Good morning, here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Billionaire of the Week: Richard Kinder

• ESG Funds Hold More Oil than Wind, Solar

• Upcoming Oil and Gas Event

• Tweet of the Day

ESG Funds Hold More Oil than Wind, Solar

ESG funds have twice as large an exposure to oil and gas than wind and solar.

We’re talking about an industry with $5 trillion under management.

And with ESG registration.

Follow the money

Data from Morningstar shows that funds registered as promoting ESG have 2.3% exposure to oil and gas.

Mind you, that’s an almost twofold increase since 2021, when that exposure stood at 1.4%.

Meanwhile, exposure to renewables has fallen from 0.4% to 0.3% of the total.

Whyever could that be?

Well, it’s simple, really.

Oil and gas make money. Wind and solar… not so much.

The European Solar Industry Association just said installations will drop by a quarter in 2024.

Because wholesale electricity prices are too high.

Meaning they can’t turn in a profit.

And that’s not an isolated case.

Oil and gas companies, on the other hand, have gotten even more generous with dividends.

Thanks to robust sales.

It’s really a no-brainer.

ESG oil is not as absurd as you might think

The very fact of including oil and gas stocks in ESG funds may be baffling to some.

But experts explain that it is a way to push the industry into a more sustainable direction.

Fair enough, as long as you let it continue doing what it does best: fueling the world with oil and gas.

But that’s not what ESG-happy regulators are doing.

In fact, there are ideas—in France for now—to force funds to divest from oil and gas stocks.

If they want to have an official ESG label, that is.

It’s a mad ESG world out there.

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Billionaire of the Week: Richard Kinder

From gas stations to pipelines

A few days ago, a new pipeline in the Permian started taking gas from the shale wells to the Gulf.

It was a much-needed pipeline as gas output in the Permian has been soaring.

It was built by Kinder Morgan, the biggest energy infrastructure operator in the country.

The company itself was built by a former attorney and Enron CEO.

The importance of good friends

Richard Kinder started his career as an attorney for a company called Florida Gas Transmission.

That company rose to notoriety later as Enron Corp.

Kinder was friends with its founder in college, and he served as CEO of Enron from 1990 to 1996.

He then left and set up a pipeline company with another friend from college, William Morgan.

The company grew through acquisitions, including Enron’s liquids pipeline business.

At its start, the company had 175 employees and was worth some $350 million.

To date, Kinder Morgan has thousands of employees and operates 82,000 miles of pipelines.

Its market cap is close to $40 billion.

Picking the right time to quit

Kinder stepped down as CEO of Kinder Morgan in 2015.

He has since dedicated his time to philanthropy.

Meanwhile, the company continued to thrive with one notable exception.

The Trans Mountain debacle will go down in history as a bungle by the Canadian government.

It put all possible obstacles in Kidner Morgan’s way with Trans Mountain.

Eventually, Kinder Morgan had enough and quit.

And the Canadian government had to buy the pipeline project.

For billions of dollars.

Richard Kinder, meanwhile, has a comfy $7.6 billion wealth to use as he sees fit.

Upcoming Oil & Gas Events

• December 15: 23rd Annual KOGA Christmas Party, Bodley Bullock House, Lexington, KY

• January 16: TIPRO/IPAA Leaders in Industry Luncheon, Petroleum Club of Houston, Houston, TX

• January 17: IPAA Private Capital Conference, The Post Oak at Uptown Houston, Houston, TX

• January 17-18: GO-WV Winter Meeting, Marriott Town Center Hotel, Charleston, WV

• January 18: Kansas Oil and Gas Day Legislative Reception, Kansas State Capital, Topeka, KS

• January 23-25: POWERGEN International, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans

Around the Global Patch

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Tweet of the Day

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