Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon announced on Friday that the government will launch a 30-day consultation period on a series of proposals to accelerate project reviews. 

Specifically, the government is proposing to limit federal decision-making timelines to no more than a year once proponents have submitted all the project information.

The government is also pitching regulatory changes to ensure only a single federal decision is needed for many major project approvals — rather than multiple departments needing to render judgments. 

The proposed changes would apply to all large projects reviewed by the federal government, and represent another move by Carney to respond to pressure to improve the rules for investment. Last year, the prime minister instituted a new policy of rendering a decision within two years on proposals referred to the Major Projects Office. 

Carney has vowed to make it easier to build major projects by cutting red tape that businesses have long complained block investment and hold back the resources sector. These priorities have grown more urgent as US tariffs squeeze Canadian exports and underscore the need for trade diversification.

However, his agenda has faced pushback from some Indigenous and climate groups, who argue he’s prioritizing economic gains over potential harm to communities and the environment.

Earlier this week, the executive director of the International Energy Agency urged Canada to move more quickly to develop and export its energy resources. Fatih Birol warned “Canada doesn’t have the luxury to be slow” as it faces a “golden opportunity” to move projects ahead faster.

Birol’s remarks followed comments by Cenovus Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jon McKenzie that higher costs of new oil sands projects mean they will only work economically if environmental rules are loosened.

As part of the proposed streamlined approach, a new consultation hub would work with federal departments and agencies to ensure that Indigenous groups affected by a major project go through one coordinated consultation process.

The government is also looking to provide ministers with more power to move projects ahead, including authorizing LeBlanc to adjust environmental conditions for projects of national interest, when needed. 

“The proposed regulatory and legislative reforms are part of our ambitious plan to build a stronger Canada — helping companies across the country build their projects faster, attracting investment, boosting our competitiveness, and growing Canada’s economy,” LeBlanc said in a statement. 

The government is also launching consultations on proposals to diversify Canadian trade.

Canadian businesses “welcome this consultation whole-heartedly but hope it turns to quick action once it’s concluded,” Bryan Detchou, Canadian Chamber of Commerce senior director of natural resources, environment and sustainability, said in a statement.

“We still see a persistent lack of confidence among businesses and investors, which is why they have been stuck on the sidelines,” Detchou said. “We hope the government is ready to work with the industry and truly peel back some of the red tape layers that have been holding back business success.”

TC Energy Chief Executive Officer François Poirier, who has urged Canada to offer a six-month timeline for key energy project permits, also welcomed the consultations. 

“This is a moment for Canada to move from debate to delivery,” Poirier said. “Now, let’s unlock investment, create jobs, uphold Indigenous participation and environmental protection, and build the infrastructure needed to reach new markets.”

Carney’s government has also been trying to reach an agreement with the Alberta government on industrial carbon pricing and a major carbon capture and storage project in exchange for its support of the province’s proposal for a new oil pipeline to the west coast.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in a social media post on Friday that she and Carney made “significant progress” in a morning meeting, and she is now “much more confident” the deal will be reached well before the province submits its pipeline pitch to the Major Projects Office next month.

(Adds context, reaction from TC Energy CEO, starting in the sixth paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The number of cargo trains going from Xi’an in central China to the Iranian capital Tehran has risen from around one per week before the conflict to one every three or four days since the start of blockade on April 13, according to people with knowledge of the shipments.

Freight costs have surged, with quotes for shipping a standard 40-foot container along the route as high as $7,000 this week, roughly 40% more than typical levels, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they aren’t authorized to speak with the media.

The route, which runs through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan can only go a small way toward making up for the US blockade.

The naval operation began around three weeks ago. It’s preventing Tehran from exporting most its oil and importing vital grain supplies. There are already signs of strain on the Iranian economy, with the rial slumping.

The rail route also adds to Iran’s reliance on the world’s biggest manufacturing nation, with Beijing buying almost all Iran’s oil. 

For now the trade is mostly one-way, with containers headed for Iran with industrial and consumer goods, including automotive parts, generators and electronics, the people said. Iranian officials have said they are considering using rail routes to export products like petrochemicals and fuel at some stage.

“Previously these trains never ran at all in some weeks; now they’re fully booked for May,” said Altan Dursun, managing director of Turkey-based Silkroad-Avrasya Multimodal Logistics, a rail-freight booking agency that specializes in trade with China.

Plans are underway to add further capacity in June, Dursun added. Each train from Xi’an carries around 50 standard 40-foot containers, he said, while a long-haul container ship can hold thousands.

Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, the country’s state owned rail operator, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Since the war erupted in late February with US and Israeli attacks on Iran, China has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and denied it’s sent arms to its besieged partner.

Beijing has stepped up diplomacy in recent days, ahead of a crucial meeting next week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

China hosted Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz “as soon as possible.” A day later, US Republican Senator Steve Daines thanked China for working to end the war.

Extensive financial and trade ties with other Persian Gulf states have left Beijing trying to balance commitments in a region where it’s amassed about $270 billion worth of investments and construction projects over the past two decades.

The China route is one node in a broader years-long effort by Tehran to expand logistics corridors with allies and insulate itself from western pressure.

In October, Iran started exporting diesel by train, for the first time, to Afghanistan using the 225 kilometer (140 mile) Khaf-Herat rail line that connects Iran’s northeastern Khorasan-e Razavi province to Herat, state media reported. 

In February last year, China inaugurated a direct freight train route to Hairatan in northern Afghanistan, Xinhua reported, and months later Uzbekistan and Afghanistan announced plans to extend the rail line to Herat, which is about 130 kilometers from the Iranian border.

State-run Press TV described the Xi’an link as a “vital just-in-case solution to keep bilateral trade from the tentacles of US hegemony,” in a report marking its operation last year.

Besides the China line, Iran has committed to spending billions of dollars on a north-south route connecting it to Russia.

Iran can transfer 40% of its usual maritime trade to land routes, the head of the national shipping association’s container committee, Kambiz Etemadi, said last week, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Demand for trucks from Turkey has also increased since the start of the blockade, one Istanbul freight firm said, adding that most of the new cargoes were carrying food and sunflower oil.

Iran’s ambassador to neighboring Pakistan met with the country’s minister for railways on Thursday to discuss projects to increase freight volumes, the ministry said on X.

With Iran’s sea ports largely cut off, any alternative import routes are welcome as Tehran tries to keep the economy moving and minimize supply shortages that are pushing up inflation. A rapid depreciation in the currency sparked deadly protests against the Islamic Republic in January, and the rial has since weakened to fresh record lows against the dollar.

President Masoud Pezeshkian criticized traders for “profiteering and hoarding” on Wednesday, vowing “serious action against any violations that disrupt societal peace.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Brent rose as much as 2.9% toward $103 a barrel before paring gains, while West Texas Intermediate was near $96. US forces struck military targets in Iran after the country fired on three Navy destroyers sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command said. Still, the command added that it “does not seek escalation,” although it remained ready to protect American forces.

President Donald Trump said the three warships had successfully exited the waterway, and were undamaged following the attacks, according to a social-media post. On Iran, he added: “We’ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their Deal signed, FAST!”

The oil market’s focus remains on the strait, which has been effectively closed since the war began at the end of February. That’s triggered an unprecedented supply shock, with flows of crude choked off and wells across the region shut in. The waterway faces a double blockade, with Tehran obstructing traffic, while US prevents ships calling at or leaving Iranian ports.

“Oil is trading between two risks: diplomacy on one side and another escalation on the other,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets in Singapore. “Markets are still giving the peace proposal a chance, but not enough of a chance to take the war premium out.”

The latest clashes heighten tensions across the region, as the US tries to exit the war that’s imposed an increasing burden on consumers as retail gasoline and diesel prices spike. This week, the Trump administration has been waiting for Tehran to respond to its proposal to reopen the trade route, with Iran’s leaders yet to indicate whether they’ll accept the terms.

Trump told reporters late Thursday that the ceasefire with Iran was still in effect, despite the back-and-forth. He added there was no need for curbs on US crude or jet fuel exports, saying: “We have tremendous amounts of oil.”

In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates said on Friday air-defense systems were intercepting missiles and drones, according to a post on X. The UAE sits across the strait from Iran, and has been targeted often during the conflict, including a strike earlier this week in the port city of Fujairah.

The head of the International Energy Agency warned the world was losing 14 million barrels of oil a day because of the war, and ramping up production after the conflict would be gradual. Fatih Birol also reiterated during a visit to Canada on Thursday that the Paris-based IEA was prepared to take further action after members agreed in March to release 400 million barrels.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said the outcome of the US-Iran conflict can be defined in “almost black-and-white terms of who will control the Strait of Hormuz,” according to comments to a New York Times podcast.

For the week, Brent remains more than 6% lower even after Friday’s gain.

The crude market’s price “reaction being relatively contained tells us that the market still sees this as manageable for now,” said Haris Khurshid, chief investment officer at Karobaar Capital LP in Chicago. “Earlier in the conflict, every escalation triggered a pretty major repricing.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Iran’s assault on three US warships involved “multiple missiles, drones and small boats,” according to a US Central Command statement on Thursday, which added that “no US assets were struck.” 

American forces responded by eliminating “inbound threats” and targeting Iranian missile and drone launch sites, command and control locations and intelligence facilities that were deemed “responsible for attacking US forces,” it said.

The latest clash heightens tensions in the region as the US attempts to exit a war now in its third month. The Trump administration has been waiting for Iran to respond to its proposal to reopen the strait and end the conflict, which has killed thousands of people and triggered a global energy crisis.

“Just like we knocked them out again today, we’ll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don’t get their Deal signed, FAST!” President Donald Trump said in a social media post. 

Iran’s leaders haven’t indicated whether they will accept the terms of the offer, though they have shown little sign of yielding on their nuclear program or accepting a moratorium on enriching uranium — both top US demands.

Trump later told reporters the ceasefire was still in effect despite the back-and-forth, downplaying Iran’s actions while warning of consequences if an agreement wasn’t struck.

“They trifled with us today. We blew them away,” Trump said in a brief appearance in Washington at the reflecting pool on the National Mall. “I’ll let you know when there’s no ceasefire,” he added. “You’re not going to have to know, you’ll just have to look at one big glow coming out of Iran.”

Asian stocks pulled back from a record high as the escalating tensions revived concerns over energy supplies. Oil jumped, with Brent climbing as much as 2.5% toward $103 a barrel, snapping a three-day drop.

Even so, the president told reporters in Washington late Thursday that a deal was still possible.

In a bid to ease the crisis, the US president had announced “Project Freedom,” an initiative to help ships transit the strait, before abruptly suspending it. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have lifted restrictions on the US military’s ability to use regional bases, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, a move that could allow the Trump administration to restart the effort to ease traffic through the strait.

A Central Command official referred questions about the reporting on the bases to the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments. Asked whether Project Freedom would be restarted, the official declined to speculate. The Kuwaiti and Saudi embassies did not respond to requests for comment.

Here’s more related to the war:

• United Arab Emirates air defenses responded to missile and drone attacks from Iran, the UAE Ministry of Defense said in a post on X.
• Washington relayed a one-page memo to the Islamic Republic that could reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz and lift the US blockade, according to the person familiar with the matter. That would set the stage for a month of talks aimed at securing a final agreement to bring the 10-week conflict to a close.
• Iran is expected to send a response via Pakistan, acting as a mediator, in the next two days, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive information.
• Iran’s state-affiliated news agency ISNA said reports on elements of the proposal amount to “media speculation and atmosphere-building,” adding that nuclear enrichment is not part of the current discussions.
• Gasoline prices breached $4.50 a gallon for the first time since July 2022, according to the American Automobile Association. This adds pressure on Trump, six months from midterm elections in which energy costs will be a central focus.
• Trump is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping May 14-15 in Beijing. The summit already has been rescheduled once because of the war. There is unease among Chinese officials about holding the high-stakes meeting before the war in Iran is resolved, people familiar with the matter said.
• Trump is due to deliver remarks Friday, the White House said, without providing details about the topic.
• Israel said it killed a Hezbollah commander in a southern suburb of Beirut, its first strike on the city since a ceasefire began in Lebanon last month.

(Updates with bullet points on UAE air defenses, Trump comments.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The state-run CPC Corp. has started planning winter gas procurement to avoid interruptions to domestic supply, according to a statement from the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Friday. There have been no shortages of electricity or oil since the war in Iran started at the end of February, it said. 

The island currently imports around 96% of its energy, with liquefied natural gas accounting for roughly half its overall power generation. Unlike coal or oil, the gas is difficult to store, and Taiwan maintains just an 11-day reserve, which will be raised to 14 days from 2027. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

At least two tankers that loaded at Adnoc’s Das Island facility recently went dark to carry shipments out of Hormuz, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of vessel-tracking data and people with knowledge of the matter. Satellite imagery shows ships continuing to dock at the terminal, even as no tankers broadcast positions near the plant.

Three other empty Adnoc LNG carriers also stopped transmitting signals after reaching the eastern entrance of the strait, ship data show. These vessels are also masking their movements to head into the Gulf via Hormuz to load cargoes, said one of the people, who asked not to be named as they aren’t authorized to speak with the media. 

Hormuz has remained virtually shut as the US and Iran struggle to reach a peace agreement, with both sides enforcing a de facto blockade on a waterway that normally handles about a fifth of global LNG supply. Vessels continue to face security threats, including Iranian drone attacks earlier this week on an Adnoc-linked oil tanker near Oman.

Adnoc didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Gas flows have been upended even more than crude oil by the closure. So far, at least two loaded LNG tankers linked to Adnoc have been identified exiting the Gulf since the end of February. While that offers tentative signs that more flows could resume, it remains a far cry from pre-war levels of roughly three shipments a day.

Adnoc’s move underscores how producers are resorting to riskier strategies to push fuel out of the region with the conflict now in its third month, with no clear timeline for a full resumption of shipping through Hormuz. The approach has allowed Adnoc to maintain limited LNG production at its export plant.

That contrasts with neighboring Qatar, which hasn’t shipped any LNG through the waterway since the US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February led to the strait’s closure. Qatar was forced to shut its massive Ras Laffan LNG export facility in March after attacks by Iran, and declared force majeure on scheduled shipments to its customers.

“Adnoc hasn’t declared force majeure, unlike QatarEnergy,” said Antonia Syn, a gas and LNG research analyst at Rystad Energy. Invoking the clause “formally reduces commercial pressure to attempt risky transits, and Adnoc appears determined to avoid fully conceding that gulf LNG is stranded,” she said.

The ships that Adnoc is currently using to export LNG through Hormuz are also older, and are of the same generation of sister tankers sent to the scrapyard last year, according to Syn. “Running the gauntlet on near-scrap steamships is probably a more palatable call than it sounds.” 

LNG shipowners and operators are among the shipping industry’s most risk-averse, and sailing through Hormuz without transmitting signals marks a sharp break from past practice. For example, nearly all LNG carriers have avoided the Red Sea since Houthi rebel attacks escalated in 2023.

The Mraweh tanker, which is owned by Adnoc, was seen loaded with a cargo near northern Indonesia on Wednesday, with Japan listed as its next destination, after not transmitting a location for over two weeks, shipping data shows. The vessel was previously spotted empty on April 19, idling near the eastern entrance of Hormuz.

The Mubaraz — which loaded a cargo from Das Island in early March — also stopped sending a signal in late-March before reappearing nearly a month later crossing the southern tip of India.

(Updates with analyst comments in the ninth and tenth paragraphs.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Mexico is planning to invest 140 billion pesos ($8.1 billion) in new gas pipelines over the next four years, the latest step in President Claudia Sheinbaum’s plan to boost the country’s power generation.

State utility Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, and pipeline network operator Cenagas will contribute, Energy Minister Luz Elena Gonzalez said in a media briefing on Thursday. CFE will build nine new pipelines, while Cenagas will construct three, and will also invest in repair and maintenance of existing infrastructure, she said.

Most of the planned pipelines are designed to strengthen Mexico’s quickly growing domestic network, while one project, the Naco-Hermosillo-Guaymas pipeline will boost its capacity for importing gas from the US network.

CFE is also planning to tender for two new gas-fueled power plants in the coming months. Seven plants are already being built, while four others have been tendered and are awaiting construction, Gonzalez said.

The planned pipeline build-out is part of a larger effort to meet Mexico’s growing demand for electricity, which is expected to surge by as much as 65 gigawatts by 2030. Sheinbaum has promised to invest a total of $23.4 billion over the course of her term to bolster the grid, which regularly suffers from seasonal blackouts.

Mexico is aiming to add 6 gigawatts of power generation capacity this year, and recently published new rules governing how private partners can sell electricity to the national grid.

Sheinbaum also wants state driller Petroleos Mexicanos to produce more gas domestically to ease the country’s longstanding dependence on US supplies, including plans to boost fracking. More than 60% of Mexico’s energy generation is powered by natural gas, and around 70% of that gas is imported from the US.

Mexico is also considering exporting gas to Guatemala, Sheinbaum said at the same briefing.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The coalition on compliance carbon pricing — chaired by the EU, China and Brazil, which championed the idea at the COP30 climate summit in November — was launched in the Italian city of Florence on Thursday. Environmentalists and economists have long advocated carbon pricing as a tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tackling global warming.

The initiative comes as the US rolls back climate policies and prioritizes fossil fuel expansion. President Donald Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement, while seeking to stymie the nascent offshore wind industry. Last October, his administration blocked the adoption of a landmark charge on shipping industry emissions, calling them a “global carbon tax” on Americans.

The coalition aims to more closely harmonize carbon pricing practices across the world.

We need “to make sure that these emissions trading systems talk to each other so that it becomes much easier for trading these carbon credits and that also companies are facilitated in working in different jurisdictions,” said Kurt Vandenberghe, director general for climate at the European Commission.

The new coalition is also set to include the UK, Canada, France, Turkey, New Zealand and Germany, while sub-national jurisdictions, such as California and Quebec, can join as observers. 

“We still believe that in the US, lots of local governments, states, companies and organizations are committed to efforts to adjust climate change and we would like to work together with them,” said Li Gao, China’s deputy minister of ecology and environment. “This coalition is very important.”

China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, pledged last year to cut emissions by 7–10% from peak levels by 2035 and plans a sixfold expansion of cumulative solar and wind capacity. Its carbon market is slated to transition from an intensity-based system to an absolute cap and expand coverage to sectors including petrochemicals and aviation.

The EU is home to the world’s most stringent emissions market covering more than 10,000 facilities in sectors from steel to cement and paper. It’s also implemented a carbon border levy on imports of certain products. Brazil is expected to fully launch a national carbon market early next decade.

The coalition will help build trust in carbon markets and promote innovation and investment, according to Cristina Froes de Borja Reis, Brazil’s extraordinary secretary for the carbon market. 

It will work to make measuring and reporting emissions more transparent, but also aims to help countries access a United Nations-supervised carbon credits market, created under Article 6 of the landmark Paris Agreement.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

PJM Interconnection LLC, the largest US grid operator, is making Maryland customers cover the costs for transmission projects driven primarily by energy needs of data centers outside the state, Maryland’s Office of People’s Counsel alleged in a complaint to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Homeowners are effectively subsidizing data-center growth due to the way PJM allocates costs to build those projects, said the agency that represents the interests of Maryland’s utility customers.

“Without FERC action, Maryland customers face paying billions for transmission infrastructure that PJM is advancing to benefit data centers,” People’s Counsel David Lapp said. “Maryland customers have neither caused the need for these billions in new transmission projects nor will they meaningfully benefit from them.”

A spokesperson for PJM didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

PJM, which serves 67 million people across 13 states, is facing a barrage of criticism from customers over skyrocketing bills amid a boom in AI data centers, while utilities have complained about the slow pace of matching supply with growing electricity demand. Rates have risen more than 50% in Maryland in the past five years, according to a US Chamber of Commerce report released on Tuesday.

The People’s Counsel argued that Maryland’s residential users will be on the hook to help fund PJM’s infrastructure build-out even though data center demand is beyond the state borders, with those customers bearing responsibility for $2 billion in capital expenditures.

The state agency asked the energy regulator to require PJM to take immediate action to assign data center-driven transmission costs to areas where the data center customers are located. Alternatively, the agency argues that — depending on its rule-making process for large power users — FERC should directly charge the transmission costs to the large data center customers.

The complaint comes within the same week that American Electric Power Co., one of the largest US utilities, said it was considering removing itself from PJM’s grid because it’s too slow in connecting new data centers to the operator’s network. That followed last year’s threat by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who said that his state would leave PJM if it didn’t make changes to rein in soaring power prices. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Earnings before interest and taxes fell 15% to €3.52 billion ($4.14 billion) from a year earlier, the French utility said Thursday.

Engie is seeking to offset its exposure to French gas assets and capitalize on an expected surge in electricity demand by investing in wind, solar and battery storage worldwide. The company just completed its acquisition of a UK power-distribution network — almost two months ahead of schedule — underscoring its efforts to retreat more broadly from fossil fuels.

The utility has also been cutting costs to help counter a loss of earnings from Belgium, where three of its five reactors in the country were closed last year. Engie is now in talks to sell its entire Belgian nuclear business to the state to eliminate risks related to energy policy changes and focus on assets with more predictable income and expenses.

“The idea of both parties is that it should have a neutral finance impact,” Chief Financial Officer Pierre-Francois Riolacci said on a conference call Thursday. Given that the two reactors still in operation are due to be frequently halted for lifetime extension works in coming years, a sale to the Belgian government “wouldn’t change anything in our numbers going forward,” he said.

The shares of the company traded 1.5% lower at 12:27 p.m. in Paris, paring this year’s gain to 21%. 

Excluding its nuclear activities, quarterly Ebit declined 8.4%, the firm said in a statement. Engie stuck to its full-year profit forecast, citing the expansion of its renewables division and lower costs across the group. 

It also announced an agreement to sell stakes in gas-fired power plants in Qatar, following similar deals in the region last year.

The company may sell as much as €1.5 billion of assets this year to reduce its debt following the acquisition of UK Power Networks for about €19 billion including debt, Riolacci said. Divestment should pick up next year, with Engie selling stakes in businesses that it has little control over, and minority interests in some of the group’s “highly” capital intensive assets. Businesses up for sale should be little impacted by the Persian Gulf war, he said.

Despite the continuing war in the Middle East, the company said its gas customers haven’t seen any disruption to supply because it gets the fuel from a wide range of sources.

Engie is also sticking with plans to develop renewable-energy projects in the region, where tenders and construction are continuing, Riolacci said. 

In the US, where the Trump administration has moved to halt or slow renewable energy developments, the CFO said it’s “difficult” to get permits for onshore wind, while solar and battery-storage projects are growing amid “very strong” demand.

(Updates with CFO comments on Belgian nuclear talks, asset sales.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Modern commentators think of OPEC entirely as a market management mechanism, often referring to it as a cartel. But for the first 22 years of its existence after 1960, it did not apply production quotas. It was at first a body for collective action against the major western companies and their governments, who dominated the global oil industry. It fought for fair prices and a redistribution of profits towards the countries from whose land the oil was extracted.

From the 1971 Tehran and Tripoli agreements to raise prices, then the 1973 embargo by a group of Arab producers, OPEC realised its market power. But that crashed demand and encouraged competing production from the North Sea, Alaska and Mexico.

Hence why in 1982, it had to introduce quotas to share a fast-diminishing market between its members. Apart from brief periods of breakdown, it has kept that role ever since, so assiduously that it now seems OPEC’s only function.

Modern commentators think of OPEC entirely as a market management mechanism, often referring to it as a cartel. But for the first 22 years of its existence after 1960, it did not apply production quotas. It was at first a body for collective action against the major western companies and their governments, who dominated the global oil industry. It fought for fair prices and a redistribution of profits towards the countries from whose land the oil was extracted.

The formation of OPEC+ in 2016 drastically expanded the production capacity under the alliance’s influence. The Vienna group had concluded that it could not handle both US shale and Russia simultaneously. After several attempts to cooperate with Moscow, the price war from 2014, and new thinking from Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Energy Minister Alexander Novak gave an opening.

But of the other states that came into OPEC+, Sudan, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Brunei and Oman were declining or static producers. Kazakhstan wanted to grow its output substantially and has essentially ignored quotas. Only Oman and Kazakhstan were big enough for their production cuts to make much difference. Russia was the real prize. But its adherence to cuts was shaky too, except during the demand abyss caused by the Covid pandemic in 2020.

As it turned out, Russian production was not likely to grow dramatically after 2016. Its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, followed by sanctions, tax rises, limitations of technology and finance, and persistent Ukrainian drone attacks, mean it has often been unable to produce up to its allowance. But its size, military power, nuclear weapons and UN Security Council seat still guaranteed it would be one of the twin poles of OPEC+, with Saudi Arabia.

Higher prices and production cuts

Meanwhile, the quest for higher prices led to lengthy periods of deep production cuts. These restrained demand growth while allowing competing supply, particularly from the US and elsewhere in the Americas. In 2021, the UAE complained publicly, while officials hinted privately at an exit. The country’s production allowance was gradually raised, smoothing over the differences for a while.

Only last year did OPEC change tack on overall policy, allowing a series of production increases that did steadily bring prices down. But by then, the UAE’s production capacity was already far ahead of its limited allowance: at least 4.85 million barrels per day of capacity, versus a quota in January of 3.4 million bpd. That was proportionately by far the largest spare capacity of any member.

OPEC argued as recently as last March that “the oil sector requires cumulative investments of $18.2 trillion by 2050. This is to meet rising demand, and to counter decline rates, with the latter on average meaning we need to add around 5 mb/d every year… OPEC has repeatedly called for more investments in the oil industry.”

With the departure of the UAE, OPEC’s capacity is only 27% of global demand. That is too low for it to operate an effective market balancing mechanism. The wider OPEC+ group holds 41%.

Only last year did OPEC change tack on overall policy, allowing a series of production increases that did steadily bring prices down. But by then, the UAE’s production capacity was already far ahead of its limited allowance: at least 4.85 million barrels per day of capacity, versus a quota in January of 3.4 million bpd. That was proportionately by far the largest spare capacity of any member.

The OPEC after the UAE’s exit is a mix of one state with real spare capacity – Saudi Arabia – four with major growth ambitions (Iraq, Venezuela, Libya and perhaps a post-war Iran), and the rest with neither spare capacity nor growth, who benefit only from price rises. The burden of maintaining spare capacity to cope with unexpected price spikes will now rest almost entirely on Saudi Arabia.

The UAE has emphasised that it will continue to act as a responsible market actor following its exit. It will therefore not necessarily try to flood the market once the Gulf re-opens to free passage. It could, of course, continue to cooperate with OPEC on an informal basis.

But the UAE’s more diversified economy is better able to cope with lower oil prices, if they materialise, than Riyadh, Baghdad, Tripoli, Tehran or Caracas. The OPEC of 1973 or even 1982, a group of states whose economies depended almost entirely on their oil industries, has gone. Once immediate post-war recovery is over, the petroleum exporters’ club needs to set its sights more realistically.

• Robin M. Mills is CEO of Qamar Energy, and author of The Myth of the Oil Crisis

Shell’s first-quarter adjusted earnings were also above the $5.58b profit it posted a ​year earlier. The London-listed company also cut the pace ​of its quarterly share buyback programme to $3 billion from $3.5 billion for the next three months, and a 5% increase in the dividend, in line with its existing CFFO distribution policy.

“Shell delivered strong results enabled by our relentless focus on operational performance in a quarter marked by unprecedented disruption in global energy markets,” Shell CEO Wael Sawan said in a statement.

Shell’s oil and gas output ​fell 4% compared with the previous ​quarter due to the Middle East conflict, ‌including ⁠damage to its Qatari Pearl gas plant, where repairs might take about a year, according to Reuters.

The company posted a strong operational performance across the portfolio to supports higher contributions from trading and optimisation. Shell pegged the cash capex outlook for the rest of the year at $24 - $26 billion, including around $4 billion for the acquisition of ARC. Its 2027-28 outlook was unchanged at $20 - $22 billion.

Last week, Shell announced an agreement to buy Canadian energy company ARC Resources in a deal valued at $16.4 billion. “Last week we announced the acquisition of ARC Resources, accelerating our strategy by adding complementary, high-quality, low-cost liquids and gas assets that we believe will deliver value for decades to come,” Sawan said. “The safety of our people remains our priority as we work closely with governments and customers to address their energy needs,” he added.

The company said its debt to ​equity ratio ⁠rose to 23.2% from 20.7% at the end of 2025. Shell had ​flagged higher debt due to managing ​price ⁠and supply disruptions and volatility due to the war, having previously said ⁠it ​was very comfortable ​with the ratio at 20%, Reuters reported.

As currently structured, PJM Interconnection LLC, which serves 67 million people across 13 states, can’t ensure ample electricity supplies while simultaneously shielding residential consumers from soaring bills, Mills wrote in a letter to stakeholders. 

“The current situation is not tenable,” Mills wrote in the letter published Wednesday. The “stress now visible in prices, reserve margins and investment pipelines reflects something more fundamental than a design that needs recalibration.”

The crises stressing PJM include looming power shortages expected to hit the grid as soon as next year and the threatened defection of one of the largest US utilities — American Electric Power Co.

Skyrocketing household electricity bills and the influx of power-hungry data centers have become electoral issues in some locales. Power costs have jumped across the PJM region, with rates climbing 51% in Maryland in the past five years and 41% in Illinois during that period, according to a US Chamber of Commerce report released on Tuesday. 

“The region has years, not decades, to make these choices deliberately,” Mills wrote.

A policy paper put forward alongside Mills’ letter outlined three potential paths to mitigate a “credibility gap” between the need for high prices to entice power-plant construction and protecting consumers from higher bills.

“Generators, utilities, investors and consumers must all believe, at a basic level, that the rules are fair, stable and the product of a process they recognize as credible,” Mills wrote.

PJM is taking too long to find solutions and that the “devil is in the details” with each of the proposals put forward, according to Ryan Levine, an analyst at Citigroup Inc.

“We worry that the continued back and forth is leading PJM to miss the opportunity,” Levine wrote in a note. Data center projects “will just move to other regions around the world if it really takes years to figure things out.”

(Updates with comment from Citigroup analyst from penultimate paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The government of Alberta wants to build a new oil-export pipeline capable of carrying 1 million barrels a day of crude to global markets. That will require “greenfield” oil sands developments as opposed to the simple expansions of existing sites that the industry has been doing for more than a decade, Jon McKenzie said in a call with analysts Wednesday. 

The higher costs of new oil sands projects mean that in order for the economics to work, they require less stringent environmental rules, he said — including a rethink of the industrial carbon tax. 

“We have to be pretty thoughtful about a set of policy environments that really do allow us to grow and fill a pipeline,” he said. “We have to have a competitive market that allows for greenfield development.”

The comments come as the governments of Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith negotiate the details of a higher carbon tax for industrial emissions and a carbon storage project to reduce the environmental impact of the oil sands. The two politicians agreed last year to a memorandum of understanding that supports a pipeline along with other policies such as a carbon tax of C$130 ($95) per metric ton of emissions. 

Bloomberg News reported on Monday that the two governments are negotiating on several matters, including how quickly the tax would ramp up to C$130. The longer it takes, the lower the financial burden on oil producers.

But McKenzie wants the tax gone. “The industrial carbon tax is unique to Canada,” he said, giving oil companies a stronger incentive “to invest outside of Canada.”

“It does the country no service to negligibly reduce the impact of climate change over the next century if we materially erode our social benefit network over the next 15 years.”

Asked about McKenzie’s comments at a news conference on Wednesday, Carney responded that Canadian oil is low risk and low carbon, with low marginal cost.

“From direct conversations with a series of governments across Asia, that’s what they’re looking for in the medium term,” Carney said. 

He added that Canada and Alberta are “making good progress” in their negotiations, “and that’s going to make the oil sands more competitive.”

(Adds PM Carney comments in the last three paragraphs.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

State-owned Pakistan LNG Ltd. is seeking shipments for May 12 to 14 and May 24 to 26 delivery in a tender that closes on Thursday, according to a notice on its website. Pakistan was forced to purchase a spot cargo for the first time in more than two years last month as the war in Iran chokes supply from the Persian Gulf, which normally produces about a fifth of the world’s LNG.

Pakistan procured nearly all of its LNG from Qatar last year, and those supplies have been cut since the US and Israel began strikes on Iran in late-February. Meanwhile, higher-than-normal temperatures are sweeping across the nation, boosting electricity needs from air conditioning and exacerbating rolling blackouts because of reduced output from gas-fired power plants.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Brent dropped toward $108 a barrel after sliding 4% on Tuesday, while West Texas Intermediate was near $100. US efforts to move ships through the Strait of Hormuz will be paused, but a naval blockade will remain in place, Trump said in a Truth Social post. 

The global benchmark has climbed by about 50% since the conflict started at the end of February, cutting off hundreds of millions of barrels of Gulf oil from global markets. Flows through the chokepoint are now constrained by a double blockade, with Tehran obstructing shipping while the US is stopping vessels from accessing Iranian ports. 

Earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that “Operation Epic Fury is concluded,” 66 days after the US and Israel began bombing Iran. “We achieved the objectives of that operation,” he said.

On Tuesday, Washington played down the prospect of a return to active war, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirming the truce that began just under a month ago is still in place. Meanwhile, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said attacks by Tehran on vessels in the Gulf and the United Arab Emirates didn’t constitute a breach of a ceasefire. 

The shutdown around Hormuz has left more than 1,550 commercial vessels, carrying some 22,000 sailors, trapped in the Persian Gulf, Caine said.

“Even if we see some deescalation headlines, the supply recovery is inherently delayed,” said Dilin Wu, a research strategist covering cross-asset markets at Pepperstone Group. “This is not a switch you can just flip: You still see limited oil shipment through the strait and it still needs time for stranded tankers to be rerouted, for the insurance market to reprice risk and for production to ramp back up,” she said.

In the US, industry data showed crude inventories fell 8.1 million barrels last week, which would be the biggest draw since mid-February if confirmed by official data due later Wednesday. 

“We’re holding the pattern from rally to profit-taking each day,” said Carl Larry, an oil and gas analyst at Enverus. “Markets may take it in stride but irrational exuberance usually gets the best of the market. Draws bring all the bulls to the yard.” 

Oil has seen wild price swings since the war started, prompting traders to move to the sidelines to avoid extreme volatility. Aggregate open interest in Brent has dropped to its lowest level since August.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia cut the price of its main oil grade for Asia next month from a record-high in May. It remained elevated as the hostilities in the Middle East continue to severely disrupt supplies.      

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Since the chokepoint shut on Feb. 28 due to the US-Israel war with Iran, vessels have rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope as an alternative to a corridor that normally carries about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil along with large volumes of liquefied natural gas and fertilizers. 

While the detour has driven traffic around southern Africa up as much as 90%, it hasn’t boosted visits at regional maritime hubs, according to Rhenus Logistics.

“The increase is driven primarily by Asia–Europe and Asia–Mediterranean container services, alongside crude oil, LNG and dry bulk trades,” said Ebenezer Simba, the company’s ocean product manager for Africa and the Middle East. But it “has not translated proportionally into African port calls,” he said. 

Operational constraints such as weather disruptions and congestion have limited competitiveness at major South African hubs including Durban and Cape Town. 

The primary driver is that there “is limited commercial incentive for carriers to adjust port rotations” there, Simba said. 

East African hubs dependent on Suez routing — such as Djibouti and Port Sudan — are also net losers due to limited capacity relative to other Gulf-surrounded ports such as Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Sohar in Oman and harbors in South Asia, he added.

There are some regional winners.

Gains are concentrated in a handful of locations positioned to service vessels rather than handle cargo, Simba said. Harbors such as Port Louis in Mauritius as well as Lüderitz and Walvis Bay in Namibia — along with offshore refueling, or bunkering, zones in West Africa — are benefiting from a jump in demand as ships take on fuel for longer voyages.

Time and Costs

Bunker calls at Port Louis surged 42% to 294 vessels in March from the previous month, while fuel volumes climbed nearly three-fifths to over 109,000 tons, the Mauritius Ports Authority said.

The reshaping of global trade lanes is adding time and cost to voyages. Rerouted trips between Asia, Europe and the Gulf can take as much as two weeks longer than standard transit times, said Vinny Licata, head of logistics and import compliance at Fictiv. Some carriers are also terminating trips outside the Persian Gulf to avoid the risks tied to the war.

For Africa, responsible for about 2% of global maritime exports and 5% of imports, the surge in shipping hasn’t translated into higher trade volumes.

“Africa has become a critical transit and servicing geography rather than a destination-port winner,” Simba said. Value capture is concentrated in “fuel supply and maritime services rather than container throughput,” he said.

The pattern echoes disruptions in late 2023 and early 2024, when attacks on Red Sea shipping forced vessels onto longer routes around southern Africa but failed to deliver sustained gains for most of the continent’s ports.

Security risks are rising again just as some container lines had begun testing a return to the Red Sea-Suez route in late 2025 and early 2026. As soon as the “Gulf conflict erupted, they suspended those trials and plans in case the Houthis renewed their attacks,” said Darron Wadey, a senior shipping analyst at Dynamar BV.

Maritime piracy off Somalia’s coast is resurging, with at least three hijackings reported in the past week, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations. The uptick reflects broader instability linked first to Red Sea attacks and now to tensions around Hormuz.

For shipping lines, the Suez route is no longer viable, making the Cape route their default.

“Many are treating it as the new reality,” Licata said, a shift that is already encouraging investment in permanent bunkering infrastructure across parts of Africa.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

“Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday. The effort to break Iran’s chokehold on the waterway had only begun on Monday.

The president cited “Great Progress” toward “a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran.” He said the decision had been made at the request of Pakistan — which is helping mediate talks between Washington and Tehran — as well as other countries. He added, however, that a US blockade of ships transiting to and from Iranian ports would “remain in full force and effect.”

It was not clear what progress Trump referred to, and he didn’t provide details on what, if any, negotiations were in the works. His comments marked an abrupt shift from recent days, when he had voiced frustration over the pace of talks and indicated he wasn’t satisfied with Tehran’s proposals.

Brent crude oil dropped around 1% toward $108 a barrel, after sliding 4% on Tuesday.

Project Freedom was meant to sit at the center of the next phase of the US approach to Iran. The US military said it helped two vessels exit Hormuz on Monday, repelling multiple attacks by Iranian drones, missiles and irregular navy fast-attack boats.

According to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the Pentagon was deploying guided-missile destroyers with air defense capabilities, more than 100 aircraft, 15,000 personnel in the region, and a mix of drones including underwater platforms.

But Trump shelved the operation just hours after top US officials outlined the role the US military would play.

The administration appears to be seeking ways to ease the standoff that has escalated fuel prices, exacerbating economic strains that Republicans fear could lead to their party losing control of both chambers of Congress in the November midterm elections. Before Trump’s announcement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House that offensive operations against Iran were over.

While the US now seems intent on trying to deescalate the conflict, which has killed thousands of people in Iran and Lebanon and roiled global energy markets, the path to a deal that reopens the strait, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil exports, remains distant.

As Rubio spoke on Tuesday, a British monitoring organization reported that a cargo ship in the strait had been struck by an unknown projectile. The US said the shutdown around Hormuz has left more than 1,550 commercial vessels, carrying some 22,000 sailors, trapped in the Persian Gulf.

Further clouding the picture, prior to Trump’s announcement, Iran’s president dismissed American demands to resume talks as “impossible.” 

“The problem is that while the US pursues a policy of maximum pressure against our country, it also expects the Islamic Republic of Iran to come to the negotiating table and ultimately submit to its unilateral demands — an equation that is impossible,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a call with Iraq’s prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Trump and top administration officials have described challenges with talks, in part because of divisions within Iran itself. 

Sometimes after an offer is made, Rubio said, “it takes five or six days to get a response,” since it has to wind its way through a system and be put in front of the supreme leader. 

“Their system has always been multilayered in this way. It’s obviously become more complex because of the damage they suffered during the war,” he said.

More Related to the War

• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beijing on Wednesday, Xinhua News Agency reported.
• At the UN, the US and its allies backed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that would open the door to sanctions or even military action if Iran doesn’t ease its chokehold over the strait. The proposal would require support from China and Russia to pass.

(Updates with Iran-China foreign ministers meeting.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The package will fund a permanent government-owned onshore fuel reserve of around 1 billion liters and lift the minimum amount of fuel companies are required to hold by around 10 days, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a speech in Sydney on Wednesday. That will support an expansion of overall storage to 50 days of supply for diesel and jet fuel, he said.

Despite being a major producer and exporter of energy, Australia sources the vast majority of its refined fuels from overseas and its stockpiles are among the lowest in the developed world. That left it exposed when the Iran war disrupted global oil supplies, contributing to widespread fuel shortages and rising prices.

“This is aimed at making sure that Australians can have more confidence in protecting our energy sovereignty, not just during this crisis, but going forward as well,” Albanese said.

The PM and Energy Minister Chris Bowen spoke about the plan on Wednesday after a national security meeting in Sydney. Bowen said Australia has responded to the crisis, and has more fuel today than when the conflict in Iran began. 

“This is a big change in our approach as a country,” he said. “We have been looking at how to be better prepared for future shocks.”

The package includes A$7.5 billion for the establishment of a fuel and fertilizer facility that will increase supply and storage by providing financial support such as loans, equity, guarantees, insurance and price support, according to Albanese.

It also designates A$3.2 billion to establishing the government stockpile and A$10 million to support feasibility studies into new or expanded fuel refining capabilities, to be co-funded with state and territory jurisdictions.

There’s at least one “serious proposal” for an additional refinery that would receive the support of the state and federal government, Albanese said. The nation only has two working refineries, one of which suffered an explosion last month.

“Today, after the world’s worst oil shock, Australia’s fuel and energy requirements will go some way to being future-proofed,” said Peter Khoury, spokesperson for Australia’s National Roads and Motorists’ Association.

(Updates with additional details from second paragraph, quotes from Albanese and NRMA.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The company expects operating earnings to rise to at least A$1 billion ($721 million) in the 2027-28 financial year from nearly A$400 million in the current year, it said on a conference call Wednesday in Wellington.  

Shares in New Zealand infrastructure investor Infratil, which owns 49.7% of CDC, surged 12% in Wellington, the most in more than five years. 

CDC Chief Executive Greg Boorer said the contract win is a “massive tick of approval for Australia as a global hub for intelligence generation.” 

“It reaffirms Australia as a very trusted geography in a world that is getting increasingly geopolitically imbalanced,” he said.

The contract, announced late Tuesday, is for 555 megawatts of new capacity and doubles CDC’s contracted capacity to 1 gigawatt. The deal is with an unidentified US customer and has a minimum term of 10 years. No financial details were provided with CDC saying it would be debt funded and requires no new equity from Infratil or other holders, which include Australia’s Future Fund and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corp.

The capacity will be delivered over two years through 2029 on sites already under development. When fully deployed, the 1 gigawatt of contracted capacity would deliver annualized contracted operating earnings of about A$2 billion, the company said. 

CDC expects its capital spending in 2027-28 will be A$3.8 billion to A$4.2 billion, it said.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The warning from Goldman Sachs came as the CEO of Chevron said the supply impact from the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz would lead to economies slowing to adapt.

Economic growth stalled

Mike Wirth, Chevron Chairman and CEO, said global supply shortages would begin appearing, with the 20% of world's crude supply usually passing through the Gulf waterway still effectively blocked due to the US/Israel conflict with Iran.

“We will start to see physical shortages,” he told a conference in California on Monday. “Demand needs to move to meet supply … economies are going to have to slow.”

Goldman Sachs has also warned that the speed ‌of depletion was becoming a concern four weeks after a ceasefire was declared. On Monday, that peace came under threat when Iran hit ships in the Strait and oil facilities in Fujairah, UAE, as the US attempted to free up shipping.

Stark numbers

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said global oil supply plummeted by 10.1 mbpd to 97 mbpd in March, while global observed oil inventories fell by 85 mb, with stocks outside the Middle East Gulf drawn down by a significant 205 mb as flows through Hormuz were choked off.

Goldman Sachs estimated total global oil stocks could fall ‌to 98 days of global demand by the end of May. However, the bank added that while those stocks were “unlikely to hit minimum operational levels this summer, the speed of depletion and supply losses in some regions and products is concerning”.

Contrary to the global trend, S&P Global said China added 40 mb of crude to its storage in March.

Contracting economies

Countries in Asia could be the first to experience economic shrinkage. The continent is most heavily dependent on Gulf oil production and refining, Wirth explained, with Europe likely to be affected next as demand adjusts to reduced supply.

He described the overall effect of the Hormuz closure as “potentially as big as in the 1970s” when major supply disruptions shook economies worldwide, leading to fuel rationing and long queues at the pumps. A surge in jet fuel prices amid tighter supplies put US budget carrier Spirit Airlines out of business last weekend.

Stock under pressure

IEA member countries are required to hold emergency oil stocks equivalent to at least 90 days of their net oil imports, a rule designed to ensure a coordinated response in times of crisis. As of 25 March, members held more than 1.2 billion barrels of public reserves, alongside roughly 600 million barrels held by industry under government obligation, according to Statista.

Net oil exporters, the US, Canada, Norway, and Mexico, are not bound by this requirement. However, the US maintains the world’s largest emergency stockpile through its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently holds about 415 mb (as of 27 February).

The IEA said Japan has the most strategic oil stock among net importers, at 208 days, while Australia has the least, at 49 days (as of December 2025).

Wirth said the US would be less impacted by shortages than many territories, but would eventually feel the effects.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook in March confirmed that. It revealed a list of estimated strategic crude oil inventories in selected countries (as of December 2025), topped by China at 1,397 mb, followed by the US at 413 mb, and Japan (263). OECD Europe held 179 mb, followed by Saudi Arabia (82), with the UAE (34) and India (21) showing the least. Iran held 71 mb.

Demand fall

The IEA said it expected oil demand to contract this year in April’s Oil Market Report.

A forecast of a 1.5 mb/d decline in 2Q26 would be the sharpest since COVID-19. Cuts in oil use were already emerging in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, mainly for naphtha, LPG and jet fuel.

Oil prices posted their largest-ever monthly gain in March in the wake of the “most severe oil supply shock in history”.

The IEA added: “Demand destruction will spread as scarcity and higher prices persist.”

The collaboration between the automation leader and one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies is designed to measurably improve planning and operational efficiency across global refining operations.

Advancing accuracy

The project commenced with the integration of Emerson’s Aspen Hybrid Models into Aramco’s existing refinery planning framework, resulting in the creation of one of the world’s largest multi-site, multi-period optimisation models.

Emerson explained that by combining first-principles models, deep domain expertise, and purpose-built industrial AI, Aspen Hybrid Models capture nonlinear relationships in yield and quality responses, significantly enhancing the accuracy of refinery planning models.

The deployment has already achieved yield and quality prediction accuracy of up to 98.5% in key refinery units.

Refining gains

The hybrid AI models are implemented in Continuous Catalyst Regeneration (CCR) and Platformer Units, allowing precise feedstock blending, reducing discrepancies between planning and execution, and improving margin forecasting across Aramco’s refining network.

Current efforts are focused on expanding the hybrid modelling to hydrocracker units across Aramco assets. This expansion is expected to further enhance model accuracy and demonstrate the scalability and robustness of this AI-driven optimisation strategy across the enterprise.

Ahmad Alkudmani, Director of the Global Optimiser Department at Aramco, said the deployment represented a significant milestone in Aramco’s AI strategy and its long-standing relationship with Emerson.

“We are committed to leveraging innovative technologies for smarter, more efficient refining optimisation,” he commented.

“With improved model accuracy, we are enhancing planning decisions, reducing the manual adjustments required from our engineers, and uncovering new value across our global assets.”

Scalable benefits

Among the key benefits, Aramco seeks to substantially raise yield volume and improve stream quality across varied feedstocks, conditions, and throughputs; and diversify feedstock selection and blending to enable more profitable, sustainable operations.

Aramco is using Aspen Hybrid Models built and deployed in Emerson’s AspenTech Performance Engineering and Manufacturing and Supply Chain product suites.

Claudio Fayad, Chief Technology Officer of Emerson’s Aspen Technology business, added: “This deployment of AI-driven Aspen Hybrid Models to optimise complex, multi-site, multi-period planning workflows demonstrates the tangible value of combining deep domain expertise with advanced AI.”

The 1.4 million square metre development is being delivered and funded in partnership with Arcapita, a global alternative investment firm, following the signing of a long‑term strategic agreement earlier this year.  

Facility design and capabilities

The facility supports large-scale, complex logistics. It will feature a temperature‑controlled Grade A warehouse, chemical storage, offices, staff facilities, and an extensive open yard for industrial storage and handling. The team is designing the site to meet high technical and safety standards and will incorporate advanced automation and smart warehouse technologies to enhance efficiency and scalability. The development will also include fire protection systems, photovoltaic and EV‑charging readiness, and aims to achieve LEED Gold certification.

Evolving supply chains and infrastructure demand

The development reflects broader structural shifts in global supply chains as economies move toward more regionalised, diversified trade models. As production and sourcing networks become more fragmented, the logistics sector is increasingly becoming central to enabling coordination, resilience, and continuity across multiple markets. This is driving sustained demand for high-quality logistics infrastructure, particularly assets that support storage, distribution, and long-term operational reliability. Against this backdrop, institutional-grade logistics and industrial real estate are emerging as a critical component of national infrastructure, particularly in markets such as Saudi Arabia that are investing to strengthen industrial capacity, supply chain and global trade connectivity.

“This facility represents an important step in building ASMO’s long‑term logistics network in Saudi Arabia,” said Salem A. Al Huraish, Chairman of ASMO. “As the first of three planned strategic sites across the Kingdom, it will strengthen in‑Kingdom supply chain capabilities and support reliable, efficient logistics operations for the energy and industrial sectors. The development also aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 ambition to further establish the Kingdom as a regional logistics hub.”

Customer and operational impact

Once operational, the facility will serve Saudi Aramco, its affiliates, and other energy and industrial customers, enhancing ASMO’s ability to deliver more efficient, centralised logistics solutions.

Sulaiman M. Al Rubaian, Aramco’s Senior Vice President of Procurement & Supply Chain Management, said:
“As ASMO’s anchor customer, Aramco recognises the critical role that high-quality logistics infrastructure plays in enhancing service reliability and enabling efficient, large-scale supply chain operations. This facility marks an important step forward in advancing a more integrated and resilient supply chain, reflecting a long-term vision for efficient development and operational excellence, and aligning strategic infrastructure with integrated operational capabilities.”

Investment structure

The project follows a long-term structure that aligns capital with operating capabilities by combining Arcapita’s investment ownership with ASMO’s role as facility operator.

Sh. Isa bin Hussam Al Khalifa, Managing Director and Head of MENA Real Estate at Arcapita, said:
“This investment reflects the growing importance of institutional‑quality logistics and industrial assets in Saudi Arabia, particularly those underpinned by long‑term operating demand. As the Kingdom continues to prioritise industrial development, supply chain resilience, and self-sufficiency, demand for scalable, high-quality logistics infrastructure is increasing. The development brings together a strategic location, strong industry fundamentals, and a clear use case within one of the Kingdom’s most important energy and industrial ecosystems.”

Mishal Al Zughaibi, President & CEO of King Salman Energy Park (SPARK), said:

“We are delighted to celebrate the groundbreaking of this major investment. Since the signing of the agreement, our teams have worked diligently and collaboratively to accelerate the early stages of the project, enabling the achievement of this important milestone. This partnership reinforces SPARK’s position as a leading world-class energy and logistics hub. Through its proximity to the largest privately owned dry port in the region, ASMO will have access to a comprehensive range of logistics services.”

Located at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s energy sector, SPARK offers direct connectivity to key operating and logistics corridors, enabling efficient movement, storage, and handling of materials across the energy and industrial value chain.

“Operation Epic Fury is concluded,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the White House Tuesday, 66 days after the US and Israel began bombing Iran. “We achieved the objectives of that operation.” 

A few hours later, President Donald Trump announced that he would pause a US-led effort to help stranded ships exit the Strait of Hormuz to see if an agreement with Iran to end the war could be finalized.

“Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” he said in a social media post on Tuesday.

Trump added that he acting at the request of Pakistan and other countries, but that the US blockade of ships transiting to and from Iranian ports would “remain in full force and effect.”

While the US now seems intent on trying to deescalate the conflict, which has killed thousands in Iran and roiled global energy markets, the pathway to a deal that reopens the strait, carries a fifth of the world’s oil exports, remains distant. 

As Rubio spoke, a British monitoring organization reported that a cargo ship in the strait had struck by an unknown projectile. The US said the shutdown around Hormuz has left more than 1,550 commercial vessels, carrying some 22,000 sailors, trapped in the Persian Gulf. 

Iran’s president dismissed American demands to resume talks as “impossible.” 

“The problem is that while the US pursues a policy of maximum pressure against our country, it also expects the Islamic Republic of Iran to come to the negotiating table and ultimately submit to its unilateral demands — an equation that is impossible,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a call with Iraq’s prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.

Oil declined on Tuesday, with Brent trading around 3.6% lower at under $111 a barrel. It jumped almost 6% on Monday.

Rubio’s characterization of Operation Epic Fury, repeated by other top officials over the last 24 hours, signals the pressure Trump is under to end an increasingly unpopular conflict. At the briefing, Rubio cast Iran as the aggressor and the US as leading a global effort to bring a rogue nation to heel.

Portraying the war as concluded also allows the administration to skirt questions about the legality of the conflict. The War Powers Act requires him to wind down a conflict in 60 days unless authorized by Congress. Trump passed that deadline about a week ago.

“The goal here is pretty simple: establish a zone of transit that is protected by a bubble — the United States, both naval and air assets — and then allow ships who want to move, to move through there and get to market, to begin to increase confidence in the ability to do so,” Rubio said.

Violence erupted on Monday after Trump announced Project Freedom, which he described as an effort to guide neutral ships stranded in the Persian Gulf through Hormuz without risking full-scale naval escorts. At least two merchant vessels transited the waterway with US assistance in fending off attacks, while two American warships entered the Gulf.

The UAE said Tuesday it was responding to missile and drone threats, having intercepted almost all of roughly 20 projectiles fired from Iran the previous day. 

US officials played down the Iranian attacks, saying they didn’t constitute a breach of the truce announced just under a month ago.

There’s little sign that Iran and the US are nearing a breakthrough. Tehran insists Washington must lift a naval blockade on its ports for that to happen. The US says the blockade is choking Iran’s oil exports and squeezing its economy, forcing it into concessions.

“We see Project Freedom as an attempt to break the logjam in the strait, which has cast a long shadow over the global economy,” said Becca Wasser, an analyst with Bloomberg Economics. “Still, it carries significant escalation risks, as the outbreak of fighting Monday illustrates.”

Here’s more related to the war:

• At the UN, the US and its allies backed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that would open the door to sanctions or even military action if Iran doesn’t ease its chokehold over the strait. The proposal would require support from China and Russia to pass.
• Iran cast the US move in Hormuz as “Project Deadlock” and a violation of the ceasefire. It also said talks mediated by Pakistan are making progress.
• Iran again warned all ships against trying to get through Hormuz without its permission. On Tuesday it announced a new protocol for vessels seeking to transit the waterway, requiring ships to receive an official email signaling approval, state-run Press TV reported.

(Updates with Trump announcement, starting in third paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

A ceasefire between the US and Iran has begun to look increasingly fragile, with the two sides exchanging fire even as the US said it had opened a passage through the waterway and CBS reported two American destroyers had crossed into the Gulf. 

Crew members have reported hearing radio broadcasts warning vessels of new boundaries defended by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Attacks on the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, meanwhile, underlined an expanded Iranian command zone — and kept the strait largely devoid of traffic in the early hours of the day.

Dubai would fall just outside the new Hormuz control area defined by Tehran, which extends to the south to Umm al-Quwain, along the United Arab Emirates coast.

“The US is attempting to level the power balance in the strait and that’s been reciprocated against by Iran. It’s escalation,” said Anoop Singh, global head of shipping research at Oil Brokerage Ltd. “I’m not expecting a quick reopening of bi-directional flows through the strait.”

Hormuz, a vital energy thoroughfare, has become a flashpoint in the nine-week war. Traffic has dwindled since the start of US and Israeli strikes on Iran, but it oscillates each time one side has tried to adjust levels of control.

The number of daily Hormuz passages is currently at near zero — compared to around 135 each day before the war.

The extended lockdown of Hormuz has already upended global freight markets, with decades-old benchmarks turning irrelevant overnight and at least one trading giant suing the index publisher for losses. If the US succeeds in guiding more ships out of the strait, the prospect of an exit for the hundreds of oil and chemical carriers trapped in the gulf could alleviate pressure on the market, said Singh.

Events so far this week, however, have only encouraged caution from the shipping industry. Abu Dhabi National Oil Corp confirmed on Monday that its supertanker, Barakah, was hit by drones while in Hormuz, and South Korea said that one of its ships was targeted for the first time during the war. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Where do biofuels fit into the energy mix?

Today, most liquid biofuels are used in road transport where they are blended with petrol or diesel at various concentrations. India aims to achieve an E20 (20% ethanol blend) by 2025, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

More than 90% of global biofuels are produced from food crops, mostly corn/maize from the US. Sugarcane, grown particularly in Brazil, is the second-largest source, followed by oil crops such as palm oil, soy oil, and rapeseed. Used cooking oil and animal fats represent about 12%.

Our World in Data says collectively biofuels meet 4% of global transport energy demand. Consultants BMI, part of Fitch, expect that to reach 5% by 2035.

What is driving current demand?

Asia, which buys about 80% of the oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently closed, has sought to increase biofuel use since the war began. Reuters says Vietnam switched fully to ethanol-blended gasoline from April, instead of June, due to energy price surges. Indonesia is raising the mandatory blending rate for palm oil-based biodiesel from 40% to 50%.

US refiners have been ordered to blend a record number of biofuels this year, while Brazil’s government is looking to raise the ethanol blend from 30% to 32% by the end of June.

Why are countries adopting biofuels long term?

Biofuels can bolster energy security by reducing reliance on imports and contribute to achieving emissions-reduction targets. The industry can support economic development and job creation, especially in rural areas, and utilise agricultural residues and organic waste, both of which are abundant in India. The bioenergy model promotes circular economy practices and social inclusion.

State-owned firm Empresa de Pesquisa Energética says the expansion of the biofuel sector saved Brazil about $405 billion in fuel imports over the past few decades.

Global policies such as the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) aim to make biofuels a key part of decarbonising the transport and energy sectors.

Which countries are leading the sector?

Several countries have thriving production agendas, including Brazil (sugarcane ethanol), Indonesia (biodiesel), and India (ethanol blending), according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Ethanol and compressed biogas (CBG) are leading the growth in India, where the IEA says biofuel production, including biodiesel, could double by 2030 with suitable policies. Ethanol consumption there has scaled from under 2 billion litres to 11+ billion litres since 2018.

Global production of liquid biofuels has grown sevenfold over 20 years, driven by policies, particularly in the US, Brazil, and the EU, while consumption is projected to grow in Colombia, Argentina, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Planète Énergies cites the US, Brazil, and Indonesia as the top three producers, while China has significantly accelerated since 2023. Along with the EU, those regions produce more than 80% of the world’s total.

Brazil intends to increase biofuel production fourfold by 2035, according to Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira de Oliveira.

Other significant ethanol producers include Paraguay, the Philippines — projected to reach nearly 0.8 billion litres each by 2034 — and Peru, which is also a major biomass based diesel producer, along with Malaysia and the Philippines, says the OECD.

While most countries produce biofuels for domestic use, Singapore’s biomass-based diesel is largely exported. China, the US, the EU, Canada and Malaysia dominate biomass-based diesel exports, with a combined market share of 79% (OECD).

How is policy promoting biofuel adoption?

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says decades of strategic policies, including the RenovaBio Initiative and the Fuel of the Future law, have made Brazil a biofuels leader, notably in ethanol and biodiesel. The government says blending anhydrous ethanol in gasoline is set to increase to 27%, targeting 35% by 2030, and the biodiesel blend in diesel rose to 15% in early 2025, with plans to reach 20% by 2030.

The IEA says India operates about 170 CBG plants with almost 300 under construction.

Canada’s Biofuels Production Incentive programme took effect in January. Designed to stabilise and protect domestic biofuel production capacity, it will give CAN$370 million in funding over two years.

In 2005 and 2007, the Renewable Fuel Standard mandated a minimum volume of US transport fuel to be sourced from biofuels. In Argentina, the 2021 Biofuels Law mandated a 5% blending rate for biomass-based diesel, according to the IEA.

Are there barriers to bioenergy production?

Yes, it can be highly dependent on changes in public regulations.

Relying on food-based feedstock carries risks such as harvest disruption, and critics have highlighted the impact of rapidly expanding monocultures, such as soy and sugar, on ecosystem health, water resources, and food security. Palm oil has courted controversy over massive land needs and biodiversity loss.

Currently, at least 90% of world biofuels come from food crops, rather than waste oils or fats. Consultancy Cerulogy estimated that 32 million hectares of global land are dedicated to biofuels.

OECD says interest in advanced biofuels is rising. But expanding production capacities remains challenging due to higher development costs than for fossil fuels, and government support will remain necessary.

ScienceDirect said Brazil’s biodiesel industry has experienced considerable growth, but technological goals in feedstock diversification, production processes, storage and stability, and quality control have largely not been achieved.

Are there downsides to biofuels?

Critics say they can raise food prices; already higher because of the war-fuelled surge in energy, transport and fertiliser costs.

Last year, Brussels thinktank Transport and Environment suggested biofuels were responsible for 16% more global CO₂ emissions than fossil fuels they replace “due to the indirect impacts of farming and deforestation”. For example, Semafor says Indonesia is planning a 560,000-hectare bioethanol estate in a sensitive forested region of Papua, while Brazil is expanding sugarcane cultivation in the Cerrado, home to many endemic and threatened species.

More positively, Empresa de Pesquisa Energética says Brazil is embracing “land-sparing” techniques, promoting the conversion of degraded pasture to meet rising demand without deforestation.

The Biofuture Industry Council argues that biofuels can be produced sustainably, and that certification and verification are improving.

How else is the sector evolving?

Growth is shifting from first-generation biofuels to technologies such as cellulosic ethanol and advanced biodiesel. These use non-food biomass, such as agricultural residues, forestry waste, and municipal solid waste, for a more sustainable approach without impacting the food supply.

Emerging options include algae-based biofuels (biodiesel, bioethanol, jet fuel), produced from photosynthetic microorganisms and utilising wastewater, and biohydrogen generated primarily from water using biological or electrochemical processes.

Produced from biomass with low-intensity harvesting, biomethanol can improve fuel efficiency when blended with gasoline or used in fuel cells, while fourth-generation synthetic biology-based fuels use engineered microbes to convert CO₂ and organic waste into liquid fuels.

IRENA says Brazil is exploring a link between bioenergy and hydrogen, aiming to use waste-to-hydrogen technologies for green hydrogen production in refineries.

Electric vehicle sales and solar panel imports have surged since the conflict in the Middle East began in late February, early signs that higher fuel costs and supply risks are reshaping behavior. 

Seoul — which imports the majority of its energy, including 70% of its crude oil via the Strait of Hormuz — has rolled out a supplementary budget with 540 billion won ($365 million) for solar and wind projects, energy storage systems and EV subsidies.

The shifting consumer demand and increased fiscal support suggests the crisis is influencing both markets and policy. But core targets — expanding clean power, phasing out coal and reducing gas dependence — predate the conflict, raising questions over the depth of the structural change.

“The government has set the right direction and framing, but it’s not yet doing enough to turn this into a real opportunity to accelerate the transition,” said BloombergNEF analyst David Kang. “The biggest missed opportunity is Korea’s long-delayed power market reform, especially on the retail side.” 

Liberalizing retail electricity markets, which are still dominated by Korea Electric Power Corp., would allow the state-backed utility to focus on grid upgrades needed to integrate renewables and EVs, said Kang. 

The climate ministry said reforms are underway and pledged to deliver tangible results from the transition.

President Lee has repeatedly framed the Iran War as a catalyst for faster change.

“The Republic of Korea as a whole must move very swiftly toward renewable energy,” he said last month. “Our future will be at a serious risk if were continue to rely on fossil fuels.”

South Korea gets about 80% of its energy from fossil fuels, of which 93% is imported, highlighting the nation’s high external dependence. Meanwhile, demand is rising from AI data centers, electrification and advanced industries.

Lee’s strategy, laid out before the crisis, centers on a state-led transition. He has pledged to phase out coal by 2040, cut gas use and expand renewables, while his government also set tougher emissions targets.

An April roadmap targets a 20% share of renewables in power generation and 100 gigawatts of capacity by 2030, as well as grid upgrades.

Consumers are already responding. Domestic EV sales more than doubled in March from a year earlier, while solar panel imports rose 137% to a record $76.6 million. 

The trend mirrors global shifts toward EVs, rooftop solar and other low-carbon technologies as energy security concerns grow.

Still, gaps remain. South Korea was among the few countries to see a significant increase in coal-fired generation following disruptions to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The group said the rise was mainly because of weaker nuclear output.

Nevertheless, it illustrates how the nation still falls back on fossil fuels under stress. Coal and gas continue to account for the bulk of power generation, while renewables make up only about a 10th, with projects slowed by permitting and grid constraints.

South Korea’s transition lags industrial peers by about 15 years, but recent policy signals point to a stronger push to accelerate the shift, according to Paige Nguyen, Asia Director at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

“Although South Korea’s renewable installation costs remain relatively high by global standards, they are becoming increasingly competitive and, in many cases, are already on par with or below the marginal costs of LNG-fired power generation,” Nguyen said.

Nuclear remains a key variable. Lee has backed continued reliance “for the time being,” maintaining plans to build two reactors and one small modular reactor, while saying any further expansion will be reviewed in line with the energy mix and public consensus.

Whether momentum leads to faster permitting, grid investment and new capacity will determine if the shift goes beyond plans.

“The current crisis has created a powerful momentum,” said Katherine Hasan, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. “But to ensure this isn’t just a temporary shield, the government needs to take a leap.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

 Scientists in China and the US found that tiny, colored plastic particles absorb sunlight as winds blow them around the world, trapping heat and contributing to temperature rise, according to the peer-reviewed paper published Monday in the journal . 

“The plastic problem is not just in our blue oceans, it is also in the invisible skies above us,” Hongbo Fu, a co-author of the study and an atmospheric scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai, said at a press conference. “Climate models need to be updated.” 

The researchers’ laboratory experiments and atmospheric modeling indicate that airborne plastic pollution has 16.2% of the heat-trapping impact of black carbon, the second biggest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. That effect is small on a global scale, according to the scientists, but can be significant in areas with high volumes of plastic, such as parts of the Pacific Ocean. There, plastic particles had 4.7 times the impact of black carbon. 

Scientists had previously detected the presence of nanoplastics and microplastics, which range in size from a billionth to a millionth of a meter, in the atmosphere. As plastic waste washes into the ocean and litters the landscape, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces when exposed to sunlight until winds sweep the particles into the atmosphere, where they become suspended in air currents. 

The planet is awash in plastic trash and its deleterious consequences for the environment, wildlife and human health is the subject of ongoing study. But past research suggested that microscopic plastic has a negligible impact on global warming, as white-colored plastic particles reflect sunlight. 

The scientists at Fudan University, however, found that the majority of plastic particles in the atmosphere are colored and trap heat. Drew Shindell, a climate scientist at Duke University and a co-author of the paper, said their experiments break new ground by precisely measuring the rate at which different-colored particles absorb sunlight. 

He said atmospheric plastic particles either are already dark, or lighter ones darken as they age. “The net effect is warming,” said Shindell. 

Those impacts are maximized in regions of the world where plastic pollution is concentrated, such as in the Texas-sized Great Pacific Garbage Patch that lies between California and Japan, the researchers said. Typhoons and tropical cyclones can also create atmospheric hotspots and affect regional climate patterns as strong winds suspend more plastic particles in the air. A super typhoon in 2023, for instance, caused a nearly 51% increase in the atmospheric concentration of nanoplastics, according to the paper. 

The scientists said the effects from such extreme weather would likely be strong but short-lived in the immediate area. 

Exactly how much warming is attributable to plastic remains to be determined due to the difficulty of measuring the concentration of particles in the global atmosphere and the rates at which they enter the air from the ocean or land. That means the researchers could be underestimating or overestimating the impact on climate change. 

“We need more measurements from all around the world to really characterize more precisely how much of the stuff is in the atmosphere,” said Shindell. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The new company, which hasn’t been named yet, aims to build a fleet of reactors in the US, and will use designs from Westinghouse Electric Co., which is majority-owned by Brookfield Renewable Partners, Brookfield Asset said in a statement on Monday.

The initiative is expected to capitalize on the resurgence of the US nuclear industry, especially a $80 billion plan by the White House to buy reactors from Westinghouse. The new development company has been selected as project manager for Brookfield’s potential effort to revive the VC Summer project in South Carolina, a two-reactor plan that was abandoned in 2017. 

“We believe this platform has the potential to accelerate the American nuclear resurgence,” Wyatt Hartley, a Brookfield managing partner, said in the statement. 

VC Summer is considered a low point for the US nuclear industry. South Carolina utility Santee Cooper and the plant’s former co-owner, Scana Corp., halted construction on two AP1000 reactors in 2017 after costs climbed above $20 billion and Westinghouse, a contractor on the project, filed for bankruptcy. It was one of two US efforts to build the Westinghouse AP1000 reactors; the other, at the Vogtle plant in Georgia, was completed in 2024, seven years behind schedule and more than $20 billion over budget. 

But demand is now surging for electricity, especially to power artificial intelligence systems, and that’s prompted renewed interest in nuclear energy. Plant owners are working to restart three mothballed reactors, in Michigan, Iowa and Pennsylvania, and the partially built VC Summer plant is seen as a relatively fast way to connect more fission power to the grid. The Nuclear Company team includes veterans of both Vogtle and VC Summer, who would contribute valuable experience in building AP1000 systems. 

Brookfield has been evaluating whether to complete the South Carolina project since last year. It said in December it expects to make a final investment decision by late 2027, under a deal that would call for the company to pay Santee Cooper $2.7 billion to acquire the assets, and the utility also receiving a targeted 25% ownership share. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.