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Oil prices resumed their slide on Wednesday, dragged down after an unexpected gain in U.S. inventories, but with losses capped by a recovery in global equities on hopes of a rate cut from the Federal Reserve. Brent futures were down 17 cents at $61.80 a barrel by 1208 GMT, having briefly traded in positive territory earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 55 cents at $52.93 a barrel. U.S. crude inventories rose unexpectedly last week, while gasoline and distillate stockpiles built more than expected, data from ...

Crude oil futures closed lower Wednesday on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange. The most active crude oil contract for July delivery was down 2.2 yuan (about 32 U.S. cents) to close at 425 yuan a barrel. The total trading volume for 10 listed crude oil futures contracts on the exchange was 397,726 lots, with a turnover of about 169.2 billion yuan. China launched the crude oil futures trading, which is open to overseas investment, on March 26 last year. Source: Xinhua

Anglo-Dutch major Shell expects the global LNG market to grow by 4% a year to 2035 and the company plans to “grow with it,” maintaining its leading position in the market, CEO Ben van Beurden said. Speaking at a management day in London, van Beurden said the company had an “unmatched” LNG supply portfolio globally with a 22% share of global LNG sales in 2018, and a trading function that allowed Shell to do “serious” optimization. Global LNG imports in 2018 were some 314 million mt, according to industry group ...

Russia’s average daily oil output has dropped to a three year-low after contaminated crude clogged its main export route. Average oil output was 10.87 million barrels per day (bpd) on June 1-3, down from an average of 11.11 million bpd in May, two sources familiar with official data said on Tuesday. The figure for the first three days of June is the lowest since mid-2016, according to Reuters calculations. The decline follows the discovery in mid-April of contaminated Urals crude in the Druzhba pipeline to Europe. Exports via the pipeline’s ...

The dollar struggled near a seven-week low on Wednesday on rising expectations of a U.S. central bank interest rate cut in response to trade conflict-related risks. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell dropped his standard reference to the bank being “patient” in approaching a rate decision on Tuesday, saying instead it would respond as “as appropriate” to trade pressure. The Fed rethink weakened the dollar for a fifth consecutive day, lifting the euro and pushing investors into safe-haven assets including the Japanese yen. But Wednesday’s small moves in the dollar index, ...

The number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects dropped last year in Britain and the rest of Europe amid rising concern about the uncertainty caused by Brexit, an industry report showed. The number of completed FDI projects fell across Europe by 4% last year, the first fall since 2012. The number in Britain, still the top destination for FDI in Europe, fell by 13%. Germany’s figure saw a similar decline, while France was flat and Italy and Ireland saw sharp increases. The survey of 506 businesses was carried out by ...

China has been on the defensive in its tariff fight with the United States, and such restraint is based on the knowledge and confidence of its own economic strength. For three consecutive years, the contribution of foreign trade to the Chinese economy, measured by the ratio of net export increment to gross domestic product, has been negative. It is domestic demand that has propelled the country’s economic expansion. Last year, the contribution rate of domestic demand amounted to 108.6 percent, Ning Jizhe, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, told ...

China’s white paper on the trade war with the United States was not about playing a blame game with Washington, but preparing Beijing for a return to the negotiating table, Chinese analysts said. In an unusual move, the State Council published the paper on Sunday to put China’s side of the dispute. Focus fell on the part where Beijing said that the US should bear responsibility for the breakdown in the months-long trade talks. On Monday, the US repeated its claim that China had back-pedalled on the deal. The Office ...

One of private-equity and hedge-fund managers’ most prized tax breaks is again in politicians’ cross hairs, but Democrats would need to sweep the 2020 election if they want to pull the trigger to end the option. President Donald Trump said in May that he wanted to increase taxes on carried interest, a major form of compensation for hedge-fund and private-equity managers. Several leading Democratic presidential candidates — including former Vice President Joe Biden, and senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — also have said they want to end the break. ...

Saga is delighted to announce HRH The Duchess of Cornwall as the Godmother of its newly built boutique cruise ship, Spirit of Discovery. The naming ceremony will take place in Dover, Kent, on 5 July 2019. She will be the first cruise ship to be named at the Port of Dover for over a decade, and the first to be docked at Dover Western Docks following the £250m redevelopment of the area. Before the naming ceremony, HRH will be given a tour of the ship. In building Spirit of Discovery, ...

Classification society DNV GL has signed a contract for the first Cyber Secure class notation with Stena Drilling. The contract covers the application of the “Basic+” notation to the drillship Stena IceMAX and includes the vessel’s dynamic positioning, drilling, and blowout prevention systems. It will be integrated with Stena Drilling’s own safety management systems. “The shipping industry needs to build resilience against cyber-attacks, which have proliferated over the past few years. This becomes even more critical as vessels develop higher degrees of autonomy,” said Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV GL ...

MABUX World Bunker Index (consists of a range of prices for 380 HSFO, 180 HSFO and MGO (Gasoil) in the main world hubs) declined on June. 04 380 HSFO – USD/MT 379.07 (-4.43) 180 HSFO – USD/MT 428.29 (-3.42) MGO – USD/MT 614.50 (-13.21) Meantime, world oil indexes demonstrated slight irregular changes on June. 04 Brent for August settlement increased by $0.69 to $61.97 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. West Texas Intermediate for July delivery rose by $0.23 to $56.07 a barrel on the New York ...

Danelec Marine announced the introduction of a new decision-support tool to enhance maritime safety and enable proactive decision-making in bridge operations. The Danelec Marine Bridge Operational Quality Assurance (BOQA) is a scalable cloud-based event reporting, analysis and feedback solution that is integrated with the DanelecConnect shipboard Internet of Things (IoT) platform. It provides automatic recording and transmission of data from ship navigation systems and sensors through the DanelecConnect hub to shore offices and uses analytical tools to identify deviations from operational parameters. This will allow shipping companies to create a ...

LR’s active engagement on ocean industry issues recognised with attendance at high-level UN meeting. LR will attend the ‘High-Level Meeting on the Ocean’ on 3 June, hosted by the Norwegian government and the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, which takes place alongside Nor-Shipping 2019 in Oslo, Norway. The ‘High-Level Meeting on the Ocean’ will provide a unique opportunity for the private sector, UN, government, academia and civil society to collectively identify ocean opportunities to advance the goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda and contribute towards the development ...

The technology group Wärtsilä is launching a new, digital version of Operim – Operational Performance Improvement & Monitoring – at this year’s Nor-Shipping conference and exhibition in Oslo, Norway. This offering is a key feature of Wärtsilä’s Smart Marine vision. By digitally augmenting physical products through the addition of data collection capabilities and cloud based analytics, Operim enables improvements in operational performance through continuous monitoring and reporting of the key performance indicators and virtual instrumentation. The collected data is delivered to the system’s user in real-time, thereby allowing appropriate and ...