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Canada oil shortages and bad weather will tighten stocks at US storage hub
A power outage and wet weather at a major oil sands manufacturer have contributed to a tightening of crude export supplies?out?of Western Canada. This could affect the supply to U.S. Midwest refining facilities and the Cushing storage facility in Oklahoma. The supply disruptions in Western Canada will add to a tightening global market, as a fifth of global oil and gas shipments have been halted behind the Strait of Hormuz because of the U.S./Israeli war in Iran. U.S.?inventory, including strategic reserves, has fallen by 79 millions barrels since the Iran War began late February. Inventories at Cushing are nearing their operational lows. Canada is the fourth largest oil producer in the world and the biggest foreign supplier of crude oil to the U.S. The oil flows into storage tanks at Cushing, as well as Midwest and Gulf Coast refining facilities. Midwest refiners in the U.S., who have no access to waterborne oil, are heavily reliant on Canadian oil. Many of these refineries were designed to process oil sands crude. Recent heavy rains have temporarily slowed down oil sands extraction in northern Alberta. A power outage at Cenovus' Foster Creek and Christina Lake operations last week prompted Cenovus to declare force majeure. According to a research note published by Energy Aspects last week, the power outage took 10% of the oil sands company's production offline. Cenovus didn't immediately respond to a comment request. Since the start of the war in Iran, Canadian crude is also in high demand, particularly from Asian buyers who see Canada as a reliable, safe source of supply. The Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada, which transports Canadian heavy crude oil to the Pacific coast, for export overseas including Asia, is now operating at full capacity, for the first since a major expansion two years ago. Wood Mackenzie's Lee Williams, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said that the Western Canadian crude inventory is now at its lowest level since 2020. Williams said in an email that Western Canadian crude oil inventories have decreased by over 4 million barrels during the past two weeks, and by almost 8?million since February's end. Canadian heavy crude oil prices have increased significantly over the past week and a half. The discount between West Texas Intermediate, the North American benchmark, and Western Canada Select has decreased by about $4 since May's end. Reporting by Amanda Stephenson from Calgary and Arathy Smasekhar from Houston
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Trump: 'Great' Iran settlement to trigger opening of Strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said on Thursday that a "great agreement" to end the war in Iran would be signed within days. Trump told reporters at the Oval Office: "We have just reached a wonderful settlement in our war with Iran." He said: "The strait is going to be officially opened as soon as we have signed, which may happen very soon, perhaps over the weekend, in Europe." Trump claimed he just spoke to Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and also with the leaders of Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. He said that he was soon going to'speak with Turkey's Tayyip Erdoan. He said that the deal ended the question of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. "Most important, we have a contract that Iran will never possess a nuclear device. That was the entire purpose of going through all this to get it. It was a big deal, he said. Trump cancelled new strikes against Iran on Thursday morning, stating that the "final points" had been approved of an initial peace agreement and details about a signing ceremony will be announced shortly. The semi-official Iranian?Fars reported that Tehran is likely to approve of the agreement, though it has not yet given a formal reply. The announcement of the cancellation came hours after President Obama announced that the U.S. would be attacking Iran for the third night in a row. Trump has claimed that a deal to end the war with Iran is near since mid-March. Both sides have been exchanging strikes all week, straining the ceasefire that was announced in April. (Reporting and editing by Humeyra Pamuk and Katharine Jackson)
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SpaceX's IPO: The Road to Success
SpaceX's initial public offering in the United States raised $75 billion on Thursday as investors raced to get exposure to Elon Musk’s space?and satellite empire before its highly anticipated Nasdaq début. This is a time line of?SpaceX’s journey towards the blockbuster IPO Elon Musk started SpaceX in March 2002 with money from the sale of PayPal. SpaceX launched its first rocket in March 2006, the Falcon 1. It failed. Falcon 1 is launched successfully in September 2008. It's the first liquid-fuel rocket developed by a private company to reach Earth orbit. SpaceX signs its first major contract in December 2008 with NASA for the transportation of cargo and supplies to International Space Station. May 2012 - The first private spacecraft docked at the ISS is a Dragon capsule launched by a Falcon 9 rocket. Falcon 9 explodes in mid-air on June 15, 2015. December 2015 – First successful vertical touchdown of Falcon 9 marking the first controlled recovery for a large rocket after delivering payload to orbit. In February 2018, the first Falcon Heavy launch carried Musk's Tesla Roadster into space, along with its mannequin, Starman. April 2019 - Crew Dragon test vehicle explodes on the ground during a ground test. May 2019 - SpaceX launches Starlink satellites. This constellation is capable of beaming high-speed Internet service to customers all over the world. October 2020 - SpaceX successfully completes its 100th Falcon rocket flight since Falcon 1 flew into orbit for the first time in 2008. SpaceX Crew-1, the first mission to be launched under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. NASA awards SpaceX a contract in April 2021 for the first commercial human landing on the Moon, as part of the Artemis program. September 2021: SpaceX launches first ever all-civilian crew to orbit the Earth. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission launched on a SpaceX rocket into an interplanetary transfer space in November 2021, marking the first ever test of a planet defense system to prevent a possible asteroid impact with Earth. April 2023 - First Starship rocket explodes after losing control. November 2023: Starship launches fail minutes after reaching the space. November 2023: A U.S. Judge blocks the U.S. Department of Justice's pursuit of an administrative case accusing Elon Musk’s SpaceX of refusing to illegally hire refugees and asylum seekers. September 2024: The SpaceX Polaris Dawn Mission performs its first privately-managed spacewalk. SpaceX's Starship rocket crashes in space just minutes after it launches from Texas. Airlines flying over the Gulf of Mexico are forced to change course to avoid falling debris. Starship explodes in June 2025 during a test on the ground. SpaceX buys Musk's AI company xAI for a record 'deal' of $250 billion. This unifies the 'world's richest person's AI and Space ambitions, by combining his rocket-and satellite company with the maker the Grok chatbot. Musk claims that SpaceX will focus on building an "auto-growing city" in February 2026. NASA official claims that the Starship rocket has been delayed by at least two years since 2021 when NASA selected it as the astronaut moon lander. It is expected to take more time before the remaining hurdles are cleared. SpaceX files confidentially for its U.S. IPO, which could be the largest stock market flotation ever. SpaceX files its long-awaited U.S. IPO in May 2026. SpaceX's IPO price is set at $135 per share in June 2026. The company hopes to raise a record $75 billion. SpaceX and Alphabet's Google agree to a multiyear cloud services agreement in June 2026. June 2026 - SpaceX raises record $75 billion in U.S. IPO. Reporting by Prakhar Shrivastava in Bengaluru and Arasu Kanagi Basil; editing by Sahal Muhammad and Joyjeet Das
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Imperial Oil fined by Alberta court for Kearl spill violation
Imperial Oil Canada was fined C$120,000 (85,849.19 USD) after pleading guilty to violating environmental regulations at its 'Kearl Oil Sands' site. According to the Alberta Energy Regulator, following a hearing on May 29, the Canadian oil producer was ordered to pay C$2,000, which included a victim surcharge. They also had to contribute C$118,000 to a creative'sentencing project. In an email, the company said that it has taken steps to prevent this from happening again, including reprogramming of equipment, updating sediment management processes, and increasing inspections. There is no evidence that the overflow of water has had any adverse effects on local wildlife. We will continue to provide site tours and share monitoring data with the local Indigenous communities. The charge relates to an incident that occurred on February 4, 2023 when wastewater?overflowed a drainage pond at the Kearl Oil Sands Processing Plant & Mine. This was reported to the regulator. The Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act of the province governs this?offense. (1 Canadian dollar = 1.3978 Canadian Dollars) (Reporting and editing by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru, Sumit Saha from Bengaluru)
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GLOBAL-MARKETS-Equities rally, dollar dips with oil as Trump cancels Iran attacks
MSCI's global index of equities rose on Thursday, while the dollar fell and oil futures soared. This was due to renewed hope for peace in Middle East following the announcement by U.S. president Donald Trump that he had canceled his planned strikes against Iran. After threatening to bomb more oil-exporting Kharg Island and saying he wanted to "take it", Trump announced that the talks had been "brought to the highest level Iranian leadership and approved." In a Truth Social post, Trump also stated that the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia had approved "discussions" and "final points." Oil prices dropped immediately after the announcement on energy markets. ?U.S. The price of crude oil fell by 3%, to $87.33 per barrel. Brent was down to $90.13 barrels on the same day. Wall Street saw gains in the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average grew 803.60 points or 1.61% to 50,722.98, while the S&P 500 climbed 93.44 points or 1.27% to 7,360.43, and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 423.00 or 1.66% to 25,592.50 at 01:59 pm?ET (1759 GMT). MSCI's global stock index rose by 10.26 points or 0.94% to 1,097.24. The pan-European STOXX 600 Index rose earlier by 0.54%, after the European Central Bank announced its first rate hike in almost three years. The safe-haven currency dollar has lost ground in the currency markets on hopes of Middle East peace. The dollar index (which measures the greenback versus a basket of currencies, including the yen, the euro and others) fell by 0.14%, to 99.91. Meanwhile, the euro rose 0.14%, to $1.1551. The dollar fell 0.25% against the Japanese yen to 160.11. Bitcoin gained 2.80% to $63,480.09. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10 year notes dropped 6.3 basis point to 4.477% from 4.54% on?Wednesday. Meanwhile, the 30-year bond rate fell 6 basis point to 4.9655%, down from 5.025% on Wednesday. The yield on the 2-year note, which is usually in line with expectations of interest rates from the Federal Reserve fell by 5 basis points, to 4.077%. This was down from 4.127% late on Wednesday. Spot gold increased by 1.97%, to $4,153.54 per ounce, and spot silver rose by 3.47%, to $65.90 per ounce. U.S. producer price increases were higher than expected in May. This led to the largest annual increase in three and a half years, as Middle -East conflict drove energy prices up. The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits has increased slightly last week. This indicates that the labor market is still resilient in early June.
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Sources say that Exxon's global trading head is retiring.
Two sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that Tracey Gunnlaugsson, Exxon Mobil’s global head of trading, is retiring. Gunnlaugsson is a Houston-based woman according to her LinkedIn page. She was appointed to head the trading division in 2023, after serving as a human resources vice president for the company for almost five years. Exxon refused to comment. Gunnlaugsson could not be reached for comment immediately. Exxon's earnings were impacted by "timing losses" related to trading, despite the higher oil prices due to the Middle East conflict. In the first quarter, Exxon reported a paper loss of $3.9 billion due to derivatives. This pushed its 'net income' down to its lowest point in five years. These losses were in stark contrast to the first-quarter trading profit?of European Oil Majors who made billions from the energy supply crisis this year triggered by U.S. and Israeli war against Iran. European oil majors have invested decades in building trading desks. They employ hundreds of people to buy and sell fuels, crude and gas, as well as take positions on derivatives markets. Exxon and its U.S. rival Chevron focus their traders on optimizing flow within their own networks, including refineries, fuel retail outlets, and production. This approach can be a good way to maximize predictability, but it also limits the opportunities for profiting from extreme market movements. Exxon uses financial derivatives to reduce the risk of price fluctuations during the time required to deliver cargoes. The company said that the value of a 'physical shipment' is not reflected until after the transaction has been completed, and this had a large unfavorable impact on timing. In an interview with Exxon's CFO Neil Hansen last month, Hansen stated that the timing impacts will be unwinding in the following quarters and lead to profitability. Darren Woods, Exxon's CEO, said that the company is confident that the losses are a simple timing issue "that will work itself out." He said that "the timing impact?here?is primarily driven by?the fact that the trading organisation is taking advantage of opportunities in the market and locking in profits." Reporting by Stephanie Kelly, Arathy S. Somasekhar, Sheila Dang and Nathan Crooks in Houston. Editing by Nathan Crooks & Chizu Nomiyama.
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Report finds that coffee firms are not meeting the looming EU regulations on living wages for farmers.
According to a major report on the coffee industry, none of the top coffee roasters or?traders in the world have committed to pay farmers a living wage even though it will be a legal requirement for large 'companies' operating in the EU from 2029. Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD), a landmark EU directive, requires that large companies fix any human rights or environmental issues within their supply chain. Otherwise they could face fines up to 3% global turnover. According to the biennial Coffee Barometer prepared by a group NGOs, this law is the first EU instrument that recognises living income as a human right. This recognition has direct commercial implications on the coffee industry. Large companies will also need to have their compliance systems in place well before 2029. The report stated that "Pricing structures and contract duration are no longer solely commercial decisions. If they have adverse impacts on human rights, companies must change them." The report noted that, despite the fact that no one of the 15 largest roasters or traders in the world that they reviewed had disclosed any of this information, nor referred to living income commitments, when reporting on sustainability. According to Barometer, the coffee sector is dominated by smallholder farmers who are poor. Even at the current price levels, it is estimated that around 12.5 million farming households produce most of the coffee in the world. "Companies make sustainability commitments while their core commercial operations continue relying on commodity purchases at low prices. "Until this changes, sustainability investments will work around rather than on the problem." Barometer reviews top roasters Nestle and Starbucks, as well as top traders Olam and Louis Dreyfus, Ecom, and Volcafe.
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A false alarm at the Pentagon triggers a brief shelter-in place order
Officials said that a 'false alarm' at the Pentagon, following an air quality alert, briefly triggered a partial shelter in place?order? on Wednesday, while first responders were working to eliminate exposure to hazardous substances. The lockdown was applied to certain corridors of the five-sided Arlington, Virginia building. The employees were told to?stay put as tests were conducted to determine if a sensor malfunction was the cause. Officials said that many employees who were not in the areas of concern had been told to leave as a precaution. "Earlier today, Pentagon occupants received a notification of a possible air quality problem, which prompted immediate safety measures and an evaluation. Following a 'testing, it was confirmed that there is no danger and normal operations are now resumed", said Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson. We express our sincere appreciation to the first responders who took swift action to ensure the safety of all personnel. The Pentagon was one of the largest buildings in the world when it was attacked by al Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001. Reporting by Phil Stewart and Doina chiacu; editing by David Ljunggren and Caitlin WEBBER and David Gregorio
Venezuela retains Greenberg Traurig for US court case against Crystallex
The firm that previously represented it in the U.S. Court of Appeals said on Thursday, Venezuela has retained the law firm 'Greenberg Traurig' to represent the country in a longstanding legal battle against miner Crystallex. This involves more than a dozen creditors seeking compensation for expropriations.
The Attorney General of Venezuela, Arianny eijo, announced this 'week that Daniel Pulecio, and 'Dominic Draye, are now leading Venezuelan's team. In a letter sent to the firm Munger Tolles & Olson which asked the US Court of Appeals for Third Circuit to'remove' them as counsel.
Washington recognized the interim government led by Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriquez as the head of state back in March.
Munger, Tolles & Olson argued that the decision of the President of the United States to recognize a particular party as the sole 'head of state' of a foreign govt. was a?conclusive one and binding upon the court.
Venezuela has changed its legal representation in foreign courts in recent months. This is especially true for "prominent" cases in the U.S. that involve pending payments or compensations. Venezuela is trying to structure a repayment effort. (Reporting and editing by Nathan Crooks; Marianna Pararaga)
(source: Reuters)