2024-06-30 12:50

CAIRO/DUBAI, June 30 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco (2223.SE) New Tab, opens new tab has signed contracts worth more than $25 billion for the second phase of the expansion of its Jafurah gas field and the third phase of expanding its main gas network, its CEO Amin Nasser said on Sunday. Saudi Arabia is working on developing its unconventional gas reserves, which require advanced extraction methods such as those used in the shale gas industry. Jafurah is the kingdom's largest unconventional non-oil associated gas field and is potentially the biggest shale gas development outside the United States, with reserves reaching 229 trillion cubic feet of gas and 75 billion barrels of condensates. "By generating an anticipated 2 billion standard cubic feet per day of sales gas by 2030, this bold initiative will strengthen Saudi Arabia's position as one of the top national gas producers in the world", said Nasser, speaking of the Jafurah field at a contracts award ceremony in Dhahran. The main gas network expansion will add 4,000 more kilometers of pipelines, boosting capacity by around 3.2 billion standard cubic feet per day and connecting several additional cities from across the country to the network, he said. Companies awarded contracts for the expansion in Jafurah included a consortium involving Hyundai Engineering & Construction (000720.KS) New Tab, opens new tab, while Chinese state energy giant Sinopec (600028.SS) New Tab, opens new tab figured among the firms involved in the main gas network expansion. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/aramco-signs-over-25-bln-deals-main-gas-network-jafurah-gas-field-2024-06-30/

2024-06-30 12:41

June 30 (Reuters) - Four people died and two were missing in Switzerland on Sunday after violent thunderstorms and melting snow caused flooding and landslides in two southern cantons, and also affected parts of Italy. Three of the victims were killed early on Sunday in a landslide in the remote Maggia valley, in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino, police said in a statement. The three bodies were recovered in the Fontana area of the Maggia valley and they were currently being identified, while another person was missing in the Lavizzara side-arm of the valley, Ticino authorities said. A bridge downstream of the disaster area in the Maggia valley was submerged, complicating rescue efforts, they added. One camp site in the valley has been evacuated by helicopter and 300 people at a local soccer tournament would soon also be evacuated by helicopter, police said. In the southwestern Swiss canton of Valais, police said a man was found dead in a hotel in the Alpine town of Saas-Grund. Police said he was likely surprised by flooding as melting snow compounded violent thunderstorms. They added that another man was missing in another region in the Valais canton. Flooding and mudslides also hit a neighbouring area of Italy, where around 200 people had to be evacuated by helicopter on Sunday from their homes in Cogne in the Valle d'Aosta, the region's governor Renzo Testolin said. Another 120 people were being evacuated from Alpine villages in the neighbouring Piedmont region after torrential rain, Italian news agencies reported, citing local firefighters. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/two-dead-one-missing-after-swiss-landslide-police-say-2024-06-30/

2024-06-30 12:23

June 30 (Reuters) - The "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm Hurricane Beryl barrelled across the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday night toward the Caribbean's Windward Islands, where it is expected to bring life-threatening winds and flash flooding on Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The first hurricane of the 2024 season was located about 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Barbados on Sunday night, with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph), the NHC said in an advisory. "Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its core moves through the Windward Islands into the eastern Caribbean," the NHC said in its latest advisory. The center of the hurricane is expected to travel across the Windward Islands on Monday morning as a Category 4 storm, the second-strongest level on a five-step scale, bringing "potentially catastrophic wind damage" to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. It is rare for a major hurricane to appear this early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. On Sunday, Beryl became the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record, beating Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 on July 8, 2005, according to NHC data. Hurricane warnings have been issued in Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadine Islands, Grenada and Tobago. A tropical storm watch has been issued for Dominica, Trinidad, and parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Authorities and residents on the Caribbean islands were preparing for the storm's arrival. Tobago has opened shelters, closed schools for Monday, and cancelled elective surgeries in the hospitals, authorities said. The hurricane is expected to bring 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 cm) of rain across Barbados and the Windward Islands throughout the day on Monday, which the NHC warned could cause flash flooding in vulnerable areas. Large, dangerous swells are also expected to batter the southern coasts of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. In May, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted above-normal hurricane activity in the Atlantic in 2024, in part due to near-record warm ocean temperatures. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hurricane-beryl-has-become-very-dangerous-category-3-says-us-agency-2024-06-30/

2024-06-30 11:56

ATHENS, June 30 (Reuters) - Greek firefighters were battling two wildfires near Athens on Sunday amid strong winds, just hours after managing to contain blazes in a mountainous area also near the capital as well as on an island in the Aegean Sea. Dozens of firefighters in full gear, backed by 23 water-carrying aircraft, fought with hoses to tame a fire in a sparsely-populated area near the town of Keratea, some 35 kms (22 miles) south of Athens. Authorities had ordered evacuations before flames from burning pine and olive trees engulfed houses. Another fire in the community of Stamata north of Athens burned a lush pine forest, sending columns of smoke over parts of the city. It did not threaten houses so far. With hot, windy conditions across much of Greece, dozens of wildfires broke out over the weekend and people were advised to stay away from forested areas. Firefighters were still engaged on the island of Serifos where a fire had broken out amid low vegetation on Saturday and spread quickly, fanned by strong winds, damaging houses and prompting the evacuation of several hamlets. The wildfire, which at one point had raged across 15 kms (9.3 miles), damaged holiday homes and storehouses, the island's mayor, Kostas Revinthis, told Greek television. Another fire in the mountainous forest of Parnitha near a nature reserve just outside Athens had eased by Sunday morning, officials said. Wildfires are common in the Mediterranean country but have become more devastating in recent years as summers have become hotter, drier and windier, which scientists link to the effects of climate change. After last summer's deadly forest fires and following its warmest winter on record, Greece developed a new doctrine, which includes deploying an extra fire engine to each new blaze, speeding up air support and clearing forests. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greek-firefighters-tame-wildfire-island-serifos-2024-06-30/

2024-06-30 11:09

France, Britain, US among those holding elections this year Global government debt already at record highs BIS warns stimulus plans, protectionism could spook markets LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - The Bank for International Settlements warned on Sunday that rising government debt levels amid a number of major elections this year could roil global financial markets. Dubbed the central bankers' central bank, the BIS said the world economy was on course for the "smooth landing" that many economists doubted when interest rates shot up, but said policymakers, especially politicians, needed to be careful. Global government debt is already at record levels and elections ranging from the U.S. presidential vote in November, through recent polls in Mexico and South Africa, to votes in France and Britain in the coming week, all carry risks. BIS General Manager Agustin Carstens said with interest rates not about to go back to ultra-low levels, and cost pressures from aging populations, climate change and rebuilding defence capabilities, economic stimulus plans and a general rise in protectionism could unsettle sensitive markets. "They can surprise you with not much notice," Carstens told reporters as the BIS published its annual report, pointing to the turbulence in Britain's markets following then Prime Minister Liz Truss' budget plans which put some pension funds at risk of collapse. "You really want to avoid that." As well as persistent concerns over U.S. debt levels, the French debt risk premium has surged this month to its highest level since the euro zone crisis in 2012, after French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election being held on Sunday that could bring in a far right government. Carstens said the BIS was not calling out any "one or two" governments but that the message was clear. "They (governments) must cut short the rise in public debt and accept that interest rates may not return to the pre-pandemic ultra low levels," he said. "We need a solid foundation to build upon". MUCH BETTER PLACE The positive, however, is that central banks are successfully reining in inflation that had hit decades-long highs after the COVID-19 pandemic, and then Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which riled commodity markets. "Compared to last year, I have to say we are in a much better place," the former Mexican central bank governor said. Although Carstens said central banks deserved praise for navigating a difficult path that could have resulted in a wave of recessions, he added they needed to persevere, likening the inflation fight to a course of antibiotics to tackle an illness. He described an "extreme" scenario where inflation races up again and central banks need to raise rates further. But that is not what the BIS expects. Some things will be key, however, including goods and services prices, which, relative to core goods, remain well below the pre-pandemic trend in many countries. Real wages relative to the cost of those goods and services have also lost ground during the surge in inflation. "An overly rapid reversion of either – or both – of these relative prices could create material inflationary pressures", Carstens said, adding it would mean "fewer and more gradual rate cuts or even, in the extreme, rate increases." It chimed with the view that rate cuts should not be rushed. "A premature easing could reignite inflationary pressures and force a costly policy reversal," the BIS report said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-bis-pix-2024-06-30/

2024-06-30 09:06

CAIRO, June 30 (Reuters) - Egypt's sovereign fund has signed four agreements worth $33 billion in the field of green ammonia with European developers, a cabinet statement said on Sunday. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/egypt-signs-four-green-ammonia-agreements-worth-33-bln-2024-06-30/