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Shell and Nigerian oil producers discuss Bonga North service contract
The head of a trade group for Nigerian oil producers said that Shell is in talks with Nigerian oil companies to secure up to 25 percent of the service contract for the Bonga North Deepwater Project. Shell announced its investment in the project in December. The project is expected to maintain oil and gas production in Bonga. The project will be connected to Shell's Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility (FPSO), in which it holds a majority stake. Later, the Nigerian government said that the total project value is $5.5 billion. Wole Ogunsanya is the chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria. He said that the group met with a Shell delegation in Nigeria on Monday along with the Nigerian organization responsible for increasing local involvement in the oil sector to discuss the possibility of securing 20% to 25% of service contracts for this multi-billion dollar project. We have real capacity and Nigerian companies already operate in India, the Middle East and other African countries. "We are capable of managing this project too," Ogunsanya stated at the Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference 2025 (SAIPEC), in Lagos. Shell has declined to comment on this proposal. In 2010, Nigeria passed the Local Content Development Act, which requires oil companies to submit plans that demonstrate tangible benefits for the country. These include employment, resource processing and local industry involvement. Nigerian participation to oil and gas projects increased to 56% since the law was passed. The government plans to increase it to 70% by the year 2027. The law has helped oil majors divest from their onshore fields and give them to local companies. Shell estimates that Bonga North contains more than 300,000,000 barrels of recoverable oil equivalent (boe). The project will reach a peak production rate of 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day before the end the decade.
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Trump's squeeze results in concessions, some real and others not so much
Donald Trump, the U.S. president, has stepped onto the global stage. He has issued ultimatums and demanded that allies and enemies heed his demands. His threats, from large trade tariffs to outright resource grabs, are part of an approach to diplomacy that is often accompanied with explicit demands. Many of his target countries have made concessions. Some of the concessions were real, such as pledges to purchase more American products or invest in U.S.-based activities. Other times, they were a repackaging or a move that had already been made. This article will go into some detail about the responses that Trump has received since his January 20th inauguration. AMERICAN BORDERS Mexico's 10,000 National Guard soldiers, which it has sent to the United States border to stop the flow of drugs and control migration, are clearly a new addition to its border security. This was enough for Trump to drop his threat to impose steep tariffs on trade last week. The majority of experts are not sure if the reinforcements have any real impact. They reserve their judgement for now. Canada, which was also granted a tariff reprieve, had announced in December that it would invest C$1.3 billion (909 million dollars) on border security to combat fentanyl and other drugs, illegal migration, and organized crime. Justin Trudeau, in announcing the suspension of U.S. Tariffs on February 3, referred to a "new intelligence directive" that was backed up by C$200 Million. Justin Trudeau also promised to appoint a "Fentanyl Czar", a post that has not yet been filled. JAPAN JAPAN's large trade surplus with the United States is a long-standing irritant to Trump. He brought it up with Shigeru Shiba, Prime Minister of Japan during his first White House Visit last week. Ishiba, who pledged to increase Japanese investments in America to $1 Trillion and to purchase U.S. ammonia, gas and ethanol, signalled his willingness to support U.S. interest. SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is likely to have pledged $100 million in an investment during a December meeting with Trump. Ishiba mentioned that Toyota Motor Corp., and Isuzu Motors have new factories planned in the United States. Trump announced progress in the Nippon Steel attempt to acquire U.S. Steel, which was blocked at $14.9 billion. He stated that any bid should be in the form of an outright investment, not a purchase. Uncertainty remains about how Nippon Steel & U.S. Steel will revise the proposed deal. INDIA Trump previously labelled India a "very large abuser" of trade. India has been eager to emphasize its willingness to open its economic system. This is a message that Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to convey during his two-day trip to the United States. Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Finance Secretary, said: "We do not want to send anyone a signal that we are protectionist." "Our position is that we do not want to increase the protection." Officials from the Indian government said that India was considering tariff reductions in at least 12 sectors, ranging from medical and surgical devices to chemicals and electronics, in order to boost U.S. imports and to align with New Delhi's plans for domestic production. Modi could also propose increased U.S. imports of energy and defense. EUROPE SECURITY Trump began to harrasse European NATO allies about the need to increase their defence spending during his first term, and it had some effect. Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary-General, said last week that a new pledge of military spending to be decided in this year will be "considerably higher" than the target of 2 percent of national production which many NATO Allies failed to meet a ten years ago. In Europe, the Ukraine conflict has also brought to light security concerns. It is still unclear how the governments, with their tight budgets, will fund this surge in defense spending. What will happen to Trump's claim that the United States should get a cut of the revenues generated by the future extraction from Ukraine's rare earths and critical minerals as a reward for its support of the war effort is even more uncertain. Ukraine floated the idea last year of opening up its vital minerals to investment from allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated in an interview last week that he is ready to make a deal. Zelenskiy stressed that Kyiv did not propose "giving away" resources but offered a partnership for them to be developed jointly. There is no way to know how many of these resources are on the Russian side of current frontlines. Reporting by Aftab Ahmad in New Delhi, John Geddie and Stephen Eisenhammer from Mexico City, Caroline Stauffer is in Canada. Writing by Mark John. Editing by Hugh Lawson.
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Save LGBTQ+ and climate data as Trump deletes
Government websites scrubbed under Trump orders Experts warn that green policies put vulnerable communities at risk Courts file lawsuits against the government for data removal Adam Smith Following a series of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, thousands of U.S. Government web pages have been altered or removed. The orders target what the administration refers to as "gender ideologism extremism" (or environmental policies). To make rational and effective public health policies, you must have access to accurate, comprehensive data. Charles Gaba is a healthcare data analysts who works to support information on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) website. Health agency officials took offline datasets from the CDC late last month, including the Social Vulnerability Index and Environmental Justice Index used to quantify disproportionate risks of health among different demographics. The average person should consider this as censorship. The CDC, along with other federal agencies, has also purged data on HIV in transgender individuals and disparities in health among gay, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender youth. Benjamin stated that removing information would make it more difficult to track infectious diseases such as HIV and mpox and could have a severe impact on everyone. To stop the move, organizations such as Doctors for America and Minority Veterans of America filed lawsuits with the U.S. Government. The lawsuit filed by Doctors for America stated that "the removal of this data robs researchers of information they need to treat patients and develop policies and practices that protect the health and safety of vulnerable populations as well as the nation at large." Preserving Data The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the U.S. Government's Human Resources agency, has told all departments to stop programs that promote gender ideology or "recognize" women as biologically female and men as biologically male. Academics and online preservation organizations, which keep a record of U.S. Government as it changes through time for historical research and educational purposes, have increased their efforts to backup information. Gaba created an online index of CDC sites using Internet Archive. This non-profit website allows anyone to backup a website simply by sending a URL. Other weaknesses exist in the process. The archived library may lead to broken or dead websites if the site has not been backed up completely, if malware is detected or if the server hosting the website is down. The main databases of public health were not saved. They had to be downloaded separately. The Public Environmental Data Project (PEDP), a coalition of volunteers that works to preserve public access federal environmental data, has archived the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, developed by the Council on Environmental Quality. The federal agencies use the CEJST to identify areas with significant environmental, economic and social burdens. These communities need targeted investments from environmental initiatives. The Public Environmental Data Project has now replicated the Environmental Protection Agency’s ‘EJScreen’ tool which combines demographic and environmental indicators to assess higher-risk communities. The U.S. Government took it off-line between February 3 and 5. CHALLENGES ARCHIVE Archiving government data is nothing new. The End of Term Web Archive (which includes the Internet Archive, libraries, and research organizations) has been saving government websites for the past five presidential terms. The rapid policy changes of the Trump administration have increased the urgency. Katie Hoeberling is the director of policy initiatives for Open Environmental Data Project. The project promotes environmental data that can be used to facilitate community-driven governance, information sharing, and support. She said that taxpayer dollars had paid for CEJST, EJScreen and other software, so the public "deserves access" to them, whether it is for research, advocacy, litigation or just to help people better understand their environment. Legal means could be used to recover more data, such as the lawsuit filed by Doctors for America against the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration. The lawsuit claims that removing data on youth behavioral risks, HIV support, and FDA guidance regarding diversity in clinical studies would hamper vital research. The CDC refused to comment on this lawsuit. The FDA and HHS have not responded to a comment request on the lawsuit. Researchers are worried that even if the existing data is preserved, new data may not be collected. This could affect future research and policy accuracy. Benjamin added that Benjamin's statement about the inability to use information collected for a specific purpose for a different one was a good reminder of how even small differences can have a huge impact on areas like disease prevention.
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Nornickel, a Russian company, says that it is actively involved in talks with China on a JV
Nornickel of Russia, a major producer in the refined nickel and palladium industry, announced on Tuesday that it was in active discussions on a joint-venture in China, with potential investments being included in its early financial plans. The details of the discussions were not disclosed. In December, two sources familiar with the matter said that Nornickel was in talks with Chinese conglomerate Xiamen C&D to form a joint venture in China for processing Nornickel's raw copper material into metal. We are in active discussions with our Chinese partners and therefore cannot reveal the details just yet. We are including these funds in our financial model for 2025-2026, said Nornickel Vice President of Strategic Planning Sergey Dubovitsky during a conference call. He claimed that the $2.1 billion announced for capital investment by 2025 does not include any potential investments in Chinese projects. Nornickel is diversifying its production by establishing plants outside of Russia. This comes after the company diverted its sales to Asian countries in response to Western sanctions. Nornickel may not be directly sanctioned by the West, but some Western producers have been influenced to stop buying Russian metal. They also face complicated payments and limited access to Western equipment. Nornickel's 2024 net profit fell 37% to $1.8 billion due to Western sanctions and low metals prices. Dubovitsky didn't elaborate on whether the models were backed by the board of directors. The company stated that it planned to increase capital investments in 2026-2027, but not beyond the level of $2.5-3.0 Billion. Nornickel, who has been trying to reduce the stocks of metals that it couldn't sell due to Western sanctions, also reiterated Tuesday its intention to sell all of its production by 2025. The company's Chief Financial Officer, Sergey Malyshev, said: "We plan to sell all we produce this year and reduce our inventory by a portion." Vladimir Potanin, Nornickel's billionaire president, called the growth of net working capital due to the accumulation of inventories as a negative trend in recent years. On February 10, the company stated that they expected a global surplus of nickel in 2025, and that this year's global palladium markets would be balanced. It plans to produce between 204,000-211,000 tons of Nickel this year. (Reporting and writing by Anastasia Lyrchikova, Anastasia Teterevleva and Gleb Bryanski; Editing and reviewing by Jan Harvey and David Evans).
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Indian steelmakers are worried about the future if they are not protected from Trump's tariffs
Industry executives warned that India's small steel producers could face a future surge in imports due to the sharp tariff increases imposed on U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump increased the tariffs on aluminium and steel imports by a flat 25 percent. Indian producers are already under pressure from cheap imports coming from some of world's largest producers. Anubhav Katuria, managing Director of stainless steel producer Synergy Steels, said: "The increased tariffs could divert Chinese and Asian exports into India, while heightening the competition, creating a downturn in domestic prices and impacting small Indian producers due to low-cost Chinese dumped products." Steel prices have dropped in India in recent months due to an influx in cheap imports. Smaller producers were forced to cut jobs as a result. JSW Steel India's largest steelmaker reported a bigger than expected drop in its third quarter profit last month. This was due to lower prices, low demand, and increasing imports. We need to protect ourselves against other countries diverting their steel to India, because we have no safeguards. This was the statement of a senior executive from a steel company who declined to be named because he wasn't authorised to speak to the media. India, which was a net importer in 2023/2024, is examining the possibility of imposing a temporary import tax. Separately the Indian Steel Association has asked for government intervention in order to obtain exemption from U.S. Tariffs. (Reporting and editing by Mayank Bhardwaj, David Goodman, and Neha Arora)
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OPEC sees the global oil market as a long-term project and aims to stabilize it
Haitham al Ghais, secretary general of OPEC, said that the group's decisions are based on a long-term perspective and aim to provide price stability. He made this statement at the India Energy Week Conference held Tuesday. The comments come after U.S. president Donald Trump repeatedly urged the producer group to boost oil production in order to reduce prices. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+), a group also known as OPEC, announced earlier this month it would continue its policy of increasing oil production gradually from April. "We read the markets. Al Ghais stated that they analyze supply and demand without political considerations. They rely solely on sound technical considerations. OPEC+ will continue to cut production until the end March, due to concerns about global demand and increasing output outside of the group. "Oil was the least volatile commodity last year as well, and that is largely due to the decisions we make and the clarity with which we do it at OPEC+. This is what we are aiming for. "This is what we'll keep doing," said he. Trump, since returning to office in January, has claimed that the high oil prices helped Russia prolong the war in Ukraine. OPEC+ & Donald Trump were at odds repeatedly in his first administration from 2016 to 2020 when the U.S. president demanded that it increase production in order to compensate for the fall in Iranian supplies due U.S. sanction. (Reporting and writing by Nidhi verma and Sethuraman N R, Mayank Bhardwaj and Florence Tan; Editing and proofreading by Louise Heavens & Ros Russell).
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Brazil's inflation rate slows down in January, but the tightening cycle will continue
Official data released on Tuesday showed that Brazil's inflation was in line with expectations, slowing down from the previous months but still exceeding the upper limit of the target range set by the central bank. IBGE, the government statistics agency, reported that consumer prices in Latin America's biggest economy rose by 0.16% in January, down from 0.5% in December, and in line with expectations in an economist poll. According to the agency this was the lowest price increase for January since Brazil established its real currency in 1994. This was due to a sharp drop in electricity prices and a fall in housing costs. IBGE reported that the annual inflation rate was 4.56%. This is a slight decrease from the 4.83% recorded in the previous months. Brazil's central banks targets an inflation rate of 3% plus or minus 1.5% and tightens its monetary policies to achieve this goal. In January, policymakers unanimously agreed to raise the benchmark Interest rate The second consecutive meeting saw a 100-basis-point increase to 13.25% and a signal of another such hike in March. Kimberley Sperrfechter, of Capital Economics, said that the latest inflation number "is unlikely" to stop the central bank from increasing the Selic rate by another 100bp. She noted that inflation expectations remain well above target. "For the moment, we believe that the hike in March will be the end of this tightening cycle. However, the risks to our forecast are to the upside." Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, editing by Mark Heinrich
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Ukraine supports the purchase of Soviet designed nuclear reactors by Bulgaria
The Ukrainian parliament passed on Tuesday a law allowing the state nuclear operator to purchase two nuclear reactors of Soviet design from Bulgaria for Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi Power Plant, lawmakers reported. The absence of a law allowing the purchase prevented Ukraine from signing a contract last June for two Bulgarian nuclear reactor bodies to compensate the lost of the six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is occupied by Russia. The contract amount is not specified in the law. According to Ukrainian officials, Bulgaria previously set the price for the two reactors as $600 million. A number of politicians have objected to this law. They said they were against the purchase of Russian gear at an untransparent price, in the context the war with Russia. The law was passed despite the fact that Ukrainian officials claimed the purchase will allow the launch of the first two units within two to three years. This would reduce the power shortages in Ukraine, where Russian drone and missile attacks have destroyed the energy infrastructure. Since Zaporizhzhia's loss, Ukraine relies on nuclear energy from three power plants operating in the country. There are nine reactors total in the country. Two of them are in operation at Khmelnytskyi. The construction of the third- and fourth-reactors at Khmelnytskyi started in the 1980s but was stopped because of the Chornobyl disaster. About 60% of Ukraine's electricity needs are met by nuclear power. (Reporting and editing by Kevin Liffey, Barbara Lewis and Yuliia Diasa;
Finnish utility Fortum says lower power prices and mild winter dampen Q4 earnings
The Finnish utility Fortum reported on Tuesday that its fourth-quarter operating profit was below analysts' expectations. It cited lower volumes of hydro and nuclear power and weaker prices.
Fortum says that the fall in Nordic spot prices was partially offset by the ongoing recovery of Nordic power demand.
According to a poll conducted by the company, analysts had expected 280 million euro in operating profit.
Fortum CEO Markus Rauramo stated in a press release that the comparable operating profit of the Generation segment decreased due to lower volumes for hydro and nuclear and lower spot and hedge price.
Operating profit rose from 376 to 390 millions euros, a rise of 182 million euros. This includes a capital gain from the sale of Fortum's waste and recycling business.
Rauramo stated that "we are beginning a feasibility study in order to explore the possibilities of flexible hydro-power pumped storage in Sweden, to provide flexible and balancing power which is much needed."
Rauramo stated that Fortum achieved 60 million euro in cost reductions by 2024. This was more than its previous target of 50 millions. It is on track to achieve its goal of reducing its recurring fixed expenses by 100 million by the end 2025.
Fortum's Board of Directors proposed a dividend per share of 1,40 euros for 2024.
After the Helsinki market opened, shares of the company dropped by 1.1%.
(source: Reuters)