2025-12-01 04:31

Dec 1 (Reuters) - Australia's APA Group (APA.AX) , opens new tab agreed to build state-owned CS Energy's proposed 400-megawatt Brigalow peaking power station in Queensland, it said on Monday. This represents the first major GPG (gas-powered generation) investment by APA for some time, according to an RBC Capital Markets research note. Sign up here. The plant, slated to start operations in 2028 next to CS Energy’s Kogan Creek facility, is designed to provide firming supply during periods of high demand and intermittent renewable output. APA will provide early funding and is ultimately expected to acquire 80% of the project by mid-2026, while CS Energy will retain a 20% stake and operate the plant. RBC Capital Markets analyst Gordon Ramsay called the ownership split "somewhat unusual" given APA’s majority interest and expects project delivery risk to be low. APA CEO and Managing Director Adam Watson said, "This project builds on APA’s existing capabilities and assets in Queensland, driving momentum in our GPG growth strategy and complementing our separate agreement with CS Energy to deliver the project’s lateral pipeline." Gross project cost is expected at around A$1 billion ($654.40 million), with APA’s net share at roughly A$800 million, RBC Capital Markets estimated. The company intends to fund the investment from existing balance sheet capacity, forming part of its A$2.1 billion organic growth pipeline. APA did not give out a capital expenditure estimate. Final capital expenditure will be subject to detailed engineering design, which is expected to be completed in the first half of calendar year 2026, the company said. ($1 = 1.5281 Australian dollars) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/australias-apa-partners-with-queensland-build-brigalow-power-station-2025-12-01/

2025-12-01 03:34

JAKARTA, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The governor of Indonesia's central bank said on Monday that Bank Indonesia would next year bring the rupiah to trade at 16,500 per U.S. dollar, or even 16,400, adding he is committed to maintaining stability in the currency. Governor Perry Warjiyo gave the rare rupiah guidance at an economic forum on Monday and said that BI is committed to support economic growth while maintaining stability. Sign up here. The rupiah was trading at 16,660 per U.S. dollar at 0310 GMT and is currently emerging Asia's second-worst performing currency, having lost around 3.4% so far this year. BI kept its policy rates unchanged in November to shift its short term focus on keeping the rupiah stable. Warjiyo on Monday reiterated that there is still room for further policy rate easing. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/bank-indonesia-will-bring-rupiah-trade-16500-per-dollar-next-year-governor-says-2025-12-01/

2025-12-01 00:01

Reuters Open Interest (ROI) is your essential source for global financial commentary. LAUNCESTON, Australia, Dec 1 (Reuters) - At first glance the decision by OPEC+ to leave oil output levels unchanged for the first quarter of next year could be viewed as confirmation the exporter group is concerned about a looming crude supply glut. It was widely expected that the eight members of OPEC+ undertaking voluntary oil output cuts would stick to their plan of leaving production levels unchanged for the first three months of next year. Sign up here. It was also no surprise that the group reiterated their commitment to market stability amid a "steady global economic outlook and current healthy oil market fundamentals as reflected in low inventories." The language used in the brief statement after the meeting on Sunday was familiar, but so are the issues around OPEC+'s view that the oil market is in a good place. The market consensus is that the global oil market is facing a series of issues, some of which are pulling prices in different directions. An example of this is the conundrum of how to view the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the moves to reach a peace agreement, which in theory will allow for a full return to the market of Russian crude and refined products. There is the reality that Western sanctions are starting to tighten parts of the global crude and product markets. Much of the expected glut of crude is from sanctioned exporters Russia, Iran and Venezuela. It's also likely that much of this oil is currently being stored on vessels at sea, with data from commodity analysts Kpler showing a surge in what is termed oil on water to just under 250 million barrels, up some 215 million barrels since September. This means that while the crude oil may be physically present, it's not necessarily available to be purchased and refined. CHINA HOPES There is some hope that China's release of additional crude import quotas last week will allow for some Iranian and Russian cargoes to go to the world's biggest oil importer. But even if this does happen, it does little to relieve tight product markets unless Chinese refiners also substantially increase their exports of refined fuels, and buyers are prepared to take these products amid concerns they may have been produced from sanctioned crude. There are expectations among product traders in Asia that China will lift fuel exports in December as many of the refiners have unused product quotas, but it still remains to be seen how many additional shipments of fuels such as diesel and gasoline will be offered to the market. Another question is whether there will be enough extra fuel exported from China and also from other North Asian refiners, such as Japan and South Korea, to meaningfully lower the profit margins on diesel and gasoline, which reached two-year highs in November. The market is also having to balance the reality of tightness of unsanctioned oil and products with the hope that this will be alleviated by some sort of peace deal in Ukraine. There are encouraging words coming from the ongoing series of meetings involving the United States, Ukraine and Russia, but even if some sort of agreement is reached it is likely to take a while before Russian energy exports are able to be freely traded. There is also the question as to whether previous buyers of Russian crude and products, especially those in Europe, would be willing to go back to buying from Moscow. Amid all the uncertainty surrounding the outlook for the crude oil market, the only sensible course of action for OPEC+ was to sit tight. The group still has some 3.24 million barrels per day (bpd) of production cuts in place even after raising output quotas by some 2.9 million bpd since April. The market consensus is that OPEC+ won't need to increase output in 2026 and may even need to cut back if it wants to keep the price of global benchmark Brent crude around the $63.20 a barrel it ended at on November 28. But much will depend on the interplay between sanctioned crude and products and unsanctioned oil, a factor currently complicating the true state of global supply, demand and inventories. Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn , opens new tab and X , opens new tab. The views expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/opec-sticks-its-all-is-fine-oil-mantra-uncertainty-rises-2025-12-01/

2025-11-30 23:34

Brent, WTI rise more than 1% Ukraine drone attacks hit tankers carrying Russian oil HOUSTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose more than 1% on Monday following drone attacks by Ukraine, the closure of Venezuelan airspace by the United States, and OPEC's decision to leave output levels unchanged in the first quarter of 2026. Brent crude futures settled at $63.17 a barrel, up 79 cents, or 1.27%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude finished at $59.32 a barrel, up 77 cents, or 1.32%. Sign up here. "The market is very nervous at the moment because of possible loss of Russian crude supply," said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital LLC. "They're watching very closely to see if this Russia-Ukraine deal is going to go off the rails." Concerns about a possible conflict between the United States and Venezuela run far behind the focus on the war in Ukraine. "I don't think anyone is too worried about the loss of supply from Venezuela," Kilduff said. Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group, said Ukraine's attacks combined with OPEC production commitments drove up prices in morning trade in New York. "Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian shadow fleet as well as a commitment by OPEC to maintain current production levels has the market in an optimistic state," Flynn wrote in a morning note. "This comes as global oil demand continues to rise despite the negativity that we continue to hear on the demand side of the equation." The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which carries 1% of global oil, said on Saturday that one of the three mooring points at its Novorossiysk terminal had been damaged, halting operations. But Chevron, a CPC shareholder, said late on Sunday that loadings were continuing at Novorossiysk. Usually, two moorings are engaged in loadings, while one is used as a backup. The attacks on the CPC export terminal drove oil prices higher, UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said. They came as Ukraine stepped up its military operations in the Black Sea and hit two oil tankers headed for Novorossiysk. Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies initially agreed on a pause in early November, slowing a push to regain market share with looming fears of a supply glut. LSEG senior analyst Anh Pham said the market was reacting positively to the news. "For some time, the narrative has centered on an oil glut, so OPEC+’s decision to maintain its production target provided some relief and helped stabilize expectations for supply growth in the coming months." Brent and WTI crude futures settled lower on Friday for the fourth straight month, their longest losing streak since 2023, as expectations for higher global supply weighed on prices. On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump said "the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela" should be considered closed, sparking fresh uncertainty in the oil market, as the South American nation is a major producer. Trump on Sunday said he had spoken to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro but did not give details. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-rises-after-opec-meeting-maintains-current-output-2025-11-30/

2025-11-30 23:18

ASX outage affects 80 stocks, not cybersecurity-related ASX faces criticism from ASIC and RBA over risk management ASX shares down 2.8%, S&P/ASX200 Index down 0.6% Dec 1 (Reuters) - Embattled stock exchange operator Australian Securities Exchange (ASX.AX) , opens new tab is facing fresh pressure to enact its turnaround plan, after its announcements platform suffered an outage on Monday, forcing about 80 stocks to be placed on a trading halt. The exchange's announcements platform went down just before 9 a.m. (2200 GMT) and was still not fully operational at the close of trade on Monday about 4 p.m. (0500 GMT). Sign up here. The ASX said it had published some company announcements received after 11:22 a.m. (0022 GMT) but there was still a backlog of announcements that were due to be processed. "Earlier announcements remain impacted," an ASX statement on its website showed, adding the exchange was working towards a full remediation of the issue. The ASX said it did not believe the outage was a cybersecurity-related incident. Companies due to release price-sensitive information during the outage were placed in a trading halt, according to an ASX spokesperson. As many as 80 stocks were affected, ASX said. ASX trading and settlement were not impacted. The outage is the latest in a string of problems for the stock exchange operator, which has been criticised by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Reserve Bank of Australia for its performance. ASX chairman David Clarke told ASX investors in October a multi-year turnaround plan could not afford to fail, as the exchange battled the regulatory fallout following a 2024 trading settlement delay. Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association Chief Executive Judith Fox said the announcement platform malfunction had highlighted the ASX's operational risk management problems which had concerned the industry group for some time. "There is still substantial work to be done to improve ASX’s risk management framework and today's outage shows that improvements in risk culture take time but we need to see that its risk transformation plan is capable of success. The ASX disruption comes after U.S.-based CME Group (CME.O) , opens new tab, the world's largest exchange operator, on Friday suffered one of its longest outages in years, halting trading across stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies. ASIC is engaging with the ASX on the market announcement platform outage, according to a spokesperson at the regulator. The RBA in September criticised ASX's governance, culture and risk-management practices, after a December 2024 settlement-system malfunction raised concerns about the exchange's ability to maintain secure and resilient market infrastructure. ASX shares closed down 2.8% at A$56.58 while the benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index (.AXJO) , opens new tab was down about 0.6%. ASX shares are down about 13% so far this year. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-asx-hit-by-outage-affecting-corporate-announcements-website-shows-2025-11-30/

2025-11-30 22:16

Nov 30 (Reuters) - Data center operator CyrusOne has installed additional backup cooling capacity at its Aurora, Illinois data center after a failure last week triggered an outage at CME Group (CME.O) , opens new tab for several hours, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing a statement by CyrusOne. "CyrusOne has restored stable and secure operations at its Chicago 1 (CHI1) data center in Aurora, Illinois," the company said in a statement cited by Bloomberg, adding that they have installed additional redundancy to the cooling systems to further enhance continuity. Sign up here. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. https://www.reuters.com/technology/data-center-operator-cyrusone-adds-more-cooling-after-outage-bloomberg-news-2025-11-30/