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Justin Mikulka

Playing to Lose

Playing to Lose

In March of 2018 I pitched the editors at DeSmog on a series of articles about the finances of the fracking industry. To their credit, they liked the idea and over the years I wrote a lot of articles for them on this topic. All freelance. Most years that I

Oil rig in North Dakota winter

Lessons from the Bakken

The New York Times recently profiled Harold Hamm, Continental CEO Resources chairman emeritus, and noted how Hamm is advising Trump to go all in on fossil fuels. This should surprise no one as Harold Hamm is a one-trick pony. His one trick is making bold promises about the future of

Sabine Pass LNG Export Terminal

US LNG - Debts No Honest Man Could Pay

Before the epic U.S. housing and commercial real estate crash of 2008, bankers were applying innovative approaches to lending. One of their new products was the NINJA loan, which stood for “No Income, No Job, No Assets.” You might be thinking, “How could anyone be so dumb to loan

big rig climbing hill

Gluttons For Punishment: Oil Industry Doubles Down Against Reality

The world is facing a multi-year oil glut where the oil producers will be pumping more oil out of the ground than the world is using. This will keep oil prices at low levels – likely well below the level that most US shale oil producers can make a profit. But

LNG storage tanks. Credit: Justin Mikulka

Gambling Debts

In 2019 there was a bidding war for the Permian-based oil and gas company Anadarko. Chevron reached a deal to pay $33 billion for Anadarko but then Occidental (Oxy) got into the game and a bidding war ensued and Oxy ended up paying $57 billion. This was made possible by

Sun sets over Exxon's Golden Pass LNG

As Solar Dominates, the Sun Sets on the LNG Boom

Gastech is a big deal in the global methane/natural gas industry. Gastech also openly embraces the false claims that the gas industry is somehow going to “...accelerate the global shift toward cleaner, more sustainable energy.” The idea that methane in the form of LNG is somehow cleaner or more

Leaving LNG behind.

LNG - The Oil Industry’s Last Scam

Do you remember the “algae as oil” years? For a whole ten years we were subjected to this scam from the biggest oil companies. We learned about it in 2009 and at the time Exxon predicted “it could produce fuels in five to 10 years.” And then after four years