Venezuela’s state-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum’s net profits fell 81% in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to its most recent regulatory filing on Thursday. The state-run refinery, which operates three refineries in the United States, saw its net profits plunge to $1.54 million for the fourth quarter, down from $806 million in the fourth quarter of the previous year. The dip in profits was largely attributed to refinery outages and weaker margins—with its crude utilization rate falling to 89% in Q4. Читать дальше...
Pre-orders for a “flying car” have soared in recent months leading industry experts to question how close we are to small passenger vehicle flight. Alef Aeronautics, a company backed by Space-X, specialising in the production of flying cars, has achieved 2,850 pre-orders for its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. The firm is backed by Tesla investor and venture capitalist Tim Draper, which has helped draw attention. Based in San Mateo, California, Alef Aeronautics is allowing... Читать дальше...
Following Russian Rosneft’s move to sell its refinery assets in Germany last week, Berlin on Thursday announced it would extend its trusteeship over the local Rosneft subsidiaries until mid-September to avoid nationalization. This is the third time Germany has extended the trusteeship of Rosneft PJSC, with the new extension set to expire on September 10, giving Moscow time to divest its assets. The current trusteeship period was set to expire on March 10. Last week, Rosneft launched a sales process... Читать дальше...
Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist, Powell might not be overly worried about inflation - with his recent comments reiterating the Federal Reserve is on track to cut rates this year - but other central banks are not so relaxed. Gold’s new high signals global central banks are likely accumulating the precious metal in an effort to diversify away from the dollar, as persistently large fiscal deficits threaten to further erode its real value and lead to more inflation. Gold’s move in... Читать дальше...
Xcel Energy’s facilities in Texas may have been the cause of a spree of wildfires that ripped through the state. Excel, based in Minneapolis, an electric utility and natural gas delivery company, said it very well may be responsible for igniting the recent Smokehouse Creek fire—the largest wildfire in the state’s history. The Smokehouse Creek wildfire began February 26, incinerating over a million acres, destroying more than 500 homes, and killing two before spilling into neighboring Oklahoma. The... Читать дальше...
With Turkmenistan and its gas export dreams, intentions are strong, but implementation is faltering. On March 1, Turkmen National Leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the father of the president, traveled to Turkey to attend the Antalya Diplomatic Forum. During the visit, he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — an encounter celebrated with generous niceties. To mark his host’s recent 70th birthday, Berdymukhamedov arrived with the gift of an ichmek, a Turkmen sheepskin gown traditionally bestowed upon wise elders. Читать дальше...
Saudi Arabia has completed the transfer of an 8% stake in its state oil giant Aramco from state ownership to the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Thursday. The transfer of the stake to fully owned companies of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia is expected to solidify PIF’s strong financial position and credit rating, said the sovereign wealth fund, whose chairman of the board of directors is the Crown Prince. The 8% stake in Saudi Aramco... Читать дальше...
Warren Buffett fretted, in his annual report, that wildfires threatened his electric utility investments. He specifically cited the stock price carnage experienced by two US utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Hawaiian Electric, as the basis for his concern. Barely a week later, the Smokehouse fire in the Texas Panhandle has burned over a million acres of brush and timber in the heart of cattle country. This time it is Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy and its utility subsidiary, Southwestern Public Service that is at risk. Читать дальше...
Chinese crude oil imports jumped by 5.1% in January and February compared to the same two months last year, government data showed on Thursday, as fuel demand rose during the Lunar New Year holiday last month. China, the world’s largest crude importer, saw oil cargo arrivals rise to a total of 10.74 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first two months of 2024, compared to about 10.4 million bpd in January-February 2023, according to Reuters’ calculations based on data in tons reported today by the... Читать дальше...
Global oil demand looks robust in a balanced market this year, Shaikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, chief executive of Kuwait’s state oil firm Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), told Bloomberg in an interview published on Thursday. “From my perspective I think it remains a healthy market on the demand side,” the executive said, noting that rising U.S. shale production has helped meet part of the recent growth in world oil consumption. Kuwait, one of the biggest producers in the Middle East and OPEC, is part... Читать дальше...
More than a dozen Chinese copper smelters are expected to discuss next week potential production cuts due to unsustainably low fees for processing the semi-processed ore, or concentrate, into finished metal, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Thursday. The China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association will host a meeting of copper smelters next week, at which at least 15 copper processing firms have been invited, according to Bloomberg’s sources. Executives from Chinese copper... Читать дальше...
Oil markets have managed to reverse their early week losses, inching up higher in Wednesday’s session after the Energy Information Administration reported significant inventory draws across various fuels. The EIA has reported a smaller crude build of 1.4 million barrels for the week ending March 1 compared with a build of 4.2 million barrels for the previous week, while the American Petroleum Institute has pegged the crude build at just 423,000 barrels. The EIA has also estimated inventory draws... Читать дальше...
India’s fuel consumption jumped by 5.7% in February compared to the same month of 2023, data from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas showed on Thursday. Total fuel consumption in the world’s third-largest crude oil importer rose to nearly 5 million barrels per day (bpd), or over 19.7 million metric tons, last month, per data from the ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) published today. That’s a 5.7% yearly increase and a rise of 5.1% on a per-day basis compared to January... Читать дальше...
European Union member states agreed on Thursday to jointly leave a 1990s energy treaty that allows oil companies to sue governments over their climate policies, EU officials told Reuters. The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), signed in 1994 and in force since 1998, was originally designed to promote international investment in the energy sector and has historically provided protections for investors in fossil fuels. The treaty basically allows oil firms to sue governments for compensation for lost profits... Читать дальше...
Nearly 50 Democratic Senators and Representatives are urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the recent mergers in America’s oil and gas sector amid concerns that they would harm competition and hurt consumers. In a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan, the Democratic Members of Congress, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, wrote that the recent wave of oil and gas industry consolidation “threatens competition in the industry and could lead to higher prices and fewer choices... Читать дальше...
Exxon has filed for arbitration on the issue of its rights to first refusal to acquire the stake of Hess Corp. in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana where the two made a string of oil discoveries. The move is the latest update in what seems like escalating problems between Exxon, the majority stakeholder in the Stabroek Block, and Chevron, which last year struck a deal to acquire Hess Corp. mostly because of its Guyana stake. “We’re absolutely confident that within this contract, we have pre-emption rights... Читать дальше...
A Nigerian businessman who controls 15% of the country’s electricity market has called for an overhaul of the grid to solve long-running problems with supply. Tony Elumelu, who controls several power sector companies, told Bloomberg in an interview that Nigeria needs more transmission lines and the electricity market needs more liquidity in order to reverse years of insufficient supply that is hampering economic growth. “As a country, we can’t produce well enough in spite of our natural resources. Читать дальше...
Chevron has restarted drilling at a key Venezuelan oil field despite signals from the White House the sanction noose around Caracas is about to tighten. Work at the Petroindependencia field in the Orinoco Belt has been ongoing since the middle of last month, Bloomberg reported today, citing unnamed sources. That work’s part of preparations to drill 30 new wells at the field, the report also said. The new wells should increase Chevron’s total output from its joint ventures with PDVSA in Venezuela... Читать дальше...
Sizeable surpluses in the lithium, cobalt, and nickel markets have led to a plunge in the prices of key battery metals over the past year and a half. The price rout is far from over, according to Goldman Sachs. Prices still have room to drop, and the end of the bear markets is nowhere in sight, the Wall Street bank said in a note this week. “Despite the significant downside in battery metals prices, with nickel, lithium and cobalt prices down 60%, 80% and 65% from cycle peak, respectively, we believe... Читать дальше...
Europe is weathering its second winter since it cut itself off from Russian natural gas, but beyond that, without its own sufficient supplies, the continent remains vulnerable to the whims of a volatile global market. That vulnerability is now beginning to resurface, as the Biden administration presses pause on all new LNG export projects, sending waves of concern throughout Europe, which has traded dependence on Russian gas for dependence on American LNG. In the short term, this meant significantly... Читать дальше...
Last weekend, OPEC and its partners, led by Russia, decided to extend their combined production cut agreement until the end of the first quarter. Nobody was surprised by that decision, and its effect on oil prices was limited. But the longer the cuts continue, the more pressing one question becomes: how long can OPEC keep doing it? The answer appears easy at first glance. OPEC, Russia, and the Central Asian producers can keep limiting their oil supply as long as it is necessary. Yet not everyone... Читать дальше...
Via Metal Miner Month-over-month, the Automotive MMI (Monthly Metals Index) dropped by 3.03%. While the automotive market continued to improve overall, bearish pressure on certain steel prices like hot-dipped galvanized steel, ultimately forced the index down. Experts anticipate this bearish pressure to continue impacting both steel prices and automotive manufacturing in the short term. Despite this, the automotive market, in general, witnessed a welcome rebound in sales after a quiet beginning to the year. Читать дальше...
Italy will halt the use of coal to generate electricity by 2025, opting instead to increase the use of gas-fired power plants, according to the Italian Energy Ministry. "The intermediate target of abandoning coal in the electricity generation mix as of Dec. 31, 2025 ... is very close. The updated (National Climate and Energy) Plan will certainly confirm it," Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin told parliament on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters. The island of Sardinia will be excluded from the nationwide plan... Читать дальше...
Plans by Kyrgyzstan’s government to develop reserves of uranium and dozens of other rare earth metals around the cherished Lake Issyk-Kul are generating discontent, although few are prepared to express this openly for fear of reprisals. In an attempt to soothe moods, President Sadyr Japarov traveled last month to the city of Balykchy to meet community representatives from the Issyk-Kul and Naryn regions to offer reassurances about what might happen at the Kyzyl-Ompol field. “During his speech, the... Читать дальше...
