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By David Gaffen, Editor, Energy Markets

Hello Power Up readers! We’re headed into the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend – which means lots of flying and driving for travelers in the world’s largest economy, at a time when consumers are seeing a bit of relief on the price of gasoline. The market is up a bit, meanwhile, because the thinking is that OPEC is going to push for more output cuts, what with weakish demand undermining their efforts to put a floor under prices. Power Up will be on hiatus Thursday for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, so before everyone stuffs themselves, here’s where we are… 

Today’s top headlines:

• Oil rises on expectations of further OPEC+ supply cuts  
• EU backs fund focused on cutting energy wastage
• TC Energy receives FERC approval for Virginia Reliability Project

A couple of Austrian police officers, seemingly pretty chill, in front of the OPEC headquarters in Vienna. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

OPEC+ will be considering whether to make additional oil supply cuts when the group meets later this month, as Olesya Astakhova and Alex Lawler report here, citing three OPEC+ sources after oil prices have dropped by about 20% since late September. Brent crude dipped into the high $70s after hitting a high of near $98 a barrel in September, on concerns about demand that could lead to a surplus.  

Saudi Arabia, Russia and other OPEC+ members are already throttling supply, with other entities like the United States only able to make up so much of that output. The group has already cut about 5% of daily global demand, and one OPEC+ source who declined to be named said those curbs might be not enough. “It is not pleasant to see that market volatility is greater ahead of the next meeting while fundamentals overall remain solid,” one of the sources said. “Ministers are likely to express some thoughts on what to do more, to secure a stable trend.” 

Those are big installations of liquified natural gas producer Atlantic LNG at Point Fortin, Trinidad and Tobago. REUTERS/Andrea De Silva

Venezuela is close to approving a license for Shell and Trinidad and Tobago’s national gas company to develop an offshore natural gas field and export that output to the Caribbean country, as Curtis Williams reports here. The deal would help Trinidad boost its gas processing and petrochemical exports.  

Venezuela and Trinidad are key to natural gas production in the region; the former has Latin America’s biggest gas reserves, while the latter has the region’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter; the expectation is that the deal would run for 25 years and it comes after the United States loosened some sanctions against the nation.  

Enel headquarters in Milan. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo

Italy’s Enel is the world’s largest listed renewable energy developer – but it looks like it’s going to focus a bit more on its home country and get more selective with green investments when its new CEO presents his strategy on Nov. 22, as Francesca Landini reports here. 

Flavio Cattaneo is now the CEO, having taken over the role from long-serving CEO Francesco Starace in May in a management shake-up orchestrated by the Italian government. Expectations are that the group will devote at least 50% of investments to Italy – though the company does have massive investments in the United States where it has benefited from the passage of the Investment Reduction Act that boosted subsidies for renewable energy projects. 

That’s BP’s logo at the LNG 2023 energy trade show in Vancouver. I know, thrilling. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

BP is looking to expand in low carbon energy in coming decades with a business model that can survive the global transition from fossil fuels, as Christoph Steitz and Ron Bousso report here. Oil majors have struggled to figure out how to move to more renewable investments while at the same time maintain big profits out of their oil-and-gas businesses.

BP was in the vanguard more than others on this – but the look to partnerships may mean they’re trying to offset those costs a bit. They’re looking at partners for offshore wind projects in Japan and possibly hydrogen technology companies; Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, who leads BP’s renewables business, told Reuters it was “time to deliver” on its promises, saying that it is still looking to meet internal returns targets of 6% to 8%.

“Coal in North Macedonia represents 40% of the energy source, so it’s very big, it’s very important.”

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development President Odile Renaud-Basso, on a deal to wean North Macedonia off coal-fired power

The Canadian government is going to present legislation this month that will subsidize carbon capture and net-zero energy projects, as Steve Scherer reports here. Companies have been warning Ottawa that the lack of state support for carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) projects was going to put some C$50 billion ($36 billion) worth of investments at risk. The new credit will be announced by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, per a source familiar with the matter.

Canada has been lagging the United States on incentives for spurring investment in low-carbon technologies, with Washington having passed the Inflation Reduction Act to offer up big subsidies to fund such projects.

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