Oil prices rise for the third session in a row on data about reduction of fuel reserves in the USA and easing of fears about the crisis in the banking sector, writes MarketWatch.
The cost of May futures for Brent at London’s ICE Futures Exchange is $78.83 a barrel by 8:05 a.m., which is $0.18 (0.23%) above the previous session’s closing price. Those contracts rose $0.53 (0.7%) to $78.65 a barrel at the close of trading on Tuesday.
The price of WTI futures for May at electronic trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is $73.64 per barrel by that time, which is $0.44 (0.6%) above the final value of the previous session. The day before, the contract rose $0.39 (0.5%) to $73.2 a barrel.
“Market participants were trying to assess what effect the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the merger of Credit Suisse and UBS would have on the overall market,” wrote Price Futures Group senior analyst Phil Flynn. – However, the effect could be positive, as the banking crisis could force the world’s central banks to slow the pace of rate hikes.”
The American Petroleum Institute (API) data released on Tuesday night, Wednesday, indicated a 6.08 million-barrel decline in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended March 24. Gasoline inventories fell 5.89 million barrels and distillates rose 548,000 barrels.
The official report on energy reserves in the United States will be released at 5:30 pm on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Trading Economics expect a slight increase in oil reserves by about 100,000 barrels.
Oil prices growth was also pushed up by the decision of the International Chamber of Commerce arbitration court in a lawsuit against Turkey, which challenged the export of oil from Kurdistan. The export of oil from the North of Iraq was halted on March 25. The volume of transportation through Turkey was about 400 thousand barrels of oil per day.
Ukraine’s aggregate public debt in February shrank by 0.5%: by $0.59 billion to $116.01 billion in dollar terms and by UAH 21.62 billion to UAH 4.24 trillion, according to the Ministry of Finance.
According to them, the direct national debt last month decreased by 0.2% – to $106.18 billion, or 3.88 trillion UAH and amounted to 91.5% of the total public debt and publicly guaranteed debt.
It is reported that the external direct debt decreased by $0.56 billion – to $67.01 billion, while the domestic direct debt increased by UAH 11.99 billion to UAH 1.43 trillion (the equivalent of $39.17 billion).
Ukraine’s total external public debt in February 2023 decreased by 1.2%, or $0.9 billion – to $74.88 billion, while the total internal debt increased by 0.8%, or 11.44 billion UAH – to 1.50 trillion UAH.
As a result, the share of total external public debt in February decreased from 65.0% to 64.6%.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the share of obligations in euros at the end of February decreased to 24.07%, in Canadian dollars – to 1.24%, in SDR – to 12.31%, in Yen – 0.84%, while in U.S. dollars it increased to 29.07%, in UAH – 32.45%, and in British pounds remained at 0.02%.
The Ministry also clarified that 64.42% of the state debt has a fixed interest rate, while 12.31% is tied to the IMF rate, 6.51% – to SOFR, 2.07% – to Libor, 3.32% – to EURIBOR.
Another 3.42% of the government debt is tied to the consumer price index, while 7.6% is tied to the NBU discount rate. We are talking about government bonds from the portfolio of the National Bank, the most recent were securities linked to the discount rate, which the NBU bought within the framework of the emission financing of the budget.
Finally, 0.35% of the government debt has a rate linked to the Ukrainian index of rates on deposits of individuals, used in the programs of portfolio guarantees.
Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, will build 170 and upgrade more than 1,000 base stations in the first quarter of 2023, this work is largely due to significant migration to cities and villages in the west of the country, company president Alexander Komarov said in Facebook on Tuesday.
“The level of availability of the network “Kyivstar” in the free territory of Ukraine is more than 99%. This corresponds to the level until February 24, 2022. Nevertheless, there are difficulties in maintaining this quality of communication, the solution of which we are actively working on, “- said the head of the company.
According to him, from time to time the company has difficulties with maintaining an appropriate level of network availability because of bad weather and related warning blackouts, and sometimes the difficulties are caused by security issues, irresponsible attitude of landlords and problems getting access to the network.
Komarov pointed out that Kyivstar does not reduce the rate of battery replacement and connection of new generators, bringing the total number of the latter to about 1,900, as the threat of blackouts remains, and the current improved situation with power supply is a seasonal phenomenon associated with the successful actions of the air defense and a surplus in generation.
The head of the company also said that in the Kharkiv and decouped territories of the Kherson region, grid restoration work is in its final stage.
As reported, in 2022 Kyivstar built 659 new base stations, which roughly corresponds to the level of 2021. In total, the company has about 14 thousand base stations and other network facilities.
Komarov said at Business Wisdom Summit on March 15 that Kyivstar installed 1,790 generators, of which 700 were provided by the business on crowdfunding terms. Their total capacity reached 40 MW.
Export of Ukraine by countries in Jan-Nov 2022
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
The Foundation of American public figure and businessman Howard Graham Buffett is preparing to provide Kharkiv region with experimental drones that will help identify mines from the air, the OVA head Oleg Sinegubov said.
“The Howard Buffett Foundation wants to provide us with experimental drones to detect from the air, survey the area and map (the location) of mines with the corresponding coordinates,” Sinegubov said at a briefing on Tuesday.
“At the moment, this equipment is already receiving all export licenses and certificates in the United States. As soon as they pass, they will immediately enter the territory of the Kharkov region. This fund has identified the territory of the Kharkiv region as a priority,” the head of the OVA added.
As it was reported earlier, Buffett donated four modern mobile DNA laboratories ANDE 6C and 300 chips to them, which conduct express analysis of DNA samples, as well as 19 powerful generators to ensure the operation of critical and social infrastructure facilities in the region during power outages resulting from armed Russian aggression, to Kharkiv police.
As is well known, Kharkiv region is considered the most contaminated with explosives in Ukraine.
Export changes in % to previous period in 2021-2022
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
