District heating has been around for almost 150 years, with the first commercial system established in New York in 1877, yet it is still not widely used. The original systems used steam produced by a central fossil-fuel boiler. However, systems have evolved over time, and modern heating networks have more flexible infrastructure that can connect multiple energy and storage solutions to supply both heating and cooling. At present, district heating supplies approximately 10 per cent of global building heat demand, with most networks concentrated…

The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have prompted an increase in EV sales to avoid retail fuel inflation and gas demand destruction in favor of other power generation sources. With COP31 starting next week, some participants have signaled that faster electrification could become the focus of the event. “I would like to see a strong outcome on electrification in our presidency-led decision,” this year’s COP’s head of negotiations, Australian climate change minister Chris Bowen, told Bloomberg. Bowen also said he would…

Finland and the United States are exemplifying two opposing approaches to managing the mounting problem of spent nuclear fuel. Finland is about to open the world’s first permanent nuclear waste disposal facility. The United States is stuck in a cycle of endless political turnover and resultant gridlock about how to address the more than 90,000 metric tons of spent fuel sitting in temporary facilities around the country, posing a mounting public health hazard and tax dollar sink.  The Onkalo site (named after the Finnish for ‘cave’)…

The Egyptian government is doubling down on its plans to accelerate the development of its oil and gas resources. Egypt now aims to achieve a production capacity of 6.6 billion cubic feet per day by 2027, supported by increased drilling, new exploration incentives, and greater investment from international oil and gas majors. In October, the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Karim Badawi, met with Cypriot Energy Minister Michael Damianos, East Mediterranean Gas Forum Secretary-General Osama Mobarez and international oil and…

Armenian officials have commenced design work for the TRIPP trade corridor, even though an operating agreement with the United States remains to be finalized. US and Armenian officials announced in January a preliminary agreement outlining the establishment of an entity, TRIPP Development, that would manage the corridor. The agreement sketched TRIPP Development’s ownership structure but left operational details to be settled at a later date. Since then, there has been lots of positive talk, but little action to get TRIPP Development up and…

Just a few years ago, the United States was developing new hydrogen hubs to support energy diversification and help achieve a green transition. However, the development of these fuel hubs has not proceeded as expected, with several major projects stalling and political support faltering. The Biden administration showed broad support for hydrogen production, aiming to massively expand the sector and advance green hydrogen development. In November 2024, the Biden administration announced up to $2.2 billion in award commitments for two Regional Clean…

As we head into the United Nations’ 31st annual flagship climate conference (COP31), to be held next week in Antalya, Türkiye, greenwashing presents a large and growing problem in the private sector. As the tech sector’s greenhouse gas emissions explode against the backdrop of the artificial intelligence boom and the clean energy incentives dry up under the Trump administration, Big Tech and Wall Street alike are funding a boom in natural gas, all under the guise of funding the future of clean energy. “On Wall Street, the…

The United States boasts the largest nuclear power production capacity in the world, but decades of insufficient funding and policy support is now posing an existential threat to the ageing sector. In the past decade, the United States has added just one new nuclear power plant to its fleet, while many more plants are drawing close to being decommissioned, at a time when clean, round-the-clock energy production has never been more needed. The Trump administration has been bullish about restoring the country’s nuclear energy sector to its…

Some of the world's biggest oil traders are asking Washington for permission to put sanctioned tankers back to work, as a global vessel shortage pushes oil transportation costs to extraordinary levels. Trafigura, Vitol, Mercuria and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. are negotiating with U.S. officials for licenses to purchase or lease blacklisted oil tankers, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the discussions. The talks involve approximately 50 vessels currently under U.S. sanctions. Treasury officials are considering approvals on…

Some of the world's biggest oil traders are asking Washington for permission to put sanctioned tankers back to work, as a global vessel shortage pushes oil transportation costs to extraordinary levels. Trafigura, Vitol, Mercuria and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. are negotiating with U.S. officials for licenses to purchase or lease blacklisted oil tankers, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the discussions. The talks involve approximately 50 vessels currently under U.S. sanctions. Treasury officials are considering approvals on…

For much of the past decade, energy debates often pitted fossil fuels against clean energy. Governments announced dates for phasing out technologies, investors tried to anticipate which industries would lose favor, and energy policy increasingly became entangled with political identity.  The war with Iran has exposed the limitations of approaching energy policy that way. When supplies are disrupted and prices rise sharply, governments become much less interested in ideological consistency and much more interested in keeping fuel available,…

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States rose slightly this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US rising to 604, up 56 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 1, to 463 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 49 above this same time last year. The number of gas rigs also rose by 1 to 131, which is just 3 more than this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs slipped by a single rig down to 10. The…

India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) is negotiating to take over operations at two Venezuelan oil projects within six months, a move that could give it control over production and sales at fields where it is owed more than $500 million in dividends. The company's overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, is in advanced discussions with Venezuelan and U.S. authorities, finance chief Anupam Agarwal told analysts Friday. The company expects agreements to be finalized within three to six months. ONGC currently holds investments in the San Cristobal…

India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) is negotiating to take over operations at two Venezuelan oil projects within six months, a move that could give it control over production and sales at fields where it is owed more than $500 million in dividends. The company's overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, is in advanced discussions with Venezuelan and U.S. authorities, finance chief Anupam Agarwal told analysts Friday. The company expects agreements to be finalized within three to six months. ONGC currently holds investments in the San Cristobal…

For more than half a century, Norway’s oil and gas production has been underpinned by a handful of very large discoveries, the last of which, Wisting in the Barents Sea, was made more than a decade ago. Since then, exploration on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) has increasingly focused on smaller finds close to existing infrastructure, allowing operators to bring new volumes online faster and at lower cost. While this approach has helped sustain production in the near term, it will not be enough to arrest the NCS’s projected decline…

The Strait of Hormuz crisis and the spike in fuel prices are pushing faster renewable energy deployment across the world, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Friday.  For the first time, emerging markets outside China are set to match the clean energy capacity additions in advanced economies through 2031, the agency said in its Renewables 2026 report with analysis and forecasts through 2031.    Following the Middle East crisis and the spike in fuel prices, renewables have risen to the top of the policy…

The Strait of Hormuz crisis and the spike in fuel prices are pushing faster renewable energy deployment across the world, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Friday.  For the first time, emerging markets outside China are set to match the clean energy capacity additions in advanced economies through 2031, the agency said in its Renewables 2026 report with analysis and forecasts through 2031.    Following the Middle East crisis and the spike in fuel prices, renewables have risen to the top of the policy…

The Strait of Hormuz crisis and the spike in fuel prices are pushing faster renewable energy deployment across the world, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Friday.  For the first time, emerging markets outside China are set to match the clean energy capacity additions in advanced economies through 2031, the agency said in its Renewables 2026 report with analysis and forecasts through 2031.    Following the Middle East crisis and the spike in fuel prices, renewables have risen to the top of the policy…

The Strait of Hormuz crisis and the spike in fuel prices are pushing faster renewable energy deployment across the world, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Friday.  For the first time, emerging markets outside China are set to match the clean energy capacity additions in advanced economies through 2031, the agency said in its Renewables 2026 report with analysis and forecasts through 2031.    Following the Middle East crisis and the spike in fuel prices, renewables have risen to the top of the policy…

The Strait of Hormuz crisis and the spike in fuel prices are pushing faster renewable energy deployment across the world, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report on Friday.  For the first time, emerging markets outside China are set to match the clean energy capacity additions in advanced economies through 2031, the agency said in its Renewables 2026 report with analysis and forecasts through 2031.    Following the Middle East crisis and the spike in fuel prices, renewables have risen to the top of the policy…