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Greece, Cyprus and Israel have signed an agreement on the 1,900 km long East Med gas pipeline project, which would transport around 10 bcm/year of gas from Israel and Cyprus to Crete (Greece), mainland Greece, Italy and other south-eastern European countries. The project is developed by IGI Poseidon, a joint venture of Edison (Italy) and DEPA (Greece). The final investment decision (FID) is expected in 2022 and the US$6-7bn gas pipeline project could be completed by 2025.

The agreement comes amid tensions following the maritime agreement concluded between Turkey and the Libyan government of union (GNA) in November 2019, that Greece, Cyprus and Israel opposed. The proposed East Med gas pipeline project would have to cross the planned Turkey-Libya economic zone and Turkey has expressed its reserves on the project that would be redundant with the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP).

Many large gas fields have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean basin since 2009 and gas reserves are now estimated at over 900 bcm off Israel and at more than 128 bcm off Cyprus (Aphrodite gas field). In December 2017, Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Italy had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the project.

The Ministry of Environment of Turkey has decided to close five coal-fired power plants that have failed to complete the required environmental investments before the 31 December 2019 deadline. 13 coal-fired power plants had been given until the end of 2019 to install filters on their chimneys. …

The Indian government plans to auction more than 200 coal blocks with a potential production of at least 400 Mt of coal at peak capacity for commercial coal mining in the next five years, in an attempt to open up the Indian coal sector.

Enel stopped operations at its 158 MW Tarapaca coal-fired  in Chile on 31 December 2019, much ahead of the initial closure date of May 2020. Enel’s subsidiary Gasatacama Chile was authorised by the energy regulator Comisión Nacional de Energía (CNE) to close and disconnect the in July 2019.

According to the British power transmission network operator National Grid, the amount of electricity produced from non-fossil fuel sources in the United Kingdom (UK) outstripped that from fossil fuels for the first time in 2019.

According to the Russina nuclear group Rosenergoatom, nuclear power generation in Russia hit a new record in 2019, reaching 208.8 TWh (+2.2% compared with the previous record of 2018). Rosenergoatom, which controls Russian nuclear was planning to produce 202.7 TWh in 2019.

Vattenfall has decommissioned the Unit 2 of the Ringhals nuclear in Sweden, after 44 years of operation and 215 TWh of generation. The Ringhals-1 and 2 nuclear reactors, rated 881 MW and 807 MW, respectively, were commissioned in 1975 and 1976. Ringhals-1 is expected to close in 2020. …

Partners in the Leviathan gas project, namely Delek Drilling (45.34%), Noble Energy (39.66%) and Ratio Oil Exploration (15%), have announced the start of gas supply from the Leviathan offshore reservoir off Israel. The Leviathan gas field, which was discovered in 2010, is estimated to hold 605 bcm of gas reserves and is expected to produce 60 bcm over 15 years. …