Bloomberg @Business senior reporter covering energy & commodities in Singapore. Passionate about natural gas, LNG, power. Opinions my own ブルームバーグ通信社シンガポール支局記者
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Mar 3 • 47 tweets • 17 min read
HOW LNG IS MAKING QATAR RICH 🇶🇦🚢
The Gulf nation of Qatar is setting itself up to control about a quarter of all liquefied natural gas production by the end of the decade -- and with it, a growing share of the world's wealth and influence
A thread 🧵
bloomberg.com/news/features/…
Qatar unveiled last week plans to boost LNG export capacity another 13% on top of previously announced projects, together lifting production from 77 million tons/year to 142 million tons by 2030
This will make the rich nation (with a population of just 2.7 million) much richer
Jan 27 • 57 tweets • 21 min read
THE US LNG MIRACLE 🇺🇸🚢
This is the story of how the US became the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas in less than a decade, drastically rewriting global energy trade
Thread below 🧵👇
The world's first overseas LNG shipment was exported from Louisiana to the UK on the Methane Pioneer over 60 years ago
The US pioneered the large-scale process to chill natural gas to -256F, transforming it into a liquid. Liquefying gas makes the fuel occupy 600-times less space
Jan 11 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
A HISTORIC WAVE OF LNG PROJECTS BEGINS THIS YEAR
🚢🚢🚢
It took half a century for the energy industry to develop the first several hundred million tons of LNG export capacity
Now, the industry has the potential to do it again in six years
bloomberg.com/news/features/…
This enormous buildout of LNG export capacity from Qatar to the US will cement the role of natural gas in energy transition
Much of this new LNG supply will go to China, but even the EU has agreed to buy shipments past 2050, despite ambitious green goals
Dec 14, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
HOW ENERGY TRADERS LEFT A COUNTRY IN THE COLD
Pakistan, one of the world’s poorest nations, thought it had secured natural gas to fuel its economy
Commodities firms had other ideas
Full story with @FaseehMangi 👇
bloomberg.com/features/2023-…
LNG traders began diverting shipments meant for Pakistan into the more lucrative spot market when price began to significantly rise
Canceled LNG shipments from 2021 helped prompt an energy crisis in Pakistan
Dec 9, 2023 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
I asked ChatGPT to make a picture of an LNG tanker
For every 10 likes, I’ll ask it to make the LNG even more super chilled
“Make it even more super chilled”
Sep 13, 2023 • 19 tweets • 8 min read
The world is running out of time for carbon capture & storage to make a meaningful impact ⏰
💰 CCS is seen as a crucial green solution, but it needs $4.5 trillion of investment THIS DECADE to gain traction
🧵 A thread about the controversial technology
Chevron is capturing and storing CO2 at its Gorgon liquefied natural gas export project on a remote island in Australia
It was the size of a city block, very loud and eye opening
Jul 4, 2023 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Japan is set to release over 1 million tons of water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant 🇯🇵☢️
Why are they doing this? Is it safe? This is what you need to know 👇🧵
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
💦 Since the 2011 earthquake & tsunami, hundreds of cubic meters of groundwater enter the Fukushima plant on a daily basis, mix with the melted fuel and become contaminated
The tainted water is pumped out and run through a process to remove almost all of the radioactive elements
May 30, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
These niche commodities show how China's economy is stuttering 🇨🇳🧵
📌 GLASS
➡️ Futures plunged ~20% in the past month due to China's teetering property market and weaker vehicle output
➡️ China makes up half of the world’s plate glass production
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
📌 STYRENE
➡️The price of styrene monomer, a material used for the plastics and rubber that go into appliances like fridges, is dropping
➡️ Dalian futures fell last week to their lowest since February 2021, after a near-5% drop in home appliance sales in the first quarter
May 28, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
A growing gas glut means that US LNG buyers may soon cancel shipments 🇺🇸⚠️🚢
🙅 If gas prices in Europe/Asia plunge more, it may not make economic sense to export LNG from the US
👀 That's a big reversal to last year, when Europe was facing gas shortages
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
US LNG contracts are very flexible and usually allow for buyers to cancel deliveries 🇺🇸
📝 The purchasers must provide two months’ advance notice to LNG producers
📅 This means that any decisions around September loadings would be made in the month of July
Apr 11, 2023 • 21 tweets • 10 min read
I visited one of Japan’s oldest coal mines 🇯🇵 ⛏ 🪨
Today it is shut and Japan is currently very dependent on imported fossil fuels
But it wasn’t always like that. A century ago, Japan had a booming coal industry
A nerdy thread 🧵🤓
Even up until the 1960s, Japan had a formidable coal industry 💪
More than half of the energy the nation consumed in 1965 was produced within Japan
Now it is roughly 10%, which is why Japan currently has a reputation for being very dependent on overseas fuel
Mar 15, 2023 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
The world is rallying behind nuclear power after last year’s energy crisis
Here is a thread of recent public opinion polls in support of nuclear ☢️ 🧵
🇬🇧 A UK poll found a 25% increase in net support for new nuclear power since June 2021
China massively accelerated its coal power plans in 2022 🇨🇳❤️🪨
📝 Local governments permitted 106GW of new plants, the most since 2015, says CREA
🚧 Construction has started on 50GW, 6-times more than in the rest of the world combined
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
“China continues to be the glaring exception to the ongoing global decline in coal plant development"
Feb 27, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Ford's EV pickup is built from metal that's damaging the Amazon rainforest 🚗⚠️
🏭 Bloomberg investigation traced much of the aluminum in the F-150 to a refinery in Brazil accused of sickening thousands of people
💧 Rivers are polluted with toxic metals
⛏️ A typical North American car contains about 500 pounds of aluminum, almost twice the amount 20 years ago, and electric vehicles have about 150 pounds more
Feb 20, 2023 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
China is taking control of the LNG market 🇨🇳 🚢
📝 China is rushing to sign the most long-term LNG purchase agreements of any nation
💰 They are then reselling some of that supply to the highest bidders in Europe/Asia, becoming a key intermediary
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
“China is evolving from being a rapidly growing import market to playing a more flexible role with an increased ability to balance the global LNG market,” Shell said in its annual LNG outlook report released last week 🇨🇳 🚢
Feb 19, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The power of nuclear energy 🇯🇵☢️💰
📉 Japan's electricity bills are ~40% cheaper in regions with more nuclear reactors online
💸 Tokyo must depend more on coal/LNG because its reactors are idled. That became very costly due to the global energy crunch
nikkei.com/article/DGKKZO…
Tepco was forced to ask the government to hike rates even more due to surging fuel costs 💰
Regional utilities in Kansai and Kyushu (which have a bunch of reactors online) did not
MAJOR SHIFT: Pakistan is abandoning its LNG expansion plans because the fuel is too expensive, and instead will use more coal
🇵🇰🪨
🚢"LNG is no longer part of the long-term plan," Energy Minister told Reuters
🏭 Pakistan to QUADRUPLE coal power capacity
reuters.com/business/energ…
Pakistan was betting BIG on LNG roughly a decade ago when the fuel was cheap and abundant
Their energy minister told me in 2016 that they wanted to import 60 million tons/year by 2025 -- which would make it one of the world's top buyers of the fuel
Japan formally adopts policy to operate nuclear reactors beyond 60 years 🇯🇵 ☢️
👍 Cabinet approved pro-nuclear plan, including building next-gen reactors
↩️ Government pivoted on nuclear amid effort to curb dependence on overseas fuel & hit green goals
sankei.com/article/202302…
While Japan's government is endorsing nuclear power, there is still a TON of untapped atomic energy sitting idle
☢️ Only 1/3 of Japan's operable nuclear reactors are online due to ongoing local opposition, time-consuming regulatory reviews and a litany of required retrofits
Feb 7, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
California Governor Newsom called for federal energy regulators to investigate surging natural gas prices 🇺🇸🔎
👉 But the jump in California gas prices in December were likely due to these factors: Cold weather, delivery constraints and low stockpiles
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Politicians and governments around the world are under pressure as utility bills skyrocket 💰💰
Policymakers are trying to figure out ways to reduce the blow to its citizens. And trying to halt "profiteering" is a popular strategy
Germany isn't saving enough gas, said its regulator 🇩🇪⚠️
📉 Consumption was reduced 9% in the last week of Jan compared to 2018-21 avg, said BNetzA President Mueller
👉 Germany must cut demand by at least 20% to help offset loss of Russian gas, he said