
TotalEnergies set to take FID on Namibia Venus project late next year, minister says
PARIS, May 13 (Reuters) - Namibia expects French oil major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), opens new tab to take a final investment decision on its Venus discovery in the African country in the fourth quarter of 2026, Namibia petroleum commissioner Maggy Shino said on Tuesday.
She told a conference in Paris that TotalEnergies was expected to submit its first oilfield development plans for approval in June or July.
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2 hours ago
- Reuters
Oil demand growth to continue, no peak in sight, OPEC Secretary General says
CALGARY, June 10 (Reuters) - Oil demand growth will remain robust over the next two and a half decades as the world population grows, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said on Tuesday. The organization expects a 24% increase in the world's energy needs between now and 2050, with oil demand surpassing 120 million barrels per day over that time period. That estimate is in line with the group's 2024 World Oil Outlook. "There is no peak in oil demand on the horizon," Al Ghais said, speaking at the Global Energy Show in Calgary, Alberta. He said that OPEC admired what Canada's oil industry has done to increase its oil output in recent years. OPEC is unwinding its output cuts at a faster pace than originally anticipated, lifting production by 411,000 barrels per day for May, June and July. The increases, along with concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war will weaken the global economy, have pressured oil prices in recent months. Global Brent futures were trading at $67.28 a barrel on Tuesday. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday said it expected Brent oil prices to fall near $60 a barrel by the end of the year and average $59 a barrel next year, hitting U.S. oil production. Al Ghais on Tuesday also said OPEC welcomed recent pushback against what he referred to as unrealistic climate goals, stressing the need to reduce emissions but not pick and choose between energy sources.


Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Shell's decision on Phase 2 of LNG Canada will depend on other opportunities, exec says
CALGARY, June 10 (Reuters) - Shell Canada's (SHEL.L), opens new tab decision on whether to pursue Phase 2 of LNG Canada will depend on other opportunities that are available, President Stastia West said on Tuesday at a conference. LNG Canada, the country's first LNG export facility, is a joint venture between Shell, Petronas ( opens new tab, PetroChina ( opens new tab, Mitsubishi Corporation (8058.T), opens new tab and Kogas ( opens new tab. It is expected to ship its first cargoes by the middle of 2025.


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Zambia's Trumpian predicament: US aid cuts are dwarfed by a far bigger heist
Donald Trump's decision to cut $50m a year in aid to Zambia – one of the world's poorest nations – is dreadful, and the reason given, corruption, rings hollow. There is evidence of large-scale looting, but the real scandal is that the theft appears legal, systemic and driven by foreign interests. In a paper presented to the Association for Heterodox Economics conference in London later this month, Andrew Fischer of Erasmus University Rotterdam argues that Zambia's economy is not being plundered by domestic actors but rather by transnational corporate practices enabled by opaque accounting. His findings point to a staggering extraction of wealth that dwarfs the value of the aid intended to help. Zambia is blessed – or perhaps cursed – with mineral wealth. It is Africa's second-largest copper producer. The metal, key to the green energy transition, accounts for around 70% of the country's export earnings. Despite this, in 2020 Zambia became Africa's first pandemic-era defaulter. It has only just agreed a debt restructuring with major creditors. How did a nation so rich in natural resources become so poor? Prof Fischer says this is a textbook example of a low-income commodity exporter shaped by foreign capital, where export booms enrich multinationals rather than the country itself. In Zambia's case, copper may bring in foreign exchange, but much of that money simply flows straight back out. His most striking discovery is the scale and concealment of capital flight. He uncovered billions flowing out of Zambia, hidden in its balance-of-payments data. These were not flagged as 'errors and omissions' but obscured in entries considered too elaborate to probe. In 2021 alone, $5bn – about 20% of GDP – vanished offshore, just as Zambia was defaulting on its debt. This was in addition to profit remittances of $1.2bn. In contrast, US annual grant aid amounted to just $250m, or 1% of Zambia's GDP. It's a sobering difference between a trickle of assistance against a torrent of extraction. Prof Fischer links the outflows to mining giants dominating Zambia's economy. These firms invested billions from abroad to fund operations, but the money left almost as soon as it arrived. What looked like foreign direct investment during last decade's mining boom masked a deeper drain: profits repatriated through financial outflows. The numbers are extraordinarily large for Zambia: more than $5bn in 2012, $3bn in 2015, and nearly $2bn in 2017. These private sector flows were beyond public scrutiny. Mining companies have long been accused of dodging taxes in Zambia. In 2018 the tax authorities slapped an $8bn tax bill on the Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals, which later reportedly settled for $23m. Glencore, an Anglo-Swiss giant, left the country in 2021 after falling out with the authorities. Yet in 2023 half of Zambia's copper was exported to Switzerland – that is, bought and sold by Swiss commodity traders like Glencore. Academics Rita Kesselring and Gregor Dobler noted in 2019 that such firms exploit transfer pricing and a lack of transparency to shift profits abroad. Prof Fischer's research similarly points to legal mechanisms embedded in world commerce. He concedes that some outflows may involve wealthy Zambians, but questions whether they could move funds on this scale and complexity. His research exposes a form of wilful blindness. If transnational corporations can legally strip Zambia of its wealth while donors look the other way, then the real scandal isn't theft. It's the global economic system itself.