News

By Naveen Thukral and Roslan Khasawneh

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil steadied on Thursday, clawing back losses earlier in the session, as strong demand and short-term supply disruptions continue to support prices close to their highest levels since late 2014.

Brent crude futures fell 17 cents, or 0.2%, to $88.27 a barrel, as of 0418 GMT, having dropped more than $1 earlier in the session. The global benchmark touched $89.17 a barrel on Wednesday, its highest since October 2014.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 7 cents, or 0.1%, to stand at $87.03 a barrel, having also shed nearly $1 earlier. WTI climbed to as much as $87.91 on Wednesday, the highest since October 2014.

“The International Energy Agency said global oil demand is on track to hit pre-pandemic levels,” analysts at ANZ bank said in a note.

“Shorter-term supply disruptions are also helping tighten markets. Brent crude rallied sharply after reports a key oil pipeline running from Iraq to Turkey was knocked out by an explosion.”

However, the flow of crude oil through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has resumed, after it was halted on Tuesday due to a blast near the pipeline in the southeastern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras, officials said on Wednesday.

Supply concerns have mounted this week after Yemen’s Houthi group attacked the United Arab Emirates, the third-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Meanwhile Russia, the world’s second-largest oil producer, has built up a large troop presence near Ukraine’s border, stoking fears of invasion and subsequent supply uncertainties.

Underpinning oil prices is the broad post-coronavirus pandemic recovery in demand for fuel.

OPEC officials and analysts say that an oil rally may continue in the next few months, and prices could top $100 a barrel as demand shrugs of the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

OPEC+, which groups the cartel with Russia and other producers, is struggling to hit a monthly output increase target of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd).

U.S. crude and gasoline stocks rose while distillate inventories fell last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Wednesday.

Crude stocks rose by 1.4 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 14. Gasoline inventories rose by 3.5 million barrels while distillate stocks fell by 1.2 million barrels, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

(Reporting by Naveen Thukral and Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Oil prices rose for a fourth day to a seven-year high as an outage on a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey increased concerns about an already tight supply outlook amid worrisome geopolitical troubles in Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

Brent crude futures rose $1.44, or 1.7%, to $88.95 a barrel at 0230 GMT, adding to a 1.2% jump in the previous session. The benchmark contract climbed to as much as $89.05, its highest since Oct. 13, 2014.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed $1.51, or 1.8%, to $86.94 a barrel, adding to a 1.9% gain on Tuesday. WTI earlier jumped to a high of $87.08, its highest since Oct. 9, 2014.

Turkey’s state pipeline operator Botas said on Tuesday that it cut oil flows on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline after an explosion on the system. The cause of the explosion is not known.

The pipeline carries crude out of Iraq, the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), to the Turkish port of Ceyhan for export.

The loss comes as analysts are forecasting tight oil supply in 2022, driven in part by demand holding up much better than expected against the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant, with some calling for a return of $100 oil.

Geopolitical issues in Russia, the world’s second-largest oil producer, and the UAE, OPEC’s third-largest producer, are adding to the supply concerns.

The UAE late on Tuesday called for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to condemn an attack on Abu Dhabi on Monday by Yemen’s Houthi movement, which has threatened further attacks.

Meanwhile, Russian troops are lined up on the border of Ukraine, with the White House calling the crisis extremely dangerous and saying Russia could invade at any point.

The tensions raise the prospect of supply disruptions at a time when OPEC, Russia and their allies, together called OPEC+, are already having difficulty meeting their agreed target to add 400,000 barrels per day of supply each month.

“OPEC+ is falling short of hitting their production quotas and if geopolitical tensions continue to heat up, Brent crude might not need much of a push to get to $100 a barrel,” OANDA analyst Edward Moya said in a note.

Jet fuel consumption is rising with growth in international flights, while road traffic is much higher than the same time last year, Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar said in a note.

“OPEC+ supply constraints and the ongoing increase in global oil demand will likely keep oil prices well supported in coming months,” Dhar said.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

By Michelle Nichols, Kirsty Needham, Tom Westbrook and Praveen Menon

(Reuters) -Two New Zealand navy vessels carrying disaster relief will arrive in Tonga on Friday, the first international supplies to reach the Pacific island nation reeling from a volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Hundreds of homes in Tonga’s smaller outer islands have been destroyed, and at least three people have died, after Saturday’s devastating eruption which the government called “an unprecedented disaster”.

With communications https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/undersea-cable-fault-could-cut-off-tonga-rest-world-weeks-2022-01-18 badly hampered by the severing of an undersea cable, information on the scale of the devastation so far has mostly come from reconnaissance aircraft.

New Zealand’s foreign ministry said the Tongan government has approved the arrival of HMNZS Wellington and HMNZS Aotearoa in the COVID-free nation, where concerns about a potential coronavirus outbreak are likely to complicate relief efforts.

“The vessels are expected to arrive in Tonga by Friday, depending on weather conditions,” the ministry in a statement.

A second New Zealand Defence P3 Orion surveillance flight will fly over Tonga and Fiji on Wednesday, the ministry added, to assess the damage caused by the tsunami.

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano https://graphics.reuters.com/TONGA-VOLCANO/znvneloakpl sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean when it erupted with a blast heard 2,300 km (1,430 miles) away in New Zealand.

Waves reaching up to 15 metres hit the outer Ha’apia island group, destroying all of the houses on the island of Mango, as well as the west coast of Tonga’s main island, Tongatapu, the prime minister’s office said.

New Zealand said power has now been restored, and clean-up and damage assessments are ongoing. Relief supplies are being distributed by Tongan authorities.

Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni has met with the head of diplomatic missions based in the country to discuss their support, the statement said.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a news conference in Canberra that he hoped to speak with Sovaleni later on Wednesday.

“It is a very difficult environment to be operating in, the ash clouds and things of that nature. Our defence forces have stood up their operation and are deploying as necessary, as directed,” Morrison said.

Tonga is still largely offline after the volcano took out the sole undersea fire-optics communication cable.

International mobile phone network provider Digicel has set up an interim system on Tongatapu using the University of South Pacific’s satellite dish, the New Zealand foreign ministry said.

The would allow a 2G connection to be established but the connection is patchy and covers about 10% of usual capacity,

U.S. cable company SubCom has advised it will take at least four weeks for Tonga’s cable connection to be repaired, it added.

REMOTE AID

Tongan communities abroad posted new images received from families back home on Facebook, giving a glimpse into the extent of the devastation.

The images show homes reduced to rubble, fallen trees, cracked roads and sidewalks and ash from the volcanic eruption spread across the entire island.

James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the force of the eruption was estimated to be equivalent to five to 10 megatons of TNT, an explosive force more than 500 times the nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War Two.

Aid agencies, including the United Nations, are preparing to carry out relief operations for Tonga at a distance to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak, Fiji-based U.N. co-ordinator Jonathan Veitch said on Wednesday.

The agency will conduct most operations remotely, and may not send personnel to the island, he told a briefing.

“We believe that we will be able to send flights with supplies. We’re not sure that we can send flights with personnel and the reason for this is that Tonga has a very strict COVID-free policy,” Veitch said.

Tonga is one of the few countries that is COVID-19 free and an outbreak there would disastrous, he said. The tiny island nation has 90% immunisation coverage both in adults and also younger people over the age of 12, Veitch said.

“They’ve been very cautious about opening their borders like many Pacific islands, and that’s because of the history of disease outbreaks in the Pacific which has wiped out societies here.”

CLEAN UP UNDERWAY

Clearing the airport runway of ash is a priority for the government. The archipelago’s main Fua’amotu International Airport was not damaged but the ash was having to be manually removed.

“We thought that it would be operational yesterday, but it hasn’t been fully cleared yet because more ash has been falling,” U.N.’s Veitch said.

On the west coast of Tongatapu, residents were being moved to evacuation centres as 56 houses were destroyed or seriously damaged on that coast.

Australia and New Zealand have promised immediate financial assistance to Tonga. The U.S. Agency for International Development approved $100,000 in immediate assistance to support people affected by volcanic eruptions and tsunami waves.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Kirsty Needham and Tom Westbrook; writing by Praveen Menon; editing by Grant McCool and Richard Pullin)

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Oil prices slipped on Thursday, trimming big gains from the previous two sessions, amid uncertainty over near-term demand as cases of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus surge around the globe.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slipped 20 cents, or 0.2%, to $82.44 a barrel at 0503 GMT, after climbing 1.7% in the previous session.

Brent crude futures shed 19 cents, or 0.2%, to $84.48 a barrel, after rising 1.3% on Wednesday.

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed fuel demand has taken a hit from Omicron, with gasoline stockpiles increasing by 8 million barrels in the week to Jan. 7, compared with analyst expectations for 2.4 million-barrel rise.[EIA/S]

“Gasoline demand was weaker-than-expected and still below pre-pandemic levels, and if this becomes a trend, oil won’t be able to continue to push higher,” OANDA analyst Edward Moya said in a note.

However, Moya added, the Omicron impact is expected to short-lived.

The market had earlier latched on to a bigger drawdown than expected in crude inventories and the fact that stockpiles are at their lowest since October 2018, pushing Brent and WTI to touch their highest in two months on Wednesday.

“In reality, the weekly EIA report was less bullish than the headline number, as total crude oil inventories fell 4.8 million barrels but were more than offset by a stock build across refined products,” Citi said in a note.

ANZ Research pointed to commercial flight numbers running at 16% below 2019 levels for the week to Jan. 11. That was at least better than in the last week of December, when numbers were down 20% on pre-pandemic levels, according to FlightRadar 24.

Still, U.S. supplies are set to rise as producers are paving the way for faster production by expanding well completions in the country’s top shale oil field, the Permian Basin of west Texas and New Mexico, according to research data.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul and Florence Tan; Editing by Tom Hogue)

By Koustav Samanta and Sonali Paul

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil prices steadied on Wednesday, following steep gains in the previous session after the U.S. Federal Reserve chief signalled the central bank may raise rates more slowly than expected, which should help support oil demand.

Brent and U.S. crude oil are trading at their highest levels since the highly contagious COVID-19 Omicron emerged in late November, as it has not hit fuel demand the way previous variants did.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 20 cents, or 0.3%, to $81.42 a barrel at 0555 GMT, adding to a 3.8% jump in the previous session.

Brent crude futures were up 6 cents, or 0.07%, at $83.78 a barrel, after jumping 3.5% in the previous session.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday the economy should weather the current COVID-19 surge with only “short-lived” impacts and was ready for the start of tighter monetary policy.

“While Powell reassured the Fed will bring down rising inflation, which strengthened the rate hike outlooks in March, he also said the Fed is capable of leaving strong economic growth intact. That may lift the demand of growth-sensitive crude oil,” said Leona Liu, analyst at Singapore-based DailyFX.

Data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) industry group, however, painted a weaker picture on fuel demand, with a smaller decline in crude stockpiles than expected and bigger builds than expected in gasoline and distillate inventories.

Crude stocks fell by 1.1 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 7, according to market sources citing API figures. That was less than the 1.9 million barrel draw that 10 analysts polled by Reuters had expected.

“Although market participants appear to be quite optimistic on overall growth in the first quarter, the recent API stocks show subduing demand. So it may be too early to be positive on the price rally,” analyst Liu said.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 10.9 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 2.4 million barrel build. Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3 million barrels compared with forecasts for a 1.8 million barrel increase.

However, supporting the market was the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s upgraded oil demand outlook released on Tuesday, seeing total U.S. demand rising by 840,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 from last year, up from a previous forecast for an increase of 700,000 bpd.

At the same time, the EIA pared its production outlook for 2022, expecting U.S. oil output to rise by 640,000 bpd, down from an earlier forecast for an increase of 670,000 bpd.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Koustav Samanta in Singapore; Editing by Richard Pullin and Jacqueline Wong)

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic said on Wednesday an incorrect answer was made on his Australian entry documents, breaching the country’s strict laws on reporting recent travel, as the government said it was still considering whether to deport the player.

Djokovic was held in immigration detention in Melbourne for several days after his visa was cancelled by border force officials, who questioned his medical exemption for a requirement to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

He was released on Monday after a judge quashed that decision, saying the cancellation of the visa was “unreasonable” because the player was not given time to consult with lawyers and tennis officials when he arrived in the country.

Djokovic said his travel declaration was filled in by his support team, who made an “administrative mistake” when they ticked the “no” box in response to whether he had travelled elsewhere in the 14 days before arriving in Australia.

“This was human error and certainly not deliberate,” Djokovic said. “We are living in challenging times in a global pandemic and sometimes this mistakes can occur.”

The statement came as Australia’s Immigration Minister Alex Hawke considered whether to cancel the world no.1 tennis player’s visa ahead of the Australian Open, which starts on Jan. 17.

Giving false or misleading information in the form is an offence, carrying a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison, and a fine of up to A$6,600 ($4,730) and can lead to cancellation of the offender’s visa.

Djokovic, who is seeking to win a record 21st tennis major at the Open, said his lawyers had provided additional information to the Australian government on Wednesday to clarify the matter.

A spokesman for Hawke, who has the discretionary power to again cancel Djokovic’s visa, said the minister was still considering taking action, a process that would be extended to assess the new information.

STRICT RULES

Australia has a policy barring non-citizens or non-residents from entry unless they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 but offers a medical exemption. Djokovic’s visa was cancelled on the grounds he has not been vaccinated and his medical exemption was not satisfactory.

Monday’s court ruling did not address whether that exemption – based on Djokovic contracting COVID-19 last month – was valid.

Djokovic’s case provoked a row between Canberra and Belgrade and fuelled heated debate over mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies.

Questions arose about Djokovic’s movements before coming to Australia when social media posts appeared to show him in Belgrade less than two weeks before he headed to Spain and then on to Australia.

Accounts from two eyewitnesses and another individual, obtained by Reuters on Tuesday corroborated those social media posts.

Djokovic, who held another practice session at Melbourne Park on Wednesday, did not detail his travel in his statement on Wednesday acknowledging the mistake.

In its online explanation for the 14-day travel reporting requirement, the government said the information helps determine any necessary quarantine arrangements and allows health officials to contact any arrival if a fellow traveller tests positive for COVID-19.

INTERVIEW APOLOGY

The player also apologised in his statement for attending a L’Equipe interview and photoshoot on Dec. 18, the day after he said he learned he had tested positive for COVID-19 last month.

“While I went home after the interview to isolate for the required period, on reflection, this was an error of judgement and I accept that I should have rescheduled this commitment,” he said.

Djokovic denied media reports he also knew he had contracted the virus when he attended a tennis event in Belgrade to present awards to children a day earlier.

“I was asymptomatic and felt good, and I had not received the notification of a positive PCR result until after that event,” he said, adding that a rapid antigen test taken before the event came back negative.

Social media posts showed Djokovic posing with the children, without wearing a mask.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul, Byron Kaye and John Mair; Writing by Jane Wardell; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

GDANSK (Reuters) – Poland’s top energy group PKN Orlen denied a media report it had picked buyers for assets of Grupa Lotos it is required to sell to win EU approval for its domestic rival’s takeover.

In July 2020, the European Commission granted Poland’s biggest oil refiner and fuel retailer a conditional approval for the takeover in return for its commitment to sell some Lotos’ assets, including a 30% stake in its Gdansk refinery, to address competition concerns. The EU has later extended the deadline for the concluding sale of the assets to Jan. 14, 2022.

“We would like to inform that negotiations with partners for remedial measures in connection with the takeover of Grupa Lotos by PKN Orlen have not been finalised,” PKN’s spokesperson Joanna Zakrzewska wrote on Twitter. “Therefore, media reports on the selection of potential partners are only speculation.”

Earlier on Sunday, Polish private radio station, Radio Zet, said that PKN Orlen would announce who will buy some of the Lotos assets this week.

(Reporting by Anna Banacka; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

London, 15 December 2021:  Appital, the Equity Capital Marketplace, is taking concrete steps in preparation for their platform launch, which will bring technological innovation and automation to equity capital markets and improve liquidity discovery and price formation processes of illiquid equity positions. The Appital platform allows buyside firms to gain greater exposure to deal flow opportunities they have not been able to access before, helping portfolio managers and heads of trading build a comprehensive picture of liquidity, including highly illiquid, small and mid-cap stocks. 

After a successful BETA program, a first EMS integration with FlexTrade and the collaboration with Turquoise for execution and settlement, Appital is commencing the formal onboarding process for many of the largest global asset managers in the coming months. 

Over 30 asset managers, who collectively manage over 30tn USD, are preparing to join Appital at launch, and are in the process of taking necessary legal and technical steps to take full advantage of the platform on day one. Once onboarded and integrated, the Appital platform will allow them to begin setting their preferences to proactively gain exposure to deal flow which is relevant to them. 

“The pandemic saw asset managers focusing on their ability to ensure access to liquidity – the next stage will be focusing on how to best build on latent liquidity,” as Rebecca Healey of Redlap Consulting noted in The Trade, discussing her recent report “Liquidity in the Time of Covid”. 

In addition, as Dr Robert Barnes, Group Head of Securities Trading & CEO Turquoise Global Holdings at London Stock Exchange Group recently said: “The price you tend to see for less liquid names on most stock exchanges is not necessarily the right price for large trade sizes. Appital, however, brings the right price for the right size. Through an EMS and STP into Turquoise, customers can take advantage of Appital’s innovation and access different countries as we continue to expand, achieving significant value-added.”

Mark Badyra, CEO of Appital, commented: “This is an exciting time for the business. Moving from BETA into legal onboarding, continuing the technology development and actively working on integration with more EMS Platforms as well as executing brokers is a culmination of a tremendous amount of effort from the Appital team. We look forward to continuing to work with our industry partners to realise our vision to bring innovation to equity capital markets.”

Badyra added: “Appital’s success to date is testament to the momentum we have built to meet the industry’s clear need to access liquidity that is hard to find, often in excess of five days of Average Day Volume (ADV). The platform provides unique price formation capabilities of illiquid equity positions, allowing for execution with minimal market impact or risk of price erosion. ” 

The client onboarding process follows a successful fundraise, which accelerates the expansion of Appital’s team as they move from BETA  into the launch phase.  The firm has been building out the technical team, recently adding Head of Product Mark Wharton, developers, senior engineers and security experts.

Monday, 27 December 2021
Responding to the news from the Home Office of a permanent shift to Digital Identity Right to Work
(RTW) checks from April 2022, Tania Bowers, Global Public Policy Director at the Association of
Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) commented:

“This is welcome news for the recruitment sector and is an example of another lobbying win for APSCo.
Having fed into the review we’re pleased that the Home Office has taken the decision to move to a
permanent Digital Identity RTW solution. The ability to digitally manage these checks during the
pandemic proved successful and we’re pleased to see that the progress made during this time hasn’t
been lost.

“The new Digital Identity option has a multitude of benefits. Not only does it have the capability to reduce
potential fraud through using sophisticated technology to verify documents, but it also removes the
geographical barriers that the traditional process presented to recruiters, employers and applicants.
Removing the need for in-person verification allows businesses to recruit from broader talent pools which
is crucial during a time of skills shortages.

“APSCo will be working with its members to guide them through the changes and to ensure they are
aware of what this means for them, their clients and candidates.”