Tag: energy

OPEC+ meeting postponed to November 30, sending prices falling

VIENNA, Nov 22, 2023 (AFP) – The ministerial meeting of the OPEC+ alliance originally scheduled for Sunday in Vienna has been rescheduled to Thursday, the Vienna-based Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced in a statement on Wednesday. The 13 OPEC members led by Saudi Arabia and their ten partners led by Russia were due to decide on their output policy amid slumping crude prices. The OPEC+ announcement caused global crude prices to shed […]

Philippines embraces nuclear energy as US signs cooperation pact

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 17, 2023 (AFP) – The United States on Thursday signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with the Philippines, clearing a path for US investment to jumpstart atomic power in a country racing to expand its electricity supply. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who has become a close US ally in his more-than one year in power, was on hand when his energy secretary signed the pact with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the […]

UAE inaugurates giant solar plant, two weeks before climate talks

AL DHAFRA, United Arab Emirates, Nov 16, 2023 (AFP) – The United Arab Emirates inaugurated on Thursday one of the world’s biggest solar plants, two weeks before the oil-rich Gulf state hosts UN climate talks. The Al Dhafra plant, south of the capital Abu Dhabi, stretches over 21 square kilometres (eight square miles) of desert, an area about one-fifth the size of Paris. Its rows of photovoltaic panels rotate to follow the sun and are […]

Energy transition at risk from commodity market fragmentation: IMF

By Daniel AVIS WASHINGTON, Oct 3, 2023 (AFP) – Growing geopolitical fragmentation since the invasion of Ukraine has hit commodity markets, threatening to slow the transition to renewable energy as the world looks to combat climate change, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday. The fractures have led to a doubling in new trade restrictions on commodities since 2021, with low-income countries bearing the brunt of the costs, the IMF announced Tuesday. “To achieve net-zero-carbon emission […]

Italy’s Eni announces large Indonesia gas find

  ROME, Oct 2, 2023 (AFP) – Italian energy group Eni said Monday that it had made a significant gas find in Indonesia, off the coast of East Kalimantan. The company said preliminary studies had put the potential of the site at 140 billion cubic metres of gas (5 trillion cubic feet). The find came at the Geng North-1 exploration well drilled to a depth of 5,025 metres in 1,947 metres water depth in the […]

China to control half the world’s hydrogen electrolyser capacity

PARIS, Sept 22, 2023 (AFP) – By the end of 2023, China will control half the world’s installed capacity of electrolysers for producing low-carbon hydrogen amid a slowdown in new projects due to inflation, according to an International Energy Agency report released Friday. “After a slow start, China has taken the lead on electrolyser deployment,” the IEA report on hydrogen said. China’s installed electrolyser capacity has jumped significantly in recent years, and is expected to […]

Small but powerful: tiny data center heats UK swimming pool

By Anastasia CLARK Agence France-Presse EXMOUTH, United Kingdom, June 23, 2023 (AFP) — A leisure centre in Exmouth, southwest England, is using a small data centre to heat its indoor swimming pool, trialling an innovative solution that reduces its energy bills and carbon footprint. An on-site installation captures heat generated by a bank of computers, bringing the 25-metre swimming pool to the required temperature around 65 percent of the time, cutting reliance on gas boilers. […]

Saudi Arabia slashes output further to boost oil price

VIENNA, June 4, 2023 (AFP) – Riyadh on Sunday announced a fresh oil output cut following a meeting of major producers aiming to prop up prices despite fears of a recession. The meeting of the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) headed by Saudi Arabia and its 10 partners, led by Russia, saw some tough negotiations. Saudi Arabia’s fresh cut of one million barrels per day (bpd) is for July but “extendable”, its […]

Russia summons Germany, Sweden, Denmark envoys over Nord Stream

MOSCOW, May 25, 2023 (AFP) – Russia on Thursday summoned the envoys of Germany, Sweden and Denmark over Moscow’s frustration with the lack of progress on probes into the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines. Built to carry Russian gas to Germany, the pipelines in the Baltic Sea were ruptured by subsea explosives months after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February, 2022. Western countries have blamed the explosions under the Baltic Sea […]

Solar investment outshines oil: IEA

By Catherine Hours and Richard Lein Agence France-Presse PARIS, France, May 25, 2023 (AFP) — Investment in solar power is expected to overtake oil for the first time this year as clean energy spending outpaces that for fossil fuels, the IEA said in a report Thursday. While that is a welcome development, the International Energy Agency warned that investment in fossil fuels is rising when it should be falling fast to achieve net zero emissions […]

China courts Central Asia as Russia’s influence wanes

  By Oliver HOTHAM Agence France-Presse BEIJING, May 16, 2023 (AFP) – China is renewing its push for massive infrastructure projects in Central Asia as Beijing aims to fill the vacuum left in former Soviet states by Russia, which is ensnared in a widening net of Western sanctions over the Ukraine war. Central Asia has become key to China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, a defining geopolitical project for President Xi Jinping. Around 150 countries […]

Vietnam warns heatwaves to strain power supply

HANOI, May 10, 2023 (AFP) – Vietnam’s state electricity company warned on Wednesday that the national power system would come under strain this summer due to anticipated heatwaves, days after the country recorded its highest ever temperature. Temperatures surpassed 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) in central Vietnam over the weekend, according to national forecasters, breaking a previous high set in 2019. State utility EVN said in a statement that demand for electricity in the […]