1. Brazil is considering fully privatizing Petrobras, the oil giant
Brazil’s new energy minister Adolfo sachsida said at his first press conference last week that he would study a plan to privatize the state-owned oil giant Petrobras.
Brazil launched the “investment partnership plan” in 2016, which includes privatizing some state-owned assets, attracting private and overseas investment, promoting marketization, making up the fiscal deficit, etc. Founded in 1953, Petrobras is a state-owned enterprise in Brazil. It is one of the largest oil and gas producers in the world. Its daily oil output is about 2.84 million barrels and the company has more than 40000 employees.
However, a number of polls show that some people in Brazil are opposed to the sale of important state-owned public assets, especially worried that the state will lose control over energy prices after privatization, and people may pay high fees for oil and gas fuel.
2. Total energy and Duke energy won the bid for US offshore wind power project
Recently, the US Ocean Energy Administration (boem) auctioned two rental areas (ocs-a 0545 and ocs-a 0546) in the Carolina Governor’s Bay Area (clba) off the coast of North Carolina Long Bay. Totalenergies and Duke energy successfully bid for a total of US $315 million (about RMB 2.143 billion).
Among them, totalenergies won the bid for ocs-a 0545 area with USD 160 million; Duke energy won the bid for ocs-a 0546 area with us $155 million. If the two areas are fully developed, they can accommodate at least 1.3gw of offshore wind power installed capacity.
3. Siemens announces withdrawal from Russia
German industrial technology giant Siemens announced its withdrawal from the Russian market last Thursday. The company has started procedures to gradually end its industrial operations and all industrial and commercial activities. Siemens said that the sanctions against Russia have caused the company to lose 600 million euros in business in the past quarter and will lead to more cost increases in the future.
4. The EU launched the first anti-dumping sunset review investigation on seamless steel pipes to China
On May 12, 2022, the European Commission announced that it would launch the first sunset review investigation on seamless pipes and tubes of iron or steel originating in China upon the application submitted by the European steel tube Association on February 10, 2022. The products involved are seamless iron pipes (except cast iron) and seamless steel pipes (except stainless steel) with a circular cross-section and an outer diameter of more than 406.4mm, involving products under EU CN (combined nomenclature) code 7304 19 90, ex 7304 29 90, 7304 39 98 and 7304 59 99 (EU Taric code 7304 29 90). The dumping investigation period of this case is from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021, and the injury investigation period is from January 1, 2018 to the end of the dumping investigation period. (Official Journal of the European Union).
5. Saudi Aramco’s net profit soared 82% in the first quarter
Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant, announced on May 15 that driven by strong oil prices, Saudi Aramco’s net profit in the first quarter increased by nearly 82% to US $39.5 billion, compared with us $21.7 billion in the same period last year. Saudi Aramco also overtook Apple last week as the world’s most valuable company. Large oil companies such as shell and BP also previously reported strong profits in the first quarter – both driven by the surge in crude oil prices to $110 a barrel after Russia’s special military action against Ukraine in late February.
In addition, Saudi Arabia also benefited from gradually increasing production together with other OPEC + member countries. Saudi Arabia’s average crude oil production from January to march was 10.2 million barrels per day, a year-on-year increase of 20%..
Post time: May-20-2022