Flying over NOLA; Exxon bets

From neighborhood bars to tweets, metro New Orleans residents have been discussing more of a regular presence of military planes flying overhead. 

The flights are coming from the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans in Belle Chasse, but they aren't a new occurrence. It's detachment season, the time when national and international squadrons come to train in Belle Chase base to train. 

It typically occurs from October to late May, NAS JRB Public Affairs Officer Andrew Thomas said. 

Meanwhile, Louisiana National Guard does their training on the weekends. 

The jets are either departing or returning to the base from the Gulf of Mexico - over which squadrons train. The minimum altitude for the aircraft is 1,000 feet, Thomas said. 

Louisiana Air National Guard fly the most regularly, typically sending out two to four aircrafts on training in the morning and the same estimated number in the afternoon, Thomas said. 

While it may seem there's been an increase, Thomas said that's not the case. "The men or women who fly these planes have to stay sharp," Thomas said, "so they do regularly fly." 

 Exxon betting of future of fossil fuel production

ExxonMobil has agreed to buy the shale group Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5B in a deal that places bets on the future of fossil fuel production in the United States. America’s largest oil and gas deal in more than two decades - since Exxon’s $75B merger with Mobil Oil in 1998 - will increase Exxon’s dominance in the Permian Basin shale field, in the heart of Texas and the country’s transformation into being the world’s biggest oil producer. Shares in Exxon have almost doubled over the past two years as oil and gas prices rose sharply. Its takeover of Pioneer is an all-stock transaction. While the Biden administration has sought to hasten the shift towards renewable energy, this acquisition underlines the confidence that ExxonMobile has for fossil fuel output not being significantly hampered in the coming years. Pioneer shareholders are set to vote on the proposed tie-up that both companies' boards have already green-lighted. Together, Exxon and Pioneer are set to have “the largest footprint of high-return wells in the Permian Basin”, noted Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield. Exxon’s production in the Permian would more than double to 1.3M barrels of oil equivalent per day following the purchase. It's expected to reach about 2M per day by 2027. The company is pitching the takeover as environmentally friendly pledging to leverage its “industry-leading” greenhouse gas reduction plans in the Permian, which Exxon CEO Darren Woods said will “accelerate Pioneer’s net-zero plan from 2050 to 2035”.  The deal - expected to close in the first half of 2024 - is subject to regulatory approvals. (UK Guardian 10/13/23) Exxon reinforces support for fossil fuels with deal to buy shale giant for $60bn | Fossil fuels | The Guardian