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By Clyde Russell, Asia Commodities and Energy Columnist

Hello Power Up readers! OPEC is pledging to maintain cooperation and dialogue within the wider OPEC+ group of crude oil exporters after Angola’s shock decision late last year to leave the body. OPEC+ is planning a meeting on Feb. 1 to review the implementation of its output policy, and the meeting comes amid ongoing downward pressure on oil prices. Brent crude futures did turn in a positive performance on Jan. 3, rising 3.1% to end at $78.25 a barrel, but the gains were linked to a disruption at a Libyan oil field and fears of escalating conflict in the Middle East. The overall backdrop remains that crude prices are trending lower after the 2023 peak of $97.69 a barrel, hit in late September.  

Today’s top headlines:

• OPEC+ promises unity as group plans monitoring meeting

• Protests shut down Libya’s Sharara oilfield – engineers

• Renewable energy’s share on German power grid reaches 55% in 2023

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is tugged towards a thermal power station in Futtsu, east of Tokyo, Japan November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

Shell PLC has joined BP PLC in its battle against Venture Global LNG, accusing the U.S. producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) of denying it and other customers access to supplies while exporting more than $18 billion of the super-chilled fuel, as Curtis Williams reports here.

Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass export facility has been producing and selling LNG for more than 20 months while telling Shell, BP and others it cannot provide them with term-contract cargoes while the plant is undergoing a commissioning phase. The customers have complained that this lack of access has cost them billions of dollars in lost sales.

A general view of the offshore wind farm Hywind Tampen, North Sea, August 23, 2023. NTB/Ole Berg-Rusten via REUTERS

European energy firms Equinor and BP terminated their agreement to sell power to New York state from their proposed Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farm, citing rising inflation, higher borrowing costs, and supply chain issues, as Deep Vakil and Scott DiSavino report here.

Equinor said in a statement that “changed economic circumstances” will allow the project to continue development in anticipation of new offtake opportunities, an apparent reference to a new offshore wind solicitation launched by New York in November. The solicitation allows companies to exit old contracts and re-offer projects at higher prices. 

China’s flow of crude oil into inventories faded over the second half of last year as the world’s top importer reduced purchases in response to higher prices. As I write here, China added just 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) to stockpiles in the five months from July to November, down from 950,000 bpd added in the first half of 2023.

However, a decline in crude oil prices since September may encourage refiners to buy more in coming months.

Model of LNG tanker is seen in front of the U.S. flag in this illustration taken May 19, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

U.S. liquefied natural gas exports hit monthly and annual record highs in December, tanker tracker data showed, with analysts saying it positioned the United States to leapfrog Qatar and Australia to become the world’s largest exporter of LNG in 2023.

As Curtis Williams reports here, full-year exports from the U.S. rose 14.7% to 88.9 million metric tons, driven largely by the return to full production of the Freeport LNG plant that had suffered a fire in 2022.

“While our climate will remain variable, with periods of cold and wet weather, what we have observed over recent decades is a number of high temperature records tumbling.”

U.K. Met Office Senior Scientist Mike Kendon speaking after the national weather office said the United Kingdom had its second-warmest year on record in 2023.

Bangladesh nearly tripled its coal-fired power output in 2023, a Reuters analysis of government data showed, helping the South Asian nation over the worst power shortages in over a decade and slashing generation costs. As Sudarshan Varadhan and Ashley Fang report here, power generation from coal surged to a record 21 billion kilowatt-hours in 2023, up from the 7.9 billion of electricity produced from coal in 2022.

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