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Sources say that Volgograd's oil refinery in Russia has halted processing following the May 29 drone attack.
Two industry sources reported on Monday that the Volgograd oil refinery, owned by Lukoil, in Russia's south, had suspended oil processing after a sabotage attack from Ukraine, which resulted in fires and damage. Peace talks to end the Ukraine war have stagnated. Last week, the local governor reported that at least two people were injured and one killed in an 'Ukrainian drone strike' on the Volgograd area. Sources claim that the crude distillation unit CDU-1 was shut down. This unit accounts for 40% capacity of the plant. CDU-6 and CDU-5 were also shut down. Lukoil has not responded to our request for comment. In 2024, the Volgograd refinery will have processed 13.5 millions metric tons of crude oil. This is 5% of the total volume of Russian refineries. The country produced 6 million tons of diesel, 1.9 million tons of gasoline, and 700,000 tonnes of fuel oil. (Reporting and Editing by Susan Fenton).
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Israel's El Al resumes San Francisco flights between Tel Aviv, Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv
El Al Israel Airlines announced on Monday that it will resume nonstop flights between Tel Aviv, Israel and San Francisco starting October 25. The airline cited a demand for a route connecting the two tech hubs. The three 15-hour weekly flights were given the number LY49 in honor of the San Francisco 49ers Football team. Shlomi Zafrani is El Al's Vice President of Commerce and Sales. The opening of this new route is intended to "respond to the significant demand from businessmen and Israelis in the region and to facilitate a more convenient and direct connection between Israel, Silicon Valley and the rest of the world." El Al operated between the two cities from late 2018 to early 2020, when it suspended the route 'due to COVID-19 pandemic. Resuming flights?to San Francisco is part of El Al's expansion. El Al, the Israeli flag carrier, announced in April that it would purchase up to 12 additional long-haul Dreamliner aircraft. The new route will increase the number of nonstop flights between Israel and U.S. cities. This includes New York City, Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, etc. (Reporting and editing by Alexander Smith; Steven Scheer)
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Choose France summit promises major investment
At its annual Choose France Business Summit on Monday, France announced 71 projects for foreign investment worth a total of EUR93 billion ($108.3billion). They will create over 15,600 jobs. The biggest announcements focused on?artificial Intelligence and data centres. President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to position France as a European Hub?for AI Infrastructure, helped by the?low-carbon electric supply. Here are some of the major 'investment' pledges: AI AND DATA CENTRES SoftBank has plans to build and operate five gigawatts of AI-dedicated capacity data centres in France. This includes an initial EUR45billion investment in Hauts-de-France for 3.1gigawatts by 2031. These projects will create approximately 8,600 construction jobs, and 900 direct operational jobs. The Canadian asset manager Brookfield has announced plans to increase AI infrastructure investments to EUR30 billion in France, up from EUR20 billion in February 2025. The investment includes an?AI facility in E-Valley, near Cambrai, and a new AI location at Escaudain. Nebius, a Dutch AI cloud company, plans to transform a former Bridgestone?site into a major European Computing Site. The company will invest more than EUR8 Billion for a targeted capacity of up to 240 Megawatts. Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX, and French public investment institution?Bpifrance announced that a second AI location will be selected in the near future. This site represents about EUR7.5 billion worth of investment as well as 700 permanent jobs when operational. Verne, a low-carbon data center specialist and Ardian, a French investment firm plan to build a digital infrastructure campus for the Paris area. The project will involve an investment of up EUR5 billion with aims of 500 MW. Phoenix Group, a digital infrastructure group in the UAE, is planning a 18-MW data center campus in Lyon and a larger plan that includes about 500 MW of data centres in France. This could represent up to EUR4 Billion in potential investment. Salesforce, a U.S.-based business software company, announced an additional EUR2 Billion investment in France including its first EU AI Innovation hub in Paris. INDUSTRY ENERGY DECARBONISATION EDP, the Portuguese utility company, announced EUR1.3 billion in new investments for France by 2030. These include onshore and off-shore wind, solar, battery storage, grid infrastructure, and other technologies. Enertrag, a German renewable energy company, announced an investment program of EUR1,1 billion by 2030 in France for battery storage and renewable energy infrastructure. Marcegaglia, an Italian steel company, announced that it would invest another EUR600 million in its project?Mistral at Fos-sur-Mer. This brings the total investment planned at this site to EUR1.2 billion. The Irish-based Smurfit?Westrock paper packaging company announced that it would invest nearly EUR600,000,000 in its French facilities over the next 3 to 5 years to modernise their operations and reduce carbon emissions. HEALTH AND PHARMA German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim has announced an investment program of EUR 500 million by 2030 in animal healthcare LOGISTICS RETAIL AND FINANCE Belgian real-estate group VGP is investing more than EUR1.5 billion in business parks and logistic facilities. Amazon, a U.S. cloud and e-commerce group, announced the opening of three new distribution centres and three new logistic sites. The company invested EUR400 million in these projects and created more than 3,000 permanent jobs. Polish parcel lockers and delivery group,?InPost (owner of Mondial Relay), plans to invest at least EUR500 million in France more by 2030 and create at least 750 new jobs. Entertainment The Saudi E-Sport Foundation is investing around EUR250m in the organisation of the Esports World Cup this summer in Paris, which according to the government should generate an indirect economic impact of around EUR600m.
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UK releases second set of documents on Mandelson's appointment to US Ambassador
The British Government published on Monday the second batch of documents related to Peter Mandelson's appointment as ambassador to Washington. This saga has raised questions about Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership and judgment. Starmer fired Mandelson last summer, but Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to give Britain's top diplomatic position to a man who had ties with the deceased U.S. sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein prompted Starmer's resignation earlier this year. Mandelson is under investigation by the police for allegedly passing government documents on to Epstein, who died in 2007. He is not accused of sexual misconduct. A first tranche of documents were released in March. They showed that Starmer had been warned about the dangers of his appointment. This was not only because of Epstein's ties to him, but also due to Mandelson's resignations as a government member and his support for closer ties with China. Starmer's standing has been weakened since the Mandelson controversy. He faced a new challenge last month after dozens Labour legislators called for him to step aside after local election defeats. Mandelson's documents, due to be published on Monday, are likely contain messages from the Labour veteran with ministers and legislators. They could also be embarrassing, if they criticise Starmer, or make comments about Donald Trump, the U.S. president. Mandelson was a government minister in Starmer's Labour Party when it last ruled over 15 years ago. The extent of his friendship with Epstein was revealed by U.S. document releases. He was then sacked from the position of U.S. Ambassador. Starmer said that he "wrongly" appointed?Mandelson. He has expressed regret, but claims all the proper procedures were followed. He also criticised the officials for not telling him that an independent security screening body had recommended against the appointment. (Reporting and editing by Kate Holton, William James, and Sarah Young)
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Data shows that Russia's gas exports through pipelines to Europe increased by 3% year-on-year in May.
Calculations showed that the average daily natural gas supply to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline by Russian energy giant Gazprom rose 3% from a year earlier to a total of '47.4 millions cubic metres in may, according to calculations released on Monday. The only remaining transit route for Russian gas into Europe is through Turkey after Ukraine decided not to extend the five-year agreement with Moscow that expired in January 2025. According to calculations based on data from the European Gas Transmission Group Entsog, total Russian gas supplies via TurkStream reached a record?1.47 billion cu ft last month. This is up from 1.43bcms in May 2025. In the first five months, the supply increased by 6.4% on an annual basis to approximately 7.76 bcm. Gazprom has not responded to a request for comment. It hasn't published its monthly statistics since?2023. According to calculations, the company's gas exports into Europe dropped by 44% in the past year, to just 18 bcm. This is the lowest since the mid-1970s, following the closure the Ukrainian route. In 2018-2019, Russian pipeline 'gas exports' to Europe peaked at about 180 billion cubic meters per year. (Reporting, writing and editing by Oksana KOBZEVA Editing by Louise Heavens.)
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Minister: Kazakhstan has restored oil production after incident at largest fields
Erlan Akkenzhenov, the Energy Minister, said that Kazakhstan's oil production has been restored to 290 000 metric tons per a day after earlier production losses in Tengiz. Kazakhstan is responsible for 2% of global crude oil production. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is the main exporter of crude oil to Russia's Novorossiysk port. According to calculations based on a barrels/tons of 7.5, the production of crude oil and condensate reached around 2.175 millions barrels per day. Two industry sources said on Friday that the oil production at Tengiz, a field owned by Chevron CVX.N, fell sharply on May 26, due to an accident. In a Friday statement, Chevron’s venture said that a part of the Tengiz field had suffered "minor disruptions" in May and that production was being restored. The company did not provide any further information. Tengizchevroil's oil production is "close to normal" after a short disruption on May 28 at one of their?facilities. A source in the industry said that oil production at Tengiz had recovered to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) on May 31, up from 310,000 on May 28. Source also said that Kazakhstan's oil and gas condensate production averaged 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in May. This is down from 2.16 millions bpd a month earlier. Tengiz, a field located in the far west of Kazakhstan near the Caspian Sea, only resumed full production in April, after it was shut down in January due to a problem with power distribution. (Reporting and editing by Louise Heavens; Nailia Bagirova)
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JetBlue identifies increased fuel costs and benefits from Spirit's shutdown
U.S. airline?JetBlue increased its fuel cost?forecast for the second quarter on Monday as?the global aviation industry struggles with increasing jet fuel prices in the wake of disruptions caused by the closure of Strait of Hormuz. Fuel costs are expected to be between $4.26 and $4.36 per gallon in the second quarter. This is a significant increase from an earlier estimate of $4.13 to $4.28. JetBlue, however, said that it expected to "recover?40% of the increased fuel costs in the?quarter," thanks to its consistent operational performance. The airline has raised its revenue growth forecast per available seat-mile to between 9% to?12% compared to the earlier range of 7% to 11%. The airline has also reported "outperformances" on routes that were previously operated by Spirit Airlines, which shut down last month. JetBlue said in a filing that, "although?it is still early in the third quarter booking curve," we are encouraged by current trends. (Reporting by Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Pooja Desai)
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UK regulator investigates Royal Mail for missing delivery targets
Ofcom, the British media and telecoms regulator, opened an investigation on Monday into Royal Mail after it failed to meet its delivery targets for fiscal 2025/26. The post and parcel group is embarking on new delivery patterns as well as investing in order to improve service. Royal Mail will invest PS500 million (approximately $673 million) over the next five-years to reduce delivery times and costs. This comes after regulator Ofcom set "minimum acceptable deadlines" and launched a price review of its business last year. Ofcom published delivery data last Friday showing that, for the year up to March, only 75.7% (of the Royal Mail First Class) mail was delivered on the next working day. This is below the target of 93%. Ofcom, who has fined Royal Mail over PS37 million in the past, cited delays in reform implementation and called current service levels as "unacceptable". The?regulator stated that while Royal Mail has made progress in the past year, it took almost a year to implement the 'delivery reforms. A spokesperson said in an email that Royal Mail would engage with Ofcom fully throughout the investigation. "Improving the?quality of our service is our top priority. We are implementing a'major program of change by launching our new delivery model, which supports our Improvement Plan."
Tasnim News Agency reports that Iran has stopped exchanging messages with the United States and may even block Hormuz.
Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported on Monday that Tehran's negotiating group is ceasing to exchange'messages' with the United States via mediators because of attacks on Lebanon. Diplomatic efforts are continuing to end 'the three-month old Iran War. According to the agency, Iran and the Resistance Front (which includes Shiite allies from Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq) have an agenda that will block the Strait of Hormuz, and activate other fronts including the Bab El Mandeb Strait in order to punish Israel and its supporters. The Bab El Mandeb strait, off the coast Yemen, is a key shipping choke point and narrow passageway which controls sea traffic to the Suez Canal.
"Violations on one front are violations of the ceasefire across all fronts." Abbas Araqchi, Iranian Foreign Minister on X Monday, said that the U.S. as well as Israel were responsible for any violations.
The U.S.-Israeli war, which began on February 28, has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people - mainly from Iran and Lebanon. The war has also caused global economic pain, as energy prices have risen since 'Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz - a vital supply route for oil, LNG and other liquefied gas.
Tasnim said that Iranian officials and negotiators have stressed the need for the Zionist regime to cease its aggressive and brutal military operations in Gaza, Lebanon and the occupied areas of Lebanon. There will be no discussions until Iran's and the resistance’s views are met on this issue. Reporting by Elwely Elwelly, Editing by Kevin Liffey
(source: Reuters)