Author: omc_admin

Snacking, food, and pet care products provider Mars announced new agreements with renewable energy developer GoldenPeaks Capital to launch more than 100 new solar projects in Poland to supply renewable electricity to Mars and to agriculture company Cargill, one of Mars’ largest suppliers. The new agreement forms Mars’ first European contract under its Renewable Acceleration program, aimed at accelerating the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy across the company’s operations and its global value chain.  Mars announced the launch of the program last month, with Enel North America as its first energy partner. Under the new agreement, believed to…

By Julianne Geiger – Oct 08, 2025, 9:39 AM CDT Crude oil inventories in the United States increased by 3.7 million barrels during the week ending October 3, after gaining 1.8 million barrels in the week prior, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The increase brings commercial stockpiles to 420.3 million barrels according to government data, which is still 4% below the five-year average for this time of year.The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which suggested that crude oil inventories grew by 2.780 million barrels.Crude…

SLB and SBM Offshore announced, in a recent joint statement, an agreement “to enter into an exclusive digital alliance to optimize the performance of offshore production systems”. The companies noted in the statement that the alliance “brings together SLB’s digital and domain expertise in subsurface, subsea, surface production and recovery with SBM Offshore’s digital and full FPSO lifecycle capabilities”. SLB and SBM added in the statement that they “will leverage their respective digital capabilities to create an AI-powered digital ecosystem that enhances FPSO digital asset management – improving uptime performance and reducing total cost of ownership for offshore operators”. The…

If you’re a utility customer in the US, you’ve likely seen your rates go up this year.Residents in at least 41 states and Washington, D.C., are experiencing increased electric and natural gas bills now or will see increases in 2026, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress.Costs are rising largely due to the AI data center development boom and the resulting strain it has placed on the country’s aging electric grid.The good news is that, depending on which state you live in and your electricity provider, you might be able to lower your bill through energy…

Russia has raised its oil production close to the ceiling in the OPEC+ deal, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday. “Production is growing… Just as we are unable to decrease it quickly, we are increasing it steadily. We will fulfil our quota,” Russian news agency Interfax quoted Novak as saying. Russia’s oil production in August was about 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) below its OPEC+ quota.  Russia’s oil production averaged 9.173 million bpd in August, compared to the 9.259 million bpd ceiling in the OPEC+ deal, which also takes into account Moscow’s compensation for previous overproduction.For September, Russia is allowed…

The Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH Aachen University has presented an approach for the virtual configuration of battery production facilities. The modelling is to be used primarily for setting up cell production at the Fraunhofer Research Production Battery Cell FFB facility in Münster. The PEM Chair has been working on the digitalisation of production processes for several years. The solution now being presented, which focuses on cell production, was unveiled at a conference in New York State in July and, according to RWTH Aachen University, has now been published as a freely accessible paper in…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting, released Wednesday, showed. A majority of Fed officials felt that the risk that unemployment would rise had worsened since their previous meeting in July, while the risk of rising inflation “had either diminished or not increased,” the minutes said. As a result, the central bank decided at its Sept. 16-17 meeting to reduce its key rate by a quarter-point, its first cut this year, to about 4.1%.Rate cuts by the Fed can lower…

Canada’s Cenovus Energy Inc. increased its takeover bid for rival MEG Energy Corp. one day before MEG investors were due to vote, signaling that the companies’ original deal didn’t have enough shareholder support.  The new cash-and-stock offer from Cenovus values MEG at C$29.80 per share, or C$7.6 billion ($5.4 billion), based on Tuesday’s closing price. That’s a bump of about 5% from the previous offer, which the MEG board agreed to in August.  Cenovus is also offering more stock this time: the new proposed transaction is half shares, half cash. The previous bid would have paid shareholders three-quarters cash, and…

(Bloomberg) — Canada’s Cenovus Energy Inc. increased its takeover bid for rival MEG Energy Corp. one day before MEG investors were due to vote, signaling that the companies’ original deal didn’t have enough shareholder support.  The new cash-and-stock offer from Cenovus values MEG at C$29.80 per share, or C$7.6 billion ($5.4 billion), based on Tuesday’s closing price. That’s a bump of about 5% from the previous offer, which the MEG board agreed to in August.  Cenovus is also offering more stock this time: the new proposed transaction is half shares, half cash. The previous bid would have paid…

Scientists at the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other research institutions have developed a polymer that reduces the interfacial resistance of solid-state batteries, thereby advancing the development of this promising battery technology. Solid-state batteries are expected to offer several advantages over conventional lithium-ion batteries, particularly in terms of safety, energy density and service life. However, they are not yet ready for the market. Scientists at the IMR have now taken a decisive step forward: they have developed a new polymer electrode electrolyte material for solid-state lithium batteries. This new polymer is designed to…