Headlines

Guyanese voters will head to the polls on Monday to choose members of parliament and a president who will determine how riches from the South American country's hydrocarbon boom will be spent. The country of 800,000 people has earned some $7.5 billion in revenue from oil sales and royalties since ExxonMobil started pumping offshore oil in late 2019, making Guyana one of the world's fastest-growing economies. President Irfaan Ali, in office since 2020, is seeking re-election at the helm of [Read more]

India is not "profiteering" from Russian oil imports and its purchases have stabilised markets while keeping prices from rising to as much as $200 a barrel, Hardeep Singh Puri, country's oil minister, said in the Hindu newspaper on Monday. The U.S. has targeted India for its Russian oil purchases, with President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on Indian exports to the U.S. to discourage the country's crude buying. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused India of profiteering by importing [Read more]

Russian President Vladimir Putin, after talking with China's Xi Jinping and India's Narendra Modi, said on Monday the issue of NATO's eastward enlargement would have to be addressed for there to be sustainable peace in Ukraine. Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine. Ukraine and Western [Read more]

A summer trading lull looks set to come to a halt with September risks stacking up hard and fast. U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and French political turmoil provide a glimpse of what's to come in a month that historically brings notable market swings as investors reassess portfolios. "My big concern is that when liquidity comes back after the summer, we see some big market moves," said St. James's Place CIO Justin Onuekwusi. 1/ TROUBLE [Read more]

Russian drone attacks on power facilities in northern and southern Ukraine overnight left nearly 60,000 customers without electricity, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowing to retaliate by ordering more strikes deep inside Russia. Three and a half years into the war, Russia and Ukraine have both intensified airstrikes in recent weeks. Russia has targeted Ukraine's energy and transport systems, while Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil refineries and pipelines. "We will continue our [Read more]

The chief executive of Russia's Rosneft said net income sank more than 68% to 245 billion roubles ($3 billion) in the first half due to weak oil prices that were dragged down by production hikes by Saudi Arabia and other OPEC states. The comments from the head of Russia's largest oil producer, Igor Sechin, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, were the first indications of unease in months from Russia about the OPEC+ strategy to speed up production hikes. Sechin is known for his [Read more]

California's Energy Commission voted on Friday to temporarily set aside penalties for excessive refining profits that were adopted after gasoline pump prices climbed over $8 a gallon in 2022. The five-year delay in implementing the penalties comes as Phillips 66's Los Angeles refinery is preparing to begin shutting production as early as next week ahead of a permanent closure. "The fact is, supply is declining faster than demand, and we need to bring them into alignment: that means slowing [Read more]

On the eve of a visit to China, Russian leader Vladimir Putin blasted Western sanctions as his country's economy teetered on the brink of recession, wounded by trade curbs and the cost of his war in Ukraine. Russia and China jointly opposed "discriminatory" sanctions in global trade, Putin said in a written interview with China's official Xinhua news agency published on Saturday. Putin will be in China, Russia's biggest trading partner, from Sunday to Wednesday in a four-day visit that the [Read more]

Money managers reduced their net-long U.S. crude futures and options positions for the fourth straight week in the week to August 26, hitting the lowest level since January 2007, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed on Friday. CONTEXT The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, have accelerated output hikes to regain market share, raising the supply outlook and weighing on global oil prices. Meanwhile, U.S. crude output [Read more]