At this point Israel's ties with key Gulf countries like the UAE are near breaking point, after only a few short years ago diplomatic normalization was hailed through Trump's Abraham accords. But international and Israeli press reports are confirming the UAE has announced it is halting all coordination on humanitarian aid with Israel. Further, as Israeli media reports: "The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a suspension of diplomatic coordination with Israel in the wake of the death of seven... Читать дальше...
Via Metal Miner Month-over-month, the Automotive MMI (Monthly Metals Index) exhibited little movement. The index trended sideways, only moving up a slight 0.28%. However, recent events continue to raise questions about the future of the industry, especially where automotive imports are concerned. Despite the index itself not witnessing much movement, individual components of the index saw much more price movement than last month. This includes palladium, copper, and shredded scrap steel. Despite this... Читать дальше...
Russia’s LNG exporter Novatek is forced to scale back what would have been the biggest Russian export plant, Arctic LNG 2, as Western sanctions are constraining the company’s access to ice-class LNG tankers, Reuters reported exclusively on Thursday, citing industry sources. Arctic LNG 2 was initially planned to have three gasification trains with a total capacity of 19.8 million metric tons per year of LNG and 1.6 million tons per year of gas condensate output. However, sanctions on the project,... Читать дальше...
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it won’t have escaped your notice that gold is doing rather well. The safe haven asset has been stirred upwards as conflicts across the world have shown little to no sign of abating, and the four-year-long wait for interest rate cuts in the US and UK continues. Yesterday, gold was trading near $2,250 (£1,788) per troy ounce and touching $2,288 (£1,818) today, another all-time record extending the record-setting days that have come in January, February and March this year. Читать дальше...
State-run Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co is planning to lease a natural gas import terminal from providers of FLNG units, anonymous sources told Reuters this week. EGAS is hoping to find a willing participant for a five-year contract with the option of extending it, the source suggested. So far, Egypt has already purchased one LNG shipment scheduled to deliver sometime in May, but it has plans to purchase more in an attempt to get ahead of the scorching summer season that routinely triggers power blackouts due to the heavier load. Читать дальше...
Uzbekistan is grappling with a natural gas production crunch, putting pressure on state coffers. In February, Tashkent sharply reduced gas supplies to China, according to a March 28 report published by the UzDaily.uz website. The drop in export volume resulted in a sharp downturn in earnings, from $38.77 million in January to $18.6 million in February, according to data published by China’s General Customs Administration. The February 2024 figure was still better than earnings during the same month the previous year... Читать дальше...
If Tesla has demand worries as a result of its poor Q1 2024 delivery numbers, it sure isn't showing it. Instead the company is reported to be looking to expand even further geographically, with FT reporting this week that Tesla is eyeing India as a potential site for its next electric vehicle factory, with an investment estimate ranging from $2 billion to $3 billion. The company is set to explore locations in states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu, known for their existing automotive infrastructure. Читать дальше...
The National Maritime Authority of Denmark has closed down the Great Belt strait–a key shipping venue for Russia’s shadow sanctions-busting oil fleets–after the Danish navy activated a faulty missile launcher, endangering traffic. The missile launcher was activated and could not be deactivated, prompting the Danish authorities to bar access, which blocks access to the Baltic Sea, citing the risk of “falling missile fragments”, Reuters reports. "Until the missile launcher is deactivated, there is... Читать дальше...
It has now been just over a year since the Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) centred in Baghdad imposed an embargo on oil exports from the country’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan (KRI) based in Erbil. Over this time, there have been many comments from politicians, analysts, and executives of international oil companies working in Kurdistan who have decried the embargo as making no sense for any party involved. As highlighted by OilPrice.com, though, it makes perfect sense if it is understood... Читать дальше...
Commodity exports from Chile, a top producer of copper and lithium, could be delayed amid a workers’ strike that began early on Thursday, which disrupted loading and unloading of vessels. Members of the UPC and FTPC trade unions started a 24-hour strike on Thursday morning local time, Bloomberg reports. “The strike is intended to draw the attention of the government regarding the union's demands related to decarbonization and unemployment in ports,” Albatrans International Freight Forwarders said... Читать дальше...
Companies, governments, and investors need to confront short-term trade-offs and make tough choices to alter the world's climate change course.The former boss of UK oil supermajor BP has said around £2.7 trillion needs to be invested in sustainable financing every year for the next decade to limit climate change damage. Lord Browne of Madingley, who led the oil giant for 12 years until 2007, said the energy transition will pivot the world from a period of “climate crisis into climate correction”. Читать дальше...
Rising seasonal demand and higher crude oil prices have resulted in the highest average U.S. gasoline prices in nearly six months, with the national average at $3.58 per gallon as of April 4.The national average hit a new multi-month high on Thursday morning, rising to $3.58 per gallon, the highest since October 14, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, noted. The national average is now 7.2 cents per gallon higher than at this time last year, De Haan added. The current average... Читать дальше...
As much as 80% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions between 2016 through 2022 can be traced to just 57 corporate and state fossil fuel and cement producers, think tank InfluenceMap said in a new report on Thursday. In the seven years since the Paris Agreement of 2015, nation-state producers accounted for 38% of emissions in the database, while state-owned entities accounted for 37% and investor-owned companies made up 25% of global CO2 emissions, the research found. Saudi oil giant Aramco, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom... Читать дальше...
Despite record investments in renewables, the current funding for clean energy deployment is insufficient for the world to reach the 1.5 degrees Celsius pathway under the Paris Agreement, renewable energy think tank REN21 said in an annual report. Despite record renewables investments, which hit as much as $622.5 billion in 2023, the world is still far from what is needed to meet the climate and sustainable development goals, REN21’s Executive Director Rana Adib wrote in the foreword to the report. Читать дальше...
Tesla has sent scouts out across India to pick a location for a new EV factory that would cost between $2 billion and $3 billion, the Financial Times has reported, citing unnamed sources in the know. According to the FT sources, priority will be given to states with already established and well-developed car manufacturing infrastructure. The report follows a move by the Indian government to lower import tariffs on electric vehicles but only for companies that commit to manufacturing the vehicles... Читать дальше...
Exxon has warned that its first-quarter income figures will be affected by lower oil prices, Reuters has reported, citing a securities filing. Besides lower oil benchmarks, the company also pointed to weaker gas prices and a sizeable loss from its fuel derivatives business, the report noted. Per the filing, Exxon will report an operating result of $6.65 billion for the first three months of 2024, down from a record $11.6 billion a year earlier and also down from the fourth-quarter 2023 result, which... Читать дальше...
After a series of delays, cost overruns, and legal challenges, the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline will open for business on May 1, the same-name state-owned company said this week. Trans Mountain has yet to obtain some approvals from the Canadian Energy Regulator, the company said. The expansion project sought to boost the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipe to 890,000 bpd. Oil producers welcomed the plan as they were expanding their output while markets for it remained limited to the U.S. Environmentalists... Читать дальше...
Back in 2022, two insurance majors said they would reduce the amount of business they do with Big Oil. Allianz and Swiss Re both motivated the move with their net-zero efforts that they wanted to extend to their clients if they wanted to continue being their clients. One would think this could be a pretty effective strategy to get oil companies to become cleaner, but climate activists disagree. For them, what the insurance industry is doing is not enough. So they're staging protests to force more radical change... Читать дальше...
Shortly after Canada evicted Chinese investors from certain critical minerals assets, the U.S. Department of Defense began developing its own AI program to estimate critical mineral prices and predict supplies as it pushes to jumpstart U.S. production that is essential to long-term national and energy security. North America is at a critical junction, and the ground beneath Case Lake in northeastern Ontario holds the prospect of helping to secure one mineral in particular—the lack of which poses a significant security problem. Читать дальше...
Surging U.S. oil production and shifting global oil flows amid geopolitical flare-ups have boosted American crude exports to record-high levels in recent months. Now U.S. oil is encroaching on the key markets of the OPEC+ group, which has been restricting supply in an effort to boost oil prices. From Europe to Asia, buyers are purchasing more U.S. crude as sanctions against Russia and uncertainty over Venezuela’s sanctions relief renewal are making refiners anxious about importing Russian and Venezuelan crude. Читать дальше...
The energy storage sector is on the verge of explosion. As leading economies around the world race to install more and more renewable energy production capacity, the nature of our energy landscape is changing, and the grid will need significant advances and infrastructural supports to keep up. One of these key supports is energy storage, which can manage and even out the variable flow of renewable energy to and from the grid. Due to its central role in energy security in an increasingly decarbonized world... Читать дальше...
