After Kurmet, a hairdresser in Kazakhstan’s business capital, Almaty, finished a cut earlier this month, the customer reached for his phone to pay. This has been a standard scene for years. Kazakhs young and old have embraced banking apps with a passion. But things are changing. Kurmet had to say no on this occasion. “Sorry, brother, only cash, you understand, now it’s like that everywhere,” Kurmet told the client, a regular at his salon. The customer had to go out to the nearest ATM to pick up some cash to pay. Читать дальше...
Color us not surprised, but another one of the Biden administration's "visions" for forcing people to own electric vehicles isn't working out exactly as planned. This time it deals with supply chain logistics, with Bloomberg reporting this week that in the year and a half since passing the Inflation Reduction Act, automakers are finding out the hard way that the rigorous criteria for manufacturing batteries using materials from the United States and its free-trade allies could render them cost-inefficient compared to global competitors. Читать дальше...
Shipping giant Maersk is warning that container shipping through the Red Sea could continue to cause disruptions into the second half of the year, with the company expecting shipping delays as vessels take the long way around the Cape of Good Hope instead of through the dangerous waters of the Red Sea. “Be prepared for the Red Sea situation to last into the second half of the year and build longer transit times into your supply chain planning, Maersk’s head of North America, Charles van der Steene... Читать дальше...
The value of global upstream mergers and acquisitions has already hit this quarter the highest first-quarter level since 2017, driven by frenzied consolidation in the U.S. shale patch, analysts have told Reuters. In January and February, as much as $58 billion worth of upstream M&As have been announced globally, of which the U.S. deals represent more than 80% of total value, according to data from Rystad Energy cited by Reuters. The January-February tally of global upstream deal value, with one... Читать дальше...
Something odd is taking place in the oil market. While on one hand "data" dissembled by Biden's Dept of Energy and specifically its statistical arm, the Energy Information Administration, has done everything it could to indicate there is a glut of oil, which is understandable - there is nothing Biden's handlers fear more than an inflationary surge in oil and gasoline prices ahead of the November elections and will do everything in their power to mandate a dataset that has the most adverse impact on oil prices... Читать дальше...
Canada’s oil and natural gas sector is set to boost upstream capital expenditures to around US$30 billion (C$40.6 billion) in 2024, up slightly from an estimated actual investment of US$28.8 billion (C$39 billion) for 2023, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) said in an estimate on Tuesday. “There is room for cautious optimism with current Canadian oil production at record levels in anticipation of the Trans Mountain expansion completion in the second quarter,” CAPP president and... Читать дальше...
The European Commission proposed on Tuesday that EU member states continue taking voluntary measures to maintain a collective 15% gas demand reduction compared to the five-year average to March 2022, as the bloc looks to continue stabilizing its energy and gas supply. “With the emergency legislation due to expire on 31 March, and the situation more stable than it has been for the past two years, the Commission is now proposing the adoption of a Council Recommendation on continued gas demand reduction... Читать дальше...
The Red Sea shipping crisis has been an explosive mess for the international shipping community and the global economy. With oil tankers increasingly steering clear of the southern Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb Strait, shipping capacity has rapidly tightened, pressuring daily rates higher. Bloomberg reports only two new supertankers will join the global fleet in 2024, the fewest additions in forty years and about 90% below the yearly average over the last two decades. "The impact of the diversions... Читать дальше...
Withdrawal of government support, lower natural gas prices, and high interest rates led to the first annual drop in European sales of heat pumps in a decade, data from the European Heat Pump Association showed on Tuesday. In 14 European counties, heat pump sales dropped by around 5% last year compared to 2022, from 2.77 million to 2.64 million units. This reverses the trend of the last decade, where combined sales increased annually, the association said. Sales of heat pumps fell in France, Italy... Читать дальше...
Tennessee-based midstream energy master limited partnership Delek Logistics reported on Tuesday revenues and earnings per share for the fourth quarter that missed consensus estimates, due to higher interest expense and a goodwill impairment. Delek Logistics Partners, LP (NYSE: DKL) booked a net income attributable to all partners of $22.1 million, or $0.51 per diluted common limited partner unit. This compares to a net income attributable to all partners of $42.7 million, or $0.98 per diluted common limited partner unit... Читать дальше...
Qatar could squeeze out rival LNG supply, including from the current top exporter, the United States, and could end up controlling 25% of the global LNG supply by 2030 after it announced a new major expansion project days ago, analysts told Reuters. On Sunday, QatarEnergy, the state company of one of the world’s biggest LNG exporters, said it was adding another major LNG expansion project to its two ongoing projects, aiming to raise its total LNG export capacity by 85% from current levels by 2030. Читать дальше...
Russia will suspend gasoline exports for six months beginning in March to ensure supply for the domestic market in peak demand season. The information comes from an unnamed source close to the government who spoke to business daily RBC. The report recalls Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak calling for a temporary suspension of gasoline exports with a letter to the prime minister earlier this month. This would be the second gasoline export ban Russia has enacted in less than six months. Last September... Читать дальше...
Exxon and Chevron are discussing a potential acquisition by Exxon of Hess Corp’s stake in the Exxon-led oil operations off the coast of Guyana. Exxon claims it has the right of first refusal on the stake that Chevron was planning to absorb after its purchase of Hess for $53 billion. Hess had a 30% stake in the Stabroek Block where the operations are focused and it was that stake that largely motivated Chevron in its decision to buy Hess, Reuters wrote in a report on the news. Chevron has warned that if Exxon... Читать дальше...
Woodside Energy expects demand for liquefied natural gas to increase by 50% over the next ten years driven by Asia, Bloomberg has reported, citing chief executive Meg O’Neill. “We’re seeing signs of that demand growth in emerging Asia,” O’Neill told the publication. “There’ll be points in time where we’ll see a fair amount of new supply arriving, but the demand growth is really likely to absorb that over the course of the coming years,” she added. In her comments, O’Neill echoes the forecast of…
Last month, large swathes of the United States grappled with sub-zero wind chills whereby freezing air from the Arctic set record-low temperatures leaving scores of people dead, created record-breaking energy demand and knocked out electricity to tens of thousands in the north-west. The frigid weather had another unintended consequence: it exposed just how vulnerable electric vehicles are to low temperatures with many EV drivers being left stranded after their vehicles prematurely run out of juice. Читать дальше...
Brent Crude prices have held above $80 per barrel for most of February, with signs pointing to a tightening in the physical market as OPEC+ production cuts continue and the rerouting of cargoes away from the Red Sea and the Suez Canal drags on. European refiners are looking for Atlantic Basin cargoes as arrivals from the Middle East are being delayed by at least two weeks with the longer route via the Cape of Good Hope that tankers have to make to reach the Mediterranean and Norwest Europe. ... Читать дальше...
There is no practical impediment to Iraq becoming a world-leading exporter of petrochemicals, given its huge oil and gas resources. It holds an estimated 145 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves - around 9 percent of world’s total – although this is a very conservative estimate. The International Energy Agency’s 2012 analysis highlighted potentially around 232 billion barrels of recoverable crude and natural gas liquids, as analysed in depth in my new book on the new global oil market order. Читать дальше...
Iran is eager to build on its longstanding alliance with Syria, but Tehran's achievements in expanding its influence in the Arab country are threatening one of its primary objectives: staying out of the line of fire in its shadow wars in the Middle East. As Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said earlier this month during a trip to Damascus on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Tehran considers Syria to be on the front line of its "axis of resistance," its loose network... Читать дальше...
U.S. benchmark WTI oil prices gained over 2% on Monday amid the ongoing Red Sea shipping threat and European diesel demand before retracing some of those gains as Wall Street tried to digest inflation data. Limited U.S. refinery output due to planned maintenance and overhauls also played a role in pushing crude prices higher on Monday. Earlier on Monday, Reuters reported that U.S. diesel exports to Europe had slumped in February amid lower refinery output and tighter supplies in the U.S. Citing Kpler ship tracking data... Читать дальше...
