Azerbaijan, host of this year's UN climate summit, will defend the right of oil and gas producing nations to invest in the sector, the country's president said on Friday, noting that despite climate targets, fossil fuel demand remains strong. As the host of the United Nations COP29 climate summit in November, Azerbaijan will oversee negotiations among nearly 200 countries on how to raise more finance to combat climate change and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet.

Against the arid, red dirt of the Australian Outback, the Mount Holland lithium mine emerges to approaching visitors as a colossal grey-tinged crater, with trucks the size of houses edging along its steep inclines. An expanding site at the heart of the world’s top lithium-producing region, the A$2.6-billion operation is emblematic of the plentiful additional supply of the battery material currently weighing on global prices, much of it from this neighborhood. Despite bullish long term forecasts, the metal has been languishing near two-year lows as demand fails to keep pace.

When former boss Mark Cutifani left Anglo American in mid-April 2022, things had rarely looked better for the century-old miner. Metals prices soared as the world emerged from lockdowns, the company had recently posted its best-ever annual profit and the popular industry veteran was handing over to a trusted lieutenant. Anglo stock hit a record the same day. Two years later, the company’s reputation is in tatters after a series of missteps sent its value plunging by half. And now industry heavyweight BHP Group is moving in.

Global interest in and the uptake of the new REFLUX Flotation Cell (RFC) from full flowsheet technology and service supplier FLSmidth has been gaining considerable momentum. As a result of this significant interest, the company is experiencing a backlog in paid-for test programmes at its Salt Lake City facility, in the US, FLSmidth global product director REFLUX technologies Lance Christodoulou tells Mining Weekly. “We've got customers that are prepared to proceed with the purchase of full-scale equipment to trial in Europe, following the results achieved during lab testing. We are yards ahead in the commercialisation phase compared with where we were when we started two years ago.”

Despite ongoing concerns about gas shortages, regulatory uncertainty, geopolitical constraints and infrastructure limitations, using compressed natural gas (CNG) for various business and industrial purposes will become more important in South Africa, says energy company CNG Holdings CEO Josua le Roux. This is owing to the various benefits associated with using CNG as a fuel resource in power generation and industrial applications, including for transportation and manufacturing purposes.

Eligible small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa will benefit from cylinder manufacturer Cylinders4Africa’s (C4A’s) establishing a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bulk tank supply division, which is set to start operations in May 2024. The company will also be involved in the opening of three gas retail sites – a project spurred by its sister company Gas Brand, in partnership with hardware store Build It – to make gas more accessible to consumers in rural communities.

Energy and infrastructure service company WSG Energy Services (WSG) has consolidated its position in Australia’s energy and infrastructure sectors with a host of contract wins and the opening of a new facility in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), as stated in a press release published earlier this month.  

What’s holding back Tanzania’s economic recovery? The World Bank states that Tanzania has benefited from “strong macro fundamentals” and emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting global financial turmoil in a strong position. However, the East African country’s economic recovery remains modest. So, what’s holding it back?

The Competition Tribunal has approved the proposed acquisition of petrol station brand Engen by independent energy marketing and trading company Vitol Emerald, subject to a set of competition and public interest conditions.   The tribunal’s order follows a hearing last month during which it heard submissions from the Competition Commission, the merging parties, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic), Sasol South Africa, Astron Energy South Africa, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, and the Chemical, Energy, Paper Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union. Following the hearing, the tribunal requested additional submissions from the commission, the merging parties, Sasol and Astron Energy.   MERGING PARTIES Vitol supplies and distributes crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas globally.

The oil and gas industry is evolving, and has to, highlighted commodities trading and risk management company Ion Commodities VP product strategy Lance Fogtman, in a panel discussion at the 2024 African Refiners and Distributors Association conference, in Cape Town. He reviewed a particular aspect of the global markets for the energy transition – the carbon market. Or, rather, the carbon markets, as there were currently multiple such markets in the world. There was no single global carbon market, and he doubted that there would ever be one. But the important thing about all the current carbon markets was that they put a price on carbon.