We need to find a fairer way of providing Goods and Services to the rest of the people on Earth.Cryptocurrencies and/or Gold Standard of money....maybe the answer to fight hyperinflation caused by too much printing of paper/fiat currencies by Governments and Central Banks all over the World. (https://nomorefiatmoneyplease.blogspot.com)
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has boosted its stake in Tiger Airways to over 93 per cent, which will allow it to delist the budget carrier from the Singapore Exchange.
In a release to SGX on Friday night, Tiger said that SIA and concert parties held 93.77 per cent in the low-cost carrier as at 5pm on Feb 5.
SIA had initially made an offer of 41 Singapore cents per share for the shares it did not own in Tiger, but bumped it up to 45 cents after Tiger's long-term minority shareholders complained. Tiger's initial public offering took place at S$1.50 per share.
SIA is pushing for closer integration across the airlines in its group, which it says will put the beleagured budget carrier in a better position for future growth.
The offer remains open for acceptances until 5.30 pm on Feb 19.
Sembcorp Industries' wholly-owned subsidiary, China Water Company (Yancheng), has inked a conditional sale and purchase agreement to divest its entire 49 per cent stake in Yancheng China Water Co to Yancheng City Municipal Utilities Investment Company for 260 million yuan (S$55 million).
PHOTO: REUTERS
SEMBCORP Industries' wholly-owned subsidiary, China Water Company (Yancheng), has inked a conditional sale and purchase agreement to divest its entire 49 per cent stake in Yancheng China Water Co to Yancheng City Municipal Utilities Investment Company for 260 million yuan (S$55 million).
"A net gain of approximately S$35 million is expected to be recognised upon completion of the transaction," Sembcorp Industries said in a release to the Singapore Exchange on Friday. The carrying value of the asset is 100 million yuan.
Yancheng China Water operates a municipal water facility in Jiangsu, China.
Loss-making oil fields unlikely to be shut willingly: Wood Mackenzie
[LONDON] Even as millions of barrels of oil are pumped at a loss at current prices, only a fraction of the production has been shut, industry research group Wood Mackenzie said on Friday.
The apparent financial resilience of some producers could delay a recovery in the oil market that has seen an oversupply of 2 million barrels per day (bpd) push prices down by some 70 per cent over the past 18 months. "Curtailed budgets have slowed investment which will reduce future volumes, but there is little evidence of production shut-ins for economic reasons," said Robert Plummer, Wood Mackenzie's vice president of investment research.
Just 100,000 bpd out of the 96.1 million bpd of oil pumped worldwide have been closed so far since the price plunge, most of it in Canada's oil sands, conventional US projects and ageing fields in Britain's North Sea, according to the research.
The group's analysis showed that 3.4 million bpd of oil pumped now, 3.5 per cent of worldwide production, is "cash negative" at Brent prices of $35 per barrel. Brent was trading at $34.60 per barrel on Friday morning, meaning selling this oilcurrently costs more than it takes to get the barrels out of the ground.
But the hope of a rebound could keep even these from closing.
"Given the cost of restarting production, many producers will continue to take the loss in the hope of a rebound in prices," Plummer said.
The bulk of the most expensive to produce oil is in Canada, where 2.2 million bpd is "cash negative" at current prices, most of it in oil sands and small conventional wells. An additional 230,000 bpd in is Venezuela's heavy oil fields, and 220,000 bpd is in the United Kingdom.
Those operators, Wood Mackenzie said, were likely to store their oil to sell later, only shutting fields if mechanical or maintenance problems required investments they "can't rationalise" at current prices.
In the United States the research found that aggressive cost cutting had enabled more of the shale plays to make money - and survive - at lower prices. "In the past year we have seen a significant lowering of production costs in the US, which has resulted in only 190,000 bpd being cash negative at a Brent price of $35," said Stewart Williams, vice president of upstream research at Wood Mackenzie, adding that "the majority" only become cash negative at Brent prices "well-below $30 per barrel."
Wood Mackenzie currently forecasts Brent prices to avergage $41 per barrel in 2016.
How much global oil output halted due to low prices? Just 0.1%
After a year of low oil prices, only 0.1 per cent of global production has been curtailed because it's unprofitable, according to a report from consultants Wood Mackenzie Ltd. that highlights the industry's resilience.
PHOTO: REUTERS
[LONDON] After a year of low oil prices, only 0.1 per cent of global production has been curtailed because it's unprofitable, according to a report from consultants Wood Mackenzie Ltd that highlights the industry's resilience.
The analysis, published ahead of an annual oil-industry gathering in London next week, suggests that oil prices will need to drop even more - or stay low for a lot longer - to meaningfully reduce global production.
Opec and major oil companies like BP Plc and Occidental Petroleum Corp. are betting that low oil prices will drive production down, eventually lifting prices. That's taking longer than expected, in part due to the resilience of the US shale industry and slumping currencies in oil-rich countries, which have lowered production costs in nations from Russia to Brazil.
The Wood Mackenzie analysis provides an estimate for the amount directly impacted by low prices - to the tune of 100,000 barrels a day since the beginning of 2015 - rather than output affected as new projects build up and aging fields decline. Canada, the US and the North Sea have been affected the most by closures related to low prices.
'Take the Loss' The International Energy Agency does estimate year-over- year change, and says global production in the fourth quarter was 96.9 million barrels a day. It forecast that outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, output will fall this year by 600,000 barrels a day, the largest annual decline since 1992. Last year, non-Opec output rose 1.4 million barrels a day.
"Since the drop in oil prices last year there have been relatively few production shut-ins," according to the report. The company, which tracks production and costs at more than 2,000 oilfields worldwide, estimates that another 3.4 million barrels a day of production are losing money at current prices, of about $35 a barrel. It cautioned against expecting further closures, because "many producers will continue to take the loss in the hope of a rebound in prices."
For major oil companies, a few months of losses may make more sense than paying to dismantle an offshore platform in the North Sea, or stopping and restarting a tar-sands project in Canada, which may take months and cost millions of dollars. "There are barriers to exit," said Robert Plummer, vice president of investment research at Wood Mackenzie.
The price of Brent crude, a global benchmark, has fallen from more than $100 a barrel in mid-2014 to a 13-year low of $27.10 a barrel last month.
Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, last month said current prices are "irrational" because they're too low to justify investment in new production. But he added: "In the short-term, while there is excess capacity, prices are set by variable costs and most producers are able to pay the cash cost within the current price."
Oil production may still fall as companies stop investing and drilling new wells, letting output naturally decline. As oilfields age, production typically goes down by 5 per cent to 10 per cent a year. The new US shale wells have steeper decline rates, so companies' production drops faster if they don't drill new wells.
Beyond natural decline and lack of new investment, the Wood Mackenzie report signals that production will remain resilient. "Being cash negative simply means that production costs are higher than the price received. It does not necessarily mean that production will be halted."
