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Reuters
17 minutes ago
- Reuters
Venture Global's Plaquemines LNG export facility drives profit beat
Aug 12 (Reuters) - Liquefied natural gas exporter Venture Global (VG.N), opens new tab on Tuesday beat Wall Street expectations for second-quarter core profit, as higher production from its Plaquemines LNG export facility in Louisiana boosted sales. Venture Global is the U.S.' second-largest LNG exporter, and has been responsible for most of the growth in the country's LNG exports since 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It has also helped the U.S. remain the world's largest exporter of the superchilled gas. The Arlington, Virginia-based company said its 27.2-million-metric-ton Plaquemines facility was operating at 77% of its capacity, with 28 of its 36 plants - also called trains - now producing LNG. Shares of the company rose 4%. The company reported adjusted EBITDA of $1.39 billion for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts' expectations of $1.25 billion. Plaquemines generated operating income of $921 million, Venture Global said in an earnings filing. Its quarterly revenue of $3.1 billion exceeded analysts' expectations of $2.89 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG, driven mainly by the start of the Plaquemines project. The company sold 329 trillion British Thermal Units (TBtu) of LNG during the second quarter, a 149% jump from the 132 TBtu of LNG it sold a year earlier. Venture Global expects to export 227 to 240 cargos of LNG from Plaquemines this year. Its Calcasieu Pass export facility in Louisiana, which started operations in 2023, is expected to export 144 to 149 cargos this year. The company anticipates changes in fixed liquefaction fees to reduce its annual adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by $230 million to $240 million, compared with expectations of a $460 million to $480 million impact previously. The results could drive outperformance in Venture Global's stock, especially given it has fallen nearly 50% since the company went public in January, RBC Capital Markets analyst Elvira Scotto said. Venture Global, which is locked in contract arbitration disputes with several global energy majors, including BP (BP.L), opens new tab, Shell (SHEL.L), opens new tab, Repsol ( opens new tab, Edison ( opens new tab, Orlen ( opens new tab and Galp ( opens new tab, said a decision in one of the proceedings is expected "imminently." The companies have accused Venture Global of delaying the commercial startup of its Calcasieu Pass plant from 2023 to 2025 to benefit from higher spot market prices rather than what it would have earned under long-term contracts. With Venture Global facing several lawsuits related to its long commissioning of the Calcasieu Pass facility, the first ruling could set precedent for the remaining proceedings, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Jeremy Tonet. Venture Global estimates a penalty of up to $1.6 billion if it loses the arbitration cases, according to Tuesday's earnings report. Some of the companies involved in the arbitration are pushing for a higher penalty, the report said. The company reported a decline of $449 million in earnings from its Calcasieu Pass operations, compared to the same period in 2024, driven by lower earnings due to sales of LNG on long-term contracts and not on the spot market, the filing showed.
BBC News
18 minutes ago
- BBC News
Musk threatens Apple and calls OpenAI boss a liar as feud deepens
X owner Elon Musk has threatened Apple with legal action after claiming it had made it "impossible" for apps to compete with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in its App called OpenAI boss Sam Altman a "liar" - after Altman claimed Musk used his platform to "benefit himself and his own companies".The row is the latest flashpoint in what is an ongoing feud between the billionaires who co-founded OpenAI - but now fiercely compete after Musk left the announced a partnership with ChatGPT in June 2024 - but there is no suggestion Apple favours one app over the other, and several rival AI apps such as DeepSeek and Perplexity have topped the App Store charts since then. The BBC has approached Apple for a later post Musk took aim at Apple again, asking the firm why it would not promote X - or its AI app Grok - in the "Must Have" section of the App Store."X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps," he said in a post now pinned to his X is currently the most downloaded free app in the UK, with Grok a close third. X does not make the top seemed to draw the attention of Altman, who linked to a report by tech newsletter Platformer which claimed Musk had made his own personal X posts more prominent in people's feeds. Bad blood The feud between Musk and Altman has, over time, encompassed a slew of lawsuits, email dumps and social media rivalry can be traced back a decade, with Musk's now public belief that OpenAI, under Altman's leadership, abandoned the principles he and others used to found it in firm was created with the intention of building artificial general intelligence (AGI) - AI that can perform any task that a human being is capable of - but by making its technology open-source and promising to "benefit humanity".What is AI and how does it work?OpenAI was also set up as a not-for-profit company, meaning it would not aim to make money, but in 2019 it established a for-profit arm which Musk felt was antithetical to its original argued in his March 2024 lawsuit that the firm had instead been focusing on "maximising profits" for its major investor while he unexpectedly dropped his lawsuit last year, OpenAI then filed a counter-suit against him in claimed the X owner had engaged "non-stop" in "bad-faith tactics" to try and slow down the company's AI has also claimed Musk is not motivated by preserving the company's founding mission - but rather by his "own agenda".And the feud has not stopped at just words and legal action. In February, Musk made a shock move to try and buy the company for $100bn (£74bn) - a bid rejected by OpenAI's board.
Reuters
18 minutes ago
- Reuters
Oil prices dip as market awaits EIA report
HOUSTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Tuesday as traders watched for a U.S. government short-term market outlook report following a bullish report on demand and supply issued by OPEC. Brent crude futures lost 20 cents, or 0.3%, to $66.43 a barrel by 10:36 a.m. CDT (1536 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were off by 39 cents, or 0.61%, to $63.51. "We're still locked into a range, waiting for an Energy Information Administration report this morning," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group. Flynn said traders were watching to see if the EIA report would track with a report issued earlier on Tuesday by OPEC on its demand and production outlook. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries raised its forecast for global oil demand next year and trimmed its forecast for growth in supply from the United States and other producers outside the wider OPEC+ group, pointing to a tighter market outlook. OPEC's monthly report on Tuesday said global oil demand will rise by 1.38 million barrels per day in 2026, up 100,000 bpd from the previous forecast. Its 2025 projection was left unchanged. U.S. President Donald Trump extended a tariff truce with China to November 10, staving off triple-digit duties on Chinese goods as U.S. retailers prepared for the critical end-of-year holiday season. This raised hopes that an agreement could be reached between the world's two largest economies and avert a virtual trade embargo between them. Tariffs risk slowing global growth, which could sap fuel demand and drag oil prices lower. U.S. consumer prices increased in July as tariff-induced rising costs for imported goods helped to drive the strongest gain in six months for one measure of underlying inflation. Also potentially weighing on the oil market, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are due to meet in Alaska on Friday to discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine. The U.S. has stepped up pressure on Russia to end the conflict, with Trump setting a deadline of last Friday for Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or have its oil buyers face secondary sanctions. He has also pressed India and China to reduce their purchases of Russian oil. "If Friday's meeting brings a ceasefire or even a peace deal in Ukraine closer, Trump could suspend the secondary tariffs imposed on India last week before they come into force in two weeks," Commerzbank said in a note. "If not, we could see tougher sanctions against other buyers of Russian oil, like China."
