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☆ More than 94,000 prepayment meters forcibly installed in Britain in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - More than 94,000 prepayment meters were installed in homes in Britain using warrants and without customer consent in 2022, the government said on Monday, adding that British Gas, Scottish Power and OVO Energy accounted for 70% of them. Prepayment meters allow customers to pay for gas and electricity on a pay-as-you-go basis. British Gas, Scottish Power and OVO Energy forcibly installed 66,187 prepayment metres under warrant last year, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said. Scottish Power was the worst offender when taking its customer base into account, force-fitting more than 24,300 meters, BEIS said. The company is not currently installing prepayment meters or recovering debt from those customers on new prepayment meters unless requested by the customer, the spokesperson added.

☆ TikTok's CEO says demands from the Biden administration for its Chinese owners to sell up won't solve security fears in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Biden administration has demanded that TikTok's Chinese owners sell their shares, or face a US-wide ban. But the app's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, says this wouldn't actually solve anything. Chew said that's because TikTok is proposing to spend billions on storing American users' data in the US by partnering with Oracle. That would also prevent any Chinese influence over which TikToks US users see, per the WSJ. "I do welcome feedback on what other risk we are talking about that is not addressed by this," Chew told the newspaper.

☆ A couple in Canada were reportedly scammed out of $21,000 after getting a call from an AI-generated voice pretending to be their son
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A couple in Canada reportedly lost $21,000 from a scammer claiming to be a lawyer and their son. Benjamin Perkin told The Washington Post his parents thought the AI-generated voice was him. Perkin told the Post the voice was "close enough for my parents to truly believe they did speak with me." Scams involving AI technology predate the emergence of ChatGPT and other AI bots going viral right now. "AI tools that generate authentic-seeming videos, photos, audio, and text could supercharge this trend, allowing fraudsters greater reach and speed," she said.

☆ BP CEO defends spending plans as climate protesters block entrance to London energy conference
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Holding banners reading "Climate Criminals Enter Here" and "No New Oil," activists from climate action group Fossil Free London gathered outside the luxury hotel to protest BP's continued fossil fuel investment. "An energy system that works is one that provides energy that is secure and affordable as well as lower carbon — what's known as the energy trilemma," Looney said. "To solve it, action is clearly needed to accelerate the energy transition and at the same time, that transition has got to be orderly. We need to invest in the energy transition and — not or — we need to invest in today's energy system, which is predominantly an oil and gas system." The extraordinary scale of the oil and gas industry's earnings has renewed criticism and sparked calls for higher taxes.

REUTERS/Toby MelvilleLONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - British energy regulator Ofgem on Monday lowered its price cap on household energy bills from April, but it will offer little relief to consumers as costs continue to rise. The cap sets a maximum price suppliers can charge consumers for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy they use, but it has been superseded by a government-backed energy price guarantee (EPG) that limits the maximum costs of energy. "Although wholesale prices have fallen, the price cap has not yet fallen below the planned level of the Energy Price Guarantee. If wholesale prices continue to fall, the price cap could be lowered again in July, potentially reducing bills, the regulator said. British Gas owner Centrica (CNA.L) this month posted record annual profit of 3.3 billion pounds on soaring energy prices and production.

☆ Wood Group shares rally on unsolicited Apollo approach
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MILAN, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Wood Group (WG.L) shares rallied more than 30% on Thursday after the British energy services provider said it had received and then rejected three unsolicited takeover proposals from U.S. private equity group Apollo Global Management (APO.N). "The Board unanimously rejected each of the Proposals, having concluded that they each significantly undervalued the repositioned Group's prospects," the UK-listed company said in a statement late on Wednesday. The most recent approach was a cash offer for the entire capital of Wood Group valuing the company at 230 pence per share, the statement added. By 0824 GMT, Wood Group shares were up 32% after earlier rising as much as 34.4% to 208 pence. Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Amanda CooperOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Centrica to extend share buyback as annual profit triples
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Centrica said on Thursday it was extending its share buyback program by £300 million (£361 million) after its annual profit more than tripled on high energy prices, robust electricity generation and gas production levels. The extension, in addition to the British energy supplier's existing 250-million-pound buyback program, would result in it buying back 10% of its capital, the group said. Centrica, which restored dividends in the first half after asset sales and soaring energy prices helped it deliver strong half-year earnings, declared full-year dividend of 3 pence per share. The British Gas owner's adjusted operating profit for 2022 rose to 3.3 billion pounds from 948 million pounds in the previous year.

☆ BP to buy TravelCenters of America for $1.3 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 16 (Reuters) - TravelCenters of America Inc (TA.O) said on Thursday it would be acquired by BP Plc (BP.L) for about $1.3 billion in cash, as the British energy giant looks to expand its travel convenience and fuel supply footprint in the United States. BP has offered $86 per TravelCenters share held, which represents a 74% premium to the stock's last close on Wednesday. TravelCenters owns a network of about 281 highway sites across 44 states and offers services including diesel and gasoline fuel, truck maintenance and repair, restaurants, travel stores, and parking. Convenience is one of BP's five strategic transition growth engines. By 2030, the London-listed aims for around half its annual investment to go into these transition growth engines.

☆ BP to buy TravelCenters for $1.3 bln in U.S. fuel retail drive
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 16 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) will buy truck fueling provider TravelCenters of America Inc (TA.O) for about $1.3 billion in cash, the companies said on Thursday, as the British energy giant seeks to expand its travel convenience and fuel supply footprint in the country. Shares of the U.S. truck stop operator surged about 71% to $84.3 in morning trading, hovering near BP's per share offer of $86. TravelCenters owns a network of about 281 highway sites across 44 states and offers services including diesel and gasoline fuel, truck maintenance and repair, restaurants, travel stores, and parking. BP has been pushing to boost its investments in convenience, bioenergy and EV charging. By 2030, the London-listed company aims for around half its annual investment to go into these transition growth engines.

☆ Premarket stocks: Here's what keeps Jerome Powell up at night and interest rates high
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Structural changes in the labor market: The US economy added an astonishing 517,000 jobs in January, blowing economists’ expectations out of the water. “The labor market is extraordinarily strong,” he said. Core services inflation: Powell noted that he’s seeing disinflation in the goods sector and expects to soon see declining inflation in housing. Service-sector inflation, which is more sensitive to a strong labor market, is up 7.5% from the year prior through the end of 2022, and has not abated, he said. Tech layoffs, Big Oil and soft landings: What investors are watching▸ The labor market is strong, but tech layoffs keep coming.

☆ BP posts record 2022 earnings to join Big Oil profit bonanza
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The British energy giant posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $27.7 billion for 2022. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected net profit of $27.6 billion for full-year 2022. BP said its previous annual profit record was $26.3 billion in 2008. For the fourth quarter, BP posted net profit of $4.8 billion, narrowly beating analyst expectations of $4.7 billion. Before that, U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil reported a $56 billion profit for 2022, marking a historic high for the Western oil industry.

☆ BP’s annual profit more than doubles to $28 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Hong Kong CNN —BP’s annual profit more than doubled last year to nearly $28 billion, extending a record run of earnings for the world’s oil majors that is adding to calls for higher taxes on the windfall gains. The British energy giant said in a statement that underlying replacement cost profit rose to $27.7 billion for 2022, compared with $12.8 billion the previous year. The metric is a key indicator of oil companies’ profitability. The earnings are the latest in a series of record-setting results by the world’s biggest energy companies, which have enjoyed bumper profits off the back of soaring oil and gas prices. Last week, Shell (RDSA) reported a record profit of almost $40 billion for 2022, more than double what it raked in the previous year after oil and gas prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

☆ 'Greenwashing' is a good thing, according to one renewable energy tycoon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Greenwashing should be seen as a positive sign that companies are moving in the right direction, according to the founder of British energy firm Ecotricity. "But you know, I take it as a good thing. People say to me, 'oh, there's greenwashing, it's a bad thing'." "And I say, do you know what, it's not a bad thing because 10 years ago, these companies that are greenwashing today, didn't care, right?" I say that's progress.

☆ Shell considers exiting UK, German, Dutch energy retail businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Ron Bousso | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Shell PLC FollowLONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Shell (SHEL.L) has launched a strategic review of its home energy retail businesses in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany in the wake of "tough market conditions", it said on Thursday. European energy suppliers have struggled over the past year with soaring wholesale prices and efforts by governments to shield consumers from rising bills. No decision has been taken yet on the future of the businesses, Shell said. Shell injected nearly $1.5 billion in cash and credit into its British energy retail business in 2022 to help it weather huge volatility in power prices that caused the collapse of several rival UK utilities. Shell said its wholesale and business-to-business (B2B) energy supply businesses are not part of the strategic review, and neither are its home energy supply businesses in the United States and Australia.

☆ Davos 2023-'Open for business' Labour slams PM Sunak no-show
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Brenda Goh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 19 (Reuters) - British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer set out his green growth plan in Davos on Thursday and criticised British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for not showing up at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. "Somebody has got to be an ambassador for Britain and the prime minister and the chancellor are not here," she told a separate audience referring to finance minister Jeremy Hunt. "We are here to send a message that at the next election ... the British economy will be open for business again." Although Sunak did not attend the event, the British government did send Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch and Business Minister Grant Shapps to Davos. And former Prime Minister Boris Johnson also made an appearance, which he used to urge Britain's allies to double down on sending military equipment to Ukraine.

☆ Shell injects $1.5 bln into UK retail power business to help it weather volatility
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Ron Bousso | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The volatility led to several bankruptcies in the sector, including Bulb, which the British government is set to rescue at a cost of up to 6.5 billion pounds ($8 billion). Shell Energy's operating loss rose to 102.4 million pounds in 2021 from 83.6 million pounds a year earlier, according to the company's financial results, released on Thursday. To help its subsidiary, Shell injected a total of 1.2 billion pounds to Shell Energy this year, Shell Energy said. Shell also extended to Shell Energy a working capital facility of 680 million pounds "to meet its short-term working capital needs" until the end of next year. Shell Energy was formed after Shell acquired First Utility in 2018 as part of its long-term strategy to turn Britain into a hub for supplying renewable energy.

☆ UK to launch new billion-pound home insulation programme
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Britain's government intends to make 1 billion pounds ($1.2 billion) of public funding available for home insulation projects from early next year, widening access to assistance that was previously only available to poorer households. Government subsidies for household energy bills are already forecast to cost 25 billion pounds this financial year and 13 billion pounds in 2023/24. Business and energy secretary Grant Shapps said the insulation programme would help make Britain less reliant on imported energy. Existing insulation subsidies are targeted towards people in social housing or who are on low incomes. The 1 billion pounds of funding comes from a 12.6 billion pound energy efficiency budget to cover the years up to 2028, which Hunt expanded in a fiscal statement on Nov. 17.

☆ UK stocks track gains in Europe, Dr. Martens sinks on profit warning
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Shashwat Chauhan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) rose 0.3% in thin trading as U.S. markets were shut for the Thanksgiving holiday. The domestically focused FTSE 250 midcaps (.FTMC) rose 0.7%, also reflecting the upbeat mood in equity markets. A weak spot was Dr. Martens (DOCS.L), which tumbled 20% and looked set for its biggest percentage drop ever, after warning that its annual core profit margin would be lower than last year. UK stock markets have recovered sharply since a botched mini-budget roiled sentiment in October, with investors hoping that measures by the new government will help instil confidence even as Britain faces what is expected to be a lengthy recession. Shares of Vodafone , Imperial Brands (IMB.L) and National Grid (NG.L) slid as they traded without entitlement for dividend payout.

☆ UK's Ofgem says price cap will rise to nearly $5,200 without intervention
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 24 (Reuters) - British energy regulator Ofgem said its price cap for average household energy bills would rise by about 21% to 4,279 pounds ($5,170.74) a year from January to the end of March 2023. Households, however, will not pay this amount as Ofgem's price cap has been superseded by a government backed price guarantee set at 2,500 pounds a year for average consumption until the end of March 2023. Ofgem's announcement means the government action will save typical households around 1,779 pounds a year, compared with the level they would have needed to pay under the regulators cap. The government price guarantee rises to an average 3,000 pounds a year from April 1 until the end of March 2024. read moreThe cost of wholesale gas has increased, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February, and the price that suppliers need to charge per unit of energy has gone up sharply, prompting the government to step in and help consumers. ($1 = 0.8275 pounds)Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Susanna Twidale in London; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Rashmi AichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ UK to announce U.S. gas deal after climate change summit -Telegraph
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 7 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is poised to announce a major gas deal with the U.S. after the COP27 climate change summit, The Telegraph reported on Monday. Earlier this year, the United States agreed to supply 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas to the European Union to help it wean off Russian energy supplies. Sunak on Monday at the COP27 climate change summit said the war should accelerate efforts to wean the world off fossil fuels. Wholesale gas prices have soared in recent months as economies reopen from COVID-19 lockdowns and high demand for liquefied natural gas in Asia pushed down supplies to Europe. Around 12 British energy suppliers have already collapsed this year, affecting more than 2 million customers.

☆ Stocks mixed, yields ease; investors weigh chance of rate hike slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Caroline Valetkevitch | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 17, 2022. Still, investors were also digesting Tuesday's data showing U.S. job openings unexpectedly rose in September, suggesting that demand for labor remains strong despite the Fed's recent rate hikes. The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 0.50% and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS) gained 0.07%. In the currency market, the dollar index , which measures the U.S. currency against six rivals, was last little changed. U.S. crude recently rose 2.09% to $88.34 per barrel and Brent was at $94.59, up 1.92% on the day.

LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - European stocks rose in early trading on Tuesday, supported by speculation among investors that central banks could come to the end of their rate-hiking cycles. Norman Villamin, chief investment officer of Wealth Management at UBP, said the rise in European stocks could be due to "effectively dovish" guidance from the European Central Bank last week. RATE HIKESThe Fed is expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points on Wednesday, but investors will look for any signals the Fed may be considering a deceleration in interest rate hikes in the future. Villamin said that central banks are caught in a "tug of war" between the slowing economy and high inflation. China's yuan hit a near 15-year low against the dollar, after the central bank fixed the official guidance rate at its lowest level since the global financial crisis of 2008.

☆ BP rakes in quarterly profit of $8.2 billion as oil majors post another round of bumper earnings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Oil and gas giant BP on Tuesday reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter profits, supported by high commodity prices and robust gas marketing and trading. The British energy major posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $8.2 billion for the three months through to the end of September. That compared with $8.5 billion in the previous quarter and marked a significant increase from a year earlier, when net profit came in at $3.3 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected third-quarter net profit of $6 billion. The world's largest oil and gas majors have reported bumper earnings in recent months, benefitting from surging commodity prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

☆ Octopus Energy to buy failed British energy supplier Bulb
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Britain said on Saturday it had approved a deal for Octopus Energy to buy smaller firm Bulb, which was one of the largest energy suppliers to collapse last year due to soaring wholesale gas and electricity prices. About 1.5 million Bulb customers will be transferred to Octopus as part of a deal reached late on Friday with the special administrators of London-based Bulb, the British government's business department said in a statement. Bulb collapsed last November after failing to secure funding as regulator Ofgem's energy price cap prevented it and other suppliers from passing on rising costs to customers. It was placed under the government-funded Special Administrator Regime to ensure customers' supplies would face no disruption and their credit balances would be protected. The government will also provide funding to ensure Bulb's special administration is wound up in a way that protects customers' supplies, it said.

☆ Centrica reopens UK's Rough gas storage site in time for winter
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Nora Buli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 28 (Reuters) - British Gas owner Centrica (CNA.L) has reopened its Rough gas storage site off England's east coast at about 20% of its previous capacity, enough to heat 1 million homes for 100 days this winter, the company said on Friday. Before it was closed, Rough represented more than 70% of UK storage and supplied 10% of peak winter demand. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing concerns over gas supplies this winter, Centrica upgraded the facility and started refilling the site in early autumn. Even at 20% of previous capacity, Rough is the UK's largest gas storage site and adds 50% to the UK's gas storage capacity, though this lags behind European countries, Centrica said. The long-term aim is to turn the Rough gas field into the largest long-range energy storage facility in Europe, capable of storing both natural gas and hydrogen, Centrica said.

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