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The Government of the Netherlands has announced that it will not seek to offset the end of gas extraction at the Groningen field in 2022 by increasing production from the 240 small gas fields in the country. In 2018, these fields accounted for approximately half of the total gas production in the Netherlands, and their gas production is declining regularly (more than 1 bcm decrease between 2017 and 2018)..

In September 2019, the Netherlands decided to stop natural gas production at the Groningen natural gas field by mid-2022. Gas extraction was progressively reduced from 53.8 bcm in 2013 to 42.5 bcm in 2014, 33 bcm in 2015, 27 bcm in 2016, 21.6 bcm in 2017 and 20.1 bcm in 2018 (from October 2017 to October 2018).

Angola’s newly created National Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (ANPG) has launched an oil biding round for 10 blocks, including Blocks 11, 12, 13, 27, 28, 29, 41, 42 and 43 in the Namibe Basin, and Block 10 in the Benguela Basin. Interested companies have until 12 November 2019 to submit their proposals. The announcement follows an international roadshow that took place in September 2019.

The government of Taiwan has announced plans to boost its installed solar power capacity by adding 3.7 GW of new capacity by 2021: under the new two-year Solar PV Promotion Plan, which extends the 2017-2018 strategy, 1.5 GW of new solar capacity should be added in 2019 and 2.2 GW in 2020.

Equinor has agreed to sell a 25% stake in the 385 MW Arkona offshore wind park in the German part of the Baltic Sea to funds advised by Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners for around €500m. With this transaction, the share of Equinor in Arkona will decrease from 50% to 25%, while RWE Renewables will remain the operator with a 50% stake (taken over from E.ON under their swap agreement).

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), US crude oil exports continued to increase in the first half of 2019, rising to an average of 2.9 mb/d (+50% compared to the same period of 2018) and reaching a record-high monthly average of 3.2 mb/d in June 2019.

As agreed under a US$4.2bn deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Government of Ecuador has liberalised gasoline and diesel prices and scrapped fuel subsidies estimated at more than US$1.4bn. Consequently, the price of gasoline rose by 29% to US$2.39/gallon, and the cost of diesel by 123% to US$2.27/gallon.

The Ministry of Petroleum of Egypt has announced a decrease in fuel prices. The price of 95-octane fuel has been lowered by 2.8% to EGP 8.75/l (US$54c/l), that of 92-octane fuel by 3.1% to EGP7.75/l (US$47c/l) and that of 80-octane fuel by 3.7% to EGP6.5/l (US$40c/l). The price of fuel oil for industrial use has been cut by 5.5% to EGP4,250/t (US$261/t).

Japanese power utility TEPCO has signed a cooperation agreement with French nuclear fuel company Orano to help decommission nuclear facilities at the Fukushima Daiichi site.