An inter-agency study has found that federal lands in the contiguous United States could further support hundreds more gigawatts of renewable energy (RE) generation even when assuming limited siting. The study by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), conducted in cooperation with the agriculture, defense and interior departments, found there is technical potential for 5,750 gigawatts (GW) of utility photovoltaic (UPV) installations on 44 million acres of developable federal land across the contiguous U.S. The term refers to the lower 48 states and the District of Columbia and excludes Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories. For onshore wind, the technical potential — the maximum amount of available resource based on the amount of federal land administered, suitability of the land for RE development, and the energy resource availability — is 875 GW on 43 million acres. Meanwhile the technical potential for hydrothermal is 130 GW on 12 million acres while that for enhanced geothermal is 975 GW on 27 million acres. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has the highest technical potential of all federal land administrators, followed by the Forest Service and the Defense Department.  “DOE, FWS [Fish and Wildlife Service], and other federal land administrators have relatively modest RE technical potential”, stated the report published on NREL’s website. “When modeling a limited-siting case, we estimate the technical potential on federal lands to decline by 70 percent (to 1,750 GW) for UPV and by 96 percent (to 70 GW) for wind, compared to the reference siting case”, the report said. Out of seven scenarios presented in the report, the three central scenarios estimate 51–84 GW of solar, wind and geothermal capacity are deployed onshore the contiguous U.S. by 2035, when the country should have achieved 100 percent clean power as targeted. The scenarios are based on various factors including technology

Todd Snitchler is president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply Association. Alan Greenspan is quoted as saying in 1996 that the stock market experienced irrational exuberance around the dot com bubble when describing the disconnect between asset valuation and a stock’s value rising to prices that exceed their fundamentals. In many ways, the race to power our artificial intelligence-driven future is showing the same thing. There is no doubt that the growth of AI will be driven or limited by how quickly we can ensure sufficient power to enable the expansion and operation of data centers, but the magnitude of the energy needed is still much more in question than many seem to think. The recent announcements by PJM Interconnection of their load forecast indicate a significant increase in demand. For summer demand, they predict an increase of 42 GW between now and 2029 and, for winter demand, an increase of 43 GW by 2039. The incremental growth expected by 2034 is notable with a 27 GW and 30 GW increase in summer and winter peak demand.  The North American Electric Reliability Corp. also released its 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment which projects a 15% summer peak demand increase, and an 18% winter peak demand increase over the next decade. While these timelines and figures have some variance, they all suggest a consistent, meaningful level of load growth in all seasons of the year in large parts of the country. There is also a long history of overestimating load growth which can drive overbuilding and the addition of resources that may exceed the increased demand. A similar panic about load growth overwhelming the grid happened back in 1999, when worries about early data centers led to panicked media stories and rosy investor forecasts for utilities. It didn’t happen. Microprocessors, computers

Sherri Evers, Senior Vice President for Sustainability, Commercial Development, and Product Solutions at Imperial Oil Ltd., is departing the company for Exxon Mobil Corp. Imperial said in a media release that Evers will become North America Lubes General Manager for ExxonMobil effective March 1, 2025. “On behalf of Imperial, I would like to thank Sherri Evers for her contributions and strong leadership as part of the management team over the last four years”, Brad Corson, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, said. “Sherri successfully led a diverse portfolio contributing to Imperial’s business and strategic projects, including the Strathcona renewable diesel project in the Downstream and the development of our new Low Carbon Solutions business. In addition, her leadership was critical in plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at our operations, and she was instrumental in the formation of the Pathways Alliance to reduce emissions from oil sands operations and has been an active participant on the steering committee”. Evers holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and General Business from the University of Saskatchewan. She began her career with Imperial in 1998 in Edmonton, Alberta, and held various assignments within the company’s downstream business, Imperial said in its media release. In 2012, Evers began a series of global assignments with ExxonMobil related to product optimization, planning, and supply network before returning to Canada as the Eastern Canada Fuels Manager for Downstream in 2018. Evers was appointed Vice President for Commercial and Corporate Development in 2021 before being appointed to her current role in 2023, Imperial said. Imperial has started the search for Evers’ replacement. To contact the author, email [email protected] WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or

Shell PLC and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) have approved an expansion of their petrochemical complex in Daya Bay, Huizhou, south China, primarily aimed at meeting domestic demand. The expansion includes a third ethylene cracker with a planned capacity of 1.6 million metric tons a year and associated downstream derivatives units to produce chemicals including linear alpha olefins. A new facility will also be built to produce 320,000 metric tons per annum of high-performance specialty chemicals such as polycarbonates and carbonate solvents. “The new facilities, primarily aimed at meeting domestic demand in China, will produce a range of chemicals that are widely used in the agriculture, industrial, construction, healthcare and consumer goods sectors”, Shell said in an online statement Wednesday. The partners expect to complete construction 2028. Put into operation 2006, the complex is operated by CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Co. Ltd, a 50-50 venture between Shell subsidiary Shell Nanhai BV and CNOOC subsidiary CNOOC Petrochemicals Investment Ltd. Phase 2 of the complex started operation 2018. The complex currently supplies over six million metric tons per year of chemical products to the Chinese market, according to Shell. In May 2020, the CSPC partners and the Huizhou government signed a strategic cooperation agreement to invest in the phase 3 expansion of the complex. “This investment will contribute to CSPC’s competitiveness by extending its value chains, drive further integration with the existing site, and enable greater innovation capability to meet customer demand in the fast-growing Chinese market”, Shell said Wednesday. Huibert Vigeveno, Shell director for downstream, renewables and energy solutions said, “For more than two decades, CSPC has provided high-value products to the market, becoming one of the largest petrochemical joint ventures in China”. “This new investment is a key enabler to realize CSPC’s transformation strategy towards more premium and highly

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team this week, Macquarie strategists revealed that they are forecasting that U.S. crude inventories will be up 3.0 million barrels for the week ending January 10. “This compares to our early look for the week which anticipated a 4.3 million barrel build, and a 1.0 million barrel draw realized for the week ending January 3,” the strategists said in the report. “On the product side of the ledger, in aggregate, our expectations for another large build are little changed from our early view,” the strategists added. In the report, the Macquarie strategists noted that, “for this week’s crude balance, from refineries”, they “model crude runs lower (-0.4 million barrels per day)”. “Among net imports, we model a modest decrease, with exports (-0.2 million barrels per day) and imports lower (-0.3 million barrels per day) on a nominal basis,” they added. The strategists warned in the report that timing of cargoes remains a source of potential volatility in this week’s crude balance. “Likewise, the shadow of potential year-end/timing effects in the prior week’s balance could insert additional volatility in this week’s stats,” the strategists said in the report. “From implied domestic supply (prod.+adj.+transfers), we look for a moderate increase (+0.4 million barrels per day) following a soft print last week, although here too we note potential volatility due to winter weather,” they noted. “Rounding out the picture, we anticipate another small increase in SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] inventory (+0.5 million barrels) on the week,” they went on to state. The Macquarie strategists also noted in the report that, “among products”, they “look for another large gasoline build (+4.4 million barrels), with distillate (+1.3 million barrels) and jet stocks (+1.9 million barrels) also higher”. “We model implied demand for these

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has fined CNOOC Petroleum Europe Limited $152,593 (GBP 125,000) for venting without consent at the company’s Buzzard field, 60 miles northeast of Aberdeen in Scotland. The NSTA said in a statement that venting was done on two separate occasions in two weeks. Venting is when gas, primarily methane, is emitted directly into the atmosphere without combustion. In May 2022, CNOOC detected a leak in the line that supplies fuel needed to keep the flame lit on Buzzard’s flare stack. CNOOC shut off the fuel line and began venting excess gas into the atmosphere unignited. The company confirmed to the NSTA in June 2022 that it had breached the annual consent for Buzzard, “only to continue venting until a fault with a generator led to production operations shutting down” in the same month, the regulator said. CNOOC then restarted production and export activities from Buzzard and further venting took place due to a faulty valve on the fuel gas system, according to the statement. The NSTA stated that between May 31 and June 13, 2022, CNOOC exceeded its annual venting limit for Buzzard by a total of 435.13 metric tons of gas. The regulator gave revised consent on June 14, 2022, bringing Buzzard back in compliance for any further venting for the rest of the year. The regulator noted that the company “cooperated throughout the investigation and introduced measures to prevent recurrences, including improved monitoring and a new approach to consent applications”. Previously, CNOOC had only requested consent to vent minimal volumes of gas, as venting was uncommon on Buzzard, according to the statement. Jane de Lozey, NSTA Director of Regulation, said, “North Sea operators have taken up the challenge of cutting flaring and venting, almost halving emissions from these processes since 2018. However, at