The U.S. doubled imports of lithium-ion batteries for the third consecutive year in 2022, and with EV demand growing yearly, U.S. lithium mines must ramp up production or rely on other nations for their supply of refined lithium. To determine if the domestic U.S. lithium opportunity can meet demand, Visual Capitalist partnered with EnergyX to determine how much lithium sits within U.S. borders. U.S. Lithium Projects The most crucial measure of a lithium mine’s potential is the quantity that can be extracted from the source. Читать дальше...
A mysterious spill is fanning fears across Central Asia about the construction of a canal in northern Afghanistan. The Taliban government in Kabul is vowing to press ahead with the project, which it insists will ease food insecurity for millions of Afghans. But many in neighboring Central Asian states view the Qosh Tepa Canal as an environmental hazard. Construction on the canal started in the spring of 2022. The second phase of the project got underway in late February, according to Taliban officials. Читать дальше...
A University of St. Andrews managed new multidisciplinary research could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and Astronomy, and the School of Chemistry have proposed a new approach to designing efficient light-emitting materials in a paper published last week in Nature. Light-emitting materials are used in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that are now found in the majority of mobile phone displays and smartwatches... Читать дальше...
With Brent crude oil closing in on $90 per barrel on Wednesday, Bank of America energy analysts have boosted their price forecast for this year to average $86 per barrel and peak this summer at $95 per barrel. Citing an improving global economic outlook and tightening inventories, Bank of America is sees Brent crude averaging $86 per barrel, up from its earlier forecast of $80, and the U.S. crude oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), averaging $81 per barrel, up from its previous forecast of $75 per barrel. Читать дальше...
Reuters reports that the Dutch supermajor Shell is seeking a long-term license from Washington before making a final investment decision on Venezuela’s Dragon natural gas project. Citing two anonymous sources, Reuters said Shell was seeking a 15-year license to develop the field, hoping for a positive decision, even further down the road, before investing $1 billion. Currently, there is a two-year license that was issued in January 2023. Reuters was unable to obtain comment from Shell, the U.S. Читать дальше...
The fear expressed by institutional analysts at the start of the year that 2024 will see some degree of volatility on the iron ore price front seems to be coming true. On April 1, the beginning of the second fiscal quarter, iron ore prices fell to a ten-month low. Costs for the raw steel-making material dipped by 3.9% to U.S. $96.25 a ton on the Singapore Exchange in early trade before recovering. In the last quarter, ore prices had a rough ride as investors tried to combat the fallout from weaker Chinese real estate sector demand. Читать дальше...
Gold and precious metal funds swept performance tables in March, taking eight of the top ten positions throughout the month. “There was only one story last month – gold,” said Ben Yearsley, director of Fairview Investing. “With the price of an ounce rising almost 10 percent in March, it’s no surprise seeing gold equities finally coming to the party.” In total, gold prices have risen 23.3 percent over the last six months. The two other funds in the top ten were global value fund Price Value Portfolio... Читать дальше...
The OPEC+ group is set to continue with its production cuts until at least the end of the first half of 2024 as the alliance’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) did not recommend any changes to output policy at its meeting on Wednesday. The JMMC is the OPEC+ panel that monitors the situation in the oil market and assesses compliance with the cuts. It doesn’t take decisions on policy as it just recommends possible actions to the full OPEC+ ministerial meetings. After a short regular meeting today... Читать дальше...
Crude oil prices rose today after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory build of 3.2 million barrels for the last week of March. The authority also estimated draws in both gasoline and middle distillates. This compared with an oil inventory build of 3.2 million a week earlier, which pushed prices lower at the time. It also compared with an inventory draw of 2.3 million barrels as estimated by the American Petroleum Institute earlier this week. Gasoline inventories, however,... Читать дальше...
The Dutch Senate has delayed a vote on the permanent closure of the Groningen gas field, which is set for October 1 due to earthquakes in the area, as several parties have asked for guarantees that the shutdown would not threaten the country’s energy security. The Groningen gas field was planned to be turned off on October 1, 2023, and permanently closed this coming October, the government of the Netherlands said last summer. The fields were expected to remain in operational status for another... Читать дальше...
Xiaomi's marketing efforts have made a significant impact in the highly competitive EV market.The Xiaomi SU7 EV launch was such a resounding success that the vehicle sold out of all of its 2024 inventory within a span of 24 hours, according to InsideEVs. The automaker is the latest to throw its hat in the fray and make a grab for marketshare in China, alongside of leaders BYD and Tesla. Xiaomi's stock raged higher in Hong Kong on the news heading into Tuesday's U.S. market open, which was preceded... Читать дальше...
The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), the OPEC+ panel that monitors oil market developments and the group’s production cuts, didn’t recommend on Wednesday any changes to output policy but noted that compliance with the cuts needs to improve. The JMMC held a brief regular meeting today and, as widely expected, did not recommend to the OPEC+ ministers to change the current levels of oil production cuts. However, the panel, which doesn’t decide policy but only recommends a course of action... Читать дальше...
China’s top economic planning body has asked major natural gas distributors and local authorities to remove the fixed price caps for households by September, sources familiar with the discussions have told Bloomberg. The move is aimed at supporting China’s natural gas distributors, many of which have seen profits evaporate amid high import prices for LNG but a cap on household prices. So far, these distributors have not been able to pass on the higher costs of importing the gas to consumers. The... Читать дальше...
South Africa could see additional up to 50,000 deaths due to air pollution and billions of U.S. dollars in health costs if a proposal to delay the decommissioning of coal-fired power plants goes through, a Finland-based research center says. South Africa, one of the world’s largest coal producers and exporters, continues to rely on coal for a large part of its energy mix. Currently, some 85% of South Africa’s electricity is generated via coal-fired power stations. Crippled by an energy crisis for several years... Читать дальше...
The US Federal Reserve has blocked an attempt led by the European Central Bank (ECB) to make climate risks a pillar of global rules for banks and require them to report their strategies on meeting climate commitments, sources with knowledge of the matter have told Bloomberg. Some members of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), which includes central banks and bank supervisors from around the world, have been pushing for making climate risks and ESG commitments the center of new rules for banks everywhere in the world. Читать дальше...
Tesla saw its deliveries slump in the first quarter for the first annual drop since the start of the pandemic in 2020, missing analyst forecasts by a mile in a sign that even price cuts haven’t been able to stave off an increasingly heated competition on the EV market. Tesla said on Tuesday that it had produced over 433,000 vehicles and delivered about 387,000 vehicles, attributing the lower deliveries to “the early phase of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 at our Fremont factory and factory... Читать дальше...
The Department of Energy has canceled its latest tender for crude oil for the replenishment of the strategic petroleum reserve after oil prices moved higher than the DoE is comfortable with. Last month, the DoE purchased 2.8 million barrels at a price of $81 per barrel, which was higher than its self-imposed ceiling of $79 per barrel. It appears the department is unwilling to keep paying more for SPR oil, saying it was “keeping the taxpayer’s interest at the forefront”, per Bloomberg. “We will not... Читать дальше...
The key to long-term North American security has become inextricably tied to critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper and rare earths elements. Without them, there will be no energy transition. And China dominates the entire playing field. That dire situation has prompted a host of new legislation in both the United States and Canada—all designed to position North America to shift market share from China. That situation means that the junior explorers and producers... Читать дальше...
The United States is currently experiencing a post-pandemic boom in foreign direct investment (FDI), thanks in large part to new industrial policies that incentivize U.S. manufacturing investment such as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the CHIPS Act as well as overall resilience of the U.S. economy. FDI in the United States increased $216.8 billion to $5.25 trillion at the end of 2022 from $5.04 trillion at the end of 2021, with Europe accounting for the lion’s share of investment inflows. Unfortunately... Читать дальше...
I normally chronicle the oilfield activity taking place in the shale basins of the U.S., often spending much of my time on companies operating in West Texas and New Mexico. A few counties in this area are the site of the Permian basin and the source of millions of barrels a day of oil and gas equivalent production thanks to fracking technology. In this article, I am going to sidestep that niche, but only for a while. If you read patiently to the end, I’ll swerve back into my normal lane and finish up in the oilpatch. Читать дальше...
The big Cambridge-Oxford boat race on the Thames is the posh British equivalent of March Madness. But there was a big problem this year. The Thames is polluted. The oarsmen had to propel themselves in a sea of e. coli. Unlike the citizens of Flint, MI, who had to face years of polluted water, the oarsmen had a choice. They didn’t have to row. But we are not writing about water equity. This is about utility regulation, and how Americans got something right. Thames Water, the biggest water utility in the UK... Читать дальше...
