2024-11-09 05:00
NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Global oil prices "would have hit the roof" if big importer India had not bought oil from Russia following the Ukraine war, India's oil minister said, adding that prices would determine where the country buys oil from. India, the world's third largest oil importer and consumer, has become the top buyer of discounted Russian sea-borne oil shunned by Western countries since Ukraine's invasion began in early 2022. Before that, India bought little oil from its long-running defence partner, Russia. New Delhi has repeatedly defended its purchases from Russia as necessary to keep prices in check in the developing country of 1.42 billion people. "What many around the world don’t seem to realise is that global oil prices would have hit the roof if India had not bought oil from Russia," India's oil minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, wrote on X late on Friday. "We owe it to our citizens - India will buy oil from wherever our companies get the best rates." India's crude oil imports from Russia rose by 11.7% to about 1.9 million barrels per day in September, accounting for about two-fifths of the South Asian nation's overall crude imports in the month. Russia was followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia as India's biggest suppliers. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/india-says-oil-prices-would-have-rocketed-without-its-russian-imports-2024-11-09/
2024-11-09 04:02
TOKYO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The leaders of Japan and Peru will sign a joint statement later this month on cooperation in mineral mining technology, aimed at strengthening their supply chains for critical minerals through Japanese technology, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who plans to visit Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit on Nov. 15-16, will also hold a bilateral meeting with Peru's leader, according to Nikkei. Resource-poor Japan has been actively reinforcing global supply chains for critical minerals - essential components for electric vehicle batteries, renewable energy and other technologies supporting a decarbonised society. The two governments aim to create stable supply chains in Peru for critical minerals such as copper and zinc through technology provided by Japanese companies, the Nikkei said without citing specific sources. In addition, Japan and Peru plan to compile a 10-year roadmap outlining concrete measures across five areas, including economic cooperation for securing mineral resources and energy procurement, personnel exchange and security, Nikkei said. Japan's industry ministry was not immediately available for comment. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/japan-peru-agree-cooperation-mineral-mining-technology-nikkei-2024-11-09/
2024-11-09 02:47
Nov 8 (Reuters) - The storm Rafael rapidly weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm late on Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Rafael was located about 460 miles (740 km) east of the mouth of the Rio Grande with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kmh), the Miami-based forecaster said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/rafael-rapidly-weakens-tropical-storm-nhc-says-2024-11-09/
2024-11-09 00:39
Nov 8 (Reuters) - Microsoft-backed OpenAI's popular chatbot ChatGPT was back up after an outage affected thousands of users, the company said on Friday. "Issues with ChatGPT have now been resolved," OpenAI said in a statement on its website. Access was restored to most users by 4:34 p.m. PT (0034 GMT on Saturday), OpenAI said, adding that a small number of customers faced issues until 5 p.m. (0100 GMT on Saturday). OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that ChatGPT had been down for 30 minutes, adding a frown emoji and saying, "We are much, much better at reliability than we used to be, but clearly more work in front of us." Outage tracking website Downdetector.com said ChatGPT's services were down for about half an hour, affecting over 19,403 users as of 7:13 p.m. ET (0013 GMT on Saturday). Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, it has attracted 250 million weekly active users. OpenAI's valuation has jumped to $157 billion from $14 billion in 2021 as revenues climbed to $3.6 billion from zero, far exceeding Altman's projections at the time. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/openais-chatgpt-faces-massive-outage-with-thousands-users-impacted-2024-11-09/
2024-11-09 00:00
NEW YORK, Nov 8 (Reuters) - U.S. renewable fuel credits rose to multi-month highs on Friday on increased demand from refiners trying to comply with mandates and higher prices for soyoil, surprising traders who expected Donald Trump's reelection as U.S. president to weigh on the market. Rising prices for the credits, also called Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), are welcome news for biofuel producers who depend on them to make up for high output costs. However, they also worsen the pain for petroleum refiners whose profit margins have slumped sharply this year due to oversupply and weak demand. Prices for both the D4 RINs , issued to biomass-based diesel producers, and the D6 RINs , issued to ethanol suppliers, rose as high as 79 cents each on Friday, traders said. Those are the highest levels since January, according to LSEG data. The U.S. government mandates mixing of low-carbon fuels in the country's transportation fuel mix, and issues RINs to companies supplying them. Refiners who do not meet their targets can buy RINs from others or risk fines. Trump's victory in this week's U.S. elections had led to speculation that small refineries will find it easier to get exemptions to their RIN generation targets under his administration, OPIS analyst Tom Kloza said. However, Trump has not yet outlined any plans to do that. "There's uncertainty around whether Trump will reintroduce widespread small refinery exemptions, so some small refiners may be buying now to avoid being caught short," said Alex Hodes, analyst at energy brokerage StoneX. Market participants also expect fewer RINs to be available for trade next year, partly due to tighter government mandates and weak fuel demand reducing renewables blending, said Will Faulkner, founder of industry analysis firm Carbon Acumen. Meanwhile, soybean oil prices have also rallied this week on expectations that Trump could impose tariffs on imports of biofuel feedstocks. Higher prices for feedstocks erode producer margins, making them price their RINs higher, said Paul Niznik, director of energy at consultancy firm Capstone. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-renewable-fuel-credits-rally-multi-month-highs-despite-trump-reelection-2024-11-08/
2024-11-08 23:35
MADRID, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Spain has registered the rainiest October on record, culminating in the most deadly floods in decades in the country, the national weather agency AEMET said on Friday. More than 220 people died after torrential rains on Oct. 29 caused flash floods that surged through suburbs south of the city of Valencia, in eastern Spain, sweeping away cars and bridges and flooding properties and underground car parks. Seventy-eight people are missing, although the government believes some of them could match some of the 48 bodies still to be identified. Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Meteorologists believe the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe. Peninsular Spain had an average of 147 millimetres (mm) of rain this October, almost twice the average amount in a normal October, AEMET added. Turis, a town 15 km (about 9 miles) upstream from Valencia city where a year's worth of rain fell in a day, broke the national record of rainfall in an hour with 184.6 mm falling. With 771 mm of rain in 24 hours, Turis was also close to breaking the record registered in 1987 in nearby Oliva of 817 mm. AEMET said October was a warm month overall, with an average temperature over peninsular Spain of 15.5 ° Celsius (59.9° F), 0.9 °C above average. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spain-records-rainiest-october-ever-culminating-deadly-floods-2024-11-08/
