Category: Highlights

Germany plans to bring back coal- and oil-fired power plants should Russia cut off natural gas shipments to Europe’s largest economy. Economy Minister Robert Habeck will on Tuesday present an emergency decree enabling the government to bring back the facilities in case of gas shortages, according to the proposed legislation seen by Bloomberg. Germany is resorting to desperate measures to keep the lights on and its massive industrial parks running, turning to dirty fuels even if that means a surge in carbon emissions. The nation has almost six gigawatts of…

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Pakistan and the IMF are likely to go an extra mile to finish the seventh review under the bailout programme, the central bank chief said on Monday, indicating the ongoing talks could last longer than expected to cover the budgetary procedure. “Talks may continue beyond May 25 for a few more days, but the IMF will hopefully see a positive statement from the Fund before they extend,” Dr Murtaza Saeed, acting governor of State bank of Pakistan (SBP), told a virtual brief from Doha. “Budget preparation is part of the…

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The war in Ukraine has jolted energy markets— driving oil and gas prices to their highest levels in over a decade and leaving governments scrambling to secure energy supplies. In the months since Russia’s invasion, policymakers have faced a hard truth: energy policy is security policy, and it has been neglected for far too long. Government priorities feature prominently in discussions over the transition to renewable energy. Enthusiasm may abound for wind power, but if the United States is serious about its future, it must address critical supply chain disruptions…

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China added 2 million bpd to its crude oil inventories last month, Reuters’ Clyde Russell reported today, citing calculations based on official data. This means the world’s largest oil importer was buying more from abroad, although Russell noted that these purchases were most likely made months earlier, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. Imports of crude in China averaged 10.47 million barrels daily, Russell noted, adding that local production was estimated at 4.14 million barrels. This meant a total supply of over 14 million bpd. Yet refinery run rates averaged…

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With the EIA reporting an almost 5-million-barrel stock draw in gasoline over the week ending May 13, with inventories dropping to levels last seen in December and completely ignoring the seasonal build-up trend, gasoline has become the talk of the US market. This week brought a long-anticipated breakthrough as even the last states to see gasoline prices below $4 per gallon (Georgia, Kansas, and Oklahoma) have surpassed that threshold and every single US state now sees gasoline prices above the WTI contract. At the same time, the backwardation in the…

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