October 6, 2023

• No change in numbers, but a slide into part-time work.

• Detailed info here.

We talked about this before, but here it is in graph form from Capital Economics:

Oil major Exxon is buying Pioneer. The acquisition of Pioneer would make Exxon the largest Permian Basin (Texas/New Mexico) shale oil by far.

The value of the deal could be close to $60B.

Exxon’s profits in 2022: $59B

Combined output:

• 1.2M barrels a day.
• More than most OPEC nations
• providing Exxon low cost crude into 2050

Permian Basin is known for its oil, but also has a tonne of natural gas. And, it isn't really a clean/efficient process.

• 3.7% of the methane is lost to leaks directly into the atmosphere.
• EDF says that wells in the Permian were leaking the equivalent of the use of 7 million homes.

The leaks undermine the climate benefit of moving away from coal almost entirely.

Amazon wants to compete with StarLink in littering space with junk, potentially causing ozone depletion, and punching holes in the ionosphere. The goal is to have more of its junk litter the ground.

Nasa is also in on the action, though for less juvenile reasons.

Amazon has purchased all spare launch capacity in this endevour.

A pair of satellites called KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 are scheduled to launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 7pm BST on 6 October. They are due to be placed in an orbit 500 kilometres above Earth’s surface, to test out key components of the Kuiper mega constellation, which is planned to consist of 3200 satellites. (New Scientist)

When it is everywhere, is it inflation or is it just the cost of production?

• World Bank: In real terms, food price inflation exceeded overall inflation in 79% of the 165 countries where data are available.