NAE Clean & Environmental Technology Newsletter – Week Ended 4/16/2021
Greenland Technologies reported preliminary revenue that doubled Y/Y. The unit sales of the Company's transmission boxes also doubled in the Q1, as compared to a year ago, mainly due to continued growth led by the reopening and rebound of the broader economy, along with the Company's successful introduction of new products.
Cleveland-Cliffs says it reached a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers for a new 53-month labor contract covering 300 USW-represented workers at the Mansfield Works in Ohio. The agreement is pending ratification by USW local union memberships. Workers returned to Mansfield Works earlier this year after a bitter three-year lockout in which replacement workers kept the plant running.
Beyond Meat announced a significant product distribution expansion within thousands of European retail locations this spring. The new product distribution in Europe includes Sainsbury's nearly doubling its distribution of the Beyond Burger nationwide in the U.K. and the company expanding its product offerings in over 1K new German retail stores through Kaufland, Tegut, Famila and Real.
Ingersoll Rand agreed to sell its Specialty Vehicle Technologies segment to the Platinum Equity private equity firm for 1.68B USD. Ingersoll Rand says the sale materially reduces net leverage to less than 1x and provides significant capital flexibility. The company stated that the divestiture achieved a premium valuation for the leader in the golf, commercial, and consumer low-speed vehicle market.
Total says it expects first crude exports from the long-delayed Lake Albert project by 2025, after key final agreements needed to develop two oil fields in Uganda and a pipeline to Tanzania were signed. Total and partner CNOOC say they will kickstart construction of a 3.5B USD, 230K bbl/day crude pipeline to the Tanzanian port of Tanga on the Indian Ocean to help ship crude from fields in western Uganda to international markets.
Worldwide semiconductor revenue was up 10.4% on the year in 2020, driven by memory, GPUs, and 5G chipsets, according to new Gartner data. Gartner stated: memory, GPU, and 5G chipsets led semiconductor growth, driven by hyperscale, PC, ultramobile, and 5G handset end-market demand, while automotive and industrial electronics suffered due to lower spending or a pause in spending owing to COVID-19. Intel remained the top semiconductor vendor by revenue with a 7.4% Y/Y sales growth due to strength in the core client and server CPU business.
Navigator Holdings says it signed a non-binding letter of intent with Naviera Ultranav Limitada to merge Ultragas ApS' fleet and business activities with its own operations, in a deal that would unite two gas shipping companies with a combined fleet of 56 vessels. The companies say the combined entity would have an aggregate net asset value of 1.3B USD, based primarily upon desktop appraisals by maritime brokers.
Eos Energy announced booked orders from key customers, including Hecate Energy, Azure Power, and ZGlobal. This is to meet increased demand for energy storage in critical markets such as Texas, California and India. The company’s order backlog has grown to approximately 30M USD, which includes more than 20 orders totaling 107 MWh over the past six months.
Berry Petroleum reported upbeat select preliminary results, generated by improving production, lower operating costs, and rising crude oil prices. The company expects total production to be in the range of 27,000 boe/d to 27,200 boe/d, with 23,800 bbl/d to 24,000 bbl/d of oil production, representing a 3% and 2% increase in oil and total production, sequentially. Capital expenditures are seen between 24M USD and 26M USD, primarily for drilling 45 development wells in California.
Nvidia unveiled eight new Ampere-based GPUs for artists, designers, and engineers and unveils its next-generation processor for autonomous vehicles. The new RTX GPU products actually bring Nvidia's RTX A5000, A4000, A3000, and A2000 workstation processors to desktops and laptops. The desktop versions of the RTX A5000 and A4000 can power AI graphics and real-time rendering performance up to 2x faster than the previous generation. Nvidia also introduces two Tensor Core data center GPUs (A10, A16), which offer up to 2.5x the virtual workspace performance for designers and up to 2x user density with lower cost of ownership and enhanced virtual desktop experience over the previous generation, respectively. The new Nvidia Drive Atlan is an AI-enabled processor for autonomous vehicles that can deliver more than 1,000 trillion operations per second and targets the 2025 vehicle models from automaker partners. The Drive Atlan system-on-a-chip combines Nvidia's next-gen GPU architecture, new Arm CPU cores, and deep learning and computer vision architectures. The SoC has a BlueField data processing unit that offers data center-grade advanced networking, storage, and security for complex compute and AI workloads.
Intel is in talks to manufacture automotive chips to help alleviate the global chip shortage. According to a Reuters interview with CEO Pat Gelsinger, Intel is talking to automotive chipmakers to produce those chips within Intel's factory network with the goal of reaching chip production within six to nine months. Gelsinger was among the semiconductor and automotive executives meeting with the Biden administration to discuss domestic production and the global shortage.
Diamondback Energy reported preliminary Q1 production of 307.4K boe/day at an average price of 42.36 USD/boe, including a 4.8% Q/Q increase in oil production to 84.2K bbl/day at 56.94 USD/bbl. The company revised its production guidance for the full year to account for the QEP acquisition, seeing 360K-370K boe/day overall vs. 308K-325K boe/day prior guidance, as well as FY 2021 capital spending of 1.6B-1.75B USD, raised from 1.35B-1.55B USD previously. The company said it continues to see no need to grow oil production into an artificially undersupplied market, and instead plans to generate free cash flow to pay its dividend and pay down debt.
New York’s state pension fund said that it plans to sell of 7M USD worth of securities in six Canadian oil sands companies and not make future investments in them including: Imperial Oil, Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, MEG Energy, Athabasca Oil, and Husky Energy. State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said the fund is pulling out of companies that have not shown viable plans to adapt to a low carbon future.
TC Energy is reportedly considering wind power investments to electrify its pipelines in the U.S., saying it has requested information from 100 renewable development companies for potential contracts or investment opportunities in wind energy projects that could generate up to 2.5M MWh/year.
BP sold a 49% stake in its US transportation and delivery affiliate to investment firm Sixth Street for 700M USD. The sale of the stake in BP Pipelines, which includes pipelines tied to Whiting, the company's largest refinery, will form the basis of a joint venture for future midstream investments. BP’s new Argos semi-submersible floating production platform and the centerpiece of its 9B USD Mad Dog 2 project arrived in the US near Corpus Christi on the Texas Gulf coast after a 16K mile journey from South Korea. As tall as a 27-story building and with a deck the size of a football field, Argos is one of BP's largest oil production platforms and the company's fifth in the Gulf of Mexico and first addition since 2008, before the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in 2010.
Continental Resources says February's extreme weather nicked Q1 total production by 6K boe/day, and it now expects oil production for the period to come in at 152K bbl/day with natural gas output averaging 935M cf/day. Continental also forecasts Q2 production of 160K-165K bbl/day of oil and 920M-940M cf/day of natural gas. Continental also says it has cut its net debt to 4.88B USD, reflecting a significant reduction from year-end 2020, and it now expects to reduce total debt to 4B USD or less by year-end 2021.
LG Electronics joint venture with Magna International is said to be very near signing contracts with Apple to build electric vehicles. LG Magna e-Powertrain is near signing contracts with Apple to handle initial volume production of Apple EVs, according to a Korea Times report, which cites a source familiar. Once an agreement is reached, LG Electronics and Magna will jointly establish details for the production of the Apple EV, a prototype of which will be teased sometime in early 2024, according to the report.
Compass Minerals says Q1 winter weather activity in its North American-served market was less than average, resulting in a slightly below average winter for the full season ended in March, but it sold 4.6M tons of highway deicing salt products in Q1 vs. 3.1M tons in the year-ago quarter. Compass says 11 representative cities in the primary North American highway deicing service area reported 100 snow events during Q1, 8% below the 10-year average but 18% above the prior-year quarter.
Chevron and Honeywell announced the start-up of what they say is the world’s first commercial scale ISOALKY process unit that utilizes ionic liquids to produce alkylate used to increase octane in motor fuels. The companies say the technology, first used in Chevron's Salt Lake City refinery, is designed to meet the refining industry's needs for a cost- effective alternative to conventional liquid acid systems that offers process safety advantages.
Resonant, in its preliminary corporate update, said it customers shipped a record 8.6M radio frequency filters in Q1 (+437% Y/Y). Its robust patent portfolio grew to 320+ patents filed, greater than 165 of which are related to Resonant's proprietary XBAR and high frequency technologies; at 2020 end, there were 300 total patents with 150+ focused on XBAR.
Total and Siemens Energy signed a technical collaboration agreement to study sustainable solutions for CO2 emissions reduction. The collaboration will focus on natural gas liquefaction facilities and associated power generation. Total stated that the development of low-carbon LNG will contribute to meet the growth in global energy demand whilst reducing the carbon intensity of the energy products consumed.
KKR is planning to offer more than 20B USD for Toshiba, outbidding CVC, according to an FT report. Brookfield is also expected to submit a formal bid. At least two large Toshiba shareholders have asked the board to consider any bids from PE-led consortiums, according to the report. CVC has told Toshiba that it will form a consortium to bid for the company, though hasn't been clear who the other investors will be, the report said.
Advanced Micro Devices unveiled the entry and mid-level Ryzen 5000G accelerated processing units, which combine a CPU and GPU. The Ryzen APUs are shipping to OEMs for pre-built machines, but AMD took the rare step of revealing that the APUs will have a retail launch later this year. The 7nm Ryzen 5000G processors feature up to eight Zen 3 cores, and Vega 8 graphics, 24 lanes of PCIe 3.0, and DDR4-3200 memory support. The 5000G family tops out with the Ryzen 7 5000G, which offers 8 cores, 16 threads, a base frequency of 3.8 GHz and a turbo boost of 4.6 GHz. Graphics cards are in short supply due to supply chain issues and cryptocurrency mining demand, which could make the integrated graphics of APUs particularly appealing right now.
Chevron’s venture capital arm and Moreld Ocean Wind said they will invest in Ocergy's development and commercialization of floating offshore wind turbines, Chevron's first investment in offshore wind power. Chevron will finance its side of the venture via the 100M USD Future Energy Fund set up under Chevron Technology Ventures. Moreld is owned by private equity firm HitecVision, which specializes in European renewable energy.
Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline crossing the Great Lakes is non-negotiable for Canada, and the government has made its case “extremely clear directly to the President of the United States”, Canadian Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan tells Bloomberg. “Line 5 is very different from Keystone XL," which the new president canceled on his first day in office, "and we fully support it, and we will defend it," O'Regan says. "We made our case with Republicans as well as Democrats." The minister says he is "very clear-eyed" about the alternative to the pipeline, likely thousands of long-haul trucks on a major highway between Canada and the U.S.; the oil and gas "will get to market but I don't think that’s in anyone’s best interest."
Sinopec signed an engineering and construction contract with Exxon Mobil for the U.S. company's planned Huizhou petrochemical complex in south China. The contract covers all process units, utilities and infrastructure and is worth an estimated multi-billion dollars, the Chinese firm says, without providing more details. The complex in Guangdong province will include a 1.6M mt/year flexible feed steam cracker and downstream polyethylene and polypropylene plants that will produce material used in packaging, automotive, industrial and consumer products.
Sassol and Toyota Motor have formed a partnership to commence exploration of the development of a green hydrogen mobility ecosystem in South Africa. The parties intend to develop a mobility corridor and expand the demonstration to a pilot project using one of South Africa’s main freight corridors, such as the N3 route between Durban and Johannesburg, for hydrogen powered heavy-duty long-haul trucks.
Nikola signed a letter of intent with IVECO and OGE to establish a business structure for transporting hydrogen via pipeline network from production sources to hydrogen fueling stations in support of fuel-cell electric vehicles. IVECO is a brand of CNH Industrial N.V. and is called a pioneer in the commercialization and manufacture of vehicles powered by alternative fuels. OGE is an owner and operator of a 12K km natural gas pipeline infrastructure network in Germany.
Denison Mines says it discovered new high-grade uranium mineralization from the exploration program completed at the McClean Lake joint venture. Denison reports three of the final four drill holes completed by operator Orano Canada returned uranium mineralization at the McClean South target area, highlighted by drill hole MCS-34, which returned 5.04% eU3O8 over 14.0 meters. The companies say follow-up drilling is warranted in the area and is expected to be planned by the JV for winter 2022.
Foundry giant TSMC reported a Q1 earnings beat with revenue up 25% on the year to 12.92B USD due to pandemic and chip shortage driven demand. The revenue breakdown was dominated by the advanced process technologies with 5nm representing 14% of overall sales and 7nm representing 35%. Smartphones accounted for 45% of sales with high performance computing coming in second. TSMC is seeing "stronger engagement with more customers" on 3nm and 5nm tech with the latter driven by smartphone demand. The demand is so strong TSMC says it needs to prep capacity to meet the demand. Mass 3nm production is expected to begin in 2023. After spending 8.8B USD in the first three months of the year, TSMC raises its capex estimate for the year from 28B USD to 30B USD. In addition to this, TSMC reported that its Fab14 P7 in the Southern Taiwan Science Center experienced a power outage that lasted for several hours, which was caused by construction workers accidentally severing and underground power line. TSMC said it was evaluating the impact of the outage. Research firm TrendForce estimates that the facility accounts for 4% of the foundry's total 12-inch wafer capacity and around 2% of the global 12-in. wafer capacity.
NextDecade signed an engineering services agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to support a carbon capture project at the proposed Rio Grande LNG project in south Texas. The agreement includes the design, license and performance guarantee of the KM CDR Process, a post-combustion carbon capture technology to be applied at the proposed export terminal. The planned carbon capture and storage project is expected to cut permitted carbon dioxide emissions at the facility by more than 90%, which NextDecade believes will make Rio Grande LNG "the greenest LNG project in the world."
XPeng established a long-term strategic partnership with Zhongsheng Group to further accelerate the Smart EV adoption in China. Through the partnership, the Company will leverage Zhongsheng’s dealership network and expertise in serving consumers for mid-to-high end automobiles to further accelerate XPeng’s sales growth, while strengthening its after-sales services capabilities. In addition to this, the company announced that its XPeng P5 model will be the world’s first production smart EV equipped with automotive-grade LiDAR technology. The company says the P5 will bring Navigation Guided Pilot capabilities to city roads for the first time in a production vehicle, powered by XPeng’s full-stack in-house developed autonomous driving system XPILOT 3.5. The P5’s double-prism LiDAR units are said to be capable to distinguish pedestrians, cyclists and scooters, static obstacles, and road works, in challenging scenarios such as night and low-light conditions, backlighting, and alternating light and dark illumination in tunnels.
Solidifying its growth strategy in the water utility sector, NW Natural Water closed two acquisitions, Morning View Water Company in Idaho Falls and Del Bay Association in Freeland, Washington, and signed three additional agreements to acquire utilities near its existing service territories.
US shale producers risk another price war with OPEC and its allies if they resume the breakneck production growth of the last decade, Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield told Bloomberg. U.S. producers responded to last year's oil collapse by cutting capex, drilling and jobs, resulting 2M bbl/day less production, but as rebound this year due to both the economic recovery and Saudi Arabia's unilateral output cuts, temptation is growing for U.S. shale to ramp back up. The U.S. Energy Information Administration sees domestic oil output rising ~1M bbl/day, or 9%, to average 11.9M bbl/day in 2022, to which Sheffield says, "if we grow another 1M bbl/day next year, we're going to have another price war in my opinion going into 2023." Sheffield predicts overall U.S. production will rise at a 2%-3% annual rate, with most of the increases coming from the Permian Basin - where Pioneer is one of the largest producers - while all other shale fields will decline.
Goldman Sachs issued a prediction that copper prices will hit 15,000 USD/ton by 2025 as the global green energy transition supports a surge in copper demand and supply remains relatively scarce. Copper will be crucial in achieving decarbonization and replacing oil with renewable energy sources, and the market currently faces a supply crunch that could raise the price by more than 60% in four years, Goldman Sachs says in a new report. "Copper is the new oil," vital in the process of creating, storing and distributing clean energy from the wind, sun and geothermal sources, as it has the physical attributes needed to do so, Goldman says. "Discussions of peak oil demand overlook the fact that without a surge in the use of copper and other key metals, the substitution of renewables for oil will not happen," the report says.
The fact that Texas power grid operator ERCOT needed to make an urgent plea for conservation with temperatures only in the 80s is prompting fresh questions about the need to reform it, less than two months after February's massive blackouts. ERCOT misjudged the weather, assuming a mild cold front would reduce demand for power, but instead demand on the grid was 3K MW higher than expected, or the equivalent of 600K homes. Additional power plants normally would kick in to make up the shortfall, but many were offline for repairs this week to gear up for the long hot Texas summer. Combined with low wind and cloudy conditions, available generation was cut by 21.6 GW, and solar generation was running at 38% of capacity vs. the usual 72%, according to data provider Enverus. Texas' real test could come this summer: While ERCOT has said it expects to have adequate supplies for the season despite anticipated record peak demand, nearly 75% of Texas is in a drought.
ABB reported preliminary Q1 results ahead of expectations, mainly driven by a stronger than anticipated market development, especially during the last weeks of March, and related primarily to the short-cycle business. Revenue was reported at 6.9B USD (+11% Y/Y). ABB raised its revenue guidance and now anticipates comparable revenue growth of 5% or higher, including an anticipated recovery in the process industry related part of the business during the second half of the year.
Weingarten Realty Investors agreed to merge into Kimco Realty in a stock and cash transaction, to create an open-air shopping center and mixed-use real estate owner. The merger is expected to diversify Kimco's assets, adding Weingarten's 159 open-air grocery-anchored shopping centers and mixed-use properties, and expand its geographic reach by increasing its scale in key SunBelt markets.
In a rare admission by a Big Oil producer that some of its oil and gas reserves may be worthless in a world shifting to renewable energy from fossil fuels, Royal Dutch Shell says the majority of its reserves will be produced by 2050. The company says in a document to investors summarizing its climate strategy that 75% of its proved oil and gas reserves will be produced by 2030, with an additional 3% produced after 2040. Shell plans to put its energy transition strategy to a non- binding vote at its annual general meeting in May, but it is urging investors to vote against a resolution filed by activist group Follow This calling on it to set a target on the absolute reduction of carbon emissions.
Scorpion Capital released a short report on EV battery maker QuantumScape. Scorpion claims that its research indicated that the company is "no different than other recently exposed SPAC promotions and EV frauds." Scorpion alleges that many of the claims the company has made such as fast charging to 80% in under 15 minutes are false. The QuantumScape short was also revealed on Muddy Waters zerOes.tv. QuantumScape said in a Twitter post that QS "stands by its data, which speaks for itself. We have provided higher transparency than any other solid-state battery effort we are aware of, with details on current density, temp, cycle life, cathode thickness, depth of discharge, cell area, pressure."
BHP says it completed its first refueling of a ship with biofuel this month in a trial run that is part of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions. It was also the first time that a ship has been refueled with biofuel in Singapore, the world's largest bunkering hub. BHP is exploring the use of bunker fuels such as liquefied natural gas and biofuels to replace fuel oil, seeking to cut carbon emissions by 40% when shipping its products as part of the company's climate change goals for 2030. The company says the biofuel blend used could reduce well-to-exhaust CO2 emissions by 80%-90% compared with conventional residual fuel oils.
Top U.S. natural gas producer EQT Corp. says it supports congressional resolutions that would reinstate a rule imposing a federal standard on methane. The company says it will obtain certification of gas produced from over 200 of its well pads in Pennsylvania, which collectively produce 4B cf/day, based on the environmental, social and governance performance of how it is sourced. Separately, EQT says it will seek independent certification from Equitable Origin and MiQ for a majority of its produced natural gas.
Global steel demand will jump 5.8% this year as economies recover from the pandemic, but growth will moderate next year to 2.7% as the impact of stimulus spending diminishes, the World Steel Association says. The group raises its 2021 forecast from its October estimate of 4.1% growth, as the last year's robust economic recovery in top steel consumer China is joined by gains in most of the rest of the world. Chinese demand last year surged 9% while tumbling 10% in the rest of the world, leading to roughly flat global consumption, but by 2022 a focus by Chinese authorities on more sustainable growth will bring steel demand growth down to 1% vs. 4.2% in developed economies, WSA says.
The U.S. power industry would comply with a proposed requirement that it eliminate carbon emissions by 2035, but it must be allowed flexibility on how to achieve the goal and the ability to miss compliance deadlines that prove unrealistic, says the Edison Electric Institute lobby group. The industry is concerned that President Biden's goal to quickly eliminate its emissions will require breakthroughs in clean energy technology that currently do not exist, such as long-duration battery storage for wind and solar power, advanced nuclear plants, and carbon capture projects.
Auto chip giant Renesas will use Synopsys' design space optimization AI or DSO.ai autonomous design system in its advanced automotive chip design environment. The reinforcement learning technology can help Renesas search vast design spaces for better performance-power-area solutions to find methods for boosting energy efficiency without cutting into operating frequency.
New York's attorney general reached a provisional agreement with Holtec International on the retirement and cleanup of Entergy's Indian Point nuclear plant. Under the deal terms, Holtec must keep at least 400M USD in a decommissioning trust fund for 10 years and put half of the money it gets from the Department of Energy for spent fuel management costs into that fund. The agreement still requires approval by the New York State Public Service Commission, then Holtec would take over ownership of the power plant and assume responsibility for decommissioning and cleaning up the plant and site.
Global semiconductor foundry revenue is expected to increase 11% on the year in 2021 to a record 94.6B USD, according to TrendForce. The growth will be driven by demand for telecom equipment, high performance computing, and consumer electronics, says the firm. Foundries have already moved to expand capacity in the wake of the global chip shortage. Tier- one foundries like TSMC and Samsung will spend the year focusing on R&D, fab construction, and capacity addition for process nodes of 5nm and below due to the demand from high performance computing, says TrendForce. Tier-two foundries like SMIC, UMC, and GlobalFoundries will focus on expanding capacities for the 14nm to 40nm processes to meet demand for next-gen telecom technology and other divers applications like OLED and DDI.
Clean Energy Fuels disclosed that it established a 50-50 joint venture with BP to develop, own and operate new renewable natural gas facilities at dairies and other agriculture facilities in North America, fleshing out plans initially unveiled last month. BP and Clean Energy have committed to provide a respective 50M USD and 30M USD to the JV, with BP's initial contribution consisted of all unpaid principal and accrued interest outstanding under the loan agreement from December 2020.
New Fortress Energy signed a memorandum of understanding with Norsk Hydro to supply natural gas to the Alunorte Alumina Refinery in Brazil for 15 years. New Fortress would deliver natural gas to the refinery from its Barcarena LNG receiving and regasification terminal in Brazil's Pará state, which is expected to be completed and ready to supply natural gas in 2022. Norsk Hydro is converting the calcination process and part of the steam generation at Alunorte from fuel oil to natural gas, which is expected to cut emissions by 20%.
NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, and Southern Co. are telling Texas lawmakers that proposed new laws would load unfair costs onto wind and solar farms and chill investment in the state. The three big utilities say they have serious concerns about pending bills that would make wind and solar farms pay for services to ensure a smooth and steady flow of power on the grid. "These bills would unfairly and unjustifiably shift significant costs onto wind and solar facilities in the State of Texas, penalizing assets and discouraging future investment," says the letter from the three power companies, which have invested a combined 15B USD in renewable energy operations in Texas.
North Dakota could see 400K bbl/day of crude oil production temporarily wiped out if Energy Transfer's Dakota Access Pipeline is shut, according to the director of the state's Department of Mineral Resources. If the U.S. district court judge considering the case orders DAPL to cease flows, "that would at least to some temporary shut-ins while people arranged alternate transportation," Lynn Helms says. North Dakota, whose oil production has plunged more than 30% to 1.08M bbl/day in February from its peak in November 2019, depends on DAPL to carry oil to the Midwest and then on to the U.S. Gulf Coast. 40% of the state's production is moved on DAPL, and Helms says it would take time for shippers on the line to find alternative routes for getting their oil to market.
New York state regulators approved Con Edison’s request to recover costs for three transmission projects in its New York City service area. The projects, which New York's Public Service Commission says represent an 800M USD investment, would maintain and improve reliability and allow several fossil fuel-fired power plants to retire. The PUC says work will start immediately, with the so-called Rainey project operational by the start of summer 2023, and the Gowanus and Goethals projects operational by the start of summer 2025.
Private equity funding for the U.S. oil sector is drying up, prompting stricken operators to make "last gasp" efforts to boost production and cash flow to attract buyers, Financial Times reports. Despite oil's recovery to 60 USD/bbl, scores of oil producers are "dying on the vine," says Kimmeridge managing partner Ben Dell, left without the regular cash infusions to bankroll the capital spending needed to keep on drilling. Pioneer Natural Resources earlier this month agreed to buy privately owned rival DoublePoint Energy for 6.4B USD - the biggest public-private deal in U.S. upstream oil and gas in a decade - but investors tell FT that deals of that scale are unlikely to be repeated. "There's very little new private equity going into forming new private companies, because they don't have capital to deploy," Dell says. "They are not confident they can raise more capital." Private money is behind as many as 500 U.S. producers in the U.S., but 80% now are loss- making and will never repay the cash put into them, says Waterous Energy Fund head Adam Waterous. "This business is broken," Waterous says. "The industry is going through a multiyear process of wringing capital out of the sector, not bringing new capital in."
Danish renewable energy developer Ørsted agreed to acquire Brookfield Renewable's Ireland and U.K. onshore wind unit, in a deal that values the business at 571M EUR. "The European market for onshore wind power is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, and with the acquisition of BRI, we get a strong platform that expands our presence in onshore renewables to Europe," Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper says.
APA Corp. maintained Q1 total production guidance at 324K boe/day, but this reflects an increase in U.S. volumes to 208K boe/day from previous guidance of 204K, with roughly half of the increase attributable to oil volumes. Offsetting higher U.S. volumes, APA lowers Q1 production guidance for its international business to 116K boe/day, compared to its prior outlook of 120K, due to production sharing contract affects associated with higher realized oil prices in Egypt and extended maintenance downtime in the North Sea.
Sierra Metals reported Q1 production. The company reported Silver production of 1.0M ounces (+1% Y/Y); Lead 9.0M pounds (-1% Y/Y); Gold 2,636 ounces (-28% Y/Y), Copper 7.9M pounds (-33% Y/Y); copper equivalent 25.5M pounds (-18% Y/Y); Zinc 24.1M pounds (+11% Y/Y) and Zinc equivalent 79.8M pounds (-6% Y/Y). Tons processed is +5% to 774,421 mt, with Daily throughput up to 8,851.
Energy Focus inked a partnership with Batteries Plus Bulbs to offer Energy Focus’ products for distribution to the franchise’s 700-plus stores across the U.S. The initial offering centers on Energy Focus’ patented RedCap® emergency- backup battery integrated LED tubes, its military-grade DockLights and extension arms, and its EnFocusTM lighting control system.
PG&E must submit to increased regulatory scrutiny, after the California Public Utilities Commission said it largely failed to perform required tree-trimming work around its power lines in areas most at risk of starting wildfires. CPUC yesterday ordered PG&E to create a plan detailing how the utility will ensure that its most dangerous electric circuits are prioritized for vegetation management work this year. PG&E completed 1,800 miles of tree-trimming in 2020 but focused the work on the least risky circuits in its system, the Commission said. Yesterday's vote places PG&E in the first of a six-step escalating regulatory enforcement process created last year when the company concluded a bankruptcy prompted by its responsibility for years of wildfires.
Samsung is reportedly aiming to regain full output at its Austin, TX fab by summer after a production pause in February due to weather related power outages. Nikkei Asian Review sources says Samsung hopes to finish its production calibration and replacement of equipment components by May with delivery volume returning to pre-pause levels as early as June. Research firm TrendForce estimates the pause at Samsung's fab handling chips for smartphones and clients like Qualcomm will cause a 30% drop in global 5G phone output during the second quarter. Chipmakers Infineon and NXP also had fabs affected by the Austin outage, and those facilities represented 6% and 10%, respectively, of the total production capacities of the companies. Auto chip giant Renesas was more recently set back with a fab fire in Japan. The fab will restart with minimal output this weekend to help with calibration. The company hopes to resume normal deliveries by the end of June.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission approved a partial rate increase for Duke Energy Progress. Duke requested a 12.3% rate increase, equaling 463M USD, in October 2019, and the company implemented a temporary rate increase in September, which NCUC said covered part of its request. The order also approved Duke's settlement with state officials and the Sierra Club, which will reduce the amount of coal ash management costs recovered in customer rates, and the settlement with 10 stakeholders for future grid improvements.
BP repeatedly violated federal limits on soot at its Whiting refinery in Indiana, a federal judge has ruled in lawsuit brought by environmental advocates. The decision hinged largely on the results of nine pollution tests BP provided the Indiana Department of Environmental Management during 2015-18. During eight of the tests, boilers at the refinery released concentrations of particulate matter that exceeded permitted limits. Though the company was legally obligated to fix the problems and retest the refinery's emissions, it failed to do so each time, the judge said in his review.
NAE Clean & Environmental Technology Fund Update
NAE’s Asset Management division operates a pure play clean & environmental technology fund focused on liquid public securities globally. The fund’s Co-Chief Investment Officer is Walter Nasdeo, the longest-standing published clean & environmental technology equity research analyst on Wall Street.
The fund’s investment team produces proprietary research annually including the “Global Clean & Environmental Technology Primer”, the “Global Enabling Technologies Primer”, and the “Global Clean & Environmental Technology Securities Universe”. A snapshot of the thematic investable universe, current fund profile, and fund performance are provided below as of 3/31/2021.
Environmental Technology Securities Universe Battery Manufacturing Semiconductor Manufacturing Solar Development Panel Manufacturing Energy Efficient Real Estate Wind Development Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Energy Efficiency Services Semiconductor Services Silicon Production Waste Remediation Natural Gas Transportation Since Inception 38.92% Year-to-Date 0.83% Quarter 1 2021 0.83% Feb-21 0.02%
Fund Profile (As of 3/31/2021) Average Market Capitalization 10.7B Number of Holdings 15
Average Daily Volume 1.8M Average Position Size 6.25%
About New American Energy – https://www.newamenergy.com/
New American Energy (NAE) is a diversified holding company with offices in Tulsa, OK, New York, NY, and London, UK. NAE operates through three segments: Asset Management, Infrastructure Services, and Investment Banking. NAE’s Asset Management division operates a clean & environmental technology fund which invests in global listed securities. NAE’s Infrastructure Services division is operated by Lone Cypress Energy Services (http://www.lonecypressmss.com/). NAE offers Investment Banking services through Ardour Capital (https://www.ardourcapital.com/). NAE’s team is comprised of senior energy, engineering, and capital markets professionals dedicated to enabling the energy transition.
Contact Information
Asset Management – Nicholaus Rohleder – [email protected] – 918.231.2942
Investment Banking – Brian Greenstein – [email protected] – 917.330.3442
Infrastructure Services – Stephen Brooks – [email protected] – 918.557.4040 Disclaimer
The graphs, charts and other visual aids are provided for informational purposes only. None of these graphs, charts or visual aids can and of themselves be used to make investment decisions. No representation is made that these will assist any person in making investment decisions and no graph, chart or other visual aid can capture all factors and variables required in making such decisions.
This report is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. It is not a recommendation of, or an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, any particular security, strategy, or investment product. Our research for this report is based on current public information that we consider reliable, but we do not represent that the research or the report is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. New American Energy, LLC has no obligation to update, modify or amend this presentation or to otherwise notify a reader thereof in the event that any matter stated herein, or any information herein, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate. Our views and opinions expressed in this report are current as of the date of this report and are subject to change. Any reproduction or other distribution of this material in whole or in part without the prior written consent of New American Energy, LLC is prohibited.