Trump Unleashes LNG and Drilling Free-for-All

By Julianne Geiger - Feb 14, 2025

President Donald Trump wasted no time flexing his pro-fossil fuel stance, approving the first LNG export permit since Biden’s controversial pause last year and creating a new energy council to expand U.S. oil and gas production. The move is a sharp policy reversal and seeks to reinforce America’s position as the world’s top hydrocarbon producer.

Commonwealth LNG, the long-waiting recipient of this permit, can now proceed with its 9.5 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) export facility in Louisiana, targeting markets in Asia and Europe. The approval effectively ends the uncertainty caused by Biden’s freeze on new LNG export authorizations—a pause that the administration initially framed as temporary but dragged on into perpetuity.

Trump lifted that freeze the moment he stepped back into office.

Beyond LNG, Trump has reopened over 600 million acres of offshore federal waters for oil and gas development, reversing restrictions imposed during Biden’s tenure. The newly formed energy council, led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, is set to drive policy aimed at maximizing domestic energy output.

Industry players are already moving fast. Cheniere Energy (LNG) and Energy Transfer have signaled plans to accelerate their LNG export projects, while offshore drillers are eyeing fresh opportunities in newly opened federal waters.

Trump’s latest moves are sure to inflame environmental opposition, but legal hurdles are unlikely to slow things down much. A federal judge recently blocked Biden’s LNG moratorium, ruling the pause unjustified. With regulatory roadblocks disappearing and demand for U.S. LNG soaring—especially in Europe, which remains eager to replace Russian gas—the American LNG boom is back in full swing.

The question now isn’t whether U.S. energy dominance will continue, but just how much Trump is willing to push the envelope. And if history is any guide, he won’t be playing it safe.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

Shell Sees LNG Boom Through 2030

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Feb 13, 2025,

Shell projects global LNG demand to grow significantly through 2030 in all scenarios.

In its Surge, Archipelagos, and Horizon scenarios, LNG demand remains strong in the near term but diverges after 2030.

Shell: demand for oil is not going away, and it will be there in the 22nd century.


The world’s top LNG trader, Shell, expects global demand for liquefied natural gas to jump at least through 2030 in all scenarios it has modeled in a new energy security report.

The 2025 Energy Security Scenarios, which the supermajor says are not expressions of Shell’s strategy or business plan, show that LNG demand is set for significant growth in the near term in all three scenarios.

Most analysts expect that by 2030, LNG demand will be fueled by growing consumption of LNG in Europe to offset the loss of Russian pipeline gas supply and ensure enough gas in storage for winter heating seasons, as well as rising demand in Asian economies, to replace part of the coal-fired power generation and to use more gas in industrial production.

Supply, on the other hand, is also set to grow, especially after 2027—thanks to major new expansion projects in the world’s second-largest LNG exporter, Qatar, and to new projects launching in the world’s biggest exporter, the U.S.

Shell’s Three Scenarios of the Future of Energy

In all three of Shell’s scenarios, LNG shows significant growth in the near term, fuelled by ongoing projects in Qatar and the USA, reaching around 550 million tonnes per year (mtpa) by the end of the decade.

“Divergence between the scenarios is a function of project timelines up until about 2030, but after that, the scenarios diverge significantly as the different scenario drivers take hold,” the supermajor said in the report.

Shell has modeled its new energy security expectations with the rise of AI in mind. The three scenarios are dubbed Surge, Archipelagos, and Horizon and reflect different economic, geopolitical, and energy transition assumptions for the near future and the long term.

In Surge, Shell assumes that AI technologies take root and lead to a period of stronger economic growth and a surge in energy demand globally.

The Archipelagos scenario assumes that the security mindset that is very visible today becomes entrenched worldwide, with national self-interest prevailing. In this scenario, Shell expects global sentiment to shift away from managing emissions towards resource, border, and trade security.

Finally, the Horizon scenario assumes that the world reaches net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and delivers a global average temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Surge is the most bullish scenario for energy and LNG demand and supply growth, with LNG supply continuing to grow, reaching 700 mtpa. Most of the additional supply would come from new projects in North America, some of which will involve new field production and new LNG facilities. LNG’s market share of overall global gas demand would reach around 25% by 2050, up from around 14% in 2024, Shell says.

Heightened focus on energy security in the Archipelagos scenario will have a net effect of a well-balanced and stable LNG market throughout the 2030s, plateauing at around 600 mpta.

In Horizon, the net-zero scenario, global gas demand would need to begin declining this decade for net zero in 2050. This would begin to affect LNG, with demand peaking in the early 2030s. This results in existing infrastructure operating at low utilization rates as demand falls faster than the natural decline rate of the assets.


Actual global economic and political developments and demand for fossil fuels, including LNG, will certainly be somewhere between these scenarios. Currently, the world appears closest to the Archipelagos model, with energy and trade security at the top of buyers' minds.

Oil Demand

Shell’s scenarios also include estimates of peak oil demand, depending on the scenario. But in all three models, electrification of road transport is the main reason for the world reaching peak oil demand, which is after 2030 in Archipelagos and Surge and before 2030 in the net-zero Horizon model.

However, demand for oil is not going away, and it will be there in the 22nd century, Shell says, noting that in Horizon, oil is used solely for petrochemicals by 2100.

Shell also stressed in its report that global oil demand is likely to grow by 3?5 million barrels per day (bpd) into the early 2030s, with a long but slow decline after that as petroleum remains an affordable and convenient fuel, particularly in transport, and an important feedstock for the petrochemical industry.

Finally, Shell highlights that continued oil and gas investment will be needed in all three scenarios, including Horizon.

“Upstream investment is currently around $600 billion a year. This will be required for decades to come as the rate of depletion of oil and gas fields is two to three times the potential future annual declines in demand,” Shell said.

The supermajor, along with the other European oil and gas giants such as BP and Equinor, has recently announced a return to the basics, targeting to boost hydrocarbon production and scaling back investments and targets in the renewable energy sector. The pivot has not been only dictated by the heightened energy security and affordability issues since 2022, but also by Big Oil’s charm offensive to offer compelling returns to shareholders.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Clouds Thicken Over Africa’s Biggest LNG Project

By Irina Slav - Feb 13, 2025

TotalEnergies in 2021 declared force majeure on work on the facility amid intensified fighting between local political factions.

At the end of last year, the French supermajor tried and failed to convince the outgoing Biden administration to release some $5 billion in state loans for Mozambique LNG.

Originally, TotalEnergies was supposed to start shipping LNG from the facility in 2024.



Mozambique LNG, a project with a price tag of $20 billion, may never see the light of day despite the bullish outlook for LNG demand. It seems that not everyone has heard the news that the world is going to need even more LNG in the future.

Work on Mozambique LNG has been suspended since 2021 when project lead TotalEnergies declared force majeure on work on the facility amid intensified fighting between local political factions. Now, it is planning a restart—and it is facing the consequences of years of transition campaigning.

First, at the end of last year, the French supermajor tried and failed to convince the outgoing Biden administration to release some $5 billion in state loans for Mozambique LNG. This is hardly a surprise given the Biden admin’s attitude to natural gas and LNG. The problem is that it is unclear whether the Trump admin would be willing to release the money given President Trump’s focus on American-produced energy, as noted in a recent update on Mozambique LNG by climate think tank the International Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

“In January, President Donald Trump signed the Unleashing American Energy executive order, which ended the pause on further LNG export permits,” the IEEFA wrote. “Does this fit with US funding for a French, Japanese, Indian and Thai project, particularly in the context of questionable long-term LNG demand?”

This is certainly a pertinent question, at least in its first half. As for the questionability of long-term demand for liquefied natural gas, it seems there is a pretty strong case for it in the context of current price trends in Europe. This week, gas prices reached the highest since 2023 as peak seasonal demand drove gas stocks lower, deepening fears Europe may end winter with depleted reserves—and then need to refill them.

LNG demand is strong and about to get stronger as more supply comes online, despite the IEEFA’s—and other transition outlets’—insistence that the world is moving away from hydrocarbons. Despite all the efforts put into that move, even coal demand is still growing on a global level, after all.

However, the Mozambique LNG case is complicated because of the security situation in that part of the country—and the fact that the original financial backers of the project include pro-transition governments such as Keir Starmer’s in Britain. That government is reportedly looking for ways to get out of its loan obligation for Mozambique LNG because its transition agenda no longer fits with the project and, quite likely because money is finite and it needs all it can find to pour into that agenda.

Northern Mozambique has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency. It was the reason why TotalEnergies put the LNG project on hold back in 2021. Now, the situation is improving with the help of the Rwandan authorities—and Rwandan troops, financed by the European Union, which has the most interest in the project restarting. Yet not all is controversy-free around this deployment, and European capitals are locking horns over the alleged involvement of the Rwandan army in support of rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The allegations have already prompted protests in Brussels and calls for sanctions—as if Mozambique LNG needed any further complications.

In the end, however, demand for energy would have the final say. Originally, TotalEnergies was supposed to start shipping LNG from the facility in 2024. Now, Rystad Energy projects the start date could be delayed to 2030. Yet if LNG demand does boom as expected, it will justify the $20-billion investment in the project and any additional investments that need to be made to ensure a secure environment for the facility. In the end, it’s all about energy supply security.


By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

LNG Is A Sellers Market For Now

By Irina Slav - Feb 12, 2025

Europe has been driving global LNG trade since the start of the year.

Europe will need liquefied natural gas—for lack of sufficient pipeline supply—for quite a long time.

By regulating the purchase of certain volumes of LNG by individual members, the European Union is harming itself.


Europe has been driving global LNG trade since the start of the year, buying every cargo it can to secure energy supply during the coldest months of the year. Once spring comes, however, it will need to begin to refill its fast-emptying storage to prepare for next winter—and its fondness for overregulation may turn suicidal.

Global LNG imports were set to hit a 12-month high for January, reaching 38.12 million tons, according to data from Kpler. A lot of this went to Europe, which once again outbid Asian nations for the superchilled fuel that the EU said it would only need for another few years. It doesn’t look that way right now. Right now, it looks like Europe’s leadership needs to sit down and have a good deep thought about securing long-term supply.

Just how critical the situation has become, we can see from reports such as this one from Reuters, which said earlier this week that Europe was now diverting LNG cargos from Australia and Oman. While Omani LNG makes cost-effective sense for Europe, Australian LNG is, as a rule, too expensive given the distance between the two continents. Of course, there was also the matter of record Russian LNG imports, even as European politicians repeatedly called for a ban on these imports.

So, it is as clear as can be that Europe will need liquefied natural gas—for lack of sufficient pipeline supply—for quite a long time. It would be, therefore, wise in this context to come up with ways to, once again, ensure this supply will be available. Yet this is not the approach that collective European authorities have taken. These authorities have instead opted for mandating the purchase of certain minimum volumes—shooting themselves in the foot yet again.

This is exactly how Reuters authors put it in a recent article, where they discussed the EU’s collective gas buying system that is based on these mandates. On the face of it, the system makes all the sense in the world. It aims to ensure that every country that has a storage facility has filled it up to 90% by November, reducing the risk of a shortage in the winter months that come with peak demand.

It is below the face that the problems hide, however. Mandating certain volumes that have to be purchased by a set date turns the global LNG market into a sellers’ market, as noted by Reuters, and this is not a positive for a buyers’ club that has to count its pennies, because Europe has come to a point where it needs to count its pennies.

There is the problem of pricing out poorer nations as well. It happened in 2022, it happened in 2023, and it happened last year. Essentially, it has become a trend since the moment that Europe gave up on Russian pipeline gas—and celebrated the fact. Once refill season hits in Europe, Asian nations with slim energy import budgets start looking for more coal to import as LNG becomes way too expensive for them. In fact, it also tends to become too expensive even for wealthy Asian importers such as China and Japan.

So, by regulating the purchase of certain volumes of LNG by individual members, the European Union is harming itself and the climate it so wants to protect by motivating poorer countries to switch from gas to coal in a brilliant example of unintended consequences. It is also giving perhaps too much pricing power to LNG sellers, which they would undoubtedly take advantage of to the fullest. Last but not least, this approach to securing gas supply is losing importers money in other ways as well—while risking the security of supply.

Reuters explained the paradox in its analysis of Europe’s gas market by noting how overheated trade in LNG ahead of Europe’s refill season—amid emptier-than-usual storage—had pushed summer 2025 futures prices higher than the prices for 2026. The publication then went on to note that few traders would feel motivated to stock up on gas now when they could sell while the prices are higher. Germany made matters worse by suggesting that the government subsidize the purchase of the refill quota volumes, which is literally money in the bank for traders.

Meanwhile, those obliged to store gas for next winter will be losing money while they store it—instead of selling it at the elevated prices. Sadly, despite the good intentions of the gas refill mandates, they still need to be done in a market environment rather than in a vacuum, and that means market forces affect them—and not in a positive way. There is also the additional problem of storing gas bought at high prices, to be sold at much lower prices as the market normalizes after refill season. Germany got burned with that a couple of years ago, and it wasn’t the only one. Alas, with purchase and refill mandates, there really isn’t any way around this pain.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

LITHIUM

China’s BYD holds mining rights in Brazil’s Lithium Valley, documents show

Reuters | February 14, 2025 | 

Vale do Jequitinhonha. Credit: Wikimedia


Chinese electric carmaker BYD acquired mineral rights for two plots of land in a lithium-rich part of Brazil in 2023, entering the mining business in its biggest market outside of China, according to public records reviewed by Reuters.


The EV producer’s acquisition of mineral rights in Brazil is its most concrete step so far toward mining strategic minerals in the Western Hemisphere.

The previously unreported acquisition of the mineral rights in late 2023 was made by BYD subsidiary Exploracao Mineral do Brasil, which was created in May of that year, documents showed.

The plots are just a half-day’s drive from BYD’s new factory project in northeast Brazil, which it also agreed to invest in 2023. They also neighbor plots owned by US-listed miner Atlas Lithium.


The subsidiary was created with a share capital of 4 million reais ($695,000) and turned a profit of about 213,000 reais from exchange rate variations in 2023, public registration documents showed.

The company “is in the research phase, with neither financial movement nor operating revenues,” said a report from an October shareholders meeting seen by Reuters.

BYD declined to comment on the matter.

BYD, which bought stakes in major Chinese miners, was one of six firms allowed to bid on a Chilean lithium project last year, and outlined plans for a lithium cathode plant in northern Chile.

Recent visits by US, Saudi and Chinese delegations have underscored global interest in Brazil as an open market in the geopolitical race for access to strategic minerals.

Brazil has avoided a heavy state presence in its lithium sector, unlike its South American neighbors, even easing export controls on the metal in 2022.

Its best lithium prospects are hard rock deposits that lend themselves to traditional mining, unlike tricky lithium extraction from salt flats in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

BYD’s prospecting for Brazilian lithium reinforces the scale of its bet on Latin America’s largest economy, where the firm’s major investment in a former Ford factory complex was tarnished in December with accusations of labor abuses at the worksite.

Last year, the Financial Times reported that BYD had talks with Sigma Lithium, Brazil’s biggest lithium producer, over a possible supply agreement, joint venture or acquisition.
Lithium Valley

BYD’s mineral rights cover 852 hectares (8.5 sq km) in the town of Coronel Murta, part of the Jequitinhonha Valley in the state of Minas Gerais known as Brazil’s Lithium Valley.

The neighboring Atlas Lithium project in Coronel Murta is in the research phase after an initial geological mapping of the area, the firm said on its website in June.

Atlas CEO Marc Fogassa said he learned of BYD’s presence through a third party, but never directly discussed it with the carmaker.

“If they invested in these two areas it is because they saw the potential and this obviously makes my areas more valuable,” Fogassa told Reuters.

Coronel Murta is around 825 km (512 miles) away, roughly a 12-hour drive, from the complex on the coast of Bahia state where BYD is developing the factory with capacity to make 150,000 electric cars per year.

BYD has since it acquired the mineral rights, hired Minagem Geologia e Mineracao, a local mineral research firm, public documents show.

Minagem said it would have to seek permission from the BYD subsidiary to speak about the matter.

It can often take between eight and 15 years for a mining project in Brazil to start production if it is deemed economically viable, according to attorney Luiz Fernando Visconti of Visconti Law, a law firm specializing in the mining sector.

($1 = 5.7568 reais)

(By Fabio Teixeira and Luciana Novaes Magalhaes; Editing by Brad Haynes and Marguerita Choy)

Chinese lithium firms take over copycat Nigeria refinery project

Bloomberg News | February 12, 2025 | 

Stock image.

Two Chinese manufacturers have taken over a Nigerian company that raised eyebrows in 2023 when it started building a lithium refinery in the country using a name that was very similar to one of the biggest and best-known Chinese producers.


A joint venture between Canmax Technologies Co. Ltd. and Jiangxi Jiuling Lithium Co. Ltd. last year took a controlling interest in Ganfeng Lithium Industry Ltd., a firm developing a lithium plant in the north of the West African nation, according to company documents obtained by Bloomberg.

Nigeria-registered Ganfeng was founded by Chinese businessmen in 2022, and created confusion a year later when it hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off construction of the processing plant, which local authorities said will cost $250 million.

Shortly after the event, the company issued a statement to local media saying it had “no formal affiliation whatsoever” with Ganfeng Lithium Group Co. Ltd., one of the world’s biggest suppliers of lithium chemicals. A company representative offered no explanation as to why it was trading under a similar name.

Canmax and Jiuling’s takeover of the company — which corporate records show occurred in mid-2024 — brings financial clout and operating nous to the development of Nigeria’s nascent lithium industry, which has typically shipped raw ore to China for further treatment.

The investments signal that Chinese lithium companies are doubling down on efforts to lock down feedstock in anticipation of soaring future demand for the metal used in electric-vehicle batteries. They’ve been investing heavily in Africa’s lithium deposits from Mali to Zimbabwe, even after prices tumbled almost 90% from a peak in 2022.

Separately, Canmax also announced this month that it will invest over $200 million to develop two lithium mining deposits elsewhere in northern Nigeria, working with local company Three Crown Mines Ltd.

Shenzhen-listed Canmax is a large producer of lithium chemicals whose founder, Pei Zhenhua, made his fortune as an investor in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd., the world’s top EV battery maker. Pei and CATL co-own a separate lithium mining and processing joint venture. Jiuling is a chemical producer based in Jiangxi – one of China’s lithium mining hubs – and a supplier to CATL.

Nigeria has sizable untapped deposits of metals including gold, tin and lithium, but most extraction is done informally by so-called artisanal miners on a small-scale or manual basis.

The Nigerian Ganfeng signed an agreement in September allowing the company to mine lithium for 10 years under permits held by a firm owned by the government of Nasarawa state – the location of the plant under construction.

The first phase of the facility is due for completion by the middle of this year and the second phase four months later, said Ibrahim Abdullahi, the chief executive officer of the state’s development and investment agency. “Nasarawa state is pleased with this investment and welcomes more of it,” he said.

Canmax and Jiuling, which together own 75% of the Nigerian Ganfeng, declined to comment. Nigeria’s federal mines ministry didn’t respond to questions about the acquisition or how much lithium concentrate it will produce.

(By William Clowes, Annie Lee and Nduka Orjinmo)

China's EV Subsidies Set to Fuel Lithium Price Recovery in 2025

By Haley Zaremba - Feb 11, 2025,

Lithium prices are expected to stabilize in 2025 as strong electric vehicle sales growth, particularly in China, and mine closures help to reduce the global supply glut.

China's increased EV subsidies have significantly boosted electric vehicle sales, driving much of the anticipated lithium demand.

Potential policy changes in the United States, such as cuts to EV tax credits and trade tensions with China, could create uncertainty and negatively impact the lithium market.


After a year of extreme volatility, lithium prices are expected to stabilize in 2025 as a global supply glut eases. Strong electric vehicle (EV) sales growth from Chinese markets paired with mine closures are expected to cut the global glut by a staggering 50 percent according to figures from Antaike, China's state-owned commodity data provider. However, there are other factors that leave a certain degree of uncertainty in projections for the rest of 2025, with United States politics potentially lowering lithium demand, while other factors could, including politics in China, lower EV prices, and better EV charging infrastructure, could do the exact opposite.

Lithium has become a “critical mineral” in the global clean energy transition due to its central role in battery manufacturing for electric vehicles as well as for energy storage, a burgeoning sector which is expected to explode as power grids approach 100 percent renewable (and thereby largely variable) energy. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has estimated that lithium demand for battery-making alone will increase tenfold in the ten-year window between 2020 and 2030. What is more, a 2023 report from Popular Mechanics calculated that “an electrified economy in 2030 will likely need anywhere from 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes of lithium.” To put the scale of that increase in perspective, “in 2021, the world produced only 105—not 105,000—tonnes.”

However, a combination of soft EV sales and oversupply from China and Africa has caused lithium prices to nosedive over the past two years. Since their peak in November 2022, lithium prices have fallen a jaw-dropping 86 percent, causing shockwaves in global markets. As a result, companies around the have had to close or pause operations at their lithium mines until lithium prices are able to recover. And it appears that that time has finally come.

"We expect to see a price recovery for lithium in 2025 as the curtailments seen in 2024, and the possibility of further curtailments, will significantly reduce the market surplus," Cameron Hughes, battery markets analyst at CRU Group, was recently quoted by Reuters.

In fact, experts expect that demand will outpace supply this year, largely on the back of strong growth in Chinese EV purchases thanks to supportive policy measures and improving EV technologies, infrastructure, and pricing. China doubled its nationwide EV subsidies in July of last year, and as of December over 5 million EV sales had benefited from those increased subsidies. In fact, in 2024, China alone accounted for 86 percent of plug-in electric vehicles sales growth. The United States represented just 5.9 percent, while in the European Union EV sales declined due to unsupportive policy changes.

"The uptick in lithium trade business in the fourth quarter of 2024 can be undeniably attributed to the policy of providing subsidies [in China]," a buyer at a mid-sized cathode material plant in China told Reuters.

However, while the policy atmosphere becomes increasingly friendlier for EVs in China, oppositional policy measures in the United States could temper the expected upswing in lithium prices. CarbonCredits.com reports that the Trump administration “might slow EV adoption by reversing climate goals.” The United States currently offers a $7,500 tax credit for EV buyers. If this program is cut (or, more likely, when it is cut) EV sales will almost certainly plummet from their already modest U.S. sales, hurting lithium demand. Furthermore, the trade war with China and likely tariffs on Chinese battery imports could also take a chunk out of the lithium market.

As a result of these competing factors, experts are expecting a much better year for lithium, but they’re not making any promises. Bets are being loudly hedged across the board. “With significant latent production capacity ready to meet new demand within ‘weeks’, new lower-cost projects due onstream this year and uncertainty around US and China trade tensions, the market could be facing another challenging year, even in a tightening supply environment,” says Fastmarkets.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

The End of Coal Is Nowhere In Sight

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Feb 12, 2025

Retirement of coal-fired power plants in the West has done nothing to reverse global coal demand.

Global coal consumption is set to remain at these high levels—or even hit new all-time highs—for a few more years.

Global operating coal power capacity has increased by 13% since 2015, data from Global Energy Monitor shows.




Developed economies have been reducing their use of coal in recent years, but the world isn’t ready to kick its coal addiction, not yet. Developing markets in Asia are boosting their coal-fired power generation to meet surging electricity demand.

Despite continued retirements of coal-fired power in the U.S., lower coal demand in Europe, and the end of the 142-year coal electricity in the UK, global coal demand hit another record high last year. And consumption is set to remain at these high levels—or even hit new all-time highs—for a few more years.

Emerging Asian economies, led by China and India, have been sustaining global coal demand growth this decade. They plan additional coal-fired capacity to support their respective renewables booms with 24/7 baseload power and avoid power crunches or blackouts like the ones they suffered in the early 2020s.

Global Coal Demand At Record High

Global operating coal power capacity has increased by 13% since 2015, data from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) shows. Since 2015, when the countries reached a deal on the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world has added 259 GW of operating coal power capacity. As of the end of 2024, total operating coal power capacity hit a record high of 2,175 gigawatts (GW), while another 611 GW of capacity was under development, according to GEM’s Global Coal Plant Tracker.

Global coal demand surged to another record high in 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in December, expecting the world’s coal consumption to level off through 2027.

The previous record was from a year earlier. In 2023, demand hit the then-record, and the IEA then predicted flat consumption in 2024. They were wrong—demand increased last year, their own analysis showed.

Despite forecasts of plateauing, global coal consumption could continue to rise this year and the next few years, too, depending on how China’s economy and energy security policies evolve in the coming months.

A plateau in global coal demand will largely depend on China, the IEA noted in December.

“Weather factors – particularly in China, the world’s largest coal consumer – will have a major impact on short-term trends for coal demand. The speed at which electricity demand grows will also be very important over the medium term,” said IEA Director of Energy Markets and Security Keisuke Sadamori.

Electricity demand globally is set to jump in the coming years with AI advancements and data center investments.

Growth in power demand in 2024 and 2025 is forecast to be among the highest levels in the past two decades, the IEA said in the middle of 2024.

The surge in electricity consumption could slow coal retirements in developed economies and further raise coal demand in emerging markets in Asia, especially if the growth in renewable energy capacity is not enough to meet the rise in power demand.

Two Worlds of Coal Consumption

While solar power will continue to drive the growth of U.S. power generation over the next two years, coal power output will remain unchanged at around 640 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2025 and 2026, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last month. America’s coal electricity generation was 647 billion kWh in 2024.

U.S. coal retirements are set to accelerate this year, removing 6%, or 11 GW, of coal-generating capacity from the U.S. electricity sector. Another 2%, or 4 GW, of coal capacity would be removed in 2026, the EIA forecasts. Last year, coal retirements represented about 3 GW of electric power capacity removed from the power system, which was the lowest annual amount of coal capacity retired since 2011.

Across the Atlantic, last year saw a monumental moment in Britain’s electricity system with the switching-off of the last remaining coal power plant in the country. The plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar was shut at the end of September, ending 142 years of coal-fired electricity generation in the UK and making Britain the first G7 country to phase out coal.

In the European Union, solar power overtook coal generation in 2024, with solar accounting for 11% of EU electricity and coal falling below 10% for the first time ever, data from clean energy think tank Ember showed.

But in China and India, the world’s biggest and second-biggest coal users, respectively, coal is still king despite the surge in renewable power installations.

China’s thermal power generation, which is overwhelmingly dominated by coal, rose by 1.5% in 2024 from a year earlier to a record high of 6.34 trillion kWh, as coal consumption in the electricity sector continues to grow, and so are China’s production and imports.

This year, China’s coal demand and production are expected to continue rising, and the fuel is set to remain the backbone of the country’s energy system, according to China Coal Transportation and Distribution Association.

In India, coal use is also rising -- demand increased in 2024 by more than 5% to hit 1.3 billion tons—a level that only China has reached previously, per IEA data.

India has reduced coal imports, but that’s only because it aims to hike domestic output to source more coal at home. With industry expected to expand and power demand to soar, India is set to use more of its lower-quality domestic coal to meet its consumption needs.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Coal Consumption Remains High in the United States

By Felicity Bradstock - Feb 14, 2025

The United States remains a major consumer and producer of coal, even with the growth of renewable energy sources.

Coal consumption and production have decreased in recent years, but coal still plays a significant role in U.S. electricity generation.

Changes in political administration and international energy demand could influence the future of coal in the United States.

While many countries worldwide are moving away from a dependence on coal, the U.S. still relies heavily on the dirtiest fossil fuel for its power. The U.S. has experienced an accelerated green transition since the introduction of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, which has spurred a massive increase in the country’s renewable energy capacity and attracted billions in private funding.

However, this shift has not stopped the U.S. reliance on coal, as the third-largest consumer of coal in the world after China and India. The U.S. continues to be the fourth-largest producer of coal, after China, India and Indonesia, and it has more coal reserves than any other country. The U.S. had 206 active coal plants remaining in 2023. Around a quarter of domestic coal generation is expected to be retired by 2040 but the pace of planned retirements slowed last year as energy demand increased.

Coal production in the U.S. has fallen in recent years, as oil and gas production increased, and the country expanded its renewable energy capacity. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. coal production decreased 2.7 percent year over year from 2022 to 2023, to 577.9 million short tons (MMst). Meanwhile, U.S. coal consumption fell by 17.4 percent in this period, from 515.5 MMst to 425.9 MMst, and the electric power sector contributed 387.2 MMst (90.9 percent) of total U.S. coal consumption in 2023.

The EIA forecast that coal’s share of U.S. electricity generation would fall to a record low of 16.1 percent in 2024, as several coal mines were retired and alternative energy capacity increased. Non-coal power generation was expected to be sourced from natural gas, 41.6 percent; nuclear, 19 percent; and renewable energy sources, 22.8 percent. The EIA expected coal production in 2024 to total 499 MMst, marking a decrease of 14.2 percent from 2023, and fall by a further 5 percent in 2025, to 474 MMst. It forecast that the electricity power sector would consume 384 MMst in 2024, around 1 percent less than in 2023, and an additional 2 percent less in 2025.

However, as coal production begins to decrease faster than consumption, it will likely lead to a reliance on existing inventories, until the alternative energy capacity increases. Coal inventories stood at 120 MMst by the end of July last year and are expected to fall to around 84 MMst by the end of 2025.

In terms of exports, the EIA expected coal exports to total 103 MMst in 2024, marking a 3 percent increase on 2023. This figure is expected to climb by an additional 0.8 percent in 2025, to 103.8 MMst. The EIA stated, “Although coal exports in our forecast remain robust, ongoing declines in coal production are the result of less coal being used to generate electric power domestically due to relatively low natural gas prices and 12 GW of coal-fired electricity generating capacity going into retirement.”

In addition to heavy domestic reliance on coal, an increase in coal consumption in Asia could drive growth in the U.S. coal export market. In 2024, India’s thermal coal imports rose by around 12 percent, while China’s rose by 8 percent, a trend which is expected to continue for several years. The IEA predicted in 2024 that by 2035, global electricity demand would be 6 percent higher than it had previously predicted, leading to a prolonged reliance on coal to meet this demand.

While U.S. domestic coal use and production has fallen in recent years, under the new President Donald Trump administration, we could see this downward trend shift in a different direction. On his first day in office, Trump declared a national energy emergency, followed shortly after by the announcement that coal could be a fuel source for new electric generating plants. During a virtual appearance at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump stated, “They can fuel it with anything they want, and they may have coal as a backup — good, clean coal.” He added, “We have more coal than anybody.” Following Trump’s comments, U.S. coal producers’ shares climbed. The largest U.S. coal miner, Peabody Energy Corp., saw its shares increase by around 7.6 percent.

Despite Trump’s support for coal as a ‘backup’ energy source, U.S. efforts to ramp up oil and gas output mean that natural gas is now cheaper, and coal is no longer economically viable in comparison. While coal might be phased out at a slower pace under Trump, most experts agree that coal is simply too expensive to make a meaningful comeback. While the increasing power demand will drive energy production, this demand will likely be met with higher gas output, as well as through the expansion of the country’s renewable energy capacity.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

China’s coal plant boom is undercutting clean energy push

Bloomberg News | February 12, 2025 | 

A coal-fired power station in Nantong, China.

 (Image by Kristoferb, Wikimedia Commons).


China embarked last year on its biggest coal-power building boom in a decade, reinforcing the role of the dirtiest fossil fuel in its energy mix even as it aims to transition to renewables.


Nearly 95 gigawatts of new coal-fired generators started construction, the most since 2015, according to a joint study released on Thursday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and Global Energy Monitor. Local governments also sped up permits for future plants toward the end of the year after a slowdown in the first half, approving a total of 67 gigawatts of new capacity in 2024.

The surge coincides with the country’s breakneck development of clean energy, which included 356 gigawatts of new wind and solar capacity in 2024, making additional electricity from fossil fuels unnecessary. Thermal power generation grew less than 2% last year, and President Xi Jinping has pledged to reduce coal use from 2026.

Still, the fuel is regarded as a key pillar of energy security, and China’s planners have said it’s still needed as a backup to balance out the intermittent electricity provided by wind and solar. But there are signs, including a rise in curtailments of clean energy, that coal generators are entrenching their position and crowding out renewables, limiting the country’s ability to peak emissions before Xi’s 2030 deadline, according to the report.

Coal producers are helping to push the continued growth of the fleet, with more than three-quarters of new permits going to companies with mining operations, the report said. Long-term coal-power contracts are also reinforcing the fuel’s dominance at the expense of renewables.

“China’s rapid expansion of renewable energy has the potential to reshape its power system, but this opportunity is being undermined by the simultaneous large-scale expansion of coal power,” said Qi Qin, an analyst at CREA.

Southeast Asia Won’t Quit Coal Anytime Soon

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Feb 12, 2025

Global coal demand continues to hit record highs.

China and India are the biggest consumers and the key growth drivers of rising coal demand.

In Vietnam, operating coal power capacity has doubled over the past decade.






Global coal demand continues to hit record highs despite the boom of renewable energy installations, including in the most coal-dependent regions in Asia.

China and India are the biggest consumers and the key growth drivers of rising coal demand, but other emerging markets in south and Southeast Asia are also propping up coal use.

One of these is Vietnam. In recent years, soaring industrial activity and economic growth well above the global average have made Vietnam a power-hungry, predominantly manufacturing economy. The country has become a solar power leader among the countries in Southeast Asia, but it continues to rely on thermal coal for industry and is one of the few countries worldwide building new coal-fired power capacity.

Global coal demand surged to another record high in 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in December, expecting the world’s coal consumption to level off through 2027.

Meanwhile, global operating coal power capacity has increased by 13% since 2015, data from Global Energy Monitor (GEM) shows. Since 2015, when the countries reached a deal on the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world has added a total of 259 GW of operating coal power capacity. As of the end of 2024, total operating coal power capacity hit a record high of 2,175 GW, while another 611 GW of capacity was under development, according to GEM’s Global Coal Plant Tracker.

In Vietnam, operating coal power capacity has doubled over the past decade, the data showed. The country has added 14 GW of coal power capacity since 2015 and had a total of 27.2 GW capacity as of the end of 2024. Moreover, Vietnam has another 4.7 GW of coal capacity under development, according to the GEM data.

The manufacturing boom and the resulting surge in coal power demand have also pushed Vietnam’s coal imports to a record high.

Last year, the Southeast Asian country’s thermal coal imports jumped by 31% to a record 44 million metric tons, according to data by Kpler cited by Reuters market analyst Gavin Maguire.

Vietnam’s import growth far exceeded the global increase of 1% and the 11% rise in coal imports in China, the top coal consumer and importer.

Despite a surge in solar PV installations in recent years, fossil fuels – predominantly coal – account for more than half of the country’s electricity generation, data from clean energy think tank Ember showed.

More than 42% of the power generation came from clean energy sources, most of all hydropower, whose share is about 30% of all electricity supply.

Vietnam leads regional peers such as Thailand and the Philippines in terms of solar and wind growth. But as power demand more than doubled over the past decade, Vietnam met this jump with a doubling of coal generation, which led to a tripling of emissions, Ember said.

Coal will continue to be a pillar of Vietnam’s power generation as its economy and industry continue to expand at rates above the global average.

Stronger exports of manufactured goods helped Vietnam’s economy to accelerate in 2024 and grow by 7%, up from the 5% economic growth seen in 2023.


Key to industry growth was the increase in coal imports as the Communist-led country looked to avoid power crunches and shortages.

Vietnam is set to continue outperforming regional peers in economic growth this year, Oxford Economics said in a December forecast.

Vietnam itself has just said that it would officially revise up its GDP growth target for 2025 to 8.0% from 6.5%-7.0%.

The strong economic growth in Vietnam and the rising coal dependence of Indonesia and the Philippines make Southeast Asia a driver of global coal demand growth, although not at the scale of China and India.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

IMPERIALI$M'S PLAYGROUND

Middlemen siphon billions from war-ravaged DRC's Cobalt, Coltan trade. 

 

How your phone may be fueling deadly fighting in Congo

Resource-rich Congo is the first battle in New Cold War. India can’t miss out on cobalt

Opinion by Praveen Swami

 • FEBRUARY 12, 2025 

THE PRINT (INDIA)



From neck to waist, the young black man’s skin had been peeled by the metronomic application of a metal-tipped whip until his ribs showed through: The punishment for stealing a packet of cigarettes. “The air seemed filled with a bloody haze,” recalled a young American signals intelligence officer. Colonial Léopoldville’s black residents were clubbed off the sidewalk for not stepping aside for Whites. To amuse themselves, perhaps, white drivers who ran over a black person would sometimes turn around and do it again.

Even Americans shaped by segregation-era race values, historian Susan Williams records, were shocked by the brutality of Belgian-colonial Congo—but they weren’t there to build democracy. The uranium that would be used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki was being mined in Katanga by slave labourers of the Belgian company Union Minière. The Americans needed the job done.

This week, as ethnic Tutsi M23 insurgents overran swathes of the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, killing thousands, it’s become clear the cursed country is in the middle of potentially the most fateful battle of the New Cold War. The DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt—critical to producing batteries—and holds vast reserves of strategic minerals like niobium, tantalum and coltan.

For countries like India, the stakes are enormous. To participate in the post-hydrocarbon global economy, the country needs secure and fair access to these minerals. Even though India has troops in place in the DRC, their hands are tied by rules of engagement prohibiting active involvement in the conflict. This reduces United Nations peacekeepers to what the researcher Thierry Vircoulon has called a state of “exemplary inutility”.


Like many other post-colonial states, India lost out in the First Cold War and is again threatened with being cut off from access to critical resources by the China-West conflict.

Also read: Cobalt, copper, China: India should pay more attention to the savage violence in Congo

An old Cold War

Led by the warlord and accused war criminal Sultani Makenga, M23 has the support of Rwanda and its president Paul Kagame—his regime, in turn, is held up by the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. For its part, China—whose dominance in industries like electric vehicles rests on its investments in the region—is backing the DRC and its military. The conflict has been underway since 1996, spawning what international organisations are calling the most significant humanitarian crisis in the world.

The imperial ambitions of King Leopold II of Belgium set the stage for the carnage in Congo. The 23 years of his rule, which ran from 1885 to 1908, is estimated to have cost the lives of 10 million Africans. Adam Hochschild’s majestic history, King Leopold’s Ghost, reveals that Belgian power rested on the chopping-off of hands and genitals, floggings, mass killings and the burning down of entire villages.

Figures like Alice Seeley Harris, Mark Twain, Joseph Conrad and Arthur Conan Doyle campaigned against these atrocities—but morals could not compete with the world’s greed for cheap rubber. Even though Nazi leaders would be punished for using slave labour in Europe, there was no trial for the Belgians who made America’s nuclear bombs possible.

The summer of 1960 finally brought independence to Congo—and, given its enormous natural resources, prosperity ought to have followed. The new state, however, simply did not have the tools for self-governance. Lawrence Freedman writes that “of 5,000 government jobs, only three were held by Congolese. There were no Congolese doctors, lawyers, economists, or engineers.” The commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Joseph Mobutu, had never been promoted past sergeant.

Led by one-time beer salesman Patrice Émery Lumumba, the new country found itself facing multiple crises. Following rebellion in the country’s fledgling armed forces, Belgian troops intervened on multiple occasions. The mineral-rich province of Katanga declared secession, followed by Kasai. Lacking revenues and an institutional apparatus, Lumumba turned to the Soviet Union for support.

The consequences were predictable. Lawrence Devlin, the Central Intelligence Agency chief in Léopoldville, now known as Kinshasa, warned of a looming communist takeover. The United States, an official document records, initiated plans to overthrow Lumumba, through assassination if necessary. Even as the United Nations tried to rein in an increasingly erratic Lumumba, led by the eminent Indian diplomat Rajeshwar Dayal, the country tipped towards the edge.

Lumumba, a Belgian parliamentary investigation later concluded, was murdered in 1961, under the supervision of high officers of that country. Army chief Mobutu now seized power and crushed efforts by Lumumba supporters to regain control, using the shadowy South African mercenary Mike Hoare. Estimates made by the economist Stephanie Mattie suggest Mobutu and his cronies embezzled between $4 billion and $10 billion of the country’s resources, leaving little for education or health. Enabled by the West, Mobutu’s long despotism continued until 1997.

Also read: Gains from covert killing come with a big price tag. India can learn from Chile

 

The rise of China

Following the end of the First Cold War, the West lost interest in the DRC. Beijing was quick to step in. China’s involvement in Congo’s cobalt is staggering. Following a 2007 deal, two Chinese firms built roads and public infrastructure in exchange for a 68 per cent stake in the Sicomines copper and cobalt mine, one of the largest mines in Africa. From 2015 to 2020, China’s imports from the DRC of cobalt increased by 191 per cent, cobalt oxides by 2,920 per cent, and copper ore by 1,670 per cent. Of the 19 cobalt operations in the DRC, 15 are now owned or co-owned by Chinese entities.

Well over two-thirds of the world’s cobalt is mined in the DRC—and four-fifths of that is then sent for processing in China. As control of the Middle East’s oilfields underpinned American and European domination of cars, railways, and aeronautics for a century, the minerals of the Congo are the foundation on which China’s domination of electric power is being built.

The rise of China had its genesis in genocide, which swept Rwanda in 1994. Ethnic Hutu militia, following their defeat by Tutsi militia based in Uganda, fled the border into the DRC, then called Zaire. They used their new bases across the border to wage a war of attrition against President Kagame’s regime. Kagame responded by unleashing his army against the forces of his numerically superior but resource-strapped neighbour.

Laurent-Désiré Kabila, a one-time Left leader, was chosen by Kagame to lead the DRC from 1997 after the Mobutu regime collapsed. Trained at the People’s Liberation Army’s National Defence University, Kabila found Beijing willing to enable his kleptocratic regime. His son and successor, Joseph Kabila, who ruled from 2001 to 2019, consolidated the agreement.

The investigative journalists Michael Kavanagh and Dan McCarey revealed that the Kabila family was at the centre of a web of companies with stakes in the mining sector, siphoning off multi-million dollar revenues. Global Witness, another transparency watchdog, estimated that at least $750 million—about a fifth of Congo’s mining revenues—was misappropriated between 2013 and 2015.

Also read: US must counter new Chinese cyber attacks. Remember how it lost nuclear monopoly?

 

Endless suffering

The long and bloody conflict—which has seen Uganda and Zimbabwe forces fighting proxies for Rwanda—has been fuelled by greed for the DRC’s mineral resources. The DRC government uses its wealth to purchase military technology from China, as well as regional troops from South Africa and Tanzania, and a range of ethnic militia, including Hutu rebels. East European mercenaries have surrendered in large numbers to Rwandan forces, and some fear Russian mercenaries could also be involved in future fighting.

For his part, Kagame has recruited the support of Turkey and Qatar, as well as allies in Europe, especially France and Belgium. Even though the United States has called on Rwanda to withdraw from the DRC, it is leveraging its role as a counter-terrorism partner against jihadists fighting in Mozambique.

For most Congolese, however, life remained not much dissimilar to that under colonial rule. Three-quarters of the population live on less than $2.15 a day. Wealth has proved a curse.

The lessons aren’t hard to understand. The global order that US President Donald Trump says he wants to dismantle sought, among other things, to provide norms for nation-states to cooperate to protect resources of value to the global community. Even though the First Cold War routinely witnessed savagery—among them the slaughters of civilians in the Koreas, Vietnam or Afghanistan—the Great Powers also collaborated to ensure stable global access to resources like hydrocarbons and to build smooth transnational trade.

Like Congo, many regions of the world could fall into the abyss, pushed by superpower competition and greed. The price will be highest for countries like India, which is a good reason for New Delhi to push hard for new cooperative systems to keep the peace in the fragile regions that hold the world’s future.

Praveen Swami is contributing editor at ThePrint. He tweets @praveenswami. Views are personal.

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)

Fighting in Africa’s mineral-rich DRC killed over 3,000 in less than 2 weeks. Here’s how your phone plays a part

By Nimi Princewill,

CNN

 Thu February 13, 2025


CNN —

A rampaging rebel group has claimed the capture of another mining town in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a little over a week after it took control of the region’s largest city Goma.

Clashes between the rebel coalition Alliance Fleuve Congo (AFC) and Congolese forces have left more than 3,000 people dead in less than two weeks, according to DRC’s government.

The AFC, of which the M23 armed group – which claims to defend the interest of minority Rwandophone communities – is a key member, took over resource-rich Nyabibwe last week after Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, fell on January 27.

It comes less than a year after the rebels seized Rubaya, a mining hub also in the country’s east, which harbors one of the world’s largest deposits of coltan, a valuable mineral used in the production of smartphones.

Here’s what you need to know.
Is my phone fueling the conflict?

For decades, DRC, a Central African nation of more than 100 million people, has grappled with bloody militia violence, including ethnic and resource-driven armed rebellion by M23 and dozens of other armed groups.

Roughly the size of Western Europe, the war-riven country is endowed with vast mineral wealth, including the world’s largest reserves of cobalt and coltan – both critical to the production of electronics. Cobalt is used to produce batteries that power cell phones and electric vehicles, while coltan is refined into tantalum, which has a variety of applications in phones and other devices.

However, according to the World Bank “most people in DRC have not benefited from this wealth,” and the country ranks among the five poorest nations in the world.
Enter your email to sign up for CNN's "Meanwhile in the Middle East" Newsletter.
close dialog

Much of DRC’s mineral wealth is split between its government and armed groups who control swathes of the resource-rich east.

“Access to natural resources is at the heart of this conflict,” Jean Pierre Okenda, an analyst specializing in extractive industries governance, told CNN about the M23-led takeover of territories in the east.

“It’s not a coincidence that the zones occupied by the rebels are mining areas,” Okenda said, adding that global demand for cobalt and coltan has fueled the crisis.

“It takes money to wage war. Access to mining sites finances the war,” he added.
Why do the rebels want the minerals?

M23 fighters stand nearby as an estimated 2400 Congolese (FARDC) soldiers surrender en masse to the rebel group at the Stade de l'Unite on January 30, 2025 in Goma, DRC. Daniel Buuma/Getty Images

Victor Tesongo, a spokesperson for the AFC-M23 rebel alliance, told CNN that the group was in control of the coltan-rich Rubaya and Nyabibwe mines, but stopped short of saying how much money it has derived from them or what it has been spent on.

But a top United Nations official has an idea.

Bintou Keita, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to the DRC, told the Security Council in a September briefing that coltan trade from Rubaya’s mines is estimated to supply over 15 percent of global tantalum production and generates an estimated $300,000 in revenue a month for M23.

M23 denied these claims, insisting its presence in Rubaya was “solely humanitarian.”

Related video‘I don’t know’: Rwandan president on if his country’s troops are in DR Congo

Much of the international community, including the Congolese government, has accused neighboring Rwanda of backing M23 and aiding the plunder of DRC minerals.

UN experts believe that an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers are supervising and supporting M23 fighters in eastern DRC, outnumbering the rebel group’s forces in the country. A December report by the UN Group of Experts on the DRC revealed that “at least 150 tons of coltan were fraudulently exported to Rwanda and mixed with Rwandan production.”

DRC Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya told CNN last week that “Rwanda’s mineral exports surged after its forces took control of key mining zones in DRC.”

Rwanda is one of the world’s top suppliers of coltan and has surpassed DRC’s export of the mineral in recent years.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame told CNN last week that his country gets coltan from its mines and said that he didn’t know whether Rwandan troops were in DRC.

Where do DRC’s plundered minerals go?

Laborers work at an open shaft of the SMB coltan mine near the town of Rubaya in eastern DRC, on August 13, 2019. Baz Ratner/Reuters

In a public address that drew outrage last year, Kagame admitted that Rwanda was a transit point for minerals smuggled from DRC, but insisted his country was not stealing from its neighbor.

“Some people come from Congo; whether they smuggle or go through the right channels, they bring minerals. Most of it goes through here (Rwanda) but does not stay here. It goes to Dubai, Brussels, Tel Aviv, (and) Russia. It goes everywhere,” Kagame said, without providing evidence or specifying what minerals were being smuggled.

CNN has reached out to his government’s spokesperson for comment.

In 2022, the United States Treasury Department said that over 90% of DRC’s gold was being “smuggled to regional states, including Uganda and Rwanda” where they are “refined and exported to international markets, particularly the UAE,” and sanctioned a Belgian businessman for facilitating the trade.

For DRC’s other valuable minerals including coltan and cobalt, the scale of the plunder remains unclear.

In December, DRC sued subsidiaries of Apple in Belgium and France, accusing the company of sourcing conflict minerals. Apple denied the accusation.

Every year, tech giants such as Apple and Microsoft publish reports saying that they demand responsible sourcing of minerals from their suppliers.

In an earlier filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023, Apple said that while it continued to source 3TG (tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold) and other minerals such as cobalt and lithium from DRC and other countries, it was “committed to meeting and exceeding internationally accepted due diligence standards for primary minerals and recycled materials in our supply chain.” It added that its due diligence efforts had “found no reasonable basis for concluding that any of the smelters or refiners of 3TG determined to be in our supply chain as of December 31, 2023 directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in the DRC or an adjoining country.”

Is there a solution to the conflict?

DRC’s mineral wealth has presented itself as a “curse,” according to analyst Okenda, who explained:

“These resources create wars, create rebellions, expose local populations, and also create serious ecological problems,” he told CNN.

Last week, a humanitarian ceasefire announced by M23 fell apart almost immediately after it was declared, as the rebels swiftly advanced into Nyabibwe.

More than 150 female inmates raped and burned to death during Goma jailbreak in DRC, UN says

While regional and global leaders ponder solutions to ending the crisis, Okenda believes that DRC’s government needs to reinvent itself if it hopes for lasting peace.

DRC “has a governance model that if it does not change, the Congolese population will gain absolutely nothing, whether there is war or not,” he said.

“If the Kinshasa government improves its governance, invests in the army, ensures a fair sharing of resources between citizens in the country, and conducts elections that are of better quality, I still think that peace can return (to DRC),” he said.

'Will not make it through': Georgia Republicans urge Trump to reconsider Helene aid denial

Story by Carl Gibson

 • 

AlterNet

FEB 14, 2025

Image: Shutterstock© provided by AlterNet

Georgia — which was ravaged by Hurricane Helene last fall — is still counting on billions of dollars in federal aid to recover from the disaster. However, President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly stonewalling new requests for assistance.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday that Trump rebuffed a request from Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp to allow cities more time to apply for relief. This is despite the Peach State reeling from what the University of Georgia estimates to be roughly $5.5 billion in damage to its agriculture and forestry industries alone. Kemp's request was specifically limited to debris removal and emergency protective measures.

"Based on our review of all the information available, it has been determined that the increased level of funding you have requested ... is not warranted," acting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Cameron Hamilton wrote in a letter to Kemp.

READ MORE: 'Radical' GOP trying to disenfranchise NC voters who 'overcame the destruction of Hurricane Helene'

The request for aid was bipartisan in nature, as both Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) joined Kemp's request to extend the deadline for municipalities to apply for aid. Ossoff told the Journal-Constitution that FEMA's decision to hold fast to the cutoff date was "wrong."

"I urge the Trump administration to reverse course and ensure Georgia’s local governments get the vital support they need," Ossoff said.

Additionally, Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) and Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper, who is also a Republican, urged the administration to elaborate when aid promised to the Peach State's farmers would be disbursed. They wrote that "Georgia’s communities are still facing unprecedented losses and millions of dollars in incurred clean-up costs."

"Right now, the future is uncertain for far too many Georgia farmers, and without assistance, some of them will not make it through this growing season," Burns and Harper wrote.

READ MORE: Damning reports detail Trump's willingness to 'exploit major disasters' for political gain

Throughout the 2024 campaign cycle, Kemp was reluctant to join Trump on the campaign trail despite Georgia's status as a competitive battleground state. In June of last year, Kemp said he didn't vote for Trump in the Peach State's Republican primary, though he ultimately endorsed him in August.

Trump reportedly asked aides "where the hell is Brian Kemp" while stumping in Georgia. He added that he had "helped [Kemp] get elected" after endorsing him in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Kemp later rationalized his support for Trump as a "business decision."

“Look, you may not like Donald Trump personally, but you’ll like his policies a lot better than Kamala Harris,” Kemp said in October. “It’s a business decision. You’re making a business decision.”

After the news broke of the administration denying Kemp's aid request, Fair Fight Action spokesperson Max Flugrath observed: "Kemp's 'business decision' is costing Georgia big."

QUEBEC INC.

KRUGER INNOVATES AND DIVERSIFIES PRODUCTION  AT ITS WAYAGAMACK PAPER MILL

News provided by Kruger Inc.

Feb 14, 2025, 10:20 ET


TROIS-RIVIÈRES, QC, Feb. 14, 2025 /CNW/ - Kruger Inc. today announced a $6.5-million investment to implement an innovation project aimed at diversifying production at its Wayagamack Mill in Trois-Rivières. The initiative will enable the production of innovative label paper grades, reinforcing the Wayagamack Mill's leadership in Québec and North America. The new, state-of-the-art equipment will enhance the Mill's capacity for innovation, versatility and sustainability, helping to secure the future of its operations and its 285 jobs. The project was unveiled in the presence of Jean Boulet, Member for Trois-Rivières, Québec Minister of Labour and Minister Responsible for the Mauricie Region, the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Region and the Nord-du-Québec Region (on behalf of Maïté Blanchette Vézina, Minister of Natural Resources and Forests and Minister Responsible for the Bas-Saint-Laurent Region and the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine Region), and Sylvain Bricault, General Manager of the Kruger Wayagamack Mill.

Kruger inc. announces a $6.5-million investment to implement an innovation project aimed at diversifying production at its Wayagamack Mill in Trois-Rivières. The initiative will enable the production of innovative label paper grades, reinforcing the Wayagamack Mill’s leadership in Québec and North America. The new, state-of-the-art equipment will enhance the Mill’s capacity for innovation, versatility and sustainability, helping to secure the future of its operations and its 285 jobs. (CNW Group/Kruger Inc.)



The initiative was made possible by a $2.5 million funding from the Government of Québec under the Programme Innovation Bois of the ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts.



In 2017, the Wayagamack Mill started to shift to specialty paper, including backing paper, developing solid expertise in this steadily growing field. The Mill will continue to manufacture coated paper, which is known for its light weight and high quality and used to print magazine-type publications.

Quotes:

"The forestry sector is a priority for our government. The uncertainty brought on by our southern neighbour means we must think outside the box and seek innovative ways of doing business. Today's announcement exemplifies what it takes to revitalize the forestry sector and the regional economy. These investments help companies be even more competitive in the market, which is a win for all of Québec!"

– Maïté Blanchette Vézina, Minister of Natural Resources and Forests and Minister Responsible for the Bas-Saint-Laurent Region and the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine Region

"We know how important the forestry industry is for the Mauricie region. And the capacity to innovate is one of our region's strengths. I am proud to see that Kruger, a company with deep roots in Trois-Rivières, is engaging in innovation. This project will enable Kruger to remain competitive and at the forefront of the forestry sector. Kudos to the team!"

– Jean Boulet, Minister of Labour, Minister Responsible for the Mauricie Region, the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Region and the Nord-du-Québec Region and Member for Trois-Rivières

"We would like to acknowledge the Government of Québec's support for innovation projects that help local companies modernize and remain competitive. As a proud Québec company, our Kruger Wayagamack Mill will be able to position itself as a provincial leader and a major player in North America steadily growing label paper market."

– Justin Paillé, Senior Vice President, Manufacturing, Kruger Pulp & Paper Division

This project builds on Kruger's history of diversifying its operations to adapt to ever-changing markets and adds to the nearly $1 billion invested since acquiring the Wayagamack Mill in 2001.

About Kruger

Founded in Montréal in 1904, Kruger Inc. is a major provider of tissue products, 100% recycled containerboard, packaging, corrugated board, pulp and paper products, and renewable energy. The Company is also a leader in paper and paperboard recycling in North America. A privately held family company, Kruger Inc. has 6,000 employees and its facilities are located in Québec, Ontario, British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as in the states of Tennessee, Maine, New York, Virginia, Kentucky and Rhode Island. www.kruger.com

SOURCE Kruger Inc.