2025-01-27 19:36

EU to provide aid to supply Moldova rebel region with gas Moldovan government says will be used to produce power Separatist region's leader optimistic about solution to crisis CHISINAU, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The European Union will provide 30 million euros ($31.5 million) to purchase and transport natural gas to Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniestria, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean said on Monday. The self-styled president of the pro-Russian separatist region, gripped since the New Year by power and wintertime heating cuts, expressed optimism about the crisis and predicted gas would flow to his region by the end of the week. Tens of thousands of people in Transdniestria have been without gas or winter heating since Jan. 1, when Russia's Gazprom suspended gas exports to the region, citing an unpaid Moldovan debt of $709 million that Chisinau does not recognise as valid. "The EU is immediately providing financial assistance in the amount of 30 million euros for the purchase of the necessary amount of natural gas," Recean told a news conference. Recean said Moldova had approved the transfer of an additional 3 million cubic metres of gas to Transdniestria. The gas has also been used to run a thermal plant in the region that provides power for government-held areas of Moldova. Recean told reporters that Hungarian company MOL intended to sign a contract with Moldovagaz to supply gas to Transdniestria. The announcement comes after Transdniestrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky said on Friday that gas reserves would be exhausted within days and urged the central government to end "artificial delays" and provide new supplies. On Monday, Krasnoselsky told Russian military television channel Zvezda that he held "a careful degree of optimism for a positive development of the situation". "As of today, talks are going on. The supplier will be European. Russia is providing us with credits," he said. Local gas distributor Tiraspoltransgaz, he said, would use the credits to pay for gas to be delivered to the region. "If things go well, the gas should be here by the end of the week if there is no purely physical resistance," he said. Daniel Voda, press secretary of the central Moldovan government, said it would produce and supply power to government-held areas of Moldova free of charge from Feb. 1 to 10 as part of the EU agreement to provide 30 million euros in assistance. Writing on Telegram, Voda said that would reduce electricity prices in Moldova, which have risen sharply since the thermal plant in the separatist region halted supplies. Moldova has been buying power from next-door Romania with markups of 30% to 35%. Moscow blames the suspension of gas supplies on pro-Western Moldova and Ukraine, which refused to extend a five-year gas transit deal that expired on Dec. 31, on the grounds that the proceeds help fund Russia's invasion. "In parallel, the Moldovan government and the EU are working on a two-year aid package to strengthen the energy resilience of the entire country," Recean said. ($1 = 0.9515 euros) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/eu-provides-30-mln-euros-transdniestrias-gas-supply-moldovas-pm-says-2025-01-27/

2025-01-27 19:18

PARIS, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The United States has reported its first outbreak of H5N9 bird flu in poultry on a duck farm in California, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Monday. U.S. authorities also detected the more common H5N1 strain on the same farm in Merced County, California, they said in a report to Paris-based WOAH, adding that the almost 119,000 birds on the farm had been killed by Dec. 2. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly called bird flu, has spread around the globe in recent years, leading to the culling of hundreds of millions of poultry. It also spread to dozens of mammal species, including dairy cows in the U.S. and killed a person in Louisiana. The strain that has caused most damage in recent years has been H5N1. H5N9 is rarer. "This is the first confirmed case of HPAI H5N9 in poultry in the United States," the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in the report to the WOAH. "The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in conjunction with State Animal Health and Wildlife Officials, are conducting comprehensive epidemiological investigations and enhanced surveillance in response to the HPAI related events," it added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-reported-first-outbreak-h5n9-bird-flu-poultry-woah-says-2025-01-27/

2025-01-27 19:17

Jan 27 (Reuters) - U.S.-based Diversified Energy (DEC.N) , opens new tab said on Monday it will buy private equity-owned Maverick Natural Resources for $1.28 billion, including debt, to expand into the oil and gas-rich Permian Basin, sending its shares up 4.3%. A dealmaking boom has swept through the U.S. shale industry in the last two years as large producers look to gain scale, creating opportunities for buyout firms holding oil and gas assets. EIG was exploring a potential sale of Maverick that could value the U.S. oil and gas producer at nearly $3 billion, including debt, Reuters reported in August. The deal was a first step for Diversified Energy to gain access to the Permian Basin, executives said on the conference call, whereby they could add on to their portfolio through bolt-on acquisitions. Maverick's asset base in the Permian Basin, the world's largest shale oil-producing region, consists of producing oil fields in West Texas and New Mexico. Diversified Energy, which focuses on producing natural gas and liquids from the Appalachia basin and Central Basin, said it would take on about $700 million of Maverick's debt, giving the combined company a value of about $3.8 billion. Combined production from the pro-forma company would total 59,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with 34% being weighted to oil, 22% to natural gas liquids, and 44% to natural gas. Maverick's current owner, EIG Global Energy Partners, will own about 20% of the new company and will appoint two board members. Diversified Energy CEO Rusty Hutson will lead the combined company and Chair David Johnson will continue in the role at the new company. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/diversified-energy-buy-energy-producer-maverick-13-bln-deal-2025-01-27/

2025-01-27 18:42

OTTAWA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Monday she would soon be talking to counterparts in allied nations in a bid to fend off tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to impose. Joly told reporters she would speak to the foreign ministers of Britain, Mexico and some members of the 27-nation European Union. "We have to be extremely pragmatic when it comes to working with the Europeans and also with Britain on this. President Trump has referred to using tariffs against the world," Joly said after a meeting of a cabinet committee on U.S. relations. "In many European capitals ... the conversation is ongoing on how to deal in terms of retaliation and what could be different responses to tariffs." Trump says he is ready to impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada unless Ottawa clamps down on border security. Joly, who reiterated that Canada would respond with countermeasures in case of tariffs, said she would be in Washington this week for talks with officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-speak-partners-bid-fend-off-us-tariffs-says-minister-2025-01-27/

2025-01-27 18:14

ACCRA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Ghana plans to launch a Gold Board to streamline gold purchases from small-scale miners, increase earnings and reduce smuggling, the west African country's newly appointed finance minister Cassiel Ato Forson said on Monday. The Gold Board will allow Africa's leading gold producer to increase its benefits from the precious metal's sales and help maintain the national currency's stability. Data from Ghana's central bank showed that total gold exports for 2024 stood at $11.64 billion, a 53.2% year-on-year increase which helped nearly double Ghana's trade surplus to $4.98 billion in 2024. The minister said nearly $5 billion worth of gold exported last year was from legal small-scale miners. "The time has come for Ghana to expand beyond royalties and taxes by harnessing the entire value chain of gold ... from extraction to refinery, value addition and marketing, both locally and internationally," Forson said. The board will be launched in early March, he added. The gold programme will be implemented with the aim of pursuing the stringent London Bullion Market Association certification, which prohibits refiners from handling gold from sources contributing to human rights abuses, conflict, crime or environmental degradation. "Currently, the chaos in the Ghana's gold purchasing sector prevents the nation from fully benefiting from its gold resources," Forson said. The board will act as the sole buyer of gold through licence aggregators and local traders, shifting away from the system where Ghanaians and foreign companies with export licenses could purchase it without going through the approved rules. "This fragmented, uncoordinated, and unregulated system has led to a widespread gold smuggling and deprived the state of much-needed foreign exchange," Forson said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ghana-plans-gold-board-increase-earnings-curb-smuggling-2025-01-27/

2025-01-27 17:36

ORLANDO, Florida, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Few countries have been hit harder by the soaring dollar and U.S. bond yields than Brazil. But the country has one thing going for it - as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to levy punitive tariffs on many of America's major trading partners, Brasilia is unlikely to be in his protectionist line of fire. Brazil has not run a trade surplus with the United States since 2007. However, with its economy and markets at a delicate juncture, Brazil cannot be complacent. Brazil is once again the classic case of an emerging economy under the cosh. Financial conditions are the tightest since 2016, according to Goldman Sachs, real yields above 10% are the highest in more than 15 years, and its currency has never been weaker. The central bank has sought to prop up the real, hiking rates by 100 basis points last month and promising another 200 bps to come. Brazil's primary fiscal balance is healthy, but the soaring interest burden is a drain on the public finances. The central bank also has intervened heavily in the FX market to support the real, spending $28 billion of reserves in December alone. That was 9% of its total reserves, the biggest drop in 19 years. Investors are understandably anxious and pulled a net $12.6 billion from debt and equity funds in December. That was the second-biggest outflow since the central bank series began in 1995. SPECIAL CASE Will Trump's return to the White House add more fuel to the fire? On the one hand, Brazil position among large emerging countries is unique. America's top 20 trading partners in 2023 included nine emerging economies of which Brazil was the only one that didn't export more than it imported, according to U.S. government data. While Brazil last year posted a hefty trade surplus of $74.6 billion, its second largest on record, its bilateral trade balance with the U.S. was flat. Indeed, until last year, Brazil had run a trade deficit with the U.S. every year since 2007. So Trump cannot claim Brazil is "taking advantage" of the U.S. or treating it "unfairly", accusations he has fired at many other countries including Germany, Canada, China, Mexico and other emerging economies that run huge trade surpluses with the U.S. COLLATERAL DAMAGE However, there is scope for tension in a number of areas. First, Trump and Brazil's left-wing leader Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva could not be further apart ideologically, and there is deep friction between Brasilia and Elon Musk, Trump's efficiency czar, about control over social media. Brazil was also already a target of Trump's public salvos, albeit indirectly, when he took aim at the BRICS group of nations in November for supposedly having plans to back away from or replace the "mighty" dollar. Perhaps more worryingly, Brazil could suffer collateral damage if Trump makes good on his threats to disrupt global trade. As Elizabeth Johnson at TS Lombard points out, if blanket tariffs destabilize the global economy – and especially if they slow activity in Brazil's largest trading partner, China – there will "almost certainly" be a hard economic landing in Brazil next year. HISTORY LESSON Brazil's experience with Trump 1.0 offers reasons for both hope and anxiety this time around. In Trump's first presidency, tit-for-tat tariffs led Beijing to take permanent steps to reduce its reliance on U.S. agriculture goods, which was a boon for Brazil. In 2016, China sourced 40% of its imported soybeans from the United States. In the first 11 months of last year, that figure had more than halved to 18%. Meanwhile, Brazil's share grew to 74% from 46%, according to Chinese customs data. On the other hand, China could acquiesce to Trump by agreeing to increase U.S agricultural imports in exchange for lower tariffs. This would have a knock-on effect on Brazilian exporters, just when Brasilia is hoping higher exports on the back of a weak exchange rate will be a key source of growth this year. There's also the risk that Lula responds to Trump's disruptive moves with populist, protectionist measures of his own. The U.S. economy – and especially its markets – are likely strong enough to withstand a period of Trump-led disruption. Unfortunately for Lula, Brazil's almost certainly are not. (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/brazil-could-be-collateral-damage-trump-trade-war-mcgeever-2025-01-27/