Transportation








Asia

North America

Oil Pipeline

CANADA-CRUDE-Discount on Western Canada Select heavy crude narrows; remains historically tight

The discount between the benchmark North American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures and Western Canada Select heavy crude (WCS), continued to narrow on Thursday. This trend continues what has been historically tight prices this spring. WCS for June deliveries in Hardisty (Alberta) settled at $9.35 per barrel below WTI according to brokerage CalRock. It had settled at $9.70 below the U.S. benchmark Wednesday. In recent months, Canadian heavy crude oil has traded at a discount partly due to the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion that was opened exactly one year prior. According to RBC Capital Markets, the average differential between WCS...

Transportation

Google funds electrician training as AI power crunch increases

Google announced on Wednesday that it would fund the training of up to tens-of-thousands of new U.S. electrical workers as Big Tech continues its push into the power industry in the United States, searching for the huge amounts of electricity required for its AI expansion. Lack of power supply is the main problem facing giant technology companies that are racing to develop artificial Intelligence in energy-intensive Data Centers, which is driving up U.S. Electricity Demand after nearly 20 years stagnation. Donald Trump declared a national emergency to speed up the approval process for transmission and generation projects. Google's funding includes...

Transportation

ONEOK's first-quarter profits are marginally lower due to higher operating costs

ONEOK, the U.S. pipe-line operator, reported a marginal drop in its first-quarter profits on Tuesday. This was due to higher operating costs and divestments. In extended trading, shares were down 3.7% to $84.60. Operating costs for the first quarter of 2018 increased by 32%, to $752 millions. This was mainly due to higher employee expenses. Over the last two years the company has diversified its portfolio by acquiring assets, such as a Gulf Coast NGL pipe system from Easton Energy or Medallion Midstream or EnLink Midstream. ONEOK will begin transporting refined products, oil and other petroleum products in 2023 after...

Oil Pipeline

Data shows that Kazakhstan Q1 oil imports are up 7% year-on-year due to a CPC boost.

Calculations based on official sources and data showed that Kazakhstan increased its oil exports from January to March by 7%, to 19.51 million metric tonnes (1.63 millions barrels per day), thanks to an increase in supply via the Caspian Pipeline. The oil output and exports of Kazakhstan, a country that ranks among the top 10 oil producers, are in the spotlight. This is because the Central Asian nation has exceeded the quotas set by the OPEC+ group, which has angered several members, including Saudi Arabia. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium exports oil via the Black Sea from Kazakhstan. Drone attacks have...

Transportation

Source: US to hold Alaska LNG summit and urge Japan, South Korea, and other countries to support the project

A source familiar with this matter told Reuters on Thursday that the energy security council of President Donald Trump plans to hold a summit in Alaska early in June. It hopes Japanese and South Korean representatives will announce their commitments to the Alaska LNG Project. Trump has praised the $44 billion Alaska LNG project. This project would send gas from North Slope fields in Alaska via an 800-mile pipeline (1,300 km), for domestic use, and then ship it as LNG to customers in Asia, bypassing Panama Canal. The project has been discussed for many years but has not progressed due...

Transportation

Drewry: Global container shipping volume will fall by 1% due to Trump's trade policies

The maritime consultancy Drewry stated on Thursday that they expect the global container port volumes to drop by 1% due to U.S. Trade Policies. This would be the third decline in container shipping demand globally since London-based Drewry started recording this data in 1979. Container volumes dropped 8.4% in 2009 during the global financial crises and 0.9% when the COVID Pandemic was declared in 2020. The new Trump policy includes tariffs blanket of 10% on most goods and 145% on those from China. China and other countries have retaliated with tariffs against U.S. products. The consultancy stated in a presentation...

Transportation

Morgan Stanley Infra Partners is reportedly looking to sell $2 billion worth of Permian Pipelines, according to sources

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners has been exploring the possibility of selling its majority stake in Brazos Midstream II. The deal is expected to be valued at over $2 billion, including the debt, according to three sources familiar with the situation. Brazos transports natural gas, liquid natural gas and oil from wellheads in five Texas counties into larger pipelines located on the Delaware portion of Permian basin. The company owns infrastructure, including natural gas storage and compression capability. The people who spoke to us asked not to be named because they were private discussions. Investment bankers from Jefferies Financial Group have...

Transportation

Chevron's tankers that were chartered to transport Venezuelan crude oil are looking for other work

Sources say that some tankers Chevron chartered this month to transport crude oil from Venezuela to the U.S. are now being sold for spot contracts in other countries after the state company PDVSA cancelled loading permits and ordered them to return the cargoes due to payment uncertainty associated with sanctions. Chevron's marketing for the vessels suggests that it does not expect all of its cargoes to be loaded in one month, even if the dispute with PDVSA is resolved. Agelef Maritime Services was marketing the Tanker Sea Dragon that discharged Venezuelan Boscan heavy oil in Philadelphia. Two sources familiar with...

Transportation

South Dakota regulators deny Summit Carbon Solutions a carbon dioxide pipeline permit

The South Dakota regulators denied Summit Carbon Solutions permit application on Tuesday to run 700 miles (1126km) of their carbon dioxide pipeline in the state. This is the second time that the state has rejected the company's bid to build the largest carbon pipeline in the world to combat climate changes. This denial is just one of many setbacks for the project. Another was South Dakota's ban in March on using eminent realm to build carbon dioxide pipelines. The state denied its first permit application for 2023. Summit plans to build 2,500 miles (402 km) of pipeline in Iowa, Minnesota...

Transportation

Environmental lawyers are ready to take on Trump's deregulation of energy

Environmental groups in the United States say they're hiring lawyers and getting ready for a legal battle with the Trump administration, which is attempting to bypass federal regulations regarding oil, gas, and coal development. The preparations are a test of the Trump administration’s strategy, which has been relying on executive orders and emergency powers to cut down what they see as obstacles to an increase in fossil fuel energy. Trump has issued an executive directive directing agencies that they must sunset all existing energy regulations by the end of next year. In a separate memo, he said agencies could repeal...

Transportation

Phillips 66 takes aim at Elliott for Citgo's conflict of interest during board fight

Phillips 66 wrote in a Monday letter that activist investor Elliott Investment Management must abandon its efforts to split up the energy company Phillips 66, as it has a conflict of interest with a separate attempt to buy one of Phillips 66's competitors. This salvo is part of a bitter spat that will reach a boiling point at a shareholders meeting next month. Phillips 66 argued against Elliott's thesis of break-up in the letter by claiming that the investment firm had a conflict due to its separate attempts to purchase Citgo Petroleum. Citgo's parent is being sold through a court-supervised...

Transportation

After an island-wide blackout, power has been restored to 41.5% customers in Puerto Rico

After a blackout that affected the entire island on Wednesday, Luma Energy reported that it had restored power to approximately 41.5% customers by Thursday. Luma stated on its website that approximately 609,711 customers of its 1.5 million had service by 6:25 am local time. Luma Energy released a statement saying that its crews would continue to work throughout the day in order to restore service for 90% of their customers within 48 hours. The blackout is the latest of a string of major blackouts in the U.S. territory, since the grid was destroyed by Hurricane Maria last year, and had...

Europe

Transportation

Russian ESPO Blend oil shipping rates are at their lowest level since January, traders report

Three traders reported that the freight rates for ESPO blend crude shipped from Russia's port of Kozmino into China in April fell to their lowest level since mid-January due to increased availability of tankers. The lower rates will mean that Russian exporters spend less money on freight and get more oil for their money. The freight rates for the route are now around $2-3 million per cargo for April loadings, down from $4-5 million in February and March. This is because more non-sanctioned tanks have entered the ESPO marketplace. Calculations based on data from three trading sources revealed that the...

Transportation

Grid says solar is not responsible for the blackout in Spain, but Sanchez was pressed by Sanchez to explain it.

On Wednesday, Spain's grid operator denied that solar power was the cause of Spain's worst blackout in history. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is under increasing pressure to explain why it happened. After a blackout which halted trains and airports, and trapped Spanish in lifts, life has returned to normal. Sanchez's critics blamed low investment for a system heavily reliant on intermittent solar power and wind. Sanchez announced an investigation by the government and stated that he wanted answers from private companies who feed electricity into the grid. He said that he had not ruled out the possibility of a cyber-attack,...

Transportation

Outage traps Portuguese and Spaniards, who are unable to pay their bills and feel powerless

The massive power outage on Monday reminded the Portuguese and Spaniards of their dependence on electricity in modern life and how they can be rendered helpless in an instant. Some people were trapped in lifts during the eight-hour power outage that began around midday. Others had to descend multiple flights of stairs with their phones as light. Metros and trains came to a complete halt. People were either trapped in carriages for hours by electric doors, or forced out to walk, jump over the tracks and pick their way across. Ana Cordero, a Puerto Rican tourist, was stranded for three...

Western Europe

North Asia

Transportation

Equinor anticipates a tight European summer gas supply

The need to replenish Europe's storages that were two-thirds empty following the winter will keep the market tight, and demand an increase in the supply of liquefied gas, according to Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor. Equinor is the continent's biggest gas supplier. The European gas storage sites have ended winter heating at their lowest levels since 2022. This is due to the colder weather, lower wind speeds and increased demand for gas. Opedal stated that Europe will need 200-300 additional LNG cargoes than last year. He said that gas storages in Europe are low and that a tighter market is...

Transportation

Kremlin denies that Russia has held gas talks with Europe or US

The Kremlin announced on Thursday that Russia does not hold talks with Europe or America about Russian gas supplied via Ukraine. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, in February 2022, and the explosions at the Nord Stream subsea pipelines in the summer of 2016, Russian gas supplies have been cut off to Europe. The gas exports from Russia to Europe via Ukraine have also fallen since the beginning of this year, when the transit agreement expired and Ukraine refused a renewal due to the conflict in Ukraine. Sources with knowledge of the issue told this magazine that as...

Oil Pipeline

Sources say that oil loadings in Russia's western ports are expected to increase by 5-10% this May.

Sources in the trade and industry said that oil exports from Russia's western port are expected to increase this month due to lower crude production at Russian oil plants. However, the OPEC+ production limits may only have a small impact on Moscow’s export plans. The port of Primorsk may increase its daily loadings to an average of 2.0-2.1 million barrels next month, up from the 1.9 million barrels planned for April. Calculations showed that this is an increase of 5-10% per day. On account of low margins, refinery runs could fall by 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per a day. The...

Transportation

Government says that Czech Republic will be fully independent from Russian oil

Government officials announced on Thursday that the Czech Republic is now completely independent from Russian oil supplies, for the first ever in its history. This follows the completion of capacity improvements on the TAL pipe coming from the West. In a Thursday news conference, Czech TV broadcasted by Prime Minister Petr Filia that the first increased oil supplies have arrived at the central oil depot of the Czech Republic. The Czech government is trying to reduce its partial dependency on the Druzhba Pipeline, which has been delivering Russian supplies for more than 60 years. At the end of last year...

Transportation

Brent prices collapsed, causing Russian Urals to fall to their lowest level since 2023

Calculations based on trader's data show that the Russian Urals oil price fell to its lowest level since 2023, as Brent international benchmark prices plummeted amid the escalating tensions in the U.S.-China following the tariff policy announced last weekend. Weaker Urals will have a negative impact on Russia's oil revenue - the mainstay of Moscow's budget. Oil and gas revenue is down at a time when Russia and the United States are negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine. Brent futures fell $2.43 or 3.7% to $63.15 per barrel at 1009 GMT. They continue to drop from last week, and are now...

Transport Infrastructure

Kazakh oil exports cut by Russian order amid OPEC+ dispute

Russia has ordered Kazakhstan’s main oil terminal to shut down two of its three moorings. The terminal handles crude pumped from the U.S. by majors Chevron, Exxon Mobil and others. This comes amid a standoff with OPEC+ and Kazakhstan over excessive production. The operator of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which exports about 1% of the global oil supply through the Russian Black Sea Terminal, announced late on Monday that two moorings had been halted after a quick inspection by Russia's transportation watchdog. Trading sources said that if the stoppage lasts more than one week, it could more than half CPC...

Transportation

Ukraine State Railway says that online services have been partially restored following cyberattack

The company reported on Thursday that the largest Ukrainian railway, Ukrzaliznytsia (state-owned), has partially restored its online services following a massive cyber attack which affected passenger and freight transportation systems. The first outage reported was on Sunday, when the rail company informed passengers of a problem with its IT system. They were told to purchase tickets at the station or on trains. Later, the company said that its online systems were subjected a targeted large-scale cyberattack. Ukrzaliznytsia announced on Telegram that the online sales system has been restored as a backup for the purchase of train tickets or their refund....

Transportation

Russia claims that the drone attack by Ukraine on an oil depot violates the proposed ceasefire

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Ukraine has already violated the proposed ceasefire in energy sites during the three-year war by attacking an oil depot. According to Russia's TASS News Agency, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on state television Channel One, that it was up the United States to confront Ukraine for its actions, as they had proposed the ceasefire. The Kremlin announced this week that Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to a 30-day truce on energy targets during a phone call with Donald Trump, his U.S. counterpart. The agreement fell short of the wider agreement sought by the...

Transportation

Russian Finance Ministry plans to revitalise mass privatisation

Anton Siluanov, Minister of Finance in Russia, said that the country intends to revive major privatisation plans in 2025. It also expects to raise over $1.2 billion through selling assets confiscated by courts. Moscow, shunned since the start of the conflict in Ukraine by Western capital, has sought ways to encourage more private investment at home, improve economic efficiency, and ultimately boost budget revenues, as Russia is spending heavily on the war. Siluanov told Rosimushchestvo (Russia's federal agency for property management) that "we had big privatisation proposals". "In our opinion, this is the right time to bring the issue back...

Transportation

Fico, Slovakian Fico: Gas transit talks with Ukraine include Azerbaijan gas

Robert Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, said that the European Commission was in discussions about restarting transit through Ukraine and the possibility of shipping Azerbaijani natural gas. Fico, who had threatened to block any final statement if it didn't include the issue of Ukraine stopping gas transit, got the mention of the issue in the Thursday conclusions of the European Union summit. The Slovakian government stopped receiving Russian gas via Ukraine by the end of 2012 after Kyiv refused to renew a contract with Moscow in an attempt to deny Russia revenue for its invasion. Fico and Slovakia were...

Transportation

Data shows that Russia is shipping diesel to Syria via tanker in violation of U.S. sanctions

LSEG data revealed that Russia sent a diesel cargo on a tanker to Syria under U.S. sanction, marking the first direct supply of this kind to the Middle Eastern nation in over a decade. It is not clear where the cargo will end up. The final destination of the cargo is unclear. The control of Russia over these bases is in danger after the abrupt fall of Bashar Al-Assad last December. Moscow said that it wanted to maintain its control over the bases. According to LSEG, on February 8, the Barbados flagged vessel Prosperity (formerly known as the Gabon flagged...

Transportation

Data shows that Gazprom's exports of gas via TurkStream from Europe reached a record high in February.

Calculations showed that the Russian energy giant Gazprom's natural gas exports via the undersea TurkStream pipe to Europe reached a new record of over 55 million cubic meters (mcms) per day in this month. The 1,100 kilometres (684 miles), long trunk lying on the Black Sea bed remains Russia's only pipeline gas exporting routes to Europe. Gas transit via Ukraine has been closed on January 1, following the expiration of an agreement to transport Russian natural gas via its neighbour. The twin TurkStream pipeline has a capacity of 15,75 billion cubic meters (bcms) per annum. Entsog is a European gas...