Europe

The Italian government approved the construction on Wednesday of the longest single-span span bridge in the world, which will connect Sicily with the mainland. This project has been delayed for years due to financial and environmental concerns. The right-wing Government of Prime Minister Giorgia Melons has allocated 13.5 billion euro ($15.63billion) over the next ten years for its construction and facilities around it. The following are some key facts about this bridge. They were compiled from data provided by the Italian Infrastructure Ministry and the construction company Webuild. Webuild is the leader of the Eurolink consortium that has won the...

The differential between Brent and Urals oil remained stable on Tuesday. Meanwhile, U.S. president Donald Trump announced that he would raise the tariffs on Indian imports in response to the country's purchase of Russian oil. Trump's threats to India regarding its purchases of Russian crude oil began on July 31 when he announced 25% tariffs for Indian goods along with an unknown penalty. Trump announced on Tuesday that he will increase the tariffs on Indian imports by "substantially" in the next 24 hour, due to New Delhi's continued purchase of Russian oil. India is the biggest importer of Urals oil....

Telecom Italia reported a 5% rise in its core earnings on Tuesday as the fast-growing Brazilian operations offset sluggish Italian growth. Piergiorgio Peluso was named CFO by the company to replace Adrian Calaza. This confirms an earlier report. Peluso was previously the CFO at TIM for seven years, until 2019. He is currently CFO of Autostrade per l'Italia. The appointment takes effect on November 6. TIM announced that Eugenio Sangata, its Chief Public Relations and Security Officer, had resigned with immediate effect. An earlier report stated that Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri was poised to name Santagata as the head of its...

Fraport, the operator of Frankfurt Airport, reported a 38.7% drop in its net profit for the first half. This was largely due to non-recurring expenses booked last year. Fraport reported a net profit of 98.6 millions euros ($113.93) compared to 160.8 million euro a year ago. Fraport, the operator of 29 airports, including Delhi and New York said that non-recurring effects for 2024 include a compensation payment to Fraport Greece for coronavirus and a compensation payment to Porto Alegre Airport for flood damages. Fraport Group revenue increased 7.3% on an annual basis, after adjusting for construction and expansion revenue at...

Three industry sources reported that the Rosneft oil refinery in Ryazan, which is operated by Rosneft, has stopped around half of its refining capacities since August 2, following an attack on a Ukrainian drone last week. Sources claim that two oil refinery units have been shut down following the drone strikes. CDU-3, with an output of 8,600 tons per day and CDU-4, with an output of 11,400 tons. Rosneft didn't respond to our request for comment immediately. The Ryazan refinery currently operates with the primary oil-refining unit CDU-6 which has a capacity of 23,200 tonnes per day, or around 48...

Two industry sources confirmed that the primary oil processing has been stopped at Russia's Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery since August 2, following an attack by a Ukrainian drone last week. This was the first drone attack on a major Russian refinery since March 2025. The announcement came after U.S. president Donald Trump set a 10- to 12-day deadline for Moscow and Kiev to reach a ceasefire or face consequences. This underscored his frustration with the ongoing 3-1/2-year conflict. Steve Witkoff, the U.S. Special Envoy to Israel, is expected to visit Russia in this week's time after his current trip to Israel....

Six people including a former Minister were arrested Friday for their involvement in the reconstruction of a train station whose roof collapsed in November, killing 16 people and triggering Serbia’s largest anti-government demonstrations in decades. Tomislav Mojii, the former minister of infrastructure, was arrested by the office of prosecutor for organized crime. The six men are suspected of inflating the invoices of a consortium consisting of two Chinese companies, China Railway International Co. and China Communications Construction Co. who were tasked with reconstructing the Novi Sad railway station and its tracks. The statement stated that the Chinese consortium was able...

Azeri BTC Crude Oil arriving at BTC Ceyhan Terminal in Turkey has returned to its normal specifications, a BP spokeswoman said on Thursday. Last week, it was discovered that Azeri BTC crude cargoes contained organic chloride. This caused the price differentials between them to reach a record low of four years and caused several days delay in loading, partly due to extra testing each cargo underwent. The BP spokesperson stated that oil loadings are still being done from Ceyhan tanks containing oil of the right specification, while BP works with Azerbaijan’s Socar in order to manage oil of the wrong...

Anel Flees, Panama's comptroller-general, announced on Wednesday that he filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the country against a contract for the operation of ports near the Panama Canal held by a firm owned by Hong Kong's CK Hutchison. Flores stated that the two lawsuits were filed to declare the unconstitutionality of the port contracts for Balboa & Cristobal and nullify them. The Supreme Court must still accept the request for the complaint of the comptroller. The lawsuits are the result of a month-long audit led by Flores who publicly complained about the contract not serving the nation's...

The government of Portugal announced on Wednesday a plan to invest 4 billion euros ($4.6billion) over the next ten years in order to modernise and expand its major ports. 75% will be carried out by private companies. Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz announced that the investment will be made in six port, including Sines (the closest deep-water European Port to the U.S. Coast), where the existing terminal is being extended and a brand new one built. He said that port activities in Portugal have "potential" to attract new investments, given the country's privileged position. The extensive Atlantic coast can be...

The British air traffic controllers announced a technical problem that caused flights to be disrupted at London's major airports and other locations in the UK on Wednesday. However, they later reported the issue was resolved. Our engineers have restored the system which was affected today afternoon. NATS posted on X that they were "in the process of resuming regular operations in the London region". Heathrow Airport reported that all departures were halted. Gatwick Airport stated that the problem affected all flights departing the UK. In a statement posted on X, it stated that "there are no departures at London Gatwick...

Aena, the Spanish airport operator, announced on Wednesday that its net profit for the first half of the year was up 10.5% compared to the same period last year as the passenger traffic in the second most visited country worldwide after France continued to increase. The company that manages Spanish airports, the largest airport system in the world in terms of passenger traffic, announced on Wednesday that it had made a profit of 893.8 millions euros ($1.03billion) during the first half of the year. This was slightly below the average analyst's forecast of 904.2million euros based on an LSEG study....

Iraq's Oil Minister, Hayan Abdel Ghani, announced on Wednesday that after a 2-year hiatus oil exports will resume through Turkey's Ceyhan Pipeline later on Thursday or Wednesday, according to Iraqi State News Agency INA. Abdel-Ghani stated that an agreement was concluded with the Kurdistan Regional Government regarding the resumed crude oil exports through Turkey's Ceyhan Pipeline. He told INA that "80,000 barrels of oil per day would be exported through SOMO, the Iraqi state-owned oil marketing company," referring to Turkey's Ceyhan Pipeline. Kirkuk-Ceyhan Pipeline has been off-line since 2023 after arbitration court ruled Turkey must pay $1.5 billion damages for...

Siemens Energy said that it expects to achieve the upper limit of its outlook for 2025, driven by the wind turbine division, and the strong demand in the United States of its power equipment, which helped it to overcome the impact of the import tariffs. The company reported better-than-expected orders and profits for the third quarter. It said that it now tends towards the upper-end of its outlook. This predicts sales growth between 13-15%, and a profit before special items margin of 4-6%. According to a LSEG survey, Siemens Energy expects its full-year sales to increase by 12.7%. The company...

India's stranded solar power capacity, which is the amount of renewable energy that has been awarded but not yet installed, has more than doubled in nine months due to delays with transmission lines and other legal and regulatory issues. South Asia aims to double its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030. However, the rapid acceleration of projects has led to a lack of firm agreements for power supply. The number of renewable projects in India that have won power generation tenders but still need to sign power purchase contracts with buyers has risen to more than 50 gigawatts,...

Azerbaijan plans to export 1.2 billion cubic meters (bcm), or 1.2 billion cubic feet, of gas per year through Turkey from the BP operated Shah Deniz field in the Azeri-Caspian Sea. A senior official with the Azeri energy company SOCAR said this on Saturday. Turkey has been a key ally of the Syrian government since the end of the civil war in December, which ended after 13 years of fighting in Syria. Ankara has now positioned itself as a major player on the international stage. Syria's reconstruction Elshad Nasirov, SOCAR vice president, spoke at a ceremony held in the southern...

Azerbaijan plans to export 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the BP operated Shah Deniz field in the Azeri-Caspian Sea. This was revealed by a senior official with the Azeri energy company SOCAR on Saturday. Elshad Nasirov, SOCAR vice president, was speaking near the Syrian border in southern Turkey as Turkey and Azerbaijan began natural gas exports into Syria. Azerbaijani, Turkish, Syrian and Qatari ministers and officials attended a ceremony to mark the launch in Kilis. Azerbaijani Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov stated that the project was a result of agreements made in April and July by Azerbaijani...

Sources said that eight OPEC+ member countries will likely approve a new oil production hike on Sunday. The group is still debating how much to increase output in September, amid fears about further disruptions of supply from Russia, and a seasonal decline in demand. In recent months, the group has increased output due to low global stock levels and increasing demand. The Sunday meeting, which is scheduled to start at 11:00 GMT, coincides with new U.S. requests that India stop buying Russian crude oil, as Washington looks for ways to pressure Moscow to reach a peace agreement with Ukraine. New...

India's stranded solar power capacity, which is the amount of renewable energy that has been awarded but not yet installed, has more than doubled in nine months due to delays with transmission lines and other legal and regulatory issues. The number of renewable projects in India that have won power generation tenders but still need to sign power purchase contracts with buyers has risen to more than 50 gigawatts, India's Sustainable Projects Developers Association said on June 27, in a note to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Another letter sent on 4 October by the SPDA showed that...

The U.S. president Donald Trump's request to India to stop Russian oil imports may threaten billions of dollars in Russian revenue, and Moscow could retaliate with the shutdown of a major U.S. oil pipeline. This could lead to another global supply crisis. India, the third-largest oil importer in the world, is now the largest buyer of Russian crude oil. It purchases up to 2,000,000 barrels of oil per day, which represents 2% of the global supply. China and Turkey are also among the top buyers. Analysts at JP Morgan stated this week that the Indian route was so vital to...

Calculations showed that the average daily supply of natural gas to Europe by Russian energy giant Gazprom increased 37% from a previous month when maintenance had reduced it, according to calculations released on Friday. After Ukraine decided not to renew a transit agreement with Moscow that expired in January, the only route for Russian gas to reach Europe is through the TurkStream pipeline and Turkey. According to calculations based on data provided by the European Gas Transmission Group Entsog, Russian gas exports through the TurkStream pipeline increased from 37.6 million cubic metres per day to 51.5 mcm/day in July. This...

BP, operator of the Baku, Tbilisi, Ceyhan (BTC), oil pipeline, announced on Wednesday that it would continue its extensive quality evaluation of Azeri BTC by taking samples at each loading terminal. Last week, organic chloride contamination was found in Azeri BTC cargoes. This caused a drop in price differentials of four years and caused several days delay in loadings at Turkey's BTC Ceyhan Terminal. Sources say that the extra testing has caused delays in part. A port agent said that after enough oil is poured into the BTC Ceyhan terminal to form a cargo, the test results are presented to...

The UAC, a farming union, said that Ukraine exported 140,000 metric tonnes of barley in July so far and will likely ship between 350,000 and 400,000 tons in the month of August. "China has contracted 500,000-555,000 tons of barley (for July-August). UAC's weekly report stated that another 350,000 to 400 tons of barley still needs to be shipped by August. The total volume of barley exported for the months of July and August was 770,000 tonnes. Barva Invest, a Ukrainian analyst, said that Chinese companies had contracted to purchase up to 700 000 tons of barley from Ukraine in 2025....

Alparslan Bayraktar, Energy Minister at the state-owned Anadolu News Agency, said that Turkey will begin supplying Syria with natural gas as of August 2. Azerbaijan will also be involved in exports through Turkey's Kilis Province. Ankara has become the main foreign ally of the new Syrian Government. It is also positioning itself as a key player in Syria’s reconstruction. In May, during a trip to Damascus, the Turkish Energy Minister Bayraktar said that Turkey would supply Syria with 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, along with 1,000 megawatts. In a statement made this month, he said that...