Energy

Egypt and Turkey on Thursday held talks on the conflict in Libya, where they back competing factions, on Syria and the security situation in the eastern Mediterranean, in a push to rebuild their fractured relations. The discussions, held over two days and led by deputy foreign ministers, were the first …

Militants using bombs attacked two oil wells at an oilfield close to the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, killing at least one policeman and setting off fires, the oil ministry said. Industry sources said the attack had not affected production. A statement from the oil ministry did not …

Iraq plans to invest $3 billion in the Basra Gas Company over the next five years, the Iraqi News Agency reported on Monday. Source: Reuters

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator said on Saturday Tehran expects U.S. sanctions on oil, banks and most individuals and institutions to be lifted based on agreements so far in Vienna talks, Iranian media reported, while Washington again played down the prospect of an imminent breakthrough. Russia and Western European powers meanwhile …

Egypt has signed a $7.5 billion deal to construct a petrochemical complex in the Ain Sokhna industrial zone, the cabinet said on Wednesday. The deal, between the Red Sea National Refining and Petrochemicals Company and the Suez Canal Economic Zone’s development company, aims to produce value-added petroleum products in order …

Delek Drilling DEDRp.TA said on Monday it had signed a non-binding deal to sell its stake in the east Mediterranean natural gas field Tamar to Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Petroleum for $1.1 billion. The deal, if finalised, would be one of the most significant developments since Israel and the United Arab …

Iran and global powers resumed talks on Thursday to rescue the 2015 nuclear deal in an effort potentially complicated by Tehran’s decision to ramp up uranium enrichment and what it called Israeli sabotage at a nuclear site. Casting a shadow over the Vienna talks, Tehran on Tuesday announced its decision …

Iran said on Tuesday it will start enriching uranium to 60% purity, a move bringing the fissile material closer to levels suitable for a bomb, after accusing Israel of sabotaging a key nuclear installation. The disclosure came soon before the resumption of talks in Vienna aimed at reviving Iran’s 2015 …

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey and Libya were committed to a 2019 maritime demarcation accord in the eastern Mediterranean, after meeting Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh in Ankara. “The maritime accord signed between Turkey and Libya secures national interests and future of both countries…We confirmed our …

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister on Monday approved a draft decree expanding the country’s claims in a dispute with Israel over their maritime border that has held up hydrocarbon exploration in the potentially gas-rich area. Hassan Diab signed off on the document after both the minister of public works and the …

Iran blames regional arch-foe Israel for Sunday’s incident at the Natanz nuclear site and will take its revenge, state TV quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying on Monday. Iranian authorities described the incident a day earlier as an act of “nuclear terrorism” and said Tehran reserves the right …

A problem with the electrical distribution grid of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility caused an incident at the site on Sunday, Iranian Press TV reported, a day after Tehran launched new advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at the site. The Natanz facility, which is located in the desert in the central province …

Saudi Arabia will start exporting electricity to neighboring countries, Argaam reported citing the Kingdom’s energy minister, following the opening of the Sakaka IPP photovoltaic (PV) power plant, its first renewable energy project. “Projects are ongoing to connect power grids with Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and the GCC,” Prince Abulaziz bin Salman …

Diplomats from major powers met separately on Wednesday with Iran and the United States to discuss how to bring both back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal that Washington abandoned three years ago. Neither the United States nor Iran expect fast breakthroughs in the talks that began in Vienna …

The impacts of the patchwork of jurisdictional carbon prices have had major impacts on hundreds of organizations around the world. As of 2019, “about 1600 companies disclosed that they currently use internal carbon pricing or that they anticipate doing so within two years”. Internal carbon pricing is the process of …

U.S. asset manager BlackRock and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc are no longer in the race to buy a stake in Saudi oil giant Aramco’s pipeline business, two sources familiar with the deal said. Apollo Global Management and New York-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) are among the bidders still in …

Italy’s Eni will stop its hydrocarbon activities in Tunisia to focus on clean energy, the Tunisian energy ministry said, amid recurrent social unrest near oil installations in the country. The giant energy company will give up mining licenses for nine oil concessions it was running jointly with the Tunisian government …

When India’s government last month asked refiners to speed up diversification and reduce dependence on the Middle East – days after OPEC+ said it would maintain production cuts – it sent a message about its clout and foreshadowed changes to the world’s energy maps. It was a move that had …

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Iran on Friday for a visit that Iranian state media said would see the signing of a 25-year cooperation agreement between the two countries, which are both under U.S sanctions. The accord, final details of which are yet to be announced, is expected …

Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday described his Saudi counterpart’s advice to reduce oil stores to tackle high crude prices as “undiplomatic”. “That was in a way (an) undiplomatic answer by some of our old friend. I politely disagree with that kind of approach. “Certainly India has its own …

Saudi Aramco will ensure China’s energy security remains its highest priority for the next 50 years and beyond as new and existing energy sources run in parallel for some time, CEO Amin Nasser told the China Development Forum on Sunday. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, retained its position …

Iran will cold test its redesigned Arak nuclear reactor as prelude to fully commissioning it later in the year, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Friday. Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted by local media as saying the cold testing, which usually include the initial startup of fluid systems and support …

Indian state refiners are planning to cut oil imports from Saudi Arabia by about a quarter in May, in an escalating stand-off with Riyadh following OPEC’s decision to ignore calls from New Delhi to help the global economy with higher supply. Two sources familiar with the discussions said the move …

In the past decade, the world has witnessed a pressing need for a major transformation from conventional energy sources to renewables starting with planned efforts in limiting the global temperature from rising to 2.0ºC (3.6˚F) for the present century. A number of producer economies have recognized the need to diversify …

The UAE announced the issuance of a license to operate the second unit of the Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi’s Al-Dhafra region, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday. The Nawah Energy Company – which is responsible of operating unit one to four of the power plant – …

The United States on Monday expressed alarm at “genuine security threats” to Saudi Arabia from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis and elsewhere in the region after attacks on the heart of the Saudi oil industry, and it would look at improving support for Saudi defences. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Embassy …

Iran on Sunday ruled out holding an informal meeting with the United States and other major powers to discuss ways to salvage the unravelling 2015 nuclear deal, insisting Washington must first lift all its unilateral sanctions. “Considering the recent actions and statements by the United States and three European powers, …

In the week since Washington offered to talk with Tehran about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran has curbed U.N. monitoring, threatened to boost uranium enrichment and its suspected proxies have twice rocketed Iraqi bases with U.S. soldiers. In return, the United States and three allies, Britain, France and Germany, …

The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s chief described his weekend deal with Iran on continued monitoring of its nuclear activities for up to three months as one where data is gathered but his agency is only able to access it afterwards. The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran announced on Sunday that …

Saudi Arabia’s Sheikh Zaki Yamani, the embodiment of the ascent of Arab petroleum power and the face of the 1973 oil embargo that brought the West to its knees, has died. Yamani was a witness to the 1975 murder of the Saudi king who had plucked him, a non-royal, from …

Iran is studying a European Union proposal for an informal meeting between current members of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal and the United States, but has yet to respond to it, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Saturday. Iran and the United States have been at odds over who …

Iran said on Monday it will block snap inspections by the U.N. nuclear watchdog from next week if other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal do not fulfil their obligations, a challenge to U.S. President Joe Biden’s hope of reviving the accord. “If others do not fulfil their obligations by …

France, Germany and Britain on Friday condemned Iran’s decision to produce uranium metal, which they said was in breach of commitments made by Tehran to the international community. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said this week that Iran had followed through on its stated plan to make uranium metal, which Tehran …

The United States is weighing a wide array of ideas on how to revive the Iranian nuclear deal, including an option where both sides would take small steps short of full compliance to buy time, said three sources familiar with the matter. Such a modest approach could slow the deterioration …

UN inspectors have unearthed fresh evidence that Iran had undertaken work on nuclear weapons without declaring such activities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. “Samples taken from two sites during inspections in the fall by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) contained traces of radioactive material,” the report …

King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy has launched training programs to teach the design and installation of small-scale solar panel systems in Saudi Arabia. It comes after the energy ministry said this week that panels that use solar photovoltaic technology to generate power are now available for installation …

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday welcomed the renewed U.S. willingness to engage with Iran, offered himself as an honest broker and said Saudi Arabia and Israel must ultimately be involved somehow. “We do need to finalize, indeed, a new negotiation with Iran,” Macron told the Washington-based Atlantic Council think …

Iran has deepened a key breach of its 2015 nuclear deal, enriching uranium with a larger number of advanced centrifuge machines in an underground plant as it faces off with the new U.S. administration on salvaging the accord. Tehran has recently accelerated its breaches of the deal, raising pressure on …

Iran will be weeks away from building a nuclear bomb if it stays on its current path, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Monday. In his first TV interview since his appointment was confirmed last month, Blinken said Tehran was months away from being able to produce enough …

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested a way on Monday to overcome the U.S.-Iranian impasse over who goes first in returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, saying a top EU official could “synchronize” or “choreograph” the moves. Zarif’s stance was a shift from his position, expressed in a …

One seldom discussed byproduct of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, which ended with the fall of the Shah and the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, is the diplomatic, economic and strategic collusion between Tehran and several Latin American regimes — right in Washington’s own backyard. Tehran has worked hard to …

Turkey hopes the United States will return to the nuclear deal with Iran under US President Joe Biden’s administration, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday. Speaking at a joint news conference with Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif in Istanbul, Cavusoglu said Turkey would also like to see sanctions imposed on …

Tehran will not accept US demands that it reverse an acceleration of its nuclear program before Washington lifts sanctions, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday. The demand “is not practical and will not happen”, he said at a joint news conference in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut …

Indonesia said its coast guard seized the Iranian-flagged MT Horse and the Panamanian-flagged MT Freya vessels over suspected illegal oil transfer in the country’s waters on Sunday. Coast guard spokesman Wisnu Pramandita said the tankers, seized in waters off Kalimantan province, have been escorted to Batam island in Riau Island …