Energy coverage

Libya's National Oil Corporation said Monday night that fuel tank 402-T at the Zawiya oil refinery in western Libya was directly targeted, causing a severe fire and the complete collapse of the tank. The tank, operated by NOC subsidiary Brega Petroleum Marketing Company, held about 4.5 million liters of gasoline. Firefighting teams are working to contain the blaze; no official reports on the cause or casualties have been issued.

An unidentified drone exploded near the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline close to the Romania-Bulgaria border, having entered from Romanian airspace and detonated less than a mile from a compressor station. No injuries or damage were reported.

Red and yellow alerts were raised for power grids in central and southern Philippines on Wednesday as several power plants remained unavailable, according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). The Visayas red alert is in effect with available capacity at about 2,153 MW against a projected peak demand of 2,394 MW. In Mindanao, nine power plants are on forced outage for August, with 11 unavailable since 2024 and nine others operating at derated capacities.

Lebanese Prime Minister chairs meeting to review preparations for receiving Iraqi crude oil and petroleum products expected to transit through Lebanon.

The Trump administration has extended a limited waiver of the Jones Act for another 90 days to support domestic fuel supplies amid disruptions caused by the Iran war, allowing foreign-flagged vessels to transport certain energy resources between US ports.

Portugal's grid operator REN announced Monday that a near-total solar eclipse on August 12 will reduce national solar power generation by an estimated 45 percent, causing a loss of approximately 450 MW during peak impact between 18:30 and 20:30 local time.

Greenland reportedly issued a 'strong warning' to Texas-based Greenland Energy after the company brought drilling equipment ashore on Jameson Land without required government approvals. Greenland Energy estimates up to $1 trillion in crude could lie beneath the basin but says drilling cannot proceed without Greenlandic authorization.

Portugal's Council of Ministers on Thursday approved a national electricity distribution grid development and investment plan for 2026-2030, with a total projected investment of 1.58 billion euros (1.82 billion U.S. dollars), to modernize infrastructure and accelerate the energy transition.

Russia's Transport Ministry is discussing measures to boost domestic aviation kerosene output, including allowing production of fuel with a crystallization onset temperature of minus 50°C, which could add 170,000–250,000 tons per month, per Izvestia citing a ministry letter.

OPEC said on Wednesday that global oil demand is forecast to grow by 600,000 barrels per day in 2026 year-on-year, down from its previous month's assessment, according to Xinhua reporting from Vienna.

Singapore's Energy Market Authority has conditionally approved two projects to import a combined 900MW of low-carbon electricity from Peninsular Malaysia, with the power generated from solar farms and battery storage systems in Johor state, expected to begin commercial operations around 2029.