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China is increasingly integrating artificial intelligence into its energy system to increase the sector’s efficiency and enhance national energy security. From managing energy storage to more accurately forecasting energy supply and demand, large language models can make the whole sector smarter, by streamlining energy systems and minimizing waste. As early as 2020, the Chinese state-owned natural gas giant Gas Holdings Ltd. was using artificial intelligence to more accurately predict complex and dynamic shifts in natural gas demand.…
Despite the Western push to diversify critical minerals supply away from China, Beijing is set to further tighten its grip on the market of key battery metal lithium. China is poised to become the world’s biggest lithium miner by next year, surpassing Australia, commodity price reporting agency Fastmarkets forecasts. China already has an outsized dominant position in the refined lithium market, where it held a 73% market share as of 2024, per data from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Sourcing more of the raw material at home –…
Just a couple of years ago, everyone seemed to be talking about the great potential for clean hydrogen. As governments worldwide strive to decarbonise, several industry players were looking to hydrogen as the potential miracle fuel that could clean up operations. While there is still hope for a hydrogen revolution in some parts of the world, this is looking increasingly unlikely in the United States. Under the Biden administration, investors across the U.S. were planning to spend billions on hydrogen projects, encouraged by the financial…
For the third consecutive day, extreme heat across the eastern half of the U.S. has triggered power grid alerts and emergency warnings, highlighting the fragility of current energy infrastructure. Extremely tight power grids reinforce a core part of our energy thesis: the urgent need for clean, reliable baseload power, and there is no better option than nuclear. The current environment strengthens our conviction as long-term 'atomic bulls', a stance we've maintained since our original call in December 2020 (read here). Nuclear energy remains…
The recent commissioning of Brazil’s largest gas-fired thermal plant is set to raise the country’s annual gas consumption for power generation by at least 6 million cubic meters per day (MMcmd) from July to November – representing a 23% year-on-year rise. Gas Natural Acu’s (GNA) 1.7-gigawatt (GW) GNA II power plant began commercial operations on 31 May, accounting for approximately 8% of the country's total gas-fired installed capacity. As a result, GNA raised its operational thermal portfolio to 3 GW, consolidating itself…
Via Metal Miner Amidst the tariff wars, are we about to see the birth of new energy dynamics in the Americas? A few days ago, Russia offered to supply liquefied natural gas to the United States’ neighbor, Mexico. Because of the strategic, economic and geopolitical implications, the move quickly made sector analysts sit up and take note Media reports quoted Russia’s Energy Minister, Sergei Tsivilev, as saying that the country was already working with Mexico in other sectors. Now it was offering to share its liquefied natural gas technologies…
A new offshore oil auction in the Amazon, a major investment in refinery expansion, and an attempt to extract $6.2 billion from the energy industry—this may not sound very appropriate for a government that has made some big net-zero promises. Yet it is exactly what the Lula da Silva government in Brazil is doing. South America’s biggest country produces around 3.5 million barrels of crude daily. It also recently auctioned 19 blocks in the Foz do Amazonas basin, part of the Equatorial Basin and a highly sensitive ecosystem, according…
For over a decade, since production peaked in 2013, Colombia’s economically crucial oil industry has been in decline. This, since controversial leftist President Gustavo Petro took office in August 2022, has only accelerated. Petro, himself a former leftwing guerilla organizer, entered office opposed to Colombia’s hydrocarbon sector with plans to wean the country off its economic addiction to oil and natural gas. While there are signs the Petro administration’s disapproval of Colombia’s oil industry is easing, there are…
With strong government backing and billions of dollars at their disposal, Middle Eastern oil giants are aggressively expanding into the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, aiming to nearly double their LNG capacity within the next decade. Companies like Saudi Aramco, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) and QatarEnergy are investing heavily in LNG production and trading, driven by the growing demand for natural gas as a transition fuel and a desire to diversify their portfolios beyond crude. “LNG seems to be still the best bet across…
A team of researchers in China is using artificial intelligence to help breathe new life into old electric vehicle batteries. Extending the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles would be a major boon for making electric vehicles more endurable and cost-effective, help mitigate skyrocketing lithium demand, and slow the flow of critical – not to mention toxic – minerals into landfills. The China-based scientists wanted to discover a molecule that could re-infuse a dead cell with lithium ions, replenishing its capacity.…
The UK government is mulling over a change to the law to oil and gas projects in the North Sea in a drive to lower energy bills. Michael Shanks, a minister working under energy secretary Ed Miliband, will be visiting Scotland on Thursday with a decision set to be made on the government’s intervention on legal cases won by environmentalists last year over an oil project by Equinor at Rosebank and a gas field by Shell in Jackdaw. The government has given extra funds for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to invest between 2026…
Today, the world is filled with conflict. Part of the problem is oil limits, but there are many other issues as well: Resources such as coal, lithium, and copper are also becoming more expensive to extract. Fresh water is often inadequate for the world’s rising population. Debt levels are very high. Complexity is very high. An adequate standard of living is becoming unaffordable for many people. The increasing world population leads to a need for more food and more paved roads. These symptoms strongly suggest that the world economy is headed…
Last Friday the world woke to the kind of news that rattles the oil markets. In the early hours of June 13, Israel launched airstrikes against Iran, reportedly hitting nuclear sites and killing several senior military officials, including Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “strategic action” aimed at neutralizing what he described as existential threats. The reaction in the oil markets was swift. Brent crude jumped nearly 8%, briefly topping $78.50, and West Texas Intermediate…
Oil bulls have finally found some relief as crude prices rallied to multi-month highs, driven by escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, which continue to trade attacks in one of the region's most volatile periods in recent years. As of Tuesday morning, Brent crude for August delivery had surged $9 from a week earlier to reach $75 per barrel, with WTI following suit. Prices, which had remained under pressure much of the year due to concerns over oversupply and flagging demand, are now being buoyed by the specter of widening geopolitical…
In the last 25 years, China has gone from providing less than 2 percent of Latin America’s exports to being the second largest trade partner for the region and the single biggest trade partner of South America. This skyrocketing trade relation comes on the back of China’s ambitious Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, and gives Beijing enormous influence in critical emerging markets. In addition to trading goods, China is also a key lender in Latin America, particularly in the context of providing funding for energy…
In the past, oil price wars were short, sharp and, to those who profited from them, sweet. Now, an oil price war is a more cautious affair—assuming what OPEC is doing with its supply return is a price war, of course. And because most assume just that, all eyes are on the group’s chances of success. These are uncertain, to say the least, with most demand forecasts predicting a disaster for prices. OPEC and its friends from OPEC+ decided to start returning 411,000 barrels daily to the global oil market in May. Since then, they have agreed…
Israel's strikes against Iran's nuclear complex and military leadership have sent shock waves around the globe, raising fears of escalation and a wider war in the region. But the shock-and-awe campaign also reverberated in Moscow, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has positioned himself as a powerful interlocutor with Tehran. Russia's response to the strikes was swift and unequivocal. In a lengthy statement, the Foreign Ministry expressed its "utmost concern about the dangerous escalation of tensions in the Middle East" and accused Israel…
Kiggans and a nearly identical group of House Republicans wrote to their House colleagues last month seeking positive changes to the clean energy tax credit phaseout plan that came out of committee work on the reconciliation bill. Instead, the House-passed version of the bill imposes a faster phaseout timeline, including a repeal of tax credits for projects that don’t begin construction within 60 days of the bill’s enactment. The Republican lawmakers in support of IRA’s clean energy credits asked that the Senate alter that provision…
The nuclear power industry has been enjoying the spotlight lately. In just the past two days, the UK pledged $19 billion in additional funding for a nuclear project, and the World Bank lifted a ban on nuclear financing in developing nations, in place since 2017. A nuclear age is coming. “We need new nuclear to deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance, because that is the only way to protect family finances, take back control of our energy, and tackle the climate crisis,” UK energy minister Ed Miliband said in a statement in comments…
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) on the global stage has resulted in data centers putting immense strain on global power grids, a turnaround from their previous role as minor electricity consumers. As chatbots become a permanent fixture in work and daily life, demand is being propelled to record heights as each search consumes power. While US data centers consumed 50 terawatt-hours (TWh) of power a decade ago, that figure has risen to 140 TWh today, thereby accounting for 3.5% of the country’s total electricity consumption. …
The computing industry is running out of energy. Though the technology in computer chips has been growing smaller and more energy efficient at a rapid clip for decades, advancements are set to slow down rapidly due to fundamental physical limitations. This is unfortunate timing, as the tech sector’s energy demands (and chip demands) are set to skyrocket as the growth of artificial intelligence’s already prodigious energy footprint outpaces the growth of new energy production capacity. “The semiconductor industry will soon…
Despite the lowest coal prices in Asia in four years, India’s coal power generation dipped in May to the lowest since the Covid lockdowns of 2020, as a lack of heatwaves and soaring renewable energy installations and generation pushed down coal demand in the electricity sector. To be sure, the share of coal in India’s power output remains above 70%, but at 70.7% in May, it was the lowest in three years, according to data from federal power grid regulator Grid India reviewed by Reuters. Natural gas-fired generation and its share in the…
China earlier this year introduced restrictions on its exports of rare earths. The move marked a new stage in the US- China trade spat, when the two sides no longer tried to out-tariff each other but took to more concrete steps. The problem is, the restrictions don’t just apply to U.S. companies. And they may well deliver the fatal blow to Europe’s struggling auto industry. China controls 90% of the world’s rare earths processing capacity. It is the indisputable, if not exactly celebrated in the West, master of the rare earths…
Via Metal Miner The Rare Earths MMI (Monthly Metals Index) found more price stability month-over-month. As a result, it moved sideways, with only a 0.81% increase. Despite this, the short-term outlook for rare earths remains uncertain. Chinese export restrictions jolted prices in H1 of 2025 and fractured long-running supply lines. Shortly after, global automakers warned that Beijing’s April curbs on alloys and magnet exports “could cause production delays” without fast relief. China’s Rare Earths Shockwaves Continue…
