Benchmark oil prices are little changed on Thursday morning after declines in the previous three sessions.
The price of October Brent futures on London’s ICE Futures exchange is at $83.2 per barrel by 8:09 a.m. Q4, down 1 cent (0.01%) from the previous session’s close. On Wednesday, these contracts fell in price by $0.82 (1%) – to $83.21 per barrel.
Quotes of futures for WTI crude oil for October at the electronic trading of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by the specified time decreased by 5 cents (0.06%) and amounted to $78.84 per barrel. At the end of the last session they fell by $0.75 (0.9%) – to $78.89 per barrel.
The day before, Brent ended trading at the lowest since August 2, WTI – since July 26.
Commercial oil inventories in the U.S. last week decreased by 6.13 million barrels, according to the weekly report of the country’s Energy Department. Experts surveyed by Bloomberg expected a decrease in oil reserves by 3 million barrels.
Meanwhile, commercial reserves of gasoline increased by 1.47 million barrels, distillates – increased by 945 thousand barrels. Analysts predicted a decrease in gasoline reserves by 481 thousand barrels and an increase in distillate reserves by 698 thousand barrels.
Inventories at the Cushing terminal, where NYMEX-traded crude is stored, fell 3.13 million barrels after dropping 837,000 barrels a week earlier.
“The data pointed to a sharp drop in oil inventories overall and also at the Cushing terminal,” Tariq Zahir, managing partner at Tyche Capital Advisors, told MarketWatch. According to him, the decline in quotations observed in recent days may be replaced by growth amid production cuts in Saudi Arabia and storm activity in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Verkhovna Rada has passed in the second reading and as a whole the law “On state regulation of genetically engineered activities and state control over the placement of genetically modified organisms and products on the market”.
The corresponding bill №5839 was supported by 276 people’s deputies at the plenary session on Wednesday, a member of the faction “Golos” Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported in Telegram.
According to the explanatory note, the document defines the legal and organizational basis for the state regulation of genetically engineered activities, ensuring environmental, genetic, food and biological security of the state and state control over the placement of genetically modified organisms and products on the market.
It defines the terms “genetically modified organism”, “genetically modified products”, “GM products as a food product”, introduces state registration of GMOs, etc.
Before the law was adopted in the second reading, it was amended to prohibit the cultivation and import of GM corn, as well as the cultivation of genetically modified sugar beets and rapeseed for five years.
The document introduces a comprehensive regulation of the legal and organizational foundations of genetically engineered activities by means of state supervision (control) over the use of genetically modified organisms and the turnover of GM products.
The bill also delimits the powers of state authorities to avoid duplication of functions in the sphere of GMO handling; improves the system of GMO risk assessment with regard to possible impact on human health and the natural environment; introduces European mechanisms for state registration of GMOs; improves requirements for labeling of GM products and introduces rules for their traceability; strengthens state control in the sphere of GMO handling and establishes liability for violation of legislation in this sphere.
Finland will provide Ukraine with the next 18th defense aid package by the end of the week, it will include heavy weapons and ammunition, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has said.
“Finland has already provided Ukraine with 1.7 billion euros in aid… We are now preparing the next 18th aid package. It will include heavy weapons, ammunition… We should deliver finally at the end of this week. This is a very good package. It contains very necessary materials,” Orpo said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev.
Answering journalists’ questions whether Finnish high technologies would be available to Ukraine and whether there was anything concrete that Finland could offer, the prime minister said he had discussed the issue with Zelensky and called it “a good idea.”
“We discussed this issue with the president. Last week we saw that a Swedish company signed a cooperation agreement with Ukraine. We discussed that there are high-tech companies in Finland, that they could engage in cooperation to manufacture something together. I think we have something to do. We have experience. So it’s a good idea,” he said.
In turn, Zelensky said that Ukraine is extremely interested in Finnish armored personnel carriers.
“We would like to manufacture them together – in Ukraine. We discussed this with the Prime Minister. He very rightly said that we concluded a memorandum on the production of CV-90. But we need more. And during the war and after the war Ukraine will need to remain strong in order not to give Russia any opportunity to think about the second wave of aggression against us. That’s why we need to produce more. That is why we wanted and want to organize this Defense Industries Forum,” the Ukrainian president said.
The Vikram lander of India’s Chandrayaan-3 Automated Interplanetary Station (Chandrayaan-3), which landed on the Moon on Wednesday, has successfully established communication with the Mission Control Center in Bangalore, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) reported.
“Communication has been established between the Chandrayaan-3 lander and the MOX-ISTRAC (Mission Operations Center for Telemetry, Surveillance and Control) located in Bangalore,” the organization said in a statement.
The landing was made at 18:02 Indian time (15:32 sq. m.) in the area of the unexplored South Pole of the Moon.
Thus, India became the fourth country after the USSR, the United States and China to land its own vehicle on the Moon.
The LVM3 rocket with the Chandrayaan-3 automatic interplanetary station was launched on July 14 from the launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Center, located on the island of Sriharikota. On August 5, the station was launched into lunar orbit.
After the landing, the Pragyan lunar rover, equipped with various research equipment, will move off the platform and begin chemical analysis of the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite. The mission of the 20 kg lunar rover is designed for 14 Earth days.
The previous attempt to send a lander and lunar rover to the Moon was made in 2019 as part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission. Then the orbiter managed to enter lunar orbit, but due to communication problems, specialists were unable to correct the lunar position of the lander, which separated from the interplanetary station and crashed into the lunar surface.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission orbiter remained in orbit and continues to collect scientific data about the Earth’s natural satellite. Chandrayaan-3 does not include such a mission.
Charitable Foundation “Kolo” provided transportation for two social projects implemented by the Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after V.P.Filatov of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Odessa). V.P. Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Odessa).
As Interfax-Ukraine was informed in the Institute, the Foundation provided transportation for the project “Let’s Save Sight”, within the framework of which a team of ophthalmologists from the Institute travels weekly to the settlements of the region to examine patients directly in their places of residence. This helps to detect eye diseases in time, which without timely ophthalmologic care can lead to disability and even blindness.
The second project, the further implementation of which became possible thanks to the provided transportation – “I want to see”. The project has been running for about 15 years, and within its framework the Institute’s specialists regularly visit the departments for nursing premature babies in maternity hospitals and examine premature newborns to detect retinopathy of prematurity. This is a severe eye disease based on immaturity of eye structures, in particular the retina, at the time of premature birth. Timely diagnosis and highly skilled care can save children from irreversible blindness.
“A huge challenge for both teams was the lack of appropriate transportation. The team of the project “Let’s Save Sight” left on a twenty-year-old car “Gazelle” with absolutely unacceptable conditions of transportation of ophthalmologic equipment. Doctors of the project “I want to see” used their own transport, and cars rented by the benefactors, and even public transport of Odessa. Today the problems of traveling teams are solved thanks to the charity fund “Kolo”, – emphasize in the Institute.
“Doctors and patients of Filatov Institute sincerely thank the Charitable Foundation “Kolo”, its director Elena Krivenko, volunteer of the Foundation Maria Kotvitskaya and General Producer of Ukrainian Fashion Week, volunteer Vladimir Nechiporuk for their help”, – emphasized in the Institute.
Ukrainian flour millers are increasingly reporting low quality of the new harvest wheat, in some regions the total share of grade 2 and 3 wheat will not exceed 10% of total production, APK-Inform news agency reported.
According to the report, the majority of processors in communication with the agency’s experts noted that they mainly receive offers of wheat with low protein content – up to 11%, a small share – at the level of 11-12% and only a few offers with protein content at the level of 13%.
“Some processors predict that in some regions of the country the total share of wheat of 2nd and 3rd class this year will not exceed 10% of the total production,” the analysts said.
According to them, the current situation with the quality of wheat provides significant support to prices. This week, most Ukrainian millers continued to gradually increase their purchase prices for milling wheat.
As of August 23, the demand prices for wheat of the 2nd and 3rd grades were mostly fixed in the range of 5700-6700 UAH/ton and 5500-6500 UAH/ton CPT, respectively, which is 100-200 UAH/ton higher than at the end of last week, but most buyers raised the minimum and close to them prices, experts explained.
Agrarians continue to restrain the sales of high-quality grains, which provides additional support to prices, APK-Inform summarized.
As reported, Ukraine has already harvested 27 mln tonnes of wheat with record yields, but analysts point out that due to weather conditions, 60% of the crop will be sold as fodder, which is twice as much as last year.
