Author: omc_admin

Chinese oil refining throughput jumped by 9% in July from a year earlier amid higher utilization capacity at state-owned refiners, according to official data released on Friday. Chinese refiners processed 14.85 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil last month, per the data from the National Bureau of Statistics cited by Reuters.  The crude processing throughput was slightly lower compared to June this year, down by 1.95%. June, however, saw the strongest oil refining levels in China in nearly two years. Improved fuel margins and the end of spring maintenance boosted oil refinery throughput in June to the highest level since September…

The US has been trailing China in the race for open-source AI. OpenAI’s latest move could help close that gap — but it could also spur China to speed up its own releases.Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced GPT-oss, a family of large language models with “open weights.”That means anyone can see or use information determining how the model works after it’s been trained — but not the full source code.”We believe this is the best and most usable open model in the world,” Altman wrote on X on Aug 6.GPT-oss is OpenAI’s first open-weight language model in over…

“It felt really scary … like being in the middle of a burning city during a night raid.” Dr Arwyn Edwards is not describing urban warfare but a recent hot and foggy day on a Svalbard glacier, where record-breaking summer heat turned his workplace into a cascade of meltwater and falling rocks.Edwards is a leading researcher in glacier ecology – the study of life forms that live on, within and around glaciers and ice sheets. Over two decades of polar research, he has always felt “relaxed and at home” on ice. But the accelerating climate breakdown is beginning to erode…

If Russia loses its streams of revenue from selling its gas and oil to third countries, then it will have a severe impact on the Russian economy. That’s what Olga Tokariuk, a fellow with the Democratic Resilience Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), said in an exclusive CEPA press briefing held Thursday, which Rigzone was invited to. “The threat of secondary sanctions has been particularly successful, so Putin would like to avoid that at any cost,” Tokariuk said in the briefing. “However … there are a lot of questions about … any kind of credibility of agreements…

India is launching a national deepwater exploration mission to tap more of its energy resources, boost domestic energy supply, and reduce dependence on imports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.“India will harness its deepwater energy resources, strengthening energy self-reliance and reducing dependence on foreign fuel imports,” Modi said in his address on the country’s Independence Day. India is also boosting its renewable energy capacity, with advances in solar, nuclear, hydro, and hydrogen energy, according to the prime minister.The deepwater exploration mission will add to another mission, the National Critical Minerals Mission, to secure resources essential for energy, industry, and defense.…

New Era Helium Inc., which controls over 137,000 acres that hold helium and natural gas reserves in Southeastern New Mexico, has rebranded to New Era Energy & Digital Inc. to reflect its recent shift into a vertically integrated energy supplier. The new company aims to develop “next-generation digital infrastructure and integrated power assets, including powered land and powered shells”, it said in an online statement. “The company delivers turnkey solutions that will enable hyperscale, enterprise and edge operators to accelerate data center deployment, optimize total cost of ownership and future-proof their infrastructure investments”. The Midland, Texas-based company “projects generational AI infrastructure…

The sustainability-linked loan (SLL) market has made progress towards addressing some of its key integrity and credibility issues, according to a new review by UK financial services regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), marking “important steps in the development of a credible transition finance ecosystem,” according to the regulator. The observations by the FCA follow a 2023 review of the SLL market, which outlined a series of market integrity concerns that it said could hold back the development of a useful net zero transition financing tool and raise the risk of greenwashing. Sustainability-linked debt ties terms on financing, such as…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Daniel Snell, a 53-year-old cofounder and CEO of Arrival, based in London. The following has been edited for length and clarity.As efficiency starts to improve, whether driven by AI or not, underperformers will get squeezed out.I’ve been running my management consulting and social impact company, Arrival, for 20 years now. Lately, I’ve experienced investors and business leaders hoping that AI can unlock efficiency, productivity, and performance to get organizations growing again.Having worked with senior leaders at companies like Tesco and GSK to help develop high-performing teams, I tell my clients that…

Months ago, Ahmet Tozal took out three credit card loans and withdrew his life savings to make a fortune off crypto.The 44-year-old Turkish garment worker, who lived in Istanbul at the time, said he’d been goaded by a new friend who contacted him via a random WhatsApp message in 2023.The woman claimed she’d messaged him accidentally, but was friendly and seemed interested in Turkey, Tozal said. She told him she was a wealthy businesswoman who would soon be visiting his country on holiday.Tozal said she sent him dozens of photos of herself, a young East Asian woman traveling the world…

NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers spent at a healthy pace in July, particularly at the nation’s auto dealerships, as they shrug off President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which are starting to take a toll on jobs and lead to some price increases.Retail sales rose 0.5% last month, a slowdown from a revised 0.9% in June, which was revised upward, according to the Commerce Department’s report released Friday. The pace in July matched economists’ estimates. The increases followed two consecutive months of spending declines — a 0.1% pullback in April and a 0.9% slowdown in May.Excluding auto sales, which have been volatile…