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The Norwegian Government has decided its US$1,100bn sovereign fund Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) will sell its participation in upstream oil and gas companies to protect its portfolio from a prolonged decline in oil prices. Participations in 95 enterprises valuated NOK 54bn (US$5.9bn) as of mid-September 2019 will be divested gradually overtime.

The downstream industry is not concerned by divestments, as well as integrated oil firms, including oil majors as the government considers they can switch to renewable energies. A previous plan presented in 2017 by the Norwegian central bank, which manages the GPFG, was much more stringent as it proposed to cut investment in all petroleum firms, implying to sell US$37bn worth of stocks.

The Brazilian energy agency EPE (Empresa de Pesquisa Energetica) has green lighted 1,541 power projects with a combined capacity of 71,385 MW to take part in the next power auction (Leilão A6/2019) that will be held on 18 October 2019 and will approve power projects to be commissioned within 6 years (by the end of 2025).

The government of Pakistan has committed to achieve 30% of renewables in its power generation mix by 2030, on top of 30% of hydropower, corresponding to a target of 60% of total renewable power generation by 2030. The country already generates around 30% of its electricity from hydropower but the share of non-hydro renewables is still limited though growing (around 2%).

The State Council of China has decided to replace the existing benchmark coal-fired power tariffs with a new “base price-plus-floating” mechanism as of 1 January 2020. This new market-based price system is expected to lead to more flexible power prices but also to lower profits for coal-fired power generators. …

Israel will increase its gas exports to Egypt over the next 15 years. Worth US$15bn, the previous deal, signed in February 2018, included the delivery of 64 bcm of natural gas to Egypt over a decade.

Ecuador announced it will leave OPEC in January 2020 as the Andean economy seek to ramp up oil production to increase hydrocarbon revenue in a sluggish economic context. The country joined OPEC in 1973, departed in 1992 and restarted its membership in 2007. …

The European Commission has approved a €530m funding for the €1bn Celtic interconnector project, a proposed 700 MW HVDC undersea power cable project that will connect Knockraha in the Cork region of Ireland to La Martyre in Finistère (France).

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved Kinder Morgan’s request to start LNG production and exports at the first 0.25 Mt/year train of its 2.5 Mt/year Elba Island LNG project in Savannah, Georgia (United States). …