Glencore outbid China on coal. The major miner stepped in with an 11-hour offer on Rio Tinto’s Australia mines. India’s new taxes spurred gold buying. Buyers are snapping up bullion ahead of the July 1 imposition of a 3% sales duty. A Libya deal torpedoed the oil price. The country will restart 160,000 b/d of output, just as OPEC is trying to cut. South Africa, … Read more
Big developments this week on a new challenge quickly rising for the energy industry… and beyond. Climate change reporting. ExxonMobil lost a key decision in an ongoing climate change battle Wednesday. When a New York judge ordered the oil giant to turn over correspondence from its executives on potential impacts of changing temperatures on the company’s business. … Read more
One of the biggest energy stories this year has been Russia’s Rosneft buying India’s Essar Oil — giving the Russian company a firm grip on one of the world’s biggest emerging oil and gas markets. And this past week, that story got more complex. With Rosneft striking another big deal — drawing in another heavyweight … Read more
Small but potentially critical item for the U.S. shale patch this week. With one state at the core of unconventional oil and gas production moving to shut down a swath of wells after some unexpected side effects. The place is Oklahoma. And the problem is — the ground is moving. On September 3, Oklahoma was … Read more
Critical report this week for all project developers across the natural resource space. Showing that investment in the sector is far from depressed. In fact, available funds for energy, mining and beyond are at all-time high. That analysis comes from investment fund trackers Preqin. Who Thursday released a comprehensive report on the state of assets under … Read more
I wrote late last year about an unusual trend emerging in oil and gas M&A. Namely, a wave of outgoing global investment from E&P firms in Russia. And news this week confirmed that Russia is on the rise when it comes to global petroleum deals. Russian petro-major Rosneft announced that it is near closing on one of its biggest … Read more
The recent rally in gold prices has been a welcome bright spot in metals. With prices soaring from $1,050 per ounce early in January to nearly $1,250 the last week. That’s had some observers suggesting a major rally may be at hand — with the yellow metal about to reclaim some of the big losses … Read more
Big news in energy project finance this week. With a mega-project that no one thought could succeed coming through with a massive finance package. That’s the Yamal liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in northern Russia. A multi-billion dollar development that appeared dubious just a few months ago — as sanctions against Russia seemed to be … Read more
One major event dominated mining news this week. Affecting nearly every major metal — from copper and nickel to gold and aluminum. An abrupt and unexpected change in mining laws from major producing nation Indonesia. As I wrote last Thursday, Indonesia’s mining sector has been in a state of flux. With exports of copper concentrates halting … Read more
It might be the biggest issue in mining you haven’t heard about. But events this week suggest that one “sleeper” problem may be about to leap to the main stage. That’s the introduction of a new mining charter in key producing nation South Africa. Which the government said is going ahead this coming month — … Read more