Vincent Lauerman

Vincent Lauerman is president of Geopolitics Central, a Calgary-based energy consultancy. He has spent the majority of his three-decade career working as a global energy analyst, specializing on oil markets. He has also worked as a manager of energy economists, policy analysts and reporters, and as a private macro-speculator. He began his career with the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission in the mid-1980s, having graduated with a masters degree in economics from the University of Alberta, and has worked in Calgary, New York and Tokyo.

  • Lithium Series, Part 1: The Never-Ending Lithium Boom

    The spot price of lithium shot to record highs late last year — almost triple the previous record set in 2018 — on the back of skyrocketing global consumption primarily due to booming electric vehicle (EV) sales, before declining somewhat the past few months.

    March 8, 2023, 12 AM MST

  • Greenfield Pivots Towards Fuels Of The Future, But Where To Invest?

    Greenfield Global, the largest ethanol producer in Canada, and one of the largest in North America, plans to make significant investments to support the global shift to low carbon fuels, including plans to pivot towards fuels of the future — whether by process or type — such as renewable natural gas (RNG), renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and green hydrogen and derivative e-fuels such as marine fuel methanol.

    February 23, 2023, 6 AM MST

  • Tidewater Renewables Discusses Growth Strategy, Choice Of Renewable Fuels And Feedstocks

    Calgary-based Tidewater Renewables Ltd. (TWR) is helping to lead the Canadian energy transition, with a broad offering of liquid and gaseous low carbon fuel solutions.

    February 7, 2023, 6 AM MST

  • All Biomass-Based Diesel Has Potential For Growth In Canada

    Renewable diesel may be the rage south of the border as a low-carbon replacement for conventional diesel, but due to a quirk in the blending tax credit system in the U.S. both renewable diesel and biodiesel have potential for significant growth in Canada in coming years assuming the North American playing field is leveled.

    January 23, 2023, 6 AM MST

  • SixRing Nears Commercial Takeoff For Breakthrough Biofuel Technology

    Calgary-based startup SixRing Inc. is nearing commercial takeoff for a suite of patented chemical formulas, methods and low-energy processes to produce a biomass effluent that can be upgraded into a full range of biofuels — and sustainable petrochemicals and life sciences products — from low-cost readily available agricultural and forestry waste.

    January 11, 2023, 6 AM MST

  • Lauerman: President Putin’s Massive Ukrainian Blunder, Reprise

    In the two weeks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 the Bulletin published my three-part “President Putin’s Massive Ukrainian Blunder” series.

    December 21, 2022, 6 AM MST

  • Modern Bioenergy No More Than Pillar In Global Decarbonization Efforts

    Early this century modern bioenergy was widely viewed as one of the two key energy sources to decarbonize the global energy mix, along with nuclear energy.

    December 5, 2022, 6 AM MST

  • Helium Evolution Positions For Long Term Success

    Calgary-based startup Helium Evolution sprung onto the green helium scene early this decade, quickly amassing a massive land position in southern Saskatchewan in a relatively under the radar fashion.

    November 23, 2022, 6 AM MST

  • Avanti Helium Is Rising Fast

    Avanti Helium Corp. may be relatively new on the North American green helium scene, but the publicly traded company is rising fast. Avanti announced its first significant discovery in April, in so-called Greater Knappen in northern Montana, and is moving as quickly as possible to monetize the resource to take advantage of sky-high helium prices at the present time.

    October 25, 2022, 7:32 AM MDT

  • NAH Is Leader Of Green Helium Pack

    Privately-owned North American Helium presently is the predominant producer of so-called green helium in the world and is widely seen as the company with the greatest growth potential — green helium is produced in conjunction with eco-friendly nitrogen rather than methane.  

    October 17, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Saskatchewan To Become A Major Helium Power

    In November 2021, the Saskatchewan government released Helium Action Plan: From Exploration to Exports to further bolster the province’s budding helium industry. The goal of the plan is to produce 10 per cent of the world’s helium by 2030 — making Saskatchewan a top-five global producer.

    October 3, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Helium Shortage 4.0 Likely A Prolonged Affair

    After suffering three worldwide helium shortages between 2006 and 2020, it looked like clear sailing for the industry for the remainder of this decade with the first of three phases of Russia’s massive Amur gas processing plant coming online in September of last year.

    September 26, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: Future Bright For Newfoundland And Labrador Energy

    A lot has changed for Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) since I wrote Sunshine For Newfoundland’s Offshore Oil Industry in November 2019. Projects in the province came to a standstill when the global Covid-19 pandemic hit and oil prices collapsed in the first half of 2020.

    August 31, 2022, 8:31 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: Energy Prices Up Or Down, Part 2 – Natural Gas

    Natural gas is the hottest commodity in the world right now. The global LNG market was beginning to tighten in the second half of last year with the post-COVID economic rebound in gas consumption and a lack of investment in LNG-related infrastructure over the past several years.

    August 10, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: Energy Prices Up Or Down, Part 1 – Crude Oil

    The February invasion of Ukraine by Russia, at the time the world’s largest oil and natural gas exporter, has caused an unprecedented global energy crisis, with the potential of getting even worse according to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

    August 3, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: Potential Impact Of Feds’ RERTs On Low-Carbon Industry Development

    Canada has long been an innovation laggard, and as a result, an economic laggard among the Group of 7 (G7) advanced industrial economies. This is despite the federal government adopting numerous policies and programs over the decades to put our country onto a more positive path.

    July 5, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: A Pragmatic Solution For The Feds’ Climate Versus Energy Security Dilemma

    I guess walking and chewing gum at the same time is much tougher than Jonathan Wilkinson, federal minister of natural resources, would have us believe.

    June 27, 2022, 6:54 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: Federal Carbon Price Contracts A True Guarantee?

    Back in late March, when the Trudeau government tabled its long awaited 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault indicated that the feds were looking to “future proof” its carbon pricing regime, as it’s the “cornerstone” of Canada’s climate action plan and needed to propel decarbonization investments by large industrial emitters forward.

    June 2, 2022, 8:27 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: Canada’s Golden Energy Opportunity, Part 2 – Feds To The Rescue?

    In Part 1 of this two-part series, I provided a thumbnail sketch of the possible composition of trading blocs under the New World Economic Disorder, as implied by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen in a speech to the Atlantic Council in mid-April. I also discussed the economic impacts of global economic de-integration, including how it will lead to a less vibrant technological future.

    May 18, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: Canada’s Golden Energy Opportunity, Part 1 – The New World Economic Disorder

    It may have been simply a matter of time before the Age of Economic Globalization came to an end, with the emergence of an increasingly assertive authoritarian bloc led by China and Russia, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine appears to have ended it with a thud.

    May 9, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: The Future Of Clean Hydrogen Consumption, Part 3 – The Pragmatic Case

    In Part 1 of this three-part series I presented the Hydrogen Council’s bullish case for global hydrogen consumption in a net zero by 2050 world, and in Part 2 the rationale for a bearish case based on new energy guru Michael Liebreich’s clean hydrogen ladder. Here, in Part 3, I will quantify a Liebreich-like bearish case in relation to the council’s bullish case, and provide what I believe to be a more pragmatic case for global hydrogen demand in 2050.

    April 11, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: The Future Of Clean Hydrogen Consumption, Part 2 – The Bearish Case

    In Part 1 of this three-part series I presented the Hydrogen Council’s bullish case for global hydrogen consumption under a net-zero by 2050 scenario, including projected clean hydrogen demand by major sector and a few key industries.

    March 29, 2022, 6 AM MDT

  • Lauerman: President Putin’s Massive Ukrainian Blunder, Part 3

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, and by all appearances it’s closer to a Zelensky stalemate than a quick Putin checkmate for reasons discussed in the first part of this series.

    March 10, 2022, 7:41 AM MST

  • Lauerman: President Putin’s Massive Ukrainian Blunder, Part 2

    "Russia should be thrown back into the Stone Age to make sure that the oil and gas industry and any other sensitive industries that are vital for survival of the regime cannot function …”, said Garry Kasparov, Russian human rights activist and former world chess champion, in an interview with Reuters on March 3.

    March 7, 2022, 7:54 AM MST

  • Lauerman: President Putin’s Massive Ukrainian Blunder

    Russian President Vladimir Putin is widely viewed as a geopolitical grandmaster. As my son often says, it’s like Putin is playing three-dimensional chess and everyone else is playing checkers.

    February 28, 2022, 6 AM MST

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