Author: omc_admin

Aphids are plaguing gardeners this spring due to the warm weather, with higher numbers of the rose-killing bugs expected to thrive in the UK as a result of climate breakdown.The sap-sucking insects have topped the ranking of gardener queries to the Royal Horticultural Society, with many of its 600,000 members having complained of dozens of aphids on their acers, roses and honeysuckle plants.They thrive in warm, dry weather, exacerbated by climate breakdown. Additionally, they can be killed off by frost, and the change in weather patterns is making frost less regular.Hayley Jones, the principal entomologist at the RHS, said: “Climate…

Top US oilfield service firms have signaled a challenging period ahead as a recent slide in oil prices pushes producers to temper their drilling activity and rethink their budgets.SLB, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes all flagged cautious customer spending in their first-quarter reports, citing a lack of visibility, especially in North America.Higher output from the OPEC+ grouping and a global tariff war that has raised demand concerns drove crude prices to near $55 a barrel this month, from around $78 just before US President Donald Trump assumed office in January. ‘With oil prices falling out of the well-defined range that had…

Google has agreed to settle a case as it deals with a government effort to break up its business.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement on Friday that the search engine giant agreed to pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to settle two lawsuits accusing Google of violating data privacy and security laws.”In 2022, Attorney General Paxton sued Google for unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data regarding geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data,” the statement said. “After years of aggressive litigation, Attorney General Paxton agreed to settle Texas’s data-privacy claims against Google for an amount that…

(Oil & Gas 360) – Over the past few weeks, several headlines regarding the international oil business have surprised market watchers: A note on the news: “Break-even” oil prices- oil and gas 360   The news that the OPEC+ group decided to increase its production rate in May by 411,000 barrels a day (b/d).   The Trump Administration decision to tighten sanctions, including secondary sanctions, on Iranian-exported oil. Iran exports 1.8 to 2.0 million b/d. This exported oil is mostly bought by China.   The next headline last weekend noting that OPEC+ would increase production in June by another 411,000…

(Oil & Gas 360) – Supply Expectations High And Demand Expectations Low, Running Counter To U.S. Supply Demand Data Have The Consensus Set UP To Be Caught Short. The price of WTI crude oil back below $60 reflects much fear plus news that OPEC+ will increase production.  The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), + other world exporters announcing Monday, that production limits will be increased 411,000 barrels per day in June deflated the spot market price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil back below $60 per barrel (Figure 1, red line).  More supply plus Inflation, Tariff, and Recession fears…

Tesla told Austin workers on its Model Y and Cybertruck lines to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, three workers told Business Insider.The break is unusually long, the workers said. Production lines were up and running during the same period last year, they said.The electric vehicle maker notified employees earlier this week. The workers, who are paid hourly, were told they could either take paid time off or come in for cleaning and training but would not be working on the production line. The workers said their schedules had been increasingly inconsistent since February. Some said they had…

Oman is looking to sell a stake in natural gas assets valued at about $8 billion, according to people familiar with the plan, as the sultanate seeks to raise cash to shore up its state finances and fund investments.  State-owned firm Energy Development Oman SAOC is seeking partners for a minority stake in the fields contained in Block 6, which also holds the country’s most prized oil assets, the people said, asking not to be named because the plans are private. Besides bringing in funds for Oman, a sale would also help spread the billions of dollars of costs needed…

(World Oil) – A federal jury in the Southern District of Texas has ruled in favor of Marathon Oil Company in a high-stakes natural gas trading dispute stemming from Winter Storm Uri. The jury rejected a $123.7 million breach-of-contract counterclaim filed by Koch Energy Services, siding instead with Marathon’s force majeure defense related to deliveries during the historic February 2021 storm. Marathon was jointly represented by Haynes Boone and AZA during the trial. Haynes Boone attorneys Mark Trachtenberg, Ryan Pitts and Garrett Martin worked in close coordination with AZA’s trial team, which included Tim Shelby, Sammy Ford IV, Paul Galante, Emily Adler, Michael Gorrell and…

Oil rose as algorithmic traders fled short positions amid renewed optimism about trade talks between the US and China this weekend. West Texas Intermediate climbed 1.9% to settle near $61 a barrel, the highest in over a week, as the Trump administration weighs reducing levies on China to de-escalate tensions and temper the economic pain in both countries. The rally was limited by President Donald Trump’s comments that an 80% tariff on China “seems right.” Meanwhile, commodity trading advisers, which tend to exacerbate price swings, liquidated short positions to sit at 91% short in both WTI and Brent on Friday,…

Shell’s plans to juice output from its deepwater Perdido development in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico just ran into a delay-shaped pothole. Two new wells intended to lift production from the Great White unit—one of the stars of the Perdido complex—won’t come online until the end of the year, the company confirmed this week. That’s a shift from the original timeline, which had all three wells humming by April.One of the three did go live in March, but the other two are lagging. All told, the trio was expected to bring up to 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day…