Amidst a backdrop of escalating climate activism, five members of Letzte Generation, often dubbed Germany's version of Just Stop Oil, are facing charges of "forming a criminal organization." The legal maneuver has unsettled fellow activists, who fear it could establish a troubling precedent, potentially criminalizing future support for environmental causes. The accused—Mirjam Herrmann, 27; Henning Jeschke, 22; Edmund Schulz, 60; Lukas Popp, 25; and Jakob Beyer, 30—find themselves charged under section... Читать дальше...
Kazakhstan is considering new procurement standards to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of state spending while aiming to minimize the environmental harm of public works and services. Government contracts for goods, works and services totaled about $19.7 billion in 2023. In the past, environmental concerns didn’t figure much in state spending. But now, officials are starting to confront the need to address the Soviet legacy of environmental degradation, including the radiation caused by... Читать дальше...
Spanish utility giant Iberdrola is in search of a buyer of 50% of a portfolio of wind and solar projects under development in the United States, hoping to raise up to $1.8 billion from the sale, sources with knowledge of the plans told Bloomberg on Thursday. Iberdrola, one of the biggest utilities and renewable energy developers in Europe and the Americas, is looking to sell 50% in a portfolio of 400 megawatts (MW) of solar plants and 300 MW of onshore wind farms, all of which have purchase power... Читать дальше...
Wall Street banks are in a frenzy over "The Next AI Trade," piling into the 'Powering up America' investment themes, whether that's power grid companies, commodities, such as copper, gold, silver, and uranium, and artificial intelligence chipmakers, to accommodate the explosion of generative artificial intelligence data centers anticipated nationwide through the end of the decade and beyond. JPMorgan's Asia Pacific Equity Research desk is the latest bank to jump on AI trade in a note titled "Deep... Читать дальше...
European benchmark natural gas prices rallied on Wednesday and early Thursday amid growing supply concerns and forecasts of lower wind power generation later this week. The Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, hit on Wednesday their highest level since January after Austria’s OMV warned the market that Russian state giant Gazprom could halt natural gas supply to Austria due to a foreign court ruling that could interrupt OMV payments to Gazprom Export. The Austrian... Читать дальше...
A mere few days after Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, was sworn into office at the start of the week, China's military on Thursday morning (local time) initiated two days of large-scale military drills. PLA navy ships and aircraft are now reportedly "surrounding the island of Taiwan," according to state media and PLA statements. The drills are said to be ensuing in the Taiwan Strait as well as to the north, south and east of the island - and additionally near the disputed tiny islands of Kinmen... Читать дальше...
Bitcoin has dominated the news cycle lately, from the recent halving to the 30-plus banks starting their own Bitcoin ETF. Crypto miners have also made the news, buying up local real estate and old industrial buildings across America, from Texas to New York, transforming old forgotten real estate into huge mining super-centers. This includes some of the biggest names in the sector. A handful of C-level executives from some of the industry’s biggest names in crypto mining have gotten together to... Читать дальше...
Two separate agencies regulating Nigeria’s oil industry have offered wildly different figures for the country’s actual oil production, with one agency recording a 17% shortfall with some $3.3 million at stake, Nigerian Vanguard reported on Thursday. The Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) claims that its data shows the country’s actual oil production for April 2024 was 1.28 million barrels per day (mbpd), while the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has reported 1.7 million... Читать дальше...
One of the biggest fundraisers in the UK this year just hit the market, with National Grid’s pitch to bring £7 billion in over the next five years to help fund its £60 billion energy transition investment plan. The new £60 billion plan is ambitious, with just over half of the investment being spent in the UK, and the rest going to National Grid’s US operations. The plan allows investors to buy seven new shares at a discount of roughly a third, for every 24 shares they already own. “Incentives like... Читать дальше...
Amid a relentless heat wave, India’s peak power demand surged this week to above previously expected levels, resulting in long blackouts in parts of the country. Peak power demand in India hit a seasonal high of 235 gigawatts (GW) on Wednesday, due to surging electricity demand in the heat waves in many states. India’s all-time high peak power demand, currently at 243.27 GW, was recorded last September, Indian media report. The record is set to be shattered as early as this summer amid surging... Читать дальше...
Oil prices rose early on Thursday, recouping some losses of the previous three days, after Russia said it would present a plan to compensate for exceeding its OPEC+ oil production quota in April. Following three consecutive trading days of losses, Brent Crude prices were rising by 0.88% at $82.62 as of 9:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday, and the U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, was trading 0.93% higher at $78.29. Oil prices still look rangebound in the low $80s, at least until next week’s OPEC+ meeting on June 1... Читать дальше...
The average retail price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States was $3.58 on the Monday before Memorial Day, which was 1% higher than last year’s pre-Memorial Day gas price, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday. Over the past five weeks, Middle East tensions have eased, while U.S. refinery activity has increased after the end of seasonal maintenance, contributing to a 2% decline in average retail gasoline prices, the administration noted. A near-record... Читать дальше...
The scandalized Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MBD has filed a lawsuit against PetroSaudi International CEO Patrick Mahoney for $1.83 billion over what it says was a sham oil exploration joint venture. According to the lawsuit, 1MBD (1Malaysia Development Berhad) had been led to believe that Petrosaudi was owned by Saudi royalty, which served as the basis upon which the fund agreed to the JV deal. The joint venture “was a sham which resulted in 1MDB suffering a complete loss of its investment” of US$1.83 billion... Читать дальше...
U.S. Democratic lawmakers have referred the world’s largest international oil companies to the U.S. Department of Justice, urging an investigation into Big Oil’s ‘deceptive claims’ about its products that have misled the public about the effects on climate. The U.S. House Oversight Committee launched in 2021 an investigation over “the reported role of the fossil fuel industry in a long-running, industry-wide campaign to spread disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming.”... Читать дальше...
A U.S. District Judge has ruled that Exxon can proceed with its lawsuit against activist investor Arjuna Capital, which wanted to force the company to make more advanced net-zero commitments. The judge, however, excluded Follow This, the other target of Exxon’s suit, due to jurisdictional obstacles. The activist investor group is based in the Netherlands and U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction over it, Judge Mark Pittman ruled, as reported by Reuters. In January, the two activist investor entities... Читать дальше...
Australia is delaying the closure of its biggest coal plant because there is not enough wind and solar capacity to replace the baseload generator yet. This is according to Bloomberg, which reported that Origin Energy had received a request from the New South Wells government, where the plant is located, to keep it in operation for longer than the utility initially planned. For that, Origin would receive financial assistance to the tune of about $150 million annually. The Eraring power plant has a... Читать дальше...
Brazil’s state oil major Petrobras has agreed with the country’s antitrust regulator to stop selling refineries in order to boost its processing capacity. Five years ago, Bloomberg recalls, Petrobras had announced plans, coordinated with the watchdog, to sell a total of eight refineries. Now, after three sales, the company has ended the divestment, again in coordination with the regulatory organ. The change in plans comes as the Brazilian government exerts growing pressure on Petrobras to expand... Читать дальше...
Dynamics in the global oil markets have shown little change over the past couple of weeks with pessimism still high and hedge funds still leaning towards the short side of the market. Over the past week, Brent prices remained range-bound in the $83.45-83.60/bbl range with the prolonged sideways price movement pushing volatility lower. The realized annualized 30-trading-day front-month Brent volatility clocked in at just 16.9% at settlement on 20 May, a 2.1 ppt w/w reduction while the 10-trading-day... Читать дальше...
Turkey has emerged as the largest coal-fired electricity producer in Europe as major EU economies have continued to shut down coal power plants and boost renewable energy generation. In the first four months of this year, Turkey was the top coal power producer in Europe, overtaking Germany, according to data from energy think tank Ember cited by Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire. This development highlights the diverging paths the EU and Turkey have taken in securing electricity supply. While the... Читать дальше...
The U.S. and the world in general are living through the Fourth Industrial Revolution with Artificial Intelligence (AI), clean energy and cryptocurrencies emerging as some of the biggest secular megatrends of our time. According to Goldman Sachs, escalating electricity needs from running AI data centers will generate downstream investment opportunities that will benefit utilities, renewable energy generation, and industrial sectors. The investment bank has forecast that data center power demand will... Читать дальше...
Thames Water again? We’re not in the water business. But this story has a moral, so read on. There are many reasons for the current predicament in the UK’s water utility business. This situation resembles one of those detective stories where almost everyone is a suspect. The victim, of course, is the British public suffering under boil water alerts and facing increasingly polluted beaches, lakes, and rivers. But who is to blame? The question itself is complex and difficult to answer. Each day another... Читать дальше...
