Angelle talks offshore, World Petroleum Congress next week, a “dainty falcon”

Dec 03, 2021

Scott Angelle on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, I'm at the World Petroleum Congress next week, and a dainty falcon

It was great to take some time off last week, but there’s been no time for goofing off this week. On Tuesday, I was in Odessa talking to an industry group about the challenges facing oil and gas producers with regard to methane and CO2 emissions. It was interesting to hear from operators about what’s happening in the Permian Basin and how they are being affected by the Biden Administration’s regulatory onslaught. If the amount of truck traffic around Midland and Odessa is a leading indicator, then it’s clear that despite new regulations, the boom in the region is definitely on. Indeed, the Permian, which is probably the most-drilled province in the world, continues to be the hottest play in the global hydrocarbon sector. On Wednesday, I drove back to Austin. Yesterday, I did a virtual presentation to my friends at the American Public Power Association. Today, I’m in Denver for some meetings. Four items today.

Scott Angelle on the podcast talking hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico
I’m in Houston next Wednesday speaking at the World Petroleum Congress
Fox 26 Houston TV hit regarding ERCOT reforms
An American Kestrel at Commons Ford Ranch Metropolitan Park

Note: The photo of the American Kestrel above was taken by Charles J. Sharp in 2016.

Scott Angelle: Higher oil prices are "a self-inflicted wound"

From 2017 to 2021, Scott Angelle was the director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, an agency in the Department of Interior which regulates the operations of the energy industry on the US Outer Continental Shelf. In this episode, Angelle, a native of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, talks about the enormous volumes of hydrocarbons that are produced in the Gulf of Mexico, how Louisiana is different from the rest of the country, and why we should be producing more oil and gas here instead of asking OPEC and Russia to “give us the energy we need to fuel our country.”

Angelle is proud of his Cajun roots. He said that Lousiana is different from the rest of the US and that “we are proud of the vibe that we have. We are proud of that difference. We embrace it, you hear it in our voice, you enjoy it at our dinner table. And when we bring you out to the dance hall, when we bring you out to the dance oh, you have a hard keeping up with us.”

Angelle was also clear about why the US should be producing more oil. He said that higher oil prices that have occurred under the Biden administration are a “self-inflicted wound. This is a supply problem that we have in this country. We vilified producers. We vilify producers in a way that we haven’t vilified an industry since the days of prohibition. And when you vilify an industry, capital is going to be withdrawn. There is such an underinvestment in the oil and gas exploration business right now in this country...rather than calling for more Gulf of Mexico production, we go to OPEC. It’s just ridiculous.”

Scott was full of fire and a great guest. Please give the episode a listen and share it.

Touching down in Houston next Wednesday

Next Wednesday, I will be speaking on a panel at the World Petroleum Congress in Houston. This will be the third WPC I’ve attended. In 2005, while working for the now-defunct Energy Tribune, I attended the WPC in Johannesburg, and in 2008, I was in Madrid for the 19th WPC.

What’s remarkable about the WPC is that it is dedicated to the oil sector. Love it or hate it, the oil sector is one of the world’s biggest industries. And as Art Berman has famously said, “oil is the economy.” What impressed me in Johannesburg and Madrid was the vast scale of the event and the throngs of people who attend. In Madrid, I attended a briefing by the Iranian delegation on their plans to provide natural gas into the European market. Of course, that hasn’t happened. But it was enormously interesting to talk to the Iranians about what is happening in their country and to learn how they view the world. According to the organizers, they are expecting energy ministers from about 20 different countries to attend the meeting. The WPC also attracts the leaders of all of the national oil companies as well as the investor-owned oil companies.

Despite the importance of oil to the domestic and global economies, it appears Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will not be attending the WPC in Houston. Granholm had plenty of time to fly to Glasgow for the COP 26 meeting, but it seem her schedule won’t allow her to travel to Houston for the WPC. Perhaps she decided to stay in Washington for a few days to catch up on some remedial energy classes, including a session devoted to explaining how many barrels of oil the US consumes. (For the record, Ms. Granholm, that number, according to your colleagues at the Energy Information Administration, is about 18 million barrels per day.)

At the WPC, I will be on a panel that is captioned “Perception Of The Energy Industry: Creating A Future Vision.” The other panelists will be my friend Alex Epstein, the author of the Moral Case For Fossil Fuels, and Jonathan Chavez, the co-founder and Chief Analytics Officer of SocialSphere.

If you are in town, come down to the event. Our panel is at 2:45p on Wednesday, the 8th. The entire program for the WPC is here.

I had a brief appearance on Fox 26 TV in Houston on Wednesday talking about the fragilization of the Texas grid. My comments, made to ace reporter Greg Groogan, were largely the same that I’ve been making since February: that the state’s grid is being undermined by the headlong rush to add renewable energy capacity. Earlier this year, some 35,000 megawatts of renewable capacity were in the interconnection queue for ERCOT.

That number may be too low. A September article in the Dallas Morning News put the figure even higher, saying the “queue of project proposals suggests that an additional 91,000 megawatts of solar generation, 33,000 MW of battery storage and 23,000 MW of wind generation are being considered for development,” in ERCOT. That’s a staggering amount of capacity given that in 2020, ERCOT had about 104,000 megawatts of installed generation capacity of all types (coal, gas, nuclear, hydro, etc.)

Whatever is next for ERCOT, it's clear the state's electricity market is in dire need of reform and that the state needs to rethink the headlong rush to renewables.

A “dainty falcon” at Commons Ford Ranch

It’s been a while since I’ve seen an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). Thus, it was a welcome event to see one last Friday at Commons Ford Ranch Park in Austin, a place that has become one of my favorite birding spots. (Note the photo of the male American Kestrel above was taken by Greg Hume in 2006.) I may have been surprised to see it, but according to another birder at the park, the Kestrel we saw has been a resident of the park for several years. Nevertheless, I was glad to see it for several reasons. We didn’t see many other birds that day. Yes, we saw some Blue Jays, Scrub Jays, and some Song Sparrows, but the trees and fields in the park were mostly quiet that afternoon. Another reason I was happy to see it was that Lorin and I were birding with our pals, Bob and Susan, who are relatively new to birding. I like birdwatching for lots of reasons, but one of the real joys of it is the thrill of introducing other people to the sport. As I recall, after finishing for the day, Bob told me something to the effect of, “I never knew that looking at birds could be so relaxing.” Yes, it’s relaxing and stimulating. It’s also a purposeful way to spend time outdoors and to see wildlife. Birds, are, as Roger Tory Peterson told me three decades ago, "a vivid expression of life."

The iBird app describes the Kestrel as “a dainty falcon with two distinct black facial stripes and rust-brown tail and back.” Meanwhile, Allaboutbirds says this:

North America’s littlest falcon, the American Kestrel packs a predator’s fierce intensity into its small body. It's one of the most colorful of all raptors: the male’s slate-blue head and wings contrast elegantly with his rusty-red back and tail; the female has the same warm reddish on her wings, back, and tail. Hunting for insects and other small prey in open territory, kestrels perch on wires or poles, or hover facing into the wind, flapping and adjusting their long tails to stay in place. It continues, “Unlike humans, birds can see ultraviolet light. This enables kestrels to make out the trails of urine that voles, a common prey mammal, leave as they run along the ground. Like neon diner signs, these bright paths may highlight the way to a meal.”

Wikipedia has this entry:

also called the sparrow hawk, [the Kestrel], is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of a Blue Jay to a Mourning Dove. It also ranges to South America and is a well-established species that has evolved into 17 subspecies adapted to different environments and habitats throughout the Americas. It exhibits sexual dimorphism in size (females being moderately larger) and plumage, although both sexes have a rufous back with noticeable barring. Its plumage is colorful and attractive, and juveniles are similar in plumage to adults.

I hope you have a great weekend.

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