Japan’s LNG Surge: Energy Crisis Ahead

The country’s LNG imports rose to 5.37 million tonnes last month compared to 5.28 million tonnes in April 2024. LNG imports also rose compared to 5.15 million tonnes in the prior month. Imports were lower compared to […]

Sable Offshore, a Texas-based oil company, has restarted oil output from a platform off the coast of California, where production has been offline for a decade. Two more platforms are left to be brought back […]

ENB Pub Note: This is a follow-up story to the one that was run yesterday: “Trump allows Equinor to resume work on wind project off New York.” I added the power mix for the New […]

ENB Pub Note: The story from Irina Slav at Oilprice.com below the line is an outstanding article. She is an excellent international energy expert. I am wondering about Israel’s attacking Iran’s nuclear sites without hitting […]

Highlights of the Podcast 

00:00 – Intro

01:53 – China dominates global trade of battery minerals – What will it take for the U.S. to get on it’s own production supply line?

05:12 – ndia’s Oil Imports From Russia on Track for 10-Month High

07:16 – Japan’s April LNG imports climb

08:48 – New York Wind Project Revived With Natgas Quid Pro Quo

10:37 – California’s first of three offshore platforms back in oil production business after 10 years

14:31 – Markets Update

15:08 – Oil Jumps on Possibility of Israeli Attack on Iran 

16:13 – Crude Oil Inventory

18:03 – Outro

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Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Stuart Turley: [00:00:00] I did not know that Japan was I think the third largest LNG importer. Japan’s coal import for power generation decreased in April compared to the same month last year. Data shows that coal imports were down 2.7%. The April LNG import bill which was $3.32 billion rose by 1.8% compared of the same time last year. Unbelievable amount of LNG that they import. And China also imported to 20.6 million tons of LNG. [00:00:35][35.5]

Michael Tanner: [00:00:43] What’s going on, everybody? Welcome into the Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 edition of the Daily Energy Newsbeat Stand-up. Here are today’s top headlines. First up, China dominates global trade of battery minerals. What will it take for the U.S. To get on its own production supply line? We’ll fly over to India. India oil imports from Russia on track for 10-month high. Jump over to Japan, Japan’s LNG April imports climb, we’ll come back here home, New York Wind Project revived with twist, Natgas, Quid Pro Quo, and finally our favorite state California, they have the first of three offshore platforms back in oil production business after ten years. Stu will then toss it over to me, I will quickly cover what’s going on in the oil and gas markets and kind of covered it. Crazy day with with oil trading so far and then we will let you get out of here and Get on with week as always. I’m Michael Tanner joined by Stuart Turley. Where do you want to begin? [00:01:52][69.0]

Stuart Turley: [00:01:53] Hey Michael, let’s start with our buddies over there in China. China dominates the global trade of battery minerals. What will it take for the U.S. To get on its own production supply line? Thank goodness we’ve got a great Secretary of Energy, Secretary Chris Wright. He’s already really going through this. And I noticed something, Michael, today. Today on the energy news beat chat gpt bot was scouring our site and pulling down the things, I’m like, what are you pulling down? And I went and found a couple things that Chad GPT was working on from China. Interesting. We got some, we got China all up on the site. And I’m sitting there going, well, that was really interesting. So now let’s go to through here. The, this is part of the EIA. Look at the E I a chart, selected battery and global volumes in China is like 90% of it just around the world, Europe, Asia. And then the we’re in the little tiny little bit of the rest of the world. Battery mineral processing is 90 percent in China. It that’s the key. We got minerals all over the place, Michael, that is not being mined or in China, it’s not the minerals. I just want to go on here and say it’s not the Minerals, it’s the ore processing. That’s where it is missing. [00:03:17][84.0]

Michael Tanner: [00:03:17] Yeah, it’s, it really is. And I mean, you know, I’ve spent more time. I think the average person looking into this back when I was, you know, forced to go back to school. Thank you, Stu. But it really, it is fascinating how the supply chain is extremely complex when it comes to these critical minerals, it extremely challenging to say, okay, let’s just bring it in-house because it’s a little bit like oil. You either got it or you don’t. And it’s not as you know you think it’s easy and quick to go drill an oil well you should try getting a mine permitted and maybe not permitted just to just build a mine i mean let’s just say for example permitting was a week for these mines well it’s not just oh let’s go dig a ditch in the ground you gotta basically remove the entire face of the earth So I think, you know, I have a hard time when people say, oh, well, what does it take to bring the US to its own production line? Well, it’s going to take a lot more than just a bunch of money. It’s going take rethinking how we engage with the world, creating supply lines that are other than China. That, I think is the key piece. It’s not just, oh, here. We don’t have enough here. Sorry. [00:04:33][75.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:04:34] And why would China, I’m sorry, I did not mean to interrupt you, but why would China want to help us gear up our ore processing side of the business? [00:04:44][10.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:04:44] They won’t, of course not, especially with the rhetoric where we’ve got. So I think it’s, it’s if we’re going to take an aggressive stance against China, we better prepare for this. And I think unfortunately we’ve taken an aggressive a stance against China, which is a good thing. I’m not saying that’s the unfortunate part. I think the unfortunate part is we should have spent the last five to 10 years knowing we were going to take a harder step and a harder stance against China so that when we do, we don’t run into these type of issues. [00:05:11][26.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:05:11] Oh, absolutely. Let’s roll over to India because when we take a look at oil pricing and supply and demand side of the formula, you got China and you got India. Biggest users of oil out there are importers of oil. India’s oil imports from Russia on track, Michael, for a ten month high. This is out of Charles Kennedy from oilprice.com. India total imports fell by 11% in April, but Russian volumes stayed stable. And accounted for, Michael, 40% of all imports. And I believe Irina Slav has always said, sanctions don’t work as intended. Russian exports to India began to recover in March after the US sanctions and Russia’s oil trade in January shocked the market. And I think that President Trump, I saw this in a really quick clip. He is reluctant to put secondary sanctions that will cripple the Russian economy until he gets his peace deal signed in Ukraine. That’s going to be his club. Just watch. [00:06:16][65.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:06:17] You said that sanctions don’t work and if we think we’re going to continue to sanction our way to hurting russia’s oil revenue think again because there are countries like india who for better or worse and i would for on the side of better do what they need to do to support their people and if that means they have to side with some unfortunate characters i mean that’s that’s their prerogative we can’t take a moral superiority the united states is in no position to take moral superiority On these type of issues because if we all the sudden start trying to take moral superiority it’s not going to take too long before we have massive amounts of egg on our face from this so again do i think people should do it do i think we should do everything we can to try to end this conflict in ukraine absolutely is russia at fault absolutely we can walk chew gum and have a conversation all at the same time say sanctions don’t work russia is the bad guy in this situation And we’ve got to figure out an alternative solution. I like the way you- [00:07:16][58.1]

Stuart Turley: [00:07:16] think. Let’s go to Japan’s April LNG imports climb. Michael, it is amazing to me. I did not know that Japan was I think the third largest LNG importer. Japan’s coal import for power generation decreased in April compared to the same month last year. Data shows that coal imports were down 2.7 percent. The April LNG import bill, which was $3.32 billion, rose by 1.8% compared to the same time last year. Unbelievable amount of LNG that they import. And China also imported to 20.6 million tons of LNG. [00:07:58][42.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:08:00] Well, yeah, I mean, it’s pretty incredible what coal and the kind of the resurgence that coal has had along with LNG, because I mean people are navigating towards the lowest cost energy. And I mean if one of the big problems with Japan is that they have no domestic energy. I mean you want to talk about a security risk. It would be unfortunate. It’s a little bit like the United States with our limited supply of critical minerals. It does put you at a disadvantage and they’re going to be massively affected by prices and meaning they have to decide and have to choose the lowest cost for many. They don’t have the luxury. They don’t have the ability to fantasize morally because they don’t have an abundance of resources available. [00:08:47][46.9]

Stuart Turley: [00:08:48] I’ll tell you this next story, Michael, that we’re sitting here taking a look at. New York wind project revived with Natgas Quid Pro. You and I talked about this one yesterday, however, it came out in this article today, and this one is from Andrew Topoff from OilPrice.com, and there is a quid pro quo. The compromise include the revival of an abandoned natural gas pipeline From Pennsylvania to New York. Ooh, I did not see that reason. Cause I believe I said on the podcast yesterday, I don’t know why president Trump would do it, but being a deal maker that he is Hokel probably said, all right, can I have a little bit of wind if I give you a little bit of pipeline? [00:09:35][46.8]

Michael Tanner: [00:09:35] I mean, it’s absolutely hilarious how this happens. I mean they go ahead and renew this pipeline or this wind farm, but now they slip in a little bit natural gas around it, which I mean I’m all for and we should compromise. I mean all for compromising on this stuff. You want to go throw up a wind farm? Great. You’ve got to go do a natural gas pipeline then. So, I mean, I think maybe that’s a bad. Trade, I would probably say, can we figure out something else to horse trade? It’s, it’s a little bit like some of the trades that we’ve done for prisoners, these prisoner swaps we’ve done over the years, you know? Oh, yeah, before I… We don’t need to, we don’t need to get ourselves kicked off YouTube, but I think we all know, you know, when, when you’re trading, you You know, sports stars, stars with quotes for some… Literally some russian mobster who’s responsible for over you know some arms dealer that trade and then we got him back but that trade this okay i’m glad that the natural gas pipeline but [00:10:34][58.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:10:35] That’s right. No, I think that is absolutely hilarious. Let’s go to the last story here, Michael. California’s first of three offshore platforms back in production business after Michael 10 years. I did not have this one on my forecast at all. Sable Offshore, a Texas-based oil company, has restarted oil output from a platform off the coast of California. And Michael, wait for it. One, two, three, a lawsuit was filed yesterday for the starting up of these three oil wells. Lawfare is alive and well in California. On May 15th, the U.S. Company initiated the flow of oil production from six wells of the Harmony platform. I think this is absolutely hilarious and we’ve got more updates, I’ll ask Mike Umbro on this on Friday when I visit with him. We’ve got a lot more coming around the corner. I just find it amazing that 70% of the oil in California is imported, then with the next closure of the refineries, Michael, they are going to see, are you ready, $9 starting point for gasoline and diesel. $9. Do you know how many cars are in California. How much diesel is done in California? A lot. Do you know how much it’s going to kill the economy? [00:11:56][80.9]

Michael Tanner: [00:11:57] No it’s it’s gonna be terrible for it i mean all you know terrible nuisance got to be rolling over in his proverbial mansion right now a scene is that the differences in the this is really going to help those gasp right now in in you know what’s probably happen is this was going to get piped out of the states can end up somewhere else in the not only are they going to have or production which is against what they want to know whether the benefits of it because they’ve i got rid of all their refining capacity so i mean [00:12:22][25.8]

Stuart Turley: [00:12:23] When Ronald Stein, the great author and friend of the show, says California is now a national security risk, I don’t want that on my business card. I would not want to be the governor of a state that says, I’m now a National Security [00:12:38][15.1]

Michael Tanner: [00:12:39] Yeah, no kidding. So why let’s jump over here and quickly cover finances guys. Before we do that, let’s go ahead and pay the bills as always. Thank you for checking us out here on the world’s greatest website dot energy newsbeat.com the best place for all your energy and oil and gas news. Stu and the team do a tremendous job making sure that website stays up to Everything you need to know to be at the tip of the spear when it comes to the energy and the oil and gass business, go ahead and hit that description below all links to the timestamps, links to Articles You can check us out the energy newsbeat.substack.com, the best place for all your energy and oil and gas news from the standpoint of what Stu and I think are important. It’s a great place if you want to support the show, subscribe to our sub stack. And if you were about to start a bunch of paid only podcasts, we have a bunch of paid-only research that comes out. So highly, highly recommend jumping on a paid subscription there. And the next thing guys is big shout out to lease energy consulting. Highly, highly recommend going and check them out at reeseenergyconsulting.com. If you’re in the upstream space, you need to be working them from a marketing standpoint. If you were in the midstream space and you would all have any issues or need an art site firm to come in and help you out, reese energy consultant is the firm to go to. So really, really appreciate their support. And finally, guys, we’re getting in the middle of the season here, guys, you need to be thinking about adding energy and oil and gas to portfolio. If you are wondering how to do that, We have a great ebook at Invest in Oil. Energynewsbeat.com, which tells you all about how to invest, what to look for, things to look at, and it’s a great, great resource. Again, investinoil.energynews beat.com talks about all the benefits from the tax side, the dividends, and then finally, I mean, the most important one is that you get to go around and pretend you’re Billy Bob Thornton. So again, invest in oil.energy newsbeat. Com,. [00:14:30][111.6]

Michael Tanner: [00:14:31] But let’s just look at some some Upline Indices, Stu! S&P 500 down 1.6 percentage points NASDAQ down 1 point 3 yield spiked tremendously up 1.3 percentage points and 2.5 percentage points for the 10-year yield on some pretty crazy trading days Bitcoin up to $108,000 so I mean that continues to rip crude oil down three-tenths of a percentage point Brent oil down five-tents of percentage point 6133 and 6422 respectively natural gas fairly flat three dollars and 37 cents After being up big yesterday, XOP was on E&P securities contract, dropped about 2.19 percentage points. Oil jumped this morning on, you know, really, really the possibility that Israel is going to strike Iran. I have doubts that that will actually happen considering it’s getting leaked now to the press. If the United States was all for it, they would have learned it and kept it to themselves, but instead they decided to leak it to none other than the New York Times or we should say the New York CIA. And this doesn’t get out of the United States was behind that. Don’t laugh, Stu. You’re the one paying for it. That’s a joke, guys. But unfortunately, we found out we are paying for the New york Times. So that’s, that’s a long road behind there. But I’m off track now. Again, just I don’t think it’s going to happen. It might happen. Maybe this was leaked from is the Israel side in order to basically warn the United States that this is coming. I mean, the CIA must have known about this, so I highly doubt it. Then prices then tumble that, okay, Israel’s gonna strike Iran, but now U.S. Is traveling to Iran to hold more nuclear talks. They’re gonna take place in Rome, so they’re not really necessarily going to Rome. We did see crude oil inventories jump by about 1.3 million barrels. We can go ahead and throw that up on the screen here. This PR got up at 800,000. We did see some changes in the total stocks. Total stocks are up 5.8 and we did see domestic production up a little bit by about 292,000 barrels to 13.1 million. So I mean, we continue to, uh, we continued to crank, crank out oil, stew, really excited for our state of the union tomorrow. Q2, we’ve got a lot of great, great stuff coming. Uh, that’ll take place at four o’clock central time and live tomorrow. So tune in for that if you aren’t sure you’ll be able to check it out. It’s going to be paid only, I think on Zubstack. Are we going, we’re going quarterlies free every month is going to be paid, is that how we’re gonna run it? [00:16:56][145.2]

Stuart Turley: [00:16:56] I like that. [00:16:57][0.4]

Michael Tanner: [00:16:57] You know, get it while it’s free, folks. Get it while its free. It’s been a long week, Stu. What did we miss? What should people be thinking about as we headed to Memorial Day weekend? [00:17:07][9.7]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:07] I gotta brag on being right for once in my life, at least one time. And a study expanding renewable energy does not lower fossil fuel production. You know what I’m talking about? That would be Turley’s Law. I’ve been saying for a long time that the more we invest in renewable wind, solar, and hydrogen, guess what happens? More fossil fuels will be used. Well, oh, now the UN has now come up with a study saying the same thing. They’ve proven me right. Oh my gosh. [00:17:39][31.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:17:39] Love it we absolutely love the guys who with that we’re going on let you get out here finish up your thursday what do you got coming out on friday for the podcast [00:17:47][7.5]

Stuart Turley: [00:17:47] Uh, tomorrow is Ron Brewer and Mark Stansberry, the AI. It’s the first of a great series. And I’ve got another one with Steve Reese and Carl Ingraham. And this was a great podcast. So we’ve got those two coming out and then I’ve got another right after that. [00:18:06][18.2]

Michael Tanner: [00:18:06] So you’ll see Mark Stansberry on Friday and then Saturday you will see our weekly recap and then we will be back Take Sunday off and we’ll be back in the chair on Monday guys really appreciate you sticking with us all week for Stuart Turley I’m Michael Tanner. We’ll see you on the weekend recap [00:18:06][0.0][1064.2]