Via Metal Miner India has ended the financial year 2023-2024 as a net importer of finished steel, which has sent the alarm bells ringing in industry circles throughout India. Mainly, insiders want to know how the changing import status might affect steel costs and India’s push for self reliance. According to news agency Reuters, as per initial government data, India imported 8.3 million metric tons of finished steel in the last fiscal year. This represents an increase of 38.1% from a year earlier. Читать дальше...
So far this year, the global upstream oil and gas market has seen more than $64 billion in mergers and acquisitions, and the year could still see more mega-deals, according to the latest report from Rystad Energy on Monday. While recent deals have focused on the Permian Basin, Rystad says it is looking to other American shale patch venues for the next big deals amid an ongoing trend of consolidation. The $64 billion in global M&A value booked so far this year is the best Q1 performance the industry has seen since 2019. Читать дальше...
With an enabling regulatory environment, a world-class legal system, multifarious global connections and access to incredible talent and skills, the Square Mile is perfectly placed to help the Gulf nations achieve their green ambitions, says Michael Mainelli The majestic Arabian oryx, the national animal of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), isn’t just a symbol of resilience in the harshest of climates. Having been brought back from the brink of extinction through domestic and cross-border initiatives... Читать дальше...
Iraq will see first natural gas production at its supergiant West Qurna field by the end of this year, Iraqi News reports, citing the Iraqi prime minister and federal energy authorities on Monday. ExxonMobil withdrew from southern Iraq’s West Qurna 1 field in January, handing operations over to PetroChina, which now enjoys the largest stake in one of Iraq’s biggest fields. The whole of West Qurna is home to an estimated 43 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, while West Qurna-1 was originally... Читать дальше...
Japanese authorities may intervene again in the currency market this year as U.S. interest rates are expected to remain high.The Japanese Yen strengthened sharply overnight after crashing to its lowest level since April 1990, breaking 160/USD. The FT reports that traders in Hong Kong, Australia and London said it was “highly likely” that the recovery was due to Japan’s finance ministry selling dollar reserves and purchasing the Japanese currency for the first time since late 2022. While analysts... Читать дальше...
Introducing a digital pound could earn the Treasury tens of billions through increased seigniorage revenue, a new report has argued. Research from Positive Money estimates that, by 2029, the government could gain around £15bn a year if 20 per cent of bank deposits were switched to a digital pound. If 30 per cent of deposits were switched into a digital pound, the Treasury could earn an additional £30bn a year through seigniorage revenue, the report argued. Seigniorage is the profit made by a government for issuing currency. Читать дальше...
UK-based International Group of P&I Clubs, a global insurance company, says a growing shadow fleet is making it less and less viable to police the G7 price cap on Russian oil, Bloomberg News reports, citing a briefing to the UK government. The UK-based insurance group notes that 800 oil tankers that it used to insure have switched over to the shadow fleet to transport sanctioned Russian oil being sold above the $60 price cap. Furthermore, the group said, it is impossible for an insurance company... Читать дальше...
Battery storage was the fastest-growing energy technology in the power sector in 2023, with deployment more than doubling year-on-year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has revealed. Strong growth was recorded for utility-scale battery projects, mini-grids, solar home systems and behind-the-meter batteries, adding a total of 42 GW of battery storage capacity globally. However, electric vehicles continue to account for the vast majority of batteries used in the sector, with 14 million new electric... Читать дальше...
As India is set to become the world’s largest oil demand growth driver in the coming years, Indian state-owned refiner Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) plans to commission a new refinery two years later than initially planned by 2025. CPCL, a unit of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), now aims to complete the construction of a 180,000-barrels-per-day refinery by the end of 2027, Reuters quoted CPCL’s head of finance Rohit Kumar Agrawala as saying on Monday. Chennai Petroleum plans to build... Читать дальше...
Tesla shares jumped in premarket trading in New York after Bloomberg reported that Beijing had given Tesla the 'greenlight' to roll out its driver-assistance system, known as "Full Self-Driving," or FSD, in the world's largest car market. Sources say Tesla will partner with Chinese tech giant Baidu for mapping and navigation software to support FSD. Tesla also has multiple data security and privacy requirements that satisfy the country's regulators. In a separate report, The Wall Street Journal said... Читать дальше...
PetroChina reported on Monday its highest net profit for a first quarter as its revenues rose by 11% thanks to steady oil prices and higher domestic natural gas demand and production. The Chinese state-held oil and gas giant booked $6.3 billion (45.681 billion Chinese yuan) in net profit for the first quarter of 2024, up by 4.7% year-over-year, as higher drilling and demand for natural gas more than offset weaker refining margins amid a sputtering recovery of the Chinese economy. Revenues at... Читать дальше...
Saudi Aramco is currently eyeing potential investments in new energies outside Saudi Arabia, the state oil giant’s chief executive officer Amin Nasser said on Monday. Aramco’s top executive was speaking on the sidelines of the Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth, and Energy for Development by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Apart from deals in the refining and petrochemicals segment, especially in its key crude export market, China, the Saudi state oil giant... Читать дальше...
The G7 group of the world’s most industrialized nations are discussing a common target to end their coal-fired power generation by 2035 at an energy ministers’ meeting in Italy, a source close to the talks told Reuters on Monday. The energy, climate, and environment ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States are meeting between Sunday and Tuesday at a palace near Turin to discuss ways to address climate change. The meeting “will aim to identify... Читать дальше...
Saudi Arabia is likely to raise the price of its flagship Arab Light crude loading for Asia in June to the highest premium over benchmarks as the Middle Eastern quotes have strengthened this month, a Reuters survey of seven refining sources showed on Monday. Saudi Aramco, the world’s top crude oil exporter, could raise later this week the price of Arab Light for Asia in June by $0.70-$0.90 to nearly a $3.00 a barrel premium over the Oman/Dubai average, the benchmark off which Middle Eastern crude... Читать дальше...
The European Union needs 8 times more charging points to be installed each year compared to the installation rate in 2023 if it wants to bridge the infrastructure gap and meet climate goals and EV demand, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said in a new report on Monday. The findings of the report revealed “an alarming gap between the current availability of public charging points for electric cars in the EU and what will be needed in reality to meet CO2-reduction targets,”... Читать дальше...
Turkey is discussing a long-term LNG supply deal with U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil as it looks to reduce reliance on Russia or any single supply source, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday. A potential deal with Exxon could be for the acquisition of 2.5 million tons of LNG per year for a decade, the minister said, while FT calculations have found that based on a pricing assessment by Argus, the annual delivery of these volumes could... Читать дальше...
Saudi Arabia has warned the war between Israel and Hamas could have repercussions for the whole region and the world unless brought to a quicker end. The kingdom called for regional stability on Sunday, at the start of talks organized by the World Economic Forum, taking place in Riyadh. "I think cool-headed countries and leaders and people need to prevail, and you need to make sure that you actually de-escalate," Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said, as quoted by the New Arab. A top concern... Читать дальше...
Oil and gas discoveries last year fell to a record low of 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent while exploration costs rose close to twofold. This is according to the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, which also said, as quoted by the Anadolu Agency, that 60% of the 5-billion-barrel total was new oil discoveries and the remaining was gas discoveries. This total compared with new discoveries of 10.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent the previous year, the report noted, in support of arguments from OPEC... Читать дальше...
Crude oil prices began the week with a loss, reversing the climb from last week after the latest U.S. inflation data suggested there will not be any rate cuts anytime soon. Signals from Israel that a ceasefire with Hamas is still a possibility also helped bring oil down, with Brent crude slipping below $89 per barrel in midmorning Asian trading and West Texas Intermediate at a bit over $83. On Friday, the Commerce Department reported an inflation rate of 2.7% for March in personal consumption expenditures... Читать дальше...
The world’s biggest refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, is accelerating plans to build its first fully-owned refinery outside China. Sinopec is set to complete a feasibility study in June to build one or two refineries in Sri Lanka as China looks to capitalize on its foreign investments. China Merchants Port Holdings has developed and operates the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, an island very close to India. Both China and India are vying to boost their energy presence... Читать дальше...
