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Commonwealth LNG has received commitments from European buyers to take almost half of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its planned 8.4-million-tonnes-per-year export terminal in Louisiana, Chief Executive Officer Paul Varello said on Wednesday. The Commonwealth project is one of more than 10 LNG export terminals under development or construction in the United States along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to take advantage of soaring demand for the supercooled fuel amid booming gas production. “We are exchanging documents with counterparties that will represent three to four million tonnes” ...

US oil production will keep expanding through at least 2020, led by further growth from the Permian and New Mexico and putting a cap on Brent crude prices, according to S&P Global Ratings. Output from the US will exceed 13 million b/d in 2020 compared with about 12 million b/d this year, Andrey Nikolaev, senior director, analytical manager in S&P Global Ratings, said Wednesday in a presentation given in Dubai. Already the world’s biggest oil producer after pulling ahead of Saudi Arabia last year, US shale output is widely expected ...

Barclays PLC (BARC.LN) reported its fourth-quarter and 2018 results on Thursday. Here’s what we watched: REVENUE: Net operating income matched analysts’ expectations of 19.67 billion pounds ($25.50 billion), rising from GBP18.74 billion. PROFIT: Barclays’ pretax profit of GBP3.49 billion missed analysts’ expectations of GBP3.66 billion. However, stripping out litigation-and-conduct charges, profit rose 20% to GBP5.7 billion. WHAT WE WATCHED: -INVESTMENT BANK: While the investment bank reported largely flat quarterly revenue across its divisions, analysts at Jefferies noted Barclays outperformed its U.S. peers in its fixed-income, currencies and commodities unit. That ...

China’s central bank said on Thursday that it will keep its yuan currency stable and maintain its prudent monetary policy to ensure financial stability in the world’s second-largest economy. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, will also fend off any systemic risks by using multiple monetary policy tools, it said in its fourth-quarter implementation report. The central bank also said it would encourage financial institutions to support small private enterprises as part of wider government efforts to avoid a sharp slowdown in economic growth. Source: Reuters (Reporting ...

Another jump in borrowing by governments will take the global mountain of sovereign debt to $50 trillion (£38 trillion) this year, ratings agency S&P Global forecast on Thursday. The firm predicted sovereigns will borrow an equivalent of $7.78 trillion this year, which would be up 3.2 percent on 2018. “Some 70 percent, or $5.5 trillion, of sovereigns’ gross borrowing will be to refinance maturing long-term debt, resulting in an estimated net borrowing requirement of about $2.3 trillion, or 2.6 percent of the GDP of rated sovereigns,” said S&P Global Ratings ...

Economic historian Barry Eichengreen has shown how countries that have experienced rapid economic growth during their escape from the clutches of mass poverty tend to falter in their subsequent move to mass prosperity. His research suggests that the most common point when inertia sets in, is when average incomes are either around $11,000 or $15,000 a year. This is the famous middle income trap. Fewer countries emerge from it than enter it. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that average incomes in China will be $10,098 this year. Eichengreen based ...

The trade war with the US and heightened scrutiny of Chinese dealmaking overseas could weigh heavily on China’s mergers and acquisitions in the year ahead, according to global accounting firm PwC. The prospect of the current trade negotiations between the world’s two largest economies ending in stalemate is potentially a “strong blow” that would crimp cross-border deals, said senior analysts at the company on Tuesday. Even if a satisfactory resolution were reached, the level of political scrutiny of larger deals and those in sensitive areas such as technology would still ...

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland said Tuesday that interest rates will likely rise slightly this year, assuming the economy grows at the healthy clip she anticipates. “If the economy performs along the lines that I’ve outlined as most likely, the fed-funds rate may need to move a bit higher than current levels,” said Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester in a speech at the University of Delaware, referring to the central bank’s benchmark policy rate. Ms. Mester, who isn’t a voting member of the rate-setting Federal Open ...

Few spot transactions today with market participants at odds on current price levels. Mills continue to reduce their inventories and some say

Daily rates on main tanker routes as compiled by shipbroker Charles R. Weber.

Employment of Indian seafarers on Indian and foreign ships witnessed a growth of 35 %in 2018 bringing a good news amid the job crisis being witnessed in the country. Last year, people recruited in Merchant Navy from India increased from 1,54,349 in 2017 to 2,08,799 showing how the Indian skills are in demand globally. Various designations where Indians are joining the industry include nautical officers, nautical ratings and engineers. A senior shipping ministry official on condition of anonymity attributed this growth to several reforms and the revised training curriculum introduced ...

The fifth Largest shipping company in the world, Hapag-Lloyd, has increased its freight rate with the review of Peak Season Surcharge (PSS) on all container types originating from anywhere in the world to Tin Can Island, and Apapa ports in Lagos, Nigeria. The review it said is to enable it, “maintain a continued high level of service.” The German-based firm, in a memo obtained by The Guardian Friday, however excluded the consignment from the United States of America in the rate review. Carriers charge a Peak Season Surcharge (PSS) when ...

Russia’s Zvezda Shipyard plans to build its first Aframax class tanker in 2021, Chief Executive Officer of the company Sergey Tseluiko told TASS in an interview. “The launch of the first tanker is scheduled to 2019. This will be an ice class support vessel. The first Aframax will be constructed in 2021,” the top manager said. Series production of Aframax class tankers for carriage of crude oil and oil products started at the turn of 2018. The headmost tanker in the line is scheduled for launching in 2020. Zvezda currently ...

There has been an increase of incidents where vessels anchored in the waters around the island of Bintan, in the Eastern portion of the Singapore Straits, have been detained. Bintan is a popular place to anchor (“waiting for orders”) because it is close to shipping lanes and believed to be OPL Singapore but it is in fact within Indonesian territorial waters. We are grateful to SPICA for having prepared the attached outline of the issue along with their recommendations. Source: Skuld

The Mississippi River can experience high water conditions at many times of the year. The high-water season is often said to run from December to May. The highest water is usually seen from February to May and many people believe this is the only high-water season. However, high water can occur at many times and has sometimes lasted from January until August, with only intermittent breaks. Long-term forecasts are not always accurate because a huge land mass area drains into the Mississippi River, and heavy precipitation over that land mass ...