Energy Matters Vol. 28, 2021

Energy Matters© is a series of publications created by Chris Sladen for the Australia, New Zealand & Mexico Business Council (ANZMEX). Chris has a long association with ANZMEX and is the mind behind the creation of the ANZMEX Energy Debate Series© and provides periodic insights via the publication of his Energy Matters. Our aim is that this series will keep readers well informed and develop a deeper understanding of one of the most important commercial sectors for Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.

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ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 28 - Staying smart

5 January 2021
By Chris Sladen

No sooner has the year-end report for 2020 been submitted, now your bosses are clamouring for your 2021 performance contract! As we head into 2021, I have been wondering whether to change the title of Energy Matters to Really Matters.

This is because 2021 will be all about what really matters – in the short term. What really matters is that staff are tired, battle-weary and run ragged by the pandemic, anxious and unsure about the future, their future, their kids future; there is no point bombarding staff with an impossible-to-achieve performance contract.

Energy Matters Vol. 21 - 27, 2020

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 27 - Time for a recount

1 December 2020
By Chris Sladen

If you have not yet started your end-of-year report for head office or Board of Directors, I understand. So much has changed in 2020, there was so much impact, perhaps you maybe don’t know where to start? Soon we will all be looking back and remembering this as the year in which everything changed. During 2020, every energy company on the planet reviewed their operating model one way or another. It was also the year in which a new vocabulary took hold.

Here are my ‘Top 10’ energy terms and phrases that characterised 2020. This new vocabulary has become essential to know...

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 26 - Talking with the CEOs

2 November 2020
By Chris Sladen

I don’t know about you but during all these lockdowns I talk to myself a lot more than in the past. Conversations that took place years ago, repeat over and over again in my head. And I have many strange dreams, definitely more than I used to.

I had a grand plan to interview 4 or 5 CEOs from big oil companies who had committed to Net Zero carbon emissions and then write an article that compares their answers and insights. But I kept getting fobbed off. My Zoom appointments were always getting bounced, so in the end I decided to do a live interview with just myself. Plus I could do the whole thing in my pyjamas. Here is what happened...

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 25 - Pause for thought

26 October 2020
By Chris Sladen

Britain’s most popular radio program each morning carries a short feature, known as ‘Pause for thought’. In one format or another, the feature has been on the radio over 75 years and lasts about 3 minutes. It is meant to be a moment to reflect on life, the things people do, learn the consequences, and how to lead a fulfilling life. There are usually more than 10 million listeners each day; the overarching objective is to create a more caring society, to make the world a better place.

When people started using hydrocarbons over 150 years ago there was no pause for thought.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 24 - Who wants to be a millionaire?
21 September 2020
By Chris Sladen

In 1956, the year I was born, Cole Porter wrote the song ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’. Made famous by Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm, the singers decide they prefer not to be wealthy and instead prefer just to have each other – meaningful relationships are worth more than money. Decades later the song title helped inspire the creation of a hugely popular TV game show. To win the show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’, you need to correctly answer 15 multiple choice questions in a row.

What would happen if all the questions on the TV show were energy related?

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 23 - Food for thought
8 September 2020
By Chris Sladen

Ready to face a dinner party or barbecue? With lockdowns, shielding and a general reluctance to eat out for many months, like me, you are probably contemplating a nervous return to the dinner party circuit or the pitfalls of an autumn evening barbecue with your boss and their team....

With so much happening across the energy sector in the last 6 months, here are some top tips and facts to see you safely through the evening:

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 22 - Blowin' in the wind
17 August 2020
By Chris Sladen

No this is not an article about the merits of wind turbines, nor is it about 1960s pop culture. But is about oil companies that wish to change course and reinvent themselves.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 21 - Now, how's that?
27 July 2020

By Chris Sladen

I had been making good progress of late during lockdown even though I have trouble sleeping. I had started to get my head around the new world of energy in which hydrogen is king, supported by solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and nuclear.

Energy Matters Vol. 11 - 20, 2020

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 20 - What should I say to my kids?

15 July 2020
By Chris Sladen

My kids all know that I worked many years for a big oil company, and they know that burning oil makes a lot of pollution. My saving grace, as they often remind me, is that our gas station toilets were always cleaner than other oil companies. The message from that is very simple; young people know that clean is better.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 19 - What a difference a decade makes

29 June 2020
By Chris Sladen

The unforgettable song “What a Difference a Day Makes” was originally written by Mexican songwriter María Grever in 1934. Made world famous by Dinah Washington in 1959, it has endured dozens of re-recordings, at least once every decade. In energy matters, a decade is sufficient to see the impact on a country of policies, investment, technology, demographics and aspects of the energy transition.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 18 - Winning without fighting
15 June 2020
By Chris Sladen

It is often said that the best victory is when the opponent surrenders of their own accord.

The energy transition is a battle already won. With many of the largest oil companies committing to reinventing themselves as energy companies with zero net emissions by 2050 or earlier, the path is firmly set. A conflict that began in the mid-1990s about climate change and reducing emissions is decisively over. It never became a war.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 17 - A house divided?
27 May 2020

By Chris Sladen

With so much focus on the oil price and whether oil supply can be trimmed to match the much lower demand due to the pandemic, I take the opportunity to look elsewhere at the impacts of disruption in the energy sector. Can the pandemic mark a permanent shift in companies’ energy transition strategies? It offers a rare opportunity to reset the global energy narrative. With the daily flood of oil news, and stories of pandemic-related economic chaos, the four energy topics below have by-and-large failed to make media headlines.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 16 - Towards the end?
4 May 2020

By Chris Sladen

As the global economy continues to unravel at a frightening pace, and oil prices fall into previously unseen single digits per barrel and in some cases negative numbers, many readers have asked: Is this the end of the oil industry?

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 15 - What happens when the price is not right?
6 April 2020

By Chris Sladen

What are the consequences of the oil price collapse combined with the fast approaching global economic catastrophe? The oil price has collapsed over 50% since the start of 2020. The price has reached lows not seen since the turn of the century. We are possibly witnessing the world’s worst ever oil crisis with demand collapsing as deep recession begins. How can Mexico’s energy sector best survive? Just how ugly can it get? There are plenty of indicators from previous recessions, price falls and demand shrinkage.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 14 - Breakdown or breakthrough?
8 March 2020

By Chris Sladen

Sometimes, things need to collapse or fall apart so that something better can be built in its place. It is not a pretty thing when something that was created, perhaps over decades, and was very successful becomes no longer appropriate or successful. As it collapses, it is sad to see.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 13 - It’s not fair, so what?
27 February 2020

By Chris Sladen

The energy sector, the world’s largest industry, has millions of decisions to make every day. There are hundreds of thousands of meetings in meeting rooms every day. The industry is rife with pressurising, bullying, humiliation, discrimination, intimidation and retaliation.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 12 - Turning this tanker around

6 February 2020

By Chris Sladen

The energy transition is gathering pace and big oil and gas companies are in the crosshairs as culprits for climate change, representing Goliaths from a fast fading era. The effects of climate change are increasingly evident with extreme weather records broken around the world in 2019, and 18 of the last 19 years the warmest on record, and concentrations of greenhouses gases are the highest in millions of years.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 11 - Mexico’s new year energy wish list?

6 January 2020

By Chris Sladen

I received many messages in recent weeks from colleagues that said ‘Best wishes for 2020!’ So I replied to them by asking ‘What is your wish for Mexico’s energy sector in 2020?’

Energy Matters Vol. 1 - 10, 2019

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 10 - 2020 Vision; Staying focussed
19 November 2019
By Chris Sladen

I was asked the other day ‘What do I expect to happen in the energy sector next year?’ The following is my summary of key features anticipated in both the world of energy, and for energy in Mexico in 2020.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 9 – Something in the air
30 October 2019

By Chris Sladen

At the most recent ANZMEX energy debate, the key question in the room was ‘Can Mexico achieve zero net emissions?’ There was no doubt amongst the panellists and the audience that ‘yes, Mexico can achieve zero net emissions’ but that Mexico is not yet on the right path to reach this

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 8 – The times they are a changing?

11 September 2019
By Chris Sladen

It is inescapable that I was born in London. It was 1956 and it was a significant year in the world of energy. It was the year of the UK Clean Air Act. This was a UK government ban on burning coal in cities designed to eliminate smog.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 7 – Can a plan really capture the future?
24 July 2019
By Chris Sladen

There has been much attention from the media and analysts on the new 221-page Plan recently issued by Mexico’s State Oil company. For me though, it was a more general reminder that the beginning of August usually marks the start of the annual planning cycle in major oil companies and energy companies around the world.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 6 - If it is under the ground then it is not at the surface!

9 July 2019
By Chris Sladen

At a recent energy conference at the Institute of Americas, a leading reporter from Mexico asked me to explain how much investment was needed to meet the targets for oil and gas production? I said that a reasonable estimate would be slightly over US$ 40 billion every year. It is an extraordinary amount of money, more than double what is currently being spent by both the State and private companies together.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 5 - It’s in the bag!

20 May 2019
By Chris Sladen

A visit to any beach can reveal the growing problem of plastic. Mexico is certainly no exception. Its odds-on you will find some form of plastic litter.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 4 - ‘So close, but yet so far’

15 April 2019
By Chris Sladen

A long time close friend who runs a private equity fund that wants to invest in Mexico’s oil industry messaged me yesterday, saying: ‘My investment funds are ready, has the energy reform been progressing well?’

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 3 - Everyone’s doing it, right?

21 March 2019
By Chris Sladen

A colleague from a US independent oil & gas company called me up the other day. His company has made a fortune for itself in Texas by drilling and fracking shale gas wells and helping lead the ‘shale revolution’. He wanted some advice on shale gas in Mexico. The first thing he said was “Why is Mexico not doing it? We are all doing it”.

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 2 - Will oil production go up, or down?

6 February 2019
By Chris Sladen

A few days ago, a leading energy lawyer in Mexico sent me the latest crude oil production curve showing the expected daily production rate to 2024. The curve predicts that Mexico’s crude production will be much higher in 2024, by almost 1 million barrels per day (1mm bopd). The lawyer’s question to me was very simple. Will Mexico’s crude oil production in 2024 be much higher than it is today?

ENERGY MATTERS © VOL. 1 - Energy matters, really!

15 January, 2019
By Chris Sladen

Just the other day, a friend mentioned that energy security has been a topic in energy debates in Mexico over many years. Every time the topic was raised, he lamented that the audience reaction appeared to be ‘yes that is an interesting academic topic but Mexico has enormous oil & gas reserves so it is not really relevant to Mexico’.