Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France’s environment minister, pulled out of COP29 in response to a speech by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, and Angola's non-associated gas project is ahead of schedule.
President-Elect Trump has appointed key cabinet members, including his Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Interior, and Director for the EPA. More appointments are to come, including a potential Energy Czar. Let’s continue to watch how Trump’s energy policy will unfold.
In the meantime, we will dive into two pieces of energy news from last week. And as a fun addition, I was featured on BBC’s Business Matters radio show on Tuesday. Take a listen to my comments on China’s LNG sector and global LNG in light of the work being finished on a pipeline that delivers natural gas from Russia to China. I’m toward the end of the program.
Shangyou Nie
Editor, Well Read
France Pulls its Top Climate Negotiator from COP29
France, one of Europe’s biggest advocates against climate change, decided to pull its top negotiator from attending COP29 in Azerbaijan. The move comes as a protest in response to a speech by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, creating further friction in the U.N. conference.
What happened:
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev reportedly accused the “regime of President Macron” of killing citizens during recent protests in New Caledonia in the southwestern Pacific.
According to several reports, President Aliyev said, “The regime of President Macron killed 13 and injured 169 people during this year’s legitimate protests of Kanaks in New Caledonia.”
President Aliyev also described France’s Pacific Island territories as “colonies,” which the French did not appreciate.
In response to the speech, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France’s environment minister, decided not to attend the U.N. climate summit. “These attacks constitute a flagrant violation of the code of conduct,” she said.
Context:
France has historically sided with Armenia, a country in conflict with Azerbaijan.
French major TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné attended COP29, as did CEOs from ExxonMobil, BP, ENI, Aramco, and Sinopec.
What they are saying: E.U. Climate Chief Wopke Hoekstra tried to defend France’s position on X, saying, “Regardless of any bilateral disagreements, the COP should be a place where all parties feel at liberty to come and negotiate on climate action.”
Who else is not attending:
Argentina also withdrew its top negotiators from COP29 last week, as instructed by President Milei, a strong ally with President-Elect Trump.
World leaders including U.S. President Biden, President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister Modi of India, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen did not attend.
Attendance at COP29 is estimated around 66,000, or about 6,000 people short of the record attendance of 72,000 in COP28 in Dubai last year.
On 15 November, European majors Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, and Equinor announced that they will invest $500 million in support of U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 7. UNSDG 7 aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Negotiators ratified a key framework for an international carbon trading framework.
COP29 is ongoing in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11–22 November.
What to watch:
Will COP29 conclude with more significant and actionable agreements?
With the appointment of Chris Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, as the Secretary of Energy, will President Trump pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement again?
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$2.2 Billion Angolan Gas Project is Ahead of Schedule
T Schneider/ Shutterstock.com
Angola has been a major oil-producing country from western Africa for more than three decades. But its first non-associated gas project is moving ahead of schedule.
About the project:
According to Upstream, first gas is expected at the end of 2025 or early 2026, ahead of the planned July 2026.
The project has a capital cost of around $2 billion to produce gas and condensate with a capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The project is run by the New Gas Consortium, which is comprised of a joint venture between ENI and BP called Azule Energy (37.4 percent), Chevron (36.4 percent), TotalEnergies (13.6 percent), and state company Sonangol (22.8 percent).
The NGC launched the gas project in mid-2022, developing two shallow-water gas fields, Quiluma and Maboqueiro.
The first phase of the gas project could reach 330 million cubic feet per day, or 58,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and 41,500 barrels of condensate per day.
The two offshore fields will be developed by 13 wells from two platforms, with a 100-km pipeline to a 400 million cubic feet of gas per day processing facility, before feeding into Angola LNG at Soyo.
What’s next: NGC will look into other gas resources to monetize in offshore Angola.
Why it matters:
In many countries, international oil companies initially focus on oil production, leaving gas terms sometimes lagging far behind and IOCs with no development rights, especially for non-associated gas.
Angola established new gas terms in 2017 to encourage IOCs to help develop non-associated gas resources in its offshore basins and to help feed into the Angola LNG facility.
Azule Energy is reportedly the main player doing exploration for gas in Angola.
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