The EU on Wednesday proposed a law requiring natural gas storage be filled to a minimum 80 percent before next winter as it grapples with soaring energy prices exacerbated by the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine. The measure is one of several options the 27-nation bloc is looking at as inflation and projected lower economic growth from the war erode a vibrant recovery from the Covid pandemic. It is especially important because Russia provides nearly a third of the EU’s natural gas imports. While those have been left untouched…
Read MoreDay: March 24, 2022
Oil at $150 per barrel ‘is not outside the realm of possibility’: energy trader
Oil at $150 a barrel is not “outside the realm” of possibilities, says one energy trader. “It’s hard to take anything off the table right now. Russia is starting to retaliate with its own response to U.S. sanctions, whether that’s demanding payments in rubles or potentially not allowing crude to flow through a very prominent pipeline through Kazakhstan,” Rebecca Babin, senior equity trader for CIBC Private Wealth, told Yahoo Finance Live. “As we’ve seen this escalate in ways that were very low probabilities when we started, and having these tangential impacts…
Read MoreRussia’s LNG ambitions put at risk as Linde exits
International chemicals giant Linde has joined a host of Western oil producers, oilfield service providers and technology players in exiting Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, putting in doubt Moscow’sambitions of becoming a major global exporter of liquified natural gas by 2030. As a member of a consortium with Technip Energies and Russia’s Nipigazpererabotka, Linde is a key partner underpinning a multi-billion dollar engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Arctic LNG 2 export project led by Novatek, Russia’s largest independent gas producer. In a statement placed on a…
Read MoreGovt fails to convince IMF over amnesty scheme
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not convinced with the government’s justifications for a recently announced amnesty scheme and has doubts over the financial impact and financing sources of the prime minister’s relief package on electricity and petroleum prices. As a result, the Fund’s mission and the government authorities are unlikely to conclude the ongoing seventh review of the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) shortly and may lead to the disbursement of about $1.9bn worth of two tranches close to the federal budget due in June, depending on the outcome of…
Read MoreHigh energy, food prices stoke inflation, threaten economic recovery
Finance ministry on Wednesday said Pakistan’s economy is also facing the inflation headwinds due to record high international energy and food prices. The recent developments in the international markets threaten the recovery of the global economy including Pakistan, the ministry said in a statement “Record high international prices of energy, food and other commodities combined with rising freight costs have hit Pakistan hard, with inflation rising to 12 percent in February 2022.” However, inflation is not just a Pakistan specific problem, inflation in the US, UK, EU and emerging markets…
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