Wednesday, 16 September 2026

LG Electronics has begun a pilot project pairing heat pumps with power-to-heat (P2H) technology at an apartment complex on Jeju Island, South Korea, according to PV Magazine.

The demonstration site has one basement level and seven floors above ground, and houses 12 occupied apartments, PV Magazine reported.

The system's central heat pump is designed to convert surplus or lower-cost renewable electricity into thermal energy and charge a shared hot-water tank, per PV Magazine.

LG Electronics is working with Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Jeju Development Corp. and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) on the project, PV Magazine reported.

The partners plan to complete system design by October and begin full-scale operational testing after the project is completed in December, according to PV Magazine.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) has charted a route to running Germany's electricity system on renewables around the clock, according to PV Magazine. The study maps supply and demand on the country's grid for every hour through 2045.

PV Magazine reports the work was commissioned by The smarter E Europe, which used it as the scientific foundation for its Renewables 24/7 special exhibit. The study is titled "Cost-Optimal Transformation of the German Energy System by 2045".

IEEFA has launched an Australian Renewable Energy Scorecard, a quarterly-updated interactive tool that tracks how renewable energy projects across Australia are progressing. The scorecard is a joint effort with Green Energy Markets.

Large-scale renewable and battery builds now underway are generating roughly $6 billion of domestic construction spend and about 15,600 job-years, according to IEEFA. Pushing the remaining fully approved projects into construction could add around 127,000 job-years and about $44 billion in investment.

In aggregate, the pipeline of renewable and battery storage projects in development is sufficient to meet Australia's 2030 target, but too few have advanced to the construction phase, the scorecard finds. IEEFA points to the shortage of long-term power purchase agreements as a central obstacle blocking projects from breaking ground.

Rooftop solar and household battery installations hit record highs in the second quarter of 2026, IEEFA said.

The US Environmental Protection Agency on September 14 finalized the repeal of Biden administration greenhouse-gas standards for fossil-fuel-fired power plants, according to Oil & Gas Journal. The agency estimates the action will produce more than USD 300 billion in cost savings over 20 years.

The announcement was made at the G20 Energy Ministers' Meeting in Houston and was paired with a proposal to eliminate remaining federal greenhouse-gas requirements for fossil-fueled power plants. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the rollback would enable development of new generating infrastructure.

The repeal lands as gas-fired build plans expand sharply. Global Energy Monitor reported in August that US gas-fired power capacity in development reached 378 GW in first-half 2026, of which 189 GW was tied to projects intended to serve data-center demand. That pipeline was up 50% in the first half of the year, per Global Energy Monitor.

Gas burn in the power sector has already stepped up. According to the EIA, US electric power-sector natural gas consumption averaged 35.8 bcfd in 2025, compared with 27.3 bcfd in 2016. The EIA forecasts overall US gas consumption rising to 92.2 bcfd in 2026 and 94.3 bcfd in 2027, from 91.9 bcfd in 2025.

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) introduced the Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026 in April, and the House Judiciary Committee is now set to debate and vote on the measure, Inside Climate News reported.

The bill would bar liability claims, whether for damages or injunctive relief, against companies working across the energy chain, from mining and extraction through refinement, transportation, distribution and sale, according to Inside Climate News. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), joined by three other Senate Republicans, has filed a companion measure aimed at blocking similar suits against the fossil fuel industry.

The congressional push coincides with a climate case reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices are scheduled to hear Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County on Oct. 5, per Inside Climate News. Boulder brought the underlying action in 2018 against ExxonMobil and Suncor, seeking recovery for adaptation costs tied to extreme heat and wildfires.

The Center for Climate Integrity tallies 11 states, Washington, DC, two tribal governments and dozens of cities and counties that have taken the oil and gas industries to court over alleged deception about climate impacts, Inside Climate News reported.

The legislative effort follows another rollback at the federal agency level. On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule repealing the Biden-era 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, according to the same outlet.

UK aviation is on course to account for 80% of the country's carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), as reported by Carbon Brief.

Even without expanding Heathrow, the CCC projects UK aviation emissions will reach 38m tonnes of CO2 in 2050, a level higher than today. Carbon Brief reports emissions from flying in the UK have more than doubled since 1990, driven by rising passenger numbers.

A third runway at Heathrow would add a further 2.4MtCO2 in 2050, equivalent to around 5% of all UK emissions, according to the CCC. That figure would rise to 4.5MtCO2 once the expansion is complete in 2054.

CCC chair Nigel Topping said the UK does not currently have a credible plan to reduce aviation emissions in line with net-zero, creating a serious challenge for meeting climate commitments. The committee says a credible net-zero policy framework for aviation should be set out in a revised strategy planned for 2027, and only then could Heathrow expansion be aligned with the net-zero goal.

The CCC estimates that decarbonisation costs could add around GBP 400, in 2024 prices, to a return trip to New York by 2050.

Kistos plans to halt production at the Q10-A gas field in the Dutch North Sea by the end of 2027, according to Offshore Magazine. The operator has already awarded contracts covering well abandonment and platform removal.

Output from Q10-A averaged 1,200 boe/d net to Kistos in the first half of this year, Offshore Magazine reported.

A rig has been contracted for well plug-and-abandonment work, and a heavy-lift vessel has been booked to remove the Q10-A platform jacket. Offshore decommissioning is scheduled to begin in 2028.

On the Norwegian side of Kistos's portfolio, drilling of the Balder Phase VI trilateral well has started, with first oil expected in December, per Offshore Magazine.

The partners sanctioned the Balder Next New Wells project in June. The project will tie seven new wells in the southern Balder Field back to the Jotun FPSO, with first production expected by the end of 2027.

US diesel prices reached record highs on Tuesday, with executives warning that a monthslong squeeze in oil markets was moving into its sharpest phase, according to Semafor Net Zero.

Chevron's chief executive said commercial and strategic oil stockpiles are running low and that the buffers that had been mitigating price and supply risk "have largely now played out," Semafor reported.

The supply strain deepened after Saudi Arabia canceled some oil shipments to Europe on Tuesday, pushing importers to seek alternatives, per Semafor. The kingdom said its East-West pipeline, taken offline after a drone attack, could remain down for weeks.

The White House characterized the high prices as a "temporary disruption," according to Semafor.

Borr Drilling and Saipem have closed separate divestment deals in Mexico and Saudi Arabia while keeping access to key jackup rigs through existing customer contracts, Offshore Magazine reported.

Borr Drilling is transferring its 51% controlling stakes in two Mexican drilling joint ventures, collectively known as Perfomex, to its local partner, according to Offshore Magazine. Under the deal, Borr retains ownership of the Galar, Gersemi and Njord jackup rigs through bareboat charter arrangements. Njord is contracted through April 2028 with extension options, and Galar and Gersemi are contracted through May 2030.

Offshore Magazine noted that earlier in 2026 Borr acquired five premium jackup rigs in Mexico through its 50:50 BC Ventures joint venture with the same local partner, expanding its position in the country's shallow-water drilling market.

Saipem has closed the sale of its full shareholding in Saudi Arabian Saipem to ADES Saudi Ltd. Co., a subsidiary of ADES Holding. The transaction was first announced in June, per Offshore Magazine. Saudi Arabian Saipem operates three owned jackup rigs, Perro Negro 7, Perro Negro 8 and Perro Negro 10, alongside two leased jackups.

Saipem and ADES also signed a bareboat charter agreement letting Saipem continue using Perro Negro 10 for its current operations in Mexico, preserving contractual commitments to its clients.

Nordex Group has secured a 34 MW turbine order from EEF Erneuerbare Energien Fabrik GmbH for the Rauschenberg wind farm in Hesse, Germany, according to Nordex. The contract covers the supply and installation of five N175/6.X turbines.

The machines will sit on towers with a hub height of 199 metres, and the order is bundled with a Premium Service contract running 20 years, Nordex said.

The project is a repowering scheme. Nordex reported that delivery and installation will begin at the end of 2027, with five existing 3 MW turbines swapped out for 6.8 MW units, lifting site output from summer 2028.

The Rauschenberg contract follows an earlier deal for the same turbine platform. Nordex noted that in March 2026 it booked its first order for three N175/6.X turbines on the same 199-metre hub height for a project in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Shanghai Electric has won the contract for Unit 3 of the Sarawak Samalaju Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Project in Malaysia.

The scope pairs an EPC contract for the gas-fired plant with a 25-year service agreement covering major equipment.

The manufacturer's heavy-duty gas turbine range centres on two models rated 300 MW and 78 MW. Fleet units under its long-term service and maintenance programs have run more than 1.3 million hours.

New units can be delivered from 2028. The company also said developers in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam have signalled interest in placing orders.

Gastech 2026 opened on September 14, 2026 at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre, drawing more than 50,000 attendees from over 150 countries, according to the event organizers. The conference runs through September 17, marking Gastech's return to Thailand for the first time in 18 years and its 54th edition.

Thailand's Energy Minister Akanat Promphan used the opening to invite international partners into the country's 26th petroleum bidding round and confirmed that the Arthit carbon capture and storage pilot has reached final investment decision.

The minister said Thailand currently holds 19 million tonnes of LNG import capacity and is working to expand this to 27 million tonnes to meet the region's growing energy needs.

Organizers said the event is hosting more than 20 ministers from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, alongside chief executives from Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, EGAT, PTT, Gulf, Petronas, TotalEnergies and INPEX. The programme features more than 800 exhibitors and more than 800 speakers.

PV Magazine, citing GlobalData, reports that the global microgrid market was previously pegged at USD 60.61 billion by 2027 and is now on track for sustained expansion through the end of the decade. The Americas will carry most of that growth to 2030, with the U.S. market as the primary anchor.

Weather exposure is the demand driver in North America. PV Magazine attributes regional buildout to hurricanes, winter storms, and wildfires that repeatedly strain centralized transmission and distribution lines. In Canada, off-grid and remote communities are installing microgrids to shore up reliability, cut energy bills, and lean less on diesel gensets.

"Microgrids are becoming an important part of modern power system planning," said Bhavana Sri Pullagura, senior power analyst at GlobalData, framing the shift as a move toward more flexible, low-carbon supply.

On the supply side, PV Magazine names Siemens AG, Schneider Electric SE, and ABB Ltd among the leading global vendors competing for that pipeline.

Ksi Lisims LNG has signed a Heads of Agreement with Santos covering the sale and purchase of 1 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas over a 20-year term, according to Natural Resources Canada.

The Canadian department said the Santos contract is the third international offtake agreement the project has concluded in 2026, after earlier deals with Germany-based Uniper and SEFE.

Natural Resources Canada projects Ksi Lisims LNG will rank among the world's lowest-emission LNG operations, with emissions 94% below the global average.

The project received approval under Canada and British Columbia's One Project, One Review model in September 2025 and was referred to the federal Major Projects Office (MPO) in November 2025, according to the department.

Natural Resources Canada framed the deal within a wider export shift, stating that Canada aims to move from less than 0.01% of natural gas exports going to non-U.S. markets in 2024 to an estimated 55% by the early- to mid-2030s.

The U.S. dollar traded near a two-week high as a jump in oil prices pushed Treasury yields up and hardened expectations of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase, Dunya News reported. The dollar index stood at 99.55.

Crude climbed to USD 107 a barrel, hovering close to a four-month peak, after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia and Gulf-Iran talks were postponed, according to Dunya News.

Rate-hike pricing tightened alongside the move in crude. CME's FedWatch tool showed roughly a 93% probability of a Fed rate increase, Economy Middle East reported.

Santos has entered two separate non-binding LNG agreements aimed at expanding its supply position into Asia-Pacific markets, the company said in a statement carried by Euro-Petrole.

One of the deals is a non-binding Heads of Agreement with Western LNG to buy roughly one million tonnes of LNG per year from the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG project in Canada, according to Euro-Petrole. The term runs up to 20 years, with deliveries starting from approximately 2031.

Santos framed the agreements as reinforcement of its role as a supplier of flexible energy to customers across the Asia-Pacific region. Neither agreement is binding at this stage.

Chevron is pursuing an expansion of its global liquefied natural gas portfolio, citing energy-security concerns that are pushing buyers toward more diversified and reliable supplies, according to a Yahoo Finance report.

The company is targeting growth in Argentina, the East Mediterranean, Australia and Africa, and is also pursuing potential deals with emerging markets including India, the report said.

Chevron expects to have about 20 million tonnes per year of LNG supply capacity, comprising 16 million tonnes of net gas production from its own projects and a further 4 million tonnes contracted from the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The company links the strategy to recent market disruptions. Chevron says the Russia-Ukraine war and the Iran conflict have exposed the risks of relying on a narrow set of gas suppliers, reinforcing the case for diversity in both supply sources and contracting structures.

Russian natural gas deliveries to Armenia via the North Caucasus-Transcaucasia pipeline will be suspended from September 15 to 25 for planned maintenance and repair work in Russia, according to reporting by bankingnews.gr.

Gazprom Armenia said consumers will face no restrictions during the pause. The company stated that domestic storage inventories, combined with additional imports from Iran, will cover demand for the duration of the outage.

Bangladesh's total gas supply climbed to 2,610 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) as the two floating LNG terminals at Moheshkhali lifted output, according to The Financial Express citing Petrobangla data.

Regasified LNG (RLNG) accounted for 990 mmcfd of the total at Tuesday noon, with domestic fields contributing 1,620 mmcfd.

The two Moheshkhali terminals have a combined capacity of around 1,100 mmcfd, meaning the noon reading of 990 mmcfd put utilization at nearly 90%, The Financial Express reported.

The European Investment Bank is making its first investment in small modular reactor technology, committing up to EUR 40 million to Finland-based startup Steady Energy, according to an EIB press release.

Separately, the EIB is providing a EUR 100 million loan to upgrade Lithuania's largest seaport, Klaipėda, into what the bank describes as a strategic gateway for defence, energy and trade in the Baltic region.

The two financings, announced by the EIB, mark the bank's entry into SMR technology funding alongside a dual-use port upgrade covering defence and clean-energy applications.

Regular gasoline in Colorado averaged $4.35 per gallon on Friday, running above the $4.30 national average that day, according to AAA.

The national average retail price for regular gasoline rose from $2.81 per gallon in January 2026 to $4.48 in May 2026, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics cited by The Rambler.

AAA Colorado spokesperson Skyler McKinley said policy choices that raise or lower local oil and gas production do not translate into pump prices.

Poland's government intends to reintroduce a windfall tax on oil companies' excess profits and channel the revenue into fuel-price relief, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, urging the country's president not to block the measure again, according to Marketscreener.

The proposal would apply a 60% levy on excess revenue that oil companies generate between March and December 2026, per the same reporting.

The government estimates the tax would raise 4 billion zlotys, equivalent to USD 1.06 billion, a year, Marketscreener reported.

President Karol Nawrocki previously rejected the windfall-tax bill and referred it to Poland's Constitutional Tribunal in July, according to Marketscreener, which described him as an ally of the nationalist opposition.

Pakistan lifted retail petrol to Rs384.34 per litre and high-speed diesel to Rs415.83 per litre, effective September 16, according to Economy.pk.

The revision adds Rs4.10 per litre to petrol and Rs6.41 per litre to high-speed diesel, per the same report. Economy.pk attributed the government's decision to continued fluctuations in international oil markets.

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering has secured Approval in Principle from the American Bureau of Shipping for a 100 MW floating power plant, also known as a barge-mounted power plant, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.

The design relies on a medium-sized HiMSEN engine and can supply up to 100 MW of power, Chosun reported. The certification covers core technologies developed for the system, including basic conceptual design, electrical single-line diagrams and stability review, per Korea JoongAng Daily.

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering said it plans to enter the floating power plant market after completing detailed design and follow-up certification procedures, according to Chosun.

A Federal High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has sentenced nine men to 10 years in prison each for crude oil theft and tampering with an oil pipeline, according to Pulse.

Justice Joy Ikpeme found the defendants guilty of conspiracy and tampering with an oil pipeline, Pulse reported. The sentences will run concurrently, capping each convict's term at 10 years, and the court ruled out the option of a fine.

Security operatives caught the men stealing crude from the ASABO-D wellhead in Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, according to the same report.