Transportation

The Oil Sands Alliance, the Alberta government and the federal government of Canada announced on Monday that they had reached an agreement for the 'Pathways carbon capture and storage 'Project. This was a condition set by the government to'move forward with the new West Coast oil pipe. The Oil Sands Alliance said that the Pathways Project, when operational, will be able to transport and safely store approximately 6 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year by the mid-2030s. Early July, Canada announced plans to build a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific Coast. This would allow the fourth largest oil...

Chesapeake Utilities announced on Monday that its subsidiary Peninsula Pipeline Company will 'develop, build and operate' a natural gas pipeline in Florida at a cost of about $1.2 billion. It said that the project would help increase natural gas transport capacity in order to alleviate regional supply shortages. Utilities are investing in new infrastructure for reliability and to support the?growing needs of residential, commercial, and power generation. Florida Energy?Pathway will be a 24-inch pipeline connecting Palm Beach?to Miami -Dade counties. It is supported by 250,000?dekatherms of?firm shipping agreements per day. Chesapeake Utilities said that the project is expected to be...

Solar power project costs in the United States have risen 18% since a year ago, as tariffs and high interest rates are taking hold. However, renewable energy sources remain the most cost-effective way to generate 'new' electricity, according to a report published on Monday by the financial advisory firm Lazard. The levelized cost energy of new combined-cycle gas plants, which is a measure for the average cost to generate electricity over the lifetime of a power station, has reached a 15-year-high. Lazard warns that costs may rise further due to equipment shortages and the booming demand for power. The record-breaking?demand...

Drones are cheap, mass-produced and have revolutionized modern warfare. They expose critical energy infrastructures as the Achilles heel of modern economies. Unmanned aircraft are able to evade air defences on the battlefields in Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East. This makes oil refineries and power stations as well as export terminals and pipelines prime targets. The energy industry is affected by the implications. Swarms of drones, which cost a few hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars each, can threaten facilities that have taken decades and billions to build. This will dramatically shift the balance of power between attackers and...

U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announced on Friday that it would extend 10% flight reductions?for an additional year at Chicago O'Hare in order to avoid delays and?address congestion concerns at the busy United Airlines/American Airlines hub. In April, the agency announced that it would limit O'Hare's arrivals and departing flights to 2,708 per day between May 17 and October 24. This forced both major airlines to'scale back' their plans and maintain operations at last year's level to avoid a'repeat' of widespread delays. The FAA announced Friday that the restrictions would now continue until "the end of 2027". The airlines had planned...

The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday that it had filed a proposal settlement with the owner and operator of a 'Keystone' oil pipeline in order to resolve violations under the Clean Water Act relating to a rupture expected to occur in Kansas by 2022. Keystone is an important part of Canada's network for oil export, shipping Canadian crude from Alberta through the U.S. Midwest to the Gulf Coast. The pipeline ruptured in December 2022 and spilled 14,000 barrels into a stream in Washington County, Kansas. This was the largest U.S. oil spill in nine years. The pipeline ruptured because...

Wally Funk has died in Texas, aged 87. He was the pioneering aviator and astronaut who, at the dawning of the Space Age with 12 American women, became the oldest person ever to fly into space. According to the statement, Funk died the night before at her home in Grapevine, Texas. The cause of death wasn't given. Funk, who had been barred from NASA’s early astronaut corps due to her gender, made headlines when she joined Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com, as his honorary guest, along with two other guests, on the inaugural spaceflight Blue Origin's New Shepard...

According to an announcement posted on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote next week on legislation to make daylight saving time permanent. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 for the Sunshine Protection Act in?May. In March 2022, the U.S. Senate voted to permanently extend daylight saving time. However, the House did not take up the issue due to opposition. The House is set to vote on a proposal next week that would allow for states to opt-out. Since the 1960s, daylight saving time has been implemented in nearly all the United States. The measure is supported...

During extreme weather conditions, costs to balance?power in PJM, America's largest grid, have risen to astronomical heights. This has exposed strains caused by overloaded transmission lines and booming demand for data centers. These price spikes are not typical for PJM, but they have increased the overall cost of balancing supply and demand. These costs are eventually passed onto homes and businesses via electricity bills. During the heatwave last week, PJM paid power plants and other sources up to $28,000 per Megawatt in order to quickly adjust their output and keep supply and demand of electricty balanced. According to a PJM...

The demand for critical grid equipment, such as transformers, is increasing across the U.S. This has led to a shortage of these items, which in turn increases costs and delays, and forces utilities and developers into placing orders well in advance. Transformers - which are used to increase or decrease electricity voltage - have been in short supply for the past five years, when demand started to rise faster than supply because of COVID-19 related lockdowns. Experts say that the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is further reducing supplies. The lead times, which is the time between an order and...

Offshore -Norway, an industry group, said on Thursday that a strike by oil service workers has resulted in historical and future production losses for operators worth 1.6 billion Norwegian crowns (approximately $163.62 million) this year. About?1,000 Norwegian Oil Service Workers were locked out in late June as a result of a?strike being carried out by several hundred members from Norway's Safe Union. Offshore Norway reported that five mobile drilling rigs and five fixed offshore installations, as well as?one well-intervention vessel, had suspended all drilling and well-operations. It also said that four inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR),?vessels, were affected. The production...

On Wednesday, two more Guatemalans pleaded guilty to human smuggling in Texas. The charges stemmed from the December 20, 2021 crash of a truck that killed 55 out of the 160+ migrants who were crammed inside. Jorge Agapito Ventura (34),?who?was arrested in Texas on December 20, 2024 and Oswaldo Manuel Zavala Quino (26), one of five co defendants extradited to America the following year, face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. According to a press release from the U.S. Justice Department, Sentencing has been set for October 6. In their guilty pleas in Texas federal court, both admitted that they...

According to three sources, the freight rates for tanker shipments from western ports of Russia's Urals crude to India have fallen in July compared to last month. This is because increased vessel availability and the summer season eased pressure on the market. The lower transportation costs are a relief for Russian oil exporters whose margins were under pressure due to the wider discounts on Urals crude, as a result of weak demand in Asia. Sources claim that the cost to ship a cargo of 100,000 metric tonnes of Aframax from the Baltic port of Primorsk, in the Baltic Sea, to...

Ukraine's Deputy Prosecutor-General denied Kyiv's role in the 2022 explosion of the Nord Stream Gas Pipelines and suggested forming a joint investigative team with Germany. Germany suspects Ukrainian state entities are behind the explosions. The explosions occurred months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. They damaged the Nord Stream 1 pipe, a crucial route for?Russian exports of gas to Europe. In a press release, the Prosecutor's Office said that, according to the findings of the investigation, there was no evidence that Ukraine or its officials or officials had been involved in the explosions that occurred in the Baltic Sea...

Calculations showed that the average daily natural gas supply to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline fell by 3.7% compared to a year earlier to 36.2 million cubic meters in June. The only remaining transit route for Russian gas into Europe is through Turkey after Ukraine decided not to extend the five-year agreement with Moscow that expired in January 2025. According to calculations based on data from the European Gas Transmission Group Entsog, total Russian gas supplies via TurkStream to Europe were?1.09 billion cu?metres in June 2018, down from 1.13 Bcms in 2025. The half-year supply increased by around 5%, to...

Estonia released images of a Russian-flagged LNG carrier in the Baltic Sea this spring with machine guns and sandbags, indicating a more aggressive stance from Moscow to 'protect its civilian fleet. Surveillance images show machine gun positions fortified on the roof of the Marshal Vasilevskiy civilian vessel, which has its home port in Kaliningrad. Yoruk isik, a geopolitical expert who runs the Bosphorus Observer consulting, described it as "a crazy step" by civilian vessels operating in the Baltic. Isik said that "this is a hostile act by Russia" to send a signal to EU and NATO nations, saying it would...

Three 'trade sources' told us on Wednesday that the price differentials between Russia Urals crude delivered to India in August had?fallen to its lowest level since late February amid a plethora of?supply? and increasing competition. The discount for August Urals cargoes shipped to Indian ports under the DES system had widened from $4 to $7 per barrel compared to the benchmark Brent dated 10 days ago. The price of Russia's flagship grade in India is at its lowest level since the Iran war began, as Middle Eastern producers resume their shipments through the Strait of Hormuz after the interim peace...

The?U.N. The?U.N. The repairs were carried out in two separate locations: the switchyard at the Zaporizhzhya thermal power plant, which supplies electricity to the ZNPP via the backup 330 kV Ferosplavna-1?line, according to the agency. The Dniprovska Line has not been brought back to operation yet due to?extensive damages at its connecting substation. The International Atomic Energy Agency's Rafael Mariano Grossi stated in a statement that the line had been repaired but still needed to be brought back into operation. The agency stated that repairs to the substation are ongoing but not expected to be completed in the near future....

Sevastopol has limited the power supply to homes in order to avoid overloading the network. This is according the the Russian-installed Governor of Crimea's biggest city, who spoke on Thursday. The Black Sea Peninsula is currently experiencing fuel and electricity shortages. Crimean authorities already have suspended fuel sales for private motorists. Sevastopol, on the other hand, has implemented restrictions to operating hours of public transport, shops and cafes. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, despite the fact that most countries don't recognise Moscow's authority in the region. Kyiv, however, has stated it will never cede this territory. The fuel supply to...

As a result of the Ukrainian drone attacks, Russia will ship record volumes of crude oil from its western ports in June. Sources said that loadings at the Baltic ports Primorsk and Ust-Luga as well as the Black Sea port Novorossiysk are expected to be around 2.7 million barrels per day this month. One source said that shipments could reach as high as 2,8 million barrels per day. This would be a significant increase over the 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) exported in May, and about 1 million above the initial forecast for the month. As a result of...

Local officials reported that Ukrainian drones targeted energy infrastructure in central and southern Russia and the largest city in Russian-held Crimea. This highlights the'reach' of Kyiv’s attacks. Ukraine intensified its strikes against Russian oil refineries and depots this year, driving up the price of gasoline in Russia where authorities have restricted sales in certain regions. The fuel shortages in the Crimean peninsula have been especially acute since Russia's annexation of the peninsula in 2014. Sevastopol's newly-installed Russian governor has ordered the early closure of cafes, public transport, and street lights to protect Sevastopol from overnight attacks. He said that the...

Russian regions are restricting fuel sales due to a lack of certain grades of gasoline and diesel and long lines at the filling stations. This is because Ukrainian attacks on oil refining facilities have disrupted supply. The following are statements by Russian regional authorities and companies on the current situation: CENTRAL RUSSIA Surgutneftegaz, Tatneft and the authorities in Tver announced on the 20th of June that temporary restrictions were introduced for individuals at the Surgutneftegaz & Tatneft gasoline stations because of increased demand. Igor Artamonov, the Governor of Lipetsk, said that several filling stations in the region, including?the cities?of Lipetsk,...

Three?trading'sources' said that the Russian Far East ESPO blend crude differentials to be delivered to?China between July and August have fallen to parity with ICE Brent. This is due to weak Chinese demand, as well as expectations of a higher global supply after a??U.S.Iran peace agreement. India, the second largest buyer of Russian crude, is also seeing a softer price trend. This further reduces Moscow's revenue, which was already being squeezed by lower oil prices. The U.S. waiver of Iranian oil could push ESPO blend differentials to a discount compared to the ICE benchmark in China. According to one source,...

Middle East oil producers will have to face the consequences. The Iran War exposed the dangers in relying solely on one chokepoint to export vital oil and gas. Gulf governments were left with a clear strategy imperative: diversify at all costs. A blockade by Iran of the Strait of Hormuz was long viewed as an "event of doomsday". It would never occur. Experts believed it would take a massive effort from the military and that Tehran wouldn't be willing to stop its exports. These assumptions were 'proven painfully incorrect. Iran used cheap drones and small vessels to impose a nearly...