Trina Solar and Al-Raebi for Trading signed a 5-year partnership agreement to supply 500MW of module shipments for the Yemeni market. Trina Solar will supply Al-Raebi with 100MW of its n-type i-TOPCon cell technology modules in 2023. The 5-year agreement will cater to Yemen’s increasing energy needs.

Saudi Arabian utility developer ACWA Power has signed three power purchase agreements and investment agreements with Uzbekistan to develop solar and battery storage projects with a combined value of $2.5 billion. The project will potentially offset 16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year in the Central Asian republic. Uzbekistan has set targets to generate 35%, or 15,000 MW, of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, with 10,000 MW coming from solar and 5,000 MW from wind power.

French oil major TotalEnergies and Iraq will soon finalize a long-delayed $27 billion energy deal and talks “have reached advanced stages.” The proposed deal was signed in 2021 for TotalEnergies to build four oil, gas and renewables projects with an initial investment of $10 billion in southern Iraq over 25 years. Baghdad hopes the deal will revive foreign investment in the country.

Crude oil futures recorded losses of 12% in trading as a result of banking turmoil from the US Silicon Valley Bank’s bankruptcy, which has caused fears of a new global financial crisis and growing expectations regarding the US policy to raise interest rates. Al-Salem, chairman of the Kuwaiti Business Council, expects that bankruptcy and the diminishing ability to borrow will curb economic growth in the upcoming period, which will weaken demand for energy derivatives and reduce corporate profits.

Russia overtook Saudi Arabia to be China’s top oil supplier in the first two months of 2023. Western sanctions and a price cap on seaborne Russian crude following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have limited the buyer pool for Russian supply, leading the country to trade at deep discounts to international benchmarks.

Fuad Hussein, head of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, said that the country intends to invest in the development of oil and gas fields, and then arrange supplies to European countries. Hussein also stated that “Iraq, which is already an oil-producing country, will also become a gas-producing country.”

Saudi Arabia and Russia reaffirmed their commitment to the OPEC+ decision to cut production until the end of 2023 during a high-level meeting held in Riyadh. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who is also the head of the Saudi side in the Joint Saudi-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation, met in Riyadh with Alexander Novak, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and head of the Russian side in the joint committee, who had visited the Kingdom.

OPEC+ considers the drop in oil prices to be driven by financial fears, not any imbalance between demand and supply, and expects the market to stabilize. Oil sank to a 15-month low on March 15th on concerns about contagion from a banking crisis, and then stabilized on March 16th after Credit Suisse was thrown a financial lifeline by Swiss regulators. The comments will dampen speculation that OPEC+ is concerned about weakening prices and might consider further steps to support the market.

Iran’s oil exports surged last year to their highest level since 2018. The country has exported 83 million more barrels of oil since the start of the Iranian year on March 21, 2022, than in the same period of the previous year. This was the highest level since the US reimposed sanctions on Iran 5 years ago.

Ahmad Bahoush, the managing director of South Pars Gas Company (SPGC), has announced that the production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at the complex has increased by 42% during the 2023 Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20th. The rise of LPG production at SPGC comes as Iran seeks to increase its non-oil exports to boost its economy, which has been struggling under the weight of international sanctions.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has said that the OPEC+ alliance will stick to the agreed production cuts until the end of the year.

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has said that the Kingdom will not sell oil to any country that attempts to impose a price cap on its supplies. According to Prince Abdulaziz, placing a ceiling on oil prices would inevitably lead to market instability, and Saudi Arabia would reduce its oil production.