The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode with London Stock Exchange Group's Chris Mayo has just been released. Listen here.
Lets hope Hawazin and Aleph Commodities Limited have this opportunity in their cross hairs:-
"Energypac Power Venture, a subsidiary of Energypac, has recently signed a joint-venture agreement with UAE-based EMA Power Investment, bringing in $16 million foreign direct investment into the country’s booming power sector.
The EMA is a joint venture between South Korea’s Daelim Energy and IDB Infrastructure Fund II managed by ASMA Capital.
The investment is for implementing a 115 megawatt heavy fuel oil-fired power plant project at Thakurgaon. Daelim Energy will avail 49 percent stake of the project through the investment.
The agreement will also facilitate several other power projects and enhance the capacity of Energypac, said a statement yesterday."
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/energypac-brings-16m-fdi-1744315
Different approach to MSAR but gets similar results with regard to cost savings, NOX and PM's by the looks of it.
"A Possible Solution
What if there was a solution that would not only allow to reduce emissions but also to save money at the same time while maintaining the desired characteristics of fuel? This is possible with Enermulsion, a patented ultrasonic cavitation technology developed by TecnoVeritas."
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/fuel-treatment-reduce-emission-and-increase-profits/
http://www.seatrade-maritime.com/news/asia/owners-installing-scrubbers-for-imo-2020-warned-on-availability-of-hfo.html
"With just a small percentage of ships fitting scrubbers owners are warned they will need secure availability of high sulphur fuel oil (HFO) in 2020 as the supply chain will be geared to delivering compliant low sulphur fuel oil (LFSO)."
No such issues with MSAR now we have strategic global coverage - Freepoint - Bitumina - Africa - Middle East - China.
1/ "Velocys announces it has agreed with ENVIA and the other ENVIA joint venture partners to transfer rights of the site from ENVIA to another ENVIA JV partner in return for payment of $4.15m to Velocys.
2/ Velocys also releases its liens on all equipment from the site in return for a significant recovery under its collateralised loan note to ENVIA."
3/ We continue to focus our attention, resources and assets on the development of our two
commercial scale biorefineries in Immingham, UK and Natchez, Mississippi.
From memory the loan was $15MM. It is unclear if their is a write down or break even on that collateralised loan. I suspect the former but many positives and negatives came from the project which will hopefully pay dividends for these other plants in the pipeline. More cash to the business ultimately is the benefit here so a positive for me.
Being on the board for two failed companies is not a ringing endorsement, lets hope his bad luck doesn't follow him....
"Since retiring from BP in 2000, Mr. Sanderson has held the position of Chairman at Standard Chartered Bank"
Maybe he's been lined up for bigger things, as some have shouted for the present chairman's head for sometime.
David Attenborough says we are running out of time to save the planet unless urgent action is taken on climate change.
Calling for an end to the burning of fossil fuels, the veteran nature broadcaster said action must be taken to tackle global warming. The Daily Mirror describes his words as “his starkest warning yet about our future existence” and The Conversation says he is adopting “a much stronger position".
Attenborough said: “Right now we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change. At the current rate of warming we risk a devastating future.”
https://www.theweek.co.uk/100824/david-attenborough-were-running-out-of-time-on-climate-change
21 years doesn’t really convey the sense of urgency:-
David Attenborough says we are running out of time to save the planet unless urgent action is taken on climate change.
Calling for an end to the burning of fossil fuels, the veteran nature broadcaster said action must be taken to tackle global warming. The Daily Mirror describes his words as “his starkest warning yet about our future existence” and The Conversation says he is adopting “a much stronger position".
Attenborough said: “Right now we are facing our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change. At the current rate of warming we risk a devastating future.”
https://www.theweek.co.uk/100824/david-attenborough-were-running-out-of-time-on-climate-change
“We are now in a period of sustained growth and beginning a landmark phase of our technology’s implementation, with the expected launch of our Varennes plant and our Rotterdam project,” said Dominique Boies, president and CEO (acting) and CFO of Enerkem. “Thanks to a strong core of public and private investors, Enerkem has developed a clean, one-of-a-kind technology for commercial use. We are proud of also having the government of Quebec’s support to be able to pursue our development projects in an emerging and promising sector that is helping to build the new economy.”
https://www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca/biofuel/suncor-energy-invests-in-enerkem-waste-to-biofuel-projects-7341
By 2040. Another 21 years, why wait..........
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fuel/nikola-motor-unveil-zero-emissions-vehicles
Nikola Motor unveiled five zero-emission products for the first time at WestWorld in Scottsdale, Arizona, in its quest to become the world’s most disruptive force in trucking and powersports.
“The majority of the products were among the worst-kept secrets in trucking, but that didn’t stop the audience of 2,000 from 49 different countries and those watching on a live stream globally on April 16, 2019, from being impressed with the official debuts of the Nikola Two and Nikola Tre hydrogen-electric tractors, the NZT, the Reckless and a new addition, the Nikola WAV, during the event, dubbed NikolaWorld 2019.“
“China has announced it will cut subsidies to electric vehicles (EVs) and focus on developing other clean mobility alternatives such as hydrogen.”
https://airqualitynews.com/2019/04/16/china-to-cut-subsidies-for-evs-and-move-towards-hydrogen/
“Bank of America said that the Brent options market only implies a 2 percent chance that Brent spikes to $100 per barrel. The bank says everyone might be underestimating these odds. The “massive surge in distillate demand” later this year could “potentially push oil prices above $100 per barrel,” the bank concluded.”
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/The-Case-For-100-Oil.html
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/oil-giant-bp-joins-nouryon-in-rotterdam-hydrogen-quest
“The company has teamed up with Nouryon (formerly known as AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) and the Port of Rotterdam to study the feasibility of a 250-megawatt water electrolysis facility that could produce up to 45,000 tons of green hydrogen a year.”
S.P has been undervalued for sometime given current earnings and potential prospects/contracts. Maybe folks are waking up to the potential of Hydrogen and indeed ITM as a brand and its technology.
I think IMO have got this completely wrong, on the one hand they have mandated the high sulfer content be reduced and yes that's a good step however it means more complicated and energy intensive fuel refining to remove the sulfer which in turn produces a lot more CO2.
The low sulfer fuels are still rich in NOX and particulate matter (https://blissair.com/what-is-pm-2-5.htm). Most diesel cars have emission abatement systems such as DPF's and catalytic converters. Ships are not mandated to clean the flue gas with exhaust scrubbers or EGCS and this is the mistake IMO made IMHO.
Now some may argue what difference does it make when a ship transits the Ocean, well what about port calls, most cities have ports where ships are pumping out exhaust. What about coastal sailing. Scrubbers + MSAR = less pollution = better health, me thinks.
"Experts are divided as to what actually causes people to become asthmatic, but exposure to air pollution in childhood increases the risk by damaging the lungs."
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6907767/Traffic-related-air-pollution-causes-FOUR-MILLION-cases-asthma-year.html
"Four million children around the world develop asthma each year because of road traffic pollution, a major study has estimated."
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6907767/Traffic-related-air-pollution-causes-FOUR-MILLION-cases-asthma-year.html
Bilbo - with regard to aviation my thoughts were more along the lines of Bio fuels such as Velocys approach with waste to fuel. With regard to shipping I think IMO have got this completely wrong, on the one hand they have mandated the high sulfer content be reduced and yes that's a good step however it means more complicated and energy intensive fuel refining to remove the sulfer which in turn produces a lot more CO2. The low sulfer fuels are rich in NOX and particulate matter (https://blissair.com/what-is-pm-2-5.htm). Most diesel cars have emission abatement systems such as DPF's and catalytic converters. Ships are not mandated to clean the flu gas with exhaust scrubbers or EGCS and this is the mistake IMO made IMO. Some shippers are installing scrubbers to remove the sulfer but they only do this so they can keep using the cheap high sulfer fuel oil. Having said all that Hydrogen I'm sure will in the ffuture power shipping, for example:-
https://www.gasworld.com/man-cryo-develops-marine-liquid-hydrogen-fuel-gas-system/2016061.article
Not a fan of scrubbers but they are installing them anyway:-
"The carrier — formed by the three Japanese giants NYK, MOL and K Line combining their respective box shipping businesses — would have the onboard exhaust gas cleaning system on up to 10 vessels in early 2020, according to its chief executive Jeremy Nixon.
The plan is to fit a few self-owned vessels when dry docking, while at the same time having in place some short-term chartered vessels on which the owner is already installing scrubbers."
https://lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/LL1126996/ONE-opts-for-scrubbers-but-keeps-faith-in-compliant-fuels
"Investors seem to be head over heel in love with hydrogen, judging from a visit to Bloomberg’s BNEF Summit in New York City last month. The news was not all good for fans of fuel cell electric vehicles, though. CleanTechnica’s takeaway from the conference is that renewable hydrogen is breaking into some key sectors of the economy, but fuel cell EVs have a longer row to hoe."
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/09/renewable-hydrogen-to-the-rescue-steel-trap-snaps-shut-on-coal-eventually/