April 2026 – Week 4

By Anders Lorenzen

As part of an expanded focus on real-time coverage, this live blog tracks developments across global energy markets, including electricity prices, oil and gas benchmarks, and renewable generation trends.

It is updated throughout the week with the most significant developments around energy and related markets with a sustainability lens.

Last week’s live blog can be found here.

This blog has now closed, but this week’s live blog is live and can be found here.

Latest

Saturday 2nd of May 2026

18:00 GMT

Company updates: A pretty significant deal has been struck between two Danish-headquartered, but global, clean energy giants.

Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a fund manager and lender and a significant clean energy investor, have acquired Ørsted’s onshore wind platform and have established a new energy company, Perigus Energy.

With the acquisition of Ørsted‘s onshore wind assets, the company that is to be headquartered in Ireland, has a portfolio of 862 megawatts (MW) of onshore wind capacity spread across Ireland, Germany, the UK and Spain.

In addition to managing these assets, the new company announced that they will continue to build out new renewable energy, but in addition to onshore wind, also in solar and battery technologies.

Friday 1st of May 2026

17:10 GMT

Oil supply: While oil production has decreased in parts of the world and especially in the Middle East since the war in Iran, the story is different in Venezuela, where production levels and exports have gradually increased following the US military operation to remove its President, Nicolás Maduro, in early January this year.

Data shows that oil production has increased from 942,000/bpd in January to roughly 1.1/mbpd in March.

This year, oil exports in the country, believed to have the world’s highest oil reserves, have nearly doubled and surged from 737,000 in February to roughly 1.23/mbpd in April – largely helped by the US easing sanctions.

16:10 GMT

Geopolitics: It is not only in the Middle East that war is impacting the energy sector, but it has, to a degree, been a factor since the war between Russia and Ukraine began in 2022 after Russia invaded the country.

The latest energy-related development in the over four-year-long war is that Ukraine, for the fourth time within a week, attacked Russia’s key Black Sea Port of Tuapse. The port is of huge importance for Russia’s ability to export its crude oil, which has only risen in significance since the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz.

Due to the war in Iran, Russia has been able to increase its oil exports, such as to India, as the US has temporarily exempted this and eased sanctions.

Thursday 30th of April 2026

16:45 GMT

Oil supply: According to a US government adviser, the government is considering measures to increase its oil output.

11:40 GMT

Oil supply: Analysis from the Dutch global bank, ING, has found that due to the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, there is a daily oil demand destruction in the region of 1.6/mbd. Though they underline that this is significant, it is not enough to create oil supply destruction. This means that the reduction in oil supply still outweighs the reduction in oil demand; these conditions mean that the oil futures will continue to remain high until this balance is altered.

00:30 GMT

Oil price: As trading closed on Wednesday, both oil futures benchmarks surged compared to the end of trading on Tuesday. Brent Crude and WTO were up by 6% and 7% respectively.

The price of Brent Crude surged to $118/bbl and WTI to $108/bbl.

Wednesday 29th of April 2026

18:30 GMT

Oil supply: Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that US crude oil exports last week reached record highs of 6.438/mbpd (million barrels per day).

10:55 GMT

Oil price: Oil futures continued their moderate climb on Wednesday morning with Brent Crude topping at $115/bbl and WTI establishing itself above the $100 mark at $103/bbl. This comes amidst the growing concern of the oil supply due to the Iran war and the closure of the critical oil trading route, the Strait of Hormuz.

01:00 GMT

Oil supply: The Middle Eastern major oil and gas producer, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has announced they’re quitting the oil cartel OPEC, which analysts have described as a victory for the Trump Administration.

Tuesday 28th of April 2026

11:10 GMT

Energy capacity: The data analytical company, Global Data has released data showing that Egypt is to undergo a rapid solar PV revolution.

The company is forecasting that the Middle Eastern country is to go from 2.9 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV capacity in 2025 to 34.3 GW by 2035.

Mohammed Ziauddin, Power Analyst at GlobalData explained about their research: 

Solar PV is emerging as the dominant growth driver in Egypt’s power sector, supported by strong resource availability, improving project economics, and sustained policy support. Its scalability and cost competitiveness make it well suited to meet rising electricity demand, while complementary technologies continue to support system stability.

10:55 GMT

Oil price: Oil futures continued to climb Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning with Brent Crude $112/bbl and WTI crossing the $100 mark at $100/bbl.

Monday 27th of April 2026

17:30 GMT

Energy security: The UK’s energy minister Michael Shanks have doubled down on the role of clean energy in boosting energy security.

Shanks argued:

Building a decentralised power system with a whole series of assets is less of a risk of physical attack than large-scale power stations. Moving towards clean power is the best way to deliver our energy security in an increasingly uncertain world.

17:25 GMT

Financial markets: The share price of the oil and gas major BP have surged by 20%. This is the largest rise in the share price amongst any of the oil and gas majors since the war in Iran began.

12:50 GMT

Oil price: Goldman Sachs has upgraded its oil futures price signalling high oil prices could persist for the remainder of the year. The bank predicts Brent Crude and WTI to trade at $90/bbl and $83/bbl respectively in Q4 – the last quarter of 2026.

10:50 GMT

Electricity generation: Insights from Ember’s 2025 Global Electricity Review shows that due to new renewable energy capacity coming online combined with favourable weather conditions, in India, it’s fossil fuel generation dropped by over 3%.

10:35 GMT

You can catch up last week developments below:

Sunday 26th of April 2026

23:40 GMT

Oil price: In early trading as Asian markets opened Monday morning, the oil futures price surged.

Brent Crude and WTI is up more than 2% at $108/bbl and $97/bbl respectively.

Our crude oil data page below, tracks the oil futures daily: