April 2021

Brent was up 2 cents at $62.97 a barrel. WTI gained 1 cent to $59.49 a barrel.

With the production gains, OPEC+ compliance with its quotas slipped to 111% in March, compared with 113.5% in February, juiced by Saudi Arabia voluntarily cutting an additional 1 million b/d since January.

Removing this specific tax measure could generate US$13bn over 10 years. Overall, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies could increase government receipts by US$35bn over 10 years.

President Biden’s American Jobs Plan proposes pumping $2.3 trillion into a slew of sectors over the next eight years.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 2.44% at 14,474.10 by 0440 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex was 2.42% lower at 48,374.94. The two indexes have now retreated 6%-8% from their mid-February record highs.

The fifth strategic energy plan approved by the cabinet in July 2018 promotes conversion to high efficiency and next-generation coal-fired power generation in Japan in return for phasing out inefficient coal use.

India has stockpiled a record 132 million tonnes of coal – enough to run India’s power plants for two months – greatly exceeding the average of the previous five years,

Iran has insisted that the US drop all the sanctions it unilaterally imposed after withdrawing from the deal in 2018, while US officials have maintained that Iranian nuclear violations of the agreement must be rectified first.

TAE Technologies, the California, USA-based fusion energy technology company, has announced that its proprietary beam-driven field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma generator has produced stable plasma at over 50 million degrees Celsius.

The answer lies, at least in part, in focusing on grid modernization, including the expansion of transmission capacity, increased use of energy storage systems, microgrids and digital solutions, and the adoption of a more coordinated national policy to make this possible.