Via Metal Miner Nickel prices followed other base metals up throughout April, with a nearly 15% month-over-month rise. By late April, prices hit their highest level since September, although they subsequently began to retrace as upside momentum cooled. Overall, the Stainless Monthly Metals Index (MMI) rebounded, with a 9.58% jump from April to May. Outokumpu, Acerinox Post Q1 Results Outokumpu and Acerinox, the parent company of North American Stainless, recently released their first-quarter results. Читать дальше...
As many as 25 Republican U.S. states sued on Thursday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), challenging the Administration’s strict rules on emissions from power plants. The attorney general of the states filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Reuters reports. At the end of April, EPA announced final rules on emissions reductions of power plants which would force coal-fired power plants that plan to run in the long-term and all new baseload gas-fired... Читать дальше...
Tokyo University of Science scientists have discovered a stable, highly conductive lithium-ion conductor in the form of a pyrochlore-type oxyfluoride. It’s an innovation addressing the need for non-sulfide solid electrolytes. All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries offer enhanced safety and energy density compared to liquid electrolyte counterparts, but face challenges like lower conductivity and insufficient electrode contact. The non-sulfide solid electrolytes, offer higher conductivity and stability... Читать дальше...
India is gearing up to tackle its most significant power deficit in 14 years this June, propelled by a decline in hydropower generation, according to government sources. With projections indicating a shortfall of 14 GW during nighttime hours, the nation's power sector faces a critical challenge, necessitating urgent measures to avert potential outages. The impending deficit is exacerbated by delays in commissioning 3.6 GW of new coal-fired plants, originally slated for operation before March. The... Читать дальше...
In 2023, solar energy accounted for three-quarters of renewable capacity additions worldwide. Most of this growth occurred in Asia, the EU, and the U.S., continuing a trend observed over the past decade. In this graphic, Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti illustrates the rise in installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in China, the EU, and the U.S. between 2010 and 2022, measured in gigawatts (GW). Bruegel compiled the data.. Chinese Dominance As of 2022, China’s total installed capacity stands at 393 GW... Читать дальше...
Hydrogenone Capital Growth, the investment trust focused on cash into clean hydrogen, has reported a strong performance of its underlying holdings, even though its share price has struggled. The trust’s net asset value (NAV) has grown 0.6 percent since the start of the year, and 3.6 percent since March 2023, it reported in a quarterly portfolio update today. Hydrogen companies in the portfolio Elcogen (19.4 per cent of NAV), HiiROC (15.3 per cent of NAV) and Sunfire (20.9 per cent of NAV) all gained... Читать дальше...
The West African nation of Benin has blocked China’s first shipment of crude oil from Niger amid an ongoing border dispute with Niger following a coup that has put a military junta in power and shaken relations with other African nations. China’s first imports of crude oil from Niger’s military junta arrived in Benin in three vessels but were prevented by the authorities from docking at the port. “If you want to load your oil in our waters, you can’t view Benin as an enemy and at the same time... Читать дальше...
Tesla just fired the staff in charge of its recharging network? No explanation. Best explanation: recharging stations lose money. There’s a chicken and egg problem here. You can’t sell electric vehicles without them. Or perhaps this is an accounting problem. Yet fear of being stranded without a place to recharge may be the most powerful reason not to buy an electric vehicle. Without a ubiquitous charging network, electric vehicles will remain limited in market share. Shouldn’t the developers of... Читать дальше...
As Canadian oil sands companies pour money into optimization and efficiency, S&P Global Commodity Insights has upgraded its 10-year output for a 15% increase in oil sands production by 2030. In a Thursday report, S&P Global said it now expected Canadian oil sands to produce 3.8 million barrels per day by 2030–or 500,000 barrels per day more than currently–due to optimization efforts. The 15% increase compares to S&P Global’s earlier forecast that oil sands would see a 3% increase in... Читать дальше...
Barclays’ chair defended its record on climate change, saying there is “plenty of concrete evidence” it is on track to meet its financed emissions targets, at a feisty annual meeting that saw a number of protesters removed. At the bank’s AGM in Glasgow on Thursday, chair Nigel Higgins responded to a string of questions and loud heckles from climate campaigners slamming Barclays’ financing of fossil fuel extraction companies. He asked several individuals chanting phrases including “blood on your hands”... Читать дальше...
Amid a heatwave and reduced hydropower generation, India boosted its coal consumption to a record high in the first quarter of the year, which also drove up emissions from the power sector to an all-time high. India, which still relies on coal for over 70% of its electricity generation, saw its coal-fired power generation jump by 9.6% year-over-year to 338 terawatt hours (TWh) in the first quarter of 2024, according to data from think tank Ember cited by Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire. At the same time... Читать дальше...
Donald Trump has asked executives of some of the largest U.S. oil producers to raise $1 billion for his campaign to return to the White House and promised to scrap many of the Biden Administration’s environmental policies, the Washington Post reported exclusively on Thursday, quoting sources familiar with a meeting. Trump, who was a very pro-oil president during his tenure at the White House, met with the top industry executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club in April to hear the grievances of the American oil industry... Читать дальше...
Brazil’s environmental protection agency has required state-held oil and gas giant Petrobras to conduct a series of studies on how its plan to drill in an environmentally sensitive area offshore the mouth of the Amazon River would impact indigenous communities. In recent weeks, the agency, Ibama, has sent the requests to Petrobras, asking it to carry out studies on the “social, cultural and environmental” impact its plan to drill would have, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing the documents it had seen. Читать дальше...
Australia will continue to back exploration and increased production of natural gas as the fuel will play a key role in the country’s transition to a net-zero economy by 2050 and help provide a reliable source of energy to Australia’s allies, the Australian government said in its Future Gas Strategy unveiled on Thursday. Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King released the Future Gas Strategy “which will support a Future Made in Australia and ensures decisions on gas supply and... Читать дальше...
Occidental Petroleum hopes it will have closed its $12-billion planned acquisition of Permian oil and gas producer CrownRock by the next quarterly earnings report at some point in August 2024, Oxy’s chief executive Vicki Hollub said on the Q1 call with analysts. At the end of last year, Oxy said it would buy CrownRock for cash and stock in a deal valued at around $12 billion, including debt, with which it joined the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. oil industry. The acquisition will... Читать дальше...
Chinese imports of crude oil rose by 5.45% in April compared to the same month last year as refiners stocked up on crude to prepare for the five-day local Labor Day weekend that began on May 1, China’s official statistics showed on Thursday. Last month, Chinese refiners imported 10.88 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, up compared to 10.4 million bpd imported for the same month of 2023, per data from the General Administration of Customs cited by Reuters. However, Chinese crude imports... Читать дальше...
Goldman Sachs analysts expect OPEC to stick to its production output reduction agreement at its next meeting, revising an earlier stance that the cartel may partially unwind the cuts. "While our interpretation of OPEC+ communication is that no final decision has been made, we now expect Saudi crude supply to remain flat at 9 mb/d (million barrels per day) in July (vs. 9.2 previously)," Goldman said, as quoted by Reuters. The revision followed the publication of data showing that global oil inventories were higher than expected... Читать дальше...
Oil industry executives and lawyers are drawing up executive orders to be presented to Donald Trump if he wins another term in the White House, Politico has reported, citing some of those involved but without mentioning names. According to the report, the industry is worried that “the Trump campaign will be able to focus on energy issues as Election Day draws closer” and that Trump himself may be too distracted to focus on energy. The executive orders being drafted focus on lowering drilling costs... Читать дальше...
Wholesale electricity prices in Texas briefly surged to four figures after ERCOT issued a warning about potential generation shortfalls on Wednesday. The spot price topped $3,000 per megawatt-hour at one point in the late afternoon of Wednesday, from about $32 per MWh on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported. The ERCOT warning had been for the time between 7 and 9 pm. The price surge is not unprecedented—prices on the spot market experienced another of these in April when ERCOT warned again about the possibility of a supply shortfall. Читать дальше...
Since the mid-1990s, China’s extraordinary economic expansion almost singlehandedly drove a supercycle in key commodities prices it required to power such growth, including oil and gas. In 2013, it became the world’s largest net importer of total petroleum and other liquid fuels and, as late as 2017, its still high rate of economic growth allowed it to overtake the U.S. as the largest annual gross crude oil importer in the world. Late 2019 saw much of this activity grind to a halt as Covid hit the country... Читать дальше...
Western governments have been nurturing an EV market for years. They have had quite some success. But now they have to deal with lost fuel duty revenues from ICE car sales—and they have no other option but to hurt their EV markets. There are eight states in the U.S. that charge EV drivers a registration fee of $200 per year. Another 24 or more have an annual fee of $100 or more. Now, $100 per year is not a whole lot for most of the people who tend to buy EVs—but it is an additional expense on vehicles... Читать дальше...
Oil prices have pulled back sharply in the month of May with prices posting their steepest weekly loss in three months. The front-month contract plunged to an eight-week low of $82.41 per barrel in intra-day in early trading on 7 May, good for a $5.07/bbl w/w decline while Brent for July delivery fell by $3.87/bbl w/w to a settlement of $83.33/bbl. The oil price selloff appears to have been triggered by a return of demand pessimism thanks to last week’s report by the EIA that showed a 7.3M-barrel build in U.S. crude stocks... Читать дальше...
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) that invest in stocks related to the energy transition have outperformed the major funds tied to oil and gas firms over the past month as the decline in oil prices since mid-April dragged down shares of fossil fuel companies. The rebound in clean energy ETFs has just begun. But it could stop in its tracks if investor sentiment sours again amid persistently high interest rates and the U.S. political debate and divisions over ESG investments. The rising interest rates... Читать дальше...
