Author: omc_admin

Expanding petrochemicals production and uncertainty about imports of U.S. ethane and propane amid the trade row are expected to boost Chinese purchases of another petrochemical feedstock, naphtha, to a record high this year, traders and analysts tell Reuters.Amid disrupted supply of cheap U.S. ethane and propane in the trade war, Chinese petrochemicals producers have boosted the use of naphtha in recent months, while uncertainties about the trade going forward are set to drive increased naphtha demand.“With issues in imports of ethane and propane, there is a trust factor that has come into play when it comes to U.S. cargoes,” Pankaj…

In a report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team late Monday, Macquarie strategists revealed that they are forecasting that U.S. crude inventories will be up by 1.2 million barrels for the week ending July 11. “This follows a 7.1 million barrel build in the prior week, with the crude balance again realizing significantly looser than our expectations,” the strategists stated in the report. “For this week’s crude balance, from refineries, we model another small reduction in crude runs (-0.1 million barrels per day). Among net imports, we model a modest reduction, with exports (+0.7 million barrels per day) and…

Food and beverage giant PepsiCo and multinational food, ingredients and agriculture company Cargill announced the launch of a new strategic collaboration to advance regenerative agriculture practices across their shared corn supply chain in Iowa. Regenerative agriculture practices are aimed at addressing the environmental impact of the sector, and include techniques to improve and restore ecosystems, build soil health and fertility, reduce emissions, enhance watershed management, increase biodiversity, and improve farmers’ livelihoods. Under the new collaboration, the companies are targeting the expansion of regenerative agricultural practices across 240,000 acres of farmland by 2030, as they aim to deepen supply chain resilience,…

Three oil fields in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq were attacked by drones on Wednesday, adding to a spate of hits on energy installations in the area this week. Two drones attacked the DNO ASA-operated Peshkabir field around 6am local time, the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in Kurdistan said in a statement. Another drone hit the Tawke project about an hour later, it said. A third attack was reported at a field in Ain Sifni in the north, the Kurdistan Ministry of Natural Resources said, adding the strikes caused significant damage to infrastructure. DNO suspended output at…

China’s naphtha imports will hit record levels this year as new plants and caution over US propane and ethane purchases will drive demand and support refiners’ margins for the petrochemical feedstock, analysts and traders said.Cracker operators in the world’s largest petrochemical producer, which pivoted in recent years to cheaper US propane and ethane feedstock, are switching some demand back to naphtha after being ensnared in the US-China trade war that disrupted their US supplies, the sources said.The need to diversify supplies and to meet demand from new plants will drive naphtha imports to an all-time high of 16 million to…

I’m not sure there are any days left in the year, but according to public relations professionals, July 16 is AI Appreciation day.Every year, we are supposed to gather to celebrate the amazing things that this new technology is bringing to society. Something like that, anyway.I thought I’d mark the occasion this year by asking ChatGPT to suggest some amusing ways to show our gratitude to the machines, software, and giant energy-sucking data centers that are powering this technological revolution, for better or worse.Before we dive in, I should thank the Enterprise version of ChatGPT that OpenAI provides to Business…

OpenAI kicked off the AI boom with ChatGPT in 2022. It plans to make some kind of mystery gadget with famed Apple designer Jony Ive.It is also working on … a web browser?Yes: Sam Altman and company are working on a web browser — something most of you don’t spend much time thinking about, even though you use it all the time. Like when you’re reading this article.OpenAI’s interest in a browser is something of an open secret in tech. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that the company plans to release its browser “in the coming weeks.”But why would OpenAI…

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale inflation cooled last month, despite worries that President Donald Trump’s tariffs would push prices higher for goods before they reach consumers. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that its producer price index was unchanged last month from May after rising 0.3% the previous month. June wholesale prices rose 2.3% from a year earlier, the smallest year-over-year gain since September. Both measures came in below what economists had expected.Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so called core producer prices were also unchanged from May and up 2.6% from June 2024.The report on wholesale inflation arrived a day…

MidOcean Energy, the LNG investment platform backed by Saudi Aramco, has emerged as the front-runner to acquire a significant minority stake in Petronas’s Canadian gas and LNG business, according to people familiar with the talks, cited by Bloomberg. The deal, now reportedly in late-stage negotiations, could value the assets between $6 and $7 billion, making it one of the largest LNG transactions of the year.Petronas’s Canadian unit includes extensive upstream operations in British Columbia and a 25% stake in the LNG Canada terminal, a major West Coast export project now under construction and slated to begin operations in 2026. A…

Lower prices for oil and liquefied natural gas will weigh on French oil major TotalEnergies’ second-quarter earnings, even as its hydrocarbon production rose slightly, it said in a trading update on Wednesday.Total’s hydrocarbon production in the second quarter of 2025 will show an increase of around 2.5 per cent year-on-year, it said.But a 20 per cent drop in the Brent crude price – from $85 per barrel a year ago to $67.9 per barrel in the second quarter of 2025 – means earnings for upstream will be lower. Crude oil prices fell in the second quarter as OPEC+, made up…