The market is supported by the data on decrease of reserves in the USA, published the day before, as well as the information on increase of prices for most grades of oil by Saudi Arabia for the buyers from all regions.
The September futures for Brent crude oil on London’s ICE Futures Exchange stood at $76.85 per barrel by 8:15 a.m. on Friday, $0.33 (0.43%) above the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts fell $0.13 (0.2%) to $76.52 a barrel on Thursday.
The price of WTI futures for August at electronic trades of NYMEX grew by $0.32 (0.45%) up to $72.12 per barrel by that time. The price of these contracts remained practically unchanged the day before and amounted to $71.8 per barrel by market close.
According to U.S. Department of Energy, last week commercial oil inventories in the country decreased by 1.5 mln barrels to 452.2 mln barrels. Gasoline inventories decreased by 2.5 million barrels and distillates by 1 million barrels.
Experts polled by S&P Global Commodity Insights, on average, predicted a 3.6 million barrels reduction of oil reserves, 1.7 million barrels of gasoline and 700,000 barrels of distillates.
Stocks at Cushing terminal, which stores crude oil traded on Nymex, decreased by 400,000 barrels to 42.8 million barrels over the week.
Saudi Arabia will raise prices for all grades of crude in August for customers in the United States, Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as some grades for customers in Asia, state-run Saudi Aramco said Thursday.
“Macroeconomic uncertainty and concerns about the pace of China’s economic recovery are impediments to a further rebound in oil prices,” said ING analyst Warren Patterson.
“Expectations of a stronger Federal Reserve hawkish mood are also not supporting risk appetite,” Market Watch quotes the expert as saying.
Agrarians from 12 regions began harvesting early grain and leguminous crops and threshed 1.24 million tons of grain with a yield of 33.2 centners / ha from 308.2 thousand hectares (3%), the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food.
According to the report, the pace of grain harvesting is leading agrarians Nikolaev region, which harvested grain from 118 thousand hectares (19%), by volume Odessa agrarians threshed 468.8 thousand tons. In total in Ukraine barley was harvested on 235 thousand hectares, which is 16% of UAH of which 805.8 thsd. tons were threshed at the yield of 34.3 cwt/ha.
Wheat was harvested from 51.4 thousand hectares (1%). With a yield of 33.5 c/ha it was threshed 172 thousand tons.
Peas were harvested from 21.7 ha (15%). With a yield of 21.1 centners/hectare it was threshed 45.8 thousand tons.
Agrarians from five regions have also begun to harvest winter rape: 86.2 thousand tons of seeds have been harvested. winter rape: 86,2 thousand tons of seeds at the yield of 18,1 centners/hectare on the area of 47,7 thousand hectares (3%).
As reported, winter wheat crops this season amounted to 4166 Hectares (-834 thsd. ha versus the previous one), winter barley – 536 thsd. ha (-255 thsd. ha), rape – 45 thsd. ha (-255 thsd. ha). thousand hectares), rape – 1374 thousand hectares (+110 thousand hectares).
Traffic on the two newly constructed exits of the Darnytsia Bridge on the left bank of the Dnipro River towards the Paton Bridge and Osokorky is now open, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Thursday.
“With the opening of the Darnytsia bridge, our fight against long-term construction projects and emergency bridges is not over. Our goal is to see the real state of the bridges and develop concrete solutions to protect the transport infrastructure and maintain its proper condition,” Kubrakov wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
According to him, the opening of the exits will allow for a direct connection between the residential areas of Osokorky and Pozniaky and the Kyiv City Express platform and Bereznyaki.
It is specified that the bridge, which is on the balance sheet of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC, was completed at public expense.
As reported, construction on the Darnytskyi Bridge was restarted in 2021. Due to the full-scale invasion in March-April last year, the work was suspended, but resumed in May 2022.
The Darnytsia Bridge has 6 lanes and a capacity of 35 thousand vehicles per day.
A memorandum of understanding between the Ukrainian and Bulgarian energy ministries on cooperation in the energy sector was signed in the presence of Zelensky and Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolo Denkov during an official visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Bulgaria.
According to the press service of the Ukrainian head of state, the document was signed by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko and Bulgarian Energy Minister Rumen Radev.
“The memorandum is aimed at creating framework conditions for deepening cooperation in the energy sector of Ukraine and Bulgaria based on the principle of mutual benefit and taking into account common interests and goals of both countries,” the statement said.
Ukraine and Bulgaria undertook to provide affordable energy, as well as to support industrial and regional development, security and prosperity of their peoples, expand cooperation and a shared commitment to protect the environment and mitigate climate change and reduce carbon emissions.
It was noted that taking into account Ukraine’s status as a candidate for EU membership and Bulgaria’s obligations as a EU member state, the sides agreed to intensify further mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, green energy, hydrogen, as well as energy storage systems and smart grids.
Sharing knowledge and experience to protect energy infrastructure from physical, electromagnetic, and cyber threats is a priority in the cooperation.
As reported, Bulgarian parliamentarians by a majority vote delegated the country’s Energy Minister to negotiate with his Ukrainian counterpart on the possibility of selling equipment intended for Belene NPP to Kiev, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported Thursday.
The decision was supported by 135 deputies, while 57 opposed.
Earlier, BNR reported that Ukraine had expressed interest in purchasing the reactors intended for Belene NPP.
Bulgaria abandoned the project in 2012.
Ukrainian mukomols and cereals producers began to master and gain a foothold in new markets and increase export volumes, in 2023 they can supply 150 thousand tons of flour to foreign markets, said the chairman of the association “Ukrpischeprom”, director of the union “Mukomols of Ukraine” Rodion Rybchinsky.
“In calendar year 2021 we exported 102 thousand tons of flour, in 2022 the active export began in September and reached 80 thousand tons. In the five months of this year, we have already exported 74,000 tons. With such dynamics, we see the possibility of exporting 150 thousand tons of flour by the end of the year,” he said during a discussion on the prospects of exports during the war, held by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.
According to his information, the war has made significant changes in the export of flour and cereals and bran. Previously these products were exported by sea from the main shipment bases in Kherson, Nikolaev, and Odessa. Traditional importers of Ukrainian flour and cereals were UAE, Palestine, Somalia, Israel, and bran – Turkey, where 95% of them were sent by sea.
The war has made significant adjustments to the geography of sales of these products, and today the largest importers of Ukrainian flour are Moldova, Poland, Palestine, Romania, Croatia and Turkey, said Rybchynskyy.
In the EU countries, in particular Poland, Romania, Germany, Spain, Portugal, are actively exported cereals. Last year 68 thousand tons of cereals were exported to foreign markets, while during five months of 2023 – 38 thousand tons.
In this case, Rybchinsky noted a change in the ways of sending flour and cereals for export.
“We do not use the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the Danube ports. There the rent of one grain warehouse at a distance of 5-10 km from the quay wall can cost $100 thousand per month. Therefore, logistics related to work on the Danube, eat up all the possible earnings,” said the expert, adding that the main export of flour and cereals is carried by road and only 15% by rail.
According to the head of the industry association, exporters now have problems when crossing Western borders. Despite the electronic queue, cars with products stand in queues for 2-3 weeks.
“This has led to the loss of substantial contracts with Polish and Romanian retail chains, where Ukrainian suppliers have not been able to ensure timely delivery of products. Currently, Ukrainian mills have to work mainly with industrial processors,” Rybchynsky explained.
At the same time, he noted that Polish pasta made from Ukrainian flour has already appeared on the Ukrainian market.
Finland will provide Ukraine with the 17th package of military assistance, including air defense equipment and ammunition, the Finnish government said in a press release on Thursday.
According to the statement, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto made the decision based on the government’s proposal.
The aid package will cost Finland 105 million euros.
In order to ensure the safe delivery of military cargoes to their destination, more precise details about the content of the aid package, the timing and ways of its transportation are not reported.
In total, Finland has provided Ukraine with military assistance worth about 1.2 billion euros.
