Geoff Simon's Quick Connects -- July 15, 2022

• Enhanced oil recovery: new tech a win-win for The Bakken play -- KX News

• North Dakota has seen a 55% increase in gas prices since last year -- KPVI

• Four men charged with conspiring to steal oil in western ND -- Williston Herald

• Legacy Fund, ND taxpayer dollars flowing to Saudi oil production -- KX News

• Biden's tweet confuses ND gas station owners - 'That's not quite how it works' -- KFYR-TV

• U.S. oil output slips 0.5% in April to lowest since February, ND dropped 19.3% -- Reuters

• CO2 targets proposed by Biden administration attract criticism in North Dakota -- Williston Herald

• Fuel prices dip nationwide four weeks straight, Minot among the lowest in ND -- Minot Daily News

• North Dakota AARP, Walmart file to intervene in MDU rate increase case -- Williston Herald

• Officials suggest WY pipeline company hid problems after 2015 spill -- Bismarck Tribune

• Burleigh, Morton counties jump to high COVID-19 risk, statewide cases up again -- Bismarck Tribune

• Too much rain and too little heat prevented planted acres increase this year -- Dickinson Press

• North Dakota ethics panel chooses law clerk for its next executive director -- Bismarck Tribune

• Up to 120 mph winds roar through Fairfield - 'summer storm season to remember" -- KFYR-TV

• Storm's 70 mph winds leave extensive tree damage, 1.18 inches of rain in Velva -- Minot Daily News

• Groundbreaking ceremony set for tribal emergency facility north of New Town -- Minot Daily News

• Training grants available to help stabilize families, reduce foster care -- The Valley City Times-Record

• 'A lifetime collection' of Native American artifacts to be auctioned off in Medora -- Dickinson Press

• Stark County proposes hiring grant writer to help small town infrastructure projects -- Dickinson Press

• Watford City Homefest events are happening this weekend -- Roundup News

• Final Crosby City Council seat determined by drawing name from a bucket -- KFYR-TV

• Souris Basin Planning Council announces new executive director -- Minot Daily News

• Belfield tables task order for Interstate Engineering, requests status of plan -- Dickinson Press

• Single vehicle crash damages New England Public School's historic bell -- Dickinson Press

• County provides more than $14 million to area school districts -- McKenzie County Farmer

• Rural Williston school to remain open despite financial concerns from low enrollment -- KFYR-TV

• Des Lacs-Burlington ramps up wellness by focusing on mental, physical health -- Minot Daily News

• Hiring students to address staff shortages could lead to future generation of teachers -- K-12 Dive

• Tribal college celebrates release of new book of Dakota place names -- Minot Daily News

• North Dakota focuses on making its school boards engines for student success -- Forbes

• Analytical director guides assessment of student success at Minot State -- Minot Daily News

• Biden's woke attack on energy and investors, up to states to fight back -- Washington Examiner

• Biden's Inflation: The climate industrial complex is crippling America -- Real Clear Energy

• Joe Biden's 'whole of government' climate spending extravaganza -- Real Clear Investigations

• Dozens of Republicans demand Biden admin's plan for nationwide power crisis -- Fox Business

• Shell has big plans to drill in Gulf of Mexico despite climate debate -- Wall Street Journal

• Supreme Court handed coal a win, experts say that won't save it -- Oregon Public Broadcasting

• Electricity blackouts are here, and regulation by wishful thinking won't cut it -- Real Clear Energy

• Haymaker lands oil and natural gas mineral package spanning four states -- Natural Gas Intelligence

• Permian Basin & Granite Wash crude oil rig count increases, US rigs up from week prior -- Nasdaq

• Energy-producing states see biggest drops in GDP in 1st quarter -- The Pew Charitable Trusts

• Fed economist: Ability to ramp up production is extremely limited -- Midland Reporter-Telegram

• Biden administration delays methane gathering line rules for some pipelines -- S&P Global

• Over 25% of US homes' only energy source is electricity -- U.S. Energy Information Administration

• Researchers see a time when wind turbines will produce both fertilizer, electricity -- Agri-Pulse

• Trends that transformed regional oil & gas industry last 15 years, forecasts to 2030 -- Yahoo Finance

• 'Things are going to break': Texas power plants are running nonstop -- Bloomberg News

• Texas faces blackouts as heat wave strains windmill-reliant power grid -- Washington Times

Geoff Simon's Quick Connects -- July 8, 2022

• Whiting tops bidders in Montana/Dakotas oil & gas lease sale -- Williston Herald

• Montana oil lease sale stirs little interest compared to ND -- Billings Gazette

• State gas prices may decline in coming weeks as demand softens -- Fargo Forum

• North Dakotans among nation's biggest energy spenders per person -- KX News

• The complex dynamics behind record-high oil prices - immediate relief remains elusive -- KX News

• Bombshell Supreme Court decision is a big win for ND coal industry -- Dickinson Press

• Utilities across Midwest closing coal plants despite SCOTUS ruling -- Energy News Network

• A flurry of media statements in response to the Supreme Court's EPA ruling -- Williston Herald

• Supreme Court ruling broadens state power over tribes, 'erodes tribal sovereignty' -- Minot Daily News

• North Dakota must claim Missouri River water for diversion project or risk losing it -- Fargo Forum

• USDA Rural Development awards $5 million to ND tribes in water, waste grants -- Kevin Cramer

• Heavy rains slow-start planting in western North Dakota, negatively effect crops -- Dickinson Press

• City of Dickinson urges residents to pre-emptively reduce risk of flood damage -- Dickinson Press

• North Dakota biofuel producers get $700 million pandemic boost from USDA -- Bismarck Tribune

• Petition circulated to pause $16 million community center expansion -- Tioga Tribune

• City council tie vote between Anderson and Trussell to be decided by drawing -- Crosby Journal

• Garrison City Council reorganizes with two newly-elected members -- McLean County Independent

• Airport infrastructure grants total $8.5 million, capacity remains a concern for ND -- Bismarck Tribune

• North Dakota agriculture prospers on world stage thanks to high-quality crops -- Minot Daily News

• South Dakota derecho includes grapefruit-sized hail, green skies -- Aberdeen American News

• Long-time Minot chamber leader retires after 32 years, farewell dinner planned -- Minot Daily News

• Ward County zoning rewrite faces final hurdles, differences still exists -- Minot Daily News

• Homefest promises to be hopping with entertainment next week -- McKenzie County Farmer

• ND Indian Education Summit to help add tribes' history into school curriculum -- KX News

• A woman's question to visit North Dakota's one-room rural schools -- Governing

• Local man lone official to make 2022 National High School Hall of Fame -- Minot Daily News

• Dickinson HS, Roughrider students place nationally in SkillsUSA competition -- Dickinson Press

• After a decade of decline, CO2 emissions rise due to BIden's War on Coal -- Rasmussen Reports

• Supreme Court ruling opens the door to developing CO2 capture technology -- E&E News

• Biden sacrificing our own economic opportunities in war against fossil fuels -- The New York Sun

• Oil exec warns Biden admin breaking the 'backbone of the energy revolution' -- Fox Business

• Democrats are working like the devil to raise our gasoline prices -- IER Commentary

• BLM announces oil and gas lease sale results for WY, CO, MT, ND, SD, NM, NV -- Rigzone

• Oil prices sharply fall below $100 a barrel as recession fears grow -- The Washington Post

• Oil from U.S. reserves sent overseas as gasoline prices hit record highs -- Reuters

• Judge wipes out Trump-era reforms to Endangered Species Act regulations -- E&E News

• California shows why fossil fuels and their tax revenues are so hard to quit -- The New York Times

• Wind appears cheap due to bad accounting, transmission costs show it's not -- American Experiment

• China is not "going green": Energy is the base of Chinese expansion in the Indo-Pacific -- IER

• Making sense of trends in disaster losses in the context of climate change -- Roger Pielke Jr.

Top Energy Stories -- Tom Kool -- July 1, 2022

Tom Kool, editor, oilprice.com, Friday, July 1, 2022, week's top energy stories:

As uncertainty builds around the supply capacity of OPEC+ and oil demand rages on despite expectations of demand destruction, bullish sentiment is building in oil markets. Now, to add to that bullish sentiment, another form of supply disruption is springing up around the world: strikes. Operations at France’s Fos Refinery were halted by strikes and Norway’s offshore production was heavily impacted by them as well. It seems the oil market is under siege from all sides, from fundamental tightness to underinvestment, disruptions related to the war in Ukraine, and now strikes. 

OPEC+ Summit Fails to Impress. OPEC+ agreed to maintain a 648,000 b/d increase in its production target for August, keeping its commitment unchanged despite increasing evidence that spare capacity within the oil group has thinned to its lowest level in years.

US Supreme Court Limits Federal Emission-Setting Powers. In a blow to US President Biden, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal- and gas-fired power plants. 

Iran Nuclear Deal Negotiations Fall Apart. According to US officials, as reported by Reuters, the odds of reviving the Iranian nuclear deal are even lower after the Doha talks held this week than before, describing the negotiations as “treading water”. 

Freeport LNG Restart Ban Sends US Natgas Prices Plummeting. US natural gas prices dropped by a whopping 15% on Thursday after US regulators barred Freeport LNG from restarting until risks to public safety, property, or the environment are fully cleared, potentially delaying its startup even beyond Q4 2022.

Government Bailout In Sight for Germany’s Gas Giant. Germany’s largest gas buyer and power generator Uniper (ETR:UN01) is reportedly in talks with the government regarding a potential bail out of the firm as soaring gas prices and curbed Russian exports have cast a long shadow over its liquidity pool. 

Fossil Fuels Make Roaring EU Comeback. With Europe’s statistics for 2021 published by Eurostat, fossil fuels have once again become the largest source of power generation in the European Union, driven largely by a 4% year-on-year increase in gas utilization despite its soaring price. 

ExxonMobil Gets Out of Canada’s Shale Gas. US oil major ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) sold its Canadian shale gas assets, jointly owned with its subsidiary Imperial Oil (TSE:IMO) across 600,000 acres, to Whitecap Resources (TSE:WCP) in an all-cash transaction for $1.5 billion.  

Algeria Wants to Tinker with European Gas Pricing. With its gas pricing traditionally linked to oil prices, Algeria’s national oil and gas company Sonatrach wants to revisit its pricing to EU buyers to include a partial link to spot price gas, with TTF trading several times higher than crude on a per barrel basis.

Switzerland Wants to Look into Commodity Traders. Switzerland is set to step up the regulatory scrutiny of Swiss-based commodity traders, with the state having no official data on the sector as commodity trading is not listed as a separate activity in the country and firms do not report the goods they trade. 

Gazprom Refuses to Pay Dividends For the First Time Since 1998. Russia’s pipeline gas export monopoly Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) announced this week that it would not pay dividends on its 2021 results, for the first time since 1998, despite the company’s board suggesting the largest-ever payout.

Mexico’s Refinery Launched Despite Being Incomplete. Mexico will move ahead with the inauguration of the 340,000 b/d Olmeca refinery in Dos Bocas this week, even though it is still months if not a year from starting commercial production amidst cost overruns ($12 billion instead of $8bn) and delays.

Russia Takes Over Halted Sakhalin-2 Project. Russia has created a new firm that would take over the rights and obligations of Sakhalin-2, Russia’s only LNG project in the Far East, effectively granting itself the power to decide which foreign partner could stay, jeopardizing the stakes of Shell (LON:SHEL) as well as Mitsubishi and Mitsui. 

Ecuador Reaches Deal with Indigenous Protestors. Ecuador’s government and protesting indigenous leaders have reached an agreement to end the country’s debilitating wave of protests ending a two-week standoff that saw the Latin American country’s production more than halve to 230,000 b/d.

Libya Declares Force Majeure at Key Oil Ports. After the calls of Libya’s National Oil Company were largely ignored, it declared force majeure at the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports due to ongoing protests, curbing potential export capacity to a mere 400,000 b/d, a third of the country’s exports in February.

Geoff Simon's Quick Connects -- July 1, 2022

• Producers bid over $7 million for drilling rights on ND public lands -- KFGO

• Gas prices are up, but so is ND gas consumption, data survey finds -- KX News

• Fossil fuel industry cut jobs in 2021 despite growth in production -- CNN

• Whiting and Oasis complete combination, establishing Chord Energy -- PR Newswire

• Public hearing set Tuesday on proposed wind farm near Wishek -- Bismarck Tribune

• Congressional delegation, AG say EPA Supreme Court decision is a 'win' for ND -- Grand Forks Herald

• North Dakota lawmakers okay first funds from federal infrastructure law -- Bismarck Tribune

• ND taxable sales and purchases up 13.2% in first quarter of 2022 -- Williston Herald

• Lawmakers question pace of hiring at office tasked with Legacy Fund mandates -- Bismarck Tribune

• Data Center, new projects to help stabilize electric prices for Mountrail-Williams Co-op -- KFYR-TV

• 90 acres acquired for Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora -- Dickinson Press

• Fourth of July fireworks are "a go" thanks to abundant moisture -- McKenzie County Farmer

• New activity in ND redistricting lawsuits about tribal lands -- Williston Herald

• ND lawmakers float changes to harassment policy as rep's expulsion still looms -- Dickinson Press

• Minot ramping up construction, paving work on city road projects -- KFYR-TV

• Watford City ready for potential mosquito outbreak -- McKenzie County Farmer

• Williston jobs are up 32 percent while labor force is down 14 percent -- Williston Herald

• Residents share vision for Minot's future in comprehensive plan -- Minot Daily News

• Crosby City Council race between Anderson and Trussell still tied after recount -- Crosby Journal

• Belfield City Council members sworn in, address fireworks and ambulance merger -- Dickinson Press

• Jeff Gooss sworn in Tuesday as new mayor of Beulah -- Beulah Beacon

• City of Minot seeking volunteers to fill temporary city council seat -- Minot Daily News

• City prepares to annex KSI Industries, build out infrastructure to property -- Tioga Tribune

• Inflationary pressures a concern for Midwest economy; ND's May index falls -- Bismarck Tribune

• City to take out $10 million loan for Community Center expansion -- Tioga Tribune

• MDU's Ken Callahan remembers Build Baby Build and Rockin' the Bakken -- Williston Herald

• University of North Dakota report examines rural EMS response, performance -- The Center Square

• Enbridge donates $50,000 to sponsor Invention Story Mobile Kiosk -- Minot Daily News

• Bridge collapse closes part of Maah Daah Hey Trail -- Dickinson Press

• McKenzie County to explore adding new childcare facility -- KFYR-TV

• Three Affiliated Tribes celebrates newest housing development -- Minot Daily News

• National Science Foundation Awards $1.5 million to NDSU -- Kevin Cramer

• Board of Higher Ed formalizes budget request for the 23-25 biennium -- Prairie Public

• North Dakota mother and daughter are double (Extension) agents -- Ag Week

• Schools are spending millions on new virtual tutoring. Is it working? -- Chalkbeat

• School board says goodbye to longtime business manager, discusses staffing -- Minot Daily News

• Biden administration proposes offshore drilling plan, zero lease sales a possibility -- Reuters

• W. Virginia v. EPA puts fed bureaucracy back in box it was intended to inhabit -- American Spectator

• U.S. refinery capacity decreased during 2021 for second consecutive year -- EIA

• U.S. emergency oil reserve draws by 6.9 mln barrels to lowest since 1986 -- Reuters

• Experts see risk with little upside in Biden's gas tax break -- The Hill

• States with the highest gasoline prices, California leads the pack -- U.S. News & World Report

• U.S. Gulf Coast crude oil exports to touch record high this quarter -- Reuters

• Energy prices causing chaos in Asia and why the rest of the world should worry -- CNN

• New Mexico coal transition law faces uncertain timeline, threatens reliability -- Energy News Network

• Republican states aim to protect massive Montana coal mine from environmentalists -- Fox Business

• Minnesota courts hear challenges to use of agricultural land for solar projects -- Energy News Network

• Gavin Newsom has a plan to keep the lights on in California ? using fossil fuels -- LA Times

• Tapping into geothermal: the million-year energy source below our feet -- MIT News

• Biden's push for Green New Deal is increasing greenhouse gas emissions -- Washington Examiner