Natural gas saving former coal-fired plants
While coal-fired power plants close across the nation, some are being brought back to life by natural gas.
From 2011 to 2019, 121 coal-fired power plants were repurposed to burn other types of fuel, mostly natural gas, according to the Department of Energy. Companies switched from coal to natural gas to reduce emissions, take advantage of low natural gas prices and use more efficient natural-gas turbine technology.
The most common way is to convert the boiler of a coal-fired steam plant to burn other types of fuel, according to the Energy Department. More than 100 coal-fired plants adopted that method during the nine-year span, but others turned to petroleum coke from refining operations and waste from paper and pulp production.
A less common approach is to replace a retired coal-fired plant with a natural gas-fired combined cycle plant in which different types of heat engines use the same source of fuel. Seventeen coalfired plants have taken that approach since 2019 and many have boosted overall capacity by installing advanced turbine technology.
Ruling gives more time to assess Dakota pipeline
The Dakota Access oil pipeline again staved off what would have been an unprecedented shutdown, with judges ruling that the Trump administration has to decide whether the conduit can operate while a more robust review is done.
Judges said last week that they expect the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clarify in front of a federal district court whether the agency thinks the pipeline must shut after a key permit was vacated in July. The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit buys pipeline operator Energy Transfer LP some time after the July 6 shutdown order rocked the industry.
“Despite the mixed decision from the circuit court, the impact is wholly positive for the pipeline,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Brandon Barnes. Still, the decision leaves open the possibility that Dakota Access has to shut before an appeal is decided, he said.
Transocean eyes alternatives during crash
Transocean has tapped Lazard Freres & Co. to be its financial adviser as the world’s biggest owner of deepwater oil rigs confronts history’s worst crude oil crash.
The Swiss-based rig contractor said last week in a statement the firm’s hiring is in connection with an evaluation of strategic alternatives to manage its capital structure. Transocean has also made some internal reorganization moves, including the transfer of its Endurance and Equinox rigs into a newly created indirect subsidiary, according to the statement.
Offshore rig contractors have been among the most beaten sectors of the energy industry since oil prices first fell from more than $100 a barrel in 2014. The group failed to cope with a glut of floating drilling capacity that was a decade in the making, as exploration companies shifted focus to cheaper inland shale. This year’s plunge in crude prices made any nearterm recovery in offshore drilling even less probable.
Smaller rivals Noble Corp. and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. have filed for bankruptcy while Valaris Plc announced last month that it may file for Chapter 11.
Mexico’s leader looking for ways to save Pemex
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Mexico may need to change the rules governing the country’s energy industry and reverse the opening to private companies to save state oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, according to a memorandum seen by Bloomberg News.
In a July 22 document addressed to government officials and energy regulators, López Obrador writes that a constitutional change should not be ruled out in order to reach the “higher goal” of his administration: recover Mexico’s control over its oil and electricity industries, including state owned Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE.
“We must advance to the limit permitted by the current legal framework. However, if in order to apply the new rescue policy to Pemex and CFE we need to propose a new energy reform, we don’t rule out that possibility,” López Obrador, writes in the document.
The veracity of the presidential memo was confirmed by an official familiar with the publication. From staff and wire reports