Turkey’s ambitions to become a regional gas hub just received a fresh boost after the country signed a 10-year agreement with French energy giant TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE), Turkey’s Daily Sabah reported on Wednesday. Under the terms of the deal, the oil and gas supermajor will supply Turkish state energy firm BOTAS …
Read More »Rosneft Unlikely to Stop Shell’s Sale of German Refinery Stake
Rosneft is likely to fail in its legal challenge against a planned sale of a minority stake in a German refinery that it used to control before Germany took over the Russian oil giant’s assets in the country. Rosneft has a 54% stake in the Schwedt refinery, the fourth-largest refinery …
Read More »China’s Coal Power Generation Returns to Growth
China saw in August the first increase in coal-fired power generation in four months as coal remains a vital part of the system despite soaring output from clean energy sources and a growing share of renewables in the electricity mix. China’s electricity output from thermal sources – which are predominantly …
Read More »Turkmenistan’s High Gas Prices Hinder Export Deals
It’s been just over a year since Turkmenistan, a country boasting the world’s fourth or fifth biggest largest natural gas reserves, ended decades of indecision and finally announced it was serious about exporting to Western markets. For just about any other country, such an announcement would have touched off a …
Read More »Italy Shuts the Door on New Oil Exploration
Itay will no longer grant concessions for oil and condensate exploration and production, a draft of a new government decree shows. The decree, seen by Reuters, specifies that the oil exploration and production ban will only apply to new concessions—not existing ones that have already secured government approval. The ban …
Read More »France’s Electricity Prices Turn Negative amid Poor Demand
Power prices in France turned negative for hours on Tuesday morning amid tepid demand in a struggling economy and increased renewables generation. French intraday power prices traded at as low as -$22.25 (-20 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh) on the Epex Spot exchange, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. So far …
Read More »Chinese Refineries Go Bankrupt amid Plummeting Margins
Slumping refining margins amid tepid fuel demand in China have already claimed victims among the refineries in the Shandong province, where two plants operated by chemicals giant Sinochem were declared bankrupt in recent days. Zhenghe Group Co and Shandong Huaxing Petrochemical Group Co were declared bankrupt after creditors failed to …
Read More »U.S. Natural Gas Power is Booming Thanks to AI
U.S. power-generating companies are announcing plans for the highest volume of new natural gas-fired capacity in years as the AI boom is driving demand for electricity. During the first half of 2024, electricity-generating firms unveiled plans for the new gas-powered capacity equal to all capacity announced in 2020, according to …
Read More »Aramco’s New Deals with China Signal a Further Deepening of Sino-Saudi Relations
A little under a year before the Russian invasion of February 2022, Saudi Aramco’s chief executive officer, Amin Nasser, had spent several days at the annual China Development Forum hosted in Beijing, during which time he stated: “Ensuring the continuing security of China’s energy needs remains our highest priority – …
Read More »Nuclear Power Surpasses Fossil Fuels in South Korea’s Energy Mix
This year, nuclear power has generated more electricity in South Korea than either coal or natural gas for the first time ever, achieving a milestone in one of the world’s top importers of fossil fuels. Nuclear power accounted for 32% of South Korea’s electricity generation mix in the first half …
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