Aramco signs $11 bln Jafurah midstream deal with Blackrock's GIP-led consortium
The investors were led by funds managed by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a part of BlackRock, it added.
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Daily Mail
14 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
We'll need gas for decades to come, says Centrica's boss
Britain will rely on gas for decades to come, Centrica's boss said yesterday after it backed a £1.5billion deal to buy Europe's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, and US infrastructure investor Energy Capital Partners have agreed to acquire the facility at Grain, on the Kent banks of the Thames Estuary, from National Grid, subject to regulatory approval. They said the site 'will be able to provide up to 33 per cent of UK gas demand and so is a critical piece of our energy security infrastructure'. And Centrica chief executive Chris O'Shea told the BBC: 'I do think that gas will be a key part of the energy transition for decades to come.' It comes as Labour's aim to shift away from oil and gas runs into trouble, with a drive to use more wind power in particular facing increasing challenges. Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has banned the issuing of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea. Critics argue that gas will be vital to fulfil demand – in a less polluting way than oil and coal – at a time when the capacity of renewable sources and infrastructure is still being built up. The Grain site imports and stores gas, and supplies European energy markets with customers including Centrica, Shell and Qatar Energy. O'Shea said: 'We'll have more wind and we'll have more solar but there are points where we don't have enough sun, we don't have enough wind. 'You need to have something that when you don't have your renewables you need to be able to turn on your electricity generation and gas is the best way that we've got that now.' The acquisition comes soon after Centrica announced it was investing £1.3billion for a 15 per cent stake in the new Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk. LNG, which is chilled to minus-162C (minus-259F) and transported on specialist ships, has become increasingly important to Europe since imports from Russia were cut off following the invasion of Ukraine. The fuel met 15 per cent of the UK's gas demand last year. That is expected to soar to about 60 per cent by 2050. Centrica's equity investment totals about £200million as it will also take on £1.1billion of debt. The shift to renewable energy is being hit by US President Donald Trump who has promised to ban new wind farms and recently branded turbines 'a con job'. Shares in Danish wind giant Orsted nosedived this week after it tapped up investors for £7billion to plug a financial hole, blaming its struggles on Trump's policies. Separately, UK figures showed how wind farm operators were paid £117million this year to stop producing energy that could have powered every home in Scotland for six months.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Germany tells Israeli government to stop West Bank settlement construction
BERLIN, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Germany on Friday called on the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank after Israel's far-right finance minister said work would start on a plan for thousands of home that would divide the Palestinian territory. Germany "firmly rejects the Israeli government's announcements regarding the approval of thousands of new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank," said a foreign ministry spokesperson in a statement. Plans for the "E1" settlement and the expansion of Maale Adumim would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank by splitting it in half and cutting the area off from East Jerusalem, said the spokesperson. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Thursday that work would start on the long-delayed settlement, a move that his office said would "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state. In a statement, Smotrich's spokesperson said the minister had approved the plan to build 3,401 houses for Israeli settlers between an existing settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Germany has repeatedly warned the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, which violates international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions. Such moves complicate steps towards a negotiated two-state solution and end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank, said the spokesperson.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Several Palestinian people reported injured in overnight attack by Israeli settlers in West Bank – Middle East crisis live
Update: Date: 2025-08-15T07:12:02.000Z Title: Susya Content: Settlers attacked Palestinian people in village of , south of Hebron, while separately settlers reportedly attacked village of Atara and set fire to vehicles Yohannes Lowe Fri 15 Aug 2025 09.12 CEST First published on Fri 15 Aug 2025 09.02 CEST 9.12am CEST 09:12 Here is some more detail on the controversial plan to significantly expand a settlement near occupied East Jerusalem. The decision from the Supreme Planning Council, which meets next week, is expected to support the plan after rejecting objections by Israeli NGOs. The expected decision in favour will come after Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich – who backs both the plan and the imposition of Israeli sovereignty through the occupied West Bank – gloated that he believed construction on E1 would 'bury the idea of a Palestinian state'. Smotrich is a junior minister who also holds a position at Israel's defence ministry with oversight of planning issues in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was placed under sanctions along with fellow far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir by the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in June for 'repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities'. Standing at the site of the planned settlement in Ma'ale Adumim on Thursday, Smotrich, a settler himself, said the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and US president, Donald Trump, had agreed to the revival of the E1 development, though there was no immediate confirmation from either. While approval for the plan would be a significant step, it remained unclear on Thursday how much buy-in Smotrich has from Netanyahu and the Trump administration. Netanyahu has not commented on Smotrich's remarks, while the US state department appeared to dodge the issue of E1 when questioned. 9.02am CEST 09:02 Welcome to our live coverage of Israel's war on Gaza. Several Palestinian people are reported to have been injured in an overnight attack by Israeli settlers in the southern West Bank village of , south of Hebron, according to the Times of Israel. A man and his wife were reportedly injured in the attack and were taken to hospital to be treated. Separately, Israeli settlers were reported to have attacked the village of Atara, also in the occupied West Bank, and set fire to several Palestinian-owned vehicles. There were no immediate reports of any casualties or arrests. The attacks come amid a wave of violence in the West Bank, where more than 1,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers since 7 October 2023. Accountability for settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians is extremely rare, particularly under Israel's current rightwing government. Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Wednesday that about 3,400 new housing units would be built in key Israeli-occupied territory, effectively burying 'the idea of a Palestinian state'. As my colleague Peter Beaumont notes in this story, the so-called E1 plan would extend the existing Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim towards Jerusalem, further cutting occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank, and further separating the north and south of the territory. The plan still requires formal approval but it is expected to pass a final procedural hurdle, despite huge international opposition. The announcement comes after some of Israel's key western allies, such as Australia, Britain, Canada and France, pledged to soon recognise Palestinian statehood, under certain conditions, because of the humanitarian crisis Israel has caused in Gaza. 'This plan buries the idea of a Palestinian state,' Smotrich told journalists on Thursday. 'Anyone in the world today who tries to recognise a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground. Not in documents, not in decisions or declarations – but in facts.' We will have more on this and the other developments coming out of the Middle East shortly.
