2024-11-07 07:34
COPENHAGEN, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab said on Thursday it has agreed to buy Sval Energi's 11.8% stake in the ongoing offshore development Halten East Unit in the Norwegian Sea, increasing the company's ownership to 69.5%. The recoverable reserves in Halten East are estimated to be around 100 million barrels of oil equivalents, of which approximately 60% is gas that will be exported to Europe via Kaarstoe in south-western Norway. Equinor is the operator of the Halten East Unit, in which Var Energi (VAR.OL) , opens new tab owns a 24.6% stake while Norwegian state-owned oil firm Petoro has 5.9%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/equinor-agrees-buy-sval-energis-118-stake-halten-east-unit-2024-11-07/
2024-11-07 07:33
Trump expected to ramp up sanctions on Iranian oil Hurricane Rafael shuts 22% of Gulf of Mexico oil output Fed cuts interest rates by a quarter point China's October crude oil imports fall NEW YORK, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose nearly 1% on Thursday as the market weighed how President-elect Donald Trump's policies would affect supplies and as drillers cut output while bracing for Hurricane Rafael. A strong dollar and lower crude imports in China limited gains. On Wednesday, the election of Republican former President Trump initially triggered a sell-off that pushed oil down more than $2 as the dollar rallied. Crude prices later pared losses to settle down by less than 1%. On Thursday, Brent crude oil futures settled up 71 cents, or 0.95%, at $75.63 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 67 cents, or 0.93%, to $72.36. Prices gained support on expectations that Trump's incoming administration may tighten sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, adding that this could take oil supply off the market. "The market is now looking into what Donald Trump's policies might be and the market is reacting to that prospect," said Lipow. In his first term, Trump put in place harsher sanctions on Iranian and Venezuelan oil. Those measures were briefly rolled back by the Biden administration but later reinstated. Also supporting prices, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point at the close of its policy meeting on Thursday. Interest rate cuts typically boost economic activity and energy demand. Actual, supply cuts also lent support. In the U.S. Gulf Coast, over 22%, or 391,214 barrels per day, of crude oil production was shut in response to Hurricane Rafael, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. The dollar index (.DXY) , opens new tab eased nearly 1% but remained near a two-week high after surging following Trump's victory. A strong dollar makes oil more expensive for other currency holders and tends to weigh on prices. Downward pressure also came from data showing crude oil imports in China fell 9% in October, the sixth consecutive month showing a year-on-year decline, as well as from a rise in U.S. crude inventories. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/oil-prices-regain-ground-investors-eye-us-election-fallout-2024-11-07/
2024-11-07 07:27
2024 will be first year over 1.5C hotter than pre-industrial period COP29 summit aims to increase climate change funding Climate change is fuelling extreme weather BRUSSELS, Nov 7 (Reuters) - This year is "virtually certain" to eclipse 2023 as the world's warmest since records began, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday. The data was released ahead of next week's U.N. COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, where countries will try to agree a huge increase in funding to tackle climate change. Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election has dampened expectations for the talks. C3S said that from January to October, the average global temperature had been so high that 2024 was sure to be the world's hottest year - unless the temperature anomaly in the rest of the year plunged to near-zero. "The fundamental, underpinning cause of this year's record is climate change," C3S Director Carlo Buontempo told Reuters. "The climate is warming, generally. It's warming in all continents, in all ocean basins. So we are bound to see those records being broken," he said. The scientists said 2024 will also be the first year in which the planet is more than 1.5C hotter than in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, when humans began burning fossil fuels on an industrial scale. Carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, oil and gas are the main cause of global warming. Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at public research university ETH Zurich, said she was not surprised by the milestone, and urged governments at COP29 to agree stronger action to wean their economies off CO2-emitting fossil fuels. "The limits that were set in the Paris agreement are starting to crumble given the too-slow pace of climate action across the world," Seneviratne said. Countries agreed in the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to prevent global warming surpassing 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), to avoid its worst consequences. The world has not breached that target - which refers to an average global temperature of 1.5C over decades - but C3S now expects the world to exceed the Paris goal around 2030. "It's basically around the corner now," Buontempo said. Every fraction of temperature increase fuels extreme weather. In October, catastrophic flash floods killed hundreds of people in Spain, record wildfires tore through Peru, and flooding in Bangladesh destroyed more than 1 million tons of rice, sending food prices skyrocketing. In the U.S., Hurricane Milton was also worsened by human-caused climate change. C3S' records go back to 1940, which are cross-checked with global temperature records going back to 1850. (This story has been refiled to add a dropped word in the headline) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/2024-will-be-worlds-hottest-record-eu-scientists-say-2024-11-07/
2024-11-07 07:27
LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - British house prices hit a new record high in October but the 0.2% rise from September was the smallest in three months and demand could remain subdued if interest rates fall only slowly and as taxes on home-buyers go up, mortgage lender Halifax said. The increase was in line with the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Compared with October last year prices were 3.9% higher, also the slowest increase since July, when Britain's Labour Party won power in an election and warned of tough times ahead to fix the economy which hurt consumer confidence. Halifax said average house prices hit a record high of 293,999 pounds ($380,288), edging past a previous peak of 293,507 in June 2022 when the Bank of England was raising interest rates and shortly before the 'mini-budget' crisis which pushed up mortgage rates sharply. Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said despite the headwind of higher interest rates, house prices had mostly levelled off since mid-2022, rising by 0.2% over the period. The possibility of the BoE cutting interest rates more slowly than previously expected and a rise in taxes paid by home-buyers announced in the new government's first budget last week might affect demand going forward, she said. "While we expect house prices to keep growing, it will likely be at a modest pace for the rest of this year and into next," Bryden said. The BoE is expected to lower its benchmark rate at 1200 GMT on Thursday for only the second time since 2020. But investors are pricing in fewer cuts between now and the end of 2025 after last week's budget included bigger-than-expected borrowing and spending plans by the government. ($1 = 0.7731 pounds) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-house-prices-rise-by-02-october-lender-halifax-says-2024-11-07/
2024-11-07 07:26
Nov 7 (Reuters) - Logistics company Grindrod (GNDJ.J) , opens new tab has suspended port and terminal operations in Mozambique after South Africa temporarily closed the main border with its northeastern neighbour over safety concerns after a violent crackdown on post-election protests, the company said on Thursday. The suspension will hit the movement of goods and commodities in a region already battling with logistical bottlenecks as under-funded state-owned port and rail companies struggle to provide adequate services. At least 18 people have been killed in the protests, human rights groups have said, as opposition supporters demonstrate against what they say is a fraudulent election win by Frelimo, the party that has ruled Mozambique since 1975. South Africa's border authority said on Wednesday that it had closed the Lebombo border after receiving reports of vehicles being torched on the Mozambique side. A Grindrod statement said it had suspended port and terminal operations in Maputo and Matola after the border closure and suspension of rail services. The company is part of a consortium granted a concession to operate the Maputo port alongside DP World, the Mozambican Railway Company and Gestores, a private Mozambican company. Maputo port reported record volume growth in 2023, partly owing to increased coal and chrome export volumes diverted from South Africa, where state-owned Transnet is failing to provide adequate rail and port capacity. In 2023 Maputo port handled a record 31.2 million metric tons of cargo, mostly minerals including copper, chrome, ferrochrome and coal, up 16% on the previous year. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/grindrod-suspends-port-operations-mozambique-after-border-closure-2024-11-07/
2024-11-07 06:50
Vietnam has one of the largest trade surpluses with the US Southeast Asian country benefited from US-China trade tensions Vietnam may become "collateral damage" of increased U.S. protectionism Trade surplus could be offset with purchase of US LNG, planes The Trump Organization plans a $1.5 bln golf course and hotel in Vietnam HANOI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Vietnam faces trade volatility with a new Trump presidency, officials and supply chain experts told Reuters, as the country could benefit from increased U.S.-China trade tensions but may also become "collateral damage" of U.S. protectionist measures. The Southeast Asian industrial hub is a major exporter to the United States and had a $90 billion trade surplus with Washington as of September, the fourth largest after China, the European Union and Mexico. The Communist-run country has been a top beneficiary of a hike in U.S. tariffs on China, which Donald Trump started in his first presidency. Trump has threatened to impose 60% tariffs on U.S. imports of Chinese goods in his second presidency, which would pose major growth risks for the world's second-largest economy. Ahead of the U.S. elections Vietnamese officials said they would prefer to maintain the status quo in trade policy, which they would have expected under another Democratic president, rather than Trump's unpredictability, two senior officials said. The main reason for concern, officials said, is the big trade surplus with Washington, which is partly the result of Vietnam being used as an assembling site for components still largely made in China - which occasionally has led to U.S. sanctions over illegal transhipment. Trump has also threatened tariffs up to 20% for all imports. Vietnam "could easily be a target for such protectionist measures and become collateral damage", said Leif Schneider, head of international law firm Luther in Vietnam. However, additional protectionism could accelerate the shift of supply chains from China to other markets, with Vietnam likely remaining a preferred destination for companies relocating production outside of China, Schneider added. Vietnam's main stockmarket rose on Wednesday on news of a possible Trump win, driven by stocks of industrial parks, and extended its gains on Thursday morning. The country's party chief, president and prime minister on Thursday sent congratulations to Trump, underscoring Trump's strong support in his previous term and hoping that the two countries' relation would continue to flourish extensively. LNG, PLANES, GOLF DIPLOMACY? The large trade surplus could be reduced to ease tensions with the purchase of U.S. big-ticket items, a senior Hanoi-based diplomat noted, pointing at imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) and the possible purchase of Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules military transport. It may also help that The Trump Organization has recently partnered with a Vietnamese company to develop a $1.5 billion golf course and hotel project in Vietnam, a Vietnam-based foreign investor said. However, uncertainty prevails, as the new Trump administration "presents both opportunities and challenges for Vietnam," said Koen Soenens, marketing director at DEEP C industrial parks in northern Vietnam. "While a second Trump presidency is expected to recalibrate American trade policy, the actual impact on Vietnam would heavily depend on the specific scope and targets of those policy changes," said Dan Martin, a Hanoi-based business advisor with investment consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates. "The potential for Vietnam to attract more companies relocating from China remains strong, yet tariffs and trade restrictions may jeopardise these gains," Schneider added. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/uncertainty-prevails-top-exporter-vietnam-braces-volatility-with-trump-2024-11-07/
