Economy

RIYADH: Sustainable energy provision in Saudi Arabia is set to grow after French energy giant TotalEnergies achieved financial closure for its first solar power plant in the Kingdom.  According to a press statement, the 119 megawatts solar plant will be developed by a consortium of TotalEnergies, Japan’s Toyota Tsusho and Saudi Arabia’s Altaaqa Renewable Energy.  The group secured a power purchase agreement for the project with Riyadh-based Saudi Power Procurement Co. in an auction held between 2021 and 2022. 

RIYADH: Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday after industry data showed a larger-than-expected drawdown of US inventories, signaling robust demand from the world’s biggest oil consumer, but the gains were limited by worries over interest rate hikes.   Brent crude futures rose 43 cents, or 0.60 percent, to $72.69 a barrel at 09:28 a.m. Saudi time, while US West Texas Intermediate futures gained 40 cents, or 0.59 percent, to $68.10 a barrel.  

RIYADH: In a bid to expand its lubricant and allied products business in India, UAE’s ADNOC Distribution has inked a deal with Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd.   HPCL is one of the largest lubricant marketers and fuel retailing companies in India, and with this deal ADNOC Distribution aims to tap into Asia’s second-largest economy, which has an annual demand of 3 billion liters of lubricants.   The deal will also give ADNOC access to a vast network of over 28,000 retail stations in the country, news agency WAM reported.  

RIYADH: Italy’s energy transition plans received a further boost as Kuwait Petroleum International, also known as Q8, laid the foundation for Rome’s first circular hydrogen refueling station in collaboration with Maire Group.

RIYADH: In line with the aims of Bahrain’s National Energy Transition Plan, the state has stepped up efforts to increase the share of its renewable energy to 5 percent of its total electricity generation by 2025.  Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed, president of the country’s Electricity and Water Authority, said the move is part of a strategy to diversify the state’s energy resources and achieve a renewable resource share of 20 percent by 2035, according to Bahrain News Agency. 

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has gathered momentum in its commitment to sustainability by identifying and supporting top innovators of climate-smart agriculture solutions.  Called the Smarter Climate Farmers Challenge, the initiative was launched by the Kingdom in partnership with Uplink, the open innovation platform of the World Economic Forum.  Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Al-Ibrahim announced the challenge during the WEF’s 14th annual meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China. 

BEIJING: Annual profits at China’s industrial firms extended a double-digit decline in the first five months as softening demand squeezed margins, reinforcing hopes of more policy support to bolster a stuttering post-COVID economic recovery.  The 18.8 percent year-on-year slump in profits came on top of the 20.6 percent contraction in January-April, and added to evidence of an economy that was losing steam on many fronts in May including retail sales, exports and property investment as the youth jobless rate scaled a fresh high of 20.8 percent.