Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in western Ukraine have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power as of Thursday as nuclear power plants are curbing generation because of damaged transmission lines.  Damage to power lines has forced nuclear power plants, which generate more than half of the country’s electricity, to reduce production, a representative of Ukraine’s national nuclear energy company Energoatom told Reuters today.  Earlier this week, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the International…

Azerbaijan is hoping China can play a big role in helping Baku fulfill its ambitions of building a “green energy corridor” to Europe. Azerbaijani officials and representatives of China's Datang Overseas Investment Co. signed a deal on November 12 covering the construction of a 100 Megawatt solar power plant. The sides also agreed to explore the development of offshore wind power, energy storage systems, and the implementation of technical training programs. The solar farm will be situated in the Gobustan District south of Baku,…

Oil and gas supermajor ExxonMobil will buy a 40% stake in the new Bahia natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from Enterprise Products Partners as producers and pipeline operators expand gas takeaway capacity in the Permian basin.  Enterprise Products Partners on Thursday said it had entered into an agreement with ExxonMobil, which will acquire a 40% undivided joint interest in Enterprise’s Bahia NGL pipeline that is currently being commissioned.   The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected…

Oil and gas supermajor ExxonMobil will buy a 40% stake in the new Bahia natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from Enterprise Products Partners as producers and pipeline operators expand gas takeaway capacity in the Permian basin.  Enterprise Products Partners on Thursday said it had entered into an agreement with ExxonMobil, which will acquire a 40% undivided joint interest in Enterprise’s Bahia NGL pipeline that is currently being commissioned.   The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected…

Latin America has all the necessary ingredients for a successful clean energy transition, but can it pull it off? The region has enormous clean energy production potential, and already sources an impressive 70% of its electricity from renewables. However, the necessary infrastructural and policy supports to ensure a secure, sustainable, and just transition are lagging far behind.  A new white paper from the World Economic Forum, Energy Transition Readiness: Latin America and the Caribbean, finds that “while the region has some of the…

A massive fire has erupted at a crude oil upgrader project in Venezuela after an explosion was heard near the distillation tower, workers on site and sources at state oil firm PDVSA told Reuters.  The Petrocedeno project in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, operational since 2000, was one of the four original projects in the heavy crude oil belt in the world’s biggest holder of crude resources.   Petrocedeno, operated by PDVSA, extracts extra-heavy oil and upgrades it into a lighter synthetic crude for export. Petrocedeno produces…

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet top US Defense Department officials in Kyiv on November 20 amid reports that Moscow and Washington have drawn up a peace plan that calls for Ukraine to make major concessions. The new US-drafted proposal to halt the war in Ukraine sees Kyiv giving up some of its territory and some of its weaponry, news reports late on November 19 said. The US proposals also reportedly include cutting the size of Ukraine's armed forces and accepting a rollback of US military assistance that has been essential to Ukraine's…

The $5-billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which is planned to export crude oil from Uganda via a port in Tanzania, is now 75% complete, moving landlocked Uganda a step closer to becoming an oil exporter.  EACOP, a controversial pipeline project that has seen a lot of environmental opposition and planning and construction delays, is now about three-quarters completed, according to the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) as quoted by Reuters. With pipeline construction progressing, Uganda now aims to begin oil production from its…