Category Archives: Commodities

UN, Nato, EU and US call on Russia to resume Ukrainian grain deal

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Risk of soaring food prices and global food crisis after Moscow’s decision to end export corridor following drone attack on its fleet

The United Nations, Nato, European Union and US have all urged Russia to reverse its decision to pull out of a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea, amid fears of a global food crisis.

Moscow announced it was suspending the UN-brokered arrangement in response to a dramatic attack in the early hours of Saturday by Ukrainian airborne and underwater drones on its naval base of Sevastopol in Crimea.

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ExxonMobil’s record-breaking $20bn profit nearly matches Apple’s

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Oil company’s third-quarter result smashes Wall Street forecasts – as does Chevron’s £11.2bn

The US oil supermajor ExxonMobil has reported a quarterly profit of nearly $20bn (£17.3bn), $4bn more than analysts had forecast, almost matching the earnings of the tech giant Apple.

Exxon’s $19.7bn profit for the third quarter outstripped the record $17.9bn it reported for the previous quarter, as it became the latest fossil fuel producer to enjoy soaring earnings, a day after Shell announced global profits of $9.5bn between July and September.

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Shell doubles its profits to $9.5bn as call for windfall tax grows

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Oil giant to boost dividends as firm continues to benefit from energy price spike after Ukraine invasion

Shell has reported profits of nearly $9.5bn (£8.2bn) between July and September, more than double the amount it made during the same period a year earlier, as it said it would increase its payments to shareholders.

The oil company continued to benefit from soaring energy prices prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it was not able to match the record $11.5bn profit it earned between April and June, because of weaker refining and gas trading.

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Biden implores US oil companies to pass on record profits to consumers

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President announces release of 15m barrels of oil from strategic reserve as he fights to keep gas prices in check before midterms

Joe Biden has called on oil companies to pass on their massive profits to consumers as he announced the release of 15m barrels of oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve.

Biden is fighting to keep gas prices in check ahead of November’s midterms. He blamed Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine for the global spike in oil prices and said his administration was doing all it could to keep prices in check.

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Bolivian gold miners push into national park despite country’s green rhetoric

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Mining co-ops – with oversize influence in the government – are moving into the Amazon’s Madidi national park

The footage is jerky, perhaps shot covertly. It shows a river running through a jungle: on the far side there is still thick forest, but the near bank is a mess of churned earth and muddy tracks – yet more evidence that gold miners have moved into the Madidi, Bolivia’s most famous national park.

Such mining provides a living for hundreds of thousands of people. But as miners push into the Amazon and other protected areas, the Bolivian government’s support of the industry sits awkwardly with its environmentalist rhetoric.

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Australian fuel prices likely to rise as Opec+ countries cut oil production to ‘squeeze the market’

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Cuts by world’s biggest petrol producers will work against other governments’ efforts to tame inflation by releasing fuel stocks

Australian motorists could be hit by higher petrol prices as the world’s largest oil exporting nations cut production, analysts say.

The Australian government reinstated the full fuel excise tax in September after the Morrison Coalition government introduced a temporary, six-month cut to lower the cost of fuel at a time of rising inflation.

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US-Saudi rift grows over decision to cut oil production

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Washington has accused Saudi Arabia of coercing other Opec+ members into 2m-barrel-a-day reduction

The relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia continued to worsen on Thursday as the two countries traded barbs over the decision to cut oil production, with Washington accusing Riyadh of coercing other members of the Opec+ cartel, and Riyadh suggesting the Biden administration tried to get the decision delayed by a month.

In reaction to Joe Biden’s declared intention to reevaluate the US relationship with Riyadh, the Saudi foreign ministry issued an unusually long statement rejecting “attempts to distort the facts” about the kingdom’s motives for pushing for a 2m-barrel-a-day cut to Opec+ production.

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Saudi Arabia is choosing friends on its own terms and Biden is not one of them

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Reactions in Washington to slashing oil supply have not concerned Mohammed bin Salman; nor have the optics of indirectly boosting Putin’s war

Mohammed bin Salman had seen it coming. The groundswell of anger in Washington was clear and building since he helped lead an Opec+ decision to cut the world’s oil supply last week.

But for the first time in the modern era of ties between the US and Saudi Arabia, there was no rush to placate hard feelings, or gloss over a rift. This was the birth of a new realpolitik, where nascent Saudi nationalism paid no heed to a historical ally and instead aligned itself to what Riyadh literally sees as a new world order.

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Oil pipeline to Germany partly shut after leak found in Poland

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Cause of leak in Druzhba line, which supplies oil from Russia, not yet known, says operator

The Druzhba oil pipeline linking Russia and Germany has been partly shut after a leak was discovered in Poland, the Polish operator Pern said on Wednesday.

“The cause of the incident is not known for the moment. Pumping in the affected line was immediately stopped. Line 2 of the pipeline is functioning normally,” the operator said.

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Saudi Arabia will face ‘consequences’, says Biden, amid anger at cuts in oil output

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Moves by Opec+ to reduce production seen as siding with Putin over the US just as midterms loom

Joe Biden said there “will be consequences” for Saudi Arabia after its decision last week to side with Vladimir Putin and cut oil production.

“There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done, with Russia,” the US president said in an interview on CNN. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be – there will be consequences.”

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Cutting oil output risks global economy, warns US Treasury secretary

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Janet Yellen’s comments come as figures show business activity declining across most UK regions

The world’s biggest oil-producing nations cutting production at a time of soaring energy costs is “unhelpful and unwise” for global economic growth, the US Treasury secretary has warned, amid intense pressure from sky-high inflation.

Ahead of meetings hosted by the International Monetary Fund in Washington this week, Janet Yellen said the move by Opec+ – the oil production cartel led by Saudi Arabia, plus Russia – risked undermining the world economy.

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France’s oil strikes push on as petrol station queues worsen

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The country’s total refinery output has been reduced by more than 60% over the past two weeks

Long tailbacks of vehicles continued to grow outside French service stations on Sunday as petrol supply was hit by pay strikes at refineries run by the oil giants, TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil.

The leftwing CGT union is leading a refinery workers’ strike for better pay during the cost-of-living crisis, and for a share of companies’ high profits.

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Fears grow over oil price as Opec+ agrees to bigger than expected output cuts

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Cartel curbs production by 2m barrels a day despite strong US pressure, further squeezing supplies

The Opec oil cartel and its allies have agreed to a bigger than expected cut in oil production targets despite significant pressure from the US.

The Opec+ group of oil-producing nations signed up to a cut in output of 2m barrels a day, surpassing predictions earlier in the week of cuts of 1m to 1.5m barrels, squeezing supplies in a tight market.

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Truss says Nord Stream gas pipeline damage ‘clearly sabotage’

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Russia is suspected to have carried out explosions to put pressure on western energy supplies

Liz Truss has said a series of explosions that severely damaged Russia’s undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines were an act of sabotage.

In a joint report delivered to the United Nations last week, the Danish and Swedish governments have claimed that the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which can carry gas to Germany, were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”.

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Nord Stream attacks highlight vulnerability of undersea pipelines in west

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As Norway steps up seabed security, experts say underwater cables carrying world’s internet traffic are also at risk

Nato countries are scrambling to improve security of highly vulnerable undersea pipelines and communications cables after the apparent Nord Stream attack in the Baltic Sea underlines the west’s extreme vulnerability.

Four gas leaks on two Nord Stream pipelines have now been reported after blasts were detected on Monday. According to several reports citing European officials, Russian vessels were seen in the vicinity of the Nord Stream I and II pipelines where they were damaged, but an examination of the damage may not be possible for weeks for safety reasons, and no proof of Moscow’s involvement has been presented.

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Brussels promises to cap price of Russian oil after Putin escalation

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European Commission also proposes extra curbs on hi-tech trade as part of sanctions to ‘make Kremlin pay’ over Ukraine war

The EU executive has promised to cap the price of Russian oil and impose further curbs on hi-tech trade, as part of the latest round of sanctions to “make the Kremlin pay” for the escalation of the war against Ukraine.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Russia had ramped up the invasion to “a new level”, listing the sham referendums in Russian-occupied territory, the partial mobilisation order and Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons. “We are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation,” she said.

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Israel risks crossing Hezbollah ‘red line’ as it prepares to connect to disputed gas field

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The Karish maritime reservoir, part of which is claimed by Lebanon, is estimated to hold 2-3tn cubic feet of natural gas

Israel is preparing to connect a disputed Mediterranean gas field to its national gas network, a development helping the country cement its new role as a supplier to Europe at the risk of inflaming tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Israeli energy ministry said last week that it would conduct tests on the rig and natural transmission system in the Karish maritime reservoir, part of which is claimed by neighbouring Lebanon. The work is expected to begin on Tuesday, and London-listed company Energean, which has licensed the field, has said that it is “on track to deliver [the] first gas from the Karish development project within weeks.”

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European gas prices likely to fall sharply this winter, says Goldman Sachs

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EU countries’ efforts to avoid big shortages likely to ‘successfully solve’ Russian cuts, says bank

European countries can withstand Russia’s gas cuts this winter as supply headaches may have been “successfully solved”, according to analysis by a leading US bank.

Goldman Sachs said the price of gas was likely to more than halve this winter as efforts by EU countries’ to avoid big shortages this winter prove effective.

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‘Nothing is decided’: EU energy ministers clash over price cap on Russian gas

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Countries that import large volumes fear Kremlin would respond by halting all gas flows, plunging them into recession

EU energy ministers have clashed over a plan to put a price cap on Russian gas, casting doubt on whether the measure will go ahead.

Speaking after emergency talks in Brussels in response to surging gas and electricity prices, the EU’s energy commissioner, Kadri Simson, said “nothing is decided” on proposals to curb Russia’s income.

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Russia will not resume gas supplies to Europe until sanctions lifted, says Moscow

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Kremlin blames western sanctions for failure to deliver gas through Nord Stream 1 pipeline

Russia will not resume in full its gas supplies to Europe until the west lifts its sanctions against Moscow, the Kremlin said, as concerns over Russian gas supplies continued to drive up energy prices.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, blamed sanctions “introduced against our country by western countries including Germany and the UK” for Russia’s failure to deliver gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

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