2023-12-16 17:49

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 16 (Reuters) - South Africa's High Court has ruled that a class action lawsuit against miner Anglo American (AAL.L) brought by victims of alleged historic lead poisoning in Zambia should not go ahead, lawyers for the claimants said on Saturday. Victims of the alleged poisoning had accused Anglo's South African unit of negligence in controlling emissions of lead into the local environment at a mine it part-owned 50 years ago in Zambia's Kabwe district. Anglo has previously denied the allegations and vowed to defend itself. "We have stated from the outset that this claim is entirely misconceived and it is clear that the court recognised its multiple legal and factual flaws, deeming it not in the interest of justice for the class action to proceed," an Anglo American spokesperson said. Anglo partly owned the Kabwe lead mine some 50 years ago. The mine was later owned by Zambian state-owned firm ZCCM-IH until 1994 when it was closed. In a statement, lawyers for the claimants said the Johannesburg High Court had ruled in a 126-page judgment delivered on Friday evening that a claim against Anglo American South Africa (AASA) over widespread lead poisoning across Kabwe, Zambia, could not proceed as a class action. The victims will appeal the ruling, the lawyers said. 'UNMANAGEABLE CLASS ACTION' Among the concluding arguments in the ruling, the court said the application was seeking permission to advance an untenable claim that would set a grave precedent. "The precedent is that a business could be held liable half a century after its activities have ceased, to generations not yet born, as a result of being tested against future knowledge and standards unknown at the time," the ruling said. The court also said the class action would be "unmanageable" in that it would take a long time to be completed, after the applicants estimated it would take ten years for their legal team to take instructions from every member of the proposed classes. "If this is so, it would take much longer for a South African court to assess the claim of each class member in the second stage." "It bears emphasis that an unmanageable class action is not only adverse to Anglo's interests: It undermines the applicants' access to justice," the court said. "Under the circumstances it is proper and necessary to dismiss the certification application." South African law firm Mbuyisa Moleele and UK-based Leigh Day, acting on behalf of about 140,000 women and children of Kabwe, want Anglo held liable for failing to curb lead emissions from a smelter and waste dumps. They also allege that Anglo was aware, before 1974, of the environmental damage and lead poisoning, including deaths of local children, and had ignored expert advice to remedy the situation before it handed over the assets to ZCCM-IH. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-african-court-denies-class-action-against-anglo-american-2023-12-16/

2023-12-16 16:11

ROME, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Oil and gas should not be demonised in the medium-term, Elon Musk, the founder of electric car maker Tesla (TSLA.O), said on Saturday, but he also said it was important to reduce carbon emissions to preserve the planet. Musk, speaking at a right-wing political gathering organised by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party said: "Climate change alarm is exaggerated in the short term," adding that the environmental movement may have gone too far, causing people to lose faith in the future. At this month's COP28 climate summit, representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change, signalling the eventual end of the oil age. Musk said he considers himself an environmentalist and added that it is important that, in the long run, industries reduce the billions of tons of carbon they take from the earth and release into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. "We should not demonise oil and gas in the medium term," he added. Asked whether his companies would invest in Italy, Musk said he was worried about the country's declining birth rate. "I think Italy is a great place to invest, but I do want to emphasise that I worry about a low birth rate. If the workforce declines than who will work in the country?" he said. He called for the Italian government to create incentives for families to have more children, adding that a country could not rely only on immigration flows to fill the gap. Italy has earmarked around 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion) in next year's budget to tackle the country's demographic crisis. Births in Italy last year fell for the 14th year in a row and were the lowest since the country's unification in 1861. Speaking about social media site X, Musk played down concerns about a fall in advertising on the platform. The platform is "already seeing advertisers return", he said. ($1 = 0.9179 euros) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-gas-should-not-be-demonized-elon-musk-says-2023-12-16/

2023-12-16 15:26

Dec 16 (Reuters) - Robinhood Markets (HOOD.O) is attracting customers from other brokerages, and is seeking to expand beyond its base of young, first-time investors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Through Wednesday, the trading app received about $1.1 billion in account transfers since Oct. 23, when it began offering a 1% match on transferred brokerage accounts, the Wall Street Journal reported. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/robinhood-woos-wealthier-clients-bigger-brokerages-wsj-2023-12-16/

2023-12-16 13:26

BUDAPEST, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Hungary will veto Bulgaria's entry into Europe's passport-free Schengen Zone unless it scraps a transit tax on Russian gas, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. The veto threat follows Thursday's agreement among all 27 European Union members except Hungary to start accession talks with Ukraine despite its invasion by Russia, bypassing Prime Minister Viktor Orban's grievances by getting him to leave the room. Orban's resistance in Brussels gained him some bonus points in Moscow, with whom his nationalist government has maintained regular contacts even during the war in Ukraine, and which still supplies landlocked Hungary with most of its gas. Citing Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, the ministry said Hungary had made it clear to Bulgaria that it would veto its entry if the tax on Hungary's main gas import route remained in place. "We have made it clear to the Bulgarians that if they keep this in place for long, if they jeopardise the safety of Hungary's energy supply for long, then we will veto their Schengen entry," Szijjarto said. He said Hungary would lift its veto as soon as the transit tax is repealed. While Western European countries have made big efforts to wean themselves off Russian gas, Hungary has been receiving 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas per year from Russia under a deal signed in 2021, mainly via Bulgaria and Serbia. Szijjarto said Bulgaria's move, which he said went against European regulations, threatened the safety of supply not just in Hungary, but also Serbia and North Macedonia. "While the tax aims to reduce Gazprom's profits, which, according to agreements concerning gas provision, should shoulder the cost, it could nevertheless result in transit disruptions and/or higher costs for the countries receiving gas through this route," economists at UniCredit said in a note. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hungary-veto-bulgarias-schengen-entry-unless-it-scraps-gas-transit-tax-2023-12-16/

2023-12-16 09:38

Dec 16 (Reuters) - A fire at a crude oil distillation unit at a refinery in the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Saturday injured four people, the official IRNA news agency reported. Two of the injured were firefighters, a senior official at Isfahan governorate said, adding that the fire had been extinguished, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The official said pipes at the entrance of unit 3 of the refinery caught fire. He did not say what caused the pipes to catch fire. The semi-official ISNA news site said the unit that caught fire had been under repair. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/fire-breaks-out-refinery-iranian-city-isfahan-irna-2023-12-16/

2023-12-16 04:00

TOKYO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - A unit of Tokyo Gas (9531.T) has decided to buy Texas-based natural gas producer Rockcliff Energy from private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners for $2.7 billion to expand its overseas business, it said on Saturday. The deal comes as part of the Japanese company's efforts to expand its North American shale gas operations to meet growing demand for natural gas as an energy transition fuel. Tokyo Gas, Japan's biggest city gas supplier, and other utilities are stepping up overseas expansion to counter falling demand in their domestic market. Japan has an ageing population and a declining birthrate, while energy market reform has spurred competition among old-guard utilities. Under the deal, TG Natural Resources (TGNR) - 79% owned by Tokyo Gas - will buy all shares in Rockcliff Energy from Quantum Energy Partners. The deal is expected to close on Dec. 29, Tokyo Gas said. With the acquisition, TGNR's natural gas production will quadruple to 1.3 billion cubic feet per day from about 330 million cubic feet per day, making it one of the largest shale gas producers in Texas and Louisiana, according to Tokyo Gas. "We expect our gas production will be more efficient after the acquisition as Rockcliff Energy's output area is located adjacent to TGNR's blocks," Takashi Nakao, senior general manager of global business development at Tokyo Gas, told reporters. The production is also close to new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals and other facilities expected to increase demand for natural gas in the future, Nakao said. Asked if the supply will be exported to Japan as LNG, Nakao said the current plan is to sell all the gas in the U.S. domestic market, though he did not rule out possibly sending it as LNG to Japan in the future. Talks about the acquisition were reported by Reuters early this year. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/tokyo-gas-unit-buys-us-natgas-producer-rockcliff-energy-27-bn-2023-12-16/