September 2018

REUTERS - The most-active Brent crude futures contract, for December,LCOZ8 was up 15 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $81.53 per barrel at 0548 GMT. U.S West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 were up 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $72.32 per barrel. It is set to gain rose 3.6 percent this month, the biggest increase since June.

PLATTS - Limited supply-side flexibility in the gas market, a shortfall in Belgian nuclear and Nordic hydro in the power sector and a bullish wider energy complex have pushed gas, power and carbon prices to record highs, improving coal-fired generation spreads in the process.

PLATTS - LNG produced from Russia's Yamal LNG project look set to stay in Europe in the short term on the back of high European natural gas hub pricing allied to firmer shipping rates due to tight Atlantic tonnage,

PLATTS - A 10% tariff on US liquefied natural gas is not steep enough to make shipping cargoes to China unprofitable, but it adds an obstacle for the second generation of American terminals, industry observers said.

TOGY - Qatar is seeking to expand its LNG capacity via the addition of four trains, targeting 110 million tonnes per year (tpy) by 2023.

ET - In a major breakthrough, Pakistan and Russia are set to sign a $10-billion offshore gas pipeline deal on September 27 in Moscow, a project planned by the latter to capture the energy market of Pakistan.

ET - India and Russia are expected to conclude an ‘action plan’ for expanding civil nuclear energy partnership during their annual summit here on October 5.

U.S. BEA - Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018, according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 2.2 percent.

FRB - In view of realized and expected labor market conditions and inflation, the Committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to 2 to 2-1/4 percent.

PLATTS - Norway's state-owned power company Statkraft is planning annual investments of around NOK10 billion ($1.2 billion, Eur1 billion) in renewable energy in the period 2019-2025, it said.