Bird of Prey Spotted in U.S. For the First Time, Drawing Crowds to Texas

Meghan Overdeep
Thu, February 17, 2022

Bat falcon

©Juan Carlos Vindas/Getty Images

A small bird of prey native to Mexico and Central America is making headlines after its apparent decision to spend the winter in Texas.

The now-famous bat falcon was spotted for the first time at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo around Thanksgiving. According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), this is the first recorded time that a bat falcon has ever been seen in the U.S.

Based on the bird's "buff-cinnamon throat and crest bars," officials determined that it was a juvenile, while "the thickness of the tarsus and beak" indicate that it's a male.

Peter Witt told KSAT that he and his wife visited the refuge on the Mexico border specifically to see the bird.

"We could see him fly off from a tree shag perch, skim the lake, grab an insect and return to chow down, then rest a bit and repeat. We watched him for about 20 minutes... a wonderful and unique experience," he told the local news station.

USFWS shared Witt's photos of the bird on its Facebook page this week.

Joe Barnett, USFWS deputy refuge manager for the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, told Border Report that about 4,000 birders have come to the refuge since the bat falcon was first spotted.

"Somebody even came from Europe, so it's drawing a lot of attention. People coming just to see this bird," Barnett said. "It's always awesome to see something you're not expecting to see."

Builders find 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery in Gaza



Thu, February 17, 2022
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - A 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery containing at least 20 ornately decorated graves has been uncovered near the shoreline in the northern Gaza Strip, with the antiquities ministry calling it the most important local discovery of the past decade.

Gaza is rich with antiquities having been an important trading spot for many civilisations, from as far back as the ancient Egyptians and the Philistines depicted in the Bible, through the Roman empire and the crusades.

Ruins discovered there include the remains of a siege by Alexander the Great as well as a Mongol invasion.

Twenty Roman graves have been located so far and the team expect to unearth 80 in total within the 50-square-meter cemetery. Only two graves have been opened, one contained skeletal remains and some clay jars.

Because of the shape of the graves and the relatively ornate decorations, they likely belonged to "senior ranking people" in the Roman empire during the first century, said Jamal Abu Rida, director-general of Gaza's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Unlike Muslim graves from later periods that face north to south, the Roman graves lie east to west, he said.

"We have made several discoveries in the past, this is the most important archaeological discovery in the past 10 years," said Abu Rida.

The area is closed off to journalists and the public while the site is organised and made safe for visitors, the ministry said.

The site, which is being supervised by a French team of experts, was found by a construction crew working on an Egyptian-funded housing project. When they came upon some of the cemetery's large, ancient bricks, they stopped work and called in the archaeologists.

Gaza is run by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which has fought four wars with Israel since 2008.

The conflict has crippled the local economy and authorities usually engage international groups to help excavate and preserve archaeological findings, said Abu Rida.

(Writing by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Alison Williams)

NOT A CHUBACABRA

DNA Test Finally Reveals What Emaciated 'Mystery Animal' Is After It Was Rescued Last Month


unidentified animal

Dan Heching
Wed, February 16, 2022, 

An animal rehabilitation center in western Pennsylvania has released the findings of a DNA test for a rescued critter brought in to the center last month.

"The results are in!" the agency wrote on its Facebook page on Monday. "Our 'mystery animal' DNA sample came back, 100% coyote!"

The Youngwood-based organization began treating the then-unidentified creature on Jan. 17, after a woman in Fairfield Township found paw prints outside her home that led her to an emaciated, freezing animal.

At first, the woman kept the animal in her basement until TJ's Rescue Hideaway, a local foster-based rescue, could transport it to Wildlife Works.

RELATED: Rescue Awaits DNA Results to Help Identify Emaciated Animal Under Their Care: 'Dog or Coyote?'

No one at Wildlife Works, a wildlife rehab, could identify the animal species with certainty because of the creature's poor health and physical appearance.

The staff then took samples from the animal for DNA testing to determine what species is under their care, the results of which were revealed this week.

"What do you think I am, dog or coyote?" Wildlife Works wrote with a photo of the animal on Facebook in January. "This pup was admitted to us last night. Suspect it has mange and we will be treating it accordingly. We also will be doing testing to confirm what it is!"

Morgan Barron of Wildlife Works told WPXI at the time that the animal was "very timid, very scared and not aggressive" and that this behavior led her to believe the creature was a dog.

"I honestly can't definitively say what it is, but to err on the side of caution, since they can carry rabies and since it might be a coyote ... [we will] get genetic testing done and go from there," Barron added.

In another update since finding the animal, the rehab center shared the animal's progress while awaiting test results. "We are overwhelmed and thankful for all the love and support this guy is getting! Thank you to everyone that has donated and shared his story," the facility wrote on Jan. 24.

"We did not expect his story to get as big as it did, but we are thankful for the awareness it has given to wildlife rehabilitation. With that being said, we are still waiting for the results of the DNA sample to come in," Wildlife Works added. "He is doing much better now and is much more alert than when he came to us last week. He is still not showing extreme signs of aggression but is more on the defensive side."

However, before the center got the DNA results back to identify the coyote, it escaped. It has not been located.

Mysterious yellow plastic strands on Cape Cod beaches leads to explosive revelation

Eric Williams, Cape Cod Times
Fri, February 18, 2022, 2:58 AM·4 min read

When a veteran beach clean-up expert noticed a bloom of yellow plastic tubing along Outer Cape strands, she began to ask questions.

"I had never seen it before," said Laura Ludwig, manager of the Center for Coastal Studies Marine Debris and Plastics Program. "Where was it coming from?"

Thus began a journey to unravel the stringy mystery. Ludwig first encountered the tubing in September 2021 at Long Point in Provincetown during a beach clean-up. During the days that followed, more of the plastic was picked off beaches in Outer Cape towns.

"It was mind-blowing how much of the stuff there was," she said in a recent phone interview.

An example of the explosive shock tubing, made of plastic, that has been washing up on beaches on Cape Cod and beyond.

The yellow tubing has a thin rope-like appearance, and continues to wash up on Cape Cod beaches in varying lengths, from very short (1 millimeter) to 90 feet. Ludwig said it has been found on beaches in Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Orleans, Brewster and Yarmouth. It has also been found on beaches in Hull, Scituate and beyond.

"I found a piece in Newport, Rhode Island last week," said Ludwig.
Where is the plastic washing up on Cape shores coming from?

So far, Ludwig's beach cleanups and other volunteer efforts have plucked more than 2,000 feet of the tubing from Cape beaches.

Picking up beach debris is no easy task, but determining where it came from can also be a tall order. Because of its sudden appearance, Ludwig figured the tubing must have been related to a new situation, perhaps a recent project or unusual occurrence. She reached out to beach debris colleagues, asking for assistance on the mystery.

One of those colleagues posted a picture of the tubing on Facebook.

According to Ludwig, someone from the United Kingdom said it looked similar to material used in blasting rocks in quarries.

This explosive theory led Ludwig to reach out to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to see if similar tubing had been used in projects in the region.

The answer, according to Ludwig was "yes."

A length of explosive shock tubing alongside a Sharpie pen gives an idea of its thickness.

The tubing on the beaches came from a Boston Harbor dredging project that began in June 2021 and concluded in January 2022.

Known as explosive shock tubing, the yellow plastic strand is used to transmit a signal to explosives. In this case, the explosives were underwater, placed to break up rocks as the harbor channel was deepened.

According to Ludwig, the contractor involved with the project did have a containment strategy, with vessels on the surface picking up the tubing as it floated to the surface, but some escaped, likely mixed in with rocky debris.

Photo gallery: Sandwich Boardwalk damaged by storm

Ludwig said both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the contractor are seeking ways to improve containment on future projects. To deal with the current situation, Ludwig is organizing a beach clean-up along the Boston Harbor shoreline in collaboration with the Corps and the contractor.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not immediately respond to a phone message and email seeking comment about the debris.

According to a press release from the Center for Coastal Studies, "the shock tube is made out of low‐density polyethylene (the same plastic used to make grocery bags) and is considered safe for humans to touch. But many of the pieces are small enough for birds or other animals to eat and can create health problems if ingested."

PFAS in lobsters? Another sign these harmful compounds are everywhere, researchers say

Cape Cod beachcombers may recall a somewhat similar situation in 2011, when a New Hampshire wastewater treatment plant accidentally released millions of small plastic discs, with many ending up on area beaches. Ludwig said she still finds those disks along Cape beaches.

Ludwig is working with oceanographers at the Center for Coastal Studies and NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole on drift models that may help predict where the tubing will come ashore. She is also asking for help from people who find the tubing on the beach.

Reports of shock tube location and length can be emailed to Ludwig at lludwig@coastalstudies.org.

'Things are worse': Cape Cod water quality is declining, says environmental group's report

Over the years, Ludwig has become more concerned over the amount of plastic in our region's waters and on the beaches.

"These are things that never go away," she said. "We find plastic lobster trap tags from the 1990s."

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Plastic tubing washing up on Cape Cod beaches likely from Boston

Exclusive-Ericsson informed U.S. DoJ in 2019 about Iraq probe - sources

Supantha Mukherjee
Thu, February 17, 2022

A general view of an exterior of the Ericsson headquarters in Stockholm


STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Ericsson informed the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) about an internal investigation into payments in Iraq when it signed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) in 2019 to settle separate corruption probes, sources familiar with the matter said.

The Swedish company's shares fell 14% on Wednesday over concerns that it might be subject to another fine by the DoJ following the disclosure of its Iraq investigation that found evidence of misconduct.


One of Ericsson's largest shareholders, Cevian Capital, told Reuters the company's actions were "unacceptable" after disclosure that some payments made in Iraq may have reached militant organisations, including Islamic State.

"The information that has now emerged is serious and the company’s actions are, of course, unacceptable," Christer Gardell, Cevian's managing partner and co-founder said in a statement to Reuters.

"As we understand the situation, the DoJ was informed about the internal investigation at the time of the so-called Deferred Prosecution Agreement, and Ericsson losing almost SEK 50 billion in market value yesterday is a strong overreaction," he said.

The DoJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

An Ericsson spokesman said it does not comment on dialogue with the U.S. authorities under the terms of its DPA.

Analysts said if Ericsson had not shared its findings with the DoJ, this could have posed serious financial risks for the company.

'OLD MISMANAGEMENT'

Ericsson went through several rounds of restructuring over the past decade and it faced a U.S. investigation into its anti-corruption programme.

"What has emerged with the 'Iraqi situation' is a remnant of this old mismanagement, " Cevian's Gardell said.

Swedish investment company Investor AB and Industrivarden are two of the largest investors in Ericsson with big voting rights and a say on how the company is operated.

An Investor AB spokeswoman said Ericsson's Board and management had its full support. Industrivarden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ericsson started to turn around under CEO Borje Ekholm, who had served for a decade as CEO of the Wallenberg family-backed investment firm Investor AB.

"The company today takes these issues very seriously and has invested significant resources in solving the historical problems and ensuring that no new issues arise," Gardell said. "It needs to urgently address the remaining complexity and loss making businesses to help reduce such mismanagement in the future."

Ericsson's shares have doubled in the last five years, but Gardell thinks the valuation is still low. Cevian, which started investing in Ericsson in 2017, currently holds around a 4.55% stake based on stock market disclosures.

"With a valuation below 8x 2022's expected operating profit, the company is one of the cheapest large caps in Europe," Gardell said.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, European Technology & Telecoms Correspondent, based in Stockholm. Editing by Jane Merriman)

Fertilizer Markets Roiled by Belarus Potash Force Majeure


Elizabeth Elkin, Jen Skerritt and Tarso Veloso Ribeiro

Thu, February 17, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- A Belarusian potash miner that accounts for a major chunk of global supply has declared force majeure, shaking up a market that’s already contending with soaring prices.

JSC Belaruskali said around Feb. 16 that it won’t be able to meet its contracts, according to a letter from an exporter addressed to clients seen by Bloomberg. U.S. and European sanctions have also resulted in a halt of shipments.

The absence of Belarusian supplies will have big consequences. Potash is a key nutrient for major commodity crops like corn and soybeans, as well as produce. Fertilizer prices have already skyrocketed as soaring natural gas costs forced some European plants to halt or curtail production, and U.S. spot prices for potash in the Corn Belt have nearly doubled in the last year. Expensive fertilizer is making food more costly to produce and contributing to rising global inflation for consumers.

“Global potash contracts have settled at the highest price since 2008, ensuring another year of pricey inputs for farmers and strong earnings for producers,” Alexis Maxwell, an analyst Green Markets, a company owned by Bloomberg, said in an email. “U.S. sanctions on Belarus eliminated a key competitor” with no readily available alternative supplier.

Read More: U.S. Potash Sanctions May Push Belarus Deeper into Putin’s Arms

Belarus exports about 10-12 million metric tons annually, according to Green Markets data. The country accounts for about a fifth of global supply. It’s a major shipper to Brazil, as well as to India and China.

The U.S. Sanctions against Belaruskali OAO, Belarus's only potash miner, came into force on Dec 8, while penalties against Belarusian Potash Company, that exports all the potash from the country, should become effective April 1.

The sanctions may result in shifting trade flows and some demand rationing, Nutrien Ltd.’s interim Chief Executive Officer Ken Seitz said in an interview. Customers who have historically purchased from Belarus are trying to secure supplies elsewhere. For example, Russia is doubling fertilizer quantities offered to Brazil, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said during an interview to Radio Jovem Pan Thursday.

Nutrien has an additional half million tons of capacity that would be available in the latter half of 2022 if needed, Seitz said. Grower margins are strong, so higher potash prices won’t result in less demand.

The company could also ramp up potash output, but first, it would need to see a prolonged impact on the market for “years” to bring on additional sustained capacity, Seitz said. Nutrien increased its potash capacity by 1 million tons in 2021 and additional volumes are expected to come online in 2022 from other companies, he said.

“We’re not standing around saying we’re not doing anything,” Seitz said, noting the company doesn’t want to be left with additional cost if supply challenges go away quickly. “We are bringing on volumes.”

Nutrien anticipates global potash shipments will be between 68 million tons and 71 million tons in 2022.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

KAPITALI$M IS KRISIS
Allianz Hedge Fund Implosion Results in $4.2 Billion Charge

Stephan Kahl
Fri, February 18, 2022


(Bloomberg) -- The price tag for one of the biggest trading debacles during the pandemic-fueled market meltdown of early 2020 is beginning to emerge.

Allianz SE, facing multiple lawsuits and regulatory probes tied to the collapse that year of its Florida-based hedge funds, took an unprecedented, 3.7 billion-euro ($4.2 billion) charge to cover a settlement reached Friday morning with the vast majority of investors in the funds.

In a sign of more pain to come, the German insurance and financial-services firm, which also owns bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., warned that ongoing probes by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice are at a “sensitive” stage and that it couldn’t yet estimate the final price tag.

“There are still ongoing conversations with remaining plaintiffs,” Chief Financial Officer Giulio Terzariol said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Friday. “We are in conversations with the DOJ, and this conversation is very constructive.”

Investors -- including public pension funds, Blue Cross & Blue Shield and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority -- claimed they lost billions of dollars from the collapse of the hedge funds, which were designed to withstand a market crash yet incurred steep losses during the tumultuous early days of the pandemic. Allianz liquidated two of the vehicles in March 2020 and has been unwinding the others.

The lawsuits accuse Allianz of abandoning a stated investment mandate and downside risk protections of its Structured Alpha Funds, and then doubling down on risky strategies in an attempt to recoup losses during the market volatility -- a move that some plaintiffs derided as an “extraordinarily risky and self-interested gamble.”

In its defense, Allianz told a judge last year that the plaintiffs are sophisticated investors that chose high-risk private funds with open eyes.

Allianz, as a result of the one-time charge, posted a 292 million-euro loss for the fourth-quarter, overshadowing an otherwise strong rebound from the pandemic. The company also announced plans to repurchase as much as 1 billion euros of stock and proposed increasing the annual dividend 12.5% to 10.80 euros a share.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in a note. “However, management did mention that it expects to incur additional expenses before the matter is finally resolved, which does imply some litigation-related overhang to persist.”

Shares of the insurer fell 1.4% at 11:41 a.m. in Munich, paring gains this year to 5.7%.

Chief Executive Officer Oliver Baete told reporters that management would see a significant impact on compensation from the hedge fund debacle. He has been tying to persuade investors that the company is strong enough to shoulder the extra legal and regulatory costs, boosting the insurer’s medium-term performance targets last year.

The firm hadn’t set aside reserves earlier because it couldn’t estimate the price tag. In a Feb. 8 note to clients, Berenberg analysts pegged the total cost at 5.8 billion euros, describing the unresolved disputes as the “main overhang” for the company.

Allianz warned in August that the hedge funds’ implosion could “materially impact” earnings, after the Justice Department launched its probe into the funds, joining the fray with the SEC and investors, who alleged losses of about $6 billion.

Asset Management

In October, Allianz appointed the CEO of its life-insurance unit, Andreas Wimmer, as the head of asset management, succeeding Jackie Hunt. Wimmer indicated in an interview last month that the company plans to push further into alternative asset classes and continue its focus on active fund management.

Senior executives have remained supportive of the unit that offered the funds, Allianz Global Investors, while pledging to take a close look at its product offerings. Of the roughly 450 active investment strategies that existed at the end of 2019 at the unit, about 140 were discontinued or merged with others in the past two years, Wimmer said in the interview.

Despite the debacle, AGI saw third-party clients add 9.5 billion euros in the fourth quarter. Its bigger sister unit Pimco recorded 11.1 billion euros in net inflows.

“It was a very isolated event at AllianzGI U.S. We are very comfortable with the current team and are happy with the trajectory the business is taking,” Baete told Bloomberg in a phone interview.

Allianz cuts bonuses, settles some lawsuits after funds debacle

Tom Sims and Alexander Hübner
Fri, February 18, 2022


By Tom Sims and Alexander Hübner

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Allianz announced on Friday big bonus cuts for its CEO and board, and a settlement with the "vast majority" of investors, as it braces for the outcome of U.S. regulatory investigations into a multibillion-dollar trading debacle at its funds arm.

Speaking at a news conference, CEO Oliver Baete said the issue would have a significant impact on compensation for himself and all board members, but declined to give details.


Baete's pay in 2020 totalled 6.39 million euros ($7.27 million), and the entire board's was 32 million euros.

Baete also said the German insurer and asset manager had settled U.S. lawsuits with the "vast majority of investors," without giving details of the agreement.

But the fallout continues, with investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission underway, and settlements still pending with other investors.

"Ongoing governmental and litigation matters remain at a sensitive stage," Baete said.

The issue centres around Allianz funds that used complex options strategies to generate returns but racked up massive losses when the spread of COVID-19 triggered wild stock market swings in February and March 2020.

The matter has cast a shadow over Allianz, one of Germany's most valuable companies and one of the world's biggest money managers with 2.6 trillion euros of assets under management.

On Thursday, Allianz announced that it would earmark 3.7 billion euros to deal with investigations and lawsuits in the wake of the funds' collapse and said more expenses were likely.

The company as a result posted a fourth-quarter loss, and its 2021 profit was the lowest since 2013.

Investors in the so-called Structured Alpha set of funds have claimed some $6 billion in damages from the losses in a slew of cases filed in the United States.

The $15 billion set of funds catered in particular to normally conservative U.S. pension funds, from those for labourers in Alaska to teachers in Arkansas to subway workers in New York.

After the coronavirus sent markets into a tailspin early in 2020, the Allianz funds plummeted in value, in some cases by 80% or more. Investors in their lawsuits alleged Allianz strayed from its stated strategy.

Baete declined to specify which investors had settled.

Allianz shares were down 1% at 1031 GMT.

Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and corporate governance at Deka, a top Allianz investor, who once called the issue a "massive setback" for the insurer, expressed some relief.

He said the amount and timing of the provision were a positive for Allianz and investors.

Allianz has publicly disclosed the SEC and DOJ investigations. It previously said it intended to defend itself "vigorously" against the investors' allegations. Baete has said "not everything was perfect in the fund management."

($1 = 0.8794 euros)

(Reporting by Tom Sims; editing by Mark Potter and Jason Neely)

SO HE SAYS
USDA Supervisor Was Threatened Over Uncertified Avocado Shipment

Leslie Patton
Thu, February 17, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it’s maintaining a ban on avocados from Mexico for now, adding to concern that supply of the popular fruit may run low at some restaurants and grocery stores.

The USDA halted avocado imports from Michoacán, a coastal state west of Mexico City, on Feb. 11 after a supervisor received a “credible” phone threat to himself and his family because an inspector questioned the integrity of a particular shipment and refused to certify it.

“We will resume inspections as soon as possible,” the agency said in a Thursday statement. “We must have assurances that our employees’ lives are not at risk.”

The ban is happening during peak growing season for avocados in Mexico, which runs January through March. The U.S. gets more than 80% of its avocados from Mexico, so the disruption is already driving prices up across the country as restaurants and grocery stores race to secure extra stock from elsewhere.

Grocery-chain and distributor SpartanNash Co., based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is looking to California for more of the superfruit. Meanwhile, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. can get avocados from Peru, Chief Restaurant Officer Scott Boatwright said.

“We use so many avocados. We source them from everywhere,” he said in an interview.

Avocados are inspected to ensure agricultural products from Mexico are complying with certification and export requirements that protect U.S. producers from pests and disease.

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Can Norwegian Natural Gas Solve Europe's Energy Crisis?

Editor OilPrice.com
Thu, February 17, 2022

Norway’s Equinor will maintain maximum natural gas production rates through the spring and summer to help the European Union fill its gas storage facilities, the company’s chief executive said this week.

The pledge comes amid continued concern about gas supplies into the warmer months of the year, which is typically the time storage is filled up for the peak demand period of winter. Last year, most of Europe failed to make sure it had enough gas for the winter, which sparked the gas crunch.

Speaking to Bloomberg this week, Equinor’s Anders Opedal said that Norway had always been a reliable partner of Europe and will continue to supply as much gas as it can to the continent as possible. The problem for Europe is that what’s possible is less than half of the gas it needs. Much less, in fact.

According to Eurostat, the EU imported 46.8 percent of its natural gas from Russia in the first half of last year. Norway, for its part, accounted for 20.5 percent of natural gas imports during that period—less than half of what Russia sent the EU’s way.

According to Bruegel, a European economics think tank, Norway exported over 2.9 billion cu m weekly to the EU in late 2021. This compared with a little over 2.3 billion cu m for Russia. During the first half of the year, however, Gazprom kept flows above 3 billion cu m weekly while Norway never reached that level.

The situation highlights the biggest problem that the EU has with its gas supply security. It has been over-reliant on Russia for years, and this has bred complacency and the certainty that whatever happens, Russia will continue shipping gas to Europe.

Russia shares the sentiment, but the recent events around gas prices and Ukraine have shaken it among European governments, which are now in a rush to find alternative suppliers in case they are needed. The task is proving more challenging than perhaps they had expected.

Norway can probably keep pumping at maximum for a while longer, although it would need to stop for maintenance at some point. Yet Norway clearly cannot cover the whole amount of gas that Russia supplies to Europe right now. Also, it can’t cover the additional demand that will be coming from Germany as it closes its coal and nuclear power plants.

This was the point of the Nord Stream route expansion, by the way—ensuring supply for nuclear-free and, later, coal-free Germany. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline currently ships more than a third of Russian gas exports to Europe. Doubling its capacity with Nord Stream 2—unless the Biden administration makes good on its threat to kill it, of course—will make it fit to handle more than two-thirds of Russia’s gas exports to Europe.

What other options does Europe have besides Norway? Central Asia is an option, and more specifically Azerbaijan, which is already shipping some gas through the Southern Gas Corridor ending in Italy. The only other alternative is LNG.

Europe has been the top destination for U.S. liquefied natural gas for three months amid the energy crunch, despite limited LNG import terminal capacity. According to data from Refinitiv reported by Reuters, as much as 75 percent of U.S. LNG exports went to Europe last month. So far this month, half of all U.S. LNG cargos have been sent to Europe.

Qatar and Australia are also LNG options for the EU. The union even suspended an antitrust investigation into Qatar Petroleum—recently renamed QatarEnergy—this month in what might be a sign Brussels is willing to make concessions in exchange for gas.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

Big Oil Is Spending Serious Money On Clean Energy

Editor OilPrice.com
Wed, February 16, 2022

With the energy transition now in full swing, the green and low-carbon energy sectors have been seeing record investment inflows as governments as well as public and private sectors double down on climate goals. In 2021, global spending on green energy climbed 27% Y/Y to a record $755B as per a Bloomberg New Energy report. That compared favorably with annual global energy investments which are estimated to have increased 10% Y/Y to USD 1.9 trillion, in line with pre-crisis levels.

In the past, fossil fuel companies have been repeatedly lambasted for ‘greenwashing’ and dedicating only minuscule amounts of their huge capex budgets to renewable energy. But that trend now appears to be turning around.

According to a report by energy investment navel-gazer Evaluate Energy, global upstream M&A hit a record $144 billion in 2021 with Woodside Petroleum (OTCPK:WOPEF), Santos (OTCPK:STOSF), and BHP Group (NYSE:BHP) undertaking multibillion-dollar international mergers while Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) and Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) made huge Permian acquisitions and scores of gas companies joined the consolidation wave in the U.S.

But an even more interesting trend has emerged: last year, traditional oil and gas companies were among the most active when it came to striking green energy deals and investments.

Upstream oil and gas producers struck a total of 81 green energy deals in 2021, the most active of which were Shell Plc. (NYSE:RDS.A), Eni S.p.A (NYSE:E), BP Plc. (NYSE:BP), TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE), and Chevron (NYSE:CVX). Another interesting finding was that a greater number of emerging sectors have been gaining traction, including hydrogen production projects, electric vehicle charging, and biofuels.

Source: Evaluate Energy

#1. Shell Plc

According to Evaluate Energy, Shell agreed to 10 green/low carbon energy deals

in 2021, making it the single most active company among all oil and gas producers.

The company’s investments were highly diverse, with no more than three deals related to any individual sector. Half of its deals revolved around wind and solar energy but it also had deals in the electric vehicle, biofuel, and retail power sectors globally.

Shell agreed to four new deals in Q4 alone, of which two were in the U.S. solar services sector. First, it acquired a cleantech solar power service company, Cleanloop, via a U.S. solar subsidiary. Then it acquired a large utility-scale solar and energy storage developer, Savion LLC, from Macquarie’s Green Investment Group. The other two Q4 deals were in the Australian retail power sector and the Irish offshore wind sector.

Shell has accelerated the pace of divestiture of its oil and gas assets and is preparing to sell stakes in two natural gas-producing clusters in the British North Sea, according to Reuters.

The Clipper Hub and Leman Alpha complex could fetch as much as $1b for the supermajor.

Shell has sold a number of aging upstream assets in the North Sea in recent years, including a $3.8b sale to Harbour Energy (OTCPK:PMOIF) in 2017.

#2. Eni S.p.A

Italy’s largest integrated oil and gas company, Eni S.p.A, closed nine green energy deals in 2021, with six being in wind or solar. The deals could potentially result in Eni’s combined wind and solar portfolio across Italy, France, Spain, and the U.K. growing by over 5 GW in annual capacity, should all related projects reach completion.

Eni agreed to two of its deals in Q4. It acquired a 20% stake in the U.K.’s Dogger Bank Wind Farm C project from Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) and SSE for £70 million apiece. The combined stake represents around 240 MW overall capacity. The project is the third phase of the world’s largest offshore wind farm (3.6 GW) and is currently under construction. Production of this particular phase is slated to start in 2025.

In separate news, Var Energi, a private North Sea oil and gas producer owned by Eni and HitecVision, is set to go public in Oslo on February 16th at an ~$8.0b valuation.

Eni owns 70% of Var, having contributed their North Sea assets to Var in exchange for equity in 2018. Rumors of the IPO have been in the market for weeks, as Bloomberg flagged listing plans in January at a $10b valuation.

#3. BP Plc

Evaluate Energy notes that BP has been extremely active in the electric vehicle space in recent years compared to its peers. In March, the British major acquired a stake in German firm Digital Charging Solutions GmbH alongside BMW Group (OTCPK:BMWYY) and Daimler Mobility AG. DCS is one of Europe’s leading developers of digital charging solutions for automotive manufacturers and vehicle fleet operators.

In June, BP led a $13.2 million investment round and invested $7 million in U.S.-based EV charging firm IoTecha. BP completed its EV activity for the year in December, agreeing to acquire another U.S.-based EV charging firm, AMPLY Power.

#4. TotalEnergies SE

French energy multinational TotalEnergiesSE completed six low-carbon deals in 2021. The bulk of TotalEnergies’ green energy investments came in the first half of 2021, with arguably the highest-profile of these deals taking place in the solar sector.

In January, the company acquired a 20% stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd. (AGEL) in India and then completed another significant acquisition a week later, this time in the United States. Both deals are key to Total’s plans to reach 35 GW of gross production capacity from renewable sources by 2025 while adding 10 GW per year from that point going forward. AGEL has over 14.6 GW of contracted renewable capacity, with an operating capacity of 3 GW, plus 3 GW under construction and 8.6 GW under development. The company aims to achieve 25 GW of renewable power generation by 2025.

The acquisition in the United States saw Total acquire a development pipeline of 2.2 GW of solar projects and 600 MW of battery storage assets in Texas from SunChase Power.

#5. Chevron Corp.

Chevron Corp. stands out as the only non-European to feature on this list. The U.S. supermajor has been especially active in the more emerging sectors that make up the green energy industry. Among its highlights for the year, Chevron made two investments in hydrogen-based projects in the U.S.

The first was an investment in Raven SR Inc. with a handful of industry partners. Later, Chevron agreed to acquire ACES Delta LLC, which was previously a joint venture between Mitsubishi Power Americas Inc. and Magnum Development LLC.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com