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During the last quarter of 2020, everyone can agree that economically, we have seen better days. Especially in the energy industry, spending cuts, revised budgets, and slashed investments have played an impact. However, we are starting to see hope for offshore drilling stated by Rystad Energy, a global oil and gas analytics firm. Their analysts anticipate a 40% growth in Floatable Production Storage and Offloading facilities (FPSOs). China has taken an interest in FPSO’s and prepared its shipyards for an increase in new orders.

Venezuela has been suffering from a fuel shortage due to sanctions imposed by the U.S government. Iran and Venezuela are targets of United States sanctions and therefore Iran has stated its willingness to aid Venezuela as a fellow target of U.S sanctions. In August, the United States seized the cargo of four ships carrying fuel from Iran to Venezuela. Throughout this year, five Iranian vessels were set to aid in Venezuela’s shortage and earlier this year, only one of the five made it to Venezuela with the much-needed cargo. The other four never made it and the cargo of these vessels was seized by the U.S Administration, the cargo totaled 1.116 million barrels of petroleum.

The holiday shopping season is kicking off earlier than ever amid the pandemic, and retailers are shifting their approach to seasonal hiring in order to keep up with changing demand. Companies are looking for more warehouse and call center workers to meet their growing demands from online shoppers, opting for home delivery or curbside pick-up. New rules for in-store shopping are in place making employees and shoppers safe by sanitizing shelves and checking temperatures at the door. Some retailers are even boosting pay and offering perks like flexible hours and childcare to attract workers.

Canada has an emphasis on minimizing their carbon footprint. Recently they committed to $20 million for the construction and distribution of small modular nuclear power plants. These single, small, modular power plants would be able to produce up to 300MWe (megawatt of electric capacity). For reference, that would be enough to power 150K to 200K homes. The benefit of these units would certainly be the transportation flexibility for more isolated communities with minimal waste.

The Oil Conservation Division (OCD) and its parent agency, the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) began work on stricter regulations on gas emissions from extraction facilities last year as mandated by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham through an executive order. Grisham established the State’s Climate Change Task Force, made up of EMNRD and the New Mexico Environment Department to find ways state operations and laws could be used or developed to reduce pollution in New Mexico and its impact on climate change. Reported last month, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association (NMOGA) reported that in 2018, oil and gas provided 134,000 instate jobs and $16.6 billion to the state’s economy.