Author: omc_admin

(Bloomberg) – The Trump administration is eliminating Energy Department offices focused on clean energy and renewables and, instead, creating units dedicated to hydrocarbons and fusion energy.  The changes are part of an agency reorganization unveiled Thursday. The plan made no mention of staffing reductions as part of the realignment, and the agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.  Among the units eliminated are the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, which under former President Joe Biden awarded billions of dollars for technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen hubs. The Trump administration previously recommended shutting down the office and…

Maersk has chosen Charlotte as its North American headquarters, committing to 520 new jobs and a $16 million investment. The move will bring the company’s local workforce to more than 1,300 in the Mecklenburg County region over the coming years. What’s RelatedGovernor Josh Stein said the choice “speaks to North Carolina’s reputation as a top destination for global business. We are home to a world-class workforce, and we’re proud to welcome Maersk to North Carolina – the top state for business in the country.” The company’s North American operations already employ more than 10,000 people, and the new Charlotte HQ…

Apple’s voice assistant Siri gave it a considerable head start in the chatbot race. So why has Apple never had a ChatGPT-style breakthrough in the new AI era?Babak Hodjat, one of the inventors of the backend natural language processing technology that led to the development of Siri, has a theory. He thinks Apple didn’t capitalize on its early lead with the voice assistant because the company was too narrowly focused on its visual and audio appeal rather than the quality of users’ interactions with it.Apple seemed to focus on the “look and feel of Siri” over improving the underlying answers…

Russian energy giant Lukoil PJSC dissolved the supervisory board of its international business, the latest sign of how US sanctions — the first of which begin on Friday — are affecting the firm. As part of the dissolution, the Moscow-based firm “recalled” Sergei Kochkurov, chief executive officer of the parent company, as well as Evgeny Khavkin and Gennady Fedotov. The step, taken during an Oct. 28 board meeting, was posted by Lukoil International GmbH on Austria’s corporate register on Friday.  The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on Oct. 22 that it was sanctioning Lukoil and fellow Russian…

Forecasts of milder weather in the weeks ahead and the proposed U.S. peace plan for Ukraine pushed down on Friday European benchmark natural gas prices to their lowest level since May 2024. Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, traded down by 2.5% at $35 (30.38 euros) per megawatt-hour (MWh) at 11 a.m. in Amsterdam. This was the lowest the benchmark price has been since May 2024, as the latest weather models predict milder temperatures in the weeks ahead after the current cold snap in northwest Europe. European gas futures have traded for months at about $36.90 (32…

In a market that continues to be dominated by bearish supply sentiment, one of the few bullish drivers is the fragility of Russian supply. That’s what Standard Chartered Bank Energy Research Head Emily Ashford said in a report sent to Rigzone by the Standard Chartered team earlier this week, adding that both crude and refined product exports are being curtailed by the pressure of focused sanctions on Russian oil producers, a lowered crude oil price cap, and ongoing missile and drone attacks on oil and gas export infrastructure. “On 14 November the port of Novorossiysk, in Krasnodar Krai, was targeted…

• Germany will contribute €1 billion ($1.15 billion) over ten years to Brazil’s Tropical Forest Forever Facility, a new global mechanism aimed at reducing deforestation.• The fund rewards countries for maintaining intact forest cover and imposes financial penalties for forest loss, supported by satellite-based monitoring.• The initiative strengthens international efforts to protect climate-critical tropical forests and expands resources for Indigenous and traditional communities. Germany Backs Brazil’s New Global Forest Facility Germany has pledged €1 billion over the next decade to Brazil’s Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a new global fund designed to reward forest conservation and sanction deforestation. The commitment…

The European Commission’s proposal to reform the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) marks a decisive moment in Europe’s sustainable finance journey. By proposing to replace the existing Article 8 and Article 9 designations with a new structure built around product categories, the Commission is seeking a shift toward clearer, more prescriptive classifications that would be – in theory – easier for end-investors to understand. This shift has been years in the making. It follows widespread criticism of features of the original SFDR, continued concerns about greenwashing, and EU fund-naming rules that – according to Clarity AI research – led more…

A blank sailing is when an ocean carrier cancels a scheduled port call or an entire voyage. The ship either doesn’t sail at all or skips one or more ports on its route. Think of it like a canceled airline flight. The plane stays on the ground, and everyone waiting to board scrambles for another option. Why Blank Sailings Happen Carriers cancel sailings for different reasons, but most fall into a few buckets: Low demand: If there aren’t enough containers to justify the route, the sailing may be pulled to save money. Too much congestion: Ports like LA/Long Beach, Rotterdam,…

It was down 0.9 per cent on the day, its biggest single-day decline since May.The Indian rupee hit a lifetime low on Friday, as a bout of portfolio outflows, uncertainty over a US-India trade deal and a pullback in the central bank’s defense of a key level sparked a slide in the local currency.The rupee fell to 89.49 against the US dollar, sliding past its previous all-time low of 88.80 hit in late September and earlier this month. It was down 0.9 per cent on the day, its biggest single-day decline since May. The South Asian currency has struggled for…