Energy

Bloomberg A Chinese oil contractor halted work on an expansion project in Venezuela because it hasn’t been paid, underscoring the difficulties for the Nicolas Maduro regime even at energy ventures backed by allies. China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation, an affiliate of government-run China National Petroleum Corp., (CNPC) notified the Sinovensa joint venture it has suspended work to expand a crude ...

Bloomberg Natural gas prices in Europe are set to fall further below their lowest in a decade as suppliers show few signs of scaling back abundant deliveries. Inventories are near capacity weeks earlier than usual and are being flooded with more fuel coming both from tankers and pipelines. While producers have reduced some flows with repairs and maintenance at gas ...

Bloomberg Copper skidded to the lowest since mid-2017 as investors faced fresh evidence of a global slowdown and fading prospects for a deescalation in the US-China trade war. Long known as a canary in coal mine for the economy, copper has slumped 16% since mid-April on the back of a sharp downturn in factory output and warnings that major economies ...

Bloomberg Nigeria will continue swapping crude for fuel for at least three more years because its refineries are still not fully operational. Africa’s biggest oil producer, which previously had a goal of revamping the plants by this year, will persist with an annual swap program until the refineries are fixed by 2023, Mele Kyari, the state oil company’s new managing ...

Bloomberg The world’s first project to turn biogas from sewage into hydrogen and graphite has received backing from the Australian government as part of the nation’s efforts to develop hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel source. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency granted conditional approval for up to $6.3mn in funding for the 100 ton per annum project, which uses technology ...

Bloomberg Europeans can massively expand low-cost solar generation just by tapping the space over their heads. That’s the conclusion of researchers who used satellite imagery, electricity prices and lending data to assess untapped energy potential of Europe’s buildings. Rooftop area three times the size Luxembourg is available and could economically supply almost a quarter of the bloc’s power, according to ...

Bloomberg Zimbabweans are relying on Tesla Inc. to help them pay their bills. Amid power outages of as long as 18 hours a day, Econet Wireless Ltd., Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile-phone operator, is turning to Palo Alto, California-based automaker and storable-energy company for batteries that can keep its base stations running. The country faces chronic shortages of physical cash, so almost ...

Bloomberg BP Plc agreed to sell its entire business in Alaska to closely held Hilcorp Energy Co. for $5.6 billion, ending a six-decade presence in the state as oil production there declines. The deal includes BP’s operating stake in Prudhoe Bay, the largest-producing oil field in US history, as well as all its Alaskan pipelines. It makes Hilcorp, the oil ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s government could decide that Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. must sell some of its coal-fired power stations as part of the restructuring of the power utility, National Treasury said. This could be done through a series of auctions where Eskom would sell the power stations itself, along with all its power station-specific obligations, such as staff contracts, coal-supply ...

Bloomberg India has extended a deadline to submit bids for building solar power equipment factories in the South Asian nation, in another delay to its efforts to boost its nascent domestic manufacturing capacity. The new deadline to submit bids for the tender is September 11 , Solar Energy Corp. of India said on its website Monday. The tender seeks to ...