2025-06-10 22:51
Petronas committed to decades of LNG exports from Canada LNG Canada partners consider phase two expansion Canada's regulatory environment deters investors, executive says CALGARY, June 10 (Reuters) - Malaysian energy company Petronas has no plans to leave Canada, the CEO of its Canadian subsidiary said on Tuesday, adding the company is committed to decades of LNG exports off the country's West Coast. "The rumor that Petronas is exiting Canada is absolutely not true," said Petronas Canada CEO Mark Fitzgerald, on the sidelines of an energy conference in Calgary. Sign up here. Bloomberg last week that Petronas was considering a sale of its Canadian company, formerly known as Progress Energy Resources Corp. Malaysian media have also reported Petronas as saying it needed to "right-size" its workforce to ensure the company's survival in the coming decades. LNG Canada, the country's first liquefied natural gas export facility, is a joint venture of Shell Canada (SHEL.L) , opens new tab, Petronas (PGAS.KL) , opens new tab, PetroChina (601857.SS) , opens new tab, Mitsubishi Corporation (8058.T) , opens new tab and Kogas (KVGG.LJ) , opens new tab. It is expected to ship its first cargoes by the middle of 2025. The partners are exploring a possible expansion, which could include building two additional LNG trains that would double the plant's capacity to 28 million tonnes of LNG per year. Shell Canada President Stastia West said on Tuesday at the conference that the company's decision on whether to proceed with the expansion will depend on its overall competitiveness and affordability, as well as what other potential projects are in Shell's portfolio at the time. Speaking on a conference panel, Fitzgerald said Canadian West Coast LNG, with its access to cheap natural gas from Western Canada as well as to Pacific export markets, competes well against any projects being developed in the U.S. He said in recent years investors have been deterred by what they perceived to be an unfriendly regulatory environment in Canada. New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won a minority government in April, has pledged to shorten permitting times by identifying and fast-tracking projects of national interest aimed at helping Canada become what he calls a conventional and clean energy superpower. Fitzgerald said Canada needs to develop a national LNG and natural gas strategy, and that investment will flow quickly into the country if its government makes good on a pledge to reduce permitting times. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/petronas-canada-has-no-plans-leave-canada-executive-says-2025-06-10/
2025-06-10 22:42
SAO PAULO, June 10 (Reuters) - Mexico eased a ban on chicken shipments from Brazil, setting the restriction now only to products coming from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, instead of a previous countrywide ban, Brazil's Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday. On the other hand, the ministry said in a statement that Mauritania announced a countrywide ban on imports of Brazilian chicken, while Oman suspended chicken imports coming from Rio Grande do Sul state. Sign up here. Brazil last month identified a case of bird flu on a commercial farm in Rio Grande do Sul, triggering trade restrictions from dozens of countries. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/mexico-eases-trade-ban-brazilian-chicken-2025-06-10/
2025-06-10 22:24
HOUSTON, June 10 (Reuters) - Venture Global (VG.N) , opens new tab asked U.S. federal regulators to withdraw its application to build its proposed 24 million metric tons per annum Delta LNG export facility in Louisiana, saying it can build its proposed Plaquemines expansion project faster, according to a filing on Tuesday. Venture Global is the second largest U.S. liquefied natural gas exporter and has been able to build new LNG plants quicker than any other company by manufacturing modular parts outside of the U.S. and then putting them together on site. Sign up here. Pursuing the Delta LNG Project would not be the best use of its corporate resources, Venture Global said on Tuesday in a filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It said it has instead decided to focus on the Plaquemines Expansion Project which the commission accepted in its pre-filing review process on April 4, Venture Global said. "Venture Global LNG expects that, upon completion, the Plaquemines Expansion Project will produce approximately the same quantities of LNG as the proposed Delta LNG Project, but on a faster schedule," the company said. The Plaquemines expansion project will be 18 million metric tons per annum. Venture Global plans to keep the land it had set aside for Delta, should the market support the revival of the project, the company said. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/venture-global-withdraws-application-build-delta-lng-plant-filing-shows-2025-06-10/
2025-06-10 22:04
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday signed waivers allowing Arkansas, Idaho and Utah to bar participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from using their benefits to buy certain processed foods like soda and candy. The administration of President Donald Trump has encouraged all states to request such waivers as part of its Make America Healthy Again initiative fronted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Sign up here. Rollins had previously signed waivers from Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska to restrict SNAP purchases of soft drinks, energy drinks or candy. "It's about nutrition, and there's no nutrition in these products. We shouldn't be paying for them with taxpayer money," Kennedy told reporters at a press conference alongside Rollins. Additional waivers from Colorado, Kansas, West Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Florida and Louisiana are under review, Rollins said. Kennedy and Rollins also reiterated earlier statements that they plan to release an updated version of the nation's dietary guidelines this summer. Rollins said the guidelines will be released "very soon" and emphasize whole, nutritious foods. More than 41 million people receive SNAP benefits, sometimes known as food stamps. The tax and spending bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May and being considered by the Senate would shrink SNAP enrollment by hiking work requirements to receive the benefits and moving significant costs for the program to states. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-farm-agency-allow-three-more-states-bar-some-items-food-aid-2025-06-10/
2025-06-10 21:34
Starbucks will deploy an increased labor model to all North American company-owned stores by the end of the summer Pilot tests of new staffing model saw increased sales, CEO says Starbucks to focus investments on 'Back to Starbucks' turnaround, cut costs elsewhere June 10 (Reuters) - (This June 10 story has officially been corrected to say the staffing surge applies to the more than 11,000 company-owned stores in North America, rather than 18,000 company-owned and licensed stores, in the headline, first bullet point and paragraph 2) Starbucks (SBUX.O) , opens new tab CEO Brian Niccol told Reuters on Tuesday that he would accelerate the rollout of the coffeehouse chain's new staffing and service model, aiming for all North American stores by summer's end, rather than the initial plan for just a third of U.S. stores by fiscal year-end. Sign up here. The plan applies to the more than 11,000 company-owned stores in North America, rather than the roughly 18,000 combined company-owned and licensed stores, Starbucks said. Niccol says the model is a foundational element of his turnaround strategy for the company, as he bets on an improved in-store customer experience to reclaim the sales growth that has eluded Starbucks in recent quarters. Niccol said early tests of the model have sped up service times and grown sales, without providing specifics. “We’ve learned, and now we know what we need to do, so let’s scale it,” he told Reuters at the company's three-day leadership summit in Las Vegas on Tuesday. The Green Apron model includes in-store technology to more efficiently sequence orders, as well as a dedicated barista for drive-through orders. Starbucks rolled out the service changes to 700 stores initially. During the company's April 29 quarterly earnings call, Niccol said it would be introduced in a third of U.S. stores by fiscal year-end. Niccol took over as Starbucks CEO in September with a plan to return the chain to its coffeehouse roots, focusing on the in-store experience and away from a reliance on mobile and to-go orders, in what the company calls "Back to Starbucks.” The goal is to get baristas to get customers their orders in four minutes or less. He did not share any financial figures about the cost of the Green Apron model's deployment, but said the company would host an investor day in 2026. The Las Vegas summit, the company's first since 2019, is hosting more than 14,000 managers and other company leaders. Analysts and investors have wondered how long Niccol will need to turn the company around. Shares have gained 11% over the last five years, compared with an 88% rise in the broad-market S&P 500. TD Cowen recently downgraded its rating of Starbucks to "hold" from "buy", saying in part that it believed Niccol's turnaround would take longer than expected to deliver results. Niccol said the transition will take time. Starbucks has not issued annual guidance, and Niccol told investors in an earnings call earlier this year that earnings-per-share “shouldn’t be used as a measure of our success” at this stage, instead pointing to in-store metrics like average wait times for orders. He said the transition's effect on earnings would be temporary. On Tuesday, he emphasized his goal isn't to achieve short-term performance solely through cost reduction. As Starbucks increases investments in its labor and elsewhere, Niccol said he would be "ruthless" in cutting expenses not related to the company's turnaround. “We have to be critical of where we’re spending if it’s not driving toward the Back to Starbucks strategy and growth programs.” https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/starbucks-accelerates-new-staffing-model-all-north-american-stores-2025-06-10/
2025-06-10 21:12
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department's loan office should fund oil and gas infrastructure, a White House aide said on Tuesday, as President Donald Trump's administration moves away from supporting projects designed to curb climate change. "One of the big problems is, in the past the ... Loan Program Office has been used for a lot of these renewable projects," Jarrod Agen, a deputy assistant to the president and executive director of the National Energy Dominance Council, said at a Politico conference on energy. Sign up here. The administration is changing the priority of the LPO, meant to help finance emerging energy projects that show promise but face difficulties getting bank loans. "So, yes, we want to invest more and prioritize projects that are oil and gas-related, nuclear-related," Agen said. The Loan Programs Office grew rapidly under former President Joe Biden, thanks to legislation passed during his term. It has hundreds of billions of dollars in loan and loan guarantee capacity. Trump's energy dominance council has focused on increasing already record-high oil and gas output and cutting climate and pollution regulations on fossil fuels. It was not immediately clear what oil and gas projects, which typically have little trouble getting bank financing, Agen was referring to. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said LPO financing is one option on the table to support Alaska LNG, a long-shot, expensive project to ship liquefied natural gas from the north of the state to consumers in Asia. In his first term, Trump only used the LPO to finance the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia. Wright told a hearing in the House of Representatives he wants to offer LPO financing for nuclear projects, critical minerals and "potentially even geothermal." The White House's fiscal year 2026 budget requests a $750 million credit for the cost of loan guarantees for small modular reactors. Republicans in the House of Representatives have pushed to slash LPO's lending. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/us-energy-loan-office-should-fund-oil-gas-white-house-aide-says-2025-06-10/
