Category: Highlights

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s (SPR) oil is sold competitively when the President of the United States of America finds, pursuant to the conditions set forth in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), that a sale is required. In the past, oil resources were withdrawn from the SPR to meet domestic oil requirements – such as Emergency Drawdowns, Non-Emergency Sales, SPR Modernization Sales, and Mandated Sales.  In March 2022, such orders were issued by the President of the United States, Joe Biden. President Biden has decided to open the SPR to mitigate the…

Read More

Saudi Aramco and Reliance Industries are abandoning a deal under which the Saudi oil giant was to buy a 20% stake in Reliance’s refining and chemical business, called Oil to Chemicals. The business has annual sales of about $43 billion, about a third of which is chemicals. In 2019, Aramco proposed to buy the stake for about $15 billion as part of a push to diversify its assets beyond oil and gas exploration in Saudi Arabia. But subsequent negotiations failed to yield a definitive pact. Reliance is also canceling plans…

Read More

The OPEC+ organization’s decision this week to cut oil production despite stiff US opposition has further strained already tense relations between President Joe Biden’s White House and Saudi Arabia’s royal family, once one of Washington’s staunchest Middle East allies, according to interviews with about a dozen government officials and experts in Washington and the Gulf. The White House pushed hard to prevent the OPEC output cut, these sources said. Biden hopes to keep US gasoline prices from spiking again ahead of midterm elections in which his Democratic party is struggling to maintain control…

Read More

The China-built 344-MW Kokhav Hayarden pumped storage hydropower plant, located near the city of Beit She’an and some 120 kilometers away from Tel Aviv, is expected to be the largest pumped storage power plant in Israel when it becomes operational in early 2023. It will also become the lowest power plant of its kind in the world, as the powerhouse lies 275 meters below sea level, according to building contractor Power Construction Corporation of China (PCCC). Chinese construction engineers take a group photo at the Kokhav Hayarden pumped storage hydropower plant construction site…

Read More

The UK launched its first oil and gas licensing round since 2019 on Friday, aiming to award more than 100 licenses to ramp up domestic oil and gas production and reduce dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels. The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the regulator responsible for handling and awarding exploration and production licenses, said on Friday that it “is inviting applications for licenses to explore and potentially develop 898 blocks and part-blocks in the North Sea which may lead to over 100 licenses being awarded.” According to the authority and…

Read More