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

• Shocker: Green, Non-Green Companies Emit the Same

• Big Oil: Too Much Buyback, Not Enough Production

• Upcoming Oil and Gas events

• Tweet of the Day

Shocker: Green, Non-Green Companies Emit the Same

Companies with high ESG ratings generate just as much CO2 as those rated lower.

That’s according to new research from ESG consultancy Scientific Beta.

We’re all shocked, right?

No relation between ratings and emissions

“ESG ratings have little to no relation to carbon intensity, even when considering only the environmental pillar of these ratings.”

That’s what one of the researchers told the FT, adding that nobody had until now looked at the link between ratings and emissions.

Of course, they wouldn’t. They simply assumed good ESG score = low emissions.

Because that’s what ESG scores are for, right?

Wrong.

ESG rankings and scores have been under attack lately for inadequacy.

The most notable attack came from Elon Musk after Big Tobacco firms got a higher ESG score than Tesla.

Yes, this happened.

ESG rankings are pointless.

So how’s an investor to know what’s clean and what’s not?

ESG rankings were supposed to help investors pick ethical opportunities.

They are clearly not working as intended.

They are not working at all.

Not to worry.

Mandatory emission tracking and reporting in financial reports is coming, courtesy of the SEC.

That should give investors an idea of who’s been good and who hasn’t.

Or maybe not.

Because there are so many ways to measure emissions.

And each measurement is different.

It’s basically the same quagmire as ESG scores.

Must be tough to be an idealistic investor these days.

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Big Oil: Too Much Buyback, Not Enough Production

Big Oil has been focusing too much on returning cash to shareholders and has ignored the need to expand production.

The concerning observation comes from Bloomberg, which warns that “companies cannot discover another Guyana every year”.

Whatever Big Oil does is wrong

It has become painfully clear that whatever Big Oil does, it’s the wrong thing.

Producing more oil and gas? Bad.

Curbing production and investing more in wind, solar and similar? Bad.

Carbon capture? Bad.

Now returning cash to shareholders is deemed bad.

Because it leaves less money for oil and gas exploration.

I’m pretty sure many Big Oil shareholders would disagree.

Yet it is a valid concern because Big Oil has been selling assets, too.

Production rates have slumped to the lowest in at least 10 years.

And companies definitely won’t be so lucky as to discover a Guyana every year.

But do we need to?

We all thought the transition was going so well

Per multiple reports, including in Bloomberg, the energy transition is going full-speed ahead.

Soon we won’t need so much oil and gas because a lot of things will be electrified.

So why worry about Big Oil’s exploration and production plans for the future?

Could it be because of actual demand trends that suggest the world is very much still hooked on oil?

What a shocker. Especially after all those trillions spent on wind and solar over the last decade.

Did you know U.S. wind, solar, and EV subsidies hit $15.6 billion last year?

What we have to show for it is dead whales, carbon-heavy solar panels, and blackout warnings.

Upcoming Oil & Gas Events

• August 9: Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma Wildcatters, Petroleum Club of Oklahoma City

• August 13-15: GO-WV Summer meeting, The Greenbrier, White Suplhur Springs WV

• August 13-16: EnerCom Denver, The Westin Denver Downtown Denver

Around the Global Patch

🌏 Surge in sea robbery incidents across Asia.
🇨🇳 China's stimulus impact on rare earths, unveiling the significance.
🇷🇺 Russia's September oil export Cut: 300,000 bpd Reduction.

Tweet of the Day

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