Energy

Bloomberg Producers are already restarting oil wells in North Dakota as prices come off record lows, but talk of a recovery is premature, said the state’s energy regulator. The historic price rout has in recent weeks curbed output in the second-biggest producing state by a third to below 1 million barrels a day, according to the Department of Mineral Resources. ...

Bloomberg Construction of the world’s most controversial natural gas pipeline is about to enter the endgame of an energy dispute that’s pitted the US against Russia and some of its closest trans-Atlantic allies, satellite images show. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, built to increase the flow of Russian gas into Europe’s biggest economy, was thwarted five months ago after US ...

Bloomberg Quantum Energy Partners is in discussions to raise roughly $5.5 billion for a new fund designed to pounce on opportunities that arise amid turmoil in energy markets, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Houston-based private equity firm, which sold a minority stake to Neuberger Berman’s Dyal Capital Partners, has begun discussing the new fund with prospective ...

Bloomberg One of China’s biggest natural gas distributors flagged the possibility of sub-zero market prices at its shareholder meeting, a scenario that would echo oil’s record plunge last month that stunned global markets. Gas prices could turn negative due to a lack of storage capacity, Wang Yusuo, the billionaire chairman of ENN Energy Holdings Ltd, said. He didn’t specify any ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s energy ministry is seeking to prioritise state-run utilities over new entrants to support supply stability, according to a draft proposal seen by Bloomberg News, a step that could place restrictions on expanding the country’s renewable power capacity. The plan is the latest among moves by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration to reduce private sector generation, which have ...

Bloomberg Murray Energy Corp allegedly violated a bankruptcy financing agreement after manipulating financial information, according to court papers filed by one of its lenders. GACP Finance, owed some $90 million under a loan tied up in Murray Energy’s bankruptcy financing package, delivered a notice of default to the coal miner, court papers show. The lender alleges Murray improperly included non-coal ...

Bloomberg French electricity demand jumped to a six-week high as the nation began to ease restrictions on travel, business and schools as deaths from coronavirus continued to recede. Appetite for power in Italy and Germany continued to rise, leaving the UK, where coronavirus-related restrictions are slowly starting to lift, on its own with consumption falling week-on-week. A pickup in demand ...

Bloomberg In China’s latest efforts to pit renewable energy against fossil fuels, it is again betting on size. Resources such as wind and solar don’t stand much of a chance if there isn’t a way to store energy when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. So some of China’s biggest state-owned companies are pouring in billions of ...

Bloomberg It will take more than a year, and perhaps several, for oil demand to recover to what it was before the coronavirus shuttered conomies and caused energy markets to collapse, according to the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Crude demand of about 100 million barrels a day prior to the pandemic plummeted by about 30% last month, ...

Bloomberg Some drillers in the biggest North American oil field are reopening wells shut in response to the pandemic-driven price collapse, according to pipeline giant Energy Transfer LP. In the Permian Basin’s Midland region, about 8% of oil volumes that feed Energy Transfer’s pipe network had been shut at the start of the month, Mackie McCrea, the company’s chief commercial ...