Turkey is in talks to look for oil and gas in Bulgaria, and is also planning exploration work in Iraq and Libya, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said. State-run Turkiye Petrolleri AO will “likely” sign an agreement with an unspecified foreign company in the next month to search for energy in Bulgaria’s part of the Black Sea, Bayraktar told reporters in Turkey’s Giresun province. For Bulgaria, it will add to deals after the country late last year picked a unit of Shell Plc to explore for oil and gas in the Black Sea.  TPAO is also interested in Libya, which launched its first exploration tender in over 17 years in March, as well as fields in Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, he added.  Turkey, which is almost entirely reliant on imported oil and gas, has sought to increase production both at home and abroad in recent years. The country wants to leverage its geographical position to become a gas hub and cater to demand in the European Union and the Middle East. Talks are underway with Bulgaria to explore options to increase gas transit capacity at their joint border to boost flows into Europe. TPAO started gas production from a field in its own section of the Black Sea in 2023, and is currently conducting surveys off the coast of Somalia. Exploration deals have no guarantee that they will result in the discovery of commercial quantities of oil or gas, but Turkey has pressed on with plans to expand with agreements in Pakistan and Hungary over the past year.  The Turkish city of Istanbul was also the venue of Libya’s National Oil Corp. presenting its tender to potential investors in a roadshow last Thursday, following similar events in London and Houston. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and

Environmental advocates held a press conference Monday to examine the potential impact of a rumored executive order from President Trump, which is thought to target the tax-exempt status of climate nonprofits. The executive order is expected to be released today – Earth Day. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network hosted the press conference, where speakers included Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and former Washington Governor Jay Inslee, D. Both said they are anticipating an executive order from Trump that seeks to revoke the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status of environmental groups. “The Trump administration has been systematically attacking every sector of American civil society — the federal workforce, the unions, the universities, the colleges, the philanthropies, you name it,” Raskin said. “And so it’s inevitable that they will be coming — I assume that they will be coming — after the environmental organizations.” Raskin noted that in December, after Trump was reelected but before he took office, Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., introduced legislation to give the executive branch power to terminate the tax-exempt status of an organization deemed a “terrorist supporting organization.” This would include “any organization which is designated by the Secretary [of the Treasury] as having provided, during the 3-year period ending on the date of such designation, material support or resources” to a terrorist organization, according to the legislation. “We fought that very hard for several hours on the floor of the House of Representatives,” Raskin said. “That is obviously a power that only authoritarians and autocrats would want — the power to unilaterally designate a group as a terrorist group, without any due process, without any fair hearing.” The bill passed the House, but it has not yet advanced in the Senate. Raskin said he feels “it’s a good thing” that organizations are anticipating future policy decisions from the Trump administration

Oil rose as the potential for the US to curtail Iranian flows added to a rebound driven by broader markets. West Texas Intermediate advanced about 2% to settle near $64 a barrel, recouping most of the previous day’s losses, which were driven by President Donald Trump’s public rebuke of the Federal Reserve. Also supporting prices, Trump said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Tuesday and are aligned on trade and their approach to Iran. That came after the US announced sanctions against Iranian national and liquefied petroleum gas magnate Seyed Asadoollah Emamjomeh and his corporate network. Crude has slumped this month on concern that mounting tensions between the US and its top trading partners will hurt economic growth and curtail oil consumption, adding to pre-existing expectations of a surplus. Crude eased off of intraday highs later in the session after the Financial Times reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to halt his country’s invasion of Ukraine across the current front line. At the same time, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated Trump’s criticism of the Fed and said the president will travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in May. Despite the widespread expectations for an oversupply of crude, market gauges have been pointing to a stronger near-term market. The closest WTI futures contract is trading at its biggest premium to the next month since February, signaling tighter supply and demand balances. “Near-term, I would expect that the biggest wave of selling is behind us,” Martijn Rats, global oil strategist at Morgan Stanley, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “As we go through the summer, seasonal demand does support things a little bit, but then in the second half we will probably have another period of downward pressure.” Elsewhere, Vice President

Atlanta plans to launch its first comprehensive plan to address climate resilience and the disproportionate impacts of climate change April 30. The Climate Resilience Action Plan sets goals that include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 59% by 2030, adding 250 electric vehicle charging stations by 2025 and reducing the energy burden on 10% of the city’s most energy-burdened households. The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience spent 18 months studying and gathering community input into how Atlanta’s three primary climate challenges — extreme heat, drought and flooding — affect the city’s different populations. The plan spells out how the city can respond at municipal and neighborhood levels “in ways that make our communities more climate-resilient and more equitable,” said Chandra Farley, Atlanta’s chief sustainability officer. Atlanta consistently ranks in the nation’s top five cities for energy burden, as indicated by the percentage of household income spent on energy bills, Farley said. Traditionally,  households spending 6% or more of their monthly household income on energy are considered energy burdened; Atlanta has many households that spend from 6% to 19% of their monthly income on utilities, Farley said. The Georgia city’s focus on creating energy equity has put the plan’s federal funding in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Farley said her team received a cease-and-desist letter regarding a grant it was working on with the Southeastern Energy Efficiency Alliance to address equity and building codes, for example. That grant is on hold as agreements are updated to remove DEI language. The city’s efforts to address inequity in energy burdens will continue, Farley said. “We understand that climate resilience must also be focused on the disproportionate impact that some of our distressed neighborhoods feel more acutely than other neighborhoods,” Farley said. “It is a

Dive Brief: Haven Energy is offering a “first of its kind” program to bring solar and battery storage systems to low- and moderate-income California utility customers at no cost to them, the company said Monday. The initiative, which sees Haven owning and operating the systems, is made possible by the state’s $280 million Self-Generation Incentive Program’s Residential Solar & Storage Equity framework, SGIP RSSE, Haven said. Haven is also partnering with The Energy Coalition, a Los Angeles nonprofit group, to install home battery systems for low- and moderate-income customers in Southern California through the Bassett Avocado Heights Advanced Energy Community program, it said. Dive Insight: As the Trump administration targets utility-scale clean energy development, experts say smaller-scale distributed energy resources could pick up some of the slack. In a January update to its Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Virtual Power Plants report, the U.S. Department of Energy said the country’s current VPP capacity of approximately 30 GW could scale to at least 80 GW by 2030 following a concerted effort by utilities, grid operators, resource aggregators and other stakeholders to encourage broader DER adoption, simplify program design and enrollment, and integrate VPPs into utility planning and wholesale markets. The announcements this week show Haven is doing its part to support the first two goals while delivering more capacity into a California wholesale market that offers multiple forms of support for DERs and VPPs. With the SGIP RSSE framework capable of supporting solar and storage installations for an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 qualifying California households, Haven anticipates deploying 10 MW of distributed capacity in what would become one of the state’s largest VPPs, the company said. Haven automatically enrolls its customers in an eligible demand response program for 10 years, it said. Haven has already installed more than 1,000 batteries under the

In this week’s Charging Forward, Eku Energy acquires a portfolio of seven UK battery energy storage system (BESS) projects from Bluestone Energy, while Gresham House leads industry criticism of Ofgem and NESO. This week’s headlines: UK BESS operators criticise long-duration energy storage scheme ‘bias’ Eku Energy acquires Bluestone Energy’s UK BESS portfolio Zenobe wades into UK zonal pricing debate Balance Power’s Hinksford BESS approved SAE secures £8.5m 240 MWh Welsh BESS E.ON and Superdielectrics collaborate on polymer-based energy storage International news: Gelion achieves sulphur battery breakthrough UK BESS operators criticise long-duration energy storage scheme ‘bias’ A group of UK BESS operators have written an open letter criticising UK authorities over its long-duration energy storage (LDES) revenue support plans. The firms, led by Gresham House, say there are significant flaws in the upcoming LDES cap and floor scheme which, they believe, will create “arbitrary barriers to entry” lithium-ion BESS projects. Other UK firms to sign the open letter include Zenobe, Field Energy, Eku Enegy, Harmony Energy, Adaptogen Capital and Voltwise Power. Together, the group represents 36% of the UK’s current operational BESS capacity. The group claims changes to the LDES scheme could save UK consumers as much as £2.22 billion compared to “unproven” technologies such as liquid air energy storage. © Supplied by Highview PowerA design image of a Highview Power liquid air energy storage system. . The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) initially said in January 2024 that it would exclude lithium-ion batteries from the LDES support scheme. However, officials subsequently said lithium-ion BESS would be eligible if they meet specific criteria, including a minimum eight-hour duration. But the group of developers said analysis from LCP Delta shows BESS is the “most competitive” LDES technology, adding the current scheme could “risk jeopardising” the government’s 27 GW target for shorter