2024-09-09 23:47

HOUSTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court officer overseeing an auction of shares in the parent of Venezuela-owned refiner Citgo Petroleum on Monday asked the judge in the case to prevent creditors from pursuing additional lawsuits that could derail the sales process. Three creditors that had registered claims with the court but are unlikely to receive auction proceeds have filed separate lawsuits this year seeking to recoup billions of dollars from defaulted Venezuelan bonds. The three - Gramercy Distressed Opportunity Fund, G&A Strategic and Girard Street Investments - are related companies. The parallel lawsuits have complicated the auction in U.S. District Court, Delaware, which aims after several delays to select a winner this month and complete a sale in November. The case was first introduced in Delaware in 2017 by miner Crystallex and has since allowed another 17 creditors including bondholders to pursue shares in Citgo's parent, PDV Holding. However, bids received thus far would not cover the $21.3 billion in claims registered with the Delaware court. Citgo has been valued at between $11 billion and $13 billion, and the highest offer in a first bidding round in January was $7.3 billion. The situation has prompted some creditors to file lawsuits in other courts. Gramercy, Girard Street and G&A claims are close to the bottom of the list of companies likely to receive sales proceeds. Reuters could not immediately reach the companies for comment. "Certain judgment creditors are seeking to circumvent this court's sale process - notwithstanding their previous participation in that process - by bringing last-minute lawsuits in other forums," court officer Robert Pincus wrote in his request to the judge in the case. "This threatens to undermine the sale process to the detriment of creditors who followed the court's process," he added. Bidders are concerned about the risk that creditors will later lay claim to the assets they are attempting to acquire, he said. Pincus' request will be "very difficult to meet," said lawyer Jose Ignacio Hernandez from consultancy Aurora Macro Strategies, since the Delaware court does not have jurisdiction over lawsuits in other states. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-court-officer-moves-block-creditors-derailing-citgo-auction-2024-09-09/

2024-09-09 22:07

Sept 9 (Reuters) - A major U.S. oil and gas trade group on Monday warned that energy production in the Gulf of Mexico could stop if the Commerce Department does not act quickly to publish a new assessment of how endangered species should be protected in the region. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT A court ruling by a federal judge last month threw out a National Marine Fisheries Service "biological opinion" that is legally necessary for oil and gas exploration and drilling to be conducted. The judge gave NMFS, a division of the Commerce Department, until Dec. 20 to complete a new opinion. A delay could disrupt a critical source of U.S. oil and gas, the American Petroleum Institute said. The group's president, Mike Sommers, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Sept. 6 calling for help, API said. BY THE NUMBERS The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 15% of all domestic oil production, according to federal data. The region also supports about 412,000 jobs and generates $6.1 billion in federal revenue, API said. KEY QUOTE "It is in the best interest of U.S. consumers, the federal government, and oil and gas producers to partner to resolve this issue," Sommers wrote to Raimondo. "We look forward to working with the department and its agencies to minimize any disruptions and find a solution." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/gulf-mexico-oil-production-could-stall-after-court-ruling-industry-warns-2024-09-09/

2024-09-09 21:57

HOUSTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - NextDecade (NEXT.O) , opens new tab will appeal this month a federal court ruling that overturned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval of the initial phase of its $18.4 billion Rio Grande LNG project, CEO Matthew Schatzman said on Monday. The company will take the legal battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary, he added in an interview. A D.C. Circuit court on Aug. 6 quashed the regulator's approval for its plant at the Port of Brownsville, Texas. It ordered FERC to reconsider the project impacts, which could require a new environmental impact statement and public comment period. NextDecade does not expect the courts to stop the ongoing construction until a final ruling. But such delays can be the death of large infrastructure projects, Schatzman said. "We are committed to taking any and all legal and regulatory actions to ensure that phase 1 will be delivered on time and on budget." NextDecade's stock price has fallen 39% since the August decision by the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. Schatzman said the price decline reflects additional project risks caused by the court ruling. NextDecade's flagship facility has been in development for several years and has already suffered repeated delays. The first phase of the project, with a capacity of 17.61 million tons per annum of liquid gas, was scheduled to be completed by early 2029 at an estimated cost of $18 billion. Schatzman said its customers remain committed to the project but are concerned about the ruling, and his management team has had regular updates with investors and customers. The project is backed by Global Infrastructure Partners and French energy major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) , opens new tab, among others. It has received purchase orders for about 92% of total capacity for the first two trains and 88% of the total for the third train, he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/nextdecade-fight-appeals-court-delay-its-lng-plant-says-ceo-2024-09-09/

2024-09-09 21:48

Sept 10 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. The volatility that scarred global markets last week is giving way to a greater degree of calm early this week, and traders go into Tuesday's session in Asia looking to claw back some recent losses before assessing their next move. Although risk appetite rebounded and volatility sank back notably on Monday, there was little change in U.S. interest rate futures' pricing of the Fed's expected easing path - still nearly 250 basis points of rate cuts by the end of next year, reflecting significant concerns over the growth outlook. But with U.S. inflation figures due out on Wednesday, investors may be reluctant to push too hard in either direction over the next 36 hours. Asian markets on Tuesday could take their cue from local drivers. Economic data releases include Malaysian industrial output, Indonesian retail sales, and Australia consumer sentiment and business confidence, while the yen's upward momentum has stalled and a move back below 143.00 per dollar now looms. The most important trigger for markets in Asian hours on Tuesday could be Chinese trade data for August, and the bar of expectation has been set low. Exports likely rose 6.5% year-on-year by value, down from July's 7.0% growth and the slowest pace in four months, while imports are expected to have grown just 2%, compared with 7.2% in July, according to a Reuters poll of economists. Weakening export activity amid fears of mounting trade barriers and tariffs would be alarming in itself, but tepid import growth also reflects weak domestic demand. Together, they speak to an economy struggling to generate solid, sustainable growth. Then there's the cloud of deflation that refuses to lift. Figures on Monday showed that consumer inflation ticked up in August to the fastest pace in six months, but the rise was due more to higher food costs from weather disruptions than a recovery in domestic demand. The 0.6% annual rate was still lower than forecasts. More worrying, producer price deflation intensified. The producer price index in August slid 1.8% from a year earlier, the largest fall in four months, worse than July's 0.8% decline and below economists' consensus forecast of a 1.4% fall. Factory gate prices have been in outright deflation for two years, a key reason why consumer price inflation is unlikely to accelerate much any time soon. Meanwhile, Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, will announce its monthly sales figures for August. Sales in June totaled T$207.87 billion, and rose to T$256.95 billion in July. Taiwan firms like TSMC are major supplier to Apple (AAPL.O) , opens new tab, Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab and other tech giants. Their growth helped drive Taiwan's August exports to an all-time monthly high of nearly $44 billion, as growing demand for chips to supply the AI industry offset anemic demand from China. Here are key developments that could provide more direction to Asian markets on Tuesday:- China trade (August)- TSMC sales figures (August)- Australia consumer confidence (September) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/global-markets-view-asia-graphic-pix-2024-09-09/

2024-09-09 21:45

Sept 9 (Reuters) - The Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) applied on Friday to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a temporary emergency certificate to continue operating its new $1 billion natural gas project running through five mid-Atlantic states after the regulator's approval was vacated. In July, a U.S. appeals court said the FERC should have better assessed the risk of significant greenhouse gas emissions, throwing out its "arbitrary and capricious" approval of the Regional Energy Access Expansion Project. The temporary certificate is necessary to keep Transco, a unit of Williams Cos (WMB.N) , opens new tab, running its facilities until the FERC issues an order on remand from the July 30 decision by the court. The project is already partially in service. The FERC approved the first phase on an interim basis in October 2023. In June, Williams sought permission to put more of the project already under construction into service by July 1. A temporary certificate of public convenience and necessity is needed in order to prevent an emergency caused by the sudden loss of over 2,000,000 dekatherms per day of natural gas pipeline transportation capacity in the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S., the company said. Williams designed Regional Energy Access to help meet rising gas demand and ease supply constraints affecting customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The company said the project, one of the biggest under construction in the U.S. Northeast, will provide enough gas to serve 4.4 million homes annually. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/transco-seeks-temporary-certificate-keep-operating-mid-atlantic-natgas-project-2024-09-09/

2024-09-09 20:59

NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - U.S. electric utilities are seeking to hike customer power bills in 2024, extending last year's record rise in electricity rate increases, the Energy Information Administration said on Monday. Utilities have increasingly asked for rate increases in recent years to pay for power infrastructure as the country's grid faces an onslaught of extreme weather and ballooning demand from the electrification of industries and the technology sector's data center build out. In 2023, state utility regulators signed off on nearly $10 billion in rate increases, more than doubling the $4.4 billion approved in 2022, the EIA said. Two California utilities looking to guard power infrastructure against wildfires by burying transmission lines, and taking other expensive measures to harden the electrical network, accounted for one-third of last year's increases, the EIA said. The EIA estimates that another $8.9 billion of rate increases will be authorized this year, but only if regulators continue to approve requests at the same pace they have since 2023. From the beginning of 2023 through August 2024, regulators approved 58% of utility rate increase requests, the group said. Total rate requests so far in 2024 are $12.7 billion, according to data from Regulatory Research Associates (RRA), which is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights. "RRA has been tracking rate cases since the early 1980s, and 2023 was the most amount of rate increases requested in our history," RRA senior research analyst Dan Lowrey said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-electric-utilities-push-more-rate-hikes-after-record-year-increases-2024-09-09/