Iran has decided to halt work on the expansion of its Abadan oil refinery until mid-April as part of measures to contain the new coronavirus outbreak, the semi-official Mehr news agency said, citing Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company (NIOEC) Saeed Sattari Naini. Iran contracted China’s …

Russia refuses to open negotiations with Saudi Arabia, which is flooding world markets with cheap oil in a brazen attempt to punish Russia for rejecting substantial oil production cuts that would have steadied sinking oil prices. Saudi Arabia has made huge cuts to its official selling prices for oil. Arab …

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) on Friday called for reopening the country’s oil fields and ports, closed in January by tribal leaders in protest against the UN-backed government. “We call on those responsible for the closure to immediately lift the blockade and spare oil sector workers and citizens further suffering,” …

A research team, led by Professor Jungki Ryu of the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, presented a new biofuel system that uses lignin found in biomass for the production of hydrogen. The system decomposes lignin with a molybdenum …

Atlas Renewable Energy has signed a deal with Anglo American to build the ‘largest solar plant’ in Brazil with a R$881 million (£143.5m) investment. The Atlas Casablanca solar plant will have an installed capacity of 330MW, with more than 800,000 panels allowing it to produce enough energy to supply a …

Global energy player Total will build a battery-based energy storage project in France’s Dunkirk port district. The battery project will be built with an investment of nearly €15m and will have 25MWh storage capacity and 25MW power output. Total chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné said: “This project is part of …

Saudi Arabia is unleashing a wave of crude toward Europe, traditionally the backyard for Russian oil sales, pledging to supply regional refineries with as much as triple their usual intake from the kingdom. The Saudi shipments, coupled with unprecedented discounts, are turning the European oil market into the most bitterly …

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning any contacts with OPEC+ partners for the time being, but they can be quickly arranged if necessary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday. “So far no contacts have been planned. However, if necessary, they will be immediately arranged,” he said. Commenting …

The meeting of the OPEC+ Joint Technical Committee (JTC) scheduled for March 18 is canceled, a source in one of the delegations told TASS on Thursday. “JTC meeting will not be held,” the source said. Saudi Arabia earlier refused to participate in the Committee’s meeting.

Saudi Arabia sliced its oil prices by more than 30% and has set plans for a rise in production in April. Given the lack of consensus among OPEC+ countries and competition to have a better share in the world oil market, lower crude prices are going to stay for sometime. …