President Donald Trump said he would allow tariff relief for some ground beef imports in a bid to lower prices for American consumers, a key concern ahead of November midterm elections.

“Today, I concluded a deal to substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families,” Trump said in a social media post Friday. 

The president said that “for the next 90 days, the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff. We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices.”

Trump did not provide any further details on the deal, including on the source of those imports. 

The president will sign an executive order within the next two weeks to ease tariffs, according to a White House official who detailed the plans on condition of anonymity. The official said that in exchange for tariff relief, foreign beef exporters had agreed to provide a 25% discount and that those savings would be passed on to American consumers. 

The official did not provide more information on how that arrangement would be implemented or identify the specific tariffs the order would target. The US allows some countries to ship a certain amount of tariff-free beef each year, with supplies past that subject to higher levies.

The move on imports — which amounts to about 2% of the US’s roughly 13 million ton annual domestic consumption — is the president’s latest attempt to tamp down beef prices, which have skyrocketed amid a deep US cattle shortage, as higher production costs and dry pastures have made it more difficult for ranchers to raise animals.

Uncertainty — whether over drought, production costs or input prices — is a key reason that ranchers have hesitated to rebuild their herds, as selling off animals promises immediate returns, while retaining them for breeding is a yearslong financial commitment. The latest move doesn’t address that issue, and in fact could deter American ranchers by pressuring prices. Live cattle futures traded in Chicago dropped as much as 2.4% to the lowest price since last November.

“Today’s announcement and other market interventions throw cold water on the prospect of herd expansion and sacrifices long-term stability for short-term messaging,” the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said in a statement, adding that markets have “already turned sharply lower” at a critical time of year for ranchers trying to make decisions regarding their herds.

The Meat Institute, which represents processors, declined to comment.

Shares in Brazilian meatpacker MBRF Global Foods Co. and Minerva SA jumped to the highest intraday price since April and May, respectively, while US shares of Brazilian-owned JBS NV also rose. Shares of the US’s largest meatpacker, Tyson Foods Inc., were slightly down.

Trump has previously sought to increase beef imports, including boosting the amount that Argentina could ship under lower tariffs. The US Department of Agriculture earlier this month projected imports accounting for a record share of US beef supplies this year.

Upcoming elections to determine control of Congress are likely to hinge on voter perceptions of the economy, with rising costs for groceries, healthcare, utilities and housing taking center stage. Prices for staples such as beef, eggs and gas play a particularly outsized role in how consumers perceive inflation.

Polls show Trump’s Republican Party facing an uphill battle to keep control of Congress, with voters unhappy with the president’s handling of the economy and the Iran war, which has spiked prices at the pump.

There are signs that Americans are reaching their limit on rising beef prices. Beef sales volumes in the 13 weeks ending in mid-July, a crucial stretch encompassing both Memorial Day and July Fourth, fell 0.3% from a year earlier, according to research firm Circana. That compares with about 5% growth in the previous two years.

The top sources of US beef imports in the first half of the year were Australia and Brazil, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Shipments from Argentina more than doubled in the first half of 2026 compared to the prior year. Foreign supplies tend to be of leaner beef trimmings, which are blended into fattier US products to achieve the right fat-lean ratios for ground meat.

In addition to importing more meat, the US is also poised to resume live cattle imports from Mexico, which had been largely halted for over a year due to the spread of a cattle parasite. That trade has been touted by meatpackers as a major immediate way to address near-term prices, potentially allowing over a million cattle a year back into the US. Still, those shipments are initially set to enter only one Arizona port, amounting to a small share of supply.

The White House’s actions come as early signs that US herds are rebuilding are still too weak to provide any immediate reprieve. Beef processors, squeezed by the rising cost of cattle, have had to close plants to reduce competition for scarce animals, including a move announced last week by Tyson Foods Inc.

(Updates to add White House official starting fifth paragraph, additional context throughout)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Projects that are not equipped with battery storage are unlikely to find buyers, with almost 42 gigawatts of planned capacity yet to sign offtake contracts, Renewables Secretary Santosh Kumar Sarangisaid on Friday.

Among the most at risk are about 18 gigawatts of solar-only projects and another 14 to 15 gigawatts of capacity awarded at high prices, he said at the BNEF Summit in New Delhi. 

In India, renewables additions have been led by photovoltaic, causing a day-time supply glut, particularly during summers when radiation is stronger. About 11% of solar power generated in India during the hottest months this year was lost to grid curtailments, even as demand hit a record. 

Grids around the globe are struggling to keep pace with the rapid expansion of solar and wind fleets, creating periods of excess electricity that force operators to shut down a portion of generation capacity to protect equipment and prevent blackouts. 

India’s transmission system failed to absorb more than 8 billion kilowatt-hours of power in April to June, when 63 billion actually reached the system. Peak curtailment was seen in May, when scorching heat sent electricity use to all-time high.  

Solar developers are now adding battery storage to attract buyers that need supplies throughout the day, Sarangi said.

Almost 21 gigawatts of the country’s renewable energy projects have only part-time access to the grid, putting them at a greater risk of curtailments, which is hampering expansion and threatening to slow energy transition.

States in the northern and western regions have struggled to build grid networks that match the expansion in solar energy.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Global crude benchmark Brent traded near $94 a barrel, on pace for a weekly advance of around 6%. West Texas Intermediate for October was steady below $87 a barrel following a five-session run of gains.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration would give details of the initiative next Monday after President Donald Trump described the push as an “economic D-day”. The measures will target Tehran, and could also ensnare countries that deal with the Islamic Republic, possibly including China.

Oil has rallied more than 50% this year as the US-Iran war threw the Middle East into turmoil, with the two sides battling over the Strait of Hormuz. Bessent said Washington controlled the waterway, and ships could exit via a southern lane, according to an interview on CNBC. Still, Tehran has repeatedly insisted it retains authority over the conduit, which saw more vessel attacks this week.

“The prospect of adding sanctions on Iran to cripple its economy does carry a degree of risk,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group Ltd. “It certainly doesn’t seem like a straightforward exercise.”

Beijing — which is by far the largest importer of Iranian oil — said that sanctions and pressure wouldn’t work, and called for a diplomatic resolution. In his remarks, Bessent noted that China got much of its energy from the region, while adding that “it would do them a big service to get with the program.” 

“It is unclear to me how we are going to choke off Iran more than we have financially without triggering immense blowback from China,” Josh Lipsky, vice president of international economics at the Atlantic Council, told Bloomberg TV.

The intensified wave of economic pressure comes as Washington has imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports in a bid to choke off Tehran’s crude exports. The cordon appears to have been effective, with Iranian Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati saying this week that flows “have virtually stopped”.

Beyond the Middle East, dozens of Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and ports have disrupted the country’s energy industry, triggering fuel shortages in some regions. That’s contributed to tightness in the global diesel market, with price gains far outpacing the rises seen in crude oil.

In the US, average nationwide retail diesel prices surged to almost $5.55 a gallon this week, the highest since late May, according to figures from the American Automobile Association. Meanwhile, the margin for making diesel from crude oil in the country recently topped $100 a barrel to hit a record.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The busy Gulf Coast-to-Asia LPG trade typically relies on wider Neopanamax vessels, but these ships are facing increasingly punitive costs to get through the canal. The rates for narrower Panamax tankers, which go through a separate set of locks, haven’t risen as much, traders said. 

Two Neopanamax tankers chartered by Chevron, the Fritzi N and the Pacific Yantai, are slated to receive cargoes of LPG off the port of Balboa, located on the Panama’s Pacific coast, according to shipping fixtures seen by Bloomberg. That is likely to come from Panamax vessels that have passed through the waterway. 

The Neopanamax vessels will then take the fuel — used as cooking gas and in some types of manufacturing — across the Pacific. 

The move underscores how the market is turning to workarounds to cope with maritime congestion due to the Iran war and an intensifying El Niño, which prompted the Panama Canal Authority on Thursday to limit daily slots for September transits. The weather pattern is bringing drought to Central America, which is lowering water levels in the canal, while the conflict in the Middle East has led to an increase in US-to-Asia energy flows.

Around 60% of US LPG exports have gone to Asia so far this year, according to Kpler, up from 55% for the whole of 2025. 

Ships seeking to sail through the Panama Canal typically pay a flat rate via a reservation process. But lengthening waiting times for larger vessels are spurring some shippers to swap reservations, effectively paying more to bypass the regular queue. 

The fee for a Neopanamax tanker that arrives at the canal without booking a slot and wants to transit immediately spiked to an all-time high of $4.6 million last week.

Chevron declined to comment. Anglo-Eastern Ship Management, which is the ISM ship manager for the Fritzi N, didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment. SPDBFL No Two Hundred & Twenty-Two (Tianjin) Ship Leasing, which is the owner of the Pacific Yantai, didn’t respond to calls seeking comment. Pacific Gas, the vessel’s ship manager, declined to comment on the matter. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The energy industry has always operated in cycles. Demand rises. Demand slows. Investment accelerates, then pauses. Supply chains tighten and recover. Priorities shift as markets evolve and technologies mature.

What feels different today is the sheer number of forces moving at once. Electricity demand continues to grow across much of the world. Data centres and artificial intelligence are creating new requirements for reliable power. Geopolitical tensions are reshaping energy security priorities while economic growth and industrial development remain powerful drivers across the board.

Together, these trends are creating one of the most dynamic periods the energy sector has experienced in decades. Too often, energy companies are portrayed as passive observers to these market developments as they unfold, and resilience is viewed as the ability to respond to disruption after it occurs. But the reality is far more nuanced than that. Preparation must start long before demand materialises, and resilience has to be built into the system from the start. 

Building resilience before demand arrives

This requires a shift in mindset. Instead of asking how we react to uncertainty, we should ask how we prepare for it. The answer lies in creating flexibility across the entire energy value chain.

For technology providers, that means maintaining broad portfolios capable of supporting different customer needs, market conditions, and regional requirements. It means investing in manufacturing capacity, strengthening supply chains, developing skilled workforces, and helping customers maximise the value of existing assets through modernisation and long-term service solutions.

These decisions often happen years before market conditions change. Yet they determine how effectively companies can respond when they do. In that sense, resilience is built through choices. A broad technology portfolio creates options. A strong service business creates options. A diversified manufacturing footprint creates options. Long-term customer partnerships create options. Those options become particularly valuable during periods of rapid change.

A broader demand story beyond AI

Much of the public discussion today focuses on artificial intelligence and data centres. Their impact is real and significant. Yet they represent only part of the story.

At Siemens Energy, data centres account for roughly a quarter of our gas turbine demand. The majority still comes from utilities, industrial customers, and countries investing in economic growth, electrification, and energy security. What we are seeing is not a single trend driving the market.

Demand is emerging across sectors, regions, and customer groups simultaneously. That diversity matters. It provides confidence that extends beyond the next project cycle. Today, demand for gas turbines remains visible well into the next decade, extending toward 2035 and beyond. For the gas industry, this has important implications.

Gas-fired power generation continues to play a critical role in modern energy systems. In many regions, it remains one of the fastest pathways to add dependable power at scale, rapidly reduce CO₂ emissions by replacing coal, and maintain security of supply as renewable energy continues to expand. At the same time, flexibility is becoming just as important as capacity.

Some customers require new-generation assets. Others are looking to improve efficiency, modernise existing fleets, extend operating lifetimes, or strengthen performance through long-term service agreements. Supporting these different needs requires more than a single solution. It requires the ability to adapt. This is where scale becomes an advantage.

Companies with diversified capabilities across technologies, manufacturing, service, and regional markets are better positioned to navigate changing conditions than those dependent on a single product, geography, or demand trend. They have more ways to respond when markets shift and more opportunities to support customers through periods of growth, constraint, and transformation.

The lesson for our industry is clear

Uncertainty is unlikely to disappear. Demand patterns will continue to evolve, and technologies will continue to advance. Success will not depend on predicting every market shift correctly. It will depend on building the flexibility, capability, and capacity to respond when those shifts occur. That is resilience by design. And it is becoming one of the defining requirements of the energy future.

Under the new law, the energy ministry will have the power to set new rules about who gets priority access to the grid, replacing the current first-come, first-serve system. The changes could serve as an example elsewhere in Europe as ambitions to increase electricity demand and renewable power generation are coming up against aging grids unaccustomed to rapid change.

“Our electricity grid is under pressure, and it threatens to bring our green transition and development to a standstill,” Denmark’s Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities Samira Nawa said in a statement. In late June, the energy ministry said there was broad political support to enact such an emergency plan. 

The bill proposes four categories of power consumers. The first covers increased demand from current customers, new households and small businesses. The second is for projects that support electrification and the green transition. Those two categories would have the highest priority for grid access. 

The next two categories include one that targets batteries, including those located within existing solar or wind farms, and another that targets very large power customers, such as data centers. These types of consumers will have lower priority, depending on their “grid-friendliness,” a term that refers to how willing the projects are to fluctuate their demand to accommodate grid constraints. Applications from data centers could be refused if there isn’t enough energy capacity.

Denmark’s law follows a similar effort in the UK, where the government ditched a first-come, first-serve system that led to a massive queue. Project developers waited years for grid access. Unlike Denmark, however, the UK sought to prioritize data centers, aiming to capture the potential economic benefits of surging investment in computing power for artificial intelligence.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Global benchmark Brent rose toward $92 a barrel, after adding more than 5% over the prior four sessions, while West Texas Intermediate for October was near $84. The moves “will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” Trump said in a social-media post. “This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States.”

Any country that allowed financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to aid Iran would face tremendous economic consequences, he wrote, without giving details. Activities such as smuggling, cash transfers, exchange houses, and ship registries needed to be halted, he added.

Crude has rallied steeply this year following the outbreak of the conflict between Washington and Tehran, with the two sides locked in confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz. The US administration’s latest push to defeat Iran — which was trailed last week by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — risks inflaming tensions with takers of Iranian crude, including its main market, China.

Asia’s leading economy is the top importer of Iranian oil, although official customs data shows no inflows since 2022. The bulk of the barrels are taken by private refiners, known as teapots, which are attracted to the trade by the discounts typically on offer because of earlier rounds of US sanctions.

The Trump administration has in recent weeks shifted from military options against Iran to a strategy of greater economic pressure. The apparent goal is to drive Tehran into fresh talks meant to end the war for good, force an end the nation’s nuclear program and release its chokehold over Hormuz.

At present, US forces are sustaining a blockade of the Islamic Republic’s ports, with signs that some crude from other Gulf producers is being covertly ferried out through Hormuz despite threats to shipping. Earlier Wednesday, Trump said that there was “a lot of oil” passing through the waterway.

‘Barely Moved’

While prices rose Thursday, they remained below peaks seen earlier in the week. “The fact that oil barely moved may be the story,” said Haris Khurshid, chief investment officer for Karobaar Capital LP. “Six months into this, the market has learned not to reprice crude on every headline.”

He added: “Trump’s comments matter, but ultimately barrels moving through Hormuz matter more. Until physical flows start confirming the rhetoric I think the market discounts a lot of the noise.”

The announcement of the economic package came a day after the United Arab Emirates cut all economic ties with Tehran after accusing Iran of firing missiles at its territory. The UAE acts as a major financial and business hub for Iranians, and its move is set to increase the Islamic Republic’s isolation.

Brent’s prompt spread — the difference between its two nearest contracts — remains almost $2 a barrel in backwardation. That’s a bullish pattern marked by front-month futures trading at a premium to the next in sequence.

US data offered some support to prices midweek. Refinery runs climbed to the highest since 2019, and nationwide distillate inventories — a key area of concern given tightness in the diesel market — fell to the lowest level in more than a month, according to the Energy Information Administration. That helped to offset a 4.4 million-barrel increase in crude stockpiles last week.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

A region that includes the Midcontinent Independent System Operator — which BNEF defines as the operator’s territory in addition to Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., Electric Energy Inc., Louisville Gas and Electric Co. and Kentucky Utilities Co. — overtook a system that extends from the Mid-Atlantic to Illinois, the research firm found. Much of the MISO region is dominated by Republican leadership.

That region that includes MISO added 7.45 gigawatts of solar power between April 2024 and this past March, according to BNEF analyst David Mohammadi. Illinois, a Blue state, accounted for the largest share. GOP-led Indiana, Arkansas and Missouri were next, he said.

That compares with 3 gigawatts in a region that extends from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, according to BNEF. It defines that region that’s home to grid PJM Interconnection LLC as also including Ohio Valley Electric Corp.

Officials at PJM and MISO didn’t provide a comment by late Wednesday.

The solar expansion has continued despite President Donald Trump’s opposition to solar and other renewable energy. His administration has ended federal tax credits for solar installations and imposed permitting delays.

In February, the US Energy Information Administration said it projected solar power to make up about half of planned US capacity additions.

Rising electricity prices and fears of a power crunch, driven largely by surging demand from AI data centers and extreme heat, have made expanding grid capacity a top priority for both utilities and politicians.

MISO and PJM have experienced high demand this summer. Power demand on PJM’s system likely broke a 20-year-old record in early July, the operator said.

Solar units built in the region that extends from the northern Midwest to Louisiana since early 2024 had nearly twice the average size of those added in the Mid-Atlantic, according to BNEF’s report.

In total, generation capacity in the region that includes MISO was 230 gigawatts at the end of the first quarter, compared with the 227 gigawatts in the region that includes PJM, BNEF said.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

How is Kent positioning itself to help operators move from ambition to execution?

Delivering projects successfully comes down to combining technical expertise with reliable execution. Kent is well positioned to do that because we bringing together integrated engineering services, from early concept through to EPC, commissioning, late-life management and decommissioning, with strong procurement, construction, and on-site execution capability. We combine that technical capability with a very collaborative culture and a strong focus on innovation. Delivering more than 40 million work hours every year, we have the scale and geographic reach to support major programmes globally, while retaining the agility to move quickly.

Could you share with us Kent’s recent milestones in delivering large-scale EPC projects?

We’ve continued to grow our EPC and EPCM business through a number of significant project awards and deliveries. Some recent examples are the Maharajalela Jamalulalam Inlet Compression Project in Brunei, the Future Fuels FCC Naphtha Treating Unit in Australia, and the MorGen Energy Green Hydrogen Project in the UK. We’ve also secured a second major contract with ADNOC on its P5 Long-Term Facilities Project in the UAE. For me, the fact that clients want to work with us time and time again reflects the strength of the relationships we build and the quality of delivery our teams provide every day.

What engineering innovations is Kent bringing to the table for gas and LNG facilities?

Much of our work in gas and LNG is focused on reducing emissions, improving reliability, and increasing operational efficiency. That includes compression solutions that increase throughput, boil-off gas recovery systems that reduce product losses, and electrification strategies that support lower-carbon operations, among others. We also have an in-house software development team focused on creating tools that solve real engineering and operational challenges.

A good example is MeasCap, which helps operators model facility capacity, identify bottlenecks, and make better decisions around asset performance and future development. Having supported major LNG developments across the globe, including seven of Australia’s nine major LNG projects, we understand what it takes to deliver these solutions from end to end. 

With supply chain pressures impacting global timelines, how is Kent keeping complex energy projects on schedule and on budget?

Supply chain challenges aren’t going away, so we’ve invested in the people, processes and supplier relationships needed to manage them proactively. Due to the scale of our business and with around US$2 billion in procurement spend every year, we have visibility into supplier markets, manufacturing capacity, and potential bottlenecks globally. Combined with robust pre-qualification, due diligence, and supplier quality oversight, it means we can move quickly without compromising quality or assurance. This has allowed us to support clients with strategic procurement services as a standalone offering, giving them access to the same market insight, supplier networks, and execution capability that underpin our EPC projects.

Where do you see the intersection of AI and data analytics having the biggest impact on engineering design?

The biggest impact will be helping engineers make better decisions faster. By reducing repetitive tasks, improving access to project knowledge, and identifying risks much earlier in the design process, AI and data analytics give engineers more time to focus on the bigger challenge facing our industry: delivering the energy the world needs in a more responsible way. Technology matters, but the real value comes from combining human expertise, experience and judgement with better data and better insights to deliver better outcomes.

What are you looking forward to at Gastech this year?

I think this year’s event comes at an important time for the industry. Operators are being asked to do more than ever: improve performance, reduce emissions, deliver new infrastructure, meet growing energy demand, and extend asset life and plan for safe decommissioning. I’m looking forward to the conversations around how we make that happen in the most practical and responsible way. I’m also looking forward to seeing our Kent team contribute to those discussions, sharing insights on topics including autonomous engineering, workforce safety, and emerging technologies such as chemical looping for blue hydrogen production, as well as through our sponsorship of the Supply Chain and Procurement Hub.

Wholesale prices fell in 2025 from a year earlier, indicating easing pressure, but remained higher than in 2022 — when the nation suffered an unprecedented failure of its main power market, the Australian Energy Regulator said in an annual report on Thursday. A 177% jump in grid-scale battery capacity last year contributed to lower prices in the second half.

Australia has become a global bellwether for the energy transition, as the nation rushes to replace a fleet of aging coal-fired power plants, with unplanned outages at the generators causing extreme volatility. Meanwhile, its households are world leaders in installing solar panels and home batteries, while the government has an ambitious target to get 82% of electricity from renewables by 2030, almost double the level at the end of last quarter.

“Price outcomes increasingly depend on whether enough flexible capacity is available when it is needed,” the AER said. “If flexible supply, storage, transmission and demand response do not scale to provide necessary capacity in the right places and at the right times, consumers may face higher prices and greater reliability risks, because the market will be more vulnerable to supply and demand shocks.”

High revenue and falling prices in the National Electricity Market have given batteries the strongest standalone investment signal, beating out wind and solar, according to the report. Turbine shortages and increased costs have “materially worsened” the outlook for new natural gas plants, while additional black-coal generation isn’t economically viable, the AER said.

“Batteries are still a small share of total generation but are increasingly influential during the evening peak, when they are beginning to displace gas and hydro as the generators that most often determine price,” the AER said. “These changes show that new flexible capacity is improving some outcomes, but not yet enough to remove price pressure when renewable output is lower and demand is higher.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Refineries processed 17.4 million barrels of crude oil on a daily basis last week, according to the Energy Information Administration. That topped the previous wartime high-water mark set in late July, and surpassed any point since September 2019.

A fuel crisis is ripping through markets worldwide, owing to the disruption of shipping in and around the Arabian Gulf, as well as damage wrought on Russian refineries by Ukrainian drones. 

The tightness is particularly acute in diesel markets, where the margins captured by producers have swelled to more than $100 a barrel.

The appeal of outsized profits has pushed US refiners to run as hard as possible, making the country an global supplier of last resort. 

Meanwhile, jet-fuel production exceeded 2 million barrels a day for the 18th consecutive week. Gasoline output, while still below the seasonal average, ticked higher, as did production of residual fuel oil, propane and propylene.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The agreements are with oilfield-services giant SLB Ltd. and independent producer Hunt Oil Co., Oil Minister Paula Henao said in an interview on state television on Tuesday from Houston.

The signings come as Caracas and Washington push to accelerate investment in Venezuela’s vast but underdeveloped oil reserves. Politico reported earlier that several independent US producers were expected to sign production contracts with state oil company PDVSA in the coming days, starting at an event in Houston on Tuesday evening.

Venezuela signed a hydrocarbons production participation agreement tied to the development and production enhancement of two oil fields, Henao said. She didn’t provide details on the expected investment or additional output.

The government also signed a framework agreement with SLB, formerly known as Schlumberger, for services related to integrated reservoir studies throughout the country, Henao said.

The deals mark another step in efforts by Venezuela and the Trump administration to revive the country’s oil industry by attracting private capital and expertise following the US’s capture of strongman Nicolas Maduro in January.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Lorenzo Simonelli, Chairman and CEO of Baker Hughes, shares his perspective about enhancing natural gas and LNG infrastructure, AI integration, and asset optimisation.

With the evolving geopolitics and fractured trade routes, where do you see the most critical infrastructure gaps for natural gas and LNG? 

Shapiro’s executive order requires local approval to receive state permits for data center projects, establishing a significant hurdle for new development. The governor, a Democrat and one-time proponent of data centers, also requires projects to abide by water conservation standards and pay the costs of higher electricity use, in addition to supplying their own generation. 

“We’ve seen an unacceptable number of speculative proposals for data centers swamp our Commonwealth – many of them led by developers who have no regard for local communities,” Shapiro said in a statement Tuesday.

Growing local opposition to data centers is threatening the ambitions of the nation’s biggest tech companies as the US races China to develop artificial intelligence. New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced a pause of as much as a year on environmental permits for more data centers. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican and longtime champion of data centers, has also ordered a pause while the state audits new projects.

Shapiro — who is running for reelection in November and is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028 — had initially championed data center projects to attract tech companies to Pennsylvania. 

He backed a $20 billion Amazon.com Inc. project that encompasses campuses in Luzerne County and Bucks County. Those projects, which are still in the planning and permitting stages, face heavy opposition. Shapiro’s opponent in the governor’s race, Republican State Treasurer Stacey Garrity, has called for a pause in data center development. 

Shapiro hasn’t called for a moratorium. Before this week, he had favored voluntary measures to guide responsible development, and used his executive powers to push through his Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development standards, a set of accountability measures that Pennsylvania’s divided General Assembly failed to codify. 

His new order, besides addressing increased demand on water and electricity infrastructure, prohibits state agencies from signing non-disclosure agreements for data center projects. It also establishes that Pennsylvania will no longer fast-track permitting for data centers.

Pennsylvania currently has 71 active data centers and 66 proposed projects, according to the Data Center Proposal Tracker. A July poll by Quinnipiac University found that 74% of the state’s voters would oppose building AI data centers in their communities. 

The new rules will require projects to find local sources of clean energy, favoring existing power providers, including nuclear plants, Evercore ISI analysts led by Nicholas Amicucci said in a report. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Energy Transfer LP, which would construct and operate the pipeline, is now seeking to build part of the 17.8-mile conduit on land administered by the US Bureau of Land Management. 

The alternative route avoids land administered by the New Mexico State Land Office, which has twice rejected the pipeline’s right-of-way application, Energy Transfer subsidiary Transwestern said in an Aug. 17 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The data center, known as Project Jupiter and which would serve OpenAI from a campus in Doña Ana County near the US-Mexico border, has become a symbol of the growing pushback faced by hyperscalers across several states as they race to build huge infrastructure.

The Oracle data center is among the largest projects of its kind and envisages 2.5 gigawatts of natural gas powered fuel cells and a total investment of up to $165 billion. It has attracted protests largely focused on its potential environmental impact.

In its most recent rejection, the New Mexico State Land Office said last month that the lease sought by Energy Transfer would not be “in the best interests” of the state. Transwestern has now pushed its original in-service date for the pipeline — known as Green Chile — out to Feb. 1 from Aug. 15 previously. Oracle said last week that Project Jupiter remains on schedule.

Energy Transfer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The S&P 500 Energy Sector Index climbed as much as 1.8% on Tuesday. If the gains hold through the close of trading, the gauge would close at an all-time high, the first since March 27.

Energy stocks fell 16% from that peak by early July, after a short-lived end to hostilities and news of US-Iran negotiations. But as a ceasefire remained elusive, the stocks have been climbing back steadily toward those highs, and are now up 20% from the low touched on July 1. 

“I think a lot of investors missed the rise of energy stocks the first time,” Rob Thummel, senior portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital, said in an interview. “They didn’t want to miss it the second time and recognize that we still have a lot of geopolitical risk in the world and oil prices maybe they’ll go lower, maybe they won’t, but regardless, energy stocks are really important.”

Energy stocks have risen as Brent crude futures climbed around 50% this year amid Middle East supply constraints caused by the war. The higher prices have also translated into stronger earnings and cash flow for major US producers.

Chevron Corp. saw second-quarter earnings per share grow by more than 240% year over year, while ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. saw earnings increase 115% when the companies reported quarterly results in July. Chevron is also expected to generate around $12.5 billion in additional free cash flow by 2026.

“There’s a lot of free cash flow coming out of these companies, and it’s not just because the oil price is high, it’s because, they’re performing on all levels. In some cases, they’ve bought back stock, which helps improve their free cash flow per share, in a lot of cases, they’ve maintained their operations or improved their business operations,” Thummel said.

Producers aren’t the only companies benefiting from the supply shortage. Valero Energy Corp. reported its most profitable quarter on record in July as measured by earnings per share, while PBF Energy Inc. and HF Sinclair Corp. reported their best profits in years.

With earnings rising and supply constraints for products such as diesel and jet fuel potentially lasting for years, Melius Research analyst James West sees energy stocks as attractively valued.

“The market is pricing in a somewhat structurally higher oil price environment going forward and a product environment that’s going to be higher going forward,” West said in an interview. “I think these stocks can all trade much higher from here from a market perspective.”

Energy companies could see slower earnings growth if commodity prices pull back, but investors aren’t expecting their shares to suffer declines as steep as the last selloff if a ceasefire is reached.

“I don’t think we’ll see the same type of selloff,” West said. “I think the market now understands that an MOU or a ceasefire and the chances of that holding are pretty limited.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The LNG industry often looks to the next big project for the next big answer to rising demand, energy security, and economic growth. But in Asia-Pacific, a different reality is emerging, one where ageing LNG assets are becoming central to supply resilience. Many LNG assets are ageing across the Asia-Pacific region. In another context, that might be treated mainly as a maintenance or late-life challenge, but between now and 2030, the opportunity is much bigger.

The region faces growing gas demand, ongoing uncertainty around project timing, skilled workforce shortages, rising maintenance backlogs, and increasing pressure to improve both reliability and emissions performance. At the same time, natural gas consumption in Asia-Pacific has already increased by 35% in recent years, with LNG demand set to rise further.

An ageing asset base meets rising demand

That matters because the market reality is hard to ignore. Global LNG trade now stands at over 410 million tonnes a year, and Asia remains central to demand growth and import dependence. Japan and South Korea continue to rank among the world’s largest LNG importers, while China’s growth in import volumes has been more recent but significant.

And although LNG supply continues to increase, market conditions remain exposed to volatility, geopolitical uncertainty, and the reality that new capacity could still take years to reach the market. So, the question is: how much more can be delivered from existing assets and infrastructure?

Why existing infrastructure matters more than ever

According to the International Energy Agency, a typical greenfield LNG development has a lead time of just over four years. Even with stronger LNG supply growth expected in 2026, this underlines the need for operators to ensure greater reliability, efficiency, and resilience from assets already in service.

In that environment, existing LNG infrastructure takes on greater strategic importance, underpinning resilience, affordability, and market stability across the region.

This does not mean that extending the life of every asset at any cost is what’s needed. In a market where new capacity can take years to materialise, targeted intervention in existing infrastructure can often deliver faster, lower-risk value than waiting for entirely new supply. That is why the most pragmatic operators are taking a more disciplined approach to debottlenecking, phased upgrades, reliability-led maintenance, and late-life optimisation.

Increasingly, they are using operational data and digital tools to identify where performance can be improved, downtime reduced, and capacity better protected. In some cases, these same interventions can also support emissions reduction and efficiency gains.

Turning asset performance into a strategic advantage

These decisions are no longer purely operational. They are strategic investment choices that directly influence supply reliability and competitive positioning.

We are seeing this first-hand across the LNG assets Wood supports in Asia-Pacific. Operators are increasingly prioritising targeted interventions that improve reliability, protect capacity, and defer major capital expenditure.

In our experience, the greatest gains often come from a series of well-judged decisions that extend asset life, improve performance, and strengthen resilience when it matters most. The LNG conversation should place equal weight on future capacity and the untapped value of existing infrastructure.

The centre of gravity of the global energy system has definitively shifted eastward, driven by rapid industrialisation, expanding urban populations, and rising living standards. Over the past decade, global primary energy demand in Asia-Pacific countries grew at twice the global rate, and the region now accounts for 46% of global energy consumption and more than half of the world’s electricity demand. However, over a third of that energy demand growth has relied on unmitigated coal consumption, more than the combined contribution of gas and renewables in the entire region. Meanwhile, two-thirds of this incremental energy demand originated from China alone, which is pursuing a massive electrification strategy largely built on coal and renewables.

Focus on Asia

This shift towards Asia Pacific is expected to continue over the coming decades. In the IEA’s Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS), the region contributes to around half of the increase in global energy demand to 2050, dwarfing the contribution of any other region. However, this apparent continuity masks two major changes. First, primary energy demand growth to 2050 is expected to be solely concentrated in India and Southeast Asia. In contrast, China’s energy demand will ultimately decline after a modest increase over the coming decade; yet, this does not mean the country will remain idle, as it doubles down on its renewable-based electrification strategy. 

Additionally, the region is expected to shift from its previous coal-based growth to increasingly rely upon a combination of renewable energy and gas. It is also projected to capture around 60% of incremental power demand, driven by a combination of rapid electrification and increasing economic activity — especially in South and Southeast Asia — as well as the build-out of data centres to support artificial intelligence and digital economies.

A complementary role to renewables

Natural gas is expected to help meet this soaring electricity demand and growing industrial demand, although it is fair to acknowledge that the contribution of incremental gas-fired generation to the overall electricity mix remains marginal compared to that of renewables and even nuclear. Rather than displacing coal on its own, natural gas plays a complementary role to renewables. 

The Asia Pacific region already includes the world’s four largest LNG-importing countries (China, Japan, South Korea, and India); together, they account for half of current global LNG demand. Looking forward, Asia Pacific will remain the primary anchor for LNG imports.

However, most of the incremental growth will be outside of these existing key markets: the latest Shell LNG Outlook 2026 underlines that the bulk of global LNG demand growth to around 700 mtpa by 2050 is projected to come from the “rest of Asia”, meaning Asian countries aside from Japan, South Korea, China, and India. This incremental demand will also be driven by declining gas production in Southeast Asia. However, LNG import growth will also be conditional upon the timely deployment of regasification terminals.

The ultimate path of Asia Pacific’s energy trajectory and fuel mix will be determined as much by the financial viability and deployment speed of clean tech as by policy choices. The question is whether South and Southeast Asian countries will indeed opt massively for LNG given the two gas crises that have occurred in less than five years, or whether they will turn slightly more to renewables coupled with coal, a fuel valued as a secure, domestic resource by many Asian nations. 

LNG exporters in the US and the Middle East will have to demonstrate that their LNG supply is both secure and affordable to convince these new importers. Asia Pacific is not only the indispensable LNG demand sink, but a market where emerging LNG importers are expected to play a major role compared to current heavyweights such as China and Japan.

The Suezmax-class Skiros, able to hold about 1 million barrels of oil, was attacked after loading at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s terminal near Novorossiysk, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public. 

While CPC mostly loads Kazakh barrels, the consignment in question was Russian-originated, the people said. The attack happened on Sunday close to the terminal, they said.

That’s the first strike on a vessel calling at the CPC terminal  — the critical conduit for Kazakh crude exports — after almost a three-week lull in attacks. Last month, repeated drone strikes disrupted loading of CPC cargoes, that recently accounted for almost 2% of global oil supplies, and forced Kazakh oil fields to reduce production. 

CPC declined to comment on its operations or matters related to oil shipments from producers. A spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff said he “has no data to comment on the issue.” 

Earlier this month, Ukraine agreed to refrain from targeting the CPC infrastructure and non-Russian vessels bound for the sea terminal as long as those ships are not otherwise subject to Ukrainian sanctions and aren’t carrying Russian cargo, according to a US official. Russian-origin crude typically accounts for 5% to 10% of CPC exports. 

The latest attack raises risks for sustainable operations at the CPC, whose ownership includes oil majors Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil, as well as Russia’s state pipeline company and Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas company. 

At the end of last month, following multiple attacks on tankers, CPC even considered an option to halt operations to avoid environmental and safety risks, but decided to continue operations. 

The Athens-based company listed on Equasis as the manager of the Skiros said that there were no injuries or pollution as a result of the incident and that the vessel’s owners were aware of it. The company declined to comment further. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Vista’s American depositary receipts rose 4.9% to $71.67 as of 10:49 a.m. in New York, the highest level in two months. The company’s Mexican stock rose 5.5% to 1,229 pesos per share. 

Thiel Macro LLC reported owning almost 1.2 million shares in Vista at the end of the second quarter, then worth about $76 million. The June 30 value of the fund’s position in Vista was second only to Amazon.com Inc. and Vista was the only non-US company listed in its holdings, according to an Aug. 14 US regulatory filing. 

Thiel’s new position in Vista — which is spearheading development of Argentina’s vast shale oil resources — comes as he bought a home in Buenos Aires and has spent time in Argentina this year. That’s prompted speculation about whether he has broader plans in the country. In April, he met with President Javier Milei, a fellow libertarian, who’s implementing a free-market experiment in an economy that was highly regulated for two decades.

Under Milei, Argentina has removed controls on oil prices and exports, and regained access to global financial markets, jump-starting growth in its Vaca Muerta shale patch in Patagonia, where combined crude and natural gas production has already surpassed 1 million barrels a day. The boom is starting to transform Argentina’s economy.

After big-ticket acquisitions this year and last, Vista produces about 160,000 barrels a day, most of which it exports. It has plans to further increase output, and has a stake in Argentina’s signature shale oil export project VMOS, a pipeline and port that are being built and will start operations next year.

American depositary receipts for Argentina’s biggest shale producer, state-run YPF SA, rose as much as 4.2%. Ezequiel Fernandez, an equity analyst at Balanz Capital in Buenos Aires, said news of Thiel’s stake in Vista might drive a broader Argentine shale rally. Still, US-traded shares in peer TGS SA edged lower on Monday, while Pampa Energia SA rose just 0.1%. 

“I wouldn’t expect a structural or long-lasting impact,” on the shares, Fernandez said. “After all, Thiel isn’t a recognized oil investor.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The LNG Enugu was docked near the city of Sohar on the Gulf of Oman and anchored parallel to a second vessel, images taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on Saturday showed. The positions are typical of a ship-to-ship maneuver and would suggest that the tankers could be transferring a cargo.

The LNG Enugu had its transponder turned on and is owned by BW Gas LNG Carriers, part of BW Group Ltd., according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. It has been circling the Gulf of Oman in recent days, the data shows. The second vessel was identified as the Mraweh, which is owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., according to TankerTrackers.com Inc. Its transponder was turned off.

The latest movements signal how exporters are attempting to keep LNG moving through Hormuz, even though visible shipments of the fuel through the waterway have effectively been at a standstill since an Iranian attack on a Qatar-owned tanker in early July. While the Islamic Republic appears to be edging closer to a deal with Oman on management of the strait, no agreement has been finalized.

Unlike with oil, ship-to-ship transfers of LNG are relatively uncommon due to the technical challenges involved in keeping the fuel super-chilled during any switch. If confirmed, the transfer would likely be the first known instance of LNG from inside the Arabian Gulf being moved to a different vessel outside Hormuz, according to Bloomberg’s analysis.

The model “allows shuttle vessels to move cargoes from Das Island and transfer them outside the strait, reducing exposure for other LNG carriers,” said Go Katayama, principal insight analyst for LNG at market intelligence firm Kpler. “We expect this activity to remain elevated while regional security risks persist,” he added.

The ship-tracking data showed that Mraweh was last seen inside the Arabian Gulf, near the western entrance of Hormuz, on July 29. The vessel made an inbound voyage to the Gulf last month without transmitting a signal during its crossing of the strait.

A spokesperson for Adnoc Logistics & Services said the company does not comment on specific operational matters, including voyage planning and vessel movements. BW Group also declined to comment.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Brent traded below $89 a barrel, after gaining 6% last week, while West Texas Intermediate was near $82. Lebanon saw its deadliest day of fighting in months on Sunday, as Israel struck Tehran-backed Hezbollah. Wider negotiations between Iran and the US appeared to be at a standstill.

More ships came under attack in Hormuz late last week, including vessels affiliated with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Still, Middle Eastern producers are pressing ahead with shuttling large volumes of crude out of the Gulf, with flows running higher than market estimates of 4 million barrels a day, according to people with knowledge of the shipments.

Brent has rallied by more than 45% this year, with Washington’s war against Tehran now in its sixth month, including a full naval blockade of the Islamic Republic’s ports. President Donald Trump has signaled the administration intends to hit Iran’s economy even harder, and that he didn’t care whether the conflict ended before the November midterm elections. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the new curbs could be unveiled this week.

“The threat of unprecedented US measures to economically isolate Iran, an indefinite naval blockade, and renewed tanker attacks raises the risk of further supply disruption,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets. “However, weak demand and continued covert Gulf exports are keeping the rally contained.”

Tehran has been preparing for a potentially broader confrontation, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Iranian and Arab officials. Authorities have given the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps greater influence over the military, installed hard-line veterans in key posts, accelerated missile and drone production, and strengthened coordination with allied militias across the region, the newspaper said.

‘God-Given’ Asset

“We see $100 a barrel being threatened if US-Iran violence escalates and transits through the strait halt sharply,” Vivek Dhar, a commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note. “But overall, an oversupply bias that pushes Brent oil futures towards $80 a barrel makes sense.” 

Iran and Oman, meanwhile, appeared to be edging closer to a deal on how Hormuz should be managed. The US wasn’t party to the talks, and is unlikely to agree to terms that don’t restore free passage along the route that used to handle a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows each day.

The waterway is a “God-given geopolitical asset for the Iranian nation and this leverage will never return to its former state,” Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency cited Army Commander-in-Chief Amir Hatami as saying on Sunday. “We will protect this capacity with all our power.”

Some Asian refiners have been ramping up their crude buying as attacks on chokepoints, which also include threats to shipping in the Red and Black seas, affect supplies. Processors in India are seeking cargoes for as far ahead as November delivery, trying to lock in barrels sooner than usual.

Elsewhere, Russia is facing fuel shortages after Ukraine resumed near-daily attacks on oil refineries. That’s prompted gasoline rationing in at least two regions, as well as export curbs for refined products.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Private and state-owned refiners, as well as oil and gas producers, have been ordered to “implement all technically and economically feasible measures” to maximize liquefied petroleum gas output, according to an Aug. 13 government notification. The directions include exploring alternative uses of feedstocks, such as converting naphtha into LPG.

India relies on imports for about two-thirds of its LPG consumption, with nearly 90% of those supplies passing through the Gulf chokepoint before the Middle East war disrupted flows. The country faced acute shortages of its most widely used cooking fuel for weeks during the conflict, forcing households to turn to more polluting alternatives such as biomass and kerosene.

Deadlocked US, Iran peace talks and continued attacks on ships are keeping flows through Hormuz well below normal. Buyers have turned to the US and newer suppliers including Algeria and Australia, to replace lost Middle Eastern cargoes.

“Due to the prolonged war, the government wants to maximize domestic LPG production,” Prashant Vasisht, senior vice president at ratings agency ICRA Ltd. said. “This is also because of the large travel time for alternate supplies from the US, Australia, which adds to cost and supplies have to be arranged several months in advance.”

Domestic refiners, which produced about 36,000 tons of LPG a day before the war, have already lifted output to as much as 54,000 tons a day to help meet higher demand during the traditional festival season that starts in September and peaks in November with Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. 

The government wants the industry to be capable of producing as much as 63,810 tons a day within stipulated timelines, according to the notification. It has set upper-limit targets for individual refiners, with Reliance Industries Ltd.’s domestic-market-focused unit assigned the largest target at 18,000 tons a day. The company’s exports-focused special economic zone refinery has been exempted. 

Refiners have additionally been told to expand infrastructure for LPG storage, evacuation and transportation. The government will review the targets every January and July.

State-run explorers Oil and Natural Gas Corp. and Oil India Ltd., along with the national gas pipeline utility Gail India Ltd., have also been asked to contribute about a tenth of the nationwide target.

The South Asian nation had traditionally relied on LPG imports rather than domestic production because the fuel is less profitable than gasoline and petrochemical feedstocks.

(Updates with analyst comment and details throughout.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

RATCH Group is one of Thailand’s leading investment holding companies in power generation and infrastructure, with a vision to become a leading value-oriented energy and infrastructure company in Asia Pacific. Listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) is our major shareholder, holding a 45% equity stake. This strong shareholder base supports our long-term growth and reinforces investor confidence in our strategy and commitment to sustainable value creation.

Today, our generation portfolio comprises 9,483.99 MW of equity installed capacity from conventional and renewable power plants, with investments spanning Thailand, Australia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, while continuing to explore new opportunities in other business related to energy transition and future energy to strengthen long-term enterprise value and support global net zero ambition.

Capturing growth opportunities in an energy transition landscape 

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham has scheduled a news conference with Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette on Monday afternoon. The two provinces have large hydroelectric resources, but have fought for years over a lopsided contract that allows Quebec to buy power from its eastern neighbor at rock-bottom rates. 

As part of the new agreement, Quebec will receive 10 gigawatts of power over the long term and Newfoundland will receive 2.35 gigawatts to 3 gigawatts. That’s 39% more for Quebec and as much as a 58% increase for Newfoundland, compared with a previous deal announced in late 2024, according to Radio-Canada, the French-language public broadcaster.

That earlier deal was a 50-year power supply agreement worth C$34 billion ($24.5 billion). But it fell apart when Wakeham, who became premier last October, said it wasn’t in the best interest of his province and called for fresh negotiations.

One gigawatt is roughly equal to the power generated by a typical nuclear reactor. 

As under the previous agreement, Churchill Falls Labrador Corp. is now expected to increase its generating capacity and a new run-of-river generating station is planned on the Churchill River at Gull Island to increase power capacity. But the new agreement will also include wind power, according to Radio-Canada.

Hydro-Quebec, a utility owned by Quebec, Canada’s second-most populous province, holds a 34% stake in Churchill Falls Labrador Corp., and the rest is owned by Newfoundland’s provincial power company. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Thiel Macro LLC reported owning almost 1.2 million shares in Vista at the end of the second quarter, then worth about $76 million. The June 30 value of the fund’s position in Vista is second only to Amazon.com Inc. and Vista is the only non-US company listed in its holdings, according to a US regulatory filing Friday.

As well as buying the home in Buenos Aires, the US tech billionaire has spent time in Argentina this year — he was even spotted at a neighborhood chess club in the capital. That’s prompting speculation about whether he has broader plans in the country.

In April, he met with President Javier Milei, a fellow libertarian who’s implementing a free-market experiment in an economy that was highly regulated for some two decades. Milei said Thiel asked about the probability that the reforms would be sustained and about wealth taxes.

A spokesman for Thiel didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Vista, founded in 2017 by Miguel Galuccio after he directed the first incursions into Argentina’s vast Vaca Muerta shale basin at a state-run company, has grown to become the country’s biggest oil exporter.

Vista produces the equivalent of about 160,000 barrels of oil and gas a day, 70% of which it exports. It has plans to further increase output after acquisitions this year and last as the Vaca Muerta finally starts to defy doubters by materially transforming Argentina’s economy with production surpassing 1 million barrels.

Under Milei, international capital markets have reopened to drillers and pipeline companies, driving infrastructure buildouts, including the VMOS shale oil pipeline and port, in which Vista has a stake. It will be ready next year, allowing Argentina to send far more crude to global buyers. 

US investors are taking note, with Chevron Corp. increasing its presence in the Patagonian shale patch and billionaire wildcatter Harold Hamm entering the fray.   

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Falling prices have made batteries more attractive. But after decades of stagnant investment, grids are racing to make the upgrades needed to plug them in, straining supplies of transformers, circuit breakers and other equipment. As those upgrades get delayed, storage projects are piling up in interconnection queues from coast to coast.

Consolidated Edison Inc., a major utility in New York state, for example, says over the past two years the volume of battery storage projects waiting to be connected has grown by 300%. In California, regulators are expecting that holdups to grid upgrades will stall energy projects up and down the state. 

“The whole process of interconnecting these new power plants got really log-jammed and bottlenecked,” said Joseph Rand, an energy policy researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “It in some ways broke this historic process of the way transmission grid operators have been operating for almost 20 years.”

Nationwide, some 750 gigawatts of energy storage projects — roughly equivalent to the generating capacity of more than 700 nuclear reactors — are in line to get grid connections, according to the lab’s research. Not all of these projects will get built. Many developers have already abandoned the queue due to delays. Still, the waiting time is increasing; the median was five years in 2025, up from a year and a half in 2015. 

The flood of battery projects is expected to continue. Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultancy, projects the US energy storage market will quadruple in the next six years. 

By storing electricity when prices are low and renewables are abundant, and discharging it when demand rises, batteries can help reduce consumer power bills, decarbonize electricity use and reduce strain on the grid. That makes them especially useful on hot summer days when consumers blast their air conditioners. 

“We’ve definitely seen a lot of value from having more batteries on the grid and their ability to help meet the evening peak,” said Danielle Mills, director of infrastructure policy development at California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s energy market.

Adding new batteries to the grid, however, isn’t simple. Grid operators often need to build new infrastructure, like transmission lines or substations, to handle power flowing in both directions. 

Shortages in key equipment, meanwhile, have driven up construction costs and timelines for grid upgrades, leaving utilities struggling to build fast enough. A drought of skilled workers is further slowing them down. “A combination of cost and limited manpower are at the core of what the issue is,” said Allison Feeney, a research analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

In California, PG&E Corp., the state’s largest utility, told regulators in January that a key driver of delays was long lead times for specialized equipment. Procuring certain breakers could take nearly four years, according to the utility, which reported a 300% increase in its interconnection workload compared to prior years. 

In Northern California, for example, holdups to circuit breaker upgrades to a substation in Solano County led to projected delays for two battery projects worth a combined 450 megawatts. Transmission line work in the Bay Area has put another 800 megawatts of energy storage at risk of delay, according to PG&E.  

“There are some factors beyond PG&E’s control that can impact interconnection times, such as global supply chain constraints and delays on the customer side with permitting and contractors,” Paul Doherty, a PG&E spokesperson, said in a statement. 

At another major power provider, Southern California Edison, unfinished upgrades have delayed 13 gigawatts of new generation and storage, according to state officials.

State and federal regulators are trying to shorten queues, for example, by prioritizing projects in more advanced stages rather than on a first-come first-served basis, and penalizing queue withdrawals to disincentivize speculative projects. 

“We’ve seen the queue volume go down, which I think is an indicator of things moving in the right direction,” said Rand, the Lawrence Berkeley Lab researcher.

In New York, Con Ed has raised the bar on storage proposals. Starting last year, developers must help pay for upgrades if their projects would push power demand past local peaks and strain infrastructure. The utility said the changes were necessary because it was receiving too many applications in areas with lenient zoning, which would have overwhelmed its equipment there if approved.  

“Storage is critical for the clean energy transition, but we believe that storage in the right scale, in the right location, coming in at the right time and having the right charging and discharging windows is really what benefits the system,” said Raghu Sudhakara, an executive at Con Ed.

According to a survey conducted by the trade group New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium (NY-BEST), the new methodology raised costs by an average of $21 million per project, a 14-fold increase. At least 25 projects have been canceled as a result, according to the group. Battery advocates have appealed to state regulators to get Con Ed to abandon the new policy. 

“It’s taken a number of energy storage projects that were viable and has made them not viable,” said William Acker, executive director of NY-BEST. “And so it’s really stopping the development of a needed asset in New York City.” 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The rules, issued late Friday, come eight months after the Indian Parliament overhauled the country’s nuclear laws to attract private firms and investment to a sector it sees as crucial to meeting its net zero goal by 2070. Known as the SHANTI Act, the legislation ended the state’s monopoly over nuclear power generation and made sweeping changes to the country’s liability provisions that had spooked investors.

In his Independence Day speech Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India aims to start five nuclear reactors within six to seven years. 

The draft rules set out a framework for private companies to build, own, operate and decommission nuclear plants, covering licensing, safety and security oversight, waste management and spent-fuel storage. 

For reactors of foreign design, the technology must have been certified or approved by the regulator in its country of origin and already be operational there or in another foreign country.

Companies that have yet to select a site or technology may receive in-principle approval once their application is admitted. That would allow them to negotiate with reactor vendors and acquire land and other infrastructure before securing a formal license.

The government has sought public feedback on the draft rules and regulations by Sept. 4.

Modi’s government has set an ambitious goal of expanding nuclear power capacity eleven-fold to 100 gigawatts by 2047. India’s push for nuclear echoes a global shift. Nations are shaking off their fears induced by the Fukushima meltdown in 2011 as they strive to meet growing demand from artificial intelligence systems and data centers. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The level at the Paks plant’s pumping station has already risen by about one centimeter, Prime Minister Peter Magyar said at the site on Saturday. Workers are also building an underwater barrier to slow the river and raise the level available for cooling, with about 5,000 metric tons of stone due to arrive during the day.

Unrelenting heat waves have been drying up waterways across Europe and straining power grids, with persistent drought severely impacting Danube river flows and hindering the cooling of reactors. 

Paks, which generates around 40% of Hungary’s electricity output, is currently producing 485 megawatts, a quarter of its roughly 2,000-megawatt capacity. The Danube is forecast to fall to a level early next week that would require one of its two remaining operating turbines to be switched off, with a further decline potentially forcing the entire plant to shut.

A full shutdown would increase Hungary’s need for electricity imports in the evening hours and impose additional costs before the reactors could return to service. Magyar has estimated that keeping Paks offline would cost at least 50 billion forints ($159 million) a month, excluding losses to companies from tighter power supplies.

Low Danube levels have already forced nuclear generation cuts elsewhere in the region. Earlier this week, Romania shut its Cernavoda nuclear plant, located downstream on the Danube.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.