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An LNG vessel in Tekirdag, Turkiye on April 12, 2023. ]

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Russia’s role as a global energy player is set to diminish, and the U.S. and Qatar are among a slew of nations ready to fill its shoes, analysts told CNBC.

“Russia’s global LNG supply share will almost certainly decline this decade,” Henning Gloystein,  a director for energy, climate, and natural resources at political consultancy Eurasia Group told CNBC. He noted that its role in the liquefied natural gas space was retreating even before the country’s invasion of Ukraine last year. 

Western sanctions, which resulted from the onslaught of its neighbor, further sapped most foreign investment out of Russia’s LNG sector.

Russia’s inability to purchase liquefaction modules (which enable natural gas to be converted into LNG) will hamper its ambitions, said S&P’s Director of South and Southeast Asia Gas, Zhi Xin Chong.

“In this decade, it will be extremely challenging for Russia to expand its liquefaction capacity given the broad sanctions that have been imposed on the country,” Chong said in an e-mail.

He added that the total capacity for Russia’s LNG facilities to produce natural gas will remain flat at 37 million tons over the next few years. 

By 2030, the total global LNG capacity will grow by 50% to 671 million tons per year — and Russia’s share of this pie is expected to fall to 5% from the current 6.7%, S&P further projects.

Russia’s diminishing place

In 2021 before its invasion of Ukraine, Russia was the world’s largest gas exporter, as well as the fourth largest LNG exporter after Australia, Qatar and the U.S.

And these countries are expected to fill the gas gap — alongside others.

“We’re going to see much more emphasis on other places like the U.S., Mozambique and Australia,” Chong said. 

In the first half of 2022, the U.S. overtook Qatar and Australia to become the world’s largest LNG exporter, according to the Energy Information Administration, citing data from not-for-profit organization Cedigaz.

The Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanker Maria Energy is moored at the Uniper LNG terminal at the Jade estuary in Wilhelmshaven, northern Germany, on January 4, 2023.

Focke Strangmann | Afp | Getty Images

By 2030, Chong expects the U.S. to take up 25% of global LNG capacity, and Qatar to make up 19%.

Eurasia’s Henning also cited the U.S. and Qatar as being the “main beneficiaries” as Russia falls back from the world’s LNG ecosystem. 

“New projects and expansions to existing facilities in the U.S. as well as Qatar’s massive North Field expansion have been significantly accelerated as Europe piled into the LNG market last year,” he said.

Asides from the U.S. and Qatar, the Eastern Mediterranean is also on his list as the region is geographically well suited to replace Russian pipeline gas to southern European countries, especially Italy, Greece and Croatia.

“East African LNG including Mozambique and potentially also Tanzania may also benefit,” Henning added.

LNG’s diminishing place?

However, he cautioned that the “window of opportunity is relatively narrow” given Europe’s drive to reduce overall gas consumption through upcoming restrictions on usage and investment in alternative domestic supply sources.

The European Union unveiled a REPowerEU plan shortly after the start of the Ukriane war, with an aim of increasing the share of renewables in final energy consumption to 45% by the end of the decade. This dovetails with the European Climate Law’s long-term decarbonization agenda, Pavel Molchanov, managing director of equity research at investment bank Raymond James, told CNBC via email.

“The expansion of renewable power means that the role of gas, not to mention coal, is diminishing over time,” he said.

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LiveWire Alpinista unveiled as newest electric motorcycle from Harley offshoot

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January 16, 2025

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LiveWire Alpinista unveiled as newest electric motorcycle from Harley offshoot

LiveWire, the electric motorcycle brand spun out of Harley-Davidson, has just announced its latest electric motorcycle model. The new LiveWire S2 Alpanista is built on the same platform as the brand’s last two models, leveraging the Arrow platform as a versatile foundation for several diverse bikes.

The Arrow platform first received its debut with the LiveWire S2 Del Mar, which was then followed by the S2 Mulholland.

LiveWire announced that a high-performance electric maxi-scooter would be produced on the Arrow platform, but not before the company rolled out the S2 Alpinista. “The Alpinista is LiveWire’s first sport standard,” explained the company, “equipped with 17” wheels and tires, blending the best of street, sport, and hyper-tourer characteristics.”

The recently unveiled S2 Alpinista is mechanically quite similar to the two previous models sharing the platform. The 10.5 kWh battery that serves as the main structure of the bike will offer a maximum range of 120 miles (193 km) per charge under city riding conditions. It can be recharged with a Level 2 charger from 20-80% in just 1 hour and 20 minutes.

The 433 lb (196 kg) bike can achieve a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of just 3.0 seconds, thanks to its powerful 63 kW (84 hp) motor. The S2 Alpinista can also reach an electronically limited top speed of 99 mph (159 km/h).

Priced at US $15,999 and already available at LiveWire dealerships in North America and Europe, the S2 Alpinista officially becomes the most affordable LiveWire electric motorcycle available to date, undercutting the $16,249 S2 Del Mar electric street tracker and the $16,499 Mulholland electric sport cruiser.

“Alpinista reimagines the S2 by combining the urban agility of a supermoto with the do-it-all nature of a touring bike, creating a practical and thrilling sport standard,” explained the brand.

The smaller 17″ wheels help reduce the seat height of the bike, and combined with the Dunlop Roadsmart IV tires, the street-optimized bike is ideal for “both daily commutes and spirited rides through winding roads.”

The S2 Alpinista comes with 6-axis IMU from Bosch providing cornering-enhanced antilock braking and cornering-enhanced traction control systems, in addition to four preset ride modes and two custom modes.

Now the third model launched on the Arrow platform, the S2 Alpanista underscores the versatility of LiveWire’s workhorse. The approach was intended to allow the e-motorcycle offshoot to quickly innovate with multiple styles of motorcycles all sharing key structural and drivetrain components. The move has largely been seen as an engineering success, with three models hitting the road in under three years. However, sales have yet to reach targets set by LiveWire as the more premium electric motorcycle industry has experienced a rocky few years.

As a LiveWire S2 Del Mar owner myself, I can attest to both the performance and enjoyable experience of bikes built on the platform, though I do find myself in a somewhat smaller community than LiveWire had likely hoped for. With the backing of its powerful older brother H-D, which retains a controlling stake in the company, LiveWire has enjoyed the relative freedom to cruise for its first few years and focus on motorcycle development and rollouts, with profitability hopefully coming over the horizon in due time.

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Oil major BP to cut thousands of jobs in cost-saving drive

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January 16, 2025

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Oil major BP to cut thousands of jobs in cost-saving drive

British oil and gasoline company BP (British Petroleum) signage is being pictured in Warsaw, Poland, on July 29, 2024.

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British oil major BP on Thursday said it is planning to cut thousands of jobs as part of a major cost-reduction exercise.

“Today, we have today told staff across bp that the proposed changes that have been announced to date are expected to impact around 4700 bp roles – these account for much of the anticipated reduction this year,” BP said in a statement.

“We are also reducing our contractor numbers by 3000,” the company said.

The measures, which were designed to lower costs, come after BP CEO Murray Auchincloss said last year that the company intends to deliver at least $2 billion of cash savings by the end of 2026.

BP’s workforce currently stands at around 87,800.

Shares of the company traded 1.4% higher on Thursday morning.

Strategy in focus

BP has underperformed its European rivals of late as energy market participants continue to question the firm’s investment case.

In a trading update published Tuesday, BP said weaker refinery margins and turnaround activity will deliver a $100 million to $300 million blow to its fourth-quarter profit, while further declines are expected in oil production.

The energy firm is scheduled to report quarterly and full-year earnings on Feb. 11.

BP said in the same update that it had postponed an event for investors next month so that its chief executive can fully recuperate from a “planned medical procedure.” Auchincloss was said to be “recovering well” from the procedure, which had not been previously disclosed.

The capital markets event, which had previously been scheduled to take place in New York on Feb. 11, will now take place in London on Feb. 26.

— CNBC’s Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this report.

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Biden’s $635M good-bye, Trump’s DOT pick will investigate Tesla, and a look ahead

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January 15, 2025

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Biden's 5M good-bye, Trump's DOT pick will investigate Tesla, and a look ahead

On today’s episode of Quick Charge we explore the uncertainty around the future of EV incentives, the roles different stakeholders will play in shaping that future, and our friend Stacy Noblet from energy consulting firm ICF stops by to share her take on what lies ahead.

We’ve got a couple of different articles and studies referenced in this forward-looking interview, and I’ve done my best to link to all of them below. If I missed one, let me know in the comments.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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