Author: omc_admin

South Korea’s Samsung SDI on Friday said U.S. tariffs will increase the cost of producing its electric vehicle (EV) batteries in the United States, as many materials and components required for it are imported.“While the production of EV batteries takes place in the United States, there is no direct tariff impact. However, many materials and components are imported from outside the U.S., which is expected to increase cost burdens,” Executive Vice President Kim Yoon-tae said in the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call.EVs produced by automaker customers in Mexico and Canada could also be subject to tariffs,…

QuantumScape, the solid-state battery developer backed by Volkswagen, has entered into a strategic agreement with Murata Manufacturing to explore collaboration on large-scale production of ceramic separators for its next-generation battery cells. Japanese tech group Murata Manufacturing is globally recognised for its leadership in the development and production of passive electronic components and ceramic-based solutions, as well as communications and power supply modules. QuantumScape is currently building out a robust ecosystem of strategic partners to industrialise its solid-state battery technology – an ecosystem that includes equipment suppliers, materials partners, automotive OEMs and contract manufacturers. Murata is now the latest addition to…

The charge point manufacturer will display its new generation of the Net Zero Series (NZS GEN2) at the Power2Drive in Munich at the beginning of May. It combines battery storage, photovoltaic integration and fast charging in a single system. According to XCharge, the system has already been deployed to various locations. It features an EV charger that can deliver up to 194 kW and that is paired with a battery with an energy content of 233 kWh. That can be increased to 466 kWh, the firm states. Another upgrade is that the system can now charge bidirectionally to ‘flexibly distribute…

Phillips 66 Co. is progressing with its program of enhancing performance and integrated growth of its midstream business via a combination of recently completed and future works, including a newly announced plan to expand natural gas processing capacity in the Permian basin. As part of its NGL wellhead-to-market strategy, Phillips 66 has taken final investment decision (FID) to build the new 300-MMcfd Iron Mesa gas processing plant near the company’s existing 160-MMcfd gas plant in Goldsmith, Ector County, Tex., about 15 miles northwest of Odessa, the operator said in its first-quarter 2025 earnings call on Apr. 25. Given the Phillips…

Multiple carriers of petroleum-based gases traveling from the US to China have begun diverting to other countries due to the intensifying trade war between the world’s two largest economies.  Four cargoes of propane have shifted their routes from China to alternate destinations over the past week, bound for countries including Japan and South Korea, according to a report from analytics firm Vortexa. At least one cargo of ethane — which is used in plastics production — has been scrapped entirely, according to a person familiar with the matter. The diversions show the disruption to supply chains caused by the trade…

Oil edged higher in a day of listless trading as investors parsed conflicting messaging on the progress of trade talks between the US and China. West Texas Intermediate futures rose to settle near $63 a barrel, but still notched their third weekly loss in the past four. Chinese authorities are weighing removing additional levies on a number of products including ethane, according to people familiar with the matter, as economic costs mount for certain industries. Shares in China’s top buyers of the fuel from the US jumped. Still, an agreement on trade between the US and China appears far off.…

Elon Musk is dialing down his DOGE role that triggered protests and vandalism at Tesla stores. But its EV business needs a hit product and none is on the horizon. And the company’s booming battery business, a Q1 bright spot, will suffer from Trump’s tariffs. This week, Tesla posted its worst quarterly results in four years. Sales were down 9%. Income plummeted 71%—hurt by a 20% drop in automotive revenues. And given tariffs and rocky market headaches, the company didn’t bother giving sales targets for the rest of the year. But the stock rallied, jumping 9% since Tuesday as investors…

In Louisiana, a battle is heating up over who will pay for the new power plants needed to serve the $10 billion data center Meta is building in the state’s northeastern corner.Meta announced in December the 2,000-acre Richland Parish data center campus, which is expected to be completed in 2030. The company plans to use the data center to train AI models.Consumer advocates and climate groups filed new testimony with the Louisiana Public Service Commission on April 11, pushing the state regulator to reject a request by Meta’s electricity provider to shift $5 billion in construction costs for the plants…

In a statement posted on its website recently, the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) revealed that its records digitization drive is “fast approaching 100 million files”. “The Railroad Commission of Texas continues to make great strides in digitizing oil and gas records as the agency improves both transparency and efficiency in its daily functions,” the RRC noted in the statement. “With more than 89.4 million records now digitized, up by more than six million since last October, the RRC is fast approaching 100 million records being added to its online digital archives by the end of this fiscal year,” it…

The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) said Thursday it has expanded the allowable pressure differential for single-wellbore oil production from multiple reservoirs in the Gulf of America’s deep waters, saying the policy change will boost output. The pressure differential limit for downhole commingling in the Paleogene Wilcox deepwater play has been raised from 200 pounds per square inch (psi) to 1,500 psi. “This change, the result of extensive technical consultation with offshore industry leaders, could increase production output by roughly 10 percent, which would translate into over 100,000 barrels per day production increase over the next 10 years”,…