2024-11-30 14:19

SAO PAULO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) , opens new tab has launched a bid for up to two offshore oil production vessels for its Sergipe state deepwater project SEAP, it said in a securities filing late on Friday. The floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) units will be contracted on the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model, in which the hired firm projects, builds and operates the unit for some time before transferring it to Petrobras. The Brazilian oil giant said the move includes bids for a firm FPSO for the SEAP 2 project, which it expects to start operating in 2030, and an option to purchase a second unit for the SEAP 1 project. Each platform would be able to process 120,000 barrels of oil and up to 12 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, according to Petrobras. A Petrobras executive earlier this month had already said the firm was planning to launch the new process by the end of 2024 after a previous attempt failed to attract bids, delaying the project that was supposed to start production in 2028. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/petrobras-launches-bid-vessels-sergipe-deepwater-project-2024-11-30/

2024-11-30 12:50

BANGKOK, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The death toll from the worst floods in decades in southern Thailand and northern Malaysia climbed to at least 12 on Saturday, authorities said, as tens of thousands of people were evacuated due to rising water levels in the past three days. In southern Thailand, the floods have impacted nearly 534,000 households, with the death toll climbing to nine from four reported on Friday and leaving thousands in 200 temporary shelters that have been set up in affected areas, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said. The Chana district of Songkhla province suffered the worst floods in 50 years, with video footage showing people being carried out to trucks from their homes inundated by a torrent of flood water. Another video footage showed rescuers in Sateng Nok District of Yala province carrying a baby out from the roof of a home hit by the floods on Saturday. In neighbouring Malaysia, the floods have impacted nearly 139,000 people in nine states, leaving three dead since Friday, according to the National Disaster Command Centre. Thailand's Meteorological Department said that several areas in southern Thailand can expect more heavy rain on Saturday and warn of more flash floods in effected areas. Neighbouring Philippines was hit by six typhoons in just month in November, causing widespread devastation. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/death-toll-rises-12-thailand-malaysia-face-worst-floods-decades-2024-11-30/

2024-11-30 11:44

Italian agriculture hit by drought, plant disease Start-up Wakonda sees huge potential for cactus pears Cactus' cultivation is expanding in many countries Versatile crop has many uses, from animal feed to fuel ROME, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Global warming, drought and plant disease pose a growing threat to agriculture in Italy's arid south, but a startup founded by a former telecoms manager believes it has found a solution: Opuntia Ficus, better known as the cactus pear. Andrea Ortenzi saw the plant's potential 20 years ago when working for Telecom Italia in Brazil, where it is widely used as animal feed. On returning to Italy he began looking at ways to turn his intuition into a business opportunity. He and four friends founded their company, called Wakonda, in 2021, and began buying land to plant the crop in the southern Puglia region where the traditionally dominant olive trees had been ravaged by an insect-borne disease called Xylella. The damage from the plant disease has been compounded by recurring droughts and extreme weather in the last few years all over Italy's southern mainland and islands, hitting crops from grapes to citrus fruits. Ortenzi is convinced the hardy and versatile cactus pear, otherwise called the prickly pear or, in Italy, the Indian fig, can be a highly profitable solution yielding a raft of products such as soft drinks, flour, animal feed and biofuel. The Italian businessman is far from alone in seeing the potential of the plant, whose cultivation is expanding in hot and dry regions around the world. "As an industry, cactus pear production is growing rather quickly, especially for fodder use and as a source of biofuel," said Makiko Taguchi, agricultural officer at the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation headquartered in Rome. MULTIPLE USES The cactus produces a tasty fruit eaten in much of Latin America and the Mediterranean, while in Mexico the flat green pads that form the arms of the cactus, are used in cooking. In Tunisia, where it covers around 12% of cultivated land, second only to olive trees, the cactus pear is a major source of income for thousands, particularly women who harvest and sell the fruit. In Brazil, which has the world's largest production, it is mainly cultivated in the north-east for fodder, while Peru and Chile use it to extract a red dye known as Cochineal, used in food and cosmetic production. Sportswear group Adidas and carmaker Toyota have recently shown interest in using the cactus to produce plant-based leather sourced mainly from Mexico. The cactus pear is not yet included in the FAO's agricultural output statistics, but Taguchi cited the rapid expansion of CactusNet , opens new tab, a contact network of cactus researchers and businesses worldwide which she coordinates. The FAO launched the group online in 2015 with 69 members. It now has 933 members in 82 countries. The plant, native to desert areas of south and north America, thrives in the increasingly arid conditions of Italy's south, and needs ten times less water than maize, a comparable crop whose byproducts also include animal feed and methane. So far Wakonda, an American Indian word meaning nature's omnipresent creative force, has planted just 10 hectares of cactus with 40,000 plants per hectare, but Ortenzi plans to plant 300 hectares by the end of 2025, and he is thinking big. Of the roughly 100,000 hectares of olive trees destroyed by Xylella in southern Puglia, only 30,000 will be replanted in the same way, he told Reuters in an interview. "Potentially 70,000 could be planted with prickly pears," he said. In the long run the possibilities could be even greater, Ortenzi said, considering more than a million hectares of arable land have been abandoned in Italy in recent decades as climate change has made it more difficult to produce traditional crops. WAKONDA'S MODEL Wakonda's business model discards the fruit and focuses instead on the prickly pads, which are pressed to yield a juice used for a highly nutritious, low-calorie energy drink. The dried out pads are then processed to produce a light flour for the food industry or a high-protein animal feed. Wakonda's circular, ecological production system also includes "biodigester" tanks in which the waste from the output cycle is transformed into methane gas used as a bio-fuel either on site or sold. The company, which now has 37 shareholders, is in contact with mayors, firms and universities to develop its products. Under Ortenzi's business plan, rather than buying up land to plant the cactus, Wakonda aims to persuade farmers of its potential and then licence out to them, in return for royalties, all the equipment and know-how required to exploit it. "The land remains yours, you convert it to prickly pears and I guarantee to buy all your output for at least 15 years," Ortenzi said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/cactus-pear-is-crop-with-potential-italys-parched-south-beyond-2024-11-30/

2024-11-30 08:53

PRISTINA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Kosovo's Interior minister Xhelal Svecla said on Saturday that police had arrested eight people after an explosion hit a canal that sends water to its two main power plants, an incident Pristina labelled a "terrorist act" by neighbouring Serbia. Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic denied what he said were "baseless accusations" about Belgrade's involvement in the incident, which occurred around 7 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday. "Somehow we managed to fix the damage, arrest the suspects and confiscate a huge arsenal of weapons," Svecla said during a live-streamed press conference. Police commander Gazmend Hoxha said those arrested “are suspected of inciting, organising and even executing these recent terrorist acts and in particular the one in the canal of Iber Lepenc.” Hoxha said an initial investigation had shown that between 15 and 20 kilos of explosives were used in the attack. Police raided 10 locations, confiscating more than 200 military uniforms, six shoulder-fired rocket launchers, long weapons, pistols and ammunition, he added. Police said most of the people arrested belong local Serb organization Civilna Zastita (Civil Protection), which the government in Kosovo has declared as a terrorist organization. Reuters was unable to contact the group. TENSIONS WITH SERBIA The explosion has increased tensions between the two Balkan countries. Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 almost a decade after a guerrilla uprising against its rule, but Serbia has not recognised Kosovo as an independent state. Relations remain especially frayed in the north of the country where the blast occurred, and where the Serb minority refuses to recognise Kosovo's statehood and still sees Belgrade as their capital. Kosovo's Security Council, which held emergency talks early on Saturday, said it had activated armed forces to prevent similar attacks. Security was already heightened after two recent attacks where hand grenades were hurled at a police station and municipality building in northern Kosovo where ethnic Serbians live. "The Security Council has approved additional measures to strengthen security around critical facilities and services such as bridges, transformer stations, antennas, lakes, canals," the council said in a statement on Saturday. NATO, which has maintained a peacekeeping force in Kosovo since 1999, condemned the attack in a statement on Saturday. Its personnel have provided security to the canal and the surrounding area since the blast, it said. A Reuters reporter visited the site on Saturday, where silt had poured through a hole in the canal's concrete wall. Workers had installed a series of large tubes to bypass the leak. Power supplies appeared to be largely intact, but drinking water supply was disrupted to some areas. Energy minister Artane Rizvanolli said Kosovo was coordinating with Albania's power company to provide more electricity. She said water will be trucked to affected areas. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kosovo-boosts-security-after-blast-threatens-power-supplies-2024-11-30/

2024-11-30 08:00

HANOI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Vietnam's parliament approved laws on data protection and electricity, as well as a resolution supporting a $67 billion high-speed rail project on Saturday, the last day of its twice-yearly regular session. The railway, Vietnam's most ambitious infrastructure project, is to run from the capital Hanoi to the southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City. The 1,541-km (958-mile) project is expected to be completed in 2035. The data law tightens requirements on personal data processing and data transfer overseas, a move that groups representing U.S. tech firms have said could hamper their operations in the Southeast Asian country. The law will also facilitate the government's access to data when authorities in the Communist-run nation consider that necessary. The electricity law is expected to remove some hurdles for investment in energy projects in Vietnam and speed up approvals of so-called direct power purchase agreements, which allow manufacturers to negotiate electricity supplies directly with providers of renewable energy. The measure aims to create a more comprehensive legal system for the energy sector, which is now subject to multiple, separate regulations. Additional legislative texts will need to be approved to complete the regulatory framework for specific energy sectors, such as offshore, wind and nuclear power. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vietnam-approves-data-electricity-laws-67-bln-rail-plan-2024-11-30/

2024-11-30 07:27

MOSCOW, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Russia's government lifted a temporary ban on the bulk of gasoline exports supplied by producers, while extending the restrictions for other exporters, such as independent traders and re-sellers, until Jan. 31, 2025, it said on Saturday. The initial ban on gasoline exports was set to expire at the end of this year. The ban does not include supplies to the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union of some former Soviet states as well as countries, such as Mongolia, with which Russia has inter-governmental agreements on fuel supplies. "The decision was taken to maintain a stable situation in the domestic fuel market, support the economy of oil refining, and counteract grey exports of motor gasoline," the statement says. The top gasoline producers in Russia are Gazprom Neft's (SIBN.MM) , opens new tab Omsk refinery, Lukoil's (LKOH.MM) , opens new tab NORSI oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod and Rosneft's (ROSN.MM) , opens new tab Ryazan refinery. Russia in 2023 produced 43.9 million metric tons of gasoline and exported about 5.76 million tons, or around 13% of its production. The biggest importers of Russian gasoline are mainly African countries, including Nigeria, Libya, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russia-lifts-gasoline-export-ban-producers-extends-others-2024-11-30/