UK energy companies are expected to avoid doing business in the United States as a result of Trump slapping a 10% tariff on British exports. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has unveiled a series of new tariffs that are due to come into effect on 9 April, in addition to plans to increase existing tariffs on steel and aluminium. “Overreaching tariff regimes have always been detrimental to business, and given its global reach and interconnectedness, the energy supply chain will not be spared from that,” said Rebecca Groundwater, the Energy Industries Council’s (EIC) head of external affairs. She said that if companies are currently operational in the US, they may be able to absorb the latest regulatory and policy changes from the White House. “But for those considering the US as a potential market, these increased costs of doing business and operations will give them pause,” Groundwater said. “We anticipate these organisations will instead turn to other markets where the ease of doing business, regulatory framework, and policy environment are more stable.” Unstable regions “do not entice business”, she warned, as the US moved to impose a 10% levy on all imported manufactured goods from the UK. The organisation declined to comment on the impact of Brexit on the UK’s position, as the US tariff on Europe will be nearly double at 20%. Industry trade body Make UK called on the UK government to set up a tariffs taskforce to create a dialogue with industry. Make UK’s chief executive officer Stephen Phipson called the export tariff changes “devastating”. He said: “The US president’s announcement of 10% tariffs on UK goods exported to the United States and 25% tariffs on British made autos, steel and aluminium is devastating for UK manufacturing. “Not only will volumes of direct exports to the US

Of all the production hubs in the North Sea, the top four producers have remained unchanged since 2023; however, with the right policy, BP might climb the rankings. Dundas Consultants has ranked the top 15 highest producing hubs in UK waters, and despite TotalEnergies’ recent statement that it sees “little future” in the country, it still controls the top two. The French supermajor’s Elgin and Culzean hubs hold the first and second place spots on the league table, respectively. The next three, Clair, Glen Lyon, and ETAP, are all operated by the London-listed BP, and according to Dundas director Richard Woodhouse, its highest-ranked of the trio has the potential to climb higher. “The large oil in place in the West of Shetland Clair area arising from the very large size of the oil bearing structures mean that there could in time, still be large development projects taking place to increase the production over the hub, in particular at the Clair South area,” Woodhouse explained. The Clair South development is now referred to by BP simply as Clair phase three. © Supplied by Dundas ConsultantsThe top 15 production hubs in UK waters. Source: Dundas Consultants. This comes as the top four hubs have all seen a double-digit downturn in production. “If we look at the decline in production from 2023 to 2024, we have 21% for Elgin, 19% for Culzean and 13% each for Clair and Glen Lyon hubs,” Woodhouse added. “If those decline rates continued into the future, the top 4 league table positions would not actually change.” So, in order to see a shake-up in the table, there needs to be “game changers for the hubs”, and this is on the cards for BP. © Supplied by BPBP started up Clair Ridge – the oilfield’s second phase – in

Speaking at Hampton Court Palace on the sidelines of the Terra Carta Sustainable Markets Initiative sustainable transition summit, Tokamak Energy chief executive Warrick Matthews described how his job involves “myth busting” around nuclear fusion. In an exclusive interview, he explains how the company is on a path to commercialising nuclear fusion technology after raising $150 million from existing and strategic investors in November. Energy Voice: Can you tell me any more about Tokamak’s tech scale-up prototype for wind power? Warrick Matthews: We’re 15 years old as a company and our founders spun out of UKAEA (the UK Atomic Energy Authority). They had operated a conventional tokamak. A tokamak is a device to hold plasma in a strong magnetic field. The conventional tokamak looks like a doughnut, a Torus. Our device looks a bit more like a cored apple shape. Future machines have to have superconductors. You put energy into them and at an operating temperature they have zero resistance. They can carry very high currents, which is why they’re suddenly interesting for power transmission. Or you can wind them into coil packs and produce very high-field magnets – that’s the magnet that goes in a big sort of D-shape, or in a ring around the plasma. You mentioned how tokamaks can be used for power generation. Please elaborate.We’re engaged across numerous verticals [with] strategic partners now in propulsion – in water, on land for rail, in the air for new hybrid propulsion and then in space. When you look at the biggest, highest power-output offshore wind turbines, they’re enormous and expensive and a lot of the design is based around the nacelle at the top – which is extremely heavy because it’s got hundreds of tonnes of rare-earth permanent magnet installed in the machine. If you replace that with the

Russia’s transportation watchdog has ordered a 90-day halt to oil-loading operations at berth 8 of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, according to state infrastructure operator Transneft PJSC. The order came as security checks at the port identified some violations, Transneft, which controls the loading facilities, said in a statement on Wednesday. Tanker tracking by Bloomberg suggests that there will be no impact on crude oil flows and minimal impact on fuel flows from the step. The oil terminal has until June 30 to rectify the violations. The Novorossiysk port is a key export route for Russian crude oil and petroleum products and any significant disruptions to loadings may affect the nation’s production flows. However, last month, 23 crude tankers loaded there to carry Russian barrels abroad. All of them loaded at berths 1, 1a or 2, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg and shipping industry data. The other oil berths in Novorossiysk are used for loading petroleum products, the data show. Since late February, no product tankers moored at berth 8 either, which suggests the facility isn’t used often. The suspension order comes just days after the transportation watchdog halted loadings at two moorings of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium located nearby. The authority identified security breaches there and ordered an indefinite halt until the violations are rectified. The order has left the CPC infrastructure with just one operational mooring.  As the CPC link is the single-largest export route for Kazakh crude, initially expected to load about 1.5 million barrels a day in April, the halt has more of an impact for Kazakhstan. With no options for rerouting all the barrels, the nation may need to cut oil production just as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries nudges it to meet the production quota.  Apart from the Novorossiysk

The long-awaited unveiling by President Donald Trump of sweeping reciprocal import tariffs triggered a slump in oil prices on Thursday, while gold rose to a fresh record.  There was also an important carve-out for commodities from Canada and Mexico, as well as for energy and energy products.  Here’s a round-up of the initial impact of Wednesday’s big announcement. Metals According to a White House fact sheet, steel, aluminum, gold and copper imports won’t be subject to reciprocal tariffs, providing at least some relief to domestic buyers who are already bearing the cost of Section 232 tariffs of 25% on all imports of some key metals. Gold, however, jumped as much as 1.1% to a record as investors sought safety following the tariff headlines. Bullion has climbed more than 20% this year after a ferocious run in 2024. Copper futures declined on concerns over the global economy.  Oil and Gasoline Crude immediately dropped as trading started in the Asian morning. Futures fell more than 2%, dipping below $70 a barrel, amid concerns about declining demand and the potential for a trade war. However, energy and energy products are exempt from the new levies, meaning oil and natural gas markets won’t be directly impacted.  Canada and Mexico — the two biggest foreign suppliers of oil to the US — were also left out of Wednesday’s cascade. Exports from the countries to the US that aren’t compliant with the North American trade agreement known as the USMCA will remain subject to an earlier levy of 25% generally (and 10% on Canadian energy), imposed by Trump earlier to counter illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling. If that 25% tariff is later dropped for either country, the newly ordered reciprocal rate would apply, a senior administration official told reporters Wednesday. Agriculture  US farmers also benefit from the reprieve on USMCA goods.

Homer City Redevelopment, or HCR, and Kiewit Power Constructors intend to build up to 4.5 GW of gas-fired generation at a retired power plant in Pennsylvania to serve a planned data center campus, the companies said Wednesday. The $10 billion generating project is slated to be built at the site of the 1,884-MW coal-fired Homer City power plant, which was shuttered in mid-2023. The 3,200-acre site, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, includes interconnections to the PJM Interconnection and New York Independent System Operator grids. The site interconnects with FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric’s system in PJM. GE Vernova will supply the Homer City Energy Campus project with seven hydrogen-enabled, gas-fired turbines, with the first deliveries expected to begin in 2026, HCR and Kiewit said. The generating project is expected to start producing power by 2027, they said. The power plant would be the largest gas-fired power plant in the United States, according to Kiewit. Greenhouse gas emissions from the power plant would be about 60% less per MWh than from the previous coal-fired power plant, according to HCR and Kiewit. The planned power plant will be supplied with fuel from the Texas Eastern gas pipeline system. HCR received a $5 million state grant to support construction of an interconnection between the generating station and the pipeline, which is about five miles away. The planned power plant will also provide electricity to “thousands of homes on the local grid,” HCR and Kiewit said. The project is backed by Knighthead Capital Management, a New York City-based private equity firm that as of mid-September owned about 75% of Homer City Holdings, the owner of the Homer City power plant, according to a filing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. GoldenTree Asset Management owns about 12% of the company. HCR didn’t respond to questions about the