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☆ EU watchdog proposes emergency brake on energy markets
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Fabian BimmerLONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - A temporary brake on gas and electricity derivatives when prices spike could improve the overall functioning of the energy market, the European Union's securities watchdog proposed on Thursday. "It would, therefore, appear useful to consider implementing, on a temporary basis and for energy derivative markets only, a new type of trading halt mechanism," ESMA said in a statement. Such a mechanism would need to be implemented as part of emergency measures tackling the current energy crisis, it added. Energy firms sell their output using derivatives markets, requiring them to post "margin" in the form of cash, in practice, to cover positions at clearing houses in case they turn sour. ESMA said such conditions include a time limit on their use, such as for the winter period when stresses in energy markets are expected to continue.

☆ Russian rouble, stocks off lows after mobilisation triggers slump
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Alexander Marrow | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Woman holds Russian Roubles in front of U.S. Dollar banknotes in this illustration taken May 30, 2022. The benchmark rouble-based MOEX index (.IMOEX) hit its lowest point since Feb. 24, the day Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, before paring some losses. The MOEX index was down 2.4% at 2,162.4 points, after earlier hitting a low of 2,002.73 points. The dollar-denominated RTS index (.IRTS) was down 2.6% to 1,124.5 points, after earlier reaching its lowest point since April 27. For Russian equities guide seeFor Russian treasury bonds seeRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Alexander Marrow Editing by Mark Heinrich and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Genreal view of electricity pylons and power lines leading from the Uniper coal power plant in Hanau, Germany, early morning November 23, 2016. Alongside surging European gas prices, crude oil jumped more than 2% on Wednesday after Putin announced the partial military mobilisation, escalating the war in Ukraine and raising concerns of even tighter global energy supplies. read moreAfter buying Fortum's stake, the German state will hold about 99% of Uniper, the economy ministry said. Eastbound gas flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Poland from Germany were halted on Wednesday, while Russian supply via Ukraine held stable. read moreMoscow has said it would cut all oil and gas flows to the West if such cap was implemented.

☆ Germany nationalizes energy giant Uniper as Russia squeezes gas supplies
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Uniper has received billions in financial aid from the German government as a result of surging gas and electric prices following Russia's war in Ukraine. The German government on Wednesday agreed to the nationalization of utility Uniper as it strives to keep the industry afloat in the wake of a worldwide energy crisis. The German state is set to own around 98.5% of Uniper. Uniper is Germany's largest importer of gas, and has been squeezed by vastly reduced gas flows from Russia, which have sent prices soaring. Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom earlier this month indefinitely halted gas flows to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a move Uniper CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach told CNBC would exacerbate the company's struggles.

☆ China spent a record-breaking $8.3 billion on Russian energy in just 1 month as Europe shuns the supplies
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

China spent a record $8.3 billion on Russian energy imports in August, customs data showed. Its buyers are snapping up cheap Russian oil, gas, and coal as European imports fall away. China has spent $44 billion on Russian fuel since war broke out in Ukraine in February. Chinese buyers have now purchased a record-breaking $44 billion of Russian energy in the six months since President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine in February. The US has vowed to phase out Russian oil imports and is urging countries to back its proposal for a price cap on Russian oil.

☆ Russia's early resilience to sanctions is fading - its economy is on the back foot and Moscow could soon lose its place among the world's energy superpowers.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Today, though, I'm homing in on another front in the global markets story — specifically, Russia. Official customs data showed China spent a record-breaking $8.3 billion importing Russian oil products, gas, and coal in August. "What happens is that [isolationism] reduces the number of products that [Russia] can buy," Jay Zagorsky, a markets professor at Boston University, told Insider. They told Insider the exact books that got them started on the path to building wealth — see their list of four reads here. That's according to Bank of America analysts, who wrote Monday that global markets will remain strained heading into next year thanks to a variety of factors.

☆ European gas buyers show brief interest in shuttered Nord Stream gas
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Pipes at the landfall facilities of the 'Nord Stream 1' gas pipeline are pictured in Lubmin, Germany, March 8, 2022. Early on Monday, requests for gas - known as nominations - had emerged to ship gas via the German pipelines which connect Nord Stream 1 to end users. Nominations were visible on the websites of the German pipelines connecting Nord Stream 1 to end users, while the website of the Nord Stream 1 operator showed no nomination requests as of early Monday. Nord Stream 1 is by far the biggest Russian gas pipeline to Europe, carrying up to 59.2 billion cubic metres of gas per year. Buyers for the NEL gas pipeline nominated 14,291,845 kwh/h of gas during the same time period, based on data from NEL.

☆ Russia's Gazprom to replace sterling-denominated bond
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe logo of Gazprom is displayed on a screen during the Saint Petersburg international gas forum in Saint Petersburg, Russia September 15, 2022. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov/File PhotoMOSCOW, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Gazprom said on Monday its subsidiary Gazprom Capital will issue new rouble-denominated bonds to replace a sterling-denominated issuance worth 850 million pounds ($970.02 million) due in 2024. The bond last traded at 51 pence per pound with a yield above 55%, unchanged on the day, with markets closed in London on Monday. Dollar-denominated Gazprom bonds maturing between 2026 and 2031 were down between 1 cent and 4 cents on the day, trading at 51 cents or lower. ($1 = 0.8763 pound)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Reuters; Editing by Jan Harvey and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Putin says Russia's not responsible for the EU's energy crisis — it just needs to 'push the button' on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to get more natural gas
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Europe is dependent on Russia for natural gas, but Gazprom has turned off the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Russian President Putin said the EU just has to turn on Nord Stream 2 for more natural gas. The Nord Stream 2 runs parallel to Nord Stream 1, a key gas pipeline linking Russia and Europe. The Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline runs in parallel to Nord Stream 1, a key pipeline that delivers fuel from Russia to Europe. The $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline was completed in September, and stands to double Russia's gas flows to Europe.

☆ Wall Street's biggest investors can't shake a nightmare about the US economy. And that fear is much worse than a recession.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Aaron Weinman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Talk of a recession, rough inflation data, and the persistent increase in costs of certain staple goods has got Wall Street's biggest investors living in fear of an economic nightmare. Wall Street has been hit by a brutal market sell-off this year. Wall Street investors fear an economic nightmare. BMO Capital Markets is cutting jobs amid the broader downturn in dealmaking, according to Bloomberg. Private-equity investment firm Corsair has made an investment in Miracle Mile Advisors, a wealth advisory firm based in Los Angeles.

☆ Recession indicators are flashing and Wall Street's fear gauge suggests stocks haven't hit bottom. Here's what you want to know.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Spencer Platt/Getty Images1. Maybe that third one isn't quite so guaranteed — but history tells us the bond market's recession warning is a pretty reliable signal of a downturn in the near to medium-term. The two-year yield on Thursday jumped eight basis points, to 3.86%, 39 basis points above the 30-year Treasury yield of about 3.47%. The stock market's fear gauge is off, too, according to DataTrek. How confident are you in the current market?

☆ Russia finances hit by cheaper oil and costs of Ukraine war
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN Business —There are new signs of strain in the Russian economy as energy prices fall and nearly seven months of war in Ukraine prove increasingly costly. Russia’s budget surplus all but disappeared over the summer, according to data published by the Russian finance ministry this week. Oil is traditionally a bigger component of the Russian budget than natural gas, and Brent crude prices — the European benchmark — have fallen about 25% since their peak in early June. That’s a big hit, even before an EU embargo on Russian seaborne oil imports, and a planned G7 price cap come into force in December. And while natural gas prices in Europe remain extraordinarily high, Russia’s gas deliveries to the European Union and United Kingdom have dropped by 49% since the beginning of the year, Gazprom said last week.

☆ 3 ways China and Russia are forging much closer economic ties
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Laura He | Cnn Business | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Beijing has carefully avoided violating Western sanctions or providing direct military support to Moscow. For the first eight months of this year, total goods trade between China and Russia surged 31% to $117.2 billion. "Russia needs China more than China needs Russia," said Keith Krach, former Under Secretary of State for Economic growth, Energy and the Environment in the United States. For China, Russia now accounts for 2.8% of its total trade volume, slightly higher than the 2.5% share at the end of last year. "Russia's war in Ukraine is not in China's interest, but given Western hostility, China will not oppose Russia," she added.

☆ Explainer: Does China need more Russian gas via the Power-of-Siberia 2 pipeline?
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Negotiations will be complex, however, not least because China is not expected to need additional gas supply until after 2030, industry experts said. The proposed pipeline would bring gas from the huge Yamal peninsula reserves in west Siberia - the main source of gas supply to Europe - to China, the world's top energy consumer and growing gas consumer. The idea gained impetus when the first pipes of the currently operational Power of Siberia pipeline were laid in Russia's eastern Yakutia region in 2014. DOES CHINA NEED MORE RUSSIAN GAS? Russia's Gazprom already supplies gas to China through the first Power of Siberia pipeline under a 30-year, $400 billion deal, which was launched at the end of 2019.

☆ Cheaper oil and Ukraine war are blowing a hole in Russia's finances
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

London (CNN Business) There are new signs of strain in the Russian economy as energy prices fall and nearly seven months of war in Ukraine prove increasingly costly. Russia's budget surplus all but disappeared over the summer, according to data published by the Russian finance ministry this week. Oil is traditionally a bigger component of the Russian budget than natural gas, and Brent crude prices — the European benchmark — have fallen about 25% since their peak in early June. That's a big hit, even before an EU embargo on Russian seaborne oil imports, and a planned G7 price cap come into force in December. And while natural gas prices in Europe remain extraordinarily high, Russia's gas deliveries to the European Union and United Kingdom have dropped by 49% since the beginning of the year, Gazprom said last week.

☆ Europe can shrug off Putin’s Chinese gas Plan B
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-14 | by ( Pierre Briancon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Selling more gas to China is one of Vladimir Putin’s oldest pet projects. A pivot of Russia’s gas trade towards China may well happen over time. But for the next few years, Moscow won’t have the pipelines, the ships, or even the gas to make Putin’s dream come true. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterChina is also taking some of Russia’s liquefied natural gas, from Russia’s eastern fields. Right now, European member states seem to be cooling on enforcing a cap on Russian gas prices.

☆ Paris plans to turn off Eiffel Tower's lights early to save electricity, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-11 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Paris plans to turn off the Eiffel Tower's lights earlier each night to save electricity. The tower's lights have given the "Iron Lady" her golden glow since 1958. In Germany this summer, cities limited heating and turned off lights to save energy. The Eiffel Tower went fully dark on Thursday after Queen Elizabeth II's death was announced. The last time the tower's lights were turned off was following terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015.

It would take effect alongside the European Union’s next batch of sanctions, which include a ban on seaborne imports of Russian oil starting in early December. Russia had already threatened to retaliate by banning oil exports to countries that implement a price cap. The Biden administration has been pushing for governments to introduce a price cap for months. The price at which Russian oil will be capped still needs to be hashed out. But the US Treasury official noted they would be more expensive, raising incentives for buyers to opt in to the price cap system.

☆ Kremlin set to receive $10 billion from state-run gas company Gazprom after it saw record profits this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-01 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russian state-run giant Gazprom is set to give $10 billion in dividends to the Kremlin. The Kremlin owns half of Gazprom, which saw a record net profit for the first half of 2022. Sign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox. Gazprom on Tuesday reported net earnings of $41.75 billion, or 2.5 trillion rubles, from the start of 2022, up from 968 billion rubles in the first half of 2021, Insider's Brian Evans reported. Russian natural gas accounted for around 40% of Europe's gas power needs before the war in Ukraine.

☆ Sales of heated blankets and portable heaters are soaring in Europe despite a record heatwave, as people try to avoid sky-high winter fuel bills
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-25 | by ( Kate Duffy | Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Europeans are rushing to buy portable heaters and heated blankets ahead of energy bill hikes this winter. Portable electric heaters sales from two Swiss retailers are up 300% this year, per Tagesanzeige. Sales of portable electric heaters from Swiss retailers Microspot and Interdiscount are up 300% this year compared with 2021, a spokesperson told Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeige. The companies sold the most of the heaters in July, the spokesperson told Tagesanzeige. The spokesperson told Insider that: "The following is speculation, but in Switzerland we are currently expecting gas shortages in winter.

☆ Inflation in Germany could hit a 70-year high of 10% amid Russia's natural-gas squeeze, German central bank chief says
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-22 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Germany's inflation rate could hit 10% this fall, the country's chief central banker told Rheinische Post. The country is dealing with an energy crisis as Russian natural-gas supplies slow. "The issue of inflation will not go away in 2023," Nagel told Rheinische Post, according to an official transcript from the German central bank. The German central bank had in June forecast 2023 inflation to reach 4.5%, but Nagel told Rheinische Post that price gains are likely to average over 6% instead. "If further delivery problems are added, for example due to prolonged low water levels, the economic prospects for the second half of the year would deteriorate further," Nagel told the German media outlet.

☆ Russian state-energy giant Gazprom says European natural-gas prices could climb by another 60% this winter
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-17 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia's Gazprom said European natural-gas prices could gain another 60% this winter. European gas prices have been breaking record highs recently on the supply crunch. "European spot gas prices have broken through $2,500 (per 1,000 cubic metres). According to conservative estimates, if this trend continues, prices will exceed $4,000 per 1,000 cubic metres this winter," Gazprom said in a statement on Telegram on August 16. European benchmark Dutch wholesale natural-gas prices hit a record high of nearly 335 euros, or $341, per megawatt hour in the spring this year, according to Reuters.

☆ Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding invested over $500 million in Russian energy companies around the time Russia invaded Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-15 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Kingdom Holding invested in Russia's Gazprom, Rosneft, and Lukoil from February to March this year. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund owns 17% of Kingdom Holding. Kingdom Holding, one of Saudi Arabia's highest profile companies, is mostly owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Kingdom Holding posted details of the transactions into Russian energy companies Gazprom, Rosneft, and Lukoil on Twitter on Sunday. The tweets show the company invested 1.37 billion Saudi riyals, or $365 million, in Gazprom and 196 million riyals in Rosneft in February 2022.

☆ The Nord Stream 1 pipeline is missing a turbine that's keeping natural-gas flows out of Russia slow, and Russia and Germany are caught in a blame game over it
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-04 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline sends gas from Russia to Germany. Gazprom has cut natural-gas flows via the Nord Stream 1 to Germany twice in the past two months. In June, Gazprom cut flows to about 40% of the pipeline's capacity, citing a turbine's hold-up in Canada as a result of war-related sanctions. In July, Gazprom again cut natural-gas flow to Germany, this time to just 20% of capacity, citing a second turbine that needed maintenance. On July 10, Canada said it would waive sanctions and return the first repaired turbine to Russia to ensure continued gas flows in Europe.

☆ Russian state-energy giant Gazprom saw its natural-gas production in July slump to its lowest level since 2008
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-02 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyRussian state-energy giant Gazprom saw its daily natural-gas production slump to its lowest level since 2008, according to a Bloomberg calculation published on Monday. Europe depends on Russia for 40% of its natural-gas needs, such as cooking in homes and firing up power stations. As Russia is a major natural-gas supplier to Europe, the natural-gas crunch has sent prices soaring this year, in turn supporting the Kremlin's coffers. European countries including Germany and Italy are also working to wean themselves off Russian gas. To mitigate the impact from lower energy sales to Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin is hawking Russia's energy exports to other markets, such as Asia — but at a discount.

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