EU sugar production forecast to increase 6% by 2024/25
The European Commission forecast Tuesday that sugar production in Europe will increase to 16.6 million tons in 2024/25, from 15.6 millions in 2023/24. After farmers planted more beet sugar this year, it was expected that the production of sugar would increase in 2024/25. In the bloc, beet harvesting is underway. Early estimates by the EU executive indicate that Germany will be the leading producer in 2020/21, with 4,58 million tons. This is an increase of 6.5% over last season. Meanwhile, production in France would grow 2.8% to reach 4,49 million tons. The Commission predicted that EU sugar exports in 2024/25 would increase to 4.3 million tonnes, from 4.0 millions last season.
Shipping Rivals CMA CGM, Maersk to Collaborate on Green Fuels
Container shipping giants CMA CGM and Maersk said on Tuesday they will cooperate in efforts to reduce emissions in the sector, including by supporting the use of methanol and aiding research into potential fuels like ammonia. The shipping industry is grappling with which fuels and vessel technology to adopt on a large scale to meet an objective of net zero emissions by around the middle of the century. Danish group Maersk has focused on so-called green methanol and last week announced the creation a new company to produce fuel. French-based CMA CGM has turned to gas-powered vessels while also ordering ships that can use methanol.
TechnipFMC Shelves Spin-off Due to Market Turmoil
Franco-American oil services firm TechnipFMC Plc is putting on hold plans to split itself into two due to turbulence in financial markets linked to the coronavirus outbreak, it said on Sunday.The group, created three years ago via the merger of Technip and FMC, had been planning to separate its engineering and construction activities from its upstream oil services business in the first half of this year."Market conditions have changed materially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sharp decline in commodity prices, and the heightened volatility in global equity markets," TechnipFMC said in a statement."The impacts of these events have created a market environment that is not cur
Total CFO to Retire this Year
Total Chief Financial Officer Patrick de La Chevardiere is to retire by the end of this year, a spokesperson for the French oil and gas major said on Friday.De la Chevardiere has been Total CFO for the last 11 years and has been with the firm for 37 years, his LinkedIn profile showed.Total's spokesperson declined to comment on a report in French business magazine Challenges that he would be succeeded by Jean-Pierre Sbraire, currently deputy CFO at the group.(Reporting by Bate Felix, writing by Gus Trompiz, editing by Geert De Clercq)
Total to supply LNG for CMA CGM's Future Boxships
Total to supply 300,000 T of LNG a year for 10 years. Total will supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to CMA CGM to fuel the container shipping group's future very large vessels, the French companies said on Monday. CMA CGM had said last month it would use LNG to power the nine extra-large vessels it has on order, a first such move in a shipping industry grappling with how to comply with tougher rules on emissions. Under the 10-year agreement, oil and gas major Total will supply around 300,000 tonnes of LNG per year to CMA CGM, starting in 2020, the companies said in a statement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
France to Restrict Use of Palm Oil in Biofuels
France will take steps to restrict the use of palm oil in producing biofuels in order to reduce deforestation in the countries of origin, French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot said on Thursday. France has opposed other uses of palm oil in the past. Several bills have been presented to parliament since 2012 proposing a special tax on its use in food, citing environmental damage caused by plantations. Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's two largest palm oil producers, opposed such a tax, saying it was discriminatory and broke international trade rules.
Top Trading Houses Weigh in at Commodities Conference
Top executives from the world's largest commodity trading houses discuss trends in trading at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, this week. "Trade policies coupled with foreign aid and sound development policy is critical. "We all have to make the case for free trade," he said, arguing that "we have to help political leaders speak to their base". MacLennan has yet to be invited to meet U.S. President Donald Trump but would engage in debate with the U.S. administration over trade and immigration. "I don't want to sit in the bunker for 4 years," he said.
Elengy Says Received Delivery of LNG Cargo at Fos
French terminal operator Elengy said on Thursday that it had received delivery of a cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at its Fos terminal on Wednesday, and expected to receive six more deliveries in February. Elengy said it was the third cargo it had received in the month of January. The delivery could ease supply pressure in southern France where prices hit record highs last week and the spread with prices in the north widened further due to tight supply following a force majeure in Algeria. French southern gas hub contract was at 40.200 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) on Thursday, down 0.62 percent, sharply lower from its Friday high of 45 euros/MWh.
CGT Union Calls for French Port Strike
France's CGT union is calling for a nationwide port strike on June 23 and June 28 as part of ongoing protests against the government's labour reform bill, the union said in a statement on Wednesday. Port workers have participated in rolling nationwide strikes in recent weeks, notably disrupting activity at the oil terminal in Le Havre, northern France, which handles about 40 percent of French crude imports. Tuesday saw a latest day of nationwide demonstrations against the labour reform, including protests in Paris marked by violent clashes between police and youths. (Reporting by Valerie Parent, writing by Gus Trompiz)
French LNG Terminal Workers Plan to Strike
Workers at Elengy's three liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals in France have voted to stage two 24-hour strikes on Thursday and next Tuesday as part of nationwide protests against a labour reform bill, a CGT union official said on Wednesday. The strikes will halt unloading of LNG tankers and reduce production of gas for the grid to minimum levels, the official told Reuters. A previous stoppage last month had already disrupted activity at the terminals before unloading operations resumed last Friday, the official said. (Reporting by Valerie Parent, writing by Gus Trompiz, editing by Sybille de La Hamaide)
CGT Union calls for Labor Action at French Refinery
France's CGT union called on Friday for workers to halt production at the country's oil refineries to add pressure on the government to drop a controversial labour reform. "The goal is not to create (fuel) shortages but to obtain the withdrawal of the labour bill," Emmanuel Lepine, an official at the CGT's oil industry section, told France Info Radio. Oil group Total said on Thursday that its five French refineries were already running at "minimum output" because of ongoing protests over the labour reform that have seen truck drivers blockage refineries. Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Andrew Callus
Union Calls Strike as Total Announces Refinery Closure
France's CGT union on Monday called on workers at all oil refineries, depots and port loading terminals to strike on July 2 to protest against Total's plans to end refining at its La Mede plant on the south coast. In a statement, the CGT also called for Total's service stations to be blocked every Thursday this summer until the oil company withdraws its proposals for La Mede. The move is an attempt to extend protests by workers at La Mede that disrupted production earlier this month. Total intends to halt crude oil processing at its 153,000 barrels-per-day La Mede site near Marseille by the end of 2016 as demand for petroleum products declines in Europe.
Euronext Looks at Sugar, Biofuels, Metals in Commodities Push
Euronext, the equity, bond and derivatives exchange, is looking at sugar, biofuels and metals as potential markets to develop as it tries to expand its presence in commodity derivatives, it said on Tuesday. After losing most of its commodities team when it was spun off from Intercontinental Exchange last year, it has since recruited a specialist in vegetable oils and biodiesel and another in metals, Nicholas Kennedy, its head of business development for commodities, said. "We are looking at lots of areas, like metals and energy," he told a press presentation.
French Biodiesel Limit Could Split EU Fuels Market
France's increased limit on food-based biofuels in transport fuel could raise logistic and supply costs as it threatens to split the European single market for fuels, lobby groups for the car and oil industries said on Monday. The French energy ministry issued a decree on Dec. 31 that raised the maximum level of biofuels in diesel sold at services stations in France to 8 percent by volume, higher than the EU-agreed limit of 7 percent. FuelsEurope, representing the EU oil refining and marketing lobby, and the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) said in a joint statement that the decree may lead to a fragmentation of the single market for road fuels.
Total to Shut Lubricant Production Unit at Normandy Refinery
Total plans to shut a lubricant making unit at its Gonfreville refinery in northern France to focus on higher-quality automotive base oils, union sources said on Wednesday. The French oil company will hold a works council meeting on Friday at the Normandy site, where it has invested more than 1 billion euros ($1.25 billion) in the last three years, to inform unions of its plans. "A plan to modernise speciality products in Normandy will be presented on Nov. 21 to union representatives," a spokesman for Total said. Under French law, the group cannot divulge more detail before it has officially informed unions.
Total Sheds Some Norway Oil Stakes
Total has agreed to sell stakes in several oil fields in Norway to PGNiG Upstream International for $317 million, the French company said on Tuesday. Total is to sell 8 percent of its holding in the Gina Krog field, leaving it with a 30 percent stake alongside Statoil , which has 58.7 percent, and Det Norske, which has 3.3 percent. Gina Krog is being developed with a view to starting production in early 2017, with an output target of 60,000 barrels of oil per day and 9 million cubic meters per day of gas, Total said. Total will also sell its stakes of 24.2 percent each in the Vilje and Vale fields as well as a 6 percent interest in the Morvin field, it said.
Bunge Sees Sharp Drop in Black Sea Vegoils Exports
Vegetable oil exports out of the Black Sea should fall significantly this year mainly due to a weather-hit sunflower seed crop, but they will remain the second largest on record, international trading house Bunge said on Tuesday. In a presentation at the Oilseeds and Oils Conference in Barcelona, Oleg Sukhanov, market research manager for Bunge CIS, forecast that total oil exports from sunflower, soybean and rapeseed would reach 6.2 million tonnes in 2014/15, down from 6.9 million in 2013/14. Of this, Ukraine would export 4.2 million tonnes, down from 4.4 million last season, and Russia 2.0 million tonnes, down from 2.5 million in 2013/14, he said.
Areva to Cut Investments to Avoid Ratings Downgrade
French state-owned nuclear power group Areva will likely decide this week to scale back investments in order to avoid having its credit rating downgraded to junk status, weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche said. The paper, citing unnamed sources, said Areva's board is expected to decide on investment and spending cuts on Tuesday, the day before credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) is due to decide on its long-term credit rating, which is just one notch above non-investment grade territory. An Areva spokesman declined to comment on the report and no one at S&P was immediately available. S&P put Areva on "creditwatch negative" on Sept.
Eramet Picks Eiffage as Preferred Bidder for Power Plant
Mining group Eramet said on Thursday it had selected Eiffage as preferred bidder to develop a coal-fired power plant in New Caledonia that Eramet hopes will cut its nickel production costs. The power plant, which will supply Eramet's nickel processing site in New Caledonia, is due to come into service by the end of 2018 and expected to cost around 570 million euros. Eramet will make a final investment decision regarding the project in the second quarter of 2015, the company said in a statement. Chairman and Chief Executive Patrick Buffet said…
Total Cuts Staff in Iraqi Kurdistan
French oil major Total said on Thursday it had reduced its personnel working in the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, although work on the two oil blocks it operates continued as scheduled. A dramatic push by the Islamic State through northern Iraq to the border with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region alarmed Baghdad and drew the first U.S. air strikes on Iraq since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011. "We are continuously monitoring the security situation in Kurdistan and we have adjusted the staff numbers," a spokeswoman for Total told Reuters. "Work on our operated assets continues as scheduled," she said.
