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

• UK Does U-Turn on Oil, Gas Licensing

• Harold Hamm Says Shale is Far From Done Growing

• Tweet of the Day

UK Does U-Turn on Oil, Gas Licensing

The UK has emerged as one of the frontrunners in the energy transition.

The same UK plans to issue over 100 new oil and gas licenses for the North Sea.

To enhance its energy security.

If at first you don’t succeed, start issuing licenses

The UK has been firm about its net-zero commitments.

But it seems it is also firm about securing enough energy for its population.

To do that, the Sunak government says it will issue more than 100 new licenses for oil and gas in the North Sea this year.

Going forward, the Prime Minister says, several hundred more could be issued as well.

Of course, environmentalists are mad.

But Brits could breathe a sigh of relief: new licensing could reverse a decline in oil and gas output.

Unless the environmentalists decide to sue, that is.

Who’s the boss now?

Wind and solar are often advertised as good for energy security because they produce energy locally.

With wind and solar, the argument goes, you don’t have to depend on imports.

Except for things like solar panels, wind turbines, etc.

Also, the argument doesn’t really hold when you’ve got your own oil and gas.

Until recently, the UK was a big fan of the wind and solar argument.

Now, the government in London has had a change of heart.

It has realized that your own oil and gas may be better than imported panels…

Which, it turns out, have a pretty solid carbon footprint.

And the developer of a massive wind farm just pulled out complaining of high costs so what’s a government to do?

Start issuing oil and gas licenses.

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Harold Hamm Says Shale is Far From Done Growing

There have been several pronouncements of the death of U.S. shale in the past couple years.

But according to a man who shale made a billionaire (we covered Hamm here, here, and here), there’s still plenty of life left in the shale patch.

Peak shale? What peak shale?

“The future is bright. I look at it as an industry that is exciting, a lot of adventure, has a lot of potential for making great wealth.”

This is what Harold Hamm told Bloomberg in an interview recently.

The optimism goes counter to most predictions about U.S. shale, which see it either having peaked or about to peak.

And these predictions include Hamm’s peers, too, not just analysts.

Interestingly, Hamm approves of the disciplined approach to production growth those peers have been demonstrating recently.

And he’s right – with more discipline there will be oil for longer.

But he also seems to believe that the age of big discoveries is not over yet.

And he might be just right.

It’s all about the cost

The peak demand vs peak supply debate in oil is like the nature vs nurture debate in psychology.

It’s one of those debates that never end.

Yes, oil is a finite resource but the question is just how finite it is.

And the only honest answer would be: We don’t know.

The reason we don’t know is that we can’t know how technology will improve 10 or 20 years in the future.

And how many barrels it will make profitable to extract.

Maybe that’s why Hamm is so upbeat about the future of shale.

Tweet of the Day

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