Tata Steel has confirmed its intention to cut up to 2,800 job at the Port Talbot steelworks in South Wales, with nearly 90 per cent of redundancies falling in the next 18 months. The slashes, first reported late yesterday, come as part of a transition to make the steel-making site greener by decommissioning its blast furnaces and replacing them with electric arc furnaces The Indian steel giant plans to “maximise” voluntary redundancy before seeking any compulsory reductions in workforce and plans... Читать дальше...
It might be another month before crude oil production in North Dakota returns to normal, the state regulator said on Friday. Extreme weather has eaten into crude oil production in North Dakota to the tune of hundreds of thousands of barrels so far—with the cold weather creating power outages and shutting down oil refineries. It has essentially cut crude oil production in North Dakota by half, cutting out 650,000 bpd from its typical 1.24 million bpd of oil production. The North Dakota Pipeline Authority... Читать дальше...
The crude oil markets—including some physical markets—are showing signs of tightening as concerns about crude oil transit times due to bypassing the volatile Red Sea continue to drag on, traders, analysts, and LSEG data now show. Historically, turmoil in the Middle East have caused crude oil prices to spike—sometimes in a big way, even if only temporarily. This time around, oil prices have become more resilient and haven’t moved much over the past month, despite the significant conflict in the Red... Читать дальше...
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday. The total rig count rose by 1 to 620 this week, compared to 771 rigs this same time last year. The number of oil rigs fell by 2 this week, settling at 497--down by 116 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs rose by 3 this week to 120, a loss of 36 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed at 3. Meanwhile... Читать дальше...
European banks should integrate environmental, social, and governance risks in their regular risk management framework, the European Banking Authority (EBA) said this week in draft guidelines on the management of ESG risks. The European authority published a consultation paper on its draft proposals for banks as it launched a public consultation that will run until April 18, 2024. According to the EBA, climate change, environmental degradation, social issues, and other ESG factors pose “considerable... Читать дальше...
The solar industry in California is facing significant headwinds following the implementation of a new policy in April, which reduced incentives that had encouraged homeowners to install solar systems. Bloomberg reports the California Solar & Storage Association has found about 63% of its 400 solar installer members have reported cash flow issues because the new policy crushed consumer demand. Since last April, sales of rooftop solar systems across the state have crashed 85% in the most recent... Читать дальше...
Oilfield services giant SLB (NYSE: SLB) raised its quarterly cash dividend after reporting on Friday higher-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter, driven by what it described as “substantial international growth” in drilling activity. SLB said its fourth-quarter earnings per share (EPS), excluding charges and credits, stood at $0.86, up by 10% sequentially and 21% year-on-year. This beat the analyst consensus of $0.84 compiled by The Wall Street Journal. SLB reported fourth-quarter revenue... Читать дальше...
Via Metal Miner The Global Precious Metals MMI (Monthly Metals Index) ended 2023 by breaking out of its sideways trend and rising 3.64%. However, most precious metals still lack strong bullish action. All precious metals retracted in January after experiencing rallies throughout December. Currently, precious metals prices, for the most part, lack the strength needed to break out their long-term sideways or downward trends. Precious Metals Prices: Palladium While palladium prices jumped in late Q4... Читать дальше...
QatarEnergy and India are expected to sign soon a new long-term LNG supply deal under which Qatar is set to offer cheaper and more flexible supply to the Asian customer, Reuters reported on Friday, citing trade sources. Qatar, one of the world’s top LNG exporters, prefers to sign long-term agreements with its buyers and has given its Indian customers until the end of 2023 to negotiate possible extension and/or renewal of the current agreements beyond 2028. India, for its part, plans to significantly... Читать дальше...
Last year proved to be an annus mirabilis for the natural gas and LNG sectors after gas prices in key markets crashed spectacularly after hitting record highs. Europe’s key front-month Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) hit an all-time high of €340 per megawatt-hour in August 2022 as Europe went into a gas buying spree as it tried to fill its gas stores ahead of winter after weaning itself off Russian gas. In the United States, Henry Hub gas prices hit a 15-year high of $9.24 per MMBtu around the... Читать дальше...
In the past, any suggestion of a conflict in the Middle East prompted oil prices to rise. But that was in the past. Now, the war between Israel and Hamas is spreading, tankers and container ships are leaving the Red Sea, and yet oil prices are where they were a month ago. Despite an actual supply disruption in the United States. This week saw crude oil production in North Dakota fall by between 650,000 bpd and 700,000 bpd, which is quite a substantial amount of daily output. This decline, however... Читать дальше...
Norway recently approved deep-sea mining activities for the recovery of critical minerals, becoming one of the first countries to do so. To date, countries worldwide have been reluctant to carry out deep-sea mining activities due to the risks involved, that are thought to be greater than onshore mining. But Norway views the move as key to accessing minerals critical to achieving a global green transition. So, could this encourage other countries to do the same? This month, Norway’s parliament voted... Читать дальше...
The variability of renewable energy is one of the key hurdles standing between us and a net-zero future. Unlike baseload fossil fuels, which can be easily manipulated to produce enough supply to meet demand at any given time, renewable energy sources like solar and wind power depend on uncontrollable elements like the weather and the time of day. Finding a way to better match renewable energy supply with demand will therefore be critical to meeting global decarbonization goals. The leading solution... Читать дальше...
The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has taken its first oil price cap enforcement action of the year, according to a Thursday press release. The enforcement action is against UAE-based shipping company Hennesea Holdings Limited (Hennesea) linked to a price cap violation. Hennesea is the ultimate owner of 18 vessels—all crude oil and chemical tankers—including the HS Atlantica, which OFAC has identified as having carried Russian crude oil that had... Читать дальше...
Lancaster University researchers David Vandercruyssen, Simon Baker, David Howard and George Aggidis from the School of Engineering have said that tidal range schemes are vital to protect habitats, housing and businesses from a rising sea level estimated to be over one meter within 80 years. The research report published in Energy (an open access paper), follows on from earlier Lancaster University research into a combined tidal range electricity generation and cost model demonstrating the viability of tidal range energy in the UK. Читать дальше...
