Energy

BLOOMBERG Oil held a hefty loss after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signalled interest rates could rise higher and faster than previously anticipated, raising concerns about the economy and energy demand. West Texas Intermediate futures edged lower near $77 a barrel after posting the biggest one-day decline since early January. The remarks, made during a testimony before Congress, opened the ...

BLOOMBERG European energy prices rose amid fresh concerns about corrosion in France’s nuclear fleet, against a backdrop of strikes throughout the country and a cold snap elsewhere in the region. French power for next year jumped as much as 7.9%, the most since late January. Benchmark front-month Dutch natural gas also advanced. Electricite de France SA must review its program ...

BLOOMBERG South Africa’s state power utility will miss a target to boost output from struggling coal-fired plants by the end of March, highlighting the poor state of equipment whose viability is being reviewed by German energy consultants. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which is subjecting South Africa to its worst-ever electricity outages, told lawmakers in January it planned to increase production ...

BLOOMBERG China signalled coal will retain its role as the country’s mainstay fuel even as the government continues to support the expansion of its world-leading clean energy industry. The nation that mines and burns more than half the world’s coal will keep supporting the fuel, while targeting more efficient consumption and advanced production techniques, according to government reports released Sunday ...

BLOOMBERG Beneath the road on a snow-dusted mountain in the Hellisheiði region of southwest Iceland, a river of boiling water flows through porous, volcanic rock. Above, thick steel pipes connect to geodesic domes, each of which houses a geothermal well. Steinþór Níelsson, a senior geologist with ISOR (Iceland Geosurvey), parks his car near one of the rounded huts. He and ...

BLOOMBERG Several of India’s proposed liquefied natural gas import projects are grappling with delays, posing a fresh challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans to boost use of the fuel. Two floating import terminals missed commissioning targets last year after LNG prices skyrocketed, reducing demand and disrupting import plans, Ayush Agarwal, analyst with S&P Global, said during a media roundtable. ...

BLOOMBERG Last year, although it built few new coal power plants, China permitted more than it had since 2015: 106 gigawatts’ worth. That’s more than six times the amount of coal power permitted in 2022 across the rest of the world. Those are big numbers. But the findings from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a Finland-based ...

BLOOMBERG All the carbon dioxide that’s accumulating in the atmosphere and heating the planet has given carbon-munching things on the ground plenty to eat. Land ecosystems have taken more CO2 out of the atmosphere in the last few decades than they did before — a “bonus” that essentially cleans up some pollution for us. Scientists hope it lasts, but they’re ...

BLOOMBERG France wants Europe’s nuclear industry to be recognised as a key force that can help the continent compete with the US and China. President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to build at least six new reactors in his country and put them into service from 2035. On Tuesday, he called for the European Investment Bank to fund “all low-carbon technologies ...

BLOOMBERG Germany has set aside more than €260 billion ($275 billion) to deal with the immediate risks of an energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, but the ultimate fix will be much costlier — if the country can pull it off at all. The pending price tag for future-proofing the country’s energy system is projected to amount to ...