2025-02-22 16:18

CAPE TOWN, Feb 22 (Reuters) - South Africa's Eskom will cut 3,000 megawatts of power in controlled outages, known locally as loadshedding, from 5:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) on Saturday until further notice after a "temporary setback", the power utility said. At the end of January, Eskom implemented similar power cuts after 10 months of uninterrupted supply as the utility aims to overcome chronic outages that have curtailed economic growth for years. In a statement, Eskom said it would provide an update on Sunday and did not indicate what the latest setback was. Regular breakdowns at its fleet of ageing coal-fired plants that provide the bulk of electricity in Africa's most industrialised economy are often the cause of loadshedding - an incremental system where stage 1 sees 1,000 MW cut from the national grid, with stage 6 the highest implemented to date. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africa-faces-stage-3-power-outages-says-eskom-2025-02-22/

2025-02-22 15:17

Baghdad, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Iraq's oil ministry said in a statement on Saturday that all procedures had been completed to allow the resumption of exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline. Iraq's oil minister said on Monday that oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region will resume next week, resolving a near two-year dispute that has disrupted crude flows as ties between Baghdad and Erbil improve. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is putting pressure on Iraq to allow Kurdish oil exports to restart or face sanctions alongside Iran, sources have told Reuters. An Iraqi official later denied pressure or the threat of sanctions. The federal government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) held technical talks following the oil minister's statements earlier this week to iron out details necessary for the resumption of exports, such as a payment mechanism acceptable to oil companies. The Iraqi oil minister's announcement comes after the Iraqi parliament approved on February 2 a budget amendment that set a rate of $16 per barrel for oil transport and production costs in Kurdistan. The amendment also requires the KRG transfer its oil output to the state-run State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) The oil ministry in its Saturday statement asked the KRG to start delivering crude to SOMO in order for exports to resume. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/iraqs-oil-ministry-says-procedures-oil-exports-through-turkish-pipeline-complete-2025-02-22/

2025-02-22 14:39

GABARONE, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Flash floods across Botswana have killed seven people including three children and uprooted thousands after days of heavy rains, President Duma Boko said on Saturday. Authorities have temporarily shut schools and blocked roads following more than a week of downpours. "We will continue to work in the short term to mitigate further losses," Boko said in a televised address as over 1,700 people were evacuated from flood-stricken areas. In the capital Gabarone, where the local dam was overflowing, cars were washed away and properties waterlogged as emergency workers braced for more rain in coming days. Disaster management officials suggested that inadequate drainage in urban areas may have contributed to water building up in some of the worst hit low-lying areas. "We must relook at our infrastructure planning to determine that indeed our infrastructure on a national level can handle droughts as well as floods," Boko said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/botswana-flash-floods-kill-seven-displace-thousands-2025-02-22/

2025-02-22 14:31

Feb 22 (Reuters) - Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini does not intend to renew his contract with the Serie A club, he said on Saturday, adding that he would still explore the option of extending his current deal until 2026. Gasperini, appointed Atalanta coach in 2016, has turned around the club's fortunes in his nine-year spell, transforming them from a mid-table side to Champions League regulars. Under the 67-year-old, Atalanta won the Europa League trophy last season with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the final. Gasperini is under contract until June 2025 with an option to extend it by a year. Asked if Atalanta, who are third in Serie A with 51 points from 25 matches, could secure qualification for the Champions League this season, Gasperini told reporters: "I have little time to do this, maybe it's the last one. "Rightly so, as has been said there is a beginning and an end, we'll see at the end of the year whether to go for expiry or to stop, certainly there will be no continuity. There will be no further renewal and continuity." Gasperini, who started his coaching career with Juventus' youth team, joined Atalanta after ending a second spell in charge of Genoa. Under Gasperini's guidance, Genoa were promoted to Serie A in 2007 following a 12-year absence from the top flight. He has also had coaching spells with Inter Milan and Palermo. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/atalanta-coach-gasperini-says-he-will-not-renew-contract-2025-02-22/

2025-02-22 12:49

BEIRUT, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria have begun providing oil from local fields they manage to the central government in Damascus, Syrian oil ministry spokesman Ahmed Suleiman told Reuters on Saturday. It was the first public acknowledgement of internal oil deliveries from Syria's oil-rich northeast to the Islamist-run government installed after former leader Bashar al-Assad was toppled by rebels in December. Suleiman said the oil was from fields in the provinces of Hasakeh and Deir el-Zor and that the deliveries took place based on an amended version of a previous arrangement between the Assad government and Kurdish authorities. He said Syria's new leaders had changed articles in that deal that had "served the interests of people linked to the Assad regime". A source from northeast Syria's semi-autonomous administration told Reuters that the deal involved sending 5,000 barrels a day of crude from the Rmeilan field in Hasakeh and other fields in Deir el-Zor province to a refinery in Homs. Syria exported 380,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2010, a year before protests against Assad's rule spiralled into a nearly 14-year war that devastated the country's economy and infrastructure - including its oil. Oilfields changed hands multiple times, with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces ultimately capturing the key northeast fields, although U.S. and European sanctions made both legitimate exports and imports difficult. The United States issued a six-month sanctions exemption in January allowing some energy transactions and the European Union is set to suspend its sanctions related to energy, transport and reconstruction. In the interim, Syria is seeking to import oil via local intermediaries after its first post-Assad import tenders garnered little interest from major traders due to sanctions and financial risks, several trade sources told Reuters. The internal oil trade is also a key part of talks between the northeast region and the new authorities in Damascus, which want to bring all regions in Syria under centralised control. Sources said the SDF would likely need to relinquish control of oil revenues as part of any settlement. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said last month that his force was open to handing over responsibility for oil resources to the new administration, provided the wealth was distributed fairly to all provinces. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrias-northeast-begins-supplying-oil-damascus-oil-ministry-says-2025-02-22/

2025-02-22 07:43

U.S. pressures Iraq to restart pipeline to Turkey, halt Kurdish oil smuggling to Iran - sources Iran views ally Iraq as vital to keeping its economy afloat Kurdish oil export resumption faces technical and payment hurdles Restart could raise questions about Iraq's OPEC+ compliance, analysts say DUBAI/BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is piling pressure on Iraq to allow Kurdish oil exports to restart or face sanctions alongside Iran, eight sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. An advisor to the Iraqi prime minister denied in a statement there had been a threat of sanctions or pressure on the government during its communications with the U.S. administration. A speedy resumption of exports from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region would help to offset a potential fall in Iranian oil exports, which Washington has pledged to cut to zero as part of Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran. The U.S. government has said it wants to isolate Iran from the global economy and eliminate its oil export revenues in order to slow Iran's development of a nuclear weapon. Iraq's oil minister made a surprise announcement on Monday that exports from Kurdistan would resume next week. That would mark the end of a near two-year dispute that has cut flows of more than 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Kurdish oil via Turkey to global markets. Reuters spoke to eight sources in Baghdad, Washington and Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, who said that mounting pressure from the new U.S. administration was a key driver behind Monday's announcement. All of the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. Iran views its neighbor and ally Iraq as vital for keeping its economy afloat amidst sanctions. But Baghdad, a partner to both the United States and Iran, is wary of being caught in the crosshairs of Trump's policy to squeeze Tehran, the sources said. Trump wants Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to sever economic and military ties with Iran. Last week, Reuters reported that Iraq's central bank blocked five more private banks from dollar access at the request of the U.S. Treasury. Iraq's announcement on export resumption was hurried and lacked detail on how it would address technical issues that need to be resolved before flows can restart, four of the eight sources also. Iran wields considerable military, political and economic influence in Iraq through its powerful Shi'ite militias and the political parties it backs in Baghdad. But the increased U.S. pressure comes at a time when Iran has been weakened by Israel's attacks on its regional proxies. Farhad Alaaldin, a foreign affairs adviser to the Iraqi prime minister, said in a statement there was no U.S. threat to impose sanctions if oil exports were not resumed. He noted Iraq's parliament had already passed a law establishing a price for the oil and it was down to the companies involved to start pumping it to the pipeline. "Decisions related to the management of national resources are taken in accordance with Iraqi sovereignty and in a way that serves the country's economic interests," he said. CURB SMUGGLING With the pipeline taking Kurdish crude to the Turkish port of Ceyhan closed since 2023, the smuggling of Kurdish oil to Iran by truck has flourished. The U.S. is urging Baghdad to curb this flow, six of the eight sources said. Reuters reported in July that an estimated 200,000 barrels per day of cut-price crude was being smuggled from Kurdistan to Iran and, to a lesser extent, Turkey by truck. The sources said the exports remained at around that level. "Washington is pressuring Baghdad to ensure Kurdish crude is exported to global markets through Turkey rather than being sold cheaply to Iran," said an Iraqi oil official with knowledge of the crude trucking shipments crossing to Iran. While the closure of the Turkish pipeline has prompted an uptick in Kurdish oil smuggling via Iran, a larger network that some experts believe generates at least $1 billion a year for Iran and its proxies has flourished in Iraq since al-Sudani took office in 2022, Reuters reported last year. Two U.S. administration officials confirmed the U.S. had asked the Iraqi government to resume Kurdish exports. One of them said the move would help to dampen upward pressure on oil prices. Asked about the administration's pressuring of Iraq to open up Kurdish oil exports, a White House official said: "It's not only important for regional security that our Kurdish partners be allowed to export their own oil but also help keep the price of gas low." There has been close military cooperation between authorities in Kurdistan and the United States in the fight against Islamic State. Trump's restoration of the "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran was one of his first acts after returning to office in late January. In addition to efforts to drive Iran's oil exports to zero, Trump ordered the U.S. treasury secretary to ensure that Iran can't use Iraq's financial system. Trump also came into office promising to lower energy costs for Americans. A sharp drop in oil exports from Iran could drive up oil prices, and with it the gasoline price worldwide. The resumption of Kurdish exports would help offset some of the loss to global supply of lower Iranian exports, but would cover only a fraction of the more than 2 million bpd of crude and fuel that Iran ships. However, Iran has proven adept in the past at finding means to circumvent U.S. sanctions on its oil sales. Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said the restart of exports from Kurdistan could help increase global oil supplies at a time when output was disrupted from other regions, such as Kazakhstan, where exports have dropped this week following a Ukrainian drone attack on a major pipeline pumping station in southern Russia. "At this point in time, I believe the market has adopted a relatively neutral but nervous stance on crude oil prices," he said. HURDLES TO RESTART 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 unauthorized exports between 2014 and 2018. There are still unresolved issues around payment, pricing and maintenance, the sources told Reuters. Two days of talks in the Kurdish city of Erbil this week failed to reach agreement, sources said. The federal government wanted exports to restart without making commitments to the KRG on payments and without clarity on the payment mechanism, a source familiar with the matter said. "We can't do that. We need clear visibility on guarantees," the source said. Oil companies working in Kurdistan also have questions over payments. Executives from Norwegian firm DNO (DNO.OL) , opens new tab told analysts on Feb. 6 that before agreeing to ship oil through the pipeline to Ceyhan they wanted to understand how the company would be paid for future deliveries and how it would recoup $300 million for the oil it had delivered before the pipeline was shut. Turkey has yet to receive any information from Iraq on the resumption of flows, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told Reuters on Wednesday. A restart could also cause issues in OPEC+, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia and other allies, where Iraq has been under pressure to comply with its pledge to reduce its output. Additional supply from the Kurdish region could put Iraq over its OPEC+ supply target. An Iraqi official said it was possible for Iraq to restart the pipeline and remain compliant with OPEC+ supply policy. Giovanni Staunovo, a commodity analyst at investment bank UBS, said the overall impact of the resumption could be muted. "From an oil market perspective, Iraq is bound to the OPEC+ production deal, so I wouldn't expect additional production from Iraq in case of a pipeline restart, but just a change in the way it is exported (currently, among others, using trucks)," he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-piles-pressure-iraq-resume-kurdish-oil-exports-sources-say-2025-02-21/