Energy

  Bloomberg US electricity consumers could end up paying more than $2.5 billion for nuclear plants that never get built. Utilities including Duke Energy Corp., Dominion Resources Inc. and NextEra Energy Inc. are being allowed by regulators to charge $1.7 billion for reactors that exist only on paper, according to company disclosures and regulatory filings. Duke and Dominion could seek …

  Bloomberg State Grid Corp. of China’s hopes of buying one of Australia’s biggest electricity distributors may be slipping away amid national security concerns and a protectionist backlash against foreign ownership of critical infrastructure. Government-owned State Grid, the world’s largest utility, and Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. are vying to buy Ausgrid, which supplies 1.6 million homes in …

  AP An informal OPEC meeting next month is unlikely to deliver any agreement to limit production because several members including Iran are still pumping below capacity. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are planning to hold talks in Algeria next month when they gather for a meeting of the International Energy Forum, the group’s president Mohammed Al …

  Bloomberg Iran’s biggest oil buyer in India is ready to throttle back imports from the Persian Gulf nation once a new supply deal kicks in. Essar Oil Ltd. expects to lower purchases from Iran after shipments from OAO Rosneft begin once the Russian state producer completes a deal to buy a stake in the Indian company, according to Lalit …

  Bloomberg SM Energy Co.’s $980 million purchase of drilling rights in the biggest U.S. crude field indicates producers are willing to pay a premium for access to one of the few spots where oil exploration still turns a profit. SM, which extracts oil and natural gas from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf Coast, agreed to pay the equivalent …

  Bloomberg Hedge funds have gone all-in on lower oil prices, counting on seasonal weakness to play out again this year. Money managers increased wagers on declining crude prices to a record as futures dropped to the lowest in more than three months. US crude inventories climbed for a second week as imports arrived at the fastest pace since 2012. …

  Bloomberg Centrica Plc’s Rough, the UK’s largest natural gas storage facility 9,000 feet below the North Sea bed, unexpectedly closed for the summer and will probably remain unavailable for most of the winter. The shutdown whipsawed prices in Europe’s biggest market. Here’s what you should know. WHY DOES GAS STORAGE MATTER? Natural gas is used to heat more than …

  Bloomberg Libya has started maintenance work at Es Sider port, the nation’s largest oil export terminal, as part of plans to increase output from Africa’s biggest holder of crude reserves. Exports should resume in a month once official orders are received to reopen the port, Galal Mohamed, head of operations at Waha Oil Co. , said in a phone …

  AFP Imagine one of the largest solar farms ever at the site of the world’s worst man-made nuclear disaster that struck Chernobyl in modern-day Ukraine and sowed panic across Europe. That is the grand vision of Ukrainian Environment Minister Ostap Semerak, backed up by big-time investors such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The Chernobyl catastrophe …

  AP The oil industry has left a big footprint along the Gulf Coast, where a Delaware-sized stretch of Louisiana has disappeared. But few politicians would blame Big Oil for ecosystem abuse in a state where the industry employs up to 300,000 people and injects $73 billion into the economy. Following the lead of Gov. John Bel Edwards, Louisiana political …