Energy

Bloomberg South Africa’s power utility warned coal suppliers it may halt purchases of the fuel because a nationwide lockdown to deal with the coronavirus pandemic has curtailed demand for electricity. The force-majeure notice Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd issued to miners follows a similar instruction to wind-power producers two weeks ago as the utility struggles to honor contractual agreements. It’s another ...

Bloomberg Italy and Germany showed signs that they’re beginning to consume more electricity, suggesting economic activity may be starting to increase in some corners of Europe hardest hit by the coronavirus. In France and Spain, power use was steady in the past week, while Britain suffered a further slump. Those findings from grid operators shed light on how lockdowns to ...

Bloomberg New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will need more space in the Atlantic Ocean to meet his goal to get half the state’s electricity from offshore wind farms. There aren’t enough federal leases available off the coast of New York and New Jersey to supply the 7.5 gigawatts of wind farms that Murphy wants to develop by 2035, said Jim ...

Bloomberg A historic crash in crude prices is driving US shale into full-on retreat with operators halting new drilling and shutting in old wells, moves that could cut output by 20% for the world’s biggest producer of oil. For shale companies, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude went from hunker-down-and-ride-it-out mode to crisis mode in just a few days, ...

Bloomberg Chevron Corp will be forced to effectively wind down its operations in Venezuela, dealing the Maduro regime’s crumbling oil industry another blow as US President Donald Trump maneuvers for regime change in the Latin American nation. The US Treasury Department will no longer allow the company to drill wells, sell and buy crude oil or oil products or transport ...

Bloomberg The troubles facing Singaporean oil trading firm Hin Leong deepened as the city-state’s police have started investigating the company. The probe, which the Singapore Police Force confirmed by email, is the latest twist in the downfall of the company, which owes $3.85 billion to more than 20 banks and revealed in court filings that it hid about $800 million ...

Bloomberg Indonesia is hiring tankers to store refined fuels at sea as it seeks to take advantage of plunging prices of oil products such as gasoline and diesel. State-owned PT Pertamina has provisionally chartered at least three long-range tankers to store clean fuels, said people with knowledge of the matter. The move comes as Indonesia, one of Asia’s biggest refined ...

Bloomberg Sasol Ltd’s shares, down more than 80% in 2020, are trading as if the market expects years of bad news around oil and that the South African fuel and chemicals giant will struggle to escape its balance sheet constraints. Old Mutual Investment Group doesn’t share that pessimism, said Meryl Pick, a money manager who helps oversee the firm’s 10 ...

Bloomberg Germany’s solar panels produced record amounts of electricity, exacerbating market forces that were already hammering the profitability of the country’s remaining coal plants. Gin-clear skies over central Europe helped photovoltaic plants produce 32,227 megawatts on April 20, beating the previous record on March 23. Bright conditions are expected to continue this week, according to Germany’s DWD federal weather service. ...

Bloomberg The oil and gas industry shed nearly 51,000 drilling and refining jobs in March, a 9% reduction that is likely to get worse as futures prices fell into negative territory Monday. March’s job losses rose by 15,000 when ancillary jobs such as construction, manufacturing of drilling equipment and shipping are included, according to BW Research Partnership, a research consultancy, ...