Russia Distances Itself From The US Dollar Further As It Moves To Trade Oil With India Using The UAE's Local Currency. 

Read more at: Russia distances itself from the US dollar further as it moves to trade oil with India using the UAE's local currency

The EU has become the primary importer of US oil, given the sanctions against Russian oil. This creates a different kind of dependency. 

According to the data reported by Bloomberg, Europe imported approximately 213.1 million barrels of crude from January to May of this year. For the first time since 2016, the region surpassed Asia as the largest US oil importer during the same five-month period. According to data, Asia got only 191.1 million barrels from the United States at the time. 

Read more at: Europe turns into top US oil importer: Bloomberg

Joe Biden pushes OPEC countries to increase oil supply. This is coming across as quite conflicting to his own US domestic energy policies and resistance to investing in US domestic exploration and production. 

The EU is targeting an oil deal with Azerbaijan as the euro falls below the dollar amid rising inflation.

China’s Spending on Russian Energy Jumps to $6.4 Billion in June. Total outlay is over $25 billion since the invasion of Ukraine. That’s almost double the value of the same period last year.

The US economy seems to be tethering on the brink of recession. The US economy contracted again in the second quarter amid aggressive monetary policy tightening from the Federal Reserve to combat high inflation, which could fan financial market fears that the economy was already in recession. The EU and US composite PMIs in contractions while the US services PMI is also falling. 

Meanwhile, China will prioritize stabilizing employment and prices, state media reported, after its economy narrowly missed a contraction in the second quarter. 

Over in Russia, Russia's central bank slashes interest rates to below pre-invasion levels as oil and gas exports ease severity of its recession. 

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden told Bloomberg TV on Thursday that there is more upside than downside for oil prices as “demand hasn’t fully recovered yet and supply is definitely tight.” TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne shared the same view, saying oil production could not keep up with recovering demand. 

Several factors are at play here: 

Recession and further demand tightening are looming, will supply tightness weigh over these? 

Read more at: tradingeconomics.com

Chevron has invested in Google-backed nuclear fusion start-up TAE Technologies in the latest sign of the fast-growing interest in the potential of the energy technology to deliver safe zero emissions power. 

The US oil major invested in TAE alongside Google and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation as it raised $250mn to fund the sixth generation of its fusion research reactor in California, the company said on Tuesday. 

Read more at: Chevron invests in Google-backed nuclear fusion group pursuing ‘perfect power’

Multiple regions in the world such as US, UK, Europe, Northern Africa have been inundated with heatwaves and temperatures of beyond 40 degrees centigrade. A few regions such as India have received some relief in the past weeks due to seasonal monsoon rains. 

All records for highest July temperatures have been broken. This has directly impacted people as well as agriculture in these regions causing water scarcity, drought and a dip in hydro power. The heat has also led to much higher electricity consumption, driving gas prices back higher and causing some countries to revert to coal and nuclear fuel sources as well. 

Several large global firms and their enterprise risk managers have failed to devise and put in place stress testing models against climate change and are suffering significant losses due to these climate risks realising. 

Several agencies on the ground are providing both citizens and organisations guidelines on how hot is too hot to work? 

Read more at: theguardian.com