2025-03-02 10:07

ISTANBUL, March 2 (Reuters) - Turkey wants an Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline to operate at maximum capacity once it resumes flows through Turkey's Ceyhan, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar was quoted as saying by the state-owned Anadolu news agency on Sunday. The pipeline was halted by Turkey in March 2023 after the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad $1.5 billion in damages for unauthorised exports between 2014 and 2018. Turkey has said since late 2023 that it is ready to resume operations at the pipeline, carrying oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. Bayraktar told Reuters last month that Ankara had not received confirmation on resuming flows. On Friday, eight international oil firms operating in Iraq's Kurdistan region said they would not resume oil exports through Turkey's Ceyhan despite an announcement from Baghdad that the restart was imminent. "This pipeline has been ready for 1.5 years already. We want the Turkey-Iraq pipeline, especially the two pipelines of 650 km from our Silopi to Ceyhan to be used," Bayraktar said. "We want some of the oil passing through this line to go to the refinery in Kirikkale, and also via ships through Ceyhan, to refineries in Turkey or to different refineries in the world, so that the capacity of the line can be used at the maximum level," he added. Bayraktar also said a planned trade route project involving Turkey and Iraq, dubbed the Development Road Project, included the construction of a pipeline reaching the Persian Gulf for the Iraqi oil flows to go to global markets via Turkey. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/turkey-wants-iraq-turkey-pipeline-work-maximum-capacity-minister-says-2025-03-02/

2025-03-02 05:20

March 2 (Reuters) - India's Adani Group has revived plans for major infrastructure investments in the U.S., where the group's founder has been charged with bribery, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Since the election of President Donald Trump, the conglomerate has reactivated potential plans to fund projects in sectors such as nuclear power and utilities, as well as an East Coast port, the report said, citing four people close to founder and chair Gautam Adani. Federal prosecutors in New York unsealed an indictment in November accusing Gautam Adani of bribing Indian officials to persuade them to buy electricity produced by Adani Green Energy (ADNA.NS) , opens new tab. "We know what we want to do, but we will wait until this (case) resolves," the FT quoted a person close to Adani as saying. Adani Group has said the charges were "baseless" and that it would seek "all possible legal recourse." It did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the FT report. The group had previously been in talks with U.S. companies on potential partnerships and had looked at petrochemical investments in Texas, the newspaper said. After Trump's November election win, Gautam Adani said the group planned to invest $10 billion in U.S. energy security and infrastructure projects, creating a potential 15,000 jobs. Trump has vowed to make it easier for energy companies to drill on federal land and build pipelines. "Once Trump came in, we have reactivated some plans," the FT said, citing another source it did not name. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked Indian authorities last month for help in its investigation of Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani over allegations of securities fraud and a $265-million bribery scheme. In 2023 the conglomerate was accused by U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, which disbanded earlier this year, of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation that sparked a $150 billion rout in shares of the group's companies. Adani denied those allegations. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-adani-group-revives-us-investment-plans-ft-reports-2025-03-02/

2025-03-02 00:50

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a new trade investigation that could heap more tariffs on imported lumber, adding to existing duties on Canadian softwood lumber and 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican goods due next week. In his third new tariff probe in a week, Trump signed a memo ordering Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to initiate a national security investigation into U.S. lumber imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The trade law is the one Trump also used to impose tariffs on global steel and aluminum imports. The probe covers derivative products made from lumber which could include furniture such as kitchen cabinets, which in some cases are made of U.S. lumber that had been exported. The order said the Commerce Department investigation must be completed within 270 days. Trump also ordered new steps within 90 days to increase the domestic supply of lumber by streamlining the permitting process for harvesting lumber from public lands and improving the salvage of fallen trees from forests and waterways. The order calls for new or updated agency guidance to facilitate increased timber production, including quicker approvals for forestry projects under the Endangered Species Act. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the lumber import probe would counteract the actions of big lumber exporters including Canada, Germany and Brazil, which he said were "dumping lumber into our markets at the expense of both our economic prosperity and national security." "That stops today with a pair of Trumpian actions designed to both bolster supply of and demand for American timber and lumber," he told reporters on a conference call ahead of the signing. A White House official said that increasing reliance on imported lumber represents a possible national security risk partly because the U.S. military consumes significant quantities of lumber for its construction activities and because increasing dependence on imports for a commodity with ample domestic supplies is a danger to the U.S. economy. The official did not provide details on a proposed tariff rate under the Section 232 lumber probe, but Trump earlier this month told reporters that he was thinking about imposing a 25% tariff rate on lumber and forest products. The official said any tariffs resulting from the probe would be added to the existing 14.5% combined anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Canadian softwood lumber. These were the result of a long-running U.S.-Canada trade dispute over Canada's low stumpage fees on public lands, which Washington argues is an unfair subsidy. Most U.S. lumber is harvested from private land at market-determined rates. Home builders have long criticized the tariffs as raising lumber prices and contributing to home price inflation. The official said the new lumber duties also would stack on top of Trump's threatened 25% general U.S. tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican goods that are scheduled to take effect on Tuesday unless Trump is persuaded by the two countries' efforts to secure their borders and halt fentanyl trafficking. The new tariff probe follows Trump's order on Tuesday for a new Section 232 into copper imports, aimed at rebuilding U.S. production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware and the power grid. On Feb. 21, Trump ordered U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to revive investigations aimed at imposing tariffs on imports from countries that levy digital services taxes on U.S. technology companies. Canada would again be in the firing line for such penalties, along with France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Austria, India and Turkey. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-orders-new-tariff-probe-into-us-lumber-imports-2025-03-02/

2025-03-01 20:34

March 1 (Reuters) - A new monitoring mission from the U.N. nuclear watchdog arrived on Saturday at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine for the first time through Russian territory, a Russia-installed head of the plant said. The IAEA rotation came after weeks of delay caused by military activity around the site with each side blaming the other for violating rules to ensure the team's safe passage to the plant. "It is fundamentally important that the route passed through the territory of the Russian Federation for the first time," Yuri Chernichuk, the Russia-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine, said in a video on Telegram. The arrival of three inspectors, he added, was ensured by Russia's defence ministry and national guard and followed "intense" consultations between the heads of Russia's state nuclear power company Rosatom and IAEA. Reuters could not independently verify the report. The IAEA could not be reached outside business hours to comment on the Russian statement. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Russian troops seized the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest with six reactors, in the first weeks of their February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It produces no electricity at the moment. Russia and Ukraine have since routinely accused each other of firing on or near the station and risking a nuclear accident. The IAEA has deployed staff to the plant since September 2022 and is also present at Ukraine's other nuclear plants. Rafael Grossi, the IAEA's executive director, has repeatedly urged both sides to refrain from any actions posing a risk to the plant. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/new-iaea-mission-arrives-russian-held-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-russia-says-2025-03-01/

2025-03-01 19:54

TEGUCIGALPA, March 1 (Reuters) - Power was largely back in Honduras early Saturday afternoon, after a blackout struck the country earlier, Ministry of Energy Erick Tejada said. The national power disruption affected Honduras with a total blackout in the control area of the country, the Central American electricity earket supervisor EOR said. "90% of the energy demand throughout the country is already powered up," Tejada said on X, adding that information is still being gathered to find the origin of the failure. While the Honduran national electric power company had said earlier that a regional power failure had affected several areas in Latin America, EOR pointed out that the blackout was originated in Honduras. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/power-largely-back-after-outage-hit-honduras-2025-03-01/

2025-03-01 19:24

March 1 (Reuters) - Russian air defences on Saturday repelled an attack by three Ukrainian drones on a compressor station that is part of the Turkstream pipeline system taking Russian gas to Europe, the Russian Defence Ministry said. "In repelling the attack, Russian air defences downed three Ukrainian drones at a safe distance from the compressor station," the statement said, referring to the "Russkaya" station in southern Russia's Krasnodar region. "The compressor station is now carrying out the flow of gas on the Turkstream pipeline in normal conditions." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asked his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, to use all means at his disposal to prevent future attacks and Fidan pledged to do so, the Russian foreign ministry said on its website. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, whose country receives Russian gas through Turkstream, said on Facebook that Lavrov had informed him of the attack by telephone. Szijjarto said the operation of Turkstream was critical to Hungary's energy security and called on the European Union to uphold guarantees that infrastructure linked to the 27-nation bloc would not come under attack. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-repelled-ukrainian-drone-attack-turkstream-pipeline-compressor-2025-03-01/