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, total power sector emissions also…

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, which has…

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, and the economic slowdown…

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 that people have been…

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, the…

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 of the past two years have been a major drag…

Companies worldwide are increasingly opting to use carbon credit schemes to offset their emissions, as governments urge them to decarbonise operations. While this might seem the obvious solution for hard-to-abate industries, many are failing to monitor and assess the schemes to ensure that they are working as expected and offsetting the necessary quantity of carbon to decarbonise operations.  Carbon offsetting schemes are programmes introduced by a wide range of companies aimed at reducing carbon emissions through various projects, rather…

Increased adoption of electric vehicles in the United States and China is expected to put a major dent in gasoline demand growth this year. In one of the most telling statistics about the penetration of EVs into the global market we’ve seen yet, global consultancy Wood Mackenzie projects that gasoline demand growth will reduce by half over the course of 2024.  China is on a stratospheric growth trajectory in terms of EV production. 60% of all EV sales in the world are made in China, and EVs are expected to represent 40% of…

Demand for gasoline and diesel in the United States has plunged to its lowest seasonally since the onset of the COVID pandemic, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), sparking concern that economic activity is now becoming stagnant as refining margins hit news lows not seen in months, Reuters reported.  Monthly averages for the week ended May 3 show gasoline demand at 8.63 million barrels per day–a figure not seen since May 2020, at the start of the pandemic, based on EIA data.  Data also showed demand for distillates…

Demand for gasoline and diesel in the United States has plunged to its lowest seasonally since the onset of the COVID pandemic, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), sparking concern that economic activity is now becoming stagnant as refining margins hit news lows not seen in months, Reuters reported.  Monthly averages for the week ended May 3 show gasoline demand at 8.63 million barrels per day–a figure not seen since May 2020, at the start of the pandemic, based on EIA data.  Data also showed demand for distillates…

Demand for gasoline and diesel in the United States has plunged to its lowest seasonally since the onset of the COVID pandemic, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), sparking concern that economic activity is now becoming stagnant as refining margins hit news lows not seen in months, Reuters reported.  Monthly averages for the week ended May 3 show gasoline demand at 8.63 million barrels per day–a figure not seen since May 2020, at the start of the pandemic, based on EIA data.  Data also showed demand for distillates…

Via Metal Miner ThyssenKrupp recently announced plans to create a 50/50 joint steel manufacturing venture with the Czech Republic’s EP Corporate Group and ThyssenKrupp Steel (TKS). According to the German group, talks are now ongoing between the two parties for the sale of an additional 30% stake in the steelmaker, following an April 26 announcement that EP would initially acquire a 20% stake in TKS. However, ThyssenKrupp did not indicate a prospective timeline for a planned sale of the additional stake. The two parties also agreed not to…

Canadian Utilities Ltd has announced it will build a billion-dollar pipeline in Alberta to transport natural gas as demand soars amid industrial expansion in the province, Reuters reports.  Construction is expected to begin on the new Yellowhead Mainline natural gas pipeline, which will feed a provincial petrochemicals plant and other industrial facilities, in 2026, with completion the following year, according to Reuters. The project requires regulatory approval and a final investment decision before proceeding.  The 124-mile pipeline…

Canadian Utilities Ltd has announced it will build a billion-dollar pipeline in Alberta to transport natural gas as demand soars amid industrial expansion in the province, Reuters reports.  Construction is expected to begin on the new Yellowhead Mainline natural gas pipeline, which will feed a provincial petrochemicals plant and other industrial facilities, in 2026, with completion the following year, according to Reuters. The project requires regulatory approval and a final investment decision before proceeding.  The 124-mile pipeline…

The world is experiencing a nuclear renaissance. Uranium prices are soaring as the world snaps up nuclear fuel, public favor for nuclear power is at a 10-year high in the United States, Russia is busily expanding its own nuclear energy empire in emerging economies in Africa, and even Japan is moving back to the carbon-free energy source 13 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. All told, approximately 60 new nuclear reactors are currently under construction around the globe, and another 110 are in planning…

Russia advanced into eastern Ukraine, taking two villages in two regions, Moscow said on Wednesday, in the aftermath of over 70 drone and missile attacks that targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight.  The barrage of drones and missiles fired early on Wednesday, including Iranian-made Shahed drones, was Moscow’s retaliation for Kyiv’s targeting of Russian refineries. Russia has also reportedly taken control of two villages, one in the Kharkiv region and another in the Donetsk region, Reuters reports, without independent…

Russia advanced into eastern Ukraine, taking two villages in two regions, Moscow said on Wednesday, in the aftermath of over 70 drone and missile attacks that targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight.  The barrage of drones and missiles fired early on Wednesday, including Iranian-made Shahed drones, was Moscow’s retaliation for Kyiv’s targeting of Russian refineries. Russia has also reportedly taken control of two villages, one in the Kharkiv region and another in the Donetsk region, Reuters reports, without independent…

In what appears to be just the latest 'lawfare' angle of attack against Elon Musk (and his freedom of speech enabling platform), President Biden's Department of Justice is examining whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about its electric vehicles’ self-driving capabilities. Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems assist with steering, braking and lane changes - but are not fully autonomous - and Reuters reports that, according to three people familiar with the matter, the DoJ…

Norway is expanding the acreage in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea, for which companies vying for licenses in mature areas can bid this year, the energy ministry of Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer said on Wednesday.       Following the ministry’s announcement, the annual rounds of awards in predefined areas (APA), which give oil companies the opportunity to gain access to attractive acreage in the mature areas of the Norwegian shelf, will include a further 37 blocks—three…

Crude oil prices recovered lost territory today after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 1.4 million barrels for the week to May 3. This compared with a build of 7.3 million barrels estimated for the previous week that pressured prices last week. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute estimated crude oil inventories had added a modest half a million barrels in the week to May 3. The EIA, for its part, also reported small inventory builds in gasoline and middle distillate inventories for…