IEEFA Energy Chat

India has ambitious plans to become a 100% electric vehicle (EV) nation by 2030, and the government is offering plenty of incentives to accelerate EV uptake.

But the key to decarbonising India’s transport sector will be deploying renewable energy-powered EV charging stations across the country.

IEEFA’s new podcast explores the potential of combining rooftop solar and EVs.

Vibhuti Garg, Energy Economist and Lead India at IEEFA, talks with distributed energy expert and IEEFA guest contributor Dr Gabrielle Kuiper about why solar generation and EVs (which are essentially ‘batteries on wheels’) are such a great match for each other.

And we also hear from Prateek Saxena, Founder and CEO of Hygge Energy, about his successful proof of concept project to test solar-powered EV charging systems at Indian Oil fuel stations.

Building a petrochemical facility reliant on the fossil fuel - gas - is one of the top-listed projects put forward by the Australian government aimed at stimulating the economy post COVID-19.

The $1.9bn fertiliser facility pegged for Narrabri in New South Wales is not a new idea, and it can’t get planning approval until gas company Santos’ long standing fracking proposal also for Narrabri is approved. But there must be hope for a go-ahead, with Santos and the fertiliser proprietor Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers already signing a partnership agreement - back in 2019.

This facility is one of two new petrochemical plants the Perdaman proprietor is seeking approval for – the second is a $4.5 billion dollar mega-project at the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia, known as Project Destiny, and again, the deals have already been done, this time with gas giant Woodside.

But first – an explainer – what is a petrochemical plant? and thanks to Dr Peter Rimmer from the Australian National University for his early examination of this industry.

The production of petrochemicals uses hydrocarbons that would otherwise have been burnt or wasted in the refining process. The hydrogen element is the starting point for ammonia and nitrogenous derivatives used in the manufacture of fertilisers.

Rimmer continues: The petrochemical industry is characterised by high expenditure on plant and equipment, and needs a huge amount of gas, crude oil, and its derivatives.

Large scale and continuous operation of plant functioning under stable conditions with assured markets is essential.

Thanks Doc.

So, the petrochemical industry needs fossil fuels to exist, and because it is downstream, the industry is a profit booster to the gas industry.

Or it was…

The crash in the oil price, and the global impact of COVID 19 has seen oil and gas exploration and production, refining, and the downstream petrochemical industry, all showing signs of severe stress.

The question we’re asking on Gas Chat today is, does the world post COVID-19 need more petrochemical facilities?

Today we're talking with IEEFA’s US director of finance, Tom Sanzillo, who, with 30 years of experience in public and private finance, including as a first deputy comptroller of New York State, has some history in exploring the oil and gas industry.

We're also joined by Bruce Robertson, IEEFA’s LNG/gas analyst based in Australia.

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Over the years, the government-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and the Rural Electric Corporation (REC) have been lending extensively to coal-fired power projects. In fact, over half of their total loan book is exposed to thermal power.

Yet thermal power in India has become a less secure investment, as the two corporations have found.

And now they are carrying an extensive burden of non-performing assets on their balance sheets, amounting to roughly US$6.8 billion dollars as of December 2019.

To talk about this further, I’m joined by Kashish Shah, research analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

The global fracking industry has a fundamentally broken business model which is: Let's produce as much oil and gas as we can, and hope that prices rise as a result.

It's completely backward.

What we’ve ended up with is a global supply glut and weak demand.

And with COVID-19, oil and gas prices have plummeted, supply is absolutely bulging, tankers filled with oil have nowhere to go, and fracking bankruptcies are the latest boom.

This week, Gas Chat is joined by IEEFA analysts Clark Williams-Derry from the U.S. and Bruce Robertson from Australia to talk about what's happening around the globe in the oil and gas industry.

This week we’re talking about something not many people know about, which is the massive greenhouse emissions being released from the fossil fuel - gas - and LNG (liquefied natural gas).

Those emissions are so big that in one major oil and gas producing area – the Permian Basin in the U.S. - they have likely wiped out all energy emission reductions since 2010 for the whole country.

If only 3% of gas produced is leaked, gas is worse for the climate than coal.

Yet it's more than 3%. BP says it's 3.2%. And a recent study of the Permian Basin found that 3.7% was lost in the production process. 

What's this telling us? This is the gas industry's 'Volkswagen' moment.

Bruce Robertson is IEEFA’s LNG and gas analyst, and he talks about the extent of the gas industry's emissions in this latest podcast.

Further reading:

The coronavirus pandemic continues to take its toll. Most countries still have cities and regions in lockdown, businesses are losing money hand over fist, and people everywhere are being sorely affected.

Within these extraordinary times, governments are already planning for a post-locked-down world.  Questions are being raised about whether we need to bring old habits into the new normal.

The Australian government is one country that has begun assessing its economic future, but it appears to be relying on old ingredients.

This week, Australia's federal energy minister Angus Taylor, and the chairman of the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, Neville Power claimed the fossil fuel - gas - would be part of Australia’s recovery post COVID-19.

IEEFA’s gas/LNG analyst Bruce Robertson puts the spotlight on this, and finds it wanting.

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Bruce Robertson is a gas and LNG analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, also known as IEEFA. 

He joins us today to talk about the extraordinary events occurring in the global gas industry. Today for instance, Australian oil and gas producer Santos had its annual general meeting with some surprising results.