energy sources for electricity generation in 2019 are nuclear averaging 20 percent, hydroelectric 7 percent, and wind and solar 10 percent….
 

U.S. Blames Iran for Attack on Saudi Oil Facilities

Chemical engineer and analyst Krishnan Viswanathan Tweeted Saturday that “Supply loss from KSA may be as high as 150 MM barrels/month. Oil may hit $100.”

 

September 14, 2019

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for coordinated drone strikes on the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, saying they marked an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday evening……
 

86th Legislature Changes In the Energy Sectors Taking Effect: An Extensive Look at the New Laws

September 10, 2019

With little notice from most news media, the 86th Texas Legislature made some strong changes in the energy sector.

Now that the September 1st rule of law is in effect, most laws are settled on the books.

 

First: Closely-Watch Bills That Did Not Pass

None of the 11 eminent domain bills passed the Legislature this past session.

HB 3324 also did not pass; it would have given the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) authority to require an oil and gas pipeline operator to submit “a site-specific contingency plan” describing “measures to be taken to control, contain, and collect any discharge of fluids from the pipeline to minimize impacts to groundwater”.

A “bill of rights” for homeowners who want to install solar panels also did not pass (SB 2066, HB 2860)

HB 4001 failed to pass; it would have required a pipeline transporting gas or petroleum and operated or managed by a gas corporation or a common carrier to receive a Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) permit authorizing the pipeline route before construction could begin……
 

Freeport LNG Sees Financing for Train 4 As First Cargo Continues Voyage and Second Cargo Set

September 9, 2019

Freeport LNG Development LP has new definitive agreements with a Australian investment firm to pump more than a billion dollars into expansion efforts for a proposed 5 million mt/year capacity fourth natural gas liquefaction train at its facilities south of Houston…..
 

Texas O&G Severance Tax Income Healthy for Fiscal 2019 But Down for August Y/Y

September 9, 2019

In November the Texas Comptroller will deposit a healthy $167 billion into each of the state Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) and State Highway Fund for the year 2019 after counting up the receipts from oil and natural gas severance taxes, but the O&G tax income numbers for August continue a downward trend.…