IEA: Oil Shock Sparks Surge in EV Sales

By Michael Kern - May 20, 2026

Electric vehicle sales could hit nearly 30% of all car sales in the world this year as drivers accelerate a shift to EVs and hybrids amid spiking fuel prices in the wake of the Iran war, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.

Following strong growth in 2025, this year EV sales are set to reach 23 million globally in 2026, accounting for almost 30% of all cars sold worldwide, the IEA said in its annual Global EV Outlook 2026 report out today.

Last year, EV sales grew by 20% globally and accounted for one-quarter of all new cars sold were electric cars. This year, the share is moving closer to 30%, as surging fuel prices encourage more drivers to switch to electric vehicles.

Due to policy changes, especially in China and the United States which reduced or phased out incentives, respectively, global EV sales dropped by 8% in the first quarter of 2026 from a year earlier.

However, this overall decline masked strong sales growth in many other countries and regions, the IEA said.

In Europe, EV sales jumped by close to 30% year-on-year; in the Asia Pacific region excluding China, sales surged by 80%; and in Latin American EV sales soared by 75% between January and March compared to the same period last year, the agency added.

As oil and fuel prices spiked in March due to the Middle East conflict, nearly 90 countries saw annual EV sales increases, including 30 countries in which electric car sales logged record-breaking monthly sales, the IEA noted.

"Looking ahead, the falls we have seen in battery prices and the potential policy responses to the current global energy crisis are set to provide further momentum in EV markets," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.

EV sales in Europe continue to rise, with demand for electric vehicles jumping by 34% in April.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.co

 

Soaring Energy Prices Are Driving a Home Solar Boom

By Felicity Bradstock - May 23, 2026

• Households in the U.K. and U.S. are increasingly adopting rooftop solar as oil and gas prices surge following geopolitical disruptions.
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• Falling solar panel and battery costs are making home energy systems more accessible and attractive for consumers seeking long-term savings.
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• Governments and utilities are expanding support for residential solar, although affordability and grid safety regulations remain challenges.
• 
  

Home solar power installations have risen significantly in recent decades, as consumers look to drive down their electricity bills and make their energy use more sustainable. Now, with oil and gas prices soaring due to geopolitical challenges, more households are being attracted to solar installations.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) uses electronic devices, also called solar cells, to convert sunlight directly into electricity. Solar PV is highly modular, meaning that smaller-sized solar home kits and rooftop installations with around 3-20 kW of capacity can be fitted on a range of residential buildings. The cost of manufacturing solar panels has fallen dramatically over the past decade, making them affordable and providing users with one of the cheapest forms of electricity.

The falling price of solar power has attracted millions of consumers to invest in solar installations in recent years, and now even more households may adopt solar systems. Following the United States–Israeli–led attack on Iran in February, Iran ordered the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has significantly reduced energy trade between Europe and Asia and has driven up global oil and gas prices dramatically in recent months.

The higher energy prices are hitting consumers hard, many of whom have already been negatively affected by high inflation over the past couple of years. This has led many consumers to call on governments to diversify the energy mix beyond fossil fuels to enhance energy security and reduce the impact of price volatility. In addition, many households are taking energy into their own hands by investing in rooftop solar panels.

In the United Kingdom, solar panel sales have increased significantly since the start of the Iran war, according to the energy provider Octopus Energy. Sales increased by around 54 percent in March, compared to February, with consumers investing in larger solar arrays.

Octopus Energy’s Chief Product Officer, Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, stated, “We are seeing a massive shift as people stop just asking and start acting. British families are tired of being held hostage by global fossil fuel prices. By switching to solar and heat pumps, they are becoming their own power stations, locking in low costs and protecting their wallets for the long term.”

It may not only be the Iran war drawing greater interest to solar systems, as more consumers were already purchasing solar panels due to the higher energy costs associated with inflation. The green electricity supplier Good Energy said in March that it had seen interest in solar panels double over the previous three months. The firm’s CEO, Nigel Pocklington, said that “The most effective way to bring bills down over the long term is to double down on renewables, alongside storage and flexibility, so more of our power comes from predictable, homegrown sources.”

The cost of home batteries is also falling, meaning that consumers may be able to access power from solar units even when the sun is not shining. The more electricity a household uses, the greater the potential savings from using a home battery, meaning that those with a home electric car charger or heat pump could save the most.

The U.K. Labour government announced earlier in March that it expected most new homes to have solar panels starting in 2028 and that it planned to lift a ban on sales of plug-in solar kits.

In the United States, solar adoption has become the fastest-growing source of power in the country in recent years. In 2024, 84 percent of all new electricity production capacity added to the grid came from solar power and battery storage. While the Trump administration’s crackdown on renewable energy expansion is expected to slow mid-term expansion, many states are still expanding grants and rebates for consumers and businesses looking to install solar systems.

Rooftop solar panels and installation are estimated to have a median cost of around $30,000, before government incentives, meaning that while they offer a clear path to cutting electricity costs, at present, only richer households can afford to invest in these installations.

In recent months, faced with higher energy prices, several U.S. consumers have taken energy into their own hands by installing plug-in solar panels without informing utilities. This is simple, as people can buy cheap, small solar panels and hang them nearly anywhere without hiring an electrician’s services, as the panels can be plugged into a regular outlet to start generating electricity, with the support of a microinverter.

Plug-in technology is already popular in some parts of the world, such as Germany. However, U.S. regulators have previously stressed that they cannot simply replicate the German model as the electrical system is different. In the U.S., there is no ground fault circuit interrupter, meaning appliances do not cut out as necessary to minimise the risk of electric shock. However, some states, such as Utah, have introduced legislation to encourage greater uptake.

With or without permission, the consumer trend of installing household solar systems is set to continue so long as fossil fuel prices remain highly volatile and energy bills are elevated.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

TotalEnergies Eyes $100M+ Stake Sales in European Solar and Wind Portfolio

By Michael Kern - May 22, 2026

TotalEnergies is considering selling 50% of some of its solar and wind assets in Europe as part of its strategy to partner with other companies in operating and monetizing its clean energy portfolio, Bloomberg reported on Friday, quoting anonymous sources with knowledge of the plans.

The France-based oil and gas supermajor, which has been developing a global renewable energy portfolio for years, is now working with advisers to potentially market 50% in a combined 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power assets in France, Germany, Spain, and Poland, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

A deal could be worth several hundred million U.S. dollars for TotalEnergies, the sources noted.

Unlike other European majors such as BP and Shell, which have outright reduced spending on renewables, TotalEnergies has a strategy to reach a 12% profitability target for its Integrated Power business.

This means that TotalEnergies would typically divest up to 50% of its renewable assets once they reach commercial operation date (COD) and are de-risked, which allows it “to maximize asset value and manage risks.”

In one of its biggest recent stake sales, TotalEnergies last year agreed to sell 50% of its solar projects portfolio in North America to global investment firm KKR for about $1 billion, as part of the French supermajor’s renewables strategy to divest half of its already operational assets.

TotalEnergies has also moved to sign power purchase deals to provide clean energy to major data center developers and hyperscalers.

In November, the French major signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to supply Google data centers in Ohio with renewable electricity from a local TotalEnergies solar farm.

Earlier in November, TotalEnergies signed a power purchase agreement with Data4 to supply renewable electricity to the data center developer’s sites in Spain for 10 years, as the French supermajor looks to boost its integrated power business with the key driver of global electricity demand—data centers and AI infrastructure.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com 

 

India Explores Alternative Energy Sources Amid Oil Supply Shock

By Tsvetana Paraskova - May 22, 2026

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the government to urgently explore an increase in the use of alternative energy sources, including biogas as a substitute for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), as the Middle East crisis is choking oil and gas supply to the world’s third-largest crude importer.

Modi also urged ministers to move faster with implementing reforms to turn India into a developed nation by 2047, the goal for its 100^th independence anniversary.

India has been grappling with the energy crisis that the Iran war created. Oil supply from the Middle East was severely constrained, forcing India to boost Russian oil imports – with a U.S. blessing in the form of waivers for Russian crude on tankers – and seek alternative crude and LPG supply from regions other than the Middle East.

Earlier this week, reports emerged that India plans to send empty tankers into the Strait of Hormuz to load oil supplies from the Gulf producers.

This would be a first such Indian move west of the chokepoint for loading crude and LPG since the Iran war began, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

India has boosted imports of oil and LPG from places that don’t need the Strait of Hormuz, but costs are usually higher, and the journey times are much longer compared to the shorter routes from the Persian Gulf to India.

At any rate, India will likely need approval from the U.S. to move through the U.S. blockade in the Gulf of Oman first, and then from Iran for clearance in the Strait of Hormuz en route to the export ports in the Persian Gulf.  

Two and a half months after the Middle East conflict began, one of the highest-performing emerging markets in recent years is scrambling to contain the oil shock that is spreading to consumer prices, foreign exchange reserves, and economic growth.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

 

Strikes Hit Two Australian LNG Facilities After Wage Talks Collapse

By Irina Slav - May 20, 2026

Maintenance workers at two offshore LNG facilities in Australia went on strike after failing to reach an agreement on wage terms with their employer, engineering major UGL.

“The end result of UGL's inability to negotiate or accept industrial standards is protected industrial action,” trade union group the Offshore Alliance, which represents the workers, said in a statement as quoted by Reuters.

The strike will affect Woodside’s North West Shelf LNG facility as well as the neighboring Pluto LNG project, also operated by the Australian energy major. The North West Shelf LNG plant produces 14.3 million tons of the superchilled fuel annually, and Pluto LNG has a capacity of 4.9 million tons.

“We've been making sure we understand how to accommodate this. Working closely with our workforce has always been our priority, and we continue to have those strong relationships, so you know it's sort of part of life,” Woodside’s chief executive, Liz Westcott, said, as quoted by Reuters.

Earlier this week, the Offshore Alliance also notified Japan’s Inpex that a strike may be imminent at the Japanese company’s Ichthys LNG project. “We have made it clear to Inpex that we aren’t going to cop the short-changing of our bargaining claims simply because Inpex could not be bothered reading our claims for six months,” a spokesperson for the Offshore Alliance said in a statement on Monday.

Australia is a top-three global exporter of liquefied natural gas thanks to its vast offshore reserves. It has recently returned to the spotlight after being edged out of it by booming U.S. exports, as the Qatari LNG crunch prompted Asian energy buyers to look for viable alternatives.

There has been concern about the Australian government imposing curbs on LNG exports to secure domestic supply amid tight gas availability on the densely populated east coast of the country but the government recently denied such plans over the near term. It will, however, mandate LNG producers to set aside a certain amount of gas for the domestic market to ensure supply security.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

 

Colombia pushes Glencore on Cerrejón closure plans

Cecilia Jamasmie | May 19, 2026 | 

Coal extracted at Cerrejón. (Image courtesy of Glencore | Cerrejón.)

Colombia is pressing Glencore (LON: GLEN) to begin planning for a post-coal future at its Cerrejón mine, setting up a high-stakes debate over whether one of the world’s largest open-pit coal operations can wind down without triggering economic shock.

The push follows calls from President Gustavo Petro’s government for early transition talks around the Cerrejón complex. The concession runs until 2034, but officials say waiting until the final years of the operation could leave the coal-dependent region of La Guajira vulnerable to severe economic and social disruption.

Cerrejón produced 16.8 million tonnes of coal in 2025, down from 19.2 million tonnes a year earlier, according to a report by Chilean mining consultancy GEM. The operation supports more than 12,000 direct and contractor jobs and includes a 150-km railway and Caribbean export port that underpin much of the economy in the northern province of La Guajira.

“The real choice in this case is between a managed transition and an unmanaged shock,” Juan Ignacio Guzmán, head of GEM, said in the report, which examined the risks of an accelerated closure. 

The consultancy argued that abrupt political intervention without replacement industries, financing and community safeguards could destabilize municipal budgets, local suppliers and environmental programs across the region. 

Cerrejón remains one of Colombia’s most important export assets and a major source of royalties, taxes and employment. GEM estimates the coal complex contributes about $166 million annually in royalties and supports roughly $86 million in local procurement spending. 

Production declines could trigger a cascade of economic impacts affecting suppliers, municipal budgets, contractor employment and social services in one of Colombia’s poorest regions, the report said.

Energy transition test

The debate has become a test case for Colombia’s broader energy transition strategy. Petro has banned new coal and hydrocarbon exploration contracts while promoting wind and solar investment in La Guajira, a region with some of Latin America’s strongest renewable-energy potential. 

Cerrejón has also faced years of environmental and social criticism over water use, coal dust and the displacement of Indigenous Wayuu communities. Environmental groups argue the eventual closure of the mine could reduce pressure on scarce water resources in the arid region, while unions and local leaders fear a poorly managed transition could devastate the local economy.

GEM said international mine-closure experience shows the greatest risks emerge when shutdowns are driven by political conflict, legal uncertainty or financial stress before governments and communities are prepared.

It cited cases including First Quantum’s (TSX: FM) Cobre Panama, South Africa’s Blyvooruitzicht and Zambia’s Kabwe, where abrupt shutdowns or weak remediation planning triggered fiscal stress, unemployment and long-term contamination problems.

The consultancy recommended a “managed transition compact” involving the Colombian government, Glencore, Cerrejón management and local communities. Proposed measures include ring-fenced transition financing, worker retraining, supplier-conversion programs, environmental assurance funding and long-term plans for reusing rail, port and logistics infrastructure after mining declines.

The report highlights the pressure on Glencore is less about forcing an immediate shutdown than positioning Cerrejón at the centre of Colombia’s long-term shift away from coal.

For Petro’s government, the mine has become both a practical and symbolic test of whether the country can cut fossil fuel dependence without repeating the economic and social turmoil seen in abrupt mine closures elsewhere.

 

Sigma Lithium fights Brazil ruling after 15% shares slide

Staff Writer | May 19, 2026 |

Preservation of the Piauí Seasonal Creek is a core ESG initiative at the Grota do Cirilo mine. (Image courtesy of Sigma Lithium.)

Sigma Lithium (NASDAQ: SGML) is appealing a Brazilian court ruling tied to allegations involving waste disposal at its Grota do Cirilo lithium operation after the developments helped wipe 15% off the company’s share price.

The May 17 decision by a local judge in Aracuai, in Brazil’s Vale do Jequitinhonha region, includes potential legal collateral of $10 million that would only become payable if the company ultimately loses following appeals through Brazil’s state and federal courts, Sigma said. 

The company said similar cases in Brazil typically take years to resolve and no payments are currently due. The ruling followed a site visit by legal authorities who verified the operation complied with Brazilian environmental regulations, Sigma added. More than 200 people from nearby communities also attended a public hearing the same day in support of the mine, the company said.

“The company is the target of fake news and coordinated misinformation campaigns intended to damage its reputation and market value,” Sigma said, adding it remains in contact with authorities including FINRA regarding the matter.

Sigma shares closed Monday down 12.25% at $14.76, giving the company a market capitalization of about $2.6 billion. The stock fell another 1.76% in pre-market trading Wednesday to $14.50 a share.

Waste pile scrutiny

Reports earlier this month alleged Brazilian labour inspectors fined Sigma for depositing waste on a pile that authorities had previously shut down over what they described as grave and imminent risks to workers and nearby residents. Three waste piles were suspended in December, though inspectors reportedly alleged trucks continued depositing material on one of them in mid-May. Reuters reported a labour inspector cited a “partial rupture” at one pile near a school in Poco Dantas as evidence of structural concerns.

The dispute comes as Sigma pushes ahead with expansion plans at Grota do Cirilo, which the company describes as the world’s fifth-largest industrial-mineral complex for lithium oxide concentrate. The operation currently has nameplate capacity of 270,000 tonnes annually, while a Phase 2 expansion aims to lift output to 520,000 tonnes per year.

The controversy also highlights growing scrutiny facing lithium developers in Latin America as governments, regulators and communities demand tighter environmental oversight while producers race to meet battery-material demand.

Op-Ed: Recovering more metal from leach pads is mining’s quickest win

Tom Claridge | May 19, 2026 

Leaching area in copper operation, Atacama, Chile. (Stock image by Jorge.)

Mining companies today are under intense pressure to increase their output of base, precious minerals as well as critical minerals, but bringing new production online is neither quick nor easy. 

The industry faces a structural squeeze: demand for copper, lithium and other critical minerals is rising faster than new projects can be permitted, financed and built. The International Energy Agency forecast supply gaps of 30% for copper and 40% for lithium by 2035 underscore the urgency, even before factoring in delays tied to permitting, construction and geopolitics. In that context, the most immediate gains may not come from new mines at all, but from extracting more value out of ore already stacked on leach pads.

The conventional route to higher production remains slow and capital intensive. Expansions require feasibility work, regulatory approvals and construction timelines that can stretch well beyond market cycles. By contrast, improving recovery within an existing footprint is one of the few levers operators can pull quickly. It does not replace long-term growth, but it can narrow the gap between supply and demand in the near term.

At the centre of that opportunity is a persistent inefficiency in heap leaching: uneven solution distribution. Variability across a pad—whether from slope, rock size, poor line spacing or pressure inconsistencies—creates wet and dry zones that limit how much metal is actually recovered. These are not marginal losses. Over time, they compound into meaningful production shortfalls that rarely show up clearly in headline metrics.

“The question is not whether solution is applied, but whether it is applied consistently across the entire pad for the full cycle,” operators focused on recovery performance often emphasize. “Without uniform distribution, large portions of the heap can be bypassed entirely.”

That inconsistency exposes one of the industry’s most costly assumptions—that metal missed in one lift will be recovered later. In practice, once fluid begins channeling through preferred pathways, subsequent applications tend to follow the same routes, leaving other zones under-leached. What appears to be delayed recovery is often permanent loss.

The implication is straightforward: recovery is not just a function of time, but of control. Precision irrigation systems that regulate pressure, flow and distribution across large pads offer a way to reduce variability and improve percolation. More uniform delivery allows solution to contact a greater portion of the ore body, increasing overall extraction while also reducing water use—an increasingly important consideration in water-constrained jurisdictions.

This is where operational discipline becomes as important as engineering. Mines that treat heap leaching as a controllable system—rather than a background process—tend to perform better. They invest in monitoring, automate where possible and focus on maintaining consistent conditions across the pad. The result is not just higher recovery, but more predictable outcomes.

The case for doing so is strengthened by broader industry pressures. Labour shortages are intensifying, with more than half of the US mining workforce projected to retire by 2029. That makes manual inspection and adjustment more difficult to sustain, particularly on large-scale operations. Automation and real-time visibility are no longer optional upgrades; they are becoming necessary tools to maintain performance.

What is often overlooked in discussions about future supply is how much metal is already within reach. The industry is rightly focused on new projects and critical mineral strategies, but it risks underestimating the volume that could be unlocked through better execution at existing sites. Incremental gains in recovery, applied across large operations, can translate into significant increases in output.

That is the core argument: the fastest production gains available to mining today are not buried in undeveloped deposits, but sitting in plain sight on current leach pads. Improving how those pads are managed will not solve the supply challenge on its own, but it offers a practical, immediate way to ease it.

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** Tom Claridge is sales manager, Mining North, Netafim North America

Sinomine seeks $760 million for African lithium, copper projects

Bloomberg News | May 19, 2026 | 

Bikita mine in Zimbabwe. Credit: Sinomine

China’s Sinomine Resource Group Co. is seeking as much as 5.2 billion yuan ($764 million) to fund projects in Africa, as it steps up investments in raw materials critical to the energy transition.

The company plans to raise capital through a private placement in China, with the proceeds used for its lithium sulfate plant in Zimbabwe, a copper mine in Zambia, a cesium and rubidium project in China’s Jiangxi province, and general cash flow improvements, according to a statement filed with the stock exchange on Tuesday.

Sinomine is among the Chinese companies that have invested heavily in Africa in recent years to secure raw materials for factories back home. The fundraising effort comes amid higher prices for lithium and copper, driven by supply concerns and strong demand expectations.

Zimbabwe recently unveiled export controls on lithium concentrate as part of its push to promote domestic refining of higher-value lithium sulfate. Sinomine’s local unit Bikita Minerals Ltd. has said it obtained approval to resume exports, adding that it will proceed with the planned construction of a $400 million sulfate facility.

The Chinese company said Tuesday it is increasing its total investment in Zambia’s Kitumba copper mine to speed up the project’s ramp-up. According to a separate filing, the mine is now expected to produce an average of about 38,000 tons of copper annually over 15 years.

(By Annie Lee)

Barrick intensifies Ebola screening at Kibali gold mine after Congo outbreak

Reuters | May 19, 2026 | 

Underground at Kibali – Image courtesy of Randgold Resources

Barrick Mining has increased Ebola precautions at its Kibali gold mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with worker screenings and tracking measures after an outbreak in a neighbouring province, a spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday.

Ebola, a deadly virus spread through bodily fluids, was detected in Congo’s Ituri province in early May but traced to late April. Officials have confirmed it has killed 131 people, saying the toll is likely to be higher.

At the Kibali gold mine, located in neighbouring Haut-Uele province, no workers have been affected, but a Barrick spokesperson said preventative measures were being implemented.

Specialists say the amount of mobility in eastern Congo’s mining and trading hubs, with frequent cross-border movement, makes containment a challenge.

Some Kibali workers originate from the affected province, a Barrick employee told Reuters, asking not to be named.

The person said Barrick’s response included daily temperature screenings and awareness campaigns.

In an emailed response, Toronto-headquartered Barrick said it requires its employees and contractors, around 7,600 in total, to declare where they are travelling from to help screen for potential cases.

It said it had begun a campaign to highlight the risks and explain the symptoms of Ebola at the weekend and that temperature screening, already begun, would be fully implemented by May 20.

Kibali, jointly owned by Barrick and AngloGold Ashanti with 45% each, and 10% by Congo state miner SOKIMO, is one of Africa’s largest gold mines.

Past Ebola outbreaks have had significant economic consequences. Epidemics in Congo between 2018 and 2020, and in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, killed thousands and disrupted trade, investment and mining operations across the region.

Kibali produced about 673,000 ounces of gold in 2025, with output expected between 600,000 and 688,000 ounces in 2026, according to annual reports.

(By Portia Crowe and Maxwell Akalaare Adombila; Editing by Veronica Brown, David Goodman and Barbara Lewis)