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Big Oil Asks U.S. Supremes to Shut Down Lawsuits re Global Warming
A coalition of major oil companies is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on a key aspect of numerous ongoing nationwide lawsuits filed by cities, counties, and states. The lawsuits by multiple “blue” states and cities accuse Big Oil companies of deceiving the public about their role in causing mythical manmade global warming. The companies being targeted are the biggest of the big, with deep pockets. It’s nothing more than elaborate shakedown. Sunoco, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and others have asked the Supremes to intervene in a climate case filed against them by the City and County of Honolulu. The case serves as an important precedent for a number of other cases.
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In December 2019, New York Attorney General Tish James and her highly-paid associates were thoroughly, completely, 100% humiliated in court when their case against Exxon Mobil, accusing the company of screwing shareholders by keeping secret knowledge they are toasting Mom Earth, was itself toast (see 
There’s been a lot of news coming from the UN COP28 climate event in Dubai. In some respects, we feel like it’s a firehose of news about leftists targeting fossil energy (even though the event is being hosted by the CEO of a fossil fuel company). COP28 runs from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, so we will bring you important news from the event in due course. Today, we focus on one bit of news: Some 50 oil and gas companies from around the world, representing 40% of global oil production, launched a new initiative called the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter (OGDC). EQT Corporation is one of the 50 participants.
Looking for a great job in the oil and gas industry? From apprentices and graduate opportunities to highly skilled professionals in IT and technology, sales and marketing, finance, upstream, and trading, bioenergy, EV charging, hydrogen… even so-called renewables and power — six oil and gas supermajors are hiring. They include BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and (yes, even our enemy) Saudi Aramco. They all want new employees. Find out more below.
Do you know what the single most responsible force was in liberating the United States from the grip of the dictator thugs of OPEC? Independent shale oil companies. Over the past decade, companies like EOG Resources, Apache, Continental Resources, Concho Resources, and Pioneer Resources broke the grip of OPEC over U.S. oil supplies. Pioneer, as we told you yesterday, has agreed to sell itself to Exxon Mobile for $64.5 billion (see 
Sometimes, news comes along in the oil and gas world that is so big, even when it doesn’t directly involve the Marcellus/Utica, we feel a responsibility to report it. Today is one of those days. The rumor mill has been swirling for weeks that Exxon Mobil is interested in buying Pioneer Natural Resouces, the number one producer in the Permian Basin. Exxon is currently the number five Permian producer. This morning, a deal was announced. Exxon is buying Pioneer in an all-stock deal valued at $59.5 billion, plus assuming $5 billion in debt, for a total deal value of $64.5 billion.
ExxonMobil recently published “The Global Outlook,” the company’s latest view of energy demand and supply through 2050. The document forms the basis for Exxon’s business planning and is “underpinned by a deep understanding of long-term market fundamentals.” Exxon is making short-term decisions based on this long-term document. And what does this document say? It says, contrary to the fantasies of leftists, that fossil energy (petroleum, natural gas, and coal) will still make up 68% of the world’s energy sources in 2050, some 30 years from now. That’s down from 82% today. Oil and gas by themselves will provide 54% of the world’s energy in 2050. O&G is still the one.
An Exxon Mobil executive told the Nikkei news service his company is looking to nearly double the volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) it is handling to more than 40 million tons per annum (MTPA) by 2030. Exxon currently handles roughly 22 MTPA now. The company plans to invest in LNG projects, offshore oil in Guyana and South America, and in U.S. shale (the Permian). What about the Marcellus/Utica?
Exxon Mobil Corporation announced it is buying Denbury Inc., a developer of carbon capture, utilization, and storage solutions and enhanced oil recovery, for $4.9 billion in an all-stock transaction. Denbury currently focuses on the Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountain region. Presumably, Exxon plans to expand Denbury’s technology to other regions, including the Marcellus/Utica.
The biggest of the Big Oil companies, including Shell, Chevron, and Exxon Mobil, are making it quite clear that natural gas is here for decades to come. Leftists tried to sell the B.S. line that natural gas is a “short-term bridge to greener energy sources.” When that lie began to fall apart, leftists got agitated and began to sputter nonsense about natgas being a whole lot dirtier than anybody thought. Again, their lies are falling on deaf ears–at least the ears of Big Oil. Unless the left can bully the world’s biggest governments into destroying some of the biggest companies in the world–oil and gas companies–the only opinion that matters is that of the oil companies themselves because they are the ones who will (or will not) do more drilling.
Earlier this month, we noticed a short Bloomberg article about a stray comment made by Exxon Mobile CEO Darren Woods. He was speaking at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference held on June 1 in New York City. Woods said he has tasked the brainiacs who work for Exxon to figure out a way to improve fracking, which (Woods said), is still “not well understood.” Woods wants to double oil recovery from fracked wells. Folks, doubling oil (and gas!) recovery via fracking would launch the second shale revolution!
Hydrogen energy is the new savior that will keep the world from toasting itself out of existence. So goes the current faddish meme. But not just any old hydrogen (or H2) can be used. No, no, no! Hydrogen has to be “low carbon” hydrogen (i.e. produced by means that is low or no-carbon), or it is persona non grata. It reminds us of when “low fat” was all the rage in diets–until it wasn’t. But we digress… The Open Hydrogen Initiative (OHI) was convened earlier this year to measure and map the emissions footprint of “clean” (low or no-CO2) hydrogen. Earlier this week, a number of prominent energy companies joined OHI, including EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. (focused 100% on the Marcellus/Utica).
What can we say? Once again, the Democrat Party is trying to demonize fossil fuels and is going after “Big Oil,” proposing insanely high new taxes on a handful of oil companies because, for a single year (2022), they have actually made some money. All money and profits belong to the government in the left’s twisted worldview. A cabal of seven Senators led by Sen. Robert Menendez from New Jersey has launched this latest attack against our industry.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” New Jersey is attempting to abridge the freedom of speech for Exxon Mobil, Shell Oil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute (API). NJ has sued those entities claiming they knew that the products they manufacture and promote (oil and gas) have caused global warming and that these entities have lied, and continue to lie, about knowing. NJ wants to muzzle the right of the API and Exxon, et al., to freely defend themselves and stick up for fossil energy, claiming to do so endangers the public and harms the residents of NJ. It’s the most outlandish thing you’ve ever heard.