Tesla has unveiled plans to invest extra $3.6bn more in its Nevada gigafactory as the company posted record capital investment in 2022. 

 Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company said in a statement on January 24 it will add 3000 new employees and two new facilities to its gigafactory in the US state of Nevada, which opened doors in 2014 and is considered the world’s first of its kind. The expansion includes a new 100-gigawatt-hour battery factory and a manufacturing plant for the company’s electric combination truck.

“Nevada is back open for business, effective immediately,” state governor Joe Lombardo said in a speech the evening before the announcement.

Tesla has already poured $6.2bn into its 5.4 million square foot Nevada facility since 2014. 

The company’s capital expenditure reached new highs in 2022, when it stood at $7.2bn, up by 10% from a year earlier and more than twice as much as in 2020, according to the company latest earnings reports published on January 25. 

Italy’s Eni to grab Libyan gas

Italy’s oil company Eni is planning to invest $8bn into Libya’s natural gas fields, the oil-rich country’s state energy company has announced.

The National Oil Corporation’s chairman, Farhat Bengdara, told the local station Almasar TV that his firm would sign an agreement with Eni on January 28, in Tripoli, for the development of two offshore gas fields able to produce 850 million cubic feet of gas per day.

As Europe weans itself off Russian gas, Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, also met with Egypt’s premier, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, on January 16 to discuss an “ongoing exploration campaign”. 

The company said in a statement that Egypt’s prospects were positive, with potential to quickly increase exports by leveraging spare capacity Eni has in assets on the Mediterranean coast. 

France’s Veolia helps UAE recycle 

The UAE is planning its first food-grade plastic recycling plant, which it says will promote a circular economy in line with new recycling regulations. 

On January 19, the country’s ministry of industry and advanced technology announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) detailing the construction of a new polycarbonate recycling facility. The 12,000-ton-per-year recycling plant is earmarked for the capital, Abu Dhabi. 

The MoU involved Emirati sustainable planning firm Beeah, food and beverage conglomerate Agthia Group, and Repeet — a subsidiary of the French waste management company Veolia.

During Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week in early January, the ministry announced a decision to regulate the trade of recycled plastic water bottles, aiming to prop up the manufacturing of water bottles using recycled plastic. The ministry also announced a second MoU with Beeah to explore “state-of-the-art” electric vehicle battery recycling plants in the UAE.