Last October, when we pointed out that China's FX outflows had just hit a whopping $75BN - the single biggest monthly outflow since the 2015 currency devaluation - we concluded that the "unfavorable interest rate spread between China and the US will "likely imply persistent depreciation and outflow pressures in coming months", or in other words, September's biggest FX outflow in years is just the beginning, and very soon - in addition to geopolitics and central banks - the world will also be freaking out about the capital flight out of China ..read more

Just a day after announcing it would restate the past two years of financial results, beleaguered SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ:SPWR) on Wednesday said it would reduce its workforce, cut a selection of residential installation locations, and halt direct sales, Reuters reports.  With shares down nearly 60% year-to-date, SunPower says it is seeking to simplify its business structure and move away from areas that are not sustainability profitable. In a letter to employees seen by Reuters, SunPower Principal Executive Officer, Tom Werner, said some 1,000 ..read more

Higher oil prices are expected to double Russia’s oil and gas revenues in April compared to the same month last year, according to Reuters calculations based on data from industry sources and official statistics on oil and gas production and supply.   This month, Russia is expected to pocket $14 billion (1.292 trillion Russian rubles) from oil and gas, according to the estimates. That’s double compared to the $7 billion (648 billion rubles) Russia received from oil and gas in April last year. This month’s Russian ..read more

As well productivity in the U.S. shale patch has declined in the past two years, producers are looking to deploy new technology to reverse these declines, but small companies often cannot afford the high upfront costs, industry executives and analysts have told Reuters. While shale production pushed U.S. crude oil output to record highs in recent months to above 13 million barrels per day (bpd), the rate of productivity declines has steepened since 2020 as the fracking of closely located wells has interfered with geology and pressure, resulting ..read more

Crude oil prices ticked higher today after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an estimated decline of 6.4 million barrels in inventories for the week to April 19. This compared with an inventory build of 2.7 million barrels for the previous week, which pressured prices last week. It also compared with an inventory draw of 3.23 million barrels as estimated by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday, with the group also reporting a gasoline inventory decline of about half a million barrels. Analysts had expected ..read more

Disruptions to global oil product flows, still strong refining margins, and lowered U.S. refinery utilization are expected to have bolstered the quarterly earnings of American oil refiners in the first quarter of 2024, analysts told Reuters. Profits are expected to be lower than in 2022 when the Russian invasion of Ukraine upended markets and pushed up refining margins, but U.S. refiners are still set to report in the coming days strong earnings for the first quarter of the year. “It is going to be another really strong quarter,” TD ..read more

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Wednesday a new five-year offshore wind leasing schedule, which includes up to 12 potential offshore wind energy lease sales through 2028. These offshore wind auctions are planned to be held in the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific, and the waters offshore the U.S. territories, the Interior Department said in a statement. Under the new five-year leasing schedule, four offshore lease sales could be held this year, one each in 2025 and 2026, two in 2027, and four in 2028. So far, the Department ..read more

Oil companies planning to ship crude on the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada are concerned that the project may not begin full service on May 1 but they would be nevertheless obligated to pay tolls from that date.   In a letter to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), Suncor Energy and other shippers including BP and Marathon Petroleum have expressed doubts that Trans Mountain will start full service on May 1, as previously communicated, Reuters reports. Trans Mountain Corporation, the government-owned entity that completed the ..read more

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