Michigan suedes oil companies for collusion to restrain competition in EVs
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed an antitrust suit against four major oil firms on Friday, alleging that they have colluded over decades to prevent competition from renewable energy sources, including?electric cars. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, western Michigan, names BP and Chevron. It also names ExxonMobil, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute. The lawsuit said that the companies had acted as a "cartel…
SLB tops quarterly profit estimate, plans $4 billion shareholder returns
SLB beat Wall Street expectations for the fourth-quarter profits on Friday as the world's largest?oilfield service provider benefited from ChampionX acquisition and announced?plans? to return $4 billion in profit to shareholders this year. The company acquired ChampionX for $7.75 billion in all-stocks last July. This acquisition added production chemicals and artificial lifting technologies to the company's portfolio.
Sources say that the Italian government is poised to support a new mandate for Eni CEO
Three sources said that Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meoni was ready to support Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi in a bid to secure a 'new three-year term' at the energy company. This would allow the executive to continue 'his reign' as the longest-serving leader of the company. Descalzi is 70 years old and has been Eni's chief executive officer since 2014. He began his career as an expert in upstream exploration with extensive knowledge of Africa.
Trump Administration says that there are ways to increase Venezuelan oil production quickly
Trump's administration dismissed Tuesday analysts' estimates that it will?take years? to increase Venezuela's crude oil production. They said there are ways to boost the country?s oil sector quickly. The Trump administration is aiming to increase crude production from Venezuela, the South American country that has the largest oil reserves in the world. This comes after U.S. troops seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro during a raid against its capital Caracas, on Saturday.
Octopus energy reports loss for the year as investments weigh
Octopus Energy, a British company, reported a pre-tax loss for the year ending Tuesday. This was due to spending heavy amounts to expand its business, including the Kraken technology platform, which it intends to spin off. The UK's biggest energy supplier is investing heavily in services such as heat pumps, solar panels, and electric vehicles. It has also strengthened its plans to spin-off its AI driven?unit, Kraken Technologies.
Orlen, Grupa WB Collaborate to Improve Maritime Infrastructure Security
State-controlled Polish refiner Orlen and private defence technology company Grupa WB have agreed to work together to improve the security of critical infrastructure, Orlen said on Tuesday.The Baltic Sea region is on high alert following power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.Under an agreement the two companies signed, they will cooperate to ensure energy security by protecting maritime infrastructure and to counter criminal a
FEATURE-AI data explosion in Mexico fuels rise of dirty energy
The country's power infrastructure is overloaded and pollution has increased due to the shortfall in green power, despite promises by government and industry to increase capacity. The data centers are huge warehouses that are the size of Olympic stadiums. They sprawl over industrial parks and house hundreds of servers, which consume a lot of energy. These servers power the most powerful technology companies, like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
AI data explosion in Mexico fuels growth in dirty energy
The lack of green power, despite promises by government and industry to increase capacity, has overloaded and increased local pollution. Masheika Allgood is the founder of AllAI Consulting. She provides information on data center environmental impacts. The data centers are huge warehouses that are the size of Olympic stadiums. They sprawl over industrial parks and house hundreds of servers, which consume a lot of energy.
What is Fusion Energy, the Quest that Trump Media is so enamored with?
Scientists and businesses have tried for decades to harness the fusion energy that powers the sun to produce electricity on Earth. The $6 billion merger announced on Thursday between U.S. president Donald Trump's Trump Media and Technology Group and?Google-backed TAE technologies is the latest development for an industry still a long way from commercialization. What is Fusion? The process…
Italy's offshore-wind push is stagnant, putting climate targets at risk
Analysts say that Italian plans to harness the offshore wind power are coming to a grinding halt. This puts the country's goals for climate change at risk and hits firms who have invested in this sector. A government decree from 2024 offered incentives for 3.8 gigawatts of?capacity?by 2028. However, the contracts were never awarded due to bureaucratic and regulation hurdles. This has prevented billions of euro in potential investments.
Report: China invested $80 billion in cleantech overseas last year
According to a recent report from the Australian research group Climate Energy Finance, Chinese companies have invested $80 billion overseas in clean technologies to help absorb an oversupply. According to the report published on Sunday, many countries have also intensified their cleantech collaboration with China as a result of U.S. president Donald Trump's new tariffs. This brings…
Tetra is considering a magnesium project in Arkansas with Pentagon-backed Magrathea
Tetra Technologies said on Tuesday that it may form a joint-venture with the Pentagon-backed startup Magrathea in order to build America's first magnesium refinery, and increase domestic supplies of this metal. U.S. Magnesium, a privately owned company, closed its Utah operation in 2022 due to environmental concerns. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, China produces 95% of all magnesium in the world.
Russell: Silver outperforms Gold for the precious metal podium
Silver is often referred to as the bridesmaid of gold on precious metal markets. Its more popular rival seems to overshadow its less talked about counterpart. Silver is outperforming gold quietly in terms of returns for investors. It may also have a better long-term outlook, given the structural deficit in supply and the surge in demand from renewable technologies like solar panels. Since October 2023, spot silver has been on a steady upward trend.
Equinor Explores Role in Germany Gas Plant Capacity Expansion
Norwegian energy producer Equinor is looking at options for participating in a planned German gas-fired power plant tender but requires more detail before making any decision, a senior executive said on Tuesday.Germany plans to tender eight gigawatts (GW) of new gas-fired power plant capacity next year, with a further 2 GW to be offered in 2026 and 2027 to strike a balance between decarbonisation and backing up intermittent renewables."We have had, and are having, conversatio
Equinor looks at its role in expanding Germany's gas capacity
A senior executive at Equinor said that the Norwegian energy company is considering its options to participate in a German gas-fired plant tender, but needs more information before taking a decision. Germany will tender 8 gigawatts of new gas-fired plant capacity in the coming year. A further 2 GW will be offered by 2026 or 2027, to strike a balanced between decarbonisation while supporting intermittent renewables.
Equinor plans to drill 250 oil and natural gas exploration wells by 2035 in Norway
Equinor plans to drill 250 oil-and-gas exploration wells in Norwegian waterways in the next ten years in order to achieve a goal that will maintain production in 2035, at levels of 2020, due in part, according its CEO, Tuesday, to expectations of continued fossil fuel demand. Anders Opedal, the CEO of Norwegian Energy Company, said at an energy conference that the company will invest…
Russell: COP30 agreement is not important in the battle between renewables and fossil fuels.
It was not realistic to expect anything better from the COP30 Climate Summit than a weak statement that omitted all mention of fossil fuels. It was never going to be easy to bring nearly 200 countries together with vastly different perspectives and make a statement of commitment to fight climate change. After the Belem summit, the question that needs to be asked is, does what the final statement says and doesn't state, really matter?
Russell: COP30 agreement is not important in the battle between renewables and fossil fuels.
It was not realistic to expect anything better from the COP30 Climate Summit than a weak statement that omitted all mention of fossil fuels. It was never going to be easy to bring nearly 200 countries together with vastly different perspectives and make a statement of commitment to fight climate change. After the Belem summit, the question that needs to be asked is, does what the final statement says and doesn't state, really matter?
Takeaways from COP30 Climate Summit in Brazil
The U.N. Climate Change Summit ended this year with a shaky compromise that ignored most of the countries' main demands, except for one: wealthy countries were obligated to triple their expenditures to help other countries adapt to global warming. Here are some key takeaways from COP30, the climate summit that took place in Brazil's Amazonian city of Belem. HOOKED UP TO HYDROCARBONES Luiz Inacio Lula…
Energy Transition' Future: Fractured, Bumpy and Long
As COP30 kicks off its second week in Brazil, much has changed since the landmark Paris climate agreement was penned 10 years ago.The spirit of cooperation that once reigned has been shattered by economic rivalries and a stark divergence in climate policies among the world’s biggest polluters.The landmark UN COP21 climate agreement signed in Paris on December 12, 2015 saw 195 nations…