Energy

Bloomberg The backlash against shale drilling in earthquake-prone regions — a thorn in the side of US energy companies for the past decade — reached China this week after a series of temblors killed two people and reduced homes to rubble. China’s biggest oil and gas producer halted drilling in an area of the country’s shale hub after three quakes ...

Bloomberg Arizona’s Pinnacle West Capital Corp. is kicking off the most ambitious deployment of energy storage ever announced by a US utility. Pinnacle West’s Arizona Public Service plans to add 850 megawatts of battery storage and at least 100 megawatts of new solar power by 2025, according to a statement. The company did not say how much initiative would cost. ...

Bloomberg Zambia has reduced hydropower production at the Kariba Dam because of rapidly declining water levels at the world’s biggest man-made reservoir that straddles the border with Zimbabwe, the energy minister said. “We have noted the poor water situation for the Za-mbezi system nec- essitating reduction in generation at Kariba,” Mat-thew Nkhuwa sa-id, without provi- ding further details. Water outflows ...

Bloomberg Alberta is preparing a giant crude-by-rail operation to help its oil-sands producers cope with a pipeline crunch, and it expects a big profit from the venture. The Canadian province, which holds the world’s third-largest crude reserves, plans to net C$2.2 billion ($1.7 billion) after investing C$3.7 billion to lease tank cars and buy service from rail providers, generating C$5.9 ...

Bloomberg America’s surging shale oil production shows little sign of abating, despite industrywide spending cuts, as explorers learn to do more with less. Almost all the independent producers have reduced their budgets for 2019, but many still expect to deliver double-digit growth in production this year, fourth-quarter earnings reports show. Growth is slowing but still strong: the US will add ...

Bloomberg Chinese regulators have proposed easing a major solar power subsidy policy announced last year, according to the nation’s main industry group, a move which would partially reverse rules that undercut demand in the world’s biggest user and shook the global market. Policy makers are starting approvals again for utility-scale, ground-mounted projects that receive subsidies, which were halted in June ...

Bloomberg There’s plenty of demand for Tesla Inc.’s Powerwall home-battery systems. The trick is finding installers that have them. Only 12 percent of US companies that install solar panels and residential batteries carry the Powerwall, a study on Tuesday from Boston-based EnergySage and the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners found. Meanwhile, about 55 percent of customers shopping for ...

Bloomberg An oil discovery in a remote corner of northwestern China could trigger a surge in shale drilling, benefiting service companies and providing a needed output boost for the world’s biggest importer, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. PetroChina Co. has achieved daily output of 100 tons of oil (733 barrels) at a test well in the Jimsar field in ...

Bloomberg The stage has been set for a European natural gas price war that will help boost demand and enable both Russia and the US to increase sales to the region. The battle won’t brutalize earnings too much because gas supply is just so profitable in Europe, where prices are more than double the prevailing level in the US. And ...

Bloomberg India is feasting on Venezuelan oil, after the US imposed a de facto ban on crude imports from the Latin American nation. While flows to the US came to a halt, India became the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan crude in the first half of February, with imports jumping 66 percent to 620,000 barrels a day. Indian refiners Reliance ...