Page 11 - Gi_April2021

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OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY IN friends and neighbours or in their cars.

Some took shelter in one of the state’s
“warming centers” — large facilities
TEXAS BUCKLES UNDER like convention centers or mega
churches that still had power and were
open to the public. About 2.9 million
STRAIN OF ARCTIC BLAST households went without power.
Facing a political backlash, Texas
governor Greg Abbott called for an
investigation into Ercot’s handling
of the blackouts, describing the grid
operator as “anything but reliable”.
Texas is by far the country’s largest
oil producer, and producers were
crippled by lost power, iced equipment,
frozen pipelines and impassable roads
that delayed repairs, analysts and
operators say.
While the oil industry operates reliably
in frigid climates from North Dakota to
Siberia, most Texas producers did not
make investments to weatherproof their
equipment for sustained subfreezing
temperatures, Parker Fawcett, an analyst
at S&P Global Platts, said.
MILLIONS OF TEXANS WERE LEFT Gas production in the US suffered
WITHOUT BASIC UTILITIES a “historic” disruption as wells and
pipelines froze and supply crashed
IN FEBRUARY, the oil and gas industry S&P Global Platts estimated that as by 17 billion cubic feet a day, mostly
in Texas buckled under the strain of a many as three million barrels a day of because of problems in Texas, forcing
blast of Arctic weather that disrupted oil output were affected. The Permian about 20 per cent of the nation’s total
a big pillar of the global energy market basin, one of the world’s largest oilfields gas supply offline, according to IHS
and sent crude prices to their highest that accounts for more than a quarter of Markit, a consultancy.
levels in more than a year. total US oil supply, was operating at well The sharp drop in natural gas supply
US oil prices topped $61 a barrel, the under half its normal capacity. fed a “negative feedback loop” that
highest level since last January, after Many Texans were left without power forced natural gas generators offline,
about half of the oil supply was knocked and heat for days amid the freezing resulting in further reduction in power
out in Texas, reports the Financial Times. snap and forced to seek refuge with supply and production, Fawcett said.

US PRESSURE DRIVES 18 EUROPEAN process control and monitoring
technology to the pipeline, for €15
COMPANIES AWAY FROM NORD STREAM 2 million. Contacted by EURACTIV, a
spokeswoman confirmed that the
activities had ceased, but added that
THE US GOVERNMENT is confident ended their activities just days after “the work has been completed.”
its sanctions against the Nord Stream the sanctions were imposed. This The other German company,
2 gas pipeline connecting Russia and suggests that they feared that they the insurance company München
Germany will have an impact. would soon be affected themselves. Re, confirmed that the contractual
In a document obtained by The US government has exerted relationship had been terminated.
EURACTIV Germany, the State direct pressure on some of the Both companies declined to
Department lists 18 European companies, a spokesperson for the comment on why they had ended their
companies that have already ended German Eastern Business Association contracts.
their cooperation with the project. told EURACTIV Germany, explaining
The document is a progress report that the US embassies had contacted
on sanctions and must be submitted the companies directly.
to Congress as a matter of protocol. The European Union does not
So far, only one US sanction has need the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for
come into effect and it did not impact its energy security but any decision
any of the 18 companies directly. to stop the project carrying Russian
Instead, it targeted the Russian natural gas to Germany would have to
pipe-laying vessel ‘Fortuna’ and the come from Berlin, a senior European
operating company, KVT-RUS. Commission said. SEVERAL COMPANIES HAVE ENDED
Sixteen of the 18 companies One of them, Bilfinger, supplied THEIR COOPERATION WITH THE PROJECT

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