26/01/2026

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | JAN 26, 2026 17 Libya inks US$20b energy deal with

India’s solar panel industry faces uncertain tomorrow

TotalEnergies, ConocoPhillips

TRIPOLI: Libya said on Saturday it signed an oil agreement worth more than US$20 billion (RM80 billion) with TotalEnergies and ConocoPhillips, seeking to ramp up production by 850,000 barrels a day for the next 25 years. Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said the agreement with the French and American energy firms would bring in revenues of more than US$370 billion over the 25-year life of the deal, adding it was fully financed outside the state budget. The announcement came as the Libya Energy and Economic Summit opened in Tripoli, attended by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East adviser Massad Boulos, along with other officials, including from Turkey and Egypt. Abdulhamid said Libya was also set to sign an agreement with US firm Chevron covering exploration and production development, as well as a separate deal with Egypt to support services in the sector. Libya currently produces around 1.5 million barrels a day, sitting on Africa’s largest oil reserves at an estimated 48.4 billion barrels. But the oil industry has faced major challenges, including security issues, with the country still divided after a Nato-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Libya is split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by Abdulhamid, and commander Khalifa Haftar’s administration in the east. Boulos described the energy summit as “an opportunity to become a premier economic partner with the United States”. The event, he added, is “a potential launchpad for Libya’s return as a global energy superpower”. Masoud Suleman, head of the National Oil Corporation, said a new licensing round for oil and gas exploration would be announced next month. Libya’s last call for tenders for hydrocarbon exploration, in 2007-2008, focused on natural gas exploration. – AFP Activists urge halt to Kushner’s luxury Albania resort plans TIRANA: A luxury Albanian island resort project by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has sparked outrage from dozens of environmental NGOs calling for its suspension, a statement seen on Saturday by AFP said. Albania – one of the poorest European countries – recently joined the US president’s newly created “Board of Peace” aimed at resolving conflicts. Kushner plans to transform the uninhabited southwest island of Sazan – once home to a secret communist military base – into a luxury tourist destination, estimated to cost €1.4 billion (RM4.8 billion). But 41 environmental groups from 28 countries voiced their concern over the plans in a letter to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Environment Minister Sofjan Jaupaj this week. “The project proposes interventions across 45 hectares, posing serious risks to the biodiversity and critical habitats of the area,“ the statement accompanying the letter said. Sazan and its surrounding waters “provide crucial habitats for some of the world’s most endangered marine species”, it added. The NGOs stressed the construction of a luxury resort “poses a serious threat to these delicate habitats” and urged the “immediate suspension of any decisions advancing the project”. The Trump family has built a massive real estate empire of luxury resorts and hotels around the world. In December, an investment firm linked to Kushner ditched plans to build a hotel on the site of Belgrade’s bombed-out Yugoslav army headquarters. The move came after Serbia’s culture minister was indicted over alleged abuse of office and forgery of an official document that had allowed the removal of the site’s “cultural-heritage status”. – AFP

there are suggestions Tata Power is eyeing in-house silicon-wafer production. Growth in the sector is already staggering, with solar manufacturing capacity expected to soon exceed 125 GW, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie said. But that is triple current domestic demand, according to Wood Mackenzie analyst Yana Hryshko. Government incentives have “been highly effective in spurring factory announcements, but the industry is now seeing warning signs of rapid overcapacity”, Hryshko said in a report last year. The sector’s long-term sustainability may therefore depend on exports, with some companies already targeting global markets. “Solar is a huge market: the world will see it doubling, from 2,000 GW to 4,000 GW in four years,” said Ashish Khanna, head of the International Solar Alliance. “The question is now – will Indian manufacturers be globally competitive compared to China?” Tejpreet Chopra, CEO of private power company Bharat Light and Power, points out that “the problem is that it’s cheaper to import from China than to buy local”. And the level of manufacturing in China “is so much higher that it’s very difficult to match”, he added. The sector also faces “geopolitical” headwinds from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with Chopra adding that they make it “very difficult to sell to the United States”. Despite these challenges, the head of Tata Power, which does not yet export, remains convinced his business has a bright future. “We strongly believe,” said Praveer Sinha, “that solar will play a very important role in the renewable space of India.” – AFP

“green”, five years ahead of the timeline set in the Paris Agreement on lowering emissions. But 75% of electricity is still generated by coal-fired power plants, with inflexible operations and long-term coal power purchase agreements hampering renewable uptake. There are signs of change. Last year, coal-fired power generation fell 3%, only the second full-year drop recorded in half a decade, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Renewable capacity of 230 gigawatts (GW) is set to rise to 500 GW by 2030, including 280 GW of solar. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has placed another constraint on the industry: “Make in India.” That means there is no question of importing solar panels from China, which supplies 90% of the world’s market. All public tenders require “local” production, which India supports with substantial subsidies that have attracted big businesses. Tata, a pioneer in solar panels since the 1990s, has been joined by Adani and Reliance, which have built state-of-the-art, highly automated factories. “The quality of the product is very, very critical,” said Ashish Khanna, CEO Adani Green Energy. “When you are building a project of this size, you also need to be very reassured of the supply chain. We cannot have a disruption or interruption in that particular process.” But for now, the technology and raw materials still come from China. And Beijing has complained to the World Trade Organisation over the subsidies and restrictions on its solar panels. The solar push is so intense that Adani is considering silicon mining to secure a key raw material, company insiders say, and

MUNDRA: The race for green energy is on. India, driven by soaring electricity demand and a push to reduce reliance on China, is rapidly producing solar panels, fuelling a booming yet uncertain market. At the Adani Group’s factory in Mundra, in India’s western state of Gujarat, assembly lines churn out photovoltaic panels around the clock. Up to 10,000 a day come off the line, with most sent straight to Khavda, further north, where the Indian conglomerate is finishing what will be the world’s largest solar park. But Adani Solar’s CEO, Muralee Krishnan, says operations are “actually lagging”. “Our capacity needs to be fully used – we should work 48 hours a day.” The intensity is matched by other major producers in the world’s most populous nation. At the Tata conglomerate factory in Tirunelveli, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, 4,000 mostly women employees also work non-stop shifts. “They operate 24/7, so you get better yield, better efficiency, better productivity,” said Praveer Sinha, CEO of Tata Power. “You cannot stop the production line ... there is a rush to produce to maximise the output.” With the twin imperatives of development and lower carbon emissions, India has set itself ambitious renewable energy targets. Last year, it said half its electricity-generation capacity was now o It is cheaper to import from China than to buy local, says power firm CEO

A worker walking past rows of solar panels at the Khavda Renewable Energy Park in Gujarat. – AFPPIC