Day: December 10, 2021

With Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s border, and President Biden urging Russia’s Vladimir Putin not to invade, the geopolitics of Russian natural gas are growing increasingly intolerable. European gas imports are a mainstay of cash for Putin’s regime, with over one-third of Kremlin funding coming directly from oil and gas revenue, even as Russia increases repression at home, attempts to undermine democratic elections abroad and continues to use its gas as a geopolitical weapon against Europe. If that weren’t enough, Russia is the world’s largest emitter of methane, a super…

The price of crude oil has had a history of volatility since trading began on international exchanges and the New York Mercantile Exchange some 40 years ago, but the last two years have been unusually high as global economies have tried to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. The price of oil traded around $60 per barrel in January 2020 just before the pandemic began. By April, demand for petroleum had crashed and dropped to as low as $15. Prices bounced back in 2021, reaching $84 for West Texas Intermediate in…

The sales tax on petrol was 1.43% which has been reduced to 0% but the same tax on high-speed diesel has been increased to 7.20% from 6.75%, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance and Revenue. However, the deduction of sales tax on petrol will not affect the price of petrol for consumers. The GST has been increased to 8.19% from 6.70% on kerosene oil and 0.46% from 0.20% on light diesel as well. The GST collected on petroleum sales goes to provinces. The reduction in the…

Trading house Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd. rode rising commodity prices to post record profit, making it a big winner from the pandemic economic rebound. Trafigura reported $3.1 billion in net profit on $231.3 billion in revenue in the 12 months through September. Wednesday’s results made the 2021 financial year the most profitable for the company since it was founded in 1993. Trafigura’s profit almost doubled from 2020, at that time a record year for the company, which scored by loading up on cheap barrels of oil when prices dropped early…