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Burgum, US Interior secretary, says that the key Alaska LNG pipeline study is expected to be completed in this year.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced on Monday that the backers of an 800-mile (1 287 km) proposed gas pipeline in Alaska, championed by U.S. president Donald Trump, expect to finish a major engineering and cost study before the end of this calendar year. It has been discussed for years, but Trump's desire to increase U.S. fossil fuel development has given it new life. The pipeline is the result of a joint venture by Glenfarne, a U.S. energy company, and Alaska Gasline Development Corporation. Glenfarne announced earlier this year that it would make a decision about the project by 2025. It had also hired Australian engineering company Worley to produce a Front-End Engineering and Design study (FEED), which is a cost and engineering estimate. Burgum spoke at an American Petroleum Institute event. Trump, since returning to office in 2017, has pledged to advance the mammoth plan to transport gas from Alaska’s north to be chilled before being shipped overseas as liquefied gas. Glenfarne representatives, AGDC representatives and Worley representatives were not available to comment immediately. Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Washington; Nichola Groom, Los Angeles. Editing by Sonali Paul.
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Morocco expects modest economic growth, but a 5.5% budget increase in 2026
The Moroccan finance ministry submitted Monday to the parliament of the country a draft budget for 2026 totaling 761.3 billion dirhams (83 billion dollars), an increase of 5.5% over a year earlier. According to the government's draft budget, the country expects the economy to grow at a slower rate next year, down from the 4.8% it grew in 2025. This is due to uncertainty on the global markets and a projected average grain harvest. In its budget for 2026, the government stated that it would prioritize improving health and education as well as reducing regional inequalities. Protests led by youth In recent weeks, anger about public services has spread throughout the Kingdom. The document shows that the Moroccan government expects the public investment to rise by 12% next year to 380 billion Dirhams, mainly due to spending on infrastructure, such as ports, airports, and railways, in preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2030. Document shows that the country's fiscal surplus is expected to decrease to 3% of its GDP by 2026, from 3.5% in 2018, as increased tax revenues continue to offset higher public investment expenditure. The estimated financing needs for 2026 are 48.744 milliards dirhams, a decrease of 23.26% compared to 2025. Reporting by Ahmed El Jechtimi, editing by Mark Heinrich & Paul Simao
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Longacre Square and AI startup InvestorSight announce partnership
Longacre Square Partners, a corporate advisory firm, has formed a partnership with InvestorSight - a startup that uses artificial intelligence to analyze investor behavior during takeovers and board battles. InvestorSight is a company co-founded by Dartmouth Professor Mark DesJardine, and data scientists. It has developed the first interactive tool that models how institutional investors and mutual funds are likely to respond to different corporate situations. This tool can be used to collect advanced data including the voting patterns of investors in previous contests to determine a company's or an activist investor's vulnerability. InvestorSight, a tool interactive that allows users to model different outcomes, is offered by many institutions including investment banks. The introduction of the new board comes as activist investors target both large and small companies, pushing them to update their boards or even consider selling themselves. Longacre was founded in 2021, by Greg Marose, Dan Zacchei and Bausch & Lomb. It advised hedge-fund Politan on its successful proxy battle at Masimo and activist investor Ancora in its campaign to elect director and push management changes at Norfolk Southern. DesJardine joins Longacre's board of advisors. (Reporting and editing by Svea HerbstBayliss)
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EIA reports record US natural gas exports into Mexico
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Monday that U.S. natural-gas pipeline exports to Mexico in May 2025 averaged 7.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), the highest monthly volume ever recorded, as Mexico's natural-gas demand increases. The EIA reported that the annual average of U.S. natural-gas pipeline exports to Mexico in 2024 was 6.4 bcfd, which is a 25% rise compared to 2019 and also the highest ever recorded in data dating back as far as 1975. The EIA reported that "Total consumption in Mexico has increased from 7,7 bcfd in 2019-2024 to 8,6 bcfd in the same period. Most of the growth is concentrated in the electric power sector in Mexico." It also noted that natural gas enters Mexico through four main corridors: South Texas, West Texas Arizona and California. The combined capacity of these four export corridors is approximately 14.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) with an approximate utilization of 43% by 2024. The EIA reported that in 2024, pipelines exports from West Texas and South Texas would account for 91% (or more) of U.S. pipeline exports to Mexico. This report stated that there are many factors that limit the exports of gas, the main ones being the limited capacity for storage and the lack of pipeline infrastructure in Mexico. It also noted that the recent commissionings of connecting pipelines throughout central and southwest Mexico have helped to facilitate this record-breaking rise.
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Prague bans shared electric scooters from 2026 due to 'chaos on the sidewalks'
The deputy mayor of Prague has criticised the electric scooter rental option as causing confusion on the sidewalks. The city council approved Monday a new regulatory overhaul concerning shared transportation options in the city with 1.4 million residents whose cobblestoned street and rich history will attract more than 8,000,000 tourists by 2024. The regulation will only apply to bikes, both electric and pedal, but not escooters. This effectively ends the sharing of escooters. "The end of the electric scooters has been approved!" Zdenek Hirb, the national Pirate Party's chairman and deputy mayor of Prague City Hall in charge for transport, spoke on X Monday. "We're introducing rules to clear the public space of uncontrolled scooter traffic. This was used more in the city center as a tourist attraction rather than a mode of transport, and created chaos on sidewalks and pedestrian zones." Prague has joined other popular European tourist destinations that have cracked down on eScooters over the past few years. In Italy, cities have implemented strict safety regulations, including helmets and insurance, while in Paris and Madrid, rentals are banned. Finland prohibits under-15s to use them. The city of Prague has responded to complaints by residents about the dangers associated with scooters that whizzed past on sidewalks, parks or blocked sidewalks and street parking spaces when they were not in use. The city wants to encourage more people to use shared bike services. However, e-scooters have a higher accident rate than bicycles. Lime, a major operator of shared electric scooters in the city, expressed regret over the decision. Vaclav Petr, Lime's director of country in the Czech Republic, told CTK that scooters can serve citizens very well when there is a "constructive dialog" between operators and cities. Lime didn't immediately respond to any further questions.
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Air France CEO: avoiding Russia airspace compounds China rivalry
Air France-KLM CEO said that on Monday, western European airlines needed more favorable regulation as the requirement to fly around Russian airspace places them at a disadvantage compared to their Chinese competitors. Ben Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM, said in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as well as with French newspaper Les Echos and Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Schohr that having to avoid Russia adds two to two-and-a half hours to flights from Europe to Asia. All costs associated with the extra flight time are to be paid by the customer. Smith added that customers don't necessarily want to spend an extra two hours on a flight already very long to Asia. He claimed that Chinese airlines' faster access to Europe was a "gift", while western airlines were at a competitive disadvantage. Both Smith and Spohr supported a proposal from the U.S. Government to deny access to U.S. Airspace to any airline which continues to fly over Russian airspace.
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Archer Aviation signs deal with Korean Air for eVTOL Air Taxis
Archer Aviation announced on Monday that it had signed a partnership agreement with Korean Air for the commercialization of its electric air taxis throughout South Korea. The potential purchase of 100 aircraft is possible. The deal reflects a race between electric vertical takeoff and landing developers who are racing to secure airline partners, win regulatory approvals and move from prototypes into paid service. Early U.S. trading saw shares of Santa Clara-based company rise 6%. Aerospace startups and incumbents are both promoting short-haul flights and airport transfers to replace congested ground transportation. However, the sector is still battling certification issues, infrastructure development and uncertain timelines for profitability. Archer stated that the agreement targets deployments of Midnight eVTOL across "multiple applications and use cases" starting with government applications. The aircraft was designed for flights of 10-20 minutes and two of the highest altitudes were achieved in a recent series of test flights. Archer, a company backed by Boeing and Stellantis and owned by IndiGo and United Airlines in India, produces six aircrafts at two U.S. facilities. Archer, a company that has yet to make a profit and is still in the red, expects a loss adjusted EBITDA of between $110 million and $130 million for the third quarter. This loss will be higher than last year's loss of $93 million. Archer announced last week that it had won the bid to purchase Lilium's patent portfolio of approximately 300 patent assets related to advanced air mobility for 18 million Euros ($21 million), bringing its portfolio to more than 1,000 patent assets.
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Salvage operation underway for LPG tanker MV Falcon following explosion in Gulf of Aden
Maritime security sources reported that an operation is underway to salvage the MV Falcon liquefied gas tanker, which is still on fire in the Gulf of Aden after an explosion occurred on October 18. The Cameroon flagged vessel was fully loaded when the explosion happened at 0700 GMT while it was sailing near Yemen. Most of the 26 crew had to abandon the vessel. According to the European Union's Aspides naval mission and other sources, it is not clear what caused the explosion, but the early indications are that the cargo was involved. The crew of the ship is still missing. The remainder, which were recovered by passing merchant ships, has been safely transferred to Djibouti. Aspides confirmed that a private company had taken over the salvage operation. According to maritime security sources, a firefighting ship was spotted Monday alongside the MV Falcon. One source said that efforts to salvage the ship are still in progress. When the explosion occurred, the MV Falcon was traveling from Oman's Sohar Port towards Djibouti. The Houthi-run Saba News Agency reported that an official in the Houthi Defence Ministry said the group did not have any connection with the incident. Yemen's Iran aligned Houthis launched drones and missiles on ships in the Red Sea area since 2023. They claimed that their attacks were acts of solidarity with Palestinians during Israel's Gaza war. Aspides warned vessels in the area that the incident posed a danger to navigation. Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou. Editing by Jan Harvey.
China's 'green' jet-fuel plants delay their start up due to lack of policy
A number of Chinese SAF plants have been delayed due to a lack in government guidance. This is preventing them from selling the fuel either domestically or internationally.
Reports from May last year stated that more than $1 billion was being invested by companies to build China's very first aviation fuel plants, which will be used for both domestic and export demand.
Beijing, however, has not yet announced the mandatory use of lower-carbon aviation fuel on the second largest market in the world, disappointing the industry's expectations. The industry had hoped that the government would announce by the end 2024 requirements for 2%-5% SAF mixed in with jet kerosene.
Executives of Tianzhou New Energy, a privately-owned company, and Jinshang Environmental Protection Tech have both pushed back the target date for first production. Both companies are building SAF plants on the southwest Sichuan Province.
A senior official of Tianzhou, who declined to be named, stated that the company aims to begin test operations in its Weiyuan plant in the second half 2025, as opposed to an earlier goal of the end 2024. The official cited policy uncertainty and changes in construction schedules, in addition to the fact that the project was delayed. The site will process about 4,300 barrels of SAF per day, or 200,000 metric tonnes per year.
Ye Bin, Chairman of Jinshang, said that the start date for the 500,000 tpy trial plant in Chengdu will be delayed by about three months.
Ye stated that the original plan was to finish mechanical construction this year, and then test the facility (in the first quarter of 2026).
An industry executive familiar with the operation of the plant said that Zhejiang Jiaao Enprotech, based in East China, halted production for a trial run shortly after opening its 500,000 tpy Lianyungang site.
The executive who declined to name himself as the matter was not public added that Jiaao has applied for an export licence.
Industry officials say that companies are waiting for policies to govern SAF exports. These include a customs code, a quota management system, and tax rebate rules, similar to those which apply to conventional aviation gasoline.
Requests for comments from China's National Development and Reform Commission, Civil Aviation Administration of China and Ministry of Commerce were not answered.
According to four industry experts with some knowledge, China produces around 200,000 metric tonnes of SAF annually. This is mainly produced in two plants for export.
EcoCeres (backed by Bain Capital) began producing the fuel in East China in 2022 for export. The central China-based Junheng Industry Group Biotech began making the fuel early in 2024.
The majority of production in Asia is sent to Europe. However, blending targets will be implemented in Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore next year.
(source: Reuters)