The Global Energy News in Focus [02.23-03.01 2026]

#ICYMI

Your 11-minute briefing on everything that matters for the energy business context at the start of the week.

Week of February 23 – March 1, 2026

The week of February 23 to March 1 was defined by a single event and everything it exposed. US-Israeli strikes on Iran are now shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, halting trade flows that carry a fifth of the world's oil and LNG, triggering Egypt to scramble for replacement cargoes, as Israel shuts down production, and forcing Asian buyers --who source a quarter of their supply from Qatar -- to compete on a newly volatile spot market. The disruption landed on an energy market running hard: US LNG exports hit near-record highs in March as Europe, with storage at just 32%, absorbed cargoes with appetite, and two separate Cheniere moves -- a 20-year SPA with Taiwan's CPC and a DOE approval boosting Corpus Christi capacity. Away from the crisis, the global energy architecture around gas continued to shift: Saudi Aramco is now buying US LNG, while Democratic senators are demanding a halt to export expansion as US household energy bills rise, and Italy is mounting a challenge to EU carbon pricing to support its gas-fired generation. Energy has always been political, but it is hard to imagine a time, when it was more in the epicentre than now.

Read our review to understand the underlying currents of this week's biggest energy context and how to position your organisation effectively within these rapidly evolving market dynamics. If you want to discuss it further, we would be delighted to connect on a brief call.

Iran & Strait of Hormuz Disruption

Iran Crisis Threatens Worst Gas Market Disruption Since 2022

Bloomberg • Mar 1, 2026

#IranHormuz LNG trade through the Strait of Hormuz has all but halted following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, with at least eleven LNG tankers pausing voyages and Japanese shipowners ordering vessels to stand by in safe waters; Asian buyers, who source roughly a quarter of their LNG from Qatar, are urgently seeking alternative cargoes. The disruption is the most significant for gas markets since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with upward pressure building on both spot and long-term LNG contract prices, threatening supply security for China, India, Japan, and Turkey simultaneously.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-01/iran-crisis-gas-market-disruption

How Will Strikes on Iran Affect Global Energy Flows?

Financial Times • Feb 28 – Mar 1, 2026

#IranHormuz Traders are assessing the risk to the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 21 million barrels of oil per day transit, as insurance cancellations and war-risk premium hikes are already disrupting shipping. While Iran's own 4.5mn b/d output -- nearly all exported to China at a discount -- could theoretically be absorbed by current global oversupply, the real risk lies in the chokepoint: any sustained disruption would force Chinese refiners onto pricier Middle Eastern grades and give Washington a potential bargaining chip with Beijing.

https://www.ft.com/content/iran-strikes-global-energy-flows

LNG Carriers Steer Clear of Strait of Hormuz

Argus Media • Feb 28, 2026

#Hormuz At least nine LNG carriers diverted away from the Strait of Hormuz on February 28 following US and Israeli strikes on Iran, with AIS transponder interference further obscuring the true scale of the disruption; no LNG carrier was approaching the strait as of 19:00 GMT that day. The strait acts as the gateway for 82.6 Mt/year of LNG — 19% of globally traded supply, primarily from Qatar — and the diversion also threatens knock-on demand increases in Turkey and Egypt, potentially requiring replacement LNG cargoes at a rate of one every four to five days respectively.

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2794518-lng-carriers-steer-clear-of-strait-of-hormuz

Egypt Reshuffles LNG Imports, Seeks More as Israel Cuts Gas

Bloomberg • Feb 28 – Mar 1, 2026

#EgyptLNG Israel's shutdown of its gas fields following the Iran strikes has halted the approximately 1 billion cubic feet per day of pipeline gas Egypt normally receives; Egypt is now accelerating contracted LNG deliveries -- three additional cargoes per month from March -- and plans a spot tender for 19–21 extra cargoes for June–September. Egypt's pivot adds direct demand pressure to an already disrupted LNG spot market, competing with Asian buyers scrambling for alternative Qatar supply - a dynamic that will push spot prices higher across both regions simultaneously.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-28/egypt-reshuffles-lng-imports

Iran to Offer 'Commercial Bonanza' to US Companies

Financial Times • Feb 26, 2026

#Iran Iran is seeking to tempt the Trump administration with investment access to its oil, gas, and mining assets — including joint gas fields shared with Qatar — as an incentive to reach a nuclear deal and avoid further military strikes. This was in the unsuccessful talks leading up to the strikes two days later.

https://www.ft.com/content/iran-commercial-bonanza-us-companies

Other Gas & LNG

Germany's Oil and Gas Output is Dwindling as Prices Rise

The New York Times • Feb 27, 2026

#EuropeGasSecurity Germany's domestic natural gas production has fallen 80% since 2000 and now covers only around 5% of national demand, with aging fields, a hostile regulatory environment, and a fracking ban constraining output even as European gas prices trade nearly 70% above pre-pandemic levels. With storage at just 21% — roughly half last year's level at the same point — Germany's structural dependence on imported LNG is deepening, and the Iran crisis compounds that exposure at a moment of already heightened supply vulnerability.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/business/germanys-oil-and-gas-output-is-dwindling-as-prices-rise.html

Cheniere's Corpus Christi LNG Terminal Gets Boosted Export Approval

Reuters • Feb 26, 2026

#USLNGCapacity The US DOE approved a 12% increase in LNG export authorization for Cheniere's Corpus Christi terminal, adding approximately 0.47 Bcf/day for a new total capacity of 4.45 Bcf/day to cover Trains 8 and 9 of the Stage 3 expansion, with Train 5 having produced first LNG in February 2026. The approval expands the US export authorization ceiling at a moment when European storage deficits are driving record import demand, cementing Corpus Christi's role as a primary Atlantic Basin supply hub.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/cheniere-corpus-christi-texas-lng-terminal-gets-boosted-export-approval-us-2026-02-26/

Cheniere and CPC Sign Long-Term LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement

Cheniere Energy • Feb 26, 2026

#USLNGContracts Cheniere signed a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with CPC Corporation Taiwan for 1.2 mtpa of LNG from the Corpus Christi Liquefaction facility on Henry Hub-indexed terms, adding to an existing 2 mtpa contract with CPC. The deal reinforces long-term Asian demand for US LNG supply as Cheniere reported record 2025 results — $5.3 billion net income, 670 cargoes delivered — and introduced 2026 EBITDA guidance of $6.75–7.25 billion.

https://lngir.cheniere.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/332/cheniere-and-cpc-sign-long-term-lng-sale-and-purchase

Shell in Talks With Adnoc, Others Over LNG Plant Stake Sale

Bloomberg • Feb 26, 2026

#LNGInvestment Shell is in early-stage talks to sell its 16.67% stake in the A$34bn North West Shelf LNG plant in Western Australia, with potential buyers including Adnoc's XRG arm, Midocean Energy (part-owned by Saudi Aramco), and a Japanese consortium including Tokyo Gas. The sale reflects Shell's broader portfolio rationalisation toward its LNG trading business rather than upstream equity, while signalling continued Gulf and Asian appetite for long-term LNG infrastructure exposure — particularly relevant as Hormuz disruption puts a premium on supply from outside the Middle East.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-26/shell-talks-adnoc-lng-plant-stake

Australia Ships LNG 16,000 Miles to Canada as Asia Demand Slumps

Bloomberg • Feb 25, 2026

#TradeFlows Australia shipped its first-ever LNG cargo to eastern Canada -- a 16,000-mile journey -- as Chinese LNG imports dropped 11% in 2025 and Asian spot demand remained weak, prompting Australian exporters to seek buyers in increasingly distant and unconventional markets. The trade flow shift illustrates the ongoing rebalancing of global LNG market geography, and draws domestic criticism in Canada for importing into an area that has its own resources, which could have been developed.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-25/australia-ships-lng-to-canada

Saudi Arabia's New U.S. LNG Deal Marks a Stunning Geopolitical Reversal

OilPrice.com • Feb 24, 2026

#TradeFlows Caturus Commonwealth LNG signed a 20-year sale and purchase agreement with Saudi Aramco for 1 mtpa — a structural shift in the US-Saudi energy relationship, with the world's largest oil exporter now buying LNG from the world's largest LNG-producing nation. The deal is part of roughly $30 billion in US energy investments by Aramco, reflecting a broader realignment in which the US has displaced the Gulf's traditional leverage over Washington through hydrocarbon dependency.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Saudi-Arabias-New-US-LNG-Deal-Marks-a-Stunning-Geopolitical-Reversal.html

Woodside Warns LNG Glut Fears May Be Overstated

OilPrice.com • Feb 24, 2026

#LNGMarketOutlook Woodside CEO Liz Westcott cautioned that market expectations of sustained LNG oversupply 'should be considered with caution,' citing strong demand growth, market liquidity expansion, and the likelihood that high-cost project cancellations will thin the supply pipeline. Industry peers including Inpex and producers in Qatar and the UAE have flagged a Pacific supply shortfall expected by 2035 as demand nearly doubles, with approximately 30 Mt/year of previously projected supply growth now at risk of slipping beyond 2030 due to project delays.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Woodside-Warns-LNG-Glut-Fears-May-Be-Overstated.html

U.S. LNG Export Surge, Soft China Demand Meet Record European Imports

Reuters • Feb 23, 2026

#USLNGExports US LNG exports are projected to reach 11.19 million tons in March 2026 — the second-highest monthly record — as Europe posted record February imports of 14.20 million tons, with the US supplying 57% of the total, reflecting European storage at just 32% against a 49% five-year average. China's February imports dropped to their lowest since April 2018 as mild weather and spot prices above $10/MMBtu suppressed Asian demand, redirecting US cargoes westward and cementing Europe as the primary absorber of incremental US LNG supply.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-lng-export-surge-soft-china-demand-meet-record-european-imports-2026-02-23/

Decarbonisation & Emissions Management

Inpex and Osaka Gas Launch World's Largest Green Hydrogen-to-Synthetic Methane Plant in Japan

Hydrogen Insight • Feb 25, 2026

#eMethane Inpex and Osaka Gas commissioned the world's largest green hydrogen-to-synthetic methane (methanation) plant in Japan, with a capacity of 400 m³/hour, converting green hydrogen and captured CO₂ into pipeline-compatible synthetic methane. The project demonstrates a pathway to decarbonize existing LNG-dependent gas infrastructure without replacing it, though scaling to commercial relevance will require substantial cost reductions.

https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/production/inpex-and-osaka-gas-start-up-world-s-largest-green-hydrogen-to-synthetic-methane-plant-in-japan/2-1-1949222

Italy Sets Up Fight with Brussels Over Carbon Costs

Financial Times • Mar 1, 2026

#EUCarbonPolicy Italy's government has proposed stripping EU carbon permit costs from wholesale electricity pricing, reimbursing gas-fired power plants directly via a consumer levy, in an attempt to lower industrial electricity prices that run 30% above the EU average. The move directly targets the EU Emissions Trading System — a cornerstone of European decarbonisation policy — and, if approved, could set a precedent that weakens the carbon price signal across the bloc, reducing the economic pressure on gas-fired generation to transition.

https://www.ft.com/content/italy-fight-brussels-carbon-costs

EPA's Awkward Exception in Climate Repeal: Maintaining Methane Rules

E&E News • Feb 27, 2026

#EPARegulation While the Trump EPA repealed the 2009 endangerment finding — eliminating the legal basis for most federal climate regulation — it chose to retain Biden-era methane standards for oil and gas operations, creating a legal inconsistency that lawyers say could be exploited by challengers in court. For industry, the retention of methane rules is broadly welcomed — API publicly supported it — but the legal instability around the endangerment finding raises uncertainty about the durability of the broader regulatory rollback.

https://www.eenews.net/articles/the-awkward-exception-in-epas-climate-repeal-methane/

EU Countries Give Final Approval to Weaken Company Sustainability Laws

Reuters • Feb 24, 2026

#EUSustainability EU member states approved a scaled-back version of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, narrowing its scope to companies with over 5,000 employees and €1.5bn turnover, delaying compliance to mid-2029, and dropping the requirement for climate transition plans. The rollback — explicitly demanded by the US and Qatar, who cited risks to European gas supply security — signals that energy supply leverage is actively reshaping the EU's regulatory framework, reducing compliance pressure on oil and gas firms operating in European supply chains.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/eu-countries-give-final-approval-weaken-company-sustainability-laws-2026-02-24/

U.S. Energy Dominance Push Collides with EU Methane Rules

OilPrice.com • Feb 23, 2026

#MethaneRegulation The Trump administration's Energy Secretary Chris Wright formally requested an exemption until 2035 from the EU's 2027 methane monitoring, reporting, and verification requirements, which apply to LNG imported into Europe. The conflict creates a direct commercial risk for US LNG exporters: EU buyers are legally required to source gas meeting EU methane standards from 2027, meaning any exemption delay could restrict US LNG access to the European market at precisely the moment US export capacity is expanding most aggressively.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/US-Energy-Dominance-Push-Collides-with-EU-Methane-Rules.html

Public Opinion & Reputation

Democrats Urge Dropping Plan to Double Gas Exports as U.S. Energy Prices Soar

The Guardian • Feb 26, 2026

#USDomesticPressure Ten Democratic senators sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright urging a reversal of plans to double LNG export capacity, citing a 55% rise in US natural gas prices in 2025 and EIA projections that prices will rise a further 16% in 2026 primarily due to increased LNG exports. US LNG exports grew 26% in 2025, now account for 25% of total US gas production, and consume more gas than 73 million US households — while 21 million American households are currently behind on energy bills — positioning LNG export policy as an emerging domestic political flashpoint.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/democrats-gas-exports-energy-prices

Judge Indicates He Will Order Greenpeace to Pay $345 Million in Oil Pipeline Case

Energy News Beat • Mar 1, 2026

#ClimateActivism A federal judge indicated he will uphold the $345 million jury verdict against Greenpeace arising from its role in Dakota Access Pipeline protests, in what is being characterized as a landmark ruling that could significantly raise the financial and legal risk for climate activist organizations. The scale of the damages — if upheld on appeal — would be existential for most environmental organizations and may deter future pipeline opposition campaigns, significantly altering the direct-action landscape for energy infrastructure projects.

https://energynewsbeat.co/judge-indicates-he-will-order-greenpeace-to-pay-345-million-in-oil-pipeline-case-a-turning-point-in-climate-lawfare/

U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up Fossil Fuel Firms' Climate Accountability Case

The Guardian • Feb 23, 2026

#ClimateLitigation The US Supreme Court agreed to hear the climate accountability case involving Suncor and ExxonMobil, taking up the question of whether fossil fuel companies can be sued in state courts for climate damages — a case that could determine the fate of more than two dozen municipal and state lawsuits filed against oil majors. A ruling in favour of the companies would effectively shut down the state-court litigation strategy that climate advocates have pursued for a decade, removing a significant source of legal and reputational pressure on the sector.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/23/supreme-court-suncor-exxonmobil-case

Wall Street's Oil Deals Have Climate Activists Resorting to New Tactics

Bloomberg • Feb 22, 2026

#ESGFinance Climate campaign groups are publicly acknowledging that years of reputational-pressure tactics against banks financing fossil fuels have failed — Citigroup's fossil fuel deal volume actually rose 16% in 2025, moving it from 7th to 4th in the league table — and are now pivoting toward revenue disruption strategies. For the energy finance value chain, the shift matters less as an immediate threat than as a signal of the political retreat of climate finance pressure, with ESG constraints on oil and gas lending continuing to loosen across both the US and Europe.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-22/wall-street-oil-deals-climate-activists

Electricity

Africa Primed for Solar Breakthrough After Record Capacity Growth

Reuters • Feb 26, 2026

#AfricaEnergy Africa installed a record 4.5 GW of solar PV capacity in 2025 — a 54% year-on-year jump — driven by policy support in South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria, alongside a surge in Chinese solar and battery imports worth $4.6bn. As European and US markets reach saturation and trade barriers lock Chinese manufacturers out of America, Africa is emerging as a primary new growth arena for the global solar supply chain, with direct implications for how the continent diversifies away from fossil fuel dependency.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/africa-primed-solar-breakthrough-after-record-capacity-growth-2026-02-26/

Data Center Outlook: Half of 2026 Pipeline May Not Materialize

Sightline Climate • Feb 2026

#AIEnergy Sightline Climate's 2026 data center outlook projects that 30–50% of the 16 GW of planned global data center capacity is unlikely to materialize, with only 5 GW currently under construction and 26% of 2025 projects experiencing delays. Community resistance — with moratoriums proposed in 10+ US states — is now identified as a 'material driver of attrition,' alongside power availability constraints and equipment shortages, complicating utility and gas demand projections built on data center load growth assumptions.

https://www.sightlineclimate.com/research/data-center-outlook

Power Failure Could Undermine America's AI Ambitions

Financial Times • Feb 27, 2026

#AIEnergy The US faces a structural electricity deficit relative to China in the AI race: China has installed 1,500 GW of new generation capacity since 2021 and plans 3.4 terawatts more over the next five years, while US installed capacity sits at approximately 1,373 GW and has barely grown. For the oil and gas industry, this matters as a demand signal — data centre electricity growth could double globally by 2030, driving gas-fired generation demand — but also as a policy risk, with Trump's hostility to renewables and transmission investment potentially slowing the grid build-out that would otherwise absorb new gas supply.

https://www.ft.com/content/power-failure-us-ai-ambitions

Critical Minerals

UK's First Commercial Lithium Plant Opens

Financial Times • Feb 26, 2026

#CriticalMinerals Geothermal Engineering Ltd has opened the UK's first commercial lithium extraction facility in Cornwall, initially producing 100 tonnes per year with ambitions to scale to 18,000 tonnes annually, targeting reduced Western dependence on Chinese-controlled lithium processing, which currently accounts for roughly 60% of global output. For the energy value chain, the development reflects the broader critical minerals competition reshaping energy investment flows — directly relevant to battery storage build-out that competes with and complements gas peaking capacity in power markets.

https://www.ft.com/content/uk-first-commercial-lithium-plant

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Sources: Reuters, OilPrice.com, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Cheniere Energy, Hydrogen Insight, National Post, The New York Times, Argus Media, Sightline Climate, The Guardian, E&E News, Colorado Newsline / Capital & Main, Daily Record, Energy News Beat.

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