The automotive industry “urgently” needs government-backed incentives to improve customer uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) or the UK faces missing its net zero targets, the boss of Ford UK has said. Speaking the morning after the government announced a consultation into its EVs sales targets for automakers, Lisa Brankin said the move was welcome but that it needed to be carried out quickly. “The first thing I would say is that the government has listened,” she told the BBC’s Today programme. “We have been talking…

Almost five years ago we predicted that electricity sales would start to grow again and that utility capital expenditures would soar. And we said that the industry was not spending enough. Apart from patting ourselves on the back, here are the latest numbers confirming our long-held view. Figure 1 shows the five-year spending of investor-owned utilities (IOUs) on electric plants in current dollars. Note how the numbers peaked in the early eighties, fell off, and finally picked up in this century. More meaningfully, Figure 2 shows the five-year…

The FBI has been investigating a longtime Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) consultant over the contractor's alleged role in a hack-and-leak operation that targeted emails by environmentalists critical of Exxon Mobil’s role in climate change, Reuters has reported exclusively.  The multi-year operation involved hackers who breached email accounts of environmental activists and others. The scheme allegedly began in late 2015, when U.S. authorities contended that the names of the hacking targets were compiled by the DCI Group, a public affairs and…

The FBI has been investigating a longtime Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) consultant over the contractor's alleged role in a hack-and-leak operation that targeted emails by environmentalists critical of Exxon Mobil’s role in climate change, Reuters has reported exclusively.  The multi-year operation involved hackers who breached email accounts of environmental activists and others. The scheme allegedly began in late 2015, when U.S. authorities contended that the names of the hacking targets were compiled by the DCI Group, a public affairs and…

The FBI has been investigating a longtime Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) consultant over the contractor's alleged role in a hack-and-leak operation that targeted emails by environmentalists critical of Exxon Mobil’s role in climate change, Reuters has reported exclusively.  The multi-year operation involved hackers who breached email accounts of environmental activists and others. The scheme allegedly began in late 2015, when U.S. authorities contended that the names of the hacking targets were compiled by the DCI Group, a public affairs and…

A cease-fire deal has ended over a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group and political party. The U.S.-brokered agreement is a major victory for Israel, which has achieved its key war aims, experts say. Israel has eroded Hezbollah as a military power as well as a political and economic force in Lebanon. Israel has also succeeded in decoupling Hezbollah's rocket and missile attacks on Israel from the Gaza war. The Iran-backed group began its attacks soon after Israel's air and ground invasion…

China’s large industrial firms reported a 10 % Y/Y decline in profits in October, with the property and retail sectors hit the hardest, the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing said on Wednesday. Total profits for the first 10 months of the current year fell 4.3% Y/Y to 5.87 trillion yuan (US$810.9 billion), worse than the 3.5 per cent drop recorded in the first nine months. China’s oil and steel industries are deeply in the red: the cumulative losses in the world’s biggest steel industry hit 34 billion yuan (S$4.76 billion)…

The UK government is set to review electric vehicle (EV) sales rules through a "fast track" consultation, following pressure from carmakers who argue that current sales targets are too ambitious given weaker-than-expected demand, according to the BBC.  Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is expected to announce the consultation at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ annual dinner on Tuesday. Under existing rules, EVs must account for 22% of car sales and 10% of van sales this year, with non-compliance resulting in £15,000…

The military regime in Mali has arrested four senior employees of a Canadian mining company as it continues to detain workers to pressure companies in the West African mining sector to pay millions in additional taxes. Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) has revealed that four employees of its Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex in Mali have been detained pending trial, as a dispute over its local mining operations escalates. The giant gold miner says it will continue to engage with Mali's government to find an amicable settlement and ensure sustainable operations…

The military regime in Mali has arrested four senior employees of a Canadian mining company as it continues to detain workers to pressure companies in the West African mining sector to pay millions in additional taxes. Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) has revealed that four employees of its Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex in Mali have been detained pending trial, as a dispute over its local mining operations escalates. The giant gold miner says it will continue to engage with Mali's government to find an amicable settlement and ensure sustainable operations…

As governments worldwide put increasing pressure on oil and gas companies to decarbonize, many have responded by pledging to expand their renewable energy portfolios and cut emissions in fossil fuel operations. However, despite big promises, little progress is being seen by most oil and gas majors, which suggests some might have so far overstated their commitment to a green transition.  In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the global demand for oil sunk to a record low, several oil and gas companies turned their attention to renewable…

Abu Dhabi’s oil company ADNOC is launching a new firm, XRG, which will be an international lower-carbon energy and chemicals investment company with an enterprise value of over $80 billion, the company pumping nearly all the oil of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Wednesday. XRG will formally commence activities in the first quarter of 2025. Initially, XRG will focus on transformational global investments that create value across natural gas, chemicals, and lower-carbon energy solutions, ADNOC said in a statement. The independently…

Abu Dhabi’s oil company ADNOC is launching a new firm, XRG, which will be an international lower-carbon energy and chemicals investment company with an enterprise value of over $80 billion, the company pumping nearly all the oil of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Wednesday. XRG will formally commence activities in the first quarter of 2025. Initially, XRG will focus on transformational global investments that create value across natural gas, chemicals, and lower-carbon energy solutions, ADNOC said in a statement. The independently…

Crude oil prices moved higher today, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 1.8 million barrels for the week to November 22. The change compared with a draw of 5.9 million barrels for the reported week as estimated by the American Petroleum Institute. It also followed an estimated inventory build of a modest half a million barrels for the previous week.  The partial confirmation of the API estimate will likely push prices higher but it would be countered by fuel inventory changes. In these, the EIA estimated…

Following the end of autumn maintenance season at refineries, Russia’s shipments of refined petroleum products have surged so far in November to their highest level in eight months, data compiled by Bloomberg showed on Wednesday. During the first 20 days of November, Russian fuel exports by sea averaged 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd), up by 18% compared to October, according to Bloomberg’s estimates on data compiled from analytics firm Vortexa. The surge in refined product exports came as several refineries returned from maintenance,…

For much of the past three years, tankers carrying Russian crude oil - usually in violation of Western embargo - skirted Western sanctions and oversight by engaging in so-called Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfers somewhere in the open sea far from prying eyes and even further from hostile coast guard supervision. The practice, usually carried out in secret with digital tracking beacons switched off or falsified, can help to obscure the origins of the oil, helping to beat sanctions. It also creates another layer of separation between the buyers and…

The ongoing OPEC+ oil production cuts and the improved compliance with quotas from some producers are supporting Brent Crude, offering a modest upside to oil prices in the near term, according to Goldman Sachs. The U.S. investment bank expects the OPEC+ cuts to be rolled over again and the easing of the output curbs could begin gradually in April 2025, after the first quarter of next year ends. “Saudi Arabia is more likely to extend oil production cuts because of the recent price drop and we now think that oil production cuts will last until…

Two weeks ago, U.S. oil and gas giant, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) announced it had reached 500M barrels of oil produced from Guyana's offshore Stabroek block, just five years after it kicked off production at the location. According to Exxon, the first three projects--Liza Phase 1, Liza Phase 2 and Payara--are already pumping more than 650K bbl/day. The Exxon-led consortium which includes Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) and China's Cnooc (OTCPK:CEOHF) have set a target to reach production of at least 1.3M bbl/day of oil by year-end 2027, a feat it hopes…

As U.S. President Biden nears the end of his term, there’s one little-known metal whose scarcity is keeping him up at night even today. And analysts warn that President-elect Donald Trump is likely to inherit this headache too.  The metal is not gold, silver, or uranium. It’s not the lithium used for EV batteries. It’s not the copper that is essential for electrification. It’s not even the rare earth elements that are crucial for everything from smartphones to wind turbines. This metal has a global annual production…

In just a few short years, Guyana has become a factor to reckon with in global oil. The country is on track to hit the 1-million-bpd mark before this decade is over. It would only make sense that it would seek to capitalize on its gas reserves as well—but it’s facing challenges. Guyana has become notorious for its vast offshore oil reserves, but there is natural gas there, too. For now, this is being injected back into the wells operated by Exxon, Hess, and CNOOC, to maintain pressure. Yet the authorities in Georgetown have plans—and…