Key Takeaways: Royal Dutch Shell will close its Arctic drilling activities, demonstrating the increasing complexity of Arctic operational conditions Declining oil prices create unfavorable environment for capital-intensive offshore drilling projects Finalized regulations and revised timelines that reflect challenging Arctic conditions are needed to foster Arctic oil and gas development in the future Insight for…...
Key Takeaways: The New England Independent System Operator will extend its winter reliability program to address reliability challenges created by increased reliance on natural gas-fired generation until its Pay-for-Performance market design takes effect in 2018 Coordination with natural gas pipeline operators is becoming increasingly important for ISOs/RTOs in addressing gas supply constraints Natural gas transportation…...
Key Takeaways: California Senate Bill 350 requires 50% of utility power to come from renewable sources and 50% increase in energy efficiency in existing buildings by 2030 Requirement to halve statewide petroleum use by 2030 was dropped after intense lobbying by the oil and gas sector Implementation will require enhanced transmission, energy storage, and demand…...
Key Takeaways: The Department of Energy’s (DOE) $1B loan guarantee for distributed energy projects addresses market barriers to deploy innovative solar, storage, and flexible demand technologies The loan program aims to aggregate distributed energy projects that would be too small to be financed individually due to high transaction costs Large-scale distributed energy providers and aggregators…...
Key Takeaways: The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector would impose millions of dollars in annualized regulatory burdens despite substantial methane reductions driven by current market incentives The proposed regulations would add to the existing burden on oil and gas companies, which are currently suffering from low…...
Key Takeaways: Power generators will benefit from higher clearing prices in PJM’s 2018/2019 capacity market auction while facing higher penalties in case of non-performance Share of natural gas will remain significant through either new generation or uprates to existing generation Demand response, energy efficiency and renewables potentially have a larger role in subsequent auctions and…...
Key Takeaways: Light tight oil production from unconventional resources has prompted industry to seek export avenues Approval of U.S.-Mexico crude oil swaps provides an additional market for light crude and increases its value given the current limitations in U.S. refinery capability Oil exchange transactions will potentially enhance refinery utilization in the United States and Mexico…...
Key Takeaways: Proposed ratemaking and utility model reforms under the Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) seek to align the earning opportunities of utilities with customer value by incentivizing near-term activities that support full-scale markets A shift from traditional regulatory incentives to market-based earnings would align utility profits with market activities The utility industry will increasingly…...
Key Takeaways: The final Clean Power Plan relies on switching to natural gas and renewable energy generation to meet compliance obligations States have multiple options and broad discretion to meet compliance obligations through generation from nuclear and renewables, including wind, solar, hydro, and biomass New and incremental nuclear generation will be valued for both mass‐based…...
Key Takeaways: The Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015 contains comprehensive reforms with impacts to gas, electric, and renewables, and it is likely to pass after the August recess The bill would require the Department of Energy (DOE) to issue final decisions on applications to export natural gas to countries that do not have a…...
Key Takeaways: Mexico’s July 15 opening Round One close-to-shore oil and gas auction fell short of expectations with only 2 of 14 blocks auctioned and a number of major international players sitting out Subsequent Round One auctions for deepwater oil fields will attract more interest from major players, but Mexico will be forced to revisit…...
Key Takeaways: BP agreed to settle all federal, state and local claims for $18.7 billion, with payments to be spread over 18 years The agreement increases BP’s financial certainty, but its reduced cashflow could lead the company to become a takeover target in the current low oil price environment New draft regulations would establish design…...