2024-03-27 08:17

Brent futures settle 0.2% lower, WTI falls 0.3% US dollar rises for second consecutive day US gasoline stocks up last week, demand weakened, EIA says Sources: OPEC+ unlikely to change output policy until June NEW YORK, March 27 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for the second consecutive session on Wednesday as the dollar strengthened and government data showed a surprise jump in U.S. crude and gasoline stocks. Brent crude futures for May shed 16 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $86.09 a barrel while the more actively traded June contract was down 22 cents to $85.41. The May contract expires on Thursday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for May delivery dropped 27 cents, or 0.3%, to $81.35 a barrel. Both Brent and WTI futures have been under selling pressure since hitting more than four-month highs last week. A stronger U.S. dollar weighed on oil, with the U.S. dollar index gaining for a second consecutive session. A rising U.S. currency makes dollar-denominated oil more expensive for holders of other currencies, dampening demand. A surprise jump in U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles also added to the pressure on oil prices, analysts said. U.S. crude oil stocks rose by 3.2 million barrels while gasoline stocks rose by 1.3 million barrels in the week ended March 22, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Analysts polled by Reuters expected crude stocks to decline by 1.3 million barrels and gasoline stocks to drop by 1.7 million barrels. Gasoline demand fell for a second straight week to 8.7 million barrels per day (bpd), down from 8.8 million bpd in the prior week, EIA data showed. "Considering the fact that we're only making crude oil to make gasoline basically, that is a bearish development," said Robert Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, together known as OPEC+, are unlikely to change oil output policy until a full ministerial gathering in June, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters ahead of next week's meeting to review the market and members' implementation of output cuts. OPEC+ this month agreed to extend output cuts of about 2.2 million bpd to the end of June, although Russia and Iraq have had to go to extra lengths to tackle over-production. Those struggles have called into question the group's ability to comply with the agreed cuts, with OPEC having exceeded its targets by 190,000 bpd in February, a Reuters survey showed. "The OPEC+ production cuts have sparked debate over volumes, particularly concerning Iraq's overproduction over the past two months," said Alex Hodes, energy analyst at StoneX. "Another pivotal point is Russia's potential volume reduction," Hodes said. "Monitoring Russian oil flows in the upcoming quarter will be crucial for market observers," he added. Get a look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets with the Morning Bid U.S. newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/oil-prices-fall-second-day-us-crude-inventories-increase-2024-03-27/

2024-03-27 08:16

March 27 (Reuters) - Ithaca Energy (ITH.L) , opens new tab has been given a four-week exclusivity period by Italy's Eni (ENI.MI) , opens new tab, to make an offer for UK exploration and production assets that could expand its output massively, the London-listed company said on Wednesday. Buying those assets, including those of Eni's recently acquired Neptune Energy, could add a further 40,000-45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) to Ithaca's output, taking the total to more than 100,000 boe/d. In return, Ithaca would issue new shares to Eni, which will become a major shareholder by holding some 38% to 39% of the enlarged share capital of Ithaca. "Although the discussions are at an advanced stage, there can be no certainty that a Potential Combination will occur," Ithaca said. The transaction is part of Eni's broader strategy aimed at developing businesses focused on a geographical area or a specific activity and share the investment efforts with a partner. Under a similar logic, in 2022 Eni teamed up with BP (BP.L) , opens new tab to create Azule Energy, which combines the two groups' upstream businesses in Angola. Separately, Ithaca's full-year profit slumped to $215.6 million from $1.03 billion, due to impairments related to its oil and gas projects and a heavier tax bill. Ithaca, owned by Tel Aviv-listed Delek Group (DLEKG.TA) , opens new tab, incurred a $557.9 million pretax impairment charge on its Greater Stella Area and Alba projects and was charged a $333.4 million bill under Britain's Energy Profit Levy (EPL). Shares in Ithaca Energy rose about 2.5% after the two announcements. Interim Chief Executive Iain Lewis, who stepped up from CFO when Alan Bruce stepped down in January, will have to contend with another year of the windfall tax after British finance minister Jeremy Hunt this month extended the EPL by a year to 2029. "The extension ... highlights the continued fiscal uncertainty our sector faces," Lewis said. Ithaca is targeting 2024 production between 56,000 and 61,000 boe/d this year, before rising again towards 80,000 boe/d by 2027. The company produced about 70,239 boe/d in 2023. The lower projected 2024 output is due to deferred or cancelled projects at many of its oil and gas fields, the company said, with the EPL directly resulting in lower near-term investment. Still, Ithaca aims to double the net capital expenditure on its Rosebank oil development this year, to between $190 and $230 million from $97 million in 2023, as it eyes starting oil production there by 2026/27. The British government gave Ithaca and 80%-stake-owning partner Equinor (EQNR.OL) , opens new tab the go-ahead in September 2023 to develop Rosebank, the aging North Sea basin's biggest new project in years. Ithaca's decline in annual earnings was capped by trading gains of $266 million which helped it to realise a gas price of $111/boe after hedging compared with $76/boe before hedging. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ithaca-energy-2023-profit-slides-uk-windfall-tax-weighs-2024-03-27/

2024-03-27 08:06

KIBBUTZ SNIR, Israel, March 27 (Reuters) - In an abandoned kibbutz in Israel's evacuation zone near the Lebanese border, Lior Shelef has stayed behind to keep watch as a reservist in a protection force. He still tends the cows and chickens, even as Hezbollah rockets keep coming closer. The chicken coops had been damaged in a rocket attack and the frequent sound of explosions panics the animals. "We don't know what will happen tomorrow. We don't know if the day will escalate to be worse or better," he said. "If the chicken is very afraid because of the noise of the rockets, how it will affect her life? Maybe she will die from a heart attack." Over 2,000 rockets have been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, when Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group launched a campaign of attacks in support of Hamas Islamists. Around 100,000 Israelis have had to evacuate from the area around the northern border, as have tens of thousands of Lebanese from communities on the opposite side. The evacuation has turned some of Israel's most productive farming communities into ghost towns, like Kibbutz Snir, which rears cows and chickens and grows avocados and some vegetables around 3 km from the Lebanese border. Shelef said suppliers were not coming into the area due to the bombardments, making it hard for the skeleton staff to keep the farm fully functioning. Israel's northern region accounts for a third of the country's agricultural land, and about 73% of its domestic egg production is concentrated in the Galilee and Golan regions, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said. Parts of southern Israel near the Gaza Strip have also been evacuated since Hamas fighters burst across the border on Oct. 7 in the deadly rampage that precipitated the war. Greenhouses and dairy farms have been damaged there, a hit to an agriculture sector that is the pride of a country founded on dreams of making the desert bloom. In February the farm ministry said it would lift duties on imported eggs to meet needs for the upcoming Jewish festival of Passover in April, forecasting a drop in local production due in part to the security situation. 'ENDANGERING THEIR LIVES' Devora Evgi, who was evacuated from the small farming community of Avivim on the Lebanese border where she raises chickens, said the coops there were still being maintained by a few people who had stayed behind. "They know that they are literally endangering their lives each time they go to the coops," she said. "Hezbollah are constantly keeping them under surveillance and can fire a rocket suddenly at any time, with no warning." Keeping the community going would depend on restoring security, she said. "I'm not going to hold down the front line like I have for my entire life if I don't have a way to make a living or security." Israel has long fostered agricultural technology companies exploring ways to squeeze higher yields of higher-value crops from arid land. Kiryat Shmona, a major city in Israel's upper northern region some seven kilometres from the Lebanese border, was being developed as a hub for food technology companies. But since the city was evacuated last year, companies have left. On a recent visit, shops and homes were shuttered. Israeli military units patrolled the quiet streets. The offices were mostly shut in a building used by Fresh Start, an early-stage agriculture tech investment company in the city. So were the adjacent offices of the 10 food tech start ups Fresh Start supports, though chief technology officer Tammy Meiron told Reuters the businesses were still operational from different locations elsewhere in Israel. Apart from laboratory equipment left behind and school children's drawings on the walls, there was little sign of the cutting edge research work undertaken there. "It's heartbreaking because it's empty. The town is empty," Meiron told Reuters as she looked out onto the lush green hills above her office window. "It was full of young people ... And now everything is neglected." The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/abandoned-israeli-farms-cling-life-evacuation-zone-2024-03-27/

2024-03-27 07:50

BALTIMORE, March 27 (Reuters) - The pilot of the cargo freighter that knocked down a highway bridge into Baltimore Harbor had radioed for tugboat help and reported a power loss minutes earlier, federal safety officials said on Wednesday, citing audio from the ship's "black box" data recorder. The head of the National Transportation Safety Board also said that Francis Scott Key Bridge, a traffic artery over the harbor built in 1976, lacked structural engineering redundancies common to newer spans, making it more vulnerable to a catastrophic collapse. New insights into the fatal disaster emerged a day after the massive Singapore-flagged container ship Dali sailing out of Baltimore Harbor bound for Sri Lanka reported losing power and the ability to maneuver before plowing into a support pylon of the bridge. The impact brought most of the bridge tumbling into the mouth of the Patapsco River almost immediately, blocking shipping lanes and forcing the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. Divers on Wednesday recovered the remains of two of the six workers missing since the crumbling bridge tossed them into the water, officials said on Wednesday. Maryland State Police Colonel Roland Butler said a red pickup truck containing the bodies of the two men was found in about 25 feet (7.62 m) of water near the mid-section of the fallen bridge. He also said authorities had suspended efforts to retrieve more bodies from the depths due to increasingly treacherous conditions in the wreckage-strewn harbor. Butler said sonar images showed additional submerged vehicles "encased" in sunken bridge debris, making them difficult to reach. The two men whose bodies were recovered on Wednesday were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, a native of Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of nearby Dundalk, originally from Guatemala. Four more workers who were part of a crew filling potholes on the bridge's road surface remained missing and presumed dead. The six also included immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador, officials said. Rescuers pulled two workers from the water alive on Tuesday, and one was hospitalized. The economic fallout could be staggering. The port handles more automobile and farm equipment freight than any other in the country, as well as container freight and bulk goods ranging from sugar to coal. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the 8,000 jobs are "directly associated" with port operations, which generate $2 million a day in wages. Still, economists and logistics experts doubted the port closure would trigger a major U.S. supply chain crisis or significant spike in the price of goods, due to ample capacity at rival shipping hubs along the East Coast. The collapse, which occurred at 1:30 a.m., has created a traffic quagmire as well for Baltimore and the surrounding region. INTERVIEWING SURVIVORS Earlier on Wednesday an NTSB team boarded the idled freighter, still anchored in the harbor channel with part of the mangled bridge splayed over its bow, to begin interviewing the ship's two pilots and 21 regular crew members who remained on the vessel, safety board chief Jennifer Homendy said. Investigators also began reviewing information collected from the ship's Voyage Data Recorder, including radio traffic between the pilot and shore-based authorities leading up to the disaster. The pilot was heard calling for tugboat assistance several minutes before the crash, the first indication of distress to harbor officials, followed by a radio report that the ship had lost all power and was approaching the bridge, NTSB officials said at a news briefing on Wednesday night. Video footage that captured the accident show the ship's lights winking off, then back on briefly before the vessel's lights go out again. Homendy said recorder data was "consistent with a power outage" but that an actual blackout had yet to be confirmed. The recorder also picked up commands to the crew to drop anchor, presumably aimed at slowing the vessel. Safety board investigator Marcel Muise said data showed the Dali, measuring about three football fields in length and piled high with shipping containers, was moving at about 8 miles per hour (12.8 km) when it struck a bridge abutment. Homendy noted that the bridge, while deemed to be in "satisfactory" condition from its most recent inspection in 2023, was constructed in such a way that failure of one structural member "would likely cause a portion of, or the entire bridge to collapse." Further details of last-minute efforts to save lives emerged on Wednesday from open-source recordings of emergency radio chatter from the moments that authorities were alerted that the cargo ship Dali was drifting out of control toward Key Bridge. "Hold all traffic on the Key Bridge. There's a ship approaching that just lost their steering," someone is heard saying over a police radio. While voices were heard discussing next steps, including alerting any work crews to leave the bridge, one broke through to say: "The whole bridge just fell down!" The audio was carried by the public streaming service Broadcastify. The U.S. Coast Guard's first priorities are to restore the waterway for shipping, stabilize the crippled vessel and extricate it, Vice Admiral Peter Gautier said at a White House news briefing. Of the ship's 4,700 cargo containers, 56 hold hazardous materials but there is no threat to the public, Gautier said. Two containers went overboard during the crash but they did not contain hazardous materials. The ship was carrying more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil, Gautier added. Homendy said some of hazmat containers aboard the vessel had been breached and a sheen was noticed on the water's surface. Get weekly news and analysis on the U.S. elections and how it matters to the world with the newsletter On the Campaign Trail. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/divers-search-baltimore-harbor-six-presumed-dead-bridge-collapse-2024-03-27/

2024-03-27 07:18

HANOI, March 27 (Reuters) - PetroVietnam Gas (GAS.HM) , opens new tab said on Wednesday it has signed a contract with QatarEnergy to buy 70,000 metric tons of liquefied natural gas for delivery on April 12-13. The cargo will be used for "industrial production and to ensure national energy security", it said in a statement. PetroVietam Gas, the sole authorised LNG importer in the country, said the cargo would be shipped to its Thi Vai LNG terminal in southern Vietnam. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/petrovietnam-gas-signs-deal-buy-70000-metric-tons-lng-qatarenergy-2024-03-27/

2024-03-27 07:15

Climate Action 100+ assessed 10 top oil companies Companies 'alarmingly unprepared', TPI Centre's Sharp U.S. companies perform worse than European peers LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - The current low-carbon transition plans of 10 of Europe's and North America's biggest listed oil and gas companies are not good enough to assess the risks involved, the world's leading investor climate action group said on Wednesday. Climate Action 100+ said the companies including Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab, Shell (SHEL.L) , opens new tab and Chevron (CVX.N) , opens new tab were assessed using its sector-specific Net Zero Standard for Oil & Gas framework by the independent Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) Centre. The other companies included in the analysis were TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) , opens new tab, ConocoPhillips (COP.N) , opens new tab, BP (BP.L) , opens new tab, Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) , opens new tab, Eni (ENI.MI) , opens new tab, Repsol (REP.MC) , opens new tab and Suncor Energy (SU.TO) , opens new tab. Each was assessed using indicators and sub-indicators under three broad themes - Disclosure, where companies are rewarded for providing information about their activities; Alignment, which tests their climate ambition; and Climate Solutions, which tracks their investments in greener activities. The aim of the Net Zero Standard for Oil & Gas (NZS) framework is to allow to assess to what degree the disclosures and strategies of companies in the sector are aligned with the Paris Agreement on climate. Overall, the companies met just 19% of all the NZS metrics. European companies performed the best, led by TotalEnergies, BP and Eni, with North American companies weaker across all three themes. Shell and ConocoPhillips declined to comment on the findings. The other companies did not immediately reply or were not immediately able to comment on the report. While several companies are targeting net-zero emissions by 2050, a lack of detail on their planned use of carbon capture technology meant it was hard to tell how they would get there, CA100+ said. On the issue of fossil fuel production, which the International Energy Agency says will need to be reined in to hit the world's climate goals - a move acknowledged at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai in November - few firms appeared to concur. Among disclosure sub-indicators, none of the companies acknowledged the "need for substantial production reduction across the industry". Of the 10, only Repsol and TotalEnergies guided on long-term oil, gas or their combined production. None of the companies provided the desired detail on their planned greenfield capital expenditure plans, the report added. "The inaugural assessment of the Net Zero Standard for Oil and Gas delivers a clear message: while certain companies showcase commendable strides towards robust climate strategy, the overall industry landscape remains alarmingly underprepared for the transition," said Jared Sharp, Project Lead for Net Zero Standards, TPI Centre. The hope is that the analysis will be able to help inform engagement by asset managers with the boards of the companies, as the season for annual general meetings picks up pace in the weeks ahead, Sharp said. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/big-oils-climate-planning-not-good-enough-investors-say-2024-03-27/