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India has announced plans to auction off 41 coal mines which would put an end to 4 decades of state-controlled coal mining. The Indian government hopes the privatization of coal mining will solve a fuel shortage that is threatening the country. India has felt the economic toll steaming from the COVID-19 pandemic and they are hoping the auctions will also help aid the economic struggles.

Australia has been one of the world’s largest suppliers of LNG and Singapore currently imports 95% of its Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). In an effort to provide a more “green” alternative to LNG, Australia has invested in the Sun Cable Project, that aims to provide some of their solar power to Singapore. This project will allow Australia to have a more diverse electricity supply in an effort to help meet its Paris Commitment greenhouse gas reduction. 

In today’s day and age, cyber-attacks and security breaches are not abnormal or new. COVID-19 has provided hackers with an opportunity to carry out their attacks as people are distracted and mostly working from home. Working from home can make people vulnerable and  more at risk of a security breach especially if you are working off of an unsecured internet router. There has been a significant increase in phishing emails since the start of the pandemic and hackers have been using the fear of COVID-19 to get people to react to their emails and gain access.  

OPEC+ came to an agreement earlier this month to institute record-breaking production cuts of nearly 10 million barrels per day. The production cuts were set to take effect on May 1^st, but some members have taken it upon themselves to start earlier. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have both made the decision to start scaling back production to work towards the production cut goal. Saudi Arabia has scaled back production from 12 million barrels per day(bpd) over the weekend to reach its goal of 8.5 million bpd.  Kuwait is OPEC’s fourth largest producer and they have also made the decision to start the cuts early. Kuwait’s Oil Minister Khaled Al-Fadhel said that starting the cuts early was because they felt a responsibility to address the market conditions.

OPEC+ reached an agreement to cut 9.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) beginning in May which is a record-breaking cut, but it still may not be enough to stabilize the market. U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said that the total number of cuts globally, when you add in all the non-OPEC countries, should be closer to 20 mb/d. In reality, the number is much smaller than that and will still have an impact, even if it’s not the cut some were expecting. The cuts will help prevent a complete meltdown, even if there is no immediate price rally. The deal is expected to stabilize the global oil price and reduce the market volatility according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.