Asia

Saudi Arabian state oil producer Saudi Aramco has held its official selling prices for liquefied petroleum gas in May, while Algerian Sonatrach cut it by up to 18%, due to a higher global supply. Saudi Aramco’s?OSPs for May were at $750 per metric ton of propane Butane is priced at $800 a ton . Propane and butane, two types of LPG, have?different boiling point. LPG is used primarily as fuel for vehicles, for heating and for other petrochemicals. Sonatrach has reduced its?May OP for propane from $700 to $150 per ton And?for Butane by $20 per ton?to $880 . The...

U.S. Treasury?Secretary Scott Bessent urged China on Monday to step?up diplomatic efforts to convince Iran to open up the Strait?of Hormuz for international shipping. He added?that this subject will?be?discussed?when Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week. Bessent stated during a Fox News Channel live interview that "China should step up and do some diplomacy to get the Iranians open the Strait." Bessent stated that China bought 90% of Iran's electricity, "so?they?are financing the largest state-sponsor of terrorism." He stated that he was encouraging China to "join us" in the international operation to open up the strait....

Kyiv reported on Monday that Russia had stepped up its attack against Ukrainian port infrastructure this year. It used?more 800 drones to carry out its attacks, which is more than ten times what it did in the same time period last year. Keep the seaports open in southern Odesa, as they are vital to Ukraine's wartime economy and hard currency revenue. Oleksii Kulba, Ukraine's Minister of Infrastructure, said that despite the attacks, Ukraine's ports have processed more than 30 millions metric tons since the beginning of the year. In recent months, almost daily Russian attacks have been reported on Ukraine's...

Baltic Exchange, world's leading provider of benchmark indices for shipping, denies allegations made by Mercuria that its data on oil tanker prices caused losses to the commodity trader. Mercuria, a Swiss company, said in a court filing dated April 30 that the losses were due to oil tanker prices which did not take into account the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Mercuria has sued the 'Baltic Exchange claiming that they have not met their statutory and contractual responsibilities in producing the TD3C Benchmark based on the voyages from the Middle -East to Asia. The London-based exchange owned by Singapore's...

Investor confidence was boosted by the opening of most major Gulf exchanges on Monday. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said that the United States would start efforts on Monday morning to help ships stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. He did not give any details of his plan. Iran's military warned U.S. troops on Monday to avoid entering the Strait of Hormuz, after President Donald Trump announced that the United States was going to start helping free ships stranded by the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran. He did not provide any details of the plan. Trump's priority is to...

The Indian billionaire Gautam adani's group announced on Friday that it would be undergoing an internal restructuring to speed up decision making. Adani Group's move comes at a time when investment activity is picking up in India, Asia's third largest economy, driven by heavy infrastructure expenditure and a revival of private capital expenditure. According to the plan, the company plans to introduce a?three-layer structure of organisation with fewer decision makers. The group stated that "the strategy is anchored on three pillars and supported by strong liquidity, and access to capital. This enables accelerated capex deployment and faster project implementation." The...

Panama President Jose Raul Mulino stated that his country has a 'positive relationship' with China despite the fact that it is caught in a dispute between China and the U.S. He also defended Panama's 'takeover' of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison's port contracts. He spoke at a regular news conference after receiving a message he described as "high level" from the Chinese government, which acknowledged that the dispute over port contracts would be heard by an international arbitration court and was not a matter between the Panamanian or Chinese governments. The message received by China's ambassador to Panama marked a "friendlier...

India's Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of Gautam Adani, a billionaire who leads the conglomerate, announced a?fourth-quarter loss? on Thursday. The depreciation in some of its newly commissioned assets was the main cause. The company reported a net loss of $23.27 million in the quarter ended March 31. This compares to a profit last year of 38.45 billion rupees. The company stated in its filing that the fourth-quarter results had been impacted by depreciation of recently commissioned assets at the copper and 'Navi Mumbai' plant. Adani Enterprises fourth-quarter EBITDA (a measure of operating profit) rose by?3% year-on-year, to 43.46 trillion...

Adani Ports & SEZ, India's largest private operator by volume, posted a 10.5% increase in profit for the March quarter on Thursday. This was boosted largely by a rise in cargo volumes. The company reported a net profit for the third quarter of?33.29billion rupees ($350.03m), up from 30.14billion rupees one year earlier. Analysts say that disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz caused shippers to reroute their cargo. This has led to an increase in container volumes, transshipments, and'stopovers' at Adani Ports. The firm's ports business, which is its largest, saw a 30.5% increase in revenue, while its logistics division grew...

The U.S. and Israel war on Iran is causing financial stress for companies in Australia and New Zealand. Higher fuel prices are stoking inflation, reducing consumer and business confidence and weighing on corporate earnings. Below are some of the companies from Australia and New Zealand who have reported an impact on their business due to the Middle East conflict. Air New Zealand, New Zealand's flag carrier, announced that it would be raising fares in response to the volatility of jet fuel prices in early March. It was one of the first airlines to do so. The airline announced on April...

Shipping data revealed on Wednesday that six ships, a small fraction of the normal traffic, have crossed the Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours. The U.S. The United States and Iran are still unable to reach a deal that would reopen this vital waterway. According to SynMax's satellite analysis and Kpler ship tracking data, the vessel traffic was mostly through Iranian waters, and included a chemical tanker called Vast Plus, which is under US sanctions. The majority of ships were dry bulk carriers. It was not possible to determine if there had been more than six vessels transiting...

AAHK (Airport Authority Hong Kong) has priced a HK$19billion ($2.4billion) three-tranche Senior Bond?offering in order to restructure debt and fund capital spending. AAHK said that the government-owned operator, Hong Kong International Airport, priced HK$10 Billion of bonds for three years at 2.90%; HK$6.5 Billion of bonds for five years at 2.97%; and HK$2.5 Billion of bonds for 10 year at 3.38%. According to a report on Tuesday, citing a 'term sheet,' AAHK is launching the bond sales as passenger traffic?has risen?and the airport has increased?use?of its three-runway system. AAHK stated in a statement released on Wednesday that the offering attracted...

A think tank near the government stated on Monday that high?global oil?prices will not boost Russian economic growth in this year, as new sanctions from the West and drone attacks by Ukraine weigh on crude output and exports. TsMAKP, an influential think tank, has lowered its forecast of gross domestic product growth. The pressures have led to lower than expected outputs for Russia's primary export commodity by 2026. Many analysts had predicted that Russia would benefit from the increase in oil prices after the U.S., Israel and Iran attacks and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The forecast for...

Two sources said that when potential financiers and providers of Venezuela's electrical industry met with government officials in Caracas, they were primarily concerned about?how to pay them for repairing the country's deteriorating grid. Sources said that the executives were hesitant as the nation tried to jumpstart the $100 billion reconstruction plan, which was pushed by Washington. Since she succeeded the deposed president?Nicolas Maduro? in January, Delcy Rod has made it a priority to ensure stable electricity. However, the cash-strapped nation has not been able to pay suppliers on time to help industries like oil and gas recover. A representative of...

The TurkStream pipeline, which is operated by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, has reduced its average daily natural gas?gas?supplies into Europe from 41 million cubic meters to 41 millions cubic metres in April compared to a year ago. Prices rose sharply after shortages arose from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz - a conduit that carried a fifth of global oil and gas. Turkey is the only route through which Russian gas can be transported to Europe. This is because Ukraine did not extend its five-year agreement with Moscow, which expired in January 2025. According to calculations based on...

The U.S. Treasury warned that any shipper who pays tolls for the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, or makes charitable donations to groups such as the Iranian Red Crescent Society is subject to punitive sanctions. About 20% of all crude oil and natural gas transported by sea passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has proposed to charge fees or tolls for vessels that pass through the Strait as part of its proposals to end war with Israel and the United States. According to the advisory from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. knows that Iran is...

The U.S. Treasury warned that any shippers who pay tolls to?Iran to pass through the Strait?of Hormuz or make charitable donations to groups such as the Iranian?Red Crescent Society are?at?risk? of sanctions. About 20% of all crude oil and LNG flows in the world pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has proposed to charge a fee or toll on vessels that pass through the Strait as part of its proposals to end the conflict with Israel and the United States. The advisory from the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury stated that U.S. The U.S. is aware...

Iraq began work on a 'oil pipeline connecting Basra and Haditha with a capacity of 2.5m barrels a day, according to the'state news agency, citing the Oil Ministry, in an effort to expand the export routes for the OPEC producer. The ministry stated that the project has received a budget of $1.5 billion, but its speed will be determined by the amount of additional funding. A spokesperson for the ministry said that the 700-kilometre pipeline (435-miles) will be used to transport crude oil via multiple routes including Syria's Baniyas and Turkey's Ceyhan, as well as Jordan's Aqaba. It will also...

According to industry sources, Russia managed to maintain crude oil loadings in its western ports at the same level as March despite 'ongoing drone attacks. Drone attacks on ports and pipelines in the Baltic Sea and Black Sea ports in late March or early April slowed down crude oil loadings, but not overall. The estimated exports and transit shipments in April of Urals, Siberian Light, and KEBCO crudes from?the port of Primorsk?, Ust-Luga?, and Novorossiysk?, including carryovers from the initial schedule for March?and top-ups?, is around 2.2 millions barrels per day. The data from the market showed that this figure...

LSEG ship tracking data and the Russian'ship register' showed on Wednesday that Russia added four liquefied gas carriers to its fleet. This could help increase the country?s?marketshare ahead of a ban by the EU on Russian gas imports. In January, the European Union gave final approval to an import ban on Russian natural gas by 2027. In response to Russia's "war on Ukraine", the bloc also imposed sanctions. The sanctions have restricted Russia's ability to access the vessels that it needs to increase its share of the global market for LNG. The Russian Register?on?Wednesday showed four LNG tanks: the Orion,...

HSBC stated in a research note published on Tuesday that the United Arab Emirates' exit from OPEC, and the wider OPEC+ coalition from?May 20, 2026 will have a limited impact?on the oil markets. However, it could weaken OPEC's ability to manage prices and supply over time. The?UAE?,?one OPEC+'s biggest producers?, announced on Tuesday that it would be leaving both OPEC+ and OPEC, dealing a major blow to the producer's group, as the U.S./Israeli war against Iran disrupts the energy flow. HSBC predicts that global oil supplies will remain stable in the short term as disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz...

Germany and Poland are in discussions to see if short-term replacement oil can be delivered to the PCK Schwedt refining plant via Gdansk port after Russia announced it would stop the supply of Kazakh oil through the Druzhba pipe. A spokesman for the German Economy Ministry said that this was the case. The spokesperson said that the talks were in progress and refused to give any details. She noted that the supply contracts are between the companies concerned, but the government was closely following the process. A spokesperson for the Polish energy ministry stated that the country has the technical...

Three people familiar with the matter said that JPMorgan, two Kuwaiti banks and HSBC are joining forces to form a $6 billion financing consortium for prospective buyers of a stake in Kuwait Oil?Corporation?s crude 'oil pipeline network. KPC is in discussions with potential investors about a stake sale of its crude oil pipelines, estimated at $7 billion. The U.S. and Israeli war against Iran has thrown the process into doubt. State energy company said it had suffered "severe material damage" to some of its operating units following drone attacks. The company did not say which units were affected. Two of...

Asia is the most vulnerable area in the Iran War due to its heavy reliance upon Middle East oil and gas. But it could be the biggest winner as a result of several long-term tendencies this conflict will likely accelerate. These include higher cybersecurity investments, the pivoting away from fossil fuels, and supply chain diversification. Energy-intensive economies in the region, led by China and Japan, South Korea and India, are heavily dependent on Middle Eastern gas and oil. Around 80% of the oil and 90% of the gas that transits through 'the Strait of Hormuz is destined for Asian market....