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TEPCO is considering decommissioning at least one reactor at the 7,965 MW (8,212 MW gross) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Kashiwazaki (Niigata prefecture, Japan). The nuclear power plant consists of five 1,067 MW (1,100 MW gross) boiling water reactors (BWR) commissioned between 1980 and 1994 and two 1,315 MW (1,356 MW gross) advanced boiling water reactors (ABWR) commissioned in 1996 and 1997.. All have been idle since the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.

In October 2017, the group secured a safety approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) to restart the two most recent reactors, namely Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 6 and 7 reactors but the mayor of Kashiwazaki called for at least one of the plant’s 1 to 5 reactors to be decommissioned before the restart of the units 6 and 7. TEPCO has thus proposed to decommission one of the five units or more within 5 years after the restart of units 6 and 7, provided the group is able to secure non-fossil fuel power sources of sufficient scale for long-term use.

TEPCO is seeking to develop offshore wind capacities off the coast of Choshi to cover up to 44% of its total power generation with renewables and nuclear by 2030. The group expects to have completed safety measures at unit 7 by December 2020 and is working on obtaining New Regulatory Requirement approval.

Indian state-run hydropower company NHPC has received all necessary regulatory approvals to develop the 2,000 MW Lower Subansiri power project in India. The construction is expected to start in October 2019 and could last 3.5 years for a total expenditure of INR 200bn (US$2.8bn).

The Government of South Africa will publish a roadmap on restructuring the state-owned power utility Eskom in the next few weeks, summarizing how it intends to restore its long-term sustainability. A key proposition is to unbundle the public company into different units for transmission, generation and distribution.

A court in Nebraska (United States) has approved an alternative route for the 830,000 bbl/d Keystone XL oil pipeline project developed by Canadian energy infrastructure group TC Energy (previously TransCanada).

The National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, has adopted a new law that will give regions power to tax as many as 164 different resources, including fossil fuels and minerals. The reform will be implemented prior to September 2020.

The federal government of Nigeria has formally requested a loan from the Chinese state-held Export-Import Bank of China (China EXIM Bank) for the construction of the 3,050 MW Mambilla hydropower project in Gembu (Taraba State, Nigeria).

Australian oil and gas company Woodside has started to produce oil from its Greater Enfield project located 60 km off Exmouth in Western Australia. The project is developed by Woodside Energy (operator, 60%) and Mitsui E&P Australia (40%), which made the Final Investment Decision (FID) in June 2016 and agreed to invest US$1.9bn. …

Tunisia’s state-owned oil and gas exploration and production company Entreprise Tunisienne d’Activités Pétrolières (ETAP) has started to produce gas at its South Tunisian Gas Project (STGP) (Nawara gas project), which is expected to increase domestic gas production by 50%.