An emboldened Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, has changed the balance of power in the South Caucasus in recent years. Baku reclaimed full control over Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region that for three decades had been under ethnic-Armenian control, last year. A weakened Armenia, meanwhile, has distanced itself from its traditional ally, Russia, and looked to move closer to the West. The geopolitical changes in the region have raised concerns in Iran, which neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan. Tehran... Читать дальше...
After scrapping oil capacity expansion plans earlier this year, Saudi state oil giant Aramco is now poised to boost natural gas output by 60% by 2030, Reuters reports, citing an Aramco executive on the sidelines of the Houston CERAWeek energy conference. In the third quarter of last year, Saudi Arabia made two significant natural gas discoveries in two fields in the Empty Quarter, along with the discovery of five reservoirs in previously discovered fields. At the Al-Hiran field, gas flowed at a... Читать дальше...
Via Metal Miner Nickel prices inverted to the upside in February, with an 8.71% month-over-month rise. Following a 3.53% increase during the first weeks of March, prices appeared to stagnate after they found at least a short-term peak on March 13. Overall, the Stainless Monthly Metals Index (MMI) remained sideways, with a modest 1.95% rise from February to March. Distributors Note Slight Pick-Up in Q1 The stainless market saw a significant boost in recent weeks, although distributors stopped short of referring to it as a market turnaround. Читать дальше...
Suriname’s state-owned Staatsolie has begun early talks with ExxonMobil and French TotalEnergies for the possible joint development of natural gas fields in the Guyana-Suriname basin, Staatsolie Managing Director Annand Jagesar told Reuters on the sidelines of the Houston CERAWEeek conference. With first oil production still several years in the future following initial discoveries offshore Suriname, the country is hoping to become both a major oil producer and a regional gas hub. "We've been talking to Total. Читать дальше...
Via The Cradle Israel’s NewMed Energy reported on Tuesday that natural gas exports from the Leviathan field to Egypt increased by 28 percent in 2023. The company reports that the exports jumped from 4.9 billion cubic meters (BCM) in 2022 to 6.3 BCM in 2023. Israel Katz, former energy minister, approved the increase in exports to Egypt last year. For 2026, he projected an annual production increase of six BCM – about 60 percent over the current volume. "3.5 BCM of which will be directed in favor of Egypt," the report stated. Читать дальше...
After rallying significantly earlier this week, oil prices plummeted by around 2% on Wednesday as markets awaited an interest rate policy announcement from the Federal Reserve before the closing bell. At 12:55 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading down 1.68% at $85.91, while WTI, the U.S. crude benchmark, was trading down 2.17% at $81.66. Later on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will close out its two-day meeting, with analysts widely anticipating that interest rates will be held steady.... Читать дальше...
According to a new report, after years of bumper dividends, investors will have to get used to lower cash returns from mining giants such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, and Glencore. Analysis from Morningstar published today said that after “many years of returning excess cash to shareholders” at the expense of expanding portfolios through mergers and acquisitions, heightened prices are now forcing a strategic rethink. Geological deposits are finite and deplete; be it precious metals such as gold and silver... Читать дальше...
Sudan has declared force majeure on crude oil exports from landlocked neighbor South Sudan, following a major rupture in the pipeline carrying crude from South Sudan to a port in Sudan in an area with active military activity. The latest conflict in Sudan erupted in April last year, when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, took up arms against the Sudanese army in the capital Khartoum. Sudan is the only conduit for crude oil exports out of landlocked South Sudan. South Sudan... Читать дальше...
Private equity firms have rewarded investors handsomely in recent months after divesting more than $30 billion worth of oil and gas assets in the U.S. shale patch in a blockbuster year for American upstream mergers and acquisitions. Buyout firms with oil and gas assets sold an estimated $30.55 billion worth of these last year, and consequently, they paid billions of dollars to the investors of their oil and gas-focused funds, The Wall Street Journal reports. As oil and gas producers, flush with cash from the 2022 record profits... Читать дальше...
China’s imports of fuel oil surged by 21% in January and February compared to the same months in 2023, according to data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs released on Wednesday and reported by Reuters. Fuel oil imports have been rising in the world’s top crude oil importer in recent months as the independent refiners, the so-called teapots based in the coastal province of Shandong, have ramped up the use of fuel oil as a cheaper feedstock. At the end of last year, the teapots... Читать дальше...
Crude oil prices were trading lower today after the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude oil inventories had shed 2 million barrels in the week to March 15, with gasoline stocks also declining. The crude oil inventory change compared with a draw of 1.5 million barrels for the previous week, which also featured a substantial inventory decline in gasoline inventories. Gasoline inventories fell by 3.3 million barrels in the week to March 15, with production averaging 9.6 barrels daily. Читать дальше...
Italy’s power grid operator Terna SpA plans a record-high five-year investment of $18 billion (16.5 billion euros) by 2028 to support and accelerate the country’s decarbonization, the company said in the details of its new industrial plan 2024-2028. Most of Terna’s capital expenditure (capex) through 2028 will go to strengthening and expanding the transmission grid and developing cross-border interconnection capacity, “to guarantee increased security, resilience and efficiency of the system enabling... Читать дальше...
Gasoline prices are on the rise, climbing nearly $0.30/gallon since the beginning of the year. What you may not realize is that this price rise happens nearly every year. In fact, if we look back to 2000, the only time gasoline prices didn’t climb between January and May was in 2020 — when the COVID-19 pandemic collapsed oil prices. In the fall, the reverse happens. Nearly every year between August and December gasoline prices decline. People tend to notice this during election years, convinced that... Читать дальше...
U.S. solar component manufacturers need more government support and stricter enforcement of trade laws if America wants to create its own solar supply chain and cut dependence on cheap imports from China and Southeast Asia, a new report commissioned by the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America (SEMA) Coalition showed on Wednesday. While demand for solar power in the United States is soaring, the industry relies too heavily on imported goods, with serious gaps for U.S. ingots, wafers, and cells,... Читать дальше...
Indian battery manufacturer Good Enough Energy plans to have its biggest battery gigafactory operational in October with an initial capacity of 7 gigawatt-hours (GWh), the company’s founder Akash Kaushik told Bloomberg in an interview published on Wednesday. The initial 7-GWh capacity is set to expand to 20 GWh by 2026, Kaushik told Bloomberg on the sidelines of an event in Delhi. Good Enough Energy will invest $54 million (4.5 billion Indian rupees) in the factory in the Indian state of Jammu... Читать дальше...
One of India’s largest state-owned refiners, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), has signed an agreement with supermajor BP to buy U.S. WTI crude for four months beginning in June, trade sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Under the deal, BPCL will be buying 1 million barrels of West Texas Intermediate crude from BP in each of the four months starting in June this year, according to the sources. Separately, BPCL has also purchased as much as 2 million barrels of WTI crude loading in April... Читать дальше...
A total of 70% of passive funds passed off as “sustainable” by five of the largest asset managers in the U.S. and Europe are exposed to companies developing new oil and gas projects, environmental organization Reclaim Finance said in a report on Wednesday, calling out asset managers for greenwashing ESG-labeled passive funds. In new research published today, Reclaim Finance has examined 430 “sustainable” passive funds managed by five of the biggest passive fund managers – Amundi, BlackRock, DWS,…
A Chinese company has bought a cargo of Canadian crude, to be shipped via the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline in May-June, Bloomberg has reported, citing trading sources who wished to remain unnamed. The buyer is Sinochem and the cargo is of 550,000 barrels of heavy crude produced by Suncor, the report added. The grade has similar properties to Iraq’s Basrah crude, the sources told Bloomberg. The Canadian oil industry has eagerly awaited the completion of the Trans Mountain expansion, which would add 590,000 bpd to capacity... Читать дальше...
Williams Companies has no plans to acquire Tellurian although it did consider a bid for the struggling LNG project developer. The statement, as carried by Reuters, follows a report about Tellurian saying that the company was considering a sale as one of its options, as it struggles to keep its Driftwood LNG project viable after failing to secure funding from long-term buyers. It is this lack of long-term buyers that made Williams decide to reconsider the option of buying Tellurian. "There is the advantage of it being permitted... Читать дальше...
For decades, scientists have come up with estimates of greenhouse gas emission through paper-based calculations of what’s pouring out of smokestacks and tailpipes, as well as based on the amount of energy consumed by end users. Researchers also use data from satellites in low-Earth orbit to snap images of methane leaks as they circumnavigate the globe; unfortunately, these space objects typically zoom by at hypersonic speeds of ~17,000 miles per hour, meaning that scientists are only able to estimate emission rates. Читать дальше...
Seasoned watchers of Iraq’s oil and gas sector have come to regard its perennial calls for new measures to increase its gas production with the fondness of the familiar – a old record still often played, perhaps, or the call of the first cuckoo of Spring. This year’s pledge by the latest in its fast-revolving-door of governments certainly has the same basic melody, but there is a new phrasing there too – this time, it is looking to develop its liquefied natural gas (LNG) capabilities as well. So... Читать дальше...
Commodity traders have amassed up to $120 billion in cash over several successive years of record performance and profits. The industry's new guard of executives is now sitting on huge amounts of cash to reinvest and turn the top trading houses from market brokers to industry shapers. That's according to a recent report by consultancy Oliver Wyman, which sees the trading industry's new executives as the ones that could use the cash bonanza to invest in evolving and betting on long-term strategies... Читать дальше...
The Japanese government is trying to kickstart a nuclear renaissance 13 years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, but a return to nuclear energy is proving difficult for the nation that was once the world’s biggest nuclear power producer. While the government continues to make lofty pledges about revitalizing the industry, which would shore up Japan’s energy independence as well as its decarbonization trajectory, nuclear power generation has stagnated between 5 to 8 percent of the country’s... Читать дальше...
