It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, September 03, 2025
Wood Secures Three-Year Extension on Equinor’s UK Mariner Field Contract
Wood (LSE: WG) has secured a three-year extension to its operations, maintenance, modifications, and support services contract with Equinor for the Mariner field on the UK Continental Shelf.
The renewed agreement ensures Wood will continue supporting the Mariner A platform and Mariner B floating storage unit through projects, upgrades, and maintenance, with an option for a further one-year extension.
Context
The deal will sustain more than 110 roles both in Aberdeen and offshore on the Mariner assets, reinforcing the city’s position as a hub for the UK’s offshore workforce. Since first oil in 2019, Mariner has been one of Equinor’s flagship UK projects, designed with a focus on long-term energy production. Equinor has invested billions into the development, which contains estimated recoverable reserves of more than 250 million barrels of oil and continues to be a cornerstone of UK North Sea output
The extension also reflects a wider industry trend of operators maintaining strong partnerships with established service providers to maximize uptime and operational efficiency. For Wood, the renewal consolidates its standing as a key contractor in the UKCS at a time when North Sea operators are balancing the need for energy security with commitments to lower-carbon operations. The company’s role on Mariner will also dovetail with its support for Equinor in other regions, including Norway and Brazil, as well as in offshore wind projects in the UK.
Steve Nicol, Executive President of Operations at Wood, emphasized that the extension demonstrates Equinor’s ongoing confidence in Wood’s delivery capability. With the UK government pushing for increased domestic production amid volatile global markets, ensuring reliable output from strategic assets like Mariner is seen as vital to maintaining supply security while managing the energy transition.
Shell Scraps Rotterdam Biofuels Plant Over Cost Concerns
Shell plc (LON: SHEL) has confirmed it will not restart construction of its biofuels facility at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park in Rotterdam, following a reassessment that found the project would be insufficiently competitive to meet customer needs for affordable low-carbon fuels.
The decision marks a setback for one of Shell’s flagship low-carbon projects, which began construction in 2022 and was positioned to support Europe’s push for renewable fuels, particularly sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Shell said that after a detailed commercial and technical review, rising costs and market conditions made the project unviable.
Machteld de Haan, Shell’s Downstream, Renewables and Energy Solutions President, said the decision was “difficult but right” as the company prioritizes projects with stronger returns. She added that Shell remains committed to biofuels, highlighting its global trading dominance in SAF and advanced biofuels.
Despite shelving the Rotterdam plant, Shell stressed its ongoing energy transition investments. Between 2023 and 2024, the company deployed $8 billion in lower-carbon options, spanning hydrogen, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and renewables. In 2024, Shell traded over 10 billion liters of low-carbon fuels—ten times its own production—and became a leading SAF supplier across North America and Europe
The Netherlands remains a strategic hub for Shell. Recent commitments include the €1.3 billion Porthos CCS project, the 200 MW Holland Hydrogen 1 electrolyser slated for commissioning in 2026, and electrification upgrades at Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk. Across the country, Shell has invested €6.5 billion in energy transition initiatives over recent years.
Shell also continues to expand its global biofuels footprint through ventures such as its 44% stake in Brazil’s Raízen (bioethanol), the 2022 acquisition of Malaysian recycler EcoOils for advanced feedstocks, and its 2023 purchase of Danish biogas producer Nature Energy.
The cancellation underscores mounting challenges for capital-intensive biofuels projects in Europe, where inflation, high construction costs, and uncertain policy support have slowed investment momentum. While demand for SAF is projected to grow sharply as airlines seek to cut emissions, producers face thin margins and competition from cheaper fossil-based alternatives.
Shell said related impairments from the Rotterdam project will be disclosed in upcoming quarterly results.
India’s Electricity Generation Jumps as Industry Rebounds
India’s manufacturing activity, which consumes about half of the country’s power supply, surged in August to the highest level in 17 years, driving the fastest growth in electricity generation in five months.
India saw a 4% rise in power generation in August, according to a Reuters analysis of data from Grid India, the federal grid operator.
Industrial activity, which began to recover in July and soared in August to a 2008 high, was the key driver of higher electricity generation in one of the fastest-growing developing economies.
India’s manufacturing activity, as measured by the HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) compiled by S&P Global, signaled the fastest improvement in operating conditions for 17 and a half years
Strong demand continues to underpin robust increases in factory orders and production, S&P Global noted.
As the manufacturing sector accounts for half of India’s power demand, electricity generation jumped in August by the most since March this year. Further improvements are likely in the coming two quarters as the June-September monsoon season with heavy rains is coming to a close.
Doubts remain about how India’s massive manufacturing industry would cope with the now-hiked 50% tariffs on Indian goods imported into the U.S., with 25% of the tariff due to India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.
Still, India’s power demand from the business is rising and generation responds.
The higher power output helped generation from coal—which remains India’s top electricity source—post an annual increase in August for the first month in five months.
Despite the lowest coal prices in Asia in four years, India’s coal power generation dipped in May to the lowest since the Covid lockdowns of 2020, as a lack of heatwaves and soaring renewable energy installations and generation pushed down coal demand in the electricity sector.
In July, India boasted achieving five years ahead of schedule its target to have 50% of its installed electricity capacity coming from non-fossil fuel sources.
This installed capacity, however, does not mean renewable power generation will soon replace coal in India, especially if grid constraints and battery and transmission delays persist.
Strong demand for crude oil from Asian countries, especially China, has insulated Brazil’s Petrobras from the worst of the tariff war fallout, chief executive Magda Chambriard told Bloomberg in an interview.
“There is a lot of demand in Asia for our products,” Chambriard told the publication at an industry event in Sao Paulo, adding that China was the biggest buyer of its crude. The country accounted for 52% of Petrobras’ oil exports over the second quarter of the year, according to Bloomberg.
Europe was the Brazilian state major’s second-largest market over the three-month period, taking in 19% of total oil exports. It was followed by the rest of Asia, accounting for 12% of the total or the second quarter. The United States took in 8% of Petrobras’ oil exports, and Latin America accounted for 6%.
The Trump administration slapped 50% tariffs on Brazil last month, prompting expectations that oil flows from South America’s biggest producer will get redirected to Asia. Petrobras’ Chambriard has just confirmed this.
The U.S. was Brazil’s third-largest oil buyer, importing around 189,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of the year, or 11% of Brazil’s total oil exports, according to data from ship-tracking firm Vortexa and Kpler. China and Europe were the top destinations, importing 654,000 bpd and 446,000 bpd, respectively.
In the second quarter, even before the higher tariffs, the U.S. had slipped to number four among the biggest importers of Brazilian crude. The tariffs were President Trump’s choice for penalizing the Brazilian government for the persecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In a similar fashion, Trump slapped 50% tariffs on Indian imports to punish the country for buying Russian crude.
Currently, the U.S. is not such a major buyer of Brazilian crude, which further strengthens Petrobras’ resilience to Washington’s trade policies, the CEO of the company suggested in her interview with Bloomberg.
Brazil wants a seat at the International Energy Agency’s table, filing a formal request this week to move from partner status to full membership.
On Tuesday in Paris, Brazil’s ambassador delivered a letter from Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira and Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira to IEA chief Fatih Birol, saying the government wanted to begin the accession process. The ministers pointed to the IEA’s support on energy security, data, and policy analysis, while stressing Brazil’s weight as both a major oil exporter and a leader in renewable power.
“Recognising the challenges that lie ahead in the energy landscape and the strategic support that the IEA provides to its member countries … [we are] pleased to inform you that our government would like to initiate accession procedures to the IEA as a full member,” the letter said.
For the IEA, Brazil’s bid is significant. Latin America’s largest economy brings both heft and contradictions: it is a leader in biofuels and hydropower, yet it is also expanding oil output aggressively. Petrobras, the state-controlled oil major, has committed $111 billion in spending through 2029—$77 billion of which is earmarked for oil and gas exploration and production. The company recently hit record operated output of 4.19 million boe/d in Q2 2025, but has disappointed investors by holding back dividends to fund this expansion.
Brazil’s government has made no secret that higher oil revenues will help fund social programs and even parts of the energy transition. President Lula da Silva argues that emissions reductions require investment—some of which must come from Brazil’s deepwater riches.
At the same time, Brazil has positioned itself carefully within producer alliances. In early 2025 it joined OPEC+, but on non-binding terms that exempt it from production cut quotas. The move gave Brasília a seat at the table while preserving its freedom to chase a 5.4 million bpd production target by 2030.
The IEA accession bid reflects Brazil’s other face: the climate leader that will host COP30 and touts its renewables-heavy power grid. Solar has surged, nuclear is expanding, and biofuels remain central. For Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, Brazil is “a cornerstone of the global energy system today and its importance is only set to increase.”
That dual identity—climate champion and oil growth engine—will shape Brazil’s role inside the IEA. Membership, if approved, would tie the country more tightly into international cooperation on energy security and transitions, even as Petrobras drills deeper into the pre-salt.
Iran has struck back at claims from the Gulf Cooperation Council on the ownership of three islands in the Persian Gulf and an offshore gas field.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the islands Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb were sovereign Iranian territory and so was the Arash gas field, calling the claims made earlier this week “hackneyed and legally baseless”.
The Arash gas field, called Dorra by the Arab Gulf states, is a disputed asset between Iran and Kuwait. It was discovered in the 1960s, on the edge of Kuwait’s eastern maritime border. Iran says the field extends into its territorial waters and claims partial ownership. The estimated reserves in the field stand at some 220 billion cubic meters but exploration has been hindered by the long-running dispute.
In July, Kuwait said it had started construction of an onshore gas processing plant to be fed from the Dorra field. Reports in Arab media described the field as located in the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The two signed a joint development deal for the field in 2022. In its Monday statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council said the islands were Kuwaiti territory occupied by Iran and the Dorra field was entirely Kuwaiti property.
The GCC “confirmed that the Al Durra field is located entirely within the maritime areas of the State of Kuwait and that the ownership of the natural resources in the partitioned submerged area adjacent to the Saudi-Kuwaiti partitioned zone, including the entire Al Durra field, is a joint ownership between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Kuwait only.”
In its response, the Iranian side rejected what it called “one-sided claims” by Kuwait and called for “bilateral dialogue, joint efforts, and a positive, constructive atmosphere”.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
Miners Dig Through Yesterday’s Waste to Find Tomorrow’s Metals
The mining industry is exploring alternative methods like recycling and re-mining waste tailings to secure essential metals for the energy transition due to challenges in traditional mining investments.
Significant amounts of valuable metals, particularly copper, can be recovered from mining waste, with some companies already investigating or investing in reprocessing plants.
While re-mining offers a promising solution for material security and waste reduction, its widespread adoption depends on developing cost-effective technologies and favorable market prices for recovered metals.
The mining industry is instrumental for securing the metals necessary for a transition to a more electricity-heavy energy system in the future. It has also been struggling with finding the motivation to invest in these metals. The paradoxical situation has stimulated an alternative approach: recycling and re-mining.
“I genuinely don’t see where all of this copper is going to come from at this point in time.” The observation was made by Anglo American’s chief executive, Duncan Winblad, to Bloomberg three years ago, referring to the projected huge amount of basic metal needed to advance the transition to net zero emissions in accordance with Paris Agreement targets.
But this is not the only thing Winblad told Bloomberg in that 2022 interview. He also said that “There are lots of copper resources in the world, and I think those resources could be brought to book, but the length of time it takes is completely under-appreciated by the market.”
Indeed, the long lead times in mining are the biggest obstacle on the net-zero course. The market has developed some appreciation of the fact, but copper prices still don’t motivate large-scale greenfield investments. So some miners are turning to alternative approaches to sourcing basic metals.
One of these approaches is re-mining, or recovering metals from tailings. Tailings is a nice name for waste—more specifically and importantly, mining waste. This waste contains certain amounts of metals that, according to some in the industry, can be recovered and used in the same way that the primary mined metals are used. These amounts of waste metals can be quite considerable and worth recovering.
According to the German research outlet Fraunhofer Institute, there is as much as 100 million tons of copper sitting in tailings dams from copper mining between 1910 and 2010. The current rate of tailings production is a sizable 7 billion tons annually. The metal content in the tailings is tiny, at between 0.1% and 0.5% for older mines and less than 0.1% for modern ones, but some argue that recovering metal content may be worth it to secure the copper that the energy transition needs.
Reuters’ Andy Home reported last week that some companies are indeed studying the commercial viability of metal recovery from tailings. These include Hudbay Minerals, which is considering copper recovery from the Flin Flon mine, which closed in 2022 but contains a lot of copper and zinc that is recoverable.
Another company, Australian Cobalt Blue Holdings, is considering a similar project for pyrite tailings as a source of sulfur to be tapped after the closure of a local copper smelter that is currently producing the chemical.
Yet another company, Hindustan Zinc, recently approved an actual investment in metals recovery from tailings for a zinc mine. The investment will be used to build a reprocessing plant with a capacity of 10 million tons per year. The Rampura Agucha is the world’s biggest zinc mine.
Re-mining certainly sounds like something that makes sense, especially in the context of a push towards what proponents call a circular economy, with a twin focus on securing necessary materials while keeping waste to a minimum. The problem seems to be technology. To make the extraction of residual metals from tailings economical, the cost of the process must be low enough to ensure its profitability.
The price of copper on international markets is not an incentive right now. It has remained stubbornly low despite projections of soaring demand and shortages. So, while re-mining sounds promising, it may be a while yet before we see tailing dams getting drained and their residual metal contents sucked out and used to manufacture copper wire.
