Exxon Mobil Corp has chosen BlackRock as the potential buyer for its majority stake in Italy’s main liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, according to a statement by the U.S. oil producer. This decision comes as Italy is expected to increase its LNG imports to partly replace the gas it used to get via pipelines from Russia.

China’s energy transition is riddled with apparent contradictions: cleaner cities and green industries driving thirty percent of GDP growth coexist with record coal consumption and the construction of new coal-fired power stations, while climate targets that seem unambitious mask a transformation that may be proceeding faster than the official goals suggest.

The pessimistic reading, that the greening of the world’s second-largest economy will always be stop-start, misreads the underlying dynamics. China possesses both the means and the motive to dramatically accelerate its decarbonization, and the structural forces driving its transition suggest that the coal buildout is a transitional hedge rather than a long-term commitment.

China’s steel sector has started the year on a weaker footing, with output falling in the first two months as mills responded to a more difficult demand environment and growing doubts about the usefulness of building inventories ahead of the usual spring pickup.

Crude steel production in January and February totaled about 160 million tons, down 3.6% from the same period a year earlier. While the combined two-month figure is always shaped by Lunar New Year disruptions and temporary anti-pollution controls around Beijing’s annual political meetings, this year’s decline also reflects something more fundamental: steel producers are becoming increasingly reluctant to keep running hard into a market where the underlying demand trend continues to deteriorate.