Category: Highlights

Bold and unpredictable maneuvers are supposed to be the trademark political style of Russian President Vladimir Putin; last week, however, he surprised observers of various persuasions not with a proactive move but with an unusual act of avoidance. Putin’s annual marathon end-of-the-year press conference has been canceled, as has the traditional “direct line” with carefully trained audiences, and his constitutionally prescribed annual address to the Federal Assembly has been postponed indefinitely (RTVi.com, December 15). Speculation about Putin’s allegedly deteriorating health, always a dime a dozen, are rather subdued as the…

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EU energy ministers on Monday overcame months of wrangling to agree a price cap for natural gas in the bloc of 180 euros per megawatt hour, effective from mid-February. “It wasn’t an easy thing to achieve,” Maltese Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said. The agreement, set out in a European Council statement, unlocks other pre-agreed measures to mitigate an energy crunch Europe is facing as a consequence of Russia’s war in Ukraine. They include joint gas purchases, a future new benchmark for pricing gas, and speedier authorisations for renewable energy sources.…

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The Sindh government is fully committed to facilitating the private sector companies that stand for exploiting the renewable energy resources abundantly available in the province so that there should be lesser reliance on imported fossil fuels for the protection of the national economy.This was stated by the Sindh government’s Energy Secretary, Abu Bakar Ahmed Madani, while speaking as the chief guest at an event “Solar Power Day” organised by GoodWe Pakistan.The Energy Secretary said the Sindh government fully facilitated investment by the private sector in the alternative energy sector so…

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In its latest monthly report, OPEC revealed it had yet again failed to produce as much oil as it agreed to produce the last time it discussed output. And it wasn’t by a few thousand barrels per day, either. The shortfall was some 1.8 million barrels daily, but more importantly, that sort of undershooting of its own target has become a regular thing for the cartel. Meanwhile, the United States federal government needs to buy some oil for its strategic petroleum reserve after releasing close to 200 million barrels from it this year…

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Saudi Basic Industries Corp. has signed a memorandum of understanding with energy giant Saudi Aramco and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, to assess the economic and technical feasibility of developing an integrated petrochemical complex with an existing refinery in Yanbu. In a statement given to the Saudi Stock Exchange, SABIC noted that this MoU would be valid for 18 months.   The signing of the MoU comes just a few days after China reinforced its relationship with Saudi Arabia during Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to the Kingdom.   Jinping noted that China will also expand oil…

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