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The national council for Energy Policy (CNPE) of Brazil, which advise the Brazilian President on energy policies, has approved a resolution aimed at liberalising the country’s gas market, currently dominated by national oil and gas company Petrobras.

The «Novo Mercado de Gas» (New Gas Market) resolution would lead to breaking up Petrobras’ monopoly on production and distribution, a measure expected to lower gas prices by up to 40% in two or three years; renegotiating gas supply agreements with Bolivia and Argentina could also contribute to lower prices. New companies could access the gas transportation system, gas processing units and LNG import terminals. Petrobras would have to report how much quantity it needs to use at each point of entry and exit to allow third-party use of gas pipelines.

The resolution will be submitted for approval by the President and will be presented to the Senate and to the Chamber.

Since the beginning of 2019, four US states, namely New Mexico, Washington, Nevada, and Maryland, and the District of Columbia have revised updward their renewable portfolio standards (RPS). …

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM) has allowed Forsmarks Kraftgrupp AB (FKA, 66% owned by Vattenfall) to operate the units 1 and 2 of the Forsmark nuclear power plant for a further 10 years, i.e. until 2028.

According to the Norwegian power transmission system operator (TSO) Statnett, Norway can become fully electrified and replace all fossil energy consumption by renewable electricity with an increase in electricity consumption by 30-50 TWh.

According to Indonesia’s coal miners association (APBI), Indonesia’s coal demand will increase by more than 52 Mt by 2023, as new coal-fired power plants are being developed.

A new power interconnection line is currently under construction between Jordan and Iraq. The project, which was announced in February 2019, will enable Jordan to export electricity to its neighbour and to alleviate energy overcapacity. First electricity exports are expected in 2021. ….

The government of Kenya has signed Heads of Term agreements with Tullow Oil, Africa Oil Corp. and Total for the development of a crude oil processing facility in the northwest of the country. The processing facility would have a capacity of 60,000 to 80,000 bbl/d and would tap oil resources from the Blocks 10 BB and 13T in South Lokichar Basin.

US power utility NV Energy has filed its integrated resource plan to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (United States) and plans to add nearly 1,200 MW of new solar PV power capacity across three projects and 590 MW of battery storage capacity in Clark County (southern Nevada) by the end of 2023. The utility will sign power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the project developers.

PetroVietnam’s gas subsidiary PV Gas has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Samsung C&T and the PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation for the Thi Vai LNG project southeast of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The US$286m LNG import project will have a regasification capacity of 1 Mt/year (1.35 bcm/year).