The Future of Oil and Gas Archives - Payne Institute for Public Policy

Industrial decarbonization via hydrogen: A critical and systematic review of developments, socio-technical systems and policy options 8/3/2021

Industrial decarbonization via hydrogen: A critical and systematic review of developments, socio-technical systems and policy options

Payne Institute Fellow Steve Griffiths, Ben K. Sovacool, Jinsoo Kim, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Joao M. Uratani write about how industrial decarbonization is a daunting challenge given the relative lack of low-carbon options available for “hard to decarbonize” industries such as iron and steel, cement, and chemicals. Hydrogen, however, offers one potential solution to this dilemma given that is an abundant and energy dense fuel capable of not just meeting industrial energy requirements, but also providing long-duration energy storage. This review takes a sociotechnical perspective to examine the full range of industries and industrial processes for which hydrogen can support decarbonization and the technical, economic, social and political factors that will impact hydrogen adoption. August 3, 2021.

Exploring Carbon Retirement Portfolios 7/30/2021

Exploring Carbon Retirement Portfolios

Payne Institute Fellow Brad Handler and Morgan Bazilian write a commentary on there are new financial instruments that are being designed and brought into the fight against climate change. One such potential instrument is a Carbon Retirement Portfolio (CRP), a collection of carbon-emitting assets, including oil & gas (O&G) producing wells and coal-fired power plants (coal plants). A CRP would buy these assets with the commitment to retire them more quickly than their business-as-usual case. Thus, CRPs can be a vehicle to accelerate a country or region’s reduction of its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. July 30, 2021.

Energy Independence Doesn’t Mean What It Used To 7/26/2021

Energy Independence Doesn’t Mean What It Used To

Payne Institute Program Manager Jordy Lee and Parker Bolstad write about why energy independence is a national security issue. For decades, U.S. policymakers failed to understand the full meaning of energy independence. Their definition centered on the need for a self-sufficient supply of cheap oil and gas. That understanding was so dominant it became matter of national security – eclipsing nearly all other environmental considerations. U.S. President Biden is making a different bet. July 26, 2021.

Climate change threatens California’s wine country 7/19/2021

Climate change threatens California’s wine country

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how California’s Napa Valley is home to some of the country’s most expensive farmland, at as much as $1 million per acre, but wildfires and empty reservoirs are destroying the grapes, property and equipment at the core of the region’s wine industry. Climate change is spelling calamity for Napa Valley. July 19, 2021.

Analysis: EU forces pace on carbon cuts, challenges others to follow 7/15/2021

Analysis: EU forces pace on carbon cuts, challenges others to follow

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian contributes to this article about how the European Union is using its heft as a wealthy trade bloc of half a billion consumers to set the global pace of climate change action, challenging others to match the ambitions of its latest carbon cutting plans. The question now is whether the EU gambit becomes an established benchmark upon which investors and sectors like the auto industry set transition strategies and how big emitters like the United States and China respond ahead of UN climate talks later this year. July 15, 2021.

Colorado a hotbed of oil, gas deals, but what does that mean for industry’s future? 7/15/2021

Colorado a hotbed of oil, gas deals, but what does that mean for industry’s future?

Payne Institute Fellow Brad Handler contributed to this article about how two of the biggest mergers in the oil and gas industry this year took place in Colorado, helping make the second quarter of 2021 one of the hottest periods for deals in the past couple of years. Bonanza Creek’s acquisition of Extraction Oil and Gas, both Colorado companies, was one of seven deals nationwide valued at more than $1 billion, according to a new report by Enverus. Civitas Resources, which formed after the merger of Bonanza Creek and Extraction, then acquired Denver-based Crestone Peak Resources for $1.3 billion. July 15, 2021.

Critically exploring the future of gaseous energy carriers 7/14/2021

Critically exploring the future of gaseous energy carriers

Payne Institute Fellow Dolf Gielen and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how opinions are divided if natural gas is a boon or bane in the context of climate change mitigation. This article explores the arguments around what role this fuel, and so called “green gas” will play in a future energy mix. The analysis splits the natural gas resource from the associated infrastructure, and argues that the pipeline infrastructure may have an important role to play in the transition. Green gas has emerged as a solution that may play an important role in the future, provided costs can be reduced further. Both “green” and “blue” hydrogen, as well as biomethane are explored in this context. July 14, 2021.

Fit for 55 marks Europe’s climate moment of truth 7/14/2021

Fit for 55 marks Europe’s climate moment of truth

Payne Institute Fellow Simone Tagliapietra writes about how the European Commission’s long-awaited ‘Fit for 55’ package, intended to facilitate a European Union greenhouse gas emissions cut of 55% by 2030 compared to 1990, has as its core mission to turn the 2020s into a transformative decade for climate action. If agreed and implemented, the Fit for 55 proposals would both deepen and broaden the decarbonisation of Europe’s economy to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Without the package, under current EU climate legislation, Europe will only achieve a 60% emissions reduction by 2050. July 14, 2021.

ROLLING BACK TRUMP’S METHANE RULES ISN’T ENOUGH: WE NEED A METHANE TAX TO BUY TIME TO DECARBONIZE 7/12/2021

ROLLING BACK TRUMP’S METHANE RULES ISN’T ENOUGH: WE NEED A METHANE TAX TO BUY TIME TO DECARBONIZE

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Ben Gilbert, Mark Agerton, and Jim Krane write about how global CO2 releases have risen by more than 50% since 1992, the year of the U.N.’s first climate summit. Three decades of failure show that stanching CO2 emissions is arguably the toughest collective problem humanity has ever faced. While taming carbon is crucial, that process shouldn’t delay Americans from choking off emissions of a much more powerful greenhouse gas: methane. July 12, 2021.

Managed Recovery

Payne Institute Fellow Brad Handler has prepared a quarterly report on how the U.S. public oil and natural gas ( O&G) extraction companies continue to focus on spending less, through a combination of realizing efficiencies and growing more slowly. Consistent with this, more O&G companies are making specific commitments to use their profits to pay dividends to shareholders ( and to lowering carbon emissions) in an effort to “win back” investors. The future for the U.S O&G industry appears likely to include higher productivity, propelling further recovery in produced volumes but using fewer workers and concentrating in the most prolific basins. June 21, 2021.

Category: The Future of Oil and Gas