We recently undertook some research and found that private equity funds bought £11.9 billion of European oil and gas businesses in 2021, up from just £232 million in 2020. While historically some private equity funds have been long-term investors in the oil and gas industry much of the investment has been within the lower-risk midstream
Kwasi Kwarteng, UK Business and Energy Secretary is reported to have said on 20 September that “My task is to ensure that any energy supplier failures cause the least amount of disruption to consumers”.
Wholesale day-ahead gas prices in the UK are reported to have jumped some 9% on 20 September alone. The rise is as a result of a number of factors including increased demand in Asia, lower supplies of gas from Russia and increase in demand as countries emerge from lockdown restrictions and economies start to pick up once more.
Such rapid and significant price increases typically disproportionately impact smaller suppliers and indeed it is widely anticipated that a number of the smaller suppliers will fall into insolvency over the coming weeks and months. The specific process is unique to the energy industry.
On August 20, 2021, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos,”CNH”) published in the Federal Official Gazette the Resolution CNH.E.22.008/2021 by which several provisions of the guidelines that regulate the Exploration and Development Plans for the Extraction of Hydrocarbons are modified, added and repealed (the “Resolution”).
A district judge has temporarily suspended with general effects the amendment to the Hydrocarbons Law eliminating PEMEX’s asymmetric regulation. Please see Legal Update at link below for all details.
Two district judges have temporarily suspended certain provisions of the amendment to the Hydrocarbons Law. Please see full story at link below.
On March 17, 2021, U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) and U.S. Representatives Marc Veasey (D-Texas) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.) introduced the Storing CO2 And Lowering Emissions (SCALE) Act. The bill is intended to help develop infrastructure buildout to transport CO2 from the capture site to be used as feedstock for the manufacture of other products, to oilfields where it is injected to enhance oil recovery, or to underground storage locations. CO2 capture projects are expensive and the EPA permitting process for storage facilities is lengthy. Thus, project financing and permitting are key drivers to determine the speed and scope at which global climate goals with respect to greenhouse gas reduction are achieved. The 45Q tax credit for carbon capture and sequestration incentivizes carbon capture but is not by itself economically sufficient to provide the necessary equipment and transportation infrastructure.
Continue Reading US – Storing CO2 And Lowering Emissions (SCALE) Act
The Resolution That Establishes the Goods Whose Import and Export Are Subject to Regulations Issued by the Ministry of Energy was officially suspended by the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Energy through a publication in the Federal Official Gazette.
This Legal Update details the content of such publication.
In November we wrote about the UK’s National Security and Investment Bill, which promises to give rise to the most significant changes to the treatment of mergers and acquisitions in the UK for many years. In January, we discussed the Bill at more length at the Mayer Brown Oil & Gas Lawyers’ Forum and
On January 27, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad (the “Order”). The Order sets forth the Biden administration’s policies to address climate change through both foreign and domestic policies and demonstrates the administration’s intent to make addressing climate change a top priority for nearly every department
Since US President Biden’s inauguration, the Biden administration has taken several actions to restrict the issuance of oil and gas permits for production on federal public lands and federal offshore waters, but the extent of the shift in policy undertaken remains uncertain as the US Department of Interior has continued to issue permits for drilling