January, 2019

• 13 January

  Russia eyes island storage for Arctic gas

  

  Bloomberg Russia’s Novatek PJSC is looking at storing liquefied natural gas produced in the Arctic on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu so it can better meet spot demand from China and cut shipping costs. Saibu Gas Co, which last month signed a preliminary deal to allow Russia’s biggest LNG producer to use its storage facilities, said it may build two …

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• 13 January

  Chevron touts shale as electric cars dim big oil’s future

  

  Bloomberg Chevron Corp will spend about half its capital budget on projects that yield quick returns over the next three years, underscoring the importance of shale as it prepares for growing uncertainty in how the world consumes energy. The US oil giant will spend about $9 billion to $10 billion a year on “short-cycle investments” through 2022, primarily focussed on …

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• 13 January

  Alberta keeps oil cuts at January levels

  

  Bloomberg Alberta’s government maintained its mandated oil curtailment in February at the same level as January even as Canadian heavy oil prices surged. The province’s oil producers collectively must cut February output by 325,000 barrels a day, according to an email from Mike McKinnon, an energy ministry spokesman. The baseline for the cuts is the highest single month of production …

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• 13 January

  Denmark tests extreme ‘mortgage pricing’

  

  Bloomberg Danes may soon be able to get 30-year home loans at just 1.5 percent. That’s considerably less than many sovereign states pay to borrow for that period, including the US government. It’s not the first time Denmark’s mortgage-backed covered-bond market — the world’s biggest — has tested such extreme levels. It tends to occur when investors from Germany to …

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• 13 January

  Cutting economic outlook kept growth risks balanced: ECB

  

  Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) officials agreed that a cut to their 2019 growth projection in itself acknowledged that risks to the outlook for the euro-area economy had increased. That effectively allowed President Mario Draghi to avoid saying in December that the balance of risks was to the downside, which would have jarred alongside a decision to halt bond buying …

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• 13 January

  China’s biggest bank cuts space at New York’s Trump tower

  

  Bloomberg Two of China’s New York power players are pulling back from Trump — Trump Tower, that is. First, a big Chinese conglomerate, HNA Group Co, moved to sell a Manhattan office tower four blocks from Trump Tower after US authorities raised national security concerns. A deal has finally been cut. Now, China’s biggest bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of …

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• 13 January

  Deutsche Bank sued over $53mn tax bill

  

  Bloomberg M.M. Warburg & Co, a private bank under investigation in Germany over a series of controversial tax deals, has opened a new legal front by suing Deutsche Bank AG to pick up the bill. Warburg filed a suit in Frankfurt in December to force Deutsche Bank to pay a 46 million-euro ($53 million) tax bill the company received over …

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• 13 January

  UBS to make Orcel wait for new CEO gig

  Bloomberg Andrea Orcel, the former top dealmaker at UBS Group AG, will have to wait until April to take on his new role as chief executive officer at Banco Santander SA after the Swiss bank decided to enforce his entire six-month garden leave, people familiar with the matter said. Orcel was expected to make the move early in the first …

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• 13 January

  Policy stability seen as African central bankers’ terms end

  

  Bloomberg The possible replacement of the governors of three key African central banks this year could yield an unexpected surprise: policy stability. Time is running out on the first terms of Nigeria’s Godwin Emefiele, Kenya’s Patrick Njoroge and South Africa’s Lesetja Kganyago. While all three are eligible to serve another term at the helms of their central banks, this isn’t …

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• 13 January

  Some airport security lanes to close as shutdown pinches TSA

  

  Bloomberg The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) plans to begin closing a handful of security checkpoints at airports around the US as soon as this weekend in response to staff shortages as impacts of the three-week partial federal government shutdown begin to expand. Miami International Airport has shut one of its concourses for several days and has moved flights to other …

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