More UK manufacturers are cutting production or making job cuts as result of ‘out of control’ energy bills
Analysts are expecting gas prices to surge to record highs this week after Russia shut down a key pipeline to Europe.
At the same time, a growing number of UK manufacturers have said they are already cutting production or making job cuts as a direct result of “out of control” energy bills.
Continue reading...Shutdown over ‘oil leak’ comes only hours after G7 nations agree to impose a price cap
Fears that Europe could be engulfed by a winter energy crisis reached new heights yesterday after the Russian energy supplier Gazprom extended the shutdown of gas flows it had imposed through its key Nord Stream 1 pipeline into Germany.
The seriousness of the situation is underlined by the fact that Russia kept gas supplies to Europe flowing even at the height of the Cold War. By contrast, the pipeline has now been shut down twice since the Russian invasion of Ukraine: for 10 days in July in addition to the current indefinite closure.
Continue reading...Russian energy company had been due to resume gas delivery to Germany on Saturday morning
The Russian energy major Gazprom extended the shutdown of gas flows through its key Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany on Friday evening, providing no timeframe for a reopening.
The move came hours after G7 countries agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil in an attempt to stem the flow of funds to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Continue reading...Charles Michel says bloc must address price caps and has been too late in putting ‘concrete proposals on the table’
The EU must “make up for lost time” in finding urgent answers to an energy price spike that is a “catastrophe” for households and businesses, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has said.
Michel, who chairs EU leader summits, said the bloc needed to address the question of price caps, an idea backed by many EU member states.
Continue reading...State-owned Gazprom announces NordStream 1 pipeline to stay out of action citing turbine engine damage after EU announces upper limit on oil prices
Russian news agency Tass is carrying a quote from Alexander Volga, head of the Russian-imposed occupation administration of Enerhodar, the city where the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) is located.
It reports he said on Russian television that eight people from the IAEA mission remain at the ZNPP, alongside four more people, who he described as service personnel who accompany them through their activities.
The IAEA mission must state that the presence of the military, the presence of weapons at the station, is a real threat to nuclear safety. This is obvious.
This mission is unique because there are no analogues in the history of the IAEA at all. Missions took place at objects that were controlled by states. But there was no such mission format as it is now.
Continue reading...Outgoing leader hails £700m funding for Sizewell C nuclear plant in penultimate speech
• Boris Johnson says ‘madness’ not to build Sizewell C – UK politics live
Boris Johnson has vowed to give his total support to the next prime minister, but could not resist using his penultimate speech to take a potshot at Liz Truss’s energy plans.
In an attempt to shore up his legacy just days before he leaves No 10, the outgoing Conservative leader hailed the government’s “accelerated, long-overdue reforms” to make the UK more energy independent and announced £700m for the Sizewell C nuclear plant.
Continue reading...What can be done about rising prices – and would nationalising gas and electricity firms help?
Governments across Europe have been funding relief measures to help people with energy and petrol bills. The UK announced a £15bn package in May, largely in the form of cash payments to households, while EU member states are estimated to have spent €280bn (£243m) over the past year on everything from subsidies and price caps to one-off payments. But bills for households and businesses are reaching unsustainable levels, with further increases expected next year, sharpening the debate over whether ministers should be intervening directly in energy markets to help bring prices down.
As Russia threatens to further reduce gas supplies, politicians in Italy, Spain, Greece and the Czech Republic are among those pushing for coordinated action. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Monday Brussels was considering measures to be adopted by the 27 member states. What are the options?
Continue reading...European Commission says it is working ‘flat out’ on emergency intervention and on longer-term structural reform
The wholesale price of gas has dropped sharply in a rare respite from recent highs on signs that Europe is preparing to intervene directly in energy markets.
The European Commission said it was working “flat out” on an emergency package, and on a longer-term “structural reform of the electricity market” to combat soaring prices while efforts to fill gas storage facilities appear to be ahead of schedule.
Continue reading...Warning raises prospect of continued rationing, as Total boss says Europe has to plan for future without Russian supplies
Gas shortages across Europe are likely to last for several winters to come, the chief executive of Shell has said, raising the prospect of continued energy rationing as governments across the continent push to develop alternative supplies.
Cuts to the supply of Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine have plunged European countries into a devastating energy crisis, driving up wholesale prices to leave consumers facing huge bills and the highest rates of inflation since the 1980s.
Continue reading...Experts say 80% price cap increase will plunge people into destitution and cause avoidable deaths
Millions of households are bracing for a winter catastrophe of rising energy bills that experts say will plunge people into destitution and cause an increase in avoidable deaths without urgent government support.
After Britain’s energy industry regulator confirmed an 80% rise in the consumer price cap from October that will take a typical household’s gas and electricity bill to £3,549 a year, there were stark warnings about its potentially devastating effects.
Continue reading...Government to review aid package as energy companies who seek share of surcharge post-billion-euro earnings
The German government is under pressure to radically revise or scrap a controversial new gas levy on already stretched consumers after it emerged that some energy companies seeking a share of the surcharge have posted billion-euro earnings.
Robert Habeck, the economy minister, said his ministry acknowledged the angry response to the surcharge and would urgently review the aid package in an attempt to prevent gas importers whose businesses have profited from recent energy inflation from benefiting from it.
Continue reading...Company’s owner, Centrica, says extra support will begin in autumn and last for the ‘duration of the energy crisis’
British Gas has announced it will donate 10% of its profits to help its poorer customers manage rising gas and electricity bills for the “duration of the energy crisis”.
Ahead of an expected rise in the price cap on energy on Friday, the company’s owner, Centrica, said it would donate £12m this autumn into an existing support fund. Grants of £250 to £750 would be given to poorer customers, and the pledge to donate 10% of profits every six months would last for the duration of the energy crisis “backdated to the start of 2022”, it added.
Continue reading...Energy prices have soared above prediction and subsidies will require significant further spending
Ministers could face an additional £23bn price tag for covering extra household energy costs of £900 this autumn, rising to £90bn next year, a new paper by the Institute for Government has found.
The paper, looking at the options for Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak in No 10, also warned the government should plan for prolonged rises in energy bills by going a lot further in making public appeals to use less gas – for example by informing consumers about the cost savings from turning down thermostats – and in committing to building more energy efficient homes to help protect consumers.
Continue reading...Federal court hearing on the islands, north of Darwin, told a spill would mean ‘everything ends up dead’ in delicate marine ecosystem
A large gas project off the Tiwi Islands could threaten a vulnerable turtle species and disrupt a thriving ecosystem of fish, a marine ranger has told the federal court.
Tiwi Islander Dennis Tipakalippa is challenging the decision to allow Santos to drill eight wells in the Barossa gas field, 265km north-west of Darwin.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: President José Ramos-Horta says his country’s leadership ‘has to make decisions … if necessary a trip to China’
Timor-Leste’s president, José Ramos-Horta, has warned his nation will seek Chinese support if Australia and Woodside Energy fail to back a gas pipeline between the resource-rich Timor Sea and his country’s southern shore, rather than Darwin.
Ramos-Horta has warned Timor-Leste – Australia’s neighbour and ally – would “absolutely” look to Chinese investment to secure what he says is the “national strategic goal” of piping gas from the Greater Sunrise fields to his nation’s coast. The comments are likely to heighten concerns about Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Continue reading...German energy firm, which operates many UK power stations, has been bailed out by federal government
The owner of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire has posted a €12bn (£10bn) loss weeks after agreeing a bailout package with the German government, in a set of results that signal the deepening energy crisis across Europe.
Uniper received a €15bn lifeline from the German state in return for a 30% equity stake in a deal agreed in July.
Continue reading...Senex Energy says extra fuel will be for domestic use but plans are yet to secure state or federal environmental approvals
Gas producer Senex, which is jointly owned by South Korea’s steel giant Posco and Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, has planned a more than $1bn expansion to its Queensland gasfields with the bulk of the extra fuel apparently to be earmarked for domestic use.
The company, which is seeking federal and state approval for two sites adjacent to its Atlas and Roma North projects in the Surat Basin, made the announcement ahead of a speech by the resources minister, Madeleine King. It still has to clear some state regulatory hurdles, Senex said.
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Continue reading...AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin among businesses study says not on track to meet global climate goals to limit heating to well below 2C
Nine out of 10 major Australian electricity companies are failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to meet the goals of the landmark Paris climate agreement, a study has found.
Businesses not acting in accordance with the 2015 Paris agreement goal of limiting global heating to well below 2C since pre-industrial times included the generators and retailers AGL, EnergyAustralia and Origin, according to the study led by University of Queensland researchers.
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Continue reading...The east coast faces a potential gas shortfall in 2023 amounting to 10% of demand and there are calls for exporters to fill the gap
Some time in the next couple of weeks, a well-known ASX-listed company could go to the wall if it can’t secure a new contract for gas.
That firm, for now at least, can’t go public without its share price cratering and its employees and suppliers being sent into a panic.
Continue reading...Output last month of Russian firm was down 14% on June, sharpening fears Moscow could provoke energy crisis in Europe
The daily gas production of Russia’s Gazprom dropped in July to its lowest level since 2008, figures suggest, amid continued fears that Moscow could cause an energy crisis in Europe by shutting off the supply.
The state-owned energy firm pumped 774 million cubic metres a day last month – 14% less than in June – according to analysis by Bloomberg of data released on Monday.
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