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

• War Games: Oil World Watches Iran

• California Wants to Put Solar Panels by the Road

• Upcoming Oil and Gas Events

• Tweet of the Day

War Games: Oil World Watches Iran

Oil markets could be heading for turmoil if Iran enters the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

This is the consensus opinion of several oil analysts who also had a warning.

“The road to an oil crisis leads through Iran”

The danger was summed up by Rapidan Energy’s Robert McNally, who told Bloomberg the odds of Iran entering the war were 20%.

That’s not too bad, but there’s no way of knowing how these odds will change over the coming days.

There’s already involvement by Hezbollah from Lebanon, and Iran is a known sponsor of Hamas.

It’s also home to the Strait of Hormuz, 17 million barrels of oil pass through every day.

You don’t need a lot of imagination to see some scenarios that could send prices sky-high.

Especially since Iran likes to threaten to close the Strait of Hormuz when it gets frustrated.

The good news: it’s all hypothetical

There were early reports that Iran was involved in the planning of the Hamas attacks.

These reports have not been confirmed by either Israeli or U.S. official sources.

That’s good news, and it might mean Iran has no intention of entering the war.

The thing about the Middle East, though, is you never know what will happen next.

I mean, no one in Israel saw the Hamas attack coming when they totally should have.

That means that, basically, anything could happen.

And that means that all bets on oil prices over the next six months are off.

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California Wants to Put Solar Panels by the Road

California’s governor has tasked the state’s Department of Energy with figuring out how to put solar panels by the highways and make them useful.

Apparently, there’s a lot of empty land by the roads sitting unused.

And covering it with solar panels is seen as a good idea.

There’s just one little problem

Per calculations by the state authorities, roadside land in Cali could house 1 GW of solar capacity.

That capacity can power more than 270,000 households (for a few hours a day).

But here’s the thing—none of these households live by the road.

This is why the CNBC report on the news said Gavin Newsom had given the green light for officials to “figure out” how to make it all work.

Actually, it’s simple enough: they’d need to build a massive amount of new transmission lines.

Unless they want to be like Oregon and use the energy to power the highways themselves.

Now that’s an idea.

Unstoppable solar

California is a fan of solar. Many states are.

Not all of us are, but whether you like it or not, solar is growing.

There are estimates saying new capacity will hit a record this year.

And the solar industry lobby group just struck deals with various groups to make it easier to build massive installations.

So there will be more records to be broken.

There will also be more grid uncertainty, just like there already is in California.

And in Texas.

Which is restarting gas and coal power plants to remedy this.

Life’s ironic that way.

Upcoming Oil & Gas Events

• October 16: Fall Classic Golf Tournament, Ratliff Ranch Gold Links, Odessa, TX

• October 16-18: SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio, TX

• October 16-18: IOGCC Annual Conference, Park City, UT

• October 17-19: Permian Basin International Oil Show, Odessa TX

• October 19: PIOGA Annual Membership Meeting & Reception, Canonsburg, PA

• November 1: Oil and Gas Electrification Symposium, Longmont, CO

• November 2: LOGA State Industry Series, Benedict’s Plantation, Mandeville, LA

Around the Global Patch

🇫🇷 France bolsters energy efficiency to avert crisis.
🇨🇦 Canada's challenge: recovering $26 Billion for trans mountain pipeline.
🇲🇾 Malaysia-Japan CO2 transport partnership in sight.

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