Businesses have taken advantage of market reforms and invested billions of rand in renewable energy to protect against almost two decades of rolling blackouts and steep price increases that exposed the risks of relying solely on state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and deteriorating municipal distribution networks. 

Many of the major companies traded on the benchmark index in Johannesburg — spanning mining, real estate, retail and healthcare, among other sectors — say they're working to boost renewables to lower dependency on Eskom and cut costs, with at least 40 firms in 2026 alone sharing such plans. 

While Eskom has stabilized supply and managed more than a year without scheduled power cuts that throttle demand to prevent total grid collapse and are known as load shedding, homes and businesses are often exposed to prolonged local outages because towns and cities haven’t maintained or upgraded their cables and transformers. 

The migration to private renewables supply is transforming Africa's biggest electricity market from one dominated by a state monopoly into one where companies increasingly choose how and from whom they buy electricity.

“We had 102 years of a monopoly responsible for energy and now it’s a liberalized market where businesses can choose where they get their energy from,” said Andre Nepgen, the chief executive officer of Discovery Green, a renewable-energy trading platform set up by insurer Discovery Ltd. in 2023.

Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., the world’s No. 2 producer of the metal used in electronics and devices that cut vehicle emissions, is among the firms that have had to rethink how they power their operations in South Africa, home to most of the producer’s mines. 

In 2024, it partnered with Discovery Green to obtain clean electricity for its refinery east of Johannesburg through wheeling, which involves buying power from off-site independent producers who then feed it into the national grid, allowing buyers to withdraw an equivalent amount at their location. It’s also exploring solar options for its biggest operation, Rustenburg, as well as the smaller Marula mine.

“Our decision was shaped by a convergence of factors rather than a single trigger” that include a climate imperative, operational realities and costs, Sustainable Development Executive Tsakani Mthombeni said by email. “South Africa’s electricity-supply constraints pose a direct risk to our operations’ safety and production,” with renewables bolstering security, he said, adding that reliability “is non-negotiable.”  

The corporate renewable-energy market that Discovery Green is part of took off after 2021, when the state opened up private power generation and wheeling to tackle chronic shortages. 

Government buying under its so-called Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme initially drove growth in South Africa's renewable industry. The latest expansion, however, has come from companies investing their own capital after the reforms opened the market to private generation and electricity trading.

While supply constraints are among the chief drivers of the move to renewables, the cost of power is a big factor too. The regulator has allowed Eskom to raise tariffs by rates that have far exceeded inflation in recent years to help the company meet its obligations and as the government struggles to rein in non-paying municipalities. Prices have climbed almost 900% since 2008, equating to an average annual increase of about 15% since then. Eskom, meanwhile, still struggles with a long-term debt pile of 358 billion rand ($22 billion).

These hikes have eaten into companies’ profit margins and they need to find cheaper alternatives, said Richard Doyle, managing director of  JUWI South Africa, which builds and maintains solar and wind plants. 

“The cost of buying energy from Eskom is over 2 rand ($0.12)” per kilowatt-hour, Doyle said. “The levelized cost of solar power now is maybe 50 to 60 cents. It is a complete commercial no-brainer for any and all industries now to move towards solar power.”

Predictability is also a major motivating factor, said Nepgen. 

“The certainty element of saying ‘this is my cost and it’s only going to increase by CPI’ is hugely valuable for businesses,” he said, referring to consumer price inflation. “When you’re deciding  on whether or not to open a new facility, if you have uncertainty around your future electricity costs, that might discourage investment, so that CPI hedge really helps.”

South Africa has more than 2,500 renewable-energy projects with 19,677 megawatts of generating capacity registered with the National Energy Regulator compared with under 20 megawatts in 2018, the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association said.

The National Transmission Company of South Africa separately estimates that the nation has about 8,400 megawatts of so-called behind-the-meter private-solar installations that generate power for on-site use and don’t supply the grid. The datasets aren’t comparable and likely overlap in part. Eskom has total installed capacity of about 53,200 megawatts, 85% of which is coal. 

The boom in private generation is redefining Eskom’s role in provision.

With consumers forced to find alternative sources of consistent supply, Eskom’s revenue has declined. And with their switch to lower-cost options eroding demand from the utility, it seeks bigger price increases that further cut clients’ reliance on it, deepening what the utility itself calls a “death spiral.” Eskom didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The South African central bank has brought attention to the knock-on effects of inadequate public infrastructure on financial stability, noting in June that increased substitution with private generation also hurts the coffers of municipalities, many of which on-sell Eskom’s supply. 

The company has responded by launching Eskom Green, a utility-scale renewable-energy developer that targets 6,000 megawatts of capacity by the end of the decade.

The move “is a market signal that renewable energy is now considered essential and is no longer a luxury,” Impala’s Mthombeni said.

After more than a century of relying on a single dominant utility, businesses are gaining more choices about where their electricity comes from and how much they pay for it.

For Eskom, the challenge is no longer simply keeping the lights on. It's adapting to a competitive electricity market where its biggest customers increasingly have alternatives.

“We expect renewable energy to play a central role in stabilizing the country’s energy system,” Mthombeni said. “Renewable-energy technology will not replace the grid, but it will complement it — creating a more diversified, resilient and sustainable energy mix.” 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

TotalEnergies SE sold a cargo for July 10-11 delivery to state-owned Pakistan LNG Ltd. for $17.37 per million British thermal units, according to traders with knowledge of the matter. The shipment was bought in a tender that closed on Friday.

The purchase marks Pakistan’s second spot gas procurement in two weeks as Islamabad seeks to replace canceled Qatari supplies stuck in the Gulf. While traffic via Hormuz — a key conduit for about a fifth of global LNG supply — has increased since the US and Iran signed an interim peace agreement, flows of the super-chilled fuel haven’t yet recovered to pre-war levels.

Pakistan sourced nearly all of its LNG under long-term contracts with Qatar last year, leaving the South Asian nation grappling with energy shortages after Iran bombed the producer’s facilities early in the conflict. The outages forced Islamabad to buy more expensive fuel on the spot market, with the latest purchase priced at about twice the rate under the Qatari contracts. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

A war-driven surge in profits has amplified complaints that ordinary Australians are being short-changed by its tax regime on LNG exports, with lawmakers from both ends of the political spectrum questioning why the gas-rich country remains exposed to high prices and potential shortages at home. This has been exacerbated by viral claims the country’s beer drinkers pay more tax than its LNG producers.

Australia’s LNG export earnings for the fiscal year to June 2027 are forecast to hit A$65 billion ($45 billion), up more than 40% from an outlook made before the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz choked a fifth of global supply, according to the latest resources and energy quarterly report released Friday. 

“It’s harder to make the case for unconstrained fossil fuel exports to the public in a context of record corporate profits, constrained tax returns and repeated price shocks,” said Rohan Bowater, analyst and co-founder of Melbourne-based think tank Accela.

Opinion polls now indicate more than three in five Australians back a 25% tax on gas exports, even as the center-left government decided to leave the levy out of its budget in May. About four-fifths of gas produced in Australia is shipped overseas.

A wave of new LNG projects over the last two decades made Australia one of the world’s top exporters, with the fuel now its third most valuable export after gold and iron ore. As a cornerstone supplier to Asia’s largest gas importers, the industry has become a strategic asset for Canberra — which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leveraged earlier this year to secure other fuels from its customers in return.

Disruption in the Persian Gulf has heightened both the importance of Australian LNG to the region, as well as its profitability. The country’s two biggest oil and gas producers, Woodside Energy Group Ltd and Santos Ltd, are expected to post a combined net income of nearly $6 billion for the year to December 2026, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That’s double the estimate a year ago.

However, bumper earnings have sharpened criticism that Australia’s LNG industry is benefiting shareholders more than the broader public. The backlash raises the political risk around future gas export projects, from Woodside’s advanced plans at Browse to new offshore acreage and the ramp-up of Scarborough to Santos’ Barossa, which were already facing mounting opposition from environmental groups.

Critics also point to the Labor government’s favorable treatment. Regulators allowed Woodside’s North West Shelf export project to continue operating until 2070 and approved new exploration permits, framing the additional supply as necessary to ease forecast domestic shortages despite locking in decades of emissions.

LNG exporters have been backed by powerful lobbying efforts by groups such as the Australian Energy Producers — an association that represents oil and gas producers. The AEP is among the world’s most “engaged” and “oppositional” associations, according to London-based think tank InfluenceMap, which tracks lobbying groups.

That influence has also been reinforced through decades of high-profile civic sponsorships, particularly in Western Australia. Woodside’s bright yellow sponsorship vests for junior lifesavers have long been an iconic feature on the state’s beaches.

To boost supply and curb rising energy costs, the government was able to push forward a scheme to reserve gas for local use — 20% of annual LNG exports — sparking strong opposition from parts of the industry and its lobbyists. Santos Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher warned in May that this will drive prices down for a short period, but kill investment and supply.

The country’s long-simmering issue over how to tax LNG exports without dissuading investment exploded into a cost-of-living debate during a Senate inquiry in June. Independent Senator David Pocock’s question to a Treasury official elicited agreement that the country’s beer drinkers paid more tax than its LNG exporters. 

Their exchange has been viewed millions of times on social media.

“For too long there has been an assumption in Canberra that the gas industry is politically untouchable,” Pocock, who represented Australia at rugby union and was a key instigator of the inquiry, told Bloomberg. “That assumption is beginning to change because Australians can see the gap between record gas exports, huge industry profits and what is flowing back to the public.” 

The Senator said he was unperturbed the inquiry failed to secure support for a 25% levy on LNG export revenue. “I don’t think it’s a question of whether there will be a tax on gas exports; it’s a question of when,” he said.

It’s now not just progressive politicians like Pocock calling for gas tax reform — far-right politician Pauline Hanson last month argued for a new royalty and Commonwealth equity model for future gas projects, saying taxpayers should get a better return. 

The Australia Institute maintains the country’s multinational gas exporters pay “no royalties and minimal tax.” The progressive think tank alleges Japan’s Inpex Corp., which has stakes in the country’s Ichthys LNG, Prelude FLNG and Darwin LNG projects, paid no royalties or corporate tax on A$21 billion of gas exports between 2015 and 2025. 

The gas industry strongly disputes these claims, and has warned that higher levies or reservation rules threatens supply and risks damaging Australia’s reputation with trading partners. The oil and gas industry contributed almost A$22 billion in taxes and royalties in 2024-25, according to the AEP.

At the core of the debate is the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, which lets LNG producers deduct capital and exploration spending — and carry unused deductions forward — before project profits are taxed. A 2023 attempt to tighten the regime stopped short of a broader overhaul, but limited the proportion of assessable income that could be offset by deductions to 90%.

At least for now, voters appear unconvinced. Members of the ruling Labor party are breaking rank, with former minister Ed Husic warning in April that the country opened the door to others to “plunder our resources” without Australians getting the best outcome.

“Australians overwhelmingly support a tax on gas exports,” said Fumi Hayashi, an analyst at InfluenceMap. “And momentum is growing.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The UAE’s aggressive push to get barrels safely out of the strait relied on tactics normally associated with sanctioned countries like Iran, Russia and Venezuela: the ships traveled “dark” without their transponders (and often under the cover of literal darkness) before offloading their cargo into other tankers waiting outside the waterway, and then returning back to collect more.

Crucially though, officials in Abu Dhabi needed enough ships to make the risky transit — not just once, but over and over. And for that they turned for help to Ga-Hyun Chung. 

The intensely private Korean shipping tycoon rocked the tanker industry early this year as his Sinokor Group embarked on an unprecedented buying spree. Bloomberg reported in March that he stood to be one of big winners from the turmoil in the oil trade from the Iran war, as rates for tankers surged. 

Now, Sinokor has emerged as a major owner of supertankers moving crude out of the Gulf. 

The company started leasing ships to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. for its “shuttle runs” from at least mid-April. By June, almost half of Emirati crude shipments were sailing on vessels controlled by Sinokor, according to ship tracking data collected by analytics firm Vortexa. 

This story is based on vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, figures from Vortexa and Kpler, another leading analytics firm, and conversations with more than a dozen shipbrokers, traders and other industry insiders. The scale of Sinokor’s role in leasing ships for “dark” transits has not previously been reported.

Sinokor didn’t respond to requests for comment. Adnoc L&S, which is Adnoc’s shipping and logistics arm, said it doesn’t comment on matters related to the position, movements, or routing of its vessels, but noted that it has “an extensive fleet including owned and chartered vessels.” 

While Adnoc also relied on tankers it owned directly, as well as from other owners, the deals with Sinokor were key to helping the UAE ramp up exports through Hormuz far faster than its Gulf neighbors. The shipments meant Adnoc was able to take greater advantage of surging oil prices earlier in the war, and helped alleviate the impact of the broader closure of the strait on global supplies. The company has continued to ramp up shipments, with tankers traveling more openly through the strait with transponders on since the interim peace agreement.

But the deals have also created a huge profit opportunity for Sinokor, Chung and his new co-owner, Italian container giant MSC Group. Oil tanker markets are having one of the most lucrative years ever, and shipbrokers suggest that the premium for sailing into the Gulf during the war could have yielded three to four times the prewar rate. 

The terms of the deals haven’t been disclosed, but the brokers estimated just three tankers doing shuttle runs since mid-April could have earned Sinokor somewhere around $60 million to $120 million.

Since the interim ceasefire between the US and Iran came into effect, Sinokor has sent a further stream of supertankers into the Gulf ready to collect crude — including at least two that have already returned again after exiting to offload their cargoes. And it’s not just UAE cargoes; the company has been active in touting its services to shipbrokers as it looks to pick up barrels from elsewhere in the gulf.  

“Sinokor’s moves during the Iran war are groundbreaking,” said Matt Wright, Kpler’s principal freight analyst. “By creating an environment that supports their negotiating position they are lifting rates for all owners. They are also willing to go to corners of the market where shipowners might still be cautious about, and we are seeing initial signs of a market recovery because of that.”

Bold Bets

Even in an industry dominated by larger-than-life characters, Chung’s bold bets have set him apart. 

Sinokor, which is headquartered in Seoul, started out as a container shipper, before expanding to become a smaller player in oil tankers. That changed dramatically late last year, when the company suddenly went on a dealmaking spree to buy and charter supertankers with backing from one of shipping’s biggest players, MSC.

By late February, Sinokor controlled about 150 very large crude carriers, according to industry estimates — nearly 40% of the global fleet that wasn’t either sanctioned or tied up on long-term leases or regular routes. 

After the US issued licenses allowing the trade in Venezuelan oil at the beginning of this year, Sinokor deployed several of its vessels toward the US Gulf and the Caribbean in anticipation of the flood of barrels entering the mainstream market. At one point, the company controlled nearly all of the available supertankers that could reach the US Gulf within 30 days.

Sinokor’s aggressive buying combined with a swell in oil flows to send tanker rates surging even before the US and Israeli strikes on Iran led to the effective closure of the world’s most important oil shipping lane. By early March, rates had soared dramatically higher, hitting unprecedented levels as the market adjusted to the reality that a large percentage of the global fleet was stuck inside the Gulf. 

Bloomberg reported in March that Sinokor itself had moved at least six empty supertankers into the Gulf in the weeks before the war, which meant the company was able to hire the vessels out at eye-popping daily rates to hold oil, as storage in the region filled up. (Around the same time time, more details of the company’s tie up with MSC became public — the world’s biggest container line had actually bought a 50% stake in Sinokor Maritime Co.)

Daring Dash

In the early weeks of the war, the sparse traffic through Hormuz appeared largely dominated by tankers with links to Iran, while the UAE and Saudi Arabia quickly diverted crude flows to export terminals on the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea via pipelines that bypassed the strait. 

But while most ship owners and crews saw the journey as too dangerous, at least one firm — Greece’s Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd. — quickly appeared to find a way through. Just 10 days into the war, a Dynacom-operated vessel popped up on tracking systems showing its location near India, after having last signaled from within the Gulf. 

Dynacom’s “dark transit” move would be one that many other shipowners and crude exporters would emulate in the coming weeks and months. Adnoc was one of them.

At least four of Sinokor’s ships appear on the Equasis maritime database as being managed by Adnoc, two of them since mid-April, though shipbrokers said privately that it’s possible some of them even began in March. The total number may also be far higher, as the already opaque practices of the shipping industry have been exacerbated by the risks of war.

To be sure, Adnoc also relied on ships from owners other than Sinokor, including tankers owned by Navig8, an Adnoc-controlled firm. By early May, several people with knowledge of the matter said that Adnoc was also actively seeking tankers to purchase, to join the Hormuz shuttles — a practice that by then was already being jokingly dubbed the “Adnoc milk runs” by traders across the industry. 

After collecting their cargoes at UAE ports like Zirku and Das Island, it would take the tankers roughly two days to sail with their transponders off through the Gulf and along the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman. There, they’d pull up alongside empty tankers waiting to receive the oil and then deliver it to global markets. 

The ships would travel under cover of darkness, often in convoys that sailed close together and hugged the Omani coast, according to two people familiar with the matter.  

Without transponders to follow, analysts and journalists have been left poring over satellite imagery from the region. 

On average, Sinokor ships have transported at least 680,000 barrels a day of supplies from the UAE’s Gulf ports since April, based on loadings that have been detected by both the Kpler and Vortexa platforms — though the actual figures could be far higher. Those numbers accelerated in June to 1.4 million barrels a day, the data show. At least 10 Sinokor vessels have been engaged in shuttle runs from the UAE’s oil terminals inside the Gulf before discharging in the Gulf of Oman, and three of the shuttling ships have been doing so since the middle of April.

Carrying such large volumes at a time when tanker earnings have been so high has been highly lucrative for the company, and would have already gone some way to paying back a multibillion-dollar bet on supertankers. 

It also puts Chung and Sinokor among some of the biggest winners of the shock to energy markets from the Iran war, alongside other large tanker owners, as well as energy traders such as Vitol Group and Trafigura Group, which tend to thrive during times of disruption and volatility. 

Dark Rush

While the UAE was one of the earliest and most active shippers through the strait, by early June its tankers had been joined by an expanding stream of vessels carrying oil from neighbors including Kuwait and Iraq. 

As the shipping industry gathered for a major conference in Athens, the growing flow of dark transits was one of the key subjects of conversation. Another, of course, was Chung himself. Known in the industry for his love of arm wrestling just about everyone he encounters, the indefatigable tycoon was still in dealmaking mode — trying to convince other owners to sell him more supertankers, people familiar with the matter said. 

By then, many of the ships moving through Hormuz were supported by a US military program that provided guidance and aerial protection as they sailed along the Omani coast to avoid potential mines in the middle of the strait, and as Iran controlled traffic through its own waters to the north. 

The flow of dark traffic is one of the factors that helped explain why oil markets had weakened significantly by early June, together with a surge in exports from the US and pullback in buying by China.

But the covert nature of the transits meant the task of estimating the outlook for global supply got even harder. Some analysts at the time estimated that about 2 million barrels a day was exiting the strait, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. put the figure at just over 5 million. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on June 12 that about 7 million barrels a day of oil was making its way out. 

The interim peace deal between the US and Iran that followed just days later would open up those flows even further. 

But as a stream of stranded ships began exiting the Gulf with their transponders turned on, the next question was whether empty vessels would be willing to re-enter and take on fresh loadings. 

Again, Sinokor was well positioned. The company controls more than a third of the VLCCs that would be able to reach the Gulf in the next two weeks, according to shipbrokers’ estimates. At least one tanker that has sat waiting empty for months near South Africa is already heading towards Hormuz. 

In late June, the company informed shipbrokers it had provisionally booked a vessel to transport oil from the Gulf to India at a rate that was among the highest so far this year. The communication was typical of the firm’s bold marketing tactics, brokers said. 

Freight rates have dropped after an initial surge following the peace deal, as it becomes more apparent that more ships are entering the Gulf, but still remain high by historical standards. 

Sinokor, again, continues to play a key role. In the last week alone the company has sent at least 18 supertankers into the Gulf, enough to carry 36 million barrels of crude out of the world’s most important energy producing region.

“We can pass Hormuz Strait after loading,” Sinokor said in a message distributed to shipbrokers in late June, in which it urged brokers to book the company’s ships to load from an Iraqi oil terminal, adding: “Please let us know if you have any cargoes available.” 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The law introducing amendments to the Tax Code permits the blending of straight-run gasoline with other components to produce high-octane motor fuel, RBC reported on Saturday. Amendments also aim to stimulate gasoline imports to Russia by providing subsidies to importers.

About 90% of Russia’s regions have faced gasoline-supply issues or other forms of fuel rationing followed a series of Ukrainian attacks on refineries, in many cases deep within Russia, and authorities are taking extraordinary measures to overcome the crisis. 

Russia has banned gasoline and jet fuel exports and is considering possible restrictions on diesel exports as well. The Kremlin said on June 30 that Russia is discussing fuel imports at an acceptable price. Also, according to media reports, the government has relaxed certain technical requirements, allowing some refineries to produce Euro-3 gasoline and diesel until the end of 2026. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Gasoline and diesel are still trading at levels as if crude oil were at $95 to $100 a barrel, Pouyanné said at the Rencontres Economiques conference in Aix-en-Provence. It will take three to four months for the market to rebalance, he added. Brent crude traded on Friday at around $72 per barrel.

“Middle Eastern producers have built up such large inventories that they are now desperate to sell their oil,” Pouyanné said. “At the same time, there are difficulties getting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz because many shipowners are still unwilling to take the risk. As a result, producers are heavily discounting their crude, and oil prices are collapsing,” he added.

“The consequences of a blockade are ultimately quite complex — some rather unexpected and striking developments are taking place at the moment,” Pouyanné said. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries rose by 2.34 million barrels a day to 18.75 million a day, with the gains driven by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran, the survey showed. The rebound still leaves production considerably below prewar levels.

Even before the peace deal, Gulf producers had found ways to sneak cargoes out through the strait, which was largely shuttered in the early stages of the conflict. With the US-Iran agreement now allowing for more overt transit, Saudi shipments have reached 90% of typical rates, tanker-tracking data show. 

The uptick in supply — coming while fuel demand in key consumer China remains subdued — is creating a surplus in parts of the market, erasing crude’s wartime rally and raising the question of whether OPEC nations will need to compete for customers. Brent futures traded near $72 a barrel on Friday.

The group’s June production was still 7.3 million barrels a day, or 28%, below February levels, when adjusted for the United Arab Emirates’ exit.

The UAE quit OPEC in May, giving it the freedom to pump at will once the strait fully stabilizes. Iraq also briefly threatened it could exit unless eventually given a higher output quota by the organization.

Sunday Meeting

Major members of the wider OPEC+ alliance, which includes countries such as Russia, are due to hold a monthly video conference on Sunday to discuss output limits for the month ahead.

This subgroup of seven nations has announced a series of small and symbolic production increases during the war to continue a process — if only theoretically — of restoring output halted a few years ago. Two delegates said this week they expect another small hike in quotas of 188,000 barrels a day in August, the penultimate monthly stage in that process. 

The survey showed that Kuwait posted the biggest increase among OPEC’s 11 members last month, boosting output by 870,000 barrels a day to 1.36 million a day. The country’s production was slashed 80% by the conflict and still remains significantly below typical rates.

The next-biggest gain in June was in Saudi Arabia, which raised output by 550,000 barrels a day to an average of 7.2 million a day. That was followed by Iran, which hiked by 510,000 a day to pump 2.85 million a day, and has accumulated a hoard of supply on tankers at sea as it struggles to find buyers.  

In the wider alliance, Russia has bolstered crude exports to record levels following Ukrainian strikes on its refineries, potentially diverting volumes that can’t be processed at home.

Bloomberg’s production survey is based on ship-tracking data, information from officials and estimates from consultants Rapidan Energy Group, FGE NexantECA, Kpler Ltd. and Rystad Energy AS.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The proposed 1 million-barrel-a-day pipeline will link to a deepwater port capable of receiving Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, with the goal of “meeting significant Asian demand from countries like Japan, Korea, China and India,” according to the government of Alberta. 

The project will largely follow the route of the existing Trans Mountain line, Carney said. That’s the only crude pipeline in Canada that currently reaches an ocean port, limiting Canada’s ability to send oil to markets other than the US.

“Canada and Alberta will be equal partners in this project, and there will be a meaningful ownership stake for Indigenous communities,” Carney said in Calgary on Thursday evening, speaking alongside Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Carney and Smith, while sometimes political rivals, are seeking a shared goal of diversifying Canada’s exports to become less reliant on the US market after President Donald Trump launched a trade war last year.

Dealing with India and China

Selling more oil to growing Asian markets such as India and China will allow Canada to get better prices per barrel, they believe, boosting Alberta’s wealth and helping shield the economy from the protectionism that has defined US trade policy under Trump.

By doing the project through Trans Mountain, the two leaders are effectively providing a government backstop for a complex energy project that is certain to cost tens of billions of dollars. The Alberta government said construction of the project could cost between C$35.2 billion ($24.8 billion) and C$43.7 billion if investment is greenlit in the next three years. But it also forecast the potential to increase Canada’s real gross domestic product by more than 0.6% a year by the 2040s.

Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corp. will help build the new line for an initial 10% stake in the project with the option to raise the stake to 20% when the line is operating, as part of a non-bind agreement, it said in a statement. The project has now been submitted to the federal Major Projects Office for review — a process that may qualify it for faster regulatory approval.

Implementing CCS technology

The prime minister also said terms have been reached with the largest Canadian oil sands companies to move forward on Pathways, a large carbon capture system. Carney had said the project to reduce energy-sector emissions was a condition of his government’s backing of a new oil pipeline.

Kendall Dilling, president of the Oil Sands Alliance, which represents the five major oil sands firms, said they agreed to a 2032 start date for the Pathways project and construction would begin later this decade.

“No one party got everything they wanted, it’s just not how this works,” Dilling said in an interview. “But at the end of the day, everybody was committed to what needed to happen and we found a middle ground.”

The proposed third line for Trans Mountain isn’t the only expansion coming for Alberta’s oil producers. Enbridge Inc. and Trans Mountain are planning expansions equal to about 700,000 barrels a day in the next few years. At the same time, South Bow Corp. is teaming up with Bridger Pipeline LLC on a proposal for a new 550,000 barrel-a-day line to the US that’s akin to a smaller version of the canceled Keystone XL project.

“I think you’ll see as we get this MOU finalized and through final drafting and approvals, companies will be incentivized to move quickly to grow production,” Dilling said. “So I don’t think we’ll be waiting around for years to see companies starting to invest real dollars.”

Trans Mountain Chief Executive Mark Maki said in an interview that an open season would be needed to get commitments from producers before a final investment decision was made, and he expected that process to happen next year.

Persisting challenges

The choice of a route through southern British Columbia, and into Canada’s third most-populated metropolitan area, is a reversal for Smith, who had repeatedly said she preferred a northwestern route because it would shorten the shipping time to Asia. 

But earlier on Thursday, Carney and BC Premier David Eby announced a federal ban on oil tankers along the northern BC coast would stay in place with no exceptions. The federal government also announced billions in funding for energy, mining and transportation projects in BC. 

That deal removed a major hurdle to building a new pipeline, as Eby said his government won’t challenge Alberta’s new proposal in court. He had been steadfast in opposing a northwestern route and lifting the oil tanker ban.

Setting financial structures

“This agreement doesn’t require us to support any pipeline proposal from Alberta,” Eby said. “However, as I’ve said before, we recognize our constitutional position, and we do not have the authority to stop a new pipeline. We will not be going to court to fight a pipeline project.”

The BC deal also outlined plans for a legal framework that would see the province share in the economic upside from the new pipeline, including a potential annual royalty payment from the operator and the creation of an environmental liability and emergency response fund.

Carney also promised his government’s support for upgrading the Roberts Bank port south of Vancouver, which is the proposed end point for the pipeline. 

The existing Trans Mountain marine terminal in Burnaby, British Columbia, can only receive partly-full Aframax tankers, which carry less than half the amount of oil of VLCCs. The ability to ship oil on VLCCs would improve the economics of shipping western Canadian oil to distant destinations such as India. 

(Updates with reaction from 10th paragraph.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The country produced about 17.3 terawatt hours of electricity with gas in June, down 16% from last year, according to data compiled by Japan’s nine largest utilities. Coal generation rose by 4.6%, the data shows.

The move highlights how Asian countries are continuing to turn to alternatives, like coal, to reduce dependence on liquefied natural gas — as the conflict in the Middle East chokes about a fifth of global exports. Asian LNG spot prices are about 70% higher than pre-war levels, making the fuel less attractive to Japanese utilities.

Japan — the world’s second largest LNG buyer — has cut back imports since the war started in late-February. March to June imports are down about 7% compared to the same period last year, ship-tracking data shows. 

While higher demand from Northeast Asian countries pushed Australian benchmark coal prices to the highest since 2023 in early June, futures have since dropped around 15%.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

As geopolitical tensions and energy security concerns rise, Dr Sama explains how shifting investor sentiment, stronger policy frameworks and public–private partnerships can help make nuclear projects more bankable. The discussion also highlights opportunities across the nuclear value chain, from large reactors to small modular ones, and what it will take to deliver long-term, sustainable investment at scale in the years ahead.

The mirage is broken as Li Kai, a director at the local energy bureau, points to a black strip beyond the edge of the desert. A coal mine, he explains. 

In a region that ranks among China’s top producers of both coal and renewables, the two sides of the energy transition have, for now, formed an intimate alliance. Filtered waste water from the mine is funneled to the base to irrigate plants shaded by the solar panels, helping to tame vicious desert sandstorms whose effects can be felt hundreds of miles away in Beijing.

“Our model is quite innovative,” Li said. “We not only utilize the wastewater, but also solve the irrigation problem.” Further in the distance, he adds, a coal-fired power station and a set of batteries ensure the grid can meet electricity demand when the sun isn’t shining.

As China sets out to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, the central government sees its plentiful coal resources as an essential bridge to the clean-energy future. Xianlihoupo — first build, then dismantle — goes Beijing’s maxim, and Inner Mongolia is a testament to that vision of a slow and steady transition.

While trucks loaded with wind turbine towers hurtle down the northern borderland’s highways and power lines criss-cross its mountains, the coal industry here is evolving rather than fading away. The fossil fuel is now being used to balance renewables on the grid, turn deserts green and produce liquid fuels and chemicals needed for plastics.  

Inner Mongolia churns out more than 1.2 billion tons of coal every year, roughly a quarter of the nation’s total, and new facilities continue to be built. Coal mining is the region’s biggest industrial employer, providing almost 200,000 jobs, according to the 2023 regional census. It brought in 648.4 billion yuan ($95.4 billion) in annual revenue that year, more than a fifth of the region’s total. 

For policymakers in the Inner Mongolian capital of Hohhot, that economic dependence is motivation to extend coal’s use as long as possible. For China at large, it threatens to become a significant barrier to decarbonization. 

Local officials will align their development plans with the central government’s long-term vision of carbon neutrality, but progress may be slower in the country’s coal heartland, said Hu Bin, an associate professor at Tsinghua University’s Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development. “Short-term fluctuations are inevitable. It is difficult to guarantee steady, rapid progress across the board, given the current economic challenges,” he added.  

Flexible Power

Last year, China achieved a breakthrough by meeting new electricity demand nationwide with clean sources, pushing coal power generation down for the first time in a decade. President Xi Jinping called for the country to reproduce that feat going forward, even as the grid faces new pressure from artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and factory buildouts.

Inner Mongolia has emerged as a leader in this campaign, cutting thermal-power generation by 4.2% last year — more than any other province, according to research by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

The region is the nation’s top producer of wind power and now boasts China’s biggest energy-storage systems, with 25 gigawatts of battery capacity installed. But its coal-power network also played a central role. China’s policymakers are pushing for the country’s coal plants to be retrofitted wherever possible by 2027 in order to better support the renewables era. The idea is for the plants to become a more flexible power source, able to run at lower capacity, as well as to ramp up and down more quickly as required.

“It’s a practical part of this larger puzzle — on one hand, to fill in this need for flexibility and then on the other hand, it is also a strategic move to make coal less important to the power system,” said Biqing Yang, an energy analyst at UK-based think tank Ember who wrote a recent report on the issue.

Inner Mongolia has completed all of its coal-power retrofits ahead of schedule, according to Huang Zhiqiang, the region’s executive vice chairman, and running hours at the newly flexible plants have fallen in the last two years accordingly.

But that hasn’t stopped the region from developing more coal power. Inner Mongolia also had China’s largest pipeline of coal power plants under construction last year, more than 20 gigawatts of capacity, according to Global Energy Monitor (GEM). 

“Inner Mongolia in particular has a lot of local incentives to keep building, and there’s overall a bias toward overbuilding capacity rather than risk shortages,” said David Fishman, a principal at the Lantau Group who focuses on China’s power sector.  

Policymakers still describe coal power as a necessary layer of energy security. The fear is that renewables and batteries, whose economics remain uncertain, will fail to keep up with growing electricity demand. Lagging infrastructure and a power market that still favors long-term contracts mean that new renewable energy capacity in China doesn’t always translate to an equivalent increase in generation.

But the coal construction boom may extend the fuel’s use long after clean resources can provide sufficient backup, according to Kevin Tu, managing director of Agora Energy China, a Beijing-based think tank.

“If retrofitting coal-fired power plants for better flexibility is used as an excuse to permit more greenfield power capacity, then this could be quite counterproductive,” he said at a press briefing in June.

Coal to Chemicals

A new growth spurt in the region’s already formidable coal-to-chemicals industry also threatens to turbocharge emissions.

To date, China has invested in 75 projects to convert coal deposits into chemicals used in manufacturing, plastics production and fuels, according to GEM. Coal use in the sector rose 70% between 2019 and 2025, Bloomberg Intelligence data show, and Inner Mongolia became the industry’s central hub. 

The Iran war’s soaring oil prices gave coal-based production an extra boost. Across China, 34 projects are in the pipeline, seven of which are in Inner Mongolia, including a 23.8 billion yuan ($3.5 billion) coal-to-olefins project that entered construction this spring.  

“The Iran war did not create China’s coal-to-chemicals boom, but it accelerated a trend that was already gathering momentum,” said Aiqun Yu, a research analyst at GEM who has focused on the sector. 

Local officials have welcomed the industry as a way of reducing reliance on foreign imports. 

“Increasing production of coal-based chemical products will improve self-sufficiency in oil and gas domestically, helping to mitigate and offset energy security challenges at the industrial level,” said Mongolia’s executive vice chairman Huang at a press conference in Hohhot last month. 

But coal-to-chemicals projects are emissions-intensive, with a carbon footprint as much as eight times higher than petrochemical alternatives. Last year, carbon emissions in China’s chemicals sector grew 12%, according to CREA research, even as they fell in all other major sectors.

If all the coal-to-chemicals projects in China’s pipeline come to fruition, GEM estimates they will consume 300 million tons of coal annually, about 6% of China’s annual production. The latest set of projects have been paired with green hydrogen or carbon capture storage projects, but Yu says this only marginally decreases their emissions.

The industry “risks creating long-lived assets that could lock China into higher emissions for decades,” she said.

New Pathways

In its local five-year plan, Inner Mongolia set a target of peaking carbon emissions ahead of the national deadline of 2030. (All other Chinese regions and provinces did the same.) China has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 7% and 10% nationwide by 2035.

“Now it’s getting to a more painful period of the transition,” said Ember’s Yang. “That is, going into this plateau and then we need to drive this plateau down to an absolute decline.”

For Inner Mongolia and other coal-rich regions, ensuring the energy transition is minimally disruptive to regional revenue and employment is key. The calculus may start to change, though, with the implementation of a new national evaluation system this year, which will grade local officials on their carbon emissions in addition to their economic output.

Already, Hohhot’s officials have started trying to build out new economic pathways. They are pitching the region as a data-center hub, given its proximity to northeastern cities including Beijing and cheap, clean electricity. And they’ve attracted green giants like Envision Energy Co., battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. and Ming Yang Smart Energy Group Ltd., one of China’s largest wind-energy producers, to manufacture locally.

At Ming Yang’s factory and testing center near the industrial city of Baotou, 100-meter-long blades for future wind turbines underwent final quality tests. They waved like conductors’ batons in the howling wind as He Changguo, the company’s general manager for northern manufacturing, spoke to reporters. 

The wind business still sees room to grow, he said, particularly as the largest emitters  move into the “dismantling” phase of the energy transition.  

“Global demand for replacing traditional energy sources will be robust,” he said. “We are far from reaching the level of demand for wind and solar power, among other new energy sources, needed to achieve carbon neutrality.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The Greenlight Electricity Center, a 932-megawatt plant to be built in Sturgeon County, will serve a “major data center” development, Pembina, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management said on Thursday.

The project is scheduled to be completed by the second half of 2030, the company said in a release. Pembina is responsible for C$2.3 billion of the cost.

The investment comes as the Canadian province seeks to use its vast reserves of relatively cheap natural gas to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom and push to build data centers. 

A firm backed by Canadian businessman and television personality Kevin O’Leary wants to build a 7.5-gigawatt data center called Wonder Valley about 300 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Edmonton. Data District, a division of Swiss-based manager Alcral AG, has partnered with Technologies New Energy Plc, or TNE, on a proposal for multiple data centers in the western Canadian province, a potential €8 billion investment.

Last fall, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed to lift clean electricity rules and emissions limits that Alberta said hindered its energy industry, pledging to raise its industrial carbon price and shore up its carbon trading system in exchange. Those moves set the stage for the Pembina project and others, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in a press conference on Thursday. 

“We have opened the doors for more projects like this,” she said. “The agreement will allow Alberta to increase oil and gas production, secure more energy projects, and attract billions of dollars in investment that will grow and diversify our economy.”

Pembina didn’t identify the company behind the data center project. In October, The Logic reported that the company was close to announcing a deal to build an AI data center northeast of Edmonton for tech giant Meta Platforms Inc., citing three people familiar with the project. An email to Meta wasn’t immediately returned.

The company’s shares rose 0.3% to C$65.82 in Toronto on Thursday.

Separately, Aecon Group Inc. also announced that TRA, a majority-held consortium with Técnicas Reunidas Alberta, was awarded a data center development contract for the project in which Aecon is to receive a C$1.7 billion share.

(Updates with report on Meta, Alberta premier comment in sixth to eighth paragraphs. An earlier version of this story corrected the spelling of the company name in the headline.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Brent for September traded below $71 a barrel, after sliding more than 3% in the previous two sessions, while West Texas Intermediate was around $68. Oil supply through the critical waterway has reached more than 10 million barrels a day, underscoring Tehran’s now-limited ability to halt shipping, a US official said, while President Donald Trump hailed progress in negotiations.

Qatar said the next meeting would be scheduled at the earliest possible time following the funeral processions for Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an air strike at the start of the conflict. Ceremonies are expected to begin July 4 and continue for days, according to Iranian state-run media.

Oil has extended losses after its worst quarter since 2020, as flows through Hormuz — which connects Gulf producers to global buyers — continued despite tensions over the weekend that saw the parties exchange strikes. While total supply is still crimped, the United Arab Emirates’ exports have reached pre-war levels thanks to workarounds, and key US crude grades have slumped to trade at discounts as demand for American supply fades.

“Prices continue to drift lower as the gush of oil escaping the Strait of Hormuz coincides with SPR releases and curtailed demand, as flare ups between Iran and the US remain contained at least for the time being,” said Saul Kavonic, senior energy analyst at MST Marquee, referring to the millions of barrels of strategic petroleum reserves countries tapped to replace lost Gulf supply.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “may be reluctant to relinquish their leverage over the strait, as their ability to hold the world economy to ransom is the only point of leverage they really have,” Kavonic added. 

Ahead of the Qatar talks, Iran reiterated its determination to control shipping through Hormuz, underscoring the sticking points — which include the Islamic republic’s nuclear program and fighting in Lebanon — that are complicating discussions during the 60-day ceasefire window. Trump repeated that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon in comments Wednesday to reporters in Virginia.

Total US stockpiles have fallen to the lowest levels since March 2025, with inventories excluding strategic reserves at around 1.2 billion barrels, after 12 straight weeks of declines.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba said, “After leaving OPEC and while navigating months of regional disruption, the UAE is now exporting at record levels when the world needs it most. That’s good news for global energy security.” 

Ship-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa showed that UAE crude and condensate exports stood at around 3.7 bpd in June, surpassing the previous record of 3.44 million bpd set in April in 2020 during the Saudi-Russia oil price war.

Matching prewar supplies 

Oil exports from the country in early June had already recovered to nearly 85% of the prewar levels, according to the IEA. 

Data also indicated that ADNOC had kept ferrying shipments out of the Arabian Gulf using its own fleet during the war, helping exports stay afloat. 

According to Kpler Senior Oil Analyst Johannes Rauball, exports have now exceeded the 3.1-3.3 million bpd levels seen before the recent Middle East conflict.

“The rise can be attributed to multiple factors, including a resumption in flows via the Strait of Hormuz, helping to free trapped vessels,” Rauball said. “At the same time, we have been observing a ramp-up in supply from the UAE, which we estimate is closing in on prewar levels.”

He added that the UAE has also been drawing down crude inventories, further enhancing export volumes.

OPEC exit eases production pressures 

The increase comes after the UAE formally exited OPEC on 1 May, ending nearly six decades of membership. 

The country had earlier said the move would allow it to maximise the value of its hydrocarbon resources without being constrained by OPEC production quotas.

The export surge also follows weeks of disruption in the Gulf during the conflict involving Iran, when heightened security concerns around the Strait of Hormuz prompted ADNOC to implement additional measures to safeguard crude shipments. 

According to trade sources, the company established a tanker shuttle system to move crude through the Arabian Gulf before transferring cargoes to larger vessels outside the highest-risk areas.

Vortexa Senior Oil Analyst Emma Li said Abu Dhabi crude loadings averaged 4 million bpd between June 1 and June 29, up from around 3.4 million bpd before the conflict. 

Exports reached a record 3.7 million bpd, compared with approximately 3.3 million bpd during the first two months of the year.

Non-traditional markets grab UAE oil 

While Asia continues to be ADNOC’s largest market, demand has also strengthened west of the Suez Canal, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

Buyers in Africa, the US, Europe, and the Mediterranean have increased purchases in recent weeks.

Trade sources said ADNOC has supplied crude to Nigeria’s Dangote refinery as well as Turkish refiner Tupras, reflecting the company’s strategy of expanding its customer base beyond the usual Asian markets.

Emerging alternative routes 

ADNOC has been investing heavily to raise sustainable crude production capacity to 5 million bpd, while increasing exports through infrastructure such as the Habshan–Fujairah pipeline, which enables crude shipments to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. 

Through this, ADNOC has continued marketing additional crude cargoes, issuing its fifth spot tender of the month for Upper Zakum, Umm Lulu and Das crude grades. 

The tender offers cargoes ranging from 500,000 barrels to 2 million barrels for loading between June and August.

Under the terms of the agreement, SLB will collaborate with KOC on applied research, technology deployment and digital transformation projects aimed at advancing Kuwait’s long-term energy strategy and improving upstream operations.

SLB will be part of nearly 100 projects spanning AI, industrial internet of things (IIoT) applications, production optimisation, reservoir technologies, water management, and energy transition initiatives. The programme is designed to accelerate the evaluation, testing, and deployment of emerging technologies across KOC’s operations.

Advancing Kuwait's energy systems

Ahmadi Innovation Valley is KOC’s flagship innovation platform, bringing together industry, academia and technology providers to address strategic upstream challenges while strengthening research capabilities and knowledge transfer within Kuwait’s energy sector.

“Ahmadi Innovation Valley represents an important step in advancing technology leadership across Kuwait’s energy sector,” said Ahmad Jaber Al-Eidan, Chief Executive Officer of Kuwait Oil Company. “Through collaboration with leading technology partners, we are accelerating technology deployment, strengthening local capabilities and expanding knowledge transfer to support Kuwait’s energy industry,” Al-Eidan added. 

Bringing large-scale operations online

SLB Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said the initiative would help bridge the gap between technological innovation and large-scale operational deployment.

“The energy industry has no shortage of technology. The challenge is deploying it at scale and turning innovation into operational impact,” he said, adding that the platform “brings together technology providers, researchers and operational teams to accelerate the evaluation, deployment and scaling of new solutions across KOC’s operations.”

As part of the agreement, SLB will also establish a dedicated Ahmadi Innovation Valley facility in Kuwait. 

Construction is expected to begin some time this year, with the centre scheduled to open in 2028, which will serve as a hub for research, testing, technology validation, and workforce development, supporting collaboration between local and international experts.

The project aligns with Kuwait’s broader efforts to modernise its upstream sector through digitalisation and advanced technologies while maintaining production capacity and improving operational efficiency. 

The partnership brings together Siemens’ expertise in industrial AI, digital engineering, automation, and manufacturing execution with IFS’s capabilities in enterprise asset management, field service management, and industrial AI.

Together these companies will address one of manufacturing’s main challenges: the disconnect between how production systems are designed and how they perform in everyday operations. 

By integrating engineering, operational, and maintenance data, Siemens and IFS aim to reduce unplanned downtime, improve asset performance, and strengthen supply chain resilience. 

They will also develop comprehensive digital twins aided by Siemens’ engineering and manufacturing data, while IFS will provide its operational, maintenance, and service information. 

Supporting predictive maintenance

The companies said this will create a continuous feedback loop between product design and real-world performance, enabling manufacturers to make faster, data-driven decisions throughout an asset’s lifecycle.

The integrated approach is expected to improve production planning, and help manufacturers respond more quickly to changing market conditions while extending the operational life of industrial assets.

“Industrial AI only delivers value when it is grounded in both engineering intent and real-world performance,” said Tony Hemmelgarn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Digital Industries Software.

“Together with IFS, we are bringing these domains together by connecting design, manufacturing and asset lifecycle data in a secure, contextualised data fabric,” Hemmelgarn said, adding, “By converging our combined strengths in industrial AI, we will empower our customers with our vision of an executable digital twin that will enable them to accelerate innovation with confidence.”

IFS Chief Executive Officer Mark Moffat said manufacturers are increasingly looking for AI solutions that can operate reliably in complex industrial environments, where safety, compliance, and operational continuity are critical.

“By combining our collective strengths in Industrial AI, we can help manufacturers close the loop between design and reality, and unlock real, measurable performance gains,” he said.

Enhancing interoperability 

The announcement comes as manufacturers accelerate investments in digital transformation to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and strengthen resilience against supply chain disruptions. 

According to industry analysts, industrial AI is becoming a key enabler of predictive maintenance, quality control, and production optimisation, allowing operators to extract greater value from existing assets while supporting sustainability goals through improved energy efficiency and reduced waste.

The partnership also reflects the growing convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), as manufacturers increasingly seek integrated digital platforms, which can connect engineering with factory operations. 

The company submitted an application under the UK’s Advanced Nuclear Framework to build 14 units at three sites to provide enough power to serve nearly 8 million homes for decades, SGE said in a statement Thursday.

The installations will use GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors. Google Cloud and Samsung C&T are among the members of the deployment team.  

SGE expects the project to enter the Advanced Nuclear Pipeline in November with site selection and government negotiations to be completed in the first half of 2027. Together, the reactors would be able to produce 4.2 gigawatts, the equivalent of more than 10% of the country’s electricity. 

The project would help jumpstart the UK nuclear sector and expand supplies of zero-carbon energy. The country’s grid is struggling with capacity constraints and high energy bills, delaying the ability to connect data centers. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The NRC has proposed replacing the “as low as reasonably achievable” standard, abbreviated as Alara, with regulations the agency considers more cost effective and less complex. The new policy would be based on existing federally regulated dose limits.

The commission also proposed a range of reforms to licensing practices in an effort to streamline nuclear power plant development. 

NRC Chairman Ho K. Nieh said he doesn’t expect major changes in operations at existing nuclear facilities but the rule change will have a greater impact on new technologies. 

“These new reactor designers and new technology designers are trying to hit a moving target,” Nieh said. “What we’re doing is putting in place structure that does not currently exist today. It’s a logical, well thought out approach to managing doses below the regulatory limits.”

Nuclear advocates endorsed the shift away from Alara, saying it could free reactor developers from potentially onerous and costly requirements.

Critics argue that eliminating Alara will put workers and public health at risk. 

“The issue here is that routine exposures to workers and the public are already well below regulatory limits,” Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists said. “This rule could allow facility owners to change practices that have led to these low levels.” 

The NRC’s new approach stems from a May 2025 executive order in which President Donald Trump instructed the agency to accelerate nuclear deployment and reform regulations. The order included the mandate to reconsider the Alara standard. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Valar’s Ward 250 reactor was connected to the Nvidia Blackwell chip during a demonstration Wednesday at the company’s site in Utah, and used to temporarily host a website. The two companies also announced an agreement to jointly explore ways to develop nuclear-powered AI systems. 

The latest step follows the reactor reaching “criticality” last month, marking the start of a self-sustaining fission reaction. Valar is part of a wave of companies developing next-generation nuclear technologies that use new materials and designs intended to improve safety and performance. However, the industry is still in its early stages, and no US advanced reactors are commercially available.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Brent traded above $73 a barrel, after sinking by almost a third over the past three months, while West Texas Intermediate was near $70. US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had positive discussions in Qatar and technical talks with Iran are moving ahead, a senior administration official said. The duo were in Doha for indirect talks to ease tensions over the critical waterway that connects Gulf producers to world markets.

Crude has fallen in recent days as the warring parties continued discussions to reach a more lasting accord, although recent attacks around Hormuz have marred negotiations. Oil tanker traffic is now showing signs of recovery, and has picked up since the US and Iran exchanged strikes over the weekend.

“We expect that by the end of July this is done,” said Samantha Dart, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., referring to the conflict. “Once we have a normalization of flows through the strait, the expectation is that we go into an oversupply.”

Goldman Sachs pegs the surplus at close to two million barrels a day next year, even after accounting for restocking of global strategic petroleum reserves following the Iran war. Morgan Stanley has also warned of a looming glut as flows through the strait return faster than expected, cutting its price forecasts for the second time in about two weeks. 

Markets are now contending with a gush of crude from other sources too. Iran said it exported more than 40 million barrels of oil since the US lifted its naval blockade, while Russian shipments are surging to records, causing a major buildup of barrels at sea.

Iran has reiterated its determination to control maritime traffic through the strait, a reminder that key sticking points — including over the country’s nuclear program and and end to fighting in Lebanon — remain in place and stand to complicate discussions during the 60-day ceasefire window.

Traders will also be looking to US crude inventory data due later Wednesday. That comes after Energy Information Administration data published last week showed nationwide stockpiles hit their lowest level since 1984.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

SK is bringing together renewable assets and businesses, including solar, wind and fuel cells, from its subsidiaries SK Innovation, SK ecoplant and SK eternix, according to the release. KKR is making an investment of undisclosed value from its Asia Pacific infrastructure investments, it said.

The new firm describes itself as Korea’s largest renewable energy business, and will have about 1.7 gigawatts of operating capacity with a development pipeline that could grow that to 10 gigawatts, according to the release. KKR will have management control initially.

South Korea’s power sector is dominated by nuclear and coal and gas, with wind and solar accounting for just 6.7% of total generation in 2024, according to BloombergNEF data. President Lee Jae Myung is pushing for more renewables to help reduce carbon emissions, while also expanding electricity output to ensure supply for building more data centers and semiconductor factories. 

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The company will take a pretax charge of as much as $2.9 billion in its fiscal third quarter tied to canceling the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex and other initiatives, Air Products said Tuesday in a statement. The firm said it made the decision to halt the project based on expected financial returns not meeting its “stringent” criteria.

Shares of the Pennsylvania-based company jumped as much as 12% in New York.

The move is the latest setback in the push to develop hydrogen as a clean fuel in the US after the Trump administration’s signature tax bill slashed a tax credit for the gas. It’s also another blow for carbon capture and sequestration, which the oil and natural gas industry has long promoted as key to fighting global warming.

“What you are seeing here is about reduced government support for the industry long term,” said Joseph Majkut, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research group. “The future for hydrogen projects in the United States is in great question given lack of support for climate action, no federal climate policy and a more challenging fiscal picture coming into the future.”

Once seen as a climate-friendly way to power heavy industry from ships to steel and cement factories, hydrogen projects around the world have been cancelled or scaled-back amid weak demand and high costs. The Trump has administration canceled billions of dollars in hydrogen projects destined for the West Coast, which the previous Biden administration envisioned as helping start a market for the nascent fuel.

Air Products announced the Louisiana Clean Energy Complex in 2021 in what would have been its largest-ever US investment, with an expected $4.5 billion cost. The project as envisioned would have used natural gas to produce 750 million cubic feet of so-called blue hydrogen, in which hydrocarbons are used as a feedstock in combination with carbon capture. The chief executive officer overseeing the project, Seifi Ghasemi, was later ousted. The project was expected to be operational in 2026.

Air Products also said Tuesday it will discontinue a zero-carbon liquid hydrogen facility in Casa Grande, Arizona and other smaller-scale projects supporting clean energy distribution.

“These exits are being driven by challenging commercial conditions, project-specific economic factors, and slower-than-expected development in certain markets, largely hydrogen for mobility,” the company said.

Research firm Capstone LLC said in an email that the decision by Air Products to stop developing the project is more likely the result of factors including potentially unexpected costs or challenges to secure offtake agreements.

“Market reality is not matching the exuberance the industry had a few years ago,” said Majkut, who is the director of CSIS’s Energy Security and Climate Change Program. “We are are not seeing the demand for hydrogen projects that were imagined.”

(Updates with additional context.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The update to the National Energy System Operator’s long-term grid plans, released on Tuesday, compares with roughly £58 billion outlined in 2024. The forecast accounts for rising power usage, including from data centers, which require massive, constant flows of power.

A congested grid is one of the biggest challenges to Britain’s clean power goals. While wind and solar generation has grown rapidly, the country’s transmission capacity has lagged behind. That can force the system to switch off renewables output because those supplies can’t reach areas where they’re needed, with more expensive gas-fired plants elsewhere paid to generate instead. 

NESO warned that without timely upgrades, those balancing costs could roughly triple between 2031 and 2035.

NESO also recommended that three times more new undersea cabling is needed than new onshore transmission lines, along with upgrades to existing infrastructure to reduce the impact on communities from pylons. It also said that investment is needed to deal with growing electricity demand from other areas too, such as transport and heating.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

State-owned PTT PCL is in discussions with developers for equity and supply on a long-term basis, including with Woodside Energy Group Ltd. about its Louisiana LNG facility, said the people, asking to not be identified because the matter is confidential. Talks are still in the early stages, they added.

The US is just one of the countries where PTT is looking for opportunities to expand its LNG portfolio, the company said in a statement to Bloomberg News, without elaborating. Woodside declined to comment.

Several leading Asian importers including Thailand have seen their LNG supply upended by the Iran war, which has choked off shipments from the Middle East and driven up prices. The Southeast Asian nation has a long-term contract with Qatar, but has been forced to take expensive spot cargoes to meet demand.

Efforts to diversify supply away from the Middle East following the war have prompted growing interest in Woodside’s Louisiana LNG plant, Chief Executive Officer Liz Westcott said in May. The goal for the project, which is currently under construction, is to begin shipments in 2029.

Separately, the Thai government is planning to accelerate investments in LNG import infrastructure, with the construction of new data centers expected to significantly increase electricity demand, Energy Ministry Permanent Secretary Prasert Sinsukprasert told reporters earlier this month.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

Demand over the past five years surpassed the government’s expectations, said Ren Yuzhi, director‑general of the planning department at the National Energy Administration. The growth of artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and other emerging sectors is compounding the problem for energy planners trying to map out the next five.

Deliberations extend to potentially rethinking China’s geography and where electricity is consumed, after decades of building up power networks to serve the massive cities in the east.

“Forecasting future energy demand — especially electricity — is a key challenge in the next planning cycle,” Ren said in an exclusive interview on Friday, after his agency released more details on the energy component of China’s new five-year plan that runs through 2030.

“AI computing centers and the development of electric vehicles are important factors,” he said. “EVs, in particular, have seen faster growth in recent years — especially this year — and charging demand has risen significantly.”

Understanding future energy demand is critical for the planners guiding trillions of dollars in investment in China’s more centrally planned economy. The task is made more complicated by the country’s transition to cleaner but less consistent renewable energy.

China now expects an average annual increase in power demand of around 600 billion kilowatt-hours in the next five years, according to the NEA, which would be more than Germany produces in a year. That compares to 570 billion kilowatt-hours over the past five years, said Ren.

Marked Shifts

The implications of getting it wrong can be seen in the marked shifts in China’s energy policy over the past five years. 

In 2021, planners estimated China would need about 4.6 billion tons of coal equivalent a year by 2025, a 14% increase from 2020 levels. Instead, demand grew so fast that total production ended up at 5.13 billion tons last year. 

A series of power shortages in 2021 and 2022 led to an about-face in the country’s policy around coal. 

In April 2021, President Xi Jinping said the country would strictly control coal-fired power generation projects, as well as limit the increase in coal consumption through 2025.

But after the shortages, which occurred during a period of disruptions related to the pandemic, skyrocketing global energy prices and a drought that shriveled domestic hydropower output, authorities changed tack. China kept its green energy ambitions, but miners were also pushed to boost output to record levels and hundreds of new coal power plants were approved.

Officials said the new coal plants were intended to backstop the country’s fleet of intermittent wind and solar plants, which saw an even greater surge in growth following the power shortages. But power output from fossil fuels still rose 19% from 2020 to 2025, and is up another 3.4% this year through May. 

China’s current plans call for peaking coal by 2030. To achieve that, clean energy will need to grow swiftly and be flexible enough to handle all additional demand. 

Traditional industries like steel continue to consume vast amounts of energy, while new sectors like AI and advanced manufacturing are becoming important new sources of demand. At the same time, China wants to shift energy use from fossil fuels to electricity, which will add further strains to the grid, Ren said. 

“We will not only need to meet traditional demand, but also the growing needs of people’s daily lives,” Ren said. “Increasingly, new areas are having a significant impact.”

Those new sources of demand are prompting policymakers to reconsider how energy and industrial capacity are geographically distributed, he said. Rather than continuing to transmit large volumes of electricity from western China to the eastern seaboard, authorities are weighing a shift toward relocating energy-intensive industries westward, closer to renewable resources.

“The western region has traditionally focused on exporting coal, electricity, and natural gas,” Ren said, referring to a point made earlier Friday at a press briefing by NEA deputy director Wan Jinsong “Going forward, it is more likely that the west will export finished products and computing power.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

The $1.4 billion development is one of the largest integrated wind and battery energy storage projects in Central Asia. 

It will combine a 1GW wind farm with a 600 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) designed to improve grid stability and support the integration of renewable energy.

Once operational, the facility is expected to generate enough electricity to power around 880,000 homes in southern Kazakhstan while avoiding approximately 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. 

The development also includes the construction of more than 400 kilometres of overhead transmission lines to strengthen the region’s electricity network.

Hitting renewable goals

The project is being led by Masdar in partnership with W Solar, Qazaq Green Power, a Samruk-Kazyna Fund company, and the Kazakhstan Investment Development Fund.

The Zhambyl wind project supports Kazakhstan’s target of sourcing 15% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2030, rising to 50% by 2050. It also contributes to Masdar’s ambition of expanding its global renewable energy portfolio to 100GW by 2030.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Yerlan Akkenzhenov, said, “Our partnership with Masdar drives renewable energy development and propels Kazakhstan toward carbon neutrality,” adding that “This project will strengthen regional energy security and bring cutting-edge technologies to the renewable energy sector.”

New RTC project announced 

Alongside the ceremony, Masdar signed a roadmap agreement with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development to explore the country’s first Round-the-Clock (RTC) clean energy project. 

The initiative aims to provide continuous utility-scale renewable power and in its initial phase could supply up to 200 MW of baseload electricity for data centres and AI infrastructure.

The agreement will support site identification, technical studies, and stakeholder engagement as the project advances.

Masdar Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi said that this project would help deliver reliable and affordable clean energy for Kazakhstan’s emerging industries. 

Warming bilateral relations

The Kazakhstan initiative builds on Masdar’s growing portfolio of large-scale renewable energy projects. 

In 2025, the company broke ground on a 24/7 solar and battery storage project in Abu Dhabi, combining a 5.2 GW solar photovoltaic plant with a 19 GWh BESS capable of delivering up to 1 GW of continuous baseload power.

Nurlan Zhakupov, Chief Executive Officer of Samruk-Kazyna, described the project as an important milestone in the strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and the UAE.

“The 1GW wind farm opens a new chapter in the cooperation between Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates and reflects our shared commitment to advancing a low-carbon economy, deploying innovative technologies and building a sustainable energy future for Kazakhstan.”

The Iran war and Qatar’s temporary export impasse brought a supply deficit, which has been filled by a combination of rising exports from elsewhere, demand substituting fuels – particularly within power plants, or pulling supplies from storage – at a much smaller extent compared to oil, however.

Most of these dynamics appear illustratively in Europe. Storage remains in deficit that largely originates from last year. Overseas natural gas imports hold up well and show no meaningful drop over the past months, despite the Middle East’s supply outage. 

The weather impact in Europe

The now-ebbing heat wave, however, leaves some marks. With hydro and nuclear power suffering from the heat and drought, natural gas power plants were in use more often than normal, especially during the evening hours. 

This additional demand seems to prolong the storage deficit somewhat, namely in France and Belgium. The past weeks’ weather impact on power markets became a hotly commented topic in Europe.

Within hours, markets shifted from abundance around noon to scarcity in the evening, when air conditioners kept humming but the sun set and solar generation dropped. Simultaneously, intraday power prices swung widely, reaching peaks so far only witnessed during cold winter evenings.

The answer may lie in battery storage

These sharp moves up and down the power generation curve likely has already been partially eased by the growth of grid battery storage capacity. With data only partially available, the impact is still difficult to gauge. A look abroad, to Australia or California, where grid battery storage is available at scale, suggests that this phenomenon could disappear as quickly as it appeared. 

On the back of significant cost reductions, battery storage has become clean energy’s boom segment, and the early adopters experience lower power prices overall, more reliability, and lower natural gas power generation. With all the attention on data centres, these observations are worth noticing.

Power scarcity is not the issue, but rather adequate alignment of the combo electrification boom on both the supply and demand side of the market. Only where this alignment is mismanaged do grid challenges seem to appear. 

Even though the natural gas market should see a similar supply improvement compared to oil and long-term pressure on prices, we stick to our neutral view.

Summer weather risks are here to stay a bit longer. After the summer, Europe’s storage deficit should narrow.

XRG’s latest acquisition covers the Meseta Buena Esperanza, Aguada Villanueva, and Las Tacanas blocks, which are operated by YPF. 

Italian energy major Eni has also acquired a 32% stake in the same assets, while YPF will retain the remaining 36%. The Final Investment Decision (FID) is expected to take place in the second half of 2026. 

A statement said that the transactions remain subject to customary regulatory approvals. 

Strengthening Argentina’s LNG export ambitions

The deal comes at a time when geopolitical tensions have severely restricted LNG supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. 

However, this project is designed to connect Vaca Muerta’s vast unconventional gas resources with international markets through a planned 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) LNG export facility.

XRG said the assets will provide long-term gas supply for floating LNG facilities while also supporting condensate production.

Mohamed Al Aryani, President of International Gas at XRG, said the investment strengthens the company’s role in the development of a significant new LNG supply source.

“Argentina has the potential to play an increasingly important role in meeting the world’s growing demand for natural gas, and projects such as Argentina LNG will be important to unlocking that opportunity,” he said.

Horacio Marín, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of YPF, said the agreements represent another milestone in the development of the Argentina LNG project.

Guido Brusco, Chief Operating Officer of Global Natural Resources at Eni, said, “Vaca Muerta is one of the world’s richest unconventional basins in terms of resources: our participation positions us across the entire value chain, from Argentine upstream to the supply of LNG to international customers, creating value while contributing to global energy security.”

What the deal means for XRG

XRG has previously announced a joint development agreement with YPF and Eni for the Argentina LNG project.

The company, which was launched in 2024, is an international lower-carbon energy and chemicals investment company, with an enterprise value of over $80 billion.

For XRG, the Vaca Muerta acquisition fits neatly into its goals to capitalise on the energy transition while focusing on emerging economies. 

XRG’s global gas and LNG portfolio includes interests in the Absheron gas and condensate field in Azerbaijan, Offshore Block 1 in Turkmenistan, the Area 4 concession in Mozambique’s Rovuma Basin, including the planned Coral North FLNG and Rovuma LNG developments, along with the Rio Grande LNG project in the US. 

And while energy access, reliability, and affordability are fundamental issues, during past crises, we have seen sustainability as a priority come under pressure.

At Ipieca, the global oil and gas association dedicated to advancing environmental and social performance across the energy transition, we recognise that sustainability is at the core of building not only resilient energy systems, but also creating a competitive advantage for energy companies when faced with changing and challenging markets.

Collaboration as a key enabler 

Creating reliable, sustainable energy systems depends on a surrounding enabling environment, where collaboration is key. 

Collaboration across companies, sectors, and borders can support data and knowledge sharing to build the awareness and capacity necessary for the adoption and uptake of sustainability practices related to adaptation and resilience, responsible resource management, energy efficiency, social inclusion, and local development, which can help ensure the resilience of energy companies. 

International cooperation can support the technical and regulatory frameworks, finance, and shared infrastructure needed for a reliable, sustainable, and interconnected energy system.

Reliability and affordability

This current geopolitical context has not only brought the interconnection of energy systems to the mainstream, but also highlighted the importance of energy to just about every other sector of the global economy. Achieving resilient energy systems requires the development of integrated, cross-sector pathways that advance decarbonisation while safeguarding energy security and economic prosperity. 

The oil and gas industry has a critical role to play in this transition, leveraging its technical expertise, infrastructure, and investment capacity to support the deployment of lower-carbon solutions at scale. By acting as a bridge between existing and emerging energy systems, the sector can help ensure that progress towards climate goals is accompanied by continued access to reliable and affordable energy.

Supporting new technology

Strategic investment in lower-carbon fuels and regional carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) hubs offers a significant opportunity to strengthen both resilience and sustainability. Lower-carbon fuels can enhance energy diversification and support emissions reductions across multiple sectors, while shared CCUS infrastructure can accelerate decarbonisation by enabling industries to access cost-effective emissions management solutions. 

These investments can help underpin industrial competitiveness, support economic development, and reinforce the long-term reliability of energy systems. 

This will be particularly important for hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy industry, aviation, and shipping, which are fundamental to global economic activity yet face complex decarbonisation challenges.

The continued development of lower-carbon fuels, CCUS and other enabling technologies can help these sectors maintain operational continuity while progressively reducing emissions. 

A resilient energy transition must therefore focus not only on achieving climate objectives but also on ensuring that essential industries can continue to deliver the goods, services, and infrastructure upon which societies depend.

Determining sustainable operations

Realising this vision will require cooperation across governments, industry, financial institutions, and civil society. 

Mobilising investment, harmonising regulatory frameworks, sharing knowledge, and developing common infrastructure will be essential to accelerating the deployment of low-carbon technologies. 

By strengthening global partnerships and aligning efforts across sectors, we can build a more resilient, secure, and sustainable energy system that supports both development aspirations and climate ambitions.

Our energy system can only be considered truly sustainable if it supports fair growth and improved living conditions for all, while delivering on climate mitigation goals and protecting and enhancing nature. 

To deliver this, unprecedented collaboration across all countries, sectors, energies and technologies will be required, with everyone playing their part.

The World Bank Group will still work to support borrowers “in delivering on their own ambitions as set out in their national plans” for climate objectives, it said in a statement Monday.

It also will continue with its climate change action plan, the so-called CCAP, but will now retire a 45% co-benefits target. The term refers to funding aimed at both supporting climate action while also furthering development objectives.

“We will complete our shift from inputs to outcomes to maximize development impact,” the Washington-based bank said.

Monday’s move follows strong Trump administration pushback against the bank’s climate change initiatives. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in April that the bank’s 45% target for climate finance “breeds inefficiency, distorts economic decision making and moves the bank away from its core mission.”

Bessent Expectation

Bessent also said in April he expected the bank to “immediately shift its myopic focus on climate and financing volumes to one that emphasizes high-quality, durable projects rather than shaping and selecting projects to chase arbitrary financing targets.”

Last year, 48% — over $39 billion — of the bank’s financing had climate co-benefits, up from a 44% share in 2024, according to the bank.

At the request of the World Bank’s board, the lender’s independent evaluation group will now evaluate the plan, the statement also said, without offering a timeframe for the review.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.