2025-08-03 07:03
Sept hike of 548,000 bpd agreed, sources say ahead of meeting Virtual meeting starts at 1100 GMT on Sunday Oil supported by US demands for India to stop buying Russian oil LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - OPEC+ has reached a preliminary deal to increase oil production by 548,000 barrels per day from September, three sources said on Sunday as concerns mount over potential supply disruptions linked to Russia. A decision is expected at a virtual meeting set to begin at 1100 GMT, amid increasing U.S. pressure on India to halt Russian oil purchases - part of Washington's efforts to bring Moscow to the negotiating table for a peace deal with Ukraine. Sign up here. OPEC+ includes 10 non-OPEC oil producing countries, most notably Russia and Kazakhstan. If agreed, the latest move would mark a full reversal of its largest tranche of output cuts. The group, which pumps about half of the world's oil, had been curtailing production for several years to support oil prices. It reversed course this year in a bid to regain market share, spurred in part by calls from U.S. President Donald Trump for OPEC to ramp up production. Eight OPEC+ members began raising output in April with a modest hike of 138,000 bpd, followed by larger-than-planned hikes of 411,000 bpd in May, June and July, and 548,000 bpd in August. Oil prices have nonetheless remained elevated with Brent crude closing near $70 a barrel on Friday, up from a 2025 low of near $58 in April. OPEC+ has cited strong market fundamentals as its reasoning for the faster production hikes. If the group agrees to the 548,000-bpd increase in September, it will have fully unwound its previous production cut of 2.2 million bpd, while allowing the United Arab Emirates to raise output by 300,000 bpd. OPEC+ still has in place a separate, voluntary cut of about 1.65 million bpd from the eight members and a 2-million-bpd cut across all members, which expire at the end of 2026. The group has no plans to discuss other tranches of cuts on Sunday, sources have said previously. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/opec-agrees-principle-another-large-oil-output-hike-sources-say-2025-08-03/
2025-08-03 05:05
CANBERRA, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Several towns in eastern Australia were blanketed with their thickest layer of snow in decades as wild weather swept the area this weekend, causing floods, stranding vehicles and cutting power to thousands of homes, authorities said. A cold air front dropped as much as 40 cm (16 inches) of snow on parts of northern New South Wales on Saturday, the most since the mid-1980s, said Miriam Bradbury, a meteorologist at Australia's weather bureau. Sign up here. Snow also settled in areas of the neighbouring state of Queensland for the first time in 10 years, she said. Bradbury said climate change has made Australia's weather more volatile in recent years but that this sort of event had occurred several times in the historical record. "What makes this event unusual is how much snow we had but also how widespread, covering quite a large part of the northern tablelands," she said. With heavy rain lashing other areas, the New South Wales State Emergency Service said it had responded to more than 1,455 incidents. It said more than 100 vehicles had been stranded by snow, storms had damaged buildings and it had issued several major flood warnings. Tens of thousands of homes spent the night without power, state broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. Police in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, said a car had become stuck in floodwater on Saturday evening and a female passenger in her 20s was swept away. The search was continuing on Sunday, they said. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/australian-towns-blanketed-with-rare-snow-wild-weather-2025-08-03/
2025-08-03 00:59
SAO PAULO, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The majority of minority shareholders of Brazilian poultry and pork processor BRF (BRFS3.SA) , opens new tab have approved a proposed tie-up with beefpacker Marfrig (MRFG3.SA) , opens new tab, according to a securities filing on Saturday. The move will create another global food company with origins in Brazil and factories in South America, North America, the Middle East and China. Sign up here. The filing showed 71.4% of minority shareholders in BRF approved the terms of the deal with Marfrig, not including abstentions. Shareholders representing 90% of BRF's free float cast their votes, the filing said. The results indicate support for the deal's completion ahead of an extraordinary general shareholders meeting scheduled for August 5. In May, Marfrig unveiled a plan to complete its takeover of BRF, a move that could be followed by the listing of shares of the combined corporate entity, to be called MBRF, in the United States. In public disclosures, Marfrig and BRF said the proposed deal would involve a share swap whereby BRF shareholders would receive 0.8521 shares of Marfrig for each BRF share they own. MBRF will also control Marfrig-owned National Beef, a meat processor based in the United States. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/brazils-brf-minority-shareholders-back-marfrig-deal-2025-08-03/
2025-08-02 20:37
SANTIAGO, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Chilean copper miner Codelco has discovered the remains of one of five trapped miners at its flagship El Teniente mine, it said on Saturday, bringing the death toll from a collapse caused by a strong tremor on Thursday to two people. It said that the identity of the second victim must still be confirmed by authorities. One other person was reported dead on Thursday at the time of the accident, which occurred in the Andesita section of the mine. Sign up here. "This discovery fills us with sadness, but it also tells us that we are in the right place, that the strategy we followed led us to them,” Andres Music, general manager of El Teniente, said in a statement. He said Codelco would continue its efforts with "strength and hope," but with increased caution which could slow its progress. Music did not provide more details about how Codelco recovered the worker's remains, or update the progress in reaching the area where others are believed to be trapped. Earlier in the day, Music said Codelco had cleared just over a fifth of the blocked underground tunnels needed to reach the trapped workers, but had not yet made contact with them. Rescue teams were using heavy machinery, and hoped to proceed at a rate of about 15 to 20 meters (49 to 65.6 feet) every 24 hours, he said, but the exact timing would be unpredictable. The accident, which took place around 5:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, was caused by one of the largest tremors ever recorded at El Teniente, with the impact of a 4.2 magnitude quake. Codelco is investigating whether the cause was mining activity or natural tectonic shifts in the earthquake-prone country. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chiles-codelco-reports-death-one-five-trapped-el-teniente-miners-2025-08-02/
2025-08-02 20:02
Aug 2 (Reuters) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday that its team at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) heard explosions and saw smoke coming from a nearby location. The nuclear plant said one of its auxiliary facilities was attacked today, IAEA said in a statement. Sign up here. "The auxiliary facility is located 1,200 metres from the ZNPP's site perimeter and the IAEA team could still see smoke from that direction in the afternoon," the nuclear watchdog said. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/iaea-reports-hearing-explosions-sees-smoke-near-ukraines-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-2025-08-02/
2025-08-02 18:09
Projects stranded equal over 25% of current green capacity Transmission, legal, and regulatory delays cause bottlenecks Government says stranded capacity at 44 GW SINGAPORE, Aug 1 (Reuters) - India's stranded renewable power capacity - projects awarded but unable to come online - more than doubled over nine months, due to unfinished transmission lines, and legal and regulatory delays, letters from an industry group to the government showed. The South Asian nation aims to more than double its non-fossil fuel power capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030, but the acceleration has left projects without firm agreements to supply power. Sign up here. Renewable projects that won tenders to generate power but are yet to sign power purchase agreements with buyers have surged to over 50 gigawatts, India's Sustainable Projects Developers Association said in a letter to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy on June 27. That compared with stranded projects of over 20 GW, another letter sent by the SPDA on October 4 showed. Both letters were reviewed by Reuters. Tendered projects cumulatively worth billions of dollars awarded to companies including JSW, NTPC (NTPC.NS) , opens new tab, (NTPG.NS) , opens new tab, Adani Green (ADNA.NS) , opens new tab, ACME Solar (ACMO.NS) , opens new tab, Renew (RNW.O) , opens new tab and Sembcorp (SEMB.NS) , opens new tab are stranded, two industry officials familiar with the matter said. "Energy transition is not just about building solar and wind capacity, it is also about ensuring that clean power reaches in a most optimum cost and timely manner," the SPDA said in its June 27 letter to the renewable energy ministry. The stranded solar and wind capacity without buyers of over 50 GW reported by the SPDA is about a quarter the size of India's current installed renewable capacity of 184.6 GW. The companies did not respond to Reuters requests seeking comment. A spokesperson for India's power ministry told Reuters on Saturday renewable projects of about 44 GW had been awarded generation licences by federal agencies - which account for most tenders - but did not have supply agreements. He did not elaborate on the scale of the increase in stranded projects, the duration of delay or companies affected. Delays in critical transmission infrastructure - especially in sun-drenched states such as Rajasthan and Gujarat - have forced many solar plants to miss commissioning deadlines, the SPDA said in the June letter. Interstate transmission lines connecting renewable energy projects to the grid are being fast-tracked, and compensation for landowners allowing power cables on their property has been increased to facilitate construction, the ministry spokesperson said. India plans to connect 230 GW of renewable energy projects to the grid through interstate transmission lines, of which 20% have been completed, 70% are under construction and the remainder is being bid out, he said, without specifying a timeline for completion. Renewable projects are also stuck due to prolonged legal disputes over land and environmental permissions, SPDA said, adding that several developers have paused operations over unresolved court cases. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/indias-renewable-projects-without-supply-deals-double-nine-months-documents-show-2025-08-01/
