Day: July 12, 2022

Twitter shot back Monday at Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his announcement late last week that he was terminating his $44 billion deal to buy the microblogging and social networking giant.

“As it has done, Twitter will continue to provide information reasonably requested by Mr. Musk under the Agreement and to diligently take all measures required to close the transaction,” said Twitter attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk’s legal team.

Twitter’s letter comes in the wake of Musk backing out of the deal late last Friday with multiple reasons, including that Twitter allegedly undercounts the number of spam accounts on its service.

“Twitter has breached none of its obligations under the Agreement, and Twitter has not suffered and is not likely to suffer a company material adverse effect,” Savitt added, reiterating that Musk’s move to end the deal was “invalid and wrongful.”

“Twitter reserves all contractual, legal, and other rights, including its right to specifically enforce the Musk Parties’ obligations under the Agreement,” the letter continued.

Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in an unsolicited deal struck in late April.

The billionaire alleged in his Friday termination letter that Twitter misrepresented user data, claiming the number of spam bots on the social media platform is much higher than the company has disclosed.

Twitter dismissed that claim, stating that the number of bots was well under 5% of its total daily active users.

Twitter chairman Bret Taylor tweeted Friday that the company “plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.”

No lawsuit has yet been filed by either side.

Twitter shares fell 11% to $32.65 at Monday’s market close.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Shell is shutting down production at its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility offshore Western Australia after union workers rejected the company’s latest offer to improve pay and working conditions.

A Shell spokesperson told Anadolu Agency that production on the Shell-operated Prelude FLNG facility has been temporarily suspended on July 11 due to work bans currently in force under Protected Industrial Action by members of the Australian Workers’ Union and Electrical Trades Union that prohibit offtake activities.

“Until the bans on the offtake of cargoes are lifted and the plant can be safely restarted, staff required to perform safety-critical functions will remain on board, while all other workers have been demobilized,” he said.

“Shell recognizes the entitlement of all workers to exercise their rights, including the right to participate in industrial action. The safety and welfare of people on our sites remain our highest priority,” he added.

The Shell-operated Prelude FLNG facility is an offshore development facility that produces natural gas from a remote field approximately 475 kilometers (295 miles) northeast of Broome in Western Australia.

The Prelude FLNG facility produces 3.6 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate and 0.4 mtpa of LPG.

The facility is operated by Shell in joint venture with INPEX (17.5%), KOGAS (10%) and OPIC (5%).

Source: Anadolu Agency

Oil prices fell on Tuesday as fresh COVID-19 restrictions in China, the world’s biggest crude importer, and fears of a global economic slowdown feed worries over a demand fall.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $105.38 per barrel at 9.15 a.m. local time (0615 GMT) for a 1.60% decrease after the previous session closed at $107.1 a barrel.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $102.17 per barrel at the same time on Tuesday for a 1.84% loss, after the previous session closed at $104.09 a barrel.

Exerting downward price pressure, economic uncertainties driven by global recession fears are growing. As a result, investor risk appetite is falling.

In China, many cities are adopting new COVID-19 curbs, which affects the oil prices and market.

The barrel price of Brent oil, which fell to $97.2 due to recession concerns during the week, partially compensated for its losses with China’s announcement of an infrastructure package worth $220 billion and strong US labor market data, but decreased 4.7% to $105.5 last week.

One of the main factors that drives oil prices is the Russia-Ukraine war. Western sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine have disrupted trade flows for crude and fuel.

In addition, the markets are focused on US President Joe Biden’s official visit to Saudi Arabia.

The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Monday that Biden will raise the case for greater oil production from OPEC when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The world has never witnessed such a major energy crisis in terms of its depth and its complexity, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said on Tuesday.

Birol, speaking at a global energy forum in Sydney, said that the world is in the middle of the first global energy crisis.

“It is interwoven by many factors, including the geopolitics. Oil, natural gas, coal, electricity prices, they’re all going up of the roof. Why? Very simple. Russia, the country that invaded Ukraine, is the largest exporter of oil and natural gas.” he said.

According to Birol, since Russia has started war on Ukraine in February, the whole energy system has been in disarray.

“And as a result, we are seeing that the entire energy system is going through a crisis,” he added.

Birol also said this winter in Europe will be “very, very difficult,” adding that this is a major concern, and this may have serious implications for the global economy.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The major Asian stock markets closed lower on Tuesday, except for the Singapore index.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, lost 31.88 points, or 1.01%, to 3,139.38 at 0925GMT.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange was down by 475.64 points, or 1.77%, to reach 26,336.66 at the close.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, fell 279.46 points, or 1.32%, to 20,844.74.

China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange dropped by 32.12 points, or 0.97%, to 3,281.47.

India’s Sensex benchmark fell by 315.15 points, or 0.58%, to close at 54,080.08.

Meanwhile, the Singapore index rose by 11.11 points, or 0.35%, to 3,142.37.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The EU on Tuesday accepted Croatia as the 20th eurozone member, allowing it to adopt the single currency from January 2023.

In a statement, the European Council said it adopted the final three legal acts that are required to enable Croatia to introduce the euro.

One of the acts set the conversion rate for entry at one euro to 7.53450 Croatian kuna.

Zbynek Stanjura, the finance minister of Czechia, which holds the current six-month rotating presidency of the EU, congratulated his Croatian counterpart. “Adopting the euro is not a race, but a responsible political decision,” he said. “Croatia has successfully completed all the required economic criteria and they will pay in euros as of 1 January 2023.”

Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Neighboring Slovenia, also an ex-Yugoslav republic and now part of EU, adopted the euro in 2007.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Delegations from Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will gather at an investment workshop in Istanbul on Wednesday.

Three ministers from the UAE, as well as senior officials of investment funds and companies will meet with public and private sector organizations, and business world representatives at the event.

According to the statement made by the Turkish Industry and Technology Ministry, the investments that the UAE plans to make in the Turkish economy became clear after the diplomatic traffic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who last visited the UAE in February.

UAE technology, foreign trade ministers to attend event

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE minister of industry and advanced technology, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, the minister of state for foreign trade, and Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, the minister of state for public education and advanced technology and the UAE Space Agency chairwoman, will attend the meeting.

The ministers’ visit is important amid the start of a new era in relations between Ankara and Abu Dhabi.

In addition to bilateral meetings between the equivalent ministries at the workshop, representatives of public subsidiaries and companies operating in the industry, renewable energy, petrochemical, food, e-commerce, defense, automotive, and aviation sectors, as well as leading UAE companies will evaluate potential cooperation opportunities.

Partnership in space

As part of the visit of the Emirati ministers, a memorandum of understanding in the space field will be signed between the two countries.

With the agreement, Türkiye and the UAE will train human resources and share knowledge and experience in the field of space research and technologies.

The two sides will carry out joint research and development studies in the fields of suborbital flights, launching, rockets, and satellite systems.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Oil prices fell 5.89% on Tuesday as central banks’ move to aggressively increase interest rates to combat inflation raised fears of a global recession.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $100.79 per barrel at 05.00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) for around 6% decrease after the previous session closed at $107.1 a barrel.

Fears of lower global oil demand put negative pressure on prices as world’s central banks increase interest rates to tame inflation and a new wave of COVID-19 pandemic forces Chinese cities to take drastic action.

Also, US President Joe Biden is planning to visit Saudi Arabia this week during a tour to the Middle East.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Biden will make the case for greater oil production from OPEC when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia.

The world has never witnessed such a major energy crisis in terms of its depth and its complexity, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said on Tuesday.

However, OPEC’s first look at 2023 showed no sign of a relief from market tightness.

Source: Anadolu Agency