2025-10-28 12:48

Oil market eyeing effect of sanctions on Lukoil, Rosneft Demand for hydrocarbons strong, policy u-turns are evidence Aramco investing $2 bln over three years in digital company Oct 28 (Reuters) - The CEO of Saudi state oil giant Aramco said on Tuesday crude oil demand was strong even before sanctions were imposed on major Russian oil firms Rosneft (ROSN.MM) , opens new tab and Lukoil (LKOH.MM) , opens new tab and that Chinese demand was still healthy. "Right now we have to wait and see what will happen with the sanctions," Amin Nasser said on a panel at the Future Investment Initiative conference when asked about oil prices. Sign up here. "But we definitely know that the demand is strong even before these sanctions were imposed on Rosneft and Lukoil." On October 22, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on the two Russian oil companies. Britain had already targeted Lukoil and Rosneft a week earlier, as well as 44 shadow fleet tankers in what it described as a new bid to tighten energy sanctions and choke off Kremlin revenue. Moscow-headquartered Lukoil accounts for around 2% of global oil output. The FII is convening this week in Riyadh where attendees include Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Colombian President Gustavo Petro, BlackRock's Larry Fink, JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and Citi's Jane Fraser. It also features tech and energy heavyweights such as Intel's Lip-Bu Tan and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) , opens new tab CEO Patrick Pouyanne. Nasser maintained oil and gas would continue to play a significant part in the energy mix for decades to come and that policy shifts in some parts of the world recognised the importance of hydrocarbons. "We went through a period where everyone said renewables and alternatives and no need for oil and gas, now you can see a lot of u-turns, a lot of shifts," he said. Trump started his second term in office this year with executive actions aimed at reshaping energy policy, marking a significant departure from the previous administration's focus on renewable energy and climate change mitigation. Aramco is investing almost $2 billion in technology subsidiary Aramco Digital over the next three years with Nasser saying that the company had realised $6 billion of value in the past two years from tech investments. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/aramco-ceo-says-oil-demand-was-strong-even-before-sanctions-russias-rosneft-2025-10-28/

2025-10-28 12:46

Deal involves Westinghouse Electric, Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management US President Donald Trump pushes 'energy dominance' agenda Government will arrange financing and help gain permits Japan to invest in projects Oct 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. government inked a partnership with the Canadian owners of Westinghouse Electric on Tuesday that aims to build at least $80 billion in nuclear reactors. It is one of the most ambitious plans in U.S. atomic energy in decades, underscoring President Donald Trump's agenda to maximize energy output, focused on oil, gas, coal and nuclear. Sign up here. It also comes as growth in artificial intelligence data centers boosts U.S. power demand for the first time in two decades, straining parts of the grid. Under the agreement with Westinghouse Electric's owners, Canada-based Cameco (CCO.TO) , opens new tab and Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO) , opens new tab, the U.S. government will arrange financing and help secure permits for the Westinghouse reactors. In return, the plan offers the U.S. government a 20% share of future profits after Westinghouse has paid out profits of $17.5 billion to Brookfield and Cameco. The U.S. government could turn that profit into an equity stake of up to 20% and require an initial public offering of Westinghouse by 2029 if its value surpasses $30 billion, the companies said. The plan was announced after Trump, who is on a trip to Asia, said in Tokyo that Japan will provide up to $332 billion to support infrastructure in the U.S., including construction of Westinghouse AP1000 reactors and small modular reactors. Japanese firms Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T) , opens new tab, Toshiba and IHI (7013.T) , opens new tab could be involved in building up to $100 billion of Westinghouse reactors, according to a fact sheet issued by the two countries on the trade deal on Tuesday. The companies did not say when the U.S. government interest would vest, but added that the government must make a final investment decision and enter agreements to complete construction of the plants. U.S.-listed shares of Cameco rose more than 25% on Tuesday. TOUGH CHALLENGE It remains uncertain if the deal will succeed. Building new U.S. nuclear reactors and a permanent place to deposit the waste has been difficult due to soaring costs as well as public concern about potential accidents. The last two Westinghouse U.S. reactors built at the Vogtle site in Georgia in 2023 and 2024 were about seven years behind schedule and cost around $35 billion, more than double an original estimate of $14 billion. Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy in 2017 due to cost overruns, and was later acquired by Brookfield. Brookfield owns 51% of Westinghouse, while Cameco holds the rest. No large reactors are currently under construction in the United States. The Trump administration in May ordered the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to slash regulations and fast-track new licenses for reactors, seeking to shrink a multi-year process down to 18 months. The order called for 10 new large reactors under construction by 2030. The administration also reviewed staffing levels at the independent agency, which led some critics to question whether permits would be rushed at a risk to safety. The NRC said it would respond to a request for comment about the deal once it has returned to full operations after the government reopens. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement that Trump had promised a nuclear power renaissance "and now he is delivering." Critics also point to the fact that radioactive waste, which remains dangerous for thousands of years, is currently kept on site at nuclear plants in cooling pools and then moved into hard casks. Still, momentum around nuclear is being driven by surging power demand from the so-called hyperscalers that operate massive cloud-computing infrastructure to manage rising artificial intelligence processing. On Monday, NextEra Energy (NEE.N) , opens new tab and Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) , opens new tab struck a deal to restart an idle nuclear plant in Iowa. Tech giants including Google, Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab, and Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab have already inked deals to source power from next-generation nuclear technologies, such as fusion and small modular reactors. Constellation Energy (CEG.O) , opens new tab and Microsoft have partnered to revive a unit of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania to power Microsoft's data centers. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/westinghouse-electric-cameco-corp-brookfield-asset-management-80-bln-nuclear-2025-10-28/

2025-10-28 12:34

BRUSSELS, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The European Union will start pooling demand from European companies to buy gas in the coming weeks, its energy commissioner said, as the bloc attempts to speed up its efforts to phase out Russian energy. The EU is negotiating legal proposals to ban all Russian oil and gas imports by January 2028, and adopted sanctions last week that will ban Russian liquefied natural gas sooner, from January 2027. Sign up here. That will require countries still receiving Russian gas to break those contracts and source alternative supplies. EU members including France and Belgium still import Russian LNG, while others including Slovakia and Hungary take Russian gas deliveries via pipeline. EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen said Brussels would relaunch its gas demand pooling system in the coming weeks, "to help get competitively priced and diversified supplies". "We will launch a dedicated gas demand aggregation exercise for companies in this region," Jorgensen said in a post on X, during a trip to Romania and Bulgaria. The new pool will target gas buyers in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe. Hungary and Slovakia have warned replacing Russian gas could raise energy prices, and opposed the EU's planned exit from Russian gas. The EU is seeking to rapidly increase its LNG imports from the United States - having pledged to buy $250 billion in U.S. energy per year under a trade deal with President Donald Trump. The EU first began pooling companies' demand for gas in 2022 to attempt to replace Russian fuel with alternative supplies in response to the Ukraine war. However, it is not clear how much gas buying it has facilitated. The EU platform pools demand and then matches buyers with gas suppliers. Matched companies then negotiate gas contracts, but the EU is not involved in those commercial talks - and firms have so far not been obliged to disclose any deals they sign. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/eu-pool-companies-demand-buy-more-non-russian-gas-2025-10-28/

2025-10-28 12:23

Demand outlook for data centre equipment below expectations Energy storage unit hit by US tariffs and regulation Wartsila maintains marine outlook despite IMO setback HELSINKI, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Wartsila (WRT1V.HE) , opens new tab still believes the decarbonisation of marine traffic will continue despite a delay to establishing a global carbon price for shipping, its CEO said on Tuesday, as it reported third-quarter order intake below market expectations. The Finnish engineering group, one of the world's biggest ship engine makers, has invested in emissions reduction technologies for ships and power plants. It expects higher demand for those under the International Maritime Organisation's climate plan. Sign up here. However, a decision on a global price on shipping emissions was delayed by a year earlier this month under U.S. pressure. ENERGY STORAGE 'HEAVILY IMPACTED' BY US TARIFFS, REGULATIONS Though quarterly order intake fell 0.7% year-on-year to 1.79 billion euros ($2.09 billion), Hakan Agnevall told Reuters Wartsila had not seen any negative impact on orders as a result of the IMO delay. "The decarbonisation journey continues," he said. "We continue to sell, because [ship] owners want to kind of hedge their bets. They want the fuel flexibility, and they certainly want the fuel efficiency." Instead, Agnevall said, among other factors, orders had been dented by Wartsila's energy storage business being "heavily impacted" by U.S. import duties and Foreign Entity of Concern , opens new tab regulation. The energy storage unit accounted for 12% of the company's sales last year. But Agnevall said it received no new orders in the third quarter after FEOC regulation included in U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill Act", banned the import of Chinese-made battery cells to the United States in July. To mitigate the impact, Wartsila is now looking at sourcing battery cells from the U.S. or other Asian countries, he said. Company shares fell 2% in afternoon trading, as investors had expected higher growth and a better outlook, especially for energy equipment orders. "This may be disappointing for investors who were expecting Wartsila to upgrade the demand outlook on potential upside from data centre orders," JPM analysts wrote in a note, referring to Wartsila leaving its energy demand outlook unchanged. Despite the IMO setback, Wartsila also left its marine outlook unchanged, expecting higher demand. "There will be a journey to a more fragmented regulatory landscape, because countries and regions will have their own frameworks," Agnevall said. ($1 = 0.8575 euros) https://www.reuters.com/business/finlands-wartsila-books-fewer-orders-than-expected-tariffs-hit-energy-storage-2025-10-28/

2025-10-28 12:23

Oct 28 (Reuters) - United Parcel Service (UPS.N) , opens new tab posted better-than-expected results on Tuesday, in an early positive sign of the company's overhaul following several difficult quarters of weak volumes. Shares of the company rose 12.1% in premarket trading, with rival FedEx (FDX.N) , opens new tab also gaining 3.2%. UPS shares are down about 28% since the start of the year. Sign up here. The profit beat and the forecast signal progress in UPS' efforts to rebuild margins and stabilize volumes after a bruising year marked by tariff-related volume slump, the end of "de minimis" exemptions and rising costs. The company projected revenue to be about $24 billion for the fourth quarter. Analysts on average were expecting quarterly revenue of $23.8 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. The return of fourth-quarter guidance, and one that tops Wall Street expectations, could prompt investors who had bet against the stock to buy back shares, said Evercore ISI analyst Jonathan Chappell, adding that expectations were "very low" going into the results. The world's biggest parcel delivery firm is now leaning on rate hikes, cost cuts and a sharper focus on high-margin shipments to steady its business ahead of the crucial holiday season. The company has accelerated efforts to reduce the number of packages it delivers for its top customer, Amazon.com (AMZN.O) , opens new tab, to boost its profit margins. The small package delivery business that UPS dominates is also under pressure from frozen corporate decision-making and subdued consumer sentiment as they adapt to the economic fallout from President Donald Trump's changing trade policies. The peak holiday shipping and return season, when UPS daily average volumes can double, spans from November to the end of January. LEASH ON COSTS UPS has been shuttering hundreds of facilities, slashing thousands of jobs , opens new tab and offering buyouts to its union drivers as part of its largest-ever overhaul aimed at reducing $3.5 billion in costs in 2025. Like UPS, FedEx has been cutting costs to protect its margins, a move that helped it deliver quarterly results above Wall Street expectations in September, despite the removal of "de minimis" exemptions for China and Hong Kong, which reduced revenue by about $150 million. UPS reported an adjusted profit of $1.74 per share for the three months ended September 30, beating analysts' average expectations of $1.30. The Atlanta-based company reported consolidated revenue of $21.41 billion, above expectations of $20.83 billion. It reported an adjusted consolidated operating margin of 10%, up from 8.8% in the second quarter. That margin was 6.4%, down from 7% in the second quarter, in the domestic segment, its largest. The company expects adjusted operating margin for the fourth quarter to be between 11% and 11.5%. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/ups-posts-fall-quarterly-profit-2025-10-28/

2025-10-28 12:22

TOKYO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said there was a long list of people who could take over the Federal Reserve, slamming current chairman Jerome Powell as the central bank prepared to meet this week. "We have an incompetent head of the Fed... we got a bad Fed guy, but he'll be out of there in a few months, and we'll get somebody new," Trump told business leaders at a dinner in Tokyo during his week-long trip to Asia. Powell's term ends in May. Sign up here. The Republican president added that he had wanted Scott Bessent to take over the U.S. central bank but that his Treasury chief declined: "I'm thinking about him for the Fed... but he won't take the job. He likes being Treasury (secretary), so we're not thinking about him really." On Monday, Bessent told reporters there were five finalists: White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, current Fed Governor Christopher Waller, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and BlackRock executive Rick Rieder. Bessent has said he will present the top candidates to Trump in December. At their meeting this week, Federal Reserve policymakers are widely expected to reduce U.S. short-term borrowing costs for the second time this year in an effort to prevent further slowing in the labor market. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-slams-fed-chair-eyes-replacement-few-months-2025-10-28/