The latest weakness in crude oil prices is being attributed to oil traders expecting a swing from surplus to deficit but no idea as to when. The second half of the year has been the consensus, but the markets have been expecting a recession for the last year as well. Oil companies, believing the consensus, did not hedge aggressively and are now underearning on oil sales. These two forces, traders and companies, are combined now with a general risk-off trade following several bank failures and continued rise in interest rates. The point isn’t whether oil prices should go up or down but how the potential risk is handled. Oil prices have always been volatile but the complexities of the current market is more nuanced, and sophisticated, than years past. While many are focused on the longer term fundamentals without fully understanding the financial and solvency risks involved, performance will not be optimized.

For this Company Spotlight, we interviewed Mobius Risk Group’s Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development (Drew Lichter). Mobius Risk Group is an independent commodity and energy risk advisory and technology firm that blends technology, robust data and analytics, and bespoke commodity risk strategies to manage the potential risks and opportunities for corporations. For more information on Mobius, please visit www.mobiusriskgroup.com.

Background: Mobius Risk Group was founded in 2002 with the goal of providing corporations access to the same information and type of advice that is available to energy merchants, banks, and hedge funds. Given Mobius’ team has a background in….. READ MORE

1PointFive is a carbon capture, utilization and sequestration platform that is working to help curb global temperature rise through the deployment of decarbonization solutions, including Carbon Engineering's Direct Air Capture and AIR TO FUELS™ technologies alongside geologic sequestration hubs. 1PointFive has leased, through an affiliate, more than 55,000 acres along the Texas Gulf Coast, to develop a carbon capture and sequestration hub with the capacity to hold approximately 1.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (“The Bluebonnet Hub”). The Bluebonnet Hub is located in Chambers, Liberty and Jefferson counties near refineries, chemical plants and manufacturing facilities along the Gulf Coast from Beaumont to Houston. The Bluebonnet Hub, which is expected to be operational in 2026, will provide for CO2 captured off-site to be securely stored in saline formations that are not associated with oil and gas production.

ClearFlame Engine Technologies (“ClearFlame”) is a Chicago-based company that specializes in developing and commercializing clean engine technology for heavy-duty diesel engines. ClearFlames’s patented technology runs on a range of renewable liquid fuels that can efficiently adapt to markets like long-haul trucking, offering the same power, durability and performance as today's diesel engines while readily integrating into existing manufacturing, fueling, maintenance and repair ecosystems. This latest investment round can accelerate ClearFlame from pilot to proven product in multiple markets, starting with long-haul trucks.

3E Nano Inc. (“3E Nano”) was founded in 2015 and is commercializing a patented high-performance, low-cost, transparent solar control coating which can be applied to glass, polymers, and other flexible media. 3E Nano’s patented thermal energy control nano-coating is a transparent, flexible, and low-cost solution that will transform the window market, quadrupling a window’s R-value, or insulating effectiveness. With commercialization funding now secured, 3E Nano will finalize product development and commercialize the technology over the next three years.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, DexMat is a technology company focused on the manufacturing of advanced carbon nanomaterials. DexMat’s flagship product is Galvorn, a family of high-performance carbon materials that have the potential to displace steel, aluminum, copper, carbon fibers, kevlar, and other CO2-intensive materials. Galvorn products can be formed into yarns, cables, tapes, woven fabrics, composites, and three-dimensional structures for use in a wide range of industries and applications, including energy, automotive, aviation, and wearables and can eventually displace up to 3 gigatons of hard-to-abate industrial CO2 emissions from the global economy annually, according to a life cycle analysis conducted with Shell.

Cowboy Clean Fuels is a Denver, Colorado-based emerging renewable energy technology company formed in 2020 to produce carbon-negative, renewable natural gas. Cowboy Clean Fuel's patented, capital-efficient and highly scalable process utilizes readily available waste agricultural byproducts, which are converted to pipeline-ready renewable methane through a naturally-occurring biogenic process that happens in deep geologic formations. The capital will be used to clear regulatory pathway objectives, provide initial engineering design and prepare for the Company's initial commercial-scale project launch in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.

Energy Technology Musings

Not Enough Focus on Financial & Solvency Risks?