2025-05-05 17:11

SANTIAGO, May 5 (Reuters) - Subsidiaries of energy major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) , opens new tab have applied for an environmental permit for a $16 billion green hydrogen and ammonia project in southern Chile, a regulatory filing showed on Monday. The project, run by the Chilean subsidiary TEC H2 MAG, is expected to begin operations in 2030 and includes a wind farm, seven electrolysis centers for green hydrogen, a desalination plant, an ammonia plant, and maritime infrastructure for shipping. Sign up here. The Andean nation has been promoting the development of clean hydrogen , opens new tab projects, but some companies say lengthy permitting and a lack of infrastructure has led the country to the head start it had in green hydrogen. According to the project's website, the environmental permit process is expected to take two years, with construction to begin in 2027. The ammonia plant, which will be commissioned in stages, will produce up to 10,800 metric tons per day. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/totalenergies-seeks-permit-16-billion-green-hydrogen-project-chile-2025-05-05/

2025-05-05 14:57

CAIRO, May 5 (Reuters) - Egypt's net foreign assets jumped by $4.9 billion in March, central bank data showed, apparently boosted by the approval of the fourth review of the country's IMF programme. Net foreign assets climbed to the equivalent of $15.08 billion from $10.18 billion at the end of February, according to Reuters calculations based on official central bank currency exchange rates. Sign up here. The International Monetary Fund in early March approved the disbursement to Egypt of $1.2 billion after completing its review of the country's $8 billion economic reform programme. It also approved a request for a $1.3 billion arrangement under the IMF's resilience and sustainability facility. Foreign investors were significant purchasers of Egyptian pound treasury bills after the approval and as one-year bills acquired after the March 2024 IMF agreement matured, two bankers said. Egypt had been using foreign assets, which include assets held by both the central bank and commercial banks, to help prop up its currency since as long ago as September 2021. Net foreign assets turned negative in February 2022 and only returned to positive territory in May last year. Foreign assets increased in February at both the central bank and commercial banks, while foreign liabilities rose at the central bank but declined at commercial banks. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypts-net-foreign-assets-jump-march-after-imf-review-approval-2025-05-05/

2025-05-05 12:25

MOSCOW, May 5 (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) , opens new tab and Algeria's Sonatrach have cut May's official selling prices for liquefied petroleum gas by 0.8-10.9% from the previous month due to rising global supply, traders said on Monday. Aramco's May OSP for propane was cut by $5 to $610 a metric ton while butane prices were dropped by $15 to $590 a ton , the traders said. Sign up here. Propane and butane are types of LPG with different boiling points. LPG is used mainly as fuel for cars and heating as well as a feedstock for other petrochemicals. Sonatrach cut its May OSP for propane by $60 to $490 a ton and for butane by $55 to $490 a ton , traders said. Aramco's OSPs are used as a reference for contracts to supply LPG from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region. Sonatrach's OSPs are used as benchmarks for the Mediterranean and Black Sea region, including Turkey. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/sonatrach-saudi-aramco-cut-may-lpg-prices-by-1-11-2025-05-05/

2025-05-05 12:24

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese congratulated each other on election wins attributed to voters' concern about the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump, Carney's office said on Monday. "Prime Minister Carney underscored the many areas of close cooperation between Canada and Australia, particularly in trade, defence, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific," said the statement on Sunday's call. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/canadian-australian-leaders-speak-after-election-victories-2025-05-05/

2025-05-05 12:00

LAUNCESTON, Australia, May 5 (Reuters) - If there is one thing that is almost certain in the current global crude oil market, it's that the stated reasons for the OPEC+ group of exporters increasing supply are not the real reasons. The eight OPEC+ countries that are party to voluntary output cuts met on May 3 and decided to ease their curbs again for June, this time adding back 411,000 barrels per day (bpd). Sign up here. The June hike will take the total combined increase for April, May and June to 960,000 bpd, representing a 44% unwinding of the 2.2 million bpd cut, according to Reuters calculations. The eight said in a statement on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) website that the decision to lift output came amid the "current healthy market fundamentals as reflected in the low oil inventories." The problem for OPEC+ is that there is little evidence to support the assertion of healthy market fundamentals, and while visible crude inventories are slightly below five-year average levels, they are far from low enough to spark any concerns. The OPEC monthly report for April showed that commercial crude inventories in developed economies in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development were 2.746 billion barrels at the end of February, down 16.1 million barrels from the prior month and 71 million barrels below the five-year average. In other words, OECD stocks were a mere 2.5% below the five-year average, which seems reasonable given the rising crude oil prices that prevailed between September and January and the rising risk of a global economic slowdown since the return of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency. China, the world's biggest oil importer, doesn't disclose its commercial or strategic inventories, but it's likely that it significantly boosted storage flows in March, having drawn down slightly in the first two months of the year. Calculations based on official data for imports, domestic output and refinery throughput showed a surplus of 1.74 million bpd in March as China imported considerably more crude than it processed into refined fuels. With inventory levels not really an issue for the crude oil market, what can be made of OPEC+'s assertion of "healthy" fundamentals. ASIA IMPORTS The situation in Asia, the world's biggest importing region and buyer of about 60% of global seaborne crude volumes, is instructive. Asia's seaborne imports recovered in March and April after a weak February, with commodity analysts Kpler showing arrivals of 25.27 million bpd and 25.28 million bpd respectively. This was up from 23.31 million bpd in January and 23.94 million bpd in February. However, for the first four months of 2025 Asia's seaborne imports are still down 280,000 bpd from the same period in 2024, hardly suggestive of healthy demand. It's also the case that much of the increase in March and April was down to elevated imports by China, and those reflected temporary factors. March arrivals were boosted by a sharp jump in imports from Iran as refiners stocked up on cheaper crude amid fears of increased U.S. sanctions on shipments from the Islamic Republic. In April, China saw a rebound in imports from Russia, which had been softer in March amid tighter U.S. measures on vessels carrying Russian crude. The outlook for crude demand is also somewhat mixed in coming months. While May to July is traditionally a higher demand season amid summer construction and agriculture activity, there is an increasing likelihood that the trade war launched by Trump will start curbing oil demand. The massive 145% tariff on imports from China is already reducing container shipping, and will likely affect air freight in coming weeks as well. Lower shipping volumes will filter through to weaker road transport in both China and the United States, and faltering consumer confidence is likely to hurt air and road travel. Even if trade tensions do ease, the slowdown in shipping is already locked in for the next few months and perhaps longer as it will take time for supply chains to recover or be re-worked. So what is OPEC+ actually trying to achieve by lifting output? There are several answers, and probably all hold some validity. The group's de facto leader Saudi Arabia may well be trying to encourage greater quote compliance from other members by forcing them to accept lower prices. The Saudis may also be trying to go some way to meeting Trump's demand for lower prices, which would help the U.S. leader fulfil a campaign promise of lower energy costs, although it would also come at the cost of hurting the U.S. oil industry that he promised to boost. OPEC+ may also be trying to use low prices to limit oil output in other major producers, such as the United States and Brazil, given their higher cost of production. The end result is that it's hard to make anything other than a bearish case for oil prices, at least for the coming months, as more supply runs headlong into the rising likelihood of lower demand. The early market assessment of the OPEC+ move bears this out, with Brent futures dropping as much as 3.7% in early Asian trade to a low of $58.50 a barrel, down from the close of $61.29 on May 2. The views expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/opecs-healthy-crude-oil-market-looks-like-catching-cold-russell-2025-05-05/

2025-05-05 11:59

MADRID, May 5 (Reuters) - Spain's high-speed trains between Madrid and the southern region of Andalusia resumed on Monday after thefts of copper cables brought them to a standstill on Sunday evening, leaving passengers trapped in trains overnight and stranded at stations. Thieves stole cables in four areas within a 10-kilometre radius in what Transport Minister Oscar Puente called a "serious act of sabotage" in a post on X. Sign up here. State-owned national rail infrastructure operator Adif said train circulation will gradually return to normal. Thousands of people were left waiting in Madrid's Atocha station. It comes after hundreds of passengers were left trapped on trains last week during a nationwide blackout. "All of a sudden in the last two weeks (this happens). What is going on?" said Kevin, a retired visitor from the United States waiting at Madrid's Atocha station. "I am amazed that this is happening here," lawyer Carlos Zuzunaga, 38, told Reuters, as he prepared to catch a train to Andalusia's capital. Nine trains were left stranded between stations, with many passengers forced to spend the night onboard, according to interviews on state broadcaster TVE. The high-speed network has rapidly expanded in Spain as part of a government push to decarbonise public transport. The network connects almost all the country's big cities but is vulnerable to cable thefts because it crosses large swathes of empty countryside. The disruption came at the end of a long weekend in Madrid and before the Feria festival in Seville. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/copper-cable-thefts-spain-leave-passengers-trapped-trains-overnight-2025-05-05/