• EPRINC and IEEJ CoHost DC Workshop: “Global LNG, Energy Security, and the Transition”

    The Institute of Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ) in Tokyo and the Energy Policy Research Foundation, Inc. (EPRINC) in Washington DC have hosted an in-person workshop on December 15-16, 2022 in Washington, DC. The workshop, Global LNG, Energy Security, and the Transition, brought together a small group of policymakers, practitioners, and experts from the U.S., Asia, and Europe to chart a path forward to address fundamental challenges of meeting rising global requirements for LNG, new threats to energy security, and measures to cost-effectively address the challenges of the energy transition. The workshop supported the six-year joint effort of IEEJ and EPRINC on the role of LNG in sustaining global energy security and worldwide requirements for new energy supplies.

    Background

    Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, world energy markets were experiencing sustained shortages and rising prices from years of underinvestment in oil and natural gas production. Today, pricing pressure on LNG continues to rise well above historic trends from rising demand in Europe as the continent searches for alternative sources to replace lost supplies from Russia. Of special concern in the current market environment for Asia is the severe cost constraints in using LNG. The rapidly rising cost of LNG is especially troublesome for the developing world in Asia as sustained high prices will incentivize continued reliance on coal and petroleum liquids. High prices for LNG will undermine initiatives throughout Asia to pursue Net-Zero aspirations.

    Securing adequate new supplies of LNG for the world market requires overcoming a series of unique financial, policy, and regulatory challenges. LNG projects require large-scale financial commitments binding sellers and buyers for much as 20 years for projects to reach final investment decision. In many cases, aspirational goals seeking to abandon so-called legacy fuels and leap directly to the renewable fuels and low carbon technologies of the future can be counter-productive and undermine long-term progress to Net-Zero outcomes. The energy transition will be both long and difficult. LNG and natural gas offer numerous opportunities for both the developed and developing world to enhance energy security, accelerate the transition away from coal, and make substantial progress in achieving lower carbon emissions. International financial institutions, public financial institutions and private banks will have to work together to ensure that LNG development can proceed with adequate long-term commitments and sufficient investment to bring substantial volumes of new supplies to the market.

    Venue and Discussion Topics

    Our excellent venue, the Cosmos Club, permitted extensive opportunities to discuss the broad challenges of energy supply and geopolitical stress points. We identified five subject areas to focus the panel presentations and discussions. These were:

    1. LNG’s Role in World Energy Supply; Now and in the Future
    2. Addressing Policy Obstacles and ESG Challenges in Bringing New LNG Supplies to Market
    3. The Role of Public and Private Financial Institutions in LNG Production
    4. Asian Energy Security and the Energy Transition – How the Asian Economies Adjust to the New Price Environment and Security Threats
    5. What Advice Should We Give to the G7 for Next Year

    Additionally, EPRINC and the Embassy of Japan in Washington DC cohosted a dinner to facilitate more discussion between participants the evening of December 15.

    The presentations from the workshop can be downloaded from this link, the agenda from the workshop is here, and photos from the two day event are here.

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  • EPRINC President Lucian Pugliaresi and EPRINC Fellow Trisha Curtis Participate in Heritage Foundation Panel

    On Wednesday, November 9 at noon, EPRINC President Lucian Pugliaresi and EPRINC Fellow Trisha Curtis participated in a Heritage Foundation panel called “What Will Happen to Energy in the Next Congress?” The panel, hosted by Heritage’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth, was described by Heritage as follows:

    “The soaring price of energy concerns all Americans, from high costs at gasoline pumps to exorbitant electricity bills. The solution is under our own feet. The United States has energy reserves of oil and natural gas that would allow us to lower prices by increasing production of energy and pipelines, which are needed to move the resources across the country. So, what might the next Congress do to lower energy prices?”

    The video of the event can be found on the Heritage Foundation website, here.

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  • EPRINC’s Max Pyziur Participates in Westchester County Association (WCA) Sustainable Business Conference
    On Thursday July 14, 2022, the Westchester County Association (WCA) held their first Sustainable Business Conference. Focusing on the implementation challenges of New York State’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and other related legislation, the WCA convened an afternoon of panels, plenary events, and a networking reception to discuss approaches and feasibility.
     
    EPRINC’s Max Pyziur participated in the Conference’s panel discussion “Moving New York to a Low Carbon Future – How Can We Get There?” Max’s presentation underscored the scale of the challenge in the context of global and U.S. GHG emissions, as well as offering perspective on implementation risk by reviewing key power grid events in California and Texas.
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  • IEEJ and EPRINC CoHost a Webinar “LNG: Addressing the Near-Term Energy Crisis and Long-Term Environmental Challenges”

    On February 25 2022 at 8:30am–11:00am (Tokyo Time – JST) / February 24 6:30pm–9:00pm (Washington Time – EST), IEEJ and EPRINC cohosted a webinar, “LNG: Addressing the Near-Term Energy Crisis and Long-Term Environmental Challenges.” 
     
    The post-pandemic world has now moved to a global energy crisis, price shocks, supply shortages, and a geopolitical standoff in Europe. The IEEJ/EPRINC workshop explored LNG’s role in policy strategies to both address the crisis and examined its longer-term role in the energy transition to a lower-carbon future. It will also included a discussion on the potential role of ammonia in the transition. 
     
     Speakers included Chairman and CEO of the Institute of Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ), Tatsuya Terazawa;  President of EPRINC, Lucian Pugliaresi; former U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; LNG Allies President Fred Hutchison; Tellurian President and CEO Octávio Simões, EVP at Diamond Gas International Japan Branch Tetsuya Nishigaki; the Japan Gas Association General Manager Yuji Kumai, JERA General Manager Kenji Takahashi, and others as well as U.S. and Japanese industry leaders, experts from think tanks, the Institute for Energy Economics Japan and the Energy Policy Research Foundation for a discussion on role of LNG addressing the worldwide energy crisis and long-term environmental challenges.

    The agenda from the event can be found here, and the presentations are located here. The link to view the recording of the webinar is here.

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  • GGC/EPRINC Webinar “Power Disruptions in Texas and California: Energy Price Shocks in Europe”

    EPRINC has cohosted a webinar with the Global Gas Centre (GGC). The workshop was held on February 2, 2022 at 9:00 to 11:30 AM (Washington time) / 3:00 to 5:30 PM (Geneva time).

    Recent power failures in the U.S. have raised public concerns about the stability and resilience of North American electricity grids. Spiking energy prices in Europe and ongoing constraints in natural gas supplies are pointing to a sustained crisis on the European Continent. While no single event can be identified as the primary cause of this turmoil, energy policies have played an important role and hold lessons for policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic.

    Speakers included former U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Neil Chatterjee; Arno Büx from Fluxys, European Natural Gas System Operator; Thomas Popik, Chairman and President, Foundation for Resilient Societies;
    as well as U.S. and European industry leaders, experts from think tanks, the Global Gas Center and the Energy Policy Research Foundation. The discussion covered growing pressures on energy markets in the U.S. and Europe and what lessons policy makers should take from these developments.

    A video recording of the workshop can be found here. Presentations from the event are here, and the event agenda is here. A report and overview of the workshop is here.

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EPRINC Joins Group of Thought Leaders In Writing to Japan’s Prime Minister About Natural Gas and Its Importance to Energy Security

On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, concurrent with CERAWeek in Houston, the leadership of several prominent energy trade associations and think-tanks convened a half-day meeting with senior G7 energy delegates dubbed The Joint Energy Security Forum. Ahead of the deliberations that will lead to and be a part of the G7 leadership meeting on May 19-21, 2023 in Hiroshima, Japan, the Forum discussed the importance of natural gas in meeting global energy security and climate-related goals, especially in the context of Russia’s maligned use of its natural resources.

 
Key to these goals is the continued and expedited investment in all components of natural gas production and trade by G7 countries. Concluding the Forum, the Energy Policy Research Foundation, along with LNG Allies, the American Petroleum Institute, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among others, authored and signed a letter to Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, cc’ing the leadership of other G7 countries, affirming the importance of global energy security and natural gas’ critical capabilities to achieve them.
 

EPRINC and IEEJ CoHost DC Workshop: “Global LNG, Energy Security, and the Transition”

The Institute of Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ) in Tokyo and the Energy Policy Research Foundation, Inc. (EPRINC) in Washington DC have hosted an in-person workshop on December 15-16, 2022 in Washington, DC. The workshop, Global LNG, Energy Security, and the Transition, brought together a small group of policymakers, practitioners, and experts from the U.S., Asia, and Europe to chart a path forward to address fundamental challenges of meeting rising global requirements for LNG, new threats to energy security, and measures to cost-effectively address the challenges of the energy transition. The workshop supported the six-year joint effort of IEEJ and EPRINC on the role of LNG in sustaining global energy security and worldwide requirements for new energy supplies.

Background

Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, world energy markets were experiencing sustained shortages and rising prices from years of underinvestment in oil and natural gas production. Today, pricing pressure on LNG continues to rise well above historic trends from rising demand in Europe as the continent searches for alternative sources to replace lost supplies from Russia. Of special concern in the current market environment for Asia is the severe cost constraints in using LNG. The rapidly rising cost of LNG is especially troublesome for the developing world in Asia as sustained high prices will incentivize continued reliance on coal and petroleum liquids. High prices for LNG will undermine initiatives throughout Asia to pursue Net-Zero aspirations.

Securing adequate new supplies of LNG for the world market requires overcoming a series of unique financial, policy, and regulatory challenges. LNG projects require large-scale financial commitments binding sellers and buyers for much as 20 years for projects to reach final investment decision. In many cases, aspirational goals seeking to abandon so-called legacy fuels and leap directly to the renewable fuels and low carbon technologies of the future can be counter-productive and undermine long-term progress to Net-Zero outcomes. The energy transition will be both long and difficult. LNG and natural gas offer numerous opportunities for both the developed and developing world to enhance energy security, accelerate the transition away from coal, and make substantial progress in achieving lower carbon emissions. International financial institutions, public financial institutions and private banks will have to work together to ensure that LNG development can proceed with adequate long-term commitments and sufficient investment to bring substantial volumes of new supplies to the market.

Venue and Discussion Topics

Our excellent venue, the Cosmos Club, permitted extensive opportunities to discuss the broad challenges of energy supply and geopolitical stress points. We identified five subject areas to focus the panel presentations and discussions. These were:

  1. LNG’s Role in World Energy Supply; Now and in the Future
  2. Addressing Policy Obstacles and ESG Challenges in Bringing New LNG Supplies to Market
  3. The Role of Public and Private Financial Institutions in LNG Production
  4. Asian Energy Security and the Energy Transition – How the Asian Economies Adjust to the New Price Environment and Security Threats
  5. What Advice Should We Give to the G7 for Next Year

Additionally, EPRINC and the Embassy of Japan in Washington DC cohosted a dinner to facilitate more discussion between participants the evening of December 15.

The presentations from the workshop can be downloaded from this link, the agenda from the workshop is here, and photos from the two day event are here.

EPRINC President Lucian Pugliaresi and EPRINC Fellow Trisha Curtis Participate in Heritage Foundation Panel

On Wednesday, November 9 at noon, EPRINC President Lucian Pugliaresi and EPRINC Fellow Trisha Curtis participated in a Heritage Foundation panel called “What Will Happen to Energy in the Next Congress?” The panel, hosted by Heritage’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth, was described by Heritage as follows:

“The soaring price of energy concerns all Americans, from high costs at gasoline pumps to exorbitant electricity bills. The solution is under our own feet. The United States has energy reserves of oil and natural gas that would allow us to lower prices by increasing production of energy and pipelines, which are needed to move the resources across the country. So, what might the next Congress do to lower energy prices?”

The video of the event can be found on the Heritage Foundation website, here.

EPRINC Featured in CPM Group Video

10/18/2022

In a new video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrJeb7JfHxY), CPM Group’s Managing Partner Jeffrey Christian discusses some issues regarding European Natural Gas supply that will come as a surprise to many people, including the extent to which Europe’s natural gas supply comes primarily from non-Russian sources, so that Europe is far less dependent on Russia for its natural gas than seems commonly believed.
 
Supporting Jeffrey Christian’s presentation and views are charts taken from EPRINC’s Chart of the Week Series, specifically #2022-38: Europe – Daily Natural Gas Receipts During 2022 (found here: https://eprinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/EPRINC-ChartOfTheWeek2022-38-RecentEuropeanNaturalGasReceipts-TheDailyView-Version3.pdf).
 
CPM Group is an independent commodities research, consulting, commodities and asset management, and investment banking firm that provides comprehensive research, analysis, and advisory services. CPM Group was founded in 1986 through a management acquisition of the Commodities Research Group at Goldman Sachs. More information about CPM Group can be found here: https://www.cpmgroup.com/cpmgroup-about-us/company-overview/
 

Larry Goldstein Speaks at JINSA Policy Webinar, “The Cartel Strikes Back: OPEC’s Production Cut”

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have recently made the decision with other oil producers (OPEC+) to slash production by 2 million barrels a day. The move—seen as led by Saudi Arabia and Russia—immediately sent oil prices higher, defies entreaties by the Biden administration for production increases to ease inflation and stabilize the global economy, and could provide a vital cash lifeline to Vladimir Putin’s war efforts in Ukraine.

JINSA held a discussion of the factors that contributed to this move, what it signals about Saudi relations with the United States, Russia, and other world actors, why the Biden administration was unable to prevent the production cut, and what the United States should do next. EPRINC’s Larry Goldstein participated and provided his insight based on his years of experience and expertise on the matter.

A transcript of Larry’s comments can be found here. The video of the event is below

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