A number of grid operators and utilities in the United States are planning billions of U.S. dollars worth of investments in power transmission lines and networks as American electricity demand rises after two decades of stagnation. The advancements in AI and the surge in electricity demand for powering and cooling …
Read More »China Appears to Build Giant Nuclear Fusion Research Site
China is believed to be constructing a huge fusion research site in its southwest, which could help it with both nuclear fusion efforts and nuclear weapons design, analysts and researchers have told Reuters, analyzing satellite images. The southwestern city of Mianyang is likely the new site of the fusion research …
Read More »Soaring Tanker Costs Stall Russian Oil Trade in Asia after US Sanctions
Trade in Russian crude loading for Asia in March has come to a screeching halt as tanker rates are soaring and shippers are scrambling for non-sanctioned vessels following the latest U.S. sanctions on Russia’s oil supply, Reuters reports, citing shipping data and trade sources. The Biden Administration’s farewell sanctions on …
Read More »Coal Continues to Dominate China’s Energy Landscape
Coal is still king in China despite the renewables boom with record additions of solar and wind power generation. Thermal power generation, which is overwhelmingly dominated by coal, rose by 1.5% in 2024 from a year earlier, to a record high of 6.34 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh), data from China’s National …
Read More »Oil Executives Fume as Trump Shakes up Climate Rules again
President Donald Trump has been busy reversing the Biden administration’s so-called climate policies from the moment he was sworn in. He declared a national energy emergency, revoked the Biden ban on new LNG export capacity, and suspended some $300 billion in funding for transition projects in the country. With that, …
Read More »Europe doesn’t Need US Gas, but might Buy It anyway
Donald Trump wants EU countries to buy more US-shipped gas. There are reasons for Europeans to consider taking the bait, but each comes at a price. At first glance, US supply and European demand for liquified natural gas seem like a match made in heaven. “We still get a lot …
Read More »Trump Reignites Coal Industry at Davos
In classic Trump fashion, the President declared at the World Economic Forum in Davos, “Nothing can destroy coal. Not the weather, not a bomb. It’s a great backup.” These words, delivered with signature bravado, sent a warm glow through U.S. coal producers—along with a noticeable bump in their stock prices. …
Read More »Refinery Throughput at Sinopec Dipped in 2024 amid Weaker Chinese Demand
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, saw its refinery throughput drop by 2.03% in 2024 from a year earlier, the biggest Chinese refiner said on Friday. Sinopec’s refinery throughput fell to 252.3 million tons last year, amid an overall decline in Chinese crude processing rates, for the first time …
Read More »Saudi Oil Giant Aramco Buys Its First U.S. WTI Midland Crude Cargo
The world’s biggest crude oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, bought this week its first cargo of U.S. WTI Midland, the crude grade which is now part of the dated Brent benchmark, S&P Global Commodity Insights told Reuters. The Saudi oil giant, which is also the world’s biggest oil company, bought the …
Read More »Exxon Begins Drilling for Natural Gas Offshore Cyprus
ExxonMobil and its partner offshore Cyprus, QatarEnergy, on Friday started drilling for natural gas in an exploration block in the island nation’s exclusive economic zone, the President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, said. The U.S. supermajor and Qatar’s state energy giant launched drilling activities in Block 5, Christodoulides wrote on X. …
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