Daily Energy News
Policy & Regulatory
The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €1.36bn Greek scheme to partially compensate energy-intensive companies for higher electricity prices resulting from indirect emission costs under the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS). The scheme will cover part of the higher electricity prices arising from the impact of carbon prices on electricity generation costs incurred between 2021 and 2030.
The Price Cap Coalition including the European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, has adopted price caps for seaborne Russian petroleum products exports. The price cap for premium-to-crude petroleum products (diesel, kerosene, gasoline) is set at US$100/bbl, while the price cap for discount-to-crude petroleum products (fuel oil, naphtha), is set at US$45/bbl. The price caps came into effect on 5 February 2023.
Companies
BP has released its 2022 results, posting a US$2.5bn loss, compared to a US$7.6bn profit in 2021. Indeed, the company decided to abandon its 19.75% stake in the Russian oil and gas company Rosneft following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, taking a charge of US$24bn in its accounts. However, BP’s underlying profit, which does not take into account exceptional event, reached US$27.7bn in 2022, compared to US$12.8bn in 2021.
NFE exits the Hilli Episeyo FLNG in Cameroon
New Fortress Energy (NFE) has reached an agreement with Golar LNG the sale of NFE’s ownership stake in the Hilli Episeyo floating LNG (FLNG) facility, which is moored 14 km off the coast of Kribi in Cameroon, in exchange for the return of 4.1 million NFE shares and US$100m in cash. Pursuant to the transaction, GLNG will acquire NFE’s entire interest in the 2.4 Mt/year FLNG. As part of the agreement, NFE will also extinguish US$323m in debt obligations associated with its interest in the Hilli. The transaction should close in 2023.
Forecasts
The United States’ Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that 54.5 GW of new utility-scale capacity will be installed in the country in 2023, with 54% of this new capacity coming from solar installations (over 29 GW). New installed solar capacity in 2023 is expected to reach 7.7 GW in Texas and 4.2 GW in California.
Infrastructure & Investments
The US solar developer Pristine Sun Corporation has secured financing to develop up to 5 GW of solar PV projects, including three projects of over 1 GW in capacity, in the US states of Texas, California, and Louisiana. The US$250m capital commitment from comes from strategic private equity and family office investors. The equity commitment will allow Pristine Sun Corporation to develop, finance, and build the solar projects, as well as allow the company to explore additional opportunities in the continental US.
The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has announced that it will resume the application license processing for the development of the 1.4 GW NorthConnect interconnection project between Norway and the United Kingdom, after the processing was put on hold in 2020. The NorthConnect link is a subsea, 650 km, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power interconnection project that would link Peterhead in Scotland (UK) to Simadalen in southern Norway.
India’s Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) has issued a tender to procure 500 MW of grid-connected solar power across India, with an additional 500 MW under a greenshoe option. The minimum project capacity has been set at 25 MW. Bids can be submitted until 13 March 2023 and successful bidders will enter a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with GUVNL.
The Vietnamese government has approved the investment policy of the 2,250 MW Son My 2 CCGT power plant project, which will be located in the city of Quy Nhon, Binh Dinh province (southern Vietnam).
Energy & Climate Markets
Pakistan has put into commercial operations a 1,320 MW coal-fired power plant in the Thar Desert of the Sindh Province (southern Pakistan).