Author: omc_admin

The Trump administration has eased recent export limits on a critical petroleum product that’s used to make plastics — a shift that represents a modest pullback on curbs used as leverage in trade negotiations with China.  Under the change, Enterprise Products Partners LP and Energy Transfer LP are being allowed to load that gas, known as ethane, onto tankers and transport it to Chinese ports. However, they are still barred from unloading that cargo for use by Chinese entities, said people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named.  Enterprise Products “may not complete” ethane exports to Chinese…

Trend Channels Provide Clues The decline completed a 127.2% Fibonacci extension of the 2023 rally and bounced off support of a declining lower trend channel line. Once a reversal occurs from one side of the channel, there is the potential for a move to the other side. That process was completed relatively quickly last Friday, as the top channel line (solid blue) was exceeded and the week ended right at the top channel trendline, indicating that the market recognized the price area. Downward Pressure Remains An attempt at a one-day bullish reversal was made today, but it is currently showing…

In a move with significant implications for transcontinental energy trade, the UK government has formally withdrawn support for the $34.4-billion Morocco-UK Power Project, a mega-renewables plan that would have delivered solar and wind electricity via a 3,800 km undersea cable from the Sahara Desert to Devon, Reuters reports. The project, led by British firm Xlinks and backed by TAQA, Octopus Energy, and TotalEnergies, aimed to supply 8% of the UK’s electricity needs, enough for over 7 million homes, with zero-carbon power. But Energy Minister Michael Shanks told Parliament on Wednesday that the UK’s revised energy security strategy prioritizes “domestic renewables with…

Marc Benioff is all in on AI at Salesforce, and he said it’s working with grade-A accuracy.The 60-year-old Salesforce founder and CEO told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang that the company is having “hundreds of thousands” of AI conversations with customers, and they are 93% accurate.”Even for a large brand or a large company that we work with, like Disney, it’s about 93%,” Benioff said in the interview published Thursday.In February, Benioff told investors that Agentforce, Salesforce’s platform for building AI agents, was seeing “amazing results” in resolving tens of thousands of customer service queries. It allows “human employees to focus on…

Microsoft transferred its chief information security officer out of the company’s security organization, in a move that hints at the growing importance of artificial intelligence at the software giant.As CISO, Igor Tsyganskiy, is responsible for securing Microsoft’s own business, and setting cybersecurity standards across the company.He will now report to EVP Scott Guthrie, who runs Microsoft’s Cloud + AI group. This is the organization that runs important business like Microsoft’s Azure cloud and the teams that help OpenAI and other AI companies develop and run giant AI models and chatbots in the cloud.”As we continue to navigate increasingly complex global…

(World Oil) –  (Bloomberg) — Shell Plc denied a Wall Street Journal report that it is in active talks about acquiring its London-based oil rival bp Plc. “This is further market speculation. No talks are taking place,” a Shell spokesperson said. bp surged as much as 10% in New York earlier on Wednesday on the report that it was in early-stage takeover talks with Shell. Shares of the company erased most of those gains to trade 1.2% higher as of 12:44 p.m. local time. bp has been under intense pressure after years of poor performance and the intervention of activist…

Piotr Swiat | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesCore Scientific shares surged 35% on Thursday following a report from The Wall Street Journal that artificial intelligence infrastructure vendor CoreWeave is in talks to acquire the bitcoin mining and hosting provider.The company’s stock was briefly halted after the report, and then proceeded to have its second-sharpest rally since Core Scientific returned to the Nasdaq in January 2024 after completing a reorganization. Its biggest one-day gain came last June, when the shares popped 40% on news that the company would significantly expand its AI business with CoreWeave.The Journal reported, citing people familiar with the…

Oil held steady as traders grappled with conflicting signals about how much US military strikes hobbled Iran’s nuclear program and whether Washington will continue to target Tehran’s oil flows. West Texas Intermediate edged up to settle near near $65 a barrel while Brent closed little changed near $68. WTI had climbed as much as 2.3% earlier after the Financial Times reported that European capitals believe that Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile remain largely intact following US strikes. President Donald Trump, in a social media post, denied reports that Iran successfully moved nuclear material from its sites before the attacks. At…

Spot rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) sailing from the Persian Gulf to Asia have fallen sharply in recent days, as military tensions near the Strait of Hormuz subside and shipping flows resume a more stable pattern. Charterers that had paused bookings or rerouted vessels in mid-June amid fears of an Iranian blockade have begun re-entering the market, easing pressure on freight.According to tanker brokers cited by gCaptain, VLCC rates for Gulf-to-China routes have dropped to approximately $63,000 per day, down from nearly $100,000 just two weeks ago. The fall reflected improved vessel availability and a partial unwinding of…

(Bloomberg) — U.S. shale oil producers are unlikely to heed President Donald Trump’s latest call to “Drill, Baby, Drill” as they prioritize hedging over ramping up production in response to U.S. military strikes on Iran. Wary of being caught by yet another false start in global crude markets, U.S. oil companies are likely to use hedging contracts to lock in revenue for future output rather than spend heavily on new drilling, analysts said.  Trump called to increase in U.S. drilling in a social media post Monday in order to prevent oil prices from rising. West Texas Intermediate declined…