Monday, 27 July 2026

Alcoa will take over South32's controlling interest in the Worsley alumina refinery and the integrated Boddington bauxite mine in Western Australia under a global transaction worth up to US$5.6 billion (AU$8.1 billion), according to IEEFA.

The transfer reshapes Alcoa's position across the Australian supply chain. Subject to shareholder and regulator approval, its approximate share of Australian bauxite production rises from 30% to 50%, and its alumina share from 40% to 60%, together with control of all related interests in Western Australia, IEEFA reported.

With those assets comes an energy problem that South32 has been carrying. Coal supplies 40% of the energy mix at Worsley, a site that draws minimal grid electricity, according to IEEFA.

That fuel profile puts the refinery seventh on the emissions ranking under Australia's Safeguard Mechanism, which covers Scope 1 emissions only, at 3.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year, IEEFA said. The coal must be gone by 2031, matching Western Australia's revised coal exit date.

Compliance has already required paper offsets rather than physical abatement. South32 surrendered more than 130,000 combined offsets and credits to meet Worsley's FY2024-25 Safeguard baseline, according to IEEFA.

Industry analyst Wood Mackenzie said the transaction "removes a significant decarbonisation burden" for South32. The obligation does not disappear with the change of owner; it moves onto Alcoa's balance sheet, alongside the enlarged bauxite and alumina positions it is buying.

Bloom Energy shares climbed about 15-16% in a single session after JPMorgan analyst Mark Strouse lifted his price target on the fuel cell maker to USD 346 from USD 267, according to Hydrogen Fuel News.

Strouse tied the revision to ramping demand from artificial intelligence data centers and to tax incentives supporting Bloom Energy's solid oxide fuel cells and hydrogen products, Hydrogen Fuel News reported.

The reset in the target marks a wider gap between the analyst's valuation and the prior mark, with the increase carried entirely by the demand and incentive arguments Strouse cited rather than any disclosed order or contract.

Solid oxide fuel cells run on natural gas or hydrogen and generate power on site, a configuration that puts them in direct competition for data center load that would otherwise queue for grid interconnection.

Galp Energia now expects full-year EBITDA of around EUR 4 billion, up from a prior outlook of more than EUR 2.6 billion, Offshore Engineer OEDigital reported. Second-quarter adjusted net profit at the Portuguese company rose 45%.

On an adjusted basis, net income for April to June came in at EUR 540 million, against EUR 373 million in the same stretch a year earlier. In dollar terms that is USD 616 million.

Offshore crude in Brazil did the heavy lifting. Segment EBITDA there climbed 73% to EUR 700 million. Galp tied the gain to the Bacalhau field, where a floating production, storage and offloading vessel began operating and ramped up output, and to firmer average Brent prices.

Output followed. The company's entitlement share from its Brazilian projects reached 127,000 barrels per day, a 12% increase against the prior year.

Refining came in second among contributors, with EBITDA up 43% at EUR 458 million. Margins in that business widened to USD 16.8 per barrel from USD 6.1 twelve months earlier.

The board will put a 10% dividend increase for 2026 to shareholders at next year's annual meeting, lifting the payout to EUR 0.70 per share.

Co-CEO Maria Joao Carioca, in a statement, credited asset quality and operational delivery "even in a highly volatile environment".

Kuwait has agreed to a long-term lease of its oil pipeline network in a USD 16 billion transaction with Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR, according to Semafor Net Zero. Semafor Net Zero described the deal as the largest foreign investment in Kuwait's history.

Under the terms reported by Semafor Net Zero, the three investors take a 49% stake in a joint venture with Kuwait Oil Company. The joint venture holds a 20.5-year lease on the pipelines and leases them back to the state oil company.

That sale-and-leaseback design is not new to the region. Semafor Net Zero reported the structure mirrors one used by Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia to raise money from their oil infrastructure.

Blackstone is also opening an office in Kuwait, according to Semafor Net Zero.

The pipeline lease follows a recent USD 6 billion bond raise by Kuwait, which Semafor Net Zero said is trying to attract more Wall Street firms and foreign investors.

Zenobe has bought sdp energie, a developer headquartered in Bavaria, giving the United Kingdom's largest owner and operator of transmission-connected battery energy storage system (BESS) assets a foothold in the German storage market, ESS News reported.

The acquired developer has taken roughly 700 MWh of BESS to ready-to-build status across 23 projects, according to ESS News.

Zenobe runs 3.3 GWh of BESS in operation or under construction in the United Kingdom, ESS News reported.

The timing tracks a change in German ancillary services procurement. Germany launched a new procurement mechanism for inertia in January 2026, which ESS News said creates new revenue opportunities for transmission-connected BESS. Inertia is the resistance of rotating generators to frequency change, a service that thins out as synchronous plants retire and one that grid-scale batteries can now bid into.

The buyer does not intend to stop at one developer. Zenobe plans to acquire further transmission-scale projects and is recruiting staff in Germany, according to ESS News.

The pipeline Zenobe has picked up is small next to its home-market fleet: 700 MWh of ready-to-build projects against 3.3 GWh operating or in construction. Ready-to-build status matters more than the megawatt-hour count here, because permitted and grid-connected projects are the constraint in transmission-scale storage, not equipment supply. Buying a developer that has cleared that stage 23 times is a shortcut into a market where Zenobe has no operating assets.

Average wholesale electricity prices in Australia's National Electricity Market fell 47 per cent year-on-year in the June quarter to $74/MWh, according to RenewEconomy. That was the lowest June quarter average since 2020 across a market covering the eastern states and South Australia.

RenewEconomy reported that AEMO credits the drop to a record seasonal renewables share of 42.1 per cent in the main grid.

Gas-powered generation took the sharpest hit on the supply side. According to RenewEconomy, gas output plunged 30 per cent to its lowest June quarter average since 2003.

Coal held up better, with generation down 5 per cent over the same quarter, RenewEconomy reported.

Brent crude dropped more than 9% intraday on Monday before stabilizing around USD 90 per barrel, according to World Oil, as traders unwound part of the geopolitical risk premium built up this month.

World Oil reported that oil prices fell sharply as concerns over supply disruptions in the Middle East and the Black Sea eased.

West Texas Intermediate also declined after the U.S. paused military strikes against Iran following nearly two weeks of attacks, according to the same report.

Sentiment improved further after crude loadings resumed at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal on Russia's Black Sea coast, which World Oil described as a critical export outlet for Kazakh oil.

The selloff did not erase the month's gains. Crude futures remain up roughly 20% this month, according to World Oil.