2024-06-18 06:51
Purchase to be absorbed within Shell's cash capex guidance Joint team to be set up to manage future transition into Shell Deal to complete by first quarter of next year SINGAPORE, June 18 (Reuters) - Shell (SHEL.L) New Tab, opens new tab has agreed to buy Singaporean liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Pavilion Energy from global investment company Temasek in a move the oil major said will strengthen its leadership position in LNG, according to statements on Tuesday. The announcement confirmed a Reuters' report last Thursday saying Singapore's Temasek was finalising the Pavilion Energy sale to Shell in the coming days in a deal worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. Shell and Temasek did not disclose financial details of the sale in their statements. Shell said the acquisition will be absorbed within its cash capital expenditure guidance, which remains unchanged. "The deal is in excess of the internal rate of return hurdle rate for Shell's integrated gas business, delivering on its 15-25% growth ambition for purchased volumes, relative to 2022," Shell said in its statement. Shell planned to expand its LNG business by 20% to 30% by 2030, compared with 2022, and this deal is expected to help deliver these targets, it added. Shell expects global demand for LNG to rise by more than 50% by 2040 as coal-to-gas switching gathers pace in China, South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. "We believe Shell is well positioned to grow Pavilion Energy's business and strengthen its global LNG hub in Singapore," Juliet Teo, Temasek's head of portfolio development group and head of Singapore market, said in its statement. The deal will provide Shell, already the world's top LNG trader, with access to gas markets in Europe and Singapore as it aggressively expands its LNG footprint after raking in billions of profits last year. Zoë Yujnovich, Shell's integrated gas and upstream director, said that the purchase will bring material volumes and additional flexibility to its global portfolio. The deal came just over a decade after Temasek established Pavilion Energy to address the growing demand for energy in Asia and support the energy transition. Since 2013, Pavilion Energy has expanded from Singapore to Europe and built a portfolio including some 6.5 million tonnes per year or mtpa of LNG supply contracts from suppliers like Chevron, BP and QatarEnergy. It also has offtake contracts from leading U.S. liquefaction facilities at Corpus Christi Liquefaction, Freeport LNG and Cameron LNG. Temasek will retain its wholly owned unit Gas Supply Pte Ltd (GSPL), which imports piped natural gas from South Sumatra in Indonesia, Temasek's statement showed. Pavilion Energy's pipeline gas contracts with customers in the power sector are also not part of the transaction and will be novated to GSPL, prior to completion, according to both statements. Moreover, Pavilion Energy's 20% interest in Blocks 1 and 4 in Tanzania will not be included in the deal. The transaction is expected to complete by first quarter of next year, subject to regulatory approvals, according to both statements. Pavilion will continue to operate as a separate and independent business until the transaction is completed, according to a Temasek spokesperson. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/singapores-temasek-sell-pavilion-energy-shell-2024-06-18/
2024-06-18 06:45
KOLKATA, India June 18 (Reuters) - India will launch an investigation on Tuesday into a train collision that killed nine people in the state of West Bengal and injured more than 50, a day after a top railway official blamed the incident on driver error. The death toll was revised down to nine from 15 after Monday's accident, in which a freight train rammed into a passenger train heading for the state capital of Kolkata from the northeastern state of Tripura. The investigation by India's top railway safety official will start on Tuesday, Chetan Kumar Shrivastava, general manager of the Northeast Frontier railway, where the accident happened, told Reuters. "The inquiry will involve eye-witness accounts, scrutiny of official documents and statements from railway officials, regarding signalling and other mandatory safety issues," he added. On Monday, India's top railway official said the driver of the freight train, who was among the dead, disregarded a signal, leading to the crash with the Kanchanjunga Express, which had halted near a railway station in the district of Darjeeling. There were 1,400 people aboard, a railway spokesperson said. But media said an automatic signalling system had not been working from Monday morning, prompting authorities to advise train drivers to proceed slower than usual, in a process known as "paper signals". India's opposition leaders criticised New Tab, opens new tab the railway safety record of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, attributing it to negligence. The incident came a little over a year after about 288 people were killed in one of India's worst rail crashes in the neighbouring state of Odisha, caused by a signalling error. State-run Indian Railways, notorious for overcrowding, is the world's fourth largest train network, carrying 13 million people a day, along with nearly 1.5 billion tonnes of freight in 2022. In remarks to media on Monday, top railway official Jaya Varma Sinha, who chairs India's railway board, called for human error to be redued, adding that an anti-collision system was being set up nationwide. Partial services resumed on the affected tracks on Tuesday, with some trains diverted and others running slower than usual, railway officials said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-probe-railway-collision-that-killed-nine-injured-dozens-2024-06-18/
2024-06-18 06:45
BEIJING, June 18 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday it has allocated 443 million yuan ($61.1 million) for a disaster relief fund to support drought prevention work in seven provinces, including Hebei, Shanxi and Henan. The fund will be used for works such as watering, replanting and adding fertiliser in areas that are affected by recent heat and a lack of rainfall, it said. ($1 = 7.2557 Chinese yuan) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-allocates-443-mln-yuan-support-drought-prevention-work-2024-06-18/
2024-06-18 06:37
BERLIN, June 18 (Reuters) - Germany's solar power installation rose by 35% year-on-year in the first four months of 2024, boosted by a rise in industrial, commercial and ground-mounted photovoltaics demand, solar power association BSW said on Tuesday. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the sudden drop in Russian fossil fuel exports to Germany, Berlin has introduced several pieces of legislation to accelerate solar power expansion, part of Berlin's plan to cover 80% of its energy needs from renewables by 2030 and to become climate neutral by 2045. New solar power capacity grew by more than five gigawatts (GW) in the first third of this year, as 56% of businesses and over 60% of real estate owners in Europe's biggest economy are interested in investing in solar power systems, BSW said, citing a May survey by YouGov. BSW said it expects a double-digit percentage growth in installations and solar storage capacity in 2024, meeting the government targets of 19 GW of new annual capacity to reach 215 GW, or 25% of its domestic electricity consumption, by 2030. In the first four months of this year, newly installed photovolatics capacity on commercial rooftops rose by 81% while solar installations on open spaces grew by 74% compared to the same period last year. In the residential sector, new installations rose by 1%. "Following a significant solar boom in Germany's residential areas, commercial rooftops and underperforming open spaces are now being electrified with solar technology," BSW head Carsten Körnig said in a statement. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/germanys-solar-installations-up-35-early-2024-2024-06-18/
2024-06-18 06:07
June 18 (Reuters) - The global commercial shipping industry could cut down its carbon emissions by 47 million tonnes per year by deploying artificial intelligence for sea navigation, a study by autonomous shipping startup Orca AI showed on Tuesday. The use of the technology could reduce the need for maneuvers and route deviation from close encounters with high-risk marine targets such as vessels, buoys and sea mammals by alerting the crew in real time, according to the report. WHY IT IS IMPORTANT Shipping, responsible for moving about 90% of global trade, contributes nearly 3% to the world's carbon dioxide emissions. This share is anticipated to rise in the coming years unless stricter pollution control measures are implemented. The International Maritime Organization aims to cut emissions by 20% by 2030, a target under threat from the ongoing Red Sea crisis. KEY QUOTE "In the short term, it can lead to fewer crew members on the bridge, while those who are on the bridge will have a reduced workload and more attention to tackle complex navigational tasks, optimizing the voyage and reducing fuel and emissions," Orca AI CEO Yarden Gross told Reuters. "In the long term, it will open the door to fully autonomous shipping." CONTEXT Global carbon dioxide shipping emissions reached an estimated 858 million tonnes in 2022, a marginal rise from the previous year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. An average of 2,976 marine incidents are reported per year, Orca AI's study showed. BY THE NUMBERS The reduction in route deviations could help ships shave off 38.2 million nautical miles per year from their travel, saving an average of $100,000 in fuel costs per vessel, according to Orca AI's report. AI could also lower close encounters by 33% in open waters, it said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/ai-can-help-shipping-industry-cut-down-emissions-report-says-2024-06-18/
2024-06-18 05:37
NEW YORK, June 18 (Reuters) - A gauge of global stocks advanced for a second straight session on Tuesday and U.S. Treasury yields fell after a softer-than-expected report on consumer spending, while investors digested comments from multiple Federal Reserve officials on interest rates. Retail sales rose 0.1% last month after a downwardly revised 0.2% drop in April, the U.S. Commerce Department said. The result was below expectations of economists polled by Reuters for a gain of 0.3%, and indicated economic activity was slowing as higher interest rates affect consumer spending patterns. "The weaker-than-expected data's telling me that consumers are still having a difficult time and that the economy is still moving forward, but at a slower pace," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management in Fairfield, Connecticut. "The Fed has to start thinking about cutting interest rates, perhaps sooner than the end of the year." Market expectations that the Federal Reserve could cut rates at its September meeting crept higher, pricing in a 67.7% chance for a cut of at least 25 basis points, up from 61.5% on Monday. Other data showed U.S. business inventories rebounded in April, increasing by 0.3% after slipping 0.1% in March. On Wall Street, U.S. stocks closed higher with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing at record levels as Nvidia (NVDA.O) New Tab, opens new tab became the world's most valuable company by market capitalization. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) New Tab, opens new tab rose 56.76 points, or 0.15%, to 38,834.86, the S&P 500 (.SPX) New Tab, opens new tab gained 13.80 points, or 0.25%, to 5,487.03 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) New Tab, opens new tab gained 5.21 points, or 0.03%, to 17,862.23. U.S. markets will be closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) New Tab, opens new tab rose 3.73 points, or 0.47%, to 804.10, just shy of the 804.52 intraday record hit on June 12. New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams said interest rates will come down gradually over time, but declined to say when the U.S. central bank can kick off its monetary policy easing, while Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said he needs to parse several more months of data before he can consider supporting a rate cut. Other Fed officials also struck notes of caution. Governor Adriana Kugler said the central bank can't risk the progress made so far by cutting rates too soon. European shares also climbed, as the focus shifted to economic data and comments from central bank officials, steadying from a sharp drop last week after French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election. The STOXX 600 (.STOXX) New Tab, opens new tab index closed up 0.69%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index (.FTEU3) New Tab, opens new tab gained 13.14 points, or 0.65% The gap between French and German 10-year government bond yields , seen as a gauge of risk premium on French government bonds, narrowed to as much as 68.96 basis points after hitting 82.34 bps on Friday, the highest level since February 2017. U.S. Treasury yields moved lower following the retail sales data. An auction of $13 billion in 20-year bonds was seen as strong, with a yield nearly 3 basis points below the bidding deadline, and demand at 2.74 times the bonds on sale. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes declined 6.2 basis points to 4.217%, from 4.279%. The dollar pared gains on the heels of the data but was only slighter lower on the session. The dollar index slipped 0.02% at 105.25, while the euro edged 0.06% higher at $1.074. Against the Japanese yen , the dollar strengthened 0.08% at 157.84. Sterling strengthened 0.03% at $1.2707. Earlier in the day, the Reserve Bank of Australia kept rates at a 12-year high of 4.35%, as expected, but warned there were still reasons to guard against inflation risks. The Australian dollar strengthened 0.67% versus the greenback at $0.6656. Central banks in Norway, Britain and Switzerland are also scheduled to meet this week. Only the Swiss National Bank is expected to announce a rate cut. U.S. crude settled up 1.54% to $81.57 a barrel and Brent advanced to settle at $85.33 per barrel, up 1.28% on the day as geopolitical risks posed threats to global supply. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-wrapup-1-2024-06-18/
