By Arpan Chaturvedi NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (Reuters) - India's top court on Tuesday warned it could reimpose a ban on Meta-owned WhatsApp's data sharing with other group entities, saying the messaging app's privacy policy misled users, two lawyers present in court said. WhatsApp has been locked in a dispute with India's antitrust regulator since November 2024, when it fined the company $25.4 million ...
By Arpan Chaturvedi NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (Reuters) - India's top court on Tuesday warned it could reimpose a ban on Meta-owned WhatsApp's data sharing with other group entities, saying the messaging app's privacy policy misled users, two lawyers present in court said. WhatsApp has been locked in a dispute with India's antitrust regulator since November 2024, when it fined the company $25.4 million and barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with other Meta entities for advertising purposes for five years. An appeals court later lifted the data-sharing restriction but kept the monetary penalty, prompting both sides to approach the Supreme Court. During Tuesday's hearing, India's chief justice questioned WhatsApp's privacy policy and said it was "very cleverly designed to mislead users," the two lawyers said. "Your privacy policy is designed in such a way that how can a poor elderly woman ... or (someone who) comes from a rural area understand your intentions?" Chief Justice Surya Kant said, according to the lawyers. WhatsApp declined to comment on the remarks, saying the case was sub judice. India is Meta's biggest market by user numbers. It does not disclose country-specific figures, but research firm DataReportal estimates Facebook has 403 million users in India and Instagram 481 million. WhatsApp previously said the ban might force it to roll back or pause some features in India and would hurt its business. The Supreme Court did not give a final verdict, and will continue to hear the case next week. Meta's privacy policy has also been a point of contention elsewhere. In 2023, it agreed to clarify changes to its policy in plain and intelligible language after it was accused of violating European Union law by failing to do so. The Indian antitrust authority's 2024 ruling said WhatsApp’s policy gave users the choice of either accepting the changes or risking losing access to the service and provided no opt-out feature. WhatsApp publicly says it shares with M...
MPLX press release ( MPLX ): Q4 GAAP EPS of $1.17 beats by $0.12 . Revenue of $3.25B (+6.2% Y/Y) beats by $70M . Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) attributable to MPLX was $1,804 million, compared with $1,762 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. During the quarter, MPLX generated $1,496 million in net cash provided by operating activities, $1,417 ...
MPLX press release ( MPLX ): Q4 GAAP EPS of $1.17 beats by $0.12 . Revenue of $3.25B (+6.2% Y/Y) beats by $70M . Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) attributable to MPLX was $1,804 million, compared with $1,762 million for the fourth quarter of 2024. During the quarter, MPLX generated $1,496 million in net cash provided by operating activities, $1,417 million of distributable cash flow, and adjusted free cash flow of $1,567 million. Announcing 2026 organic growth capital plan of $2.4 billion, aligned with natural gas and NGL investments driving mid-single digit adjusted EBITDA growth. MPLX's capital spending outlook for 2026 is $2.7 billion, consisting of $2.4 billion of growth and $300 million of maintenance. More on MPLX MPLX: AI Beneficiary, Rich Distributions, Compelling Valuations, And Outsized Growth Prospects MPLX: A Buy Despite Macro Headwinds And Recent Price Strength Buy MPLX For The Yield And AI Tailwinds MPLX Q4 2025 Earnings Preview MPLX downgraded at JPM as YTD outperformance leaves less relative upside
ILC Critical Minerals ( ILHMF ) announced a non-brokered private placement of up to 100M common shares at C$0.025 per share. The gross proceeds of up to C$2.5M. The proceeds will be used partly to enable the Company to invest in growing its Southern African and Canadian operations and partly for general working capital purposes. The closing of the offering is subject to acceptance by the TSXV. Mor...
ILC Critical Minerals ( ILHMF ) announced a non-brokered private placement of up to 100M common shares at C$0.025 per share. The gross proceeds of up to C$2.5M. The proceeds will be used partly to enable the Company to invest in growing its Southern African and Canadian operations and partly for general working capital purposes. The closing of the offering is subject to acceptance by the TSXV. More on ILC Critical Minerals Ltd. International Lithium announces name change to ‘ILC Critical Minerals’ Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on ILC Critical Minerals Ltd. Financial information for ILC Critical Minerals Ltd.
(RTTNews) - Ball Corp. (BALL), an innovative, sustainable aluminum packaging company, on Tuesday reported profit in the fourth quarter compared with loss in the previous year. For the fourth quarter, net earnings attributable to the company came in at $200 million compared with loss of 30 million in the previous year. Earnings per share were $0.74 versus loss per share of $0.10 last year. On an ad...
(RTTNews) - Ball Corp. (BALL), an innovative, sustainable aluminum packaging company, on Tuesday reported profit in the fourth quarter compared with loss in the previous year. For the fourth quarter, net earnings attributable to the company came in at $200 million compared with loss of 30 million in the previous year. Earnings per share were $0.74 versus loss per share of $0.10 last year. On an adjusted basis, net earnings decreased to $243 million from $250 million in the prior year. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.91 versus $0.84 last year. On average, fourteen analysts had expected the company to report $0.9 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Earnings from continuing operations came in at 197 million compared with loss of 1 million in the prior year. Net sales increased to $3.35 billion from $2.88 billon in the previous year. In the pre-market trading, Ball is 4.01% higher at $58.99 on the New York Stock Exchange. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Key Points Brookfield Infrastructure made significant progress on its AI infrastructure investment strategy last year. The company has multiple growth drivers. It will play a crucial role in supporting AI. 10 stocks we like better than Brookfield Infrastructure › The world needs to invest a staggering $7 trillion in infrastructure to support AI adoption over the coming decade. This once-in-a-gener...
Key Points Brookfield Infrastructure made significant progress on its AI infrastructure investment strategy last year. The company has multiple growth drivers. It will play a crucial role in supporting AI. 10 stocks we like better than Brookfield Infrastructure › The world needs to invest a staggering $7 trillion in infrastructure to support AI adoption over the coming decade. This once-in-a-generation investment opportunity ranges from developing AI factories (specialized AI data centers) to building out compute infrastructure (including chip manufacturing capacity) to constructing power and transmission infrastructure to support all this computing capacity. Much of the early AI hype has been about chips. That's causing investors to overlook other companies building the backbone of AI. One of the early leaders is Brookfield Infrastructure (NYSE: BIPC)(NYSE: BIP), which made significant progress on executing its AI infrastructure strategy last year. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now, when you join Stock Advisor. See the stocks » Building an AI infrastructure leader Brookfield Infrastructure is a leading global infrastructure company with operations that span utilities, energy midstream, transportation, and data infrastructure. The company's diversified operations generate steadily growing cash flow. In 2025, Brookfield grew its funds from operations by 6%, powered by inflation-driven rate increases, volume growth across its infrastructure networks, over $1.5 billion in new capital projects, and more than $1.1 billion in acquisitions. Included in those growth capital projects was commissioning 220 megawatts (MW) of new data center capacity last year. Those new data centers helped drive a more than 50% increase in the FFO generated by the company's data infrastructure segment last year. Brookfield also closed the acquisition of a South Korean industrial gas business last year. It'...
In this article MRK Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Dado Ruvic | Reuters Merck on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that topped estimates on strong demand for its cancer immunotherapy Keytruda and some newer products. But the company posted a modest 2026 outlook that fell short of Wall Street's expectations as it prepares for a few drugs to lose patent protection...
In this article MRK Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Dado Ruvic | Reuters Merck on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that topped estimates on strong demand for its cancer immunotherapy Keytruda and some newer products. But the company posted a modest 2026 outlook that fell short of Wall Street's expectations as it prepares for a few drugs to lose patent protection later this year and face generic competition. That includes Type 2 diabetes drugs, Januvia and Janumet, and Bridion, a treatment that helps restore muscle function that was blocked during surgery. While those medicines aren't top-selling products like Keytruda, their combined lower sales will likely pressure the company. The pharmaceutical giant anticipates its 2026 revenue will come in between $65.5 billion and $67 billion. Analysts expected revenue of $67.6 billion, according to LSEG. Merck also expects adjusted earnings to come in between $5 and $5.15 per share. That compares to analysts' estimate of $5.36 per share, according to LSEG. That range includes a one-time charge of roughly $9 billion, or around $3.65 per share, related to Merck's acquisition of Cidara, a biotech company that is developing a flu prevention drug. The guidance includes "manageable impacts" from the drug pricing deal Merck struck with President Donald Trump in December, as well as his administration's recent move to pare back the pediatric vaccine schedule in the U.S., according to a company spokesperson. Under that "most favored nation" deal , Merck will voluntarily sell its existing treatments to Medicaid patients at the lowest price offered in other developed nations and guarantee that pricing for new medicine, among other efforts. In exchange, Merck will get a three-year reprieve from tariffs. Here's what Merck reported for the fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: Earnings per share: $2.04 adjusted vs. $2.01 expected Revenue: $16....
Merck press release ( MRK ): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $2.04 beats by $0.03 . Revenue of $16.4B (+5.0% Y/Y) beats by $190M . Full-Year 2026 Financial Outlook Anticipates Worldwide Sales To Be Between $65.5 Billion and $67.0 Billion vs. $67.58B consensus Expects Non-GAAP EPS To Be Between $5.00 and $5.15 vs $5.63 consensus; Outlook Reflects a One-Time Charge of Approximately $3.65 per Share for the Acquis...
Merck press release ( MRK ): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $2.04 beats by $0.03 . Revenue of $16.4B (+5.0% Y/Y) beats by $190M . Full-Year 2026 Financial Outlook Anticipates Worldwide Sales To Be Between $65.5 Billion and $67.0 Billion vs. $67.58B consensus Expects Non-GAAP EPS To Be Between $5.00 and $5.15 vs $5.63 consensus; Outlook Reflects a One-Time Charge of Approximately $3.65 per Share for the Acquisition of Cidara Shares -3% PM. More on Merck Merck Chooses Evolution Over Revolution - At Proposed Price, I'm Not Surprised 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) Presents at 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Transcript FDA launches PreCheck program to assist in building pharma plants Merck Q4 2025 Earnings Preview
xAI goes on hiring spree for crypto and finance experts to train AI models. The firm seeks those familiar with crypto tools including DefiLlama, Nansen, Chainalysis. The push comes as SpaceX merges with xAI. Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAi is recruiting for over a dozen crypto and traditional finance roles to train its models, the firm’s website showed on Tuesday. Among the positio...
xAI goes on hiring spree for crypto and finance experts to train AI models. The firm seeks those familiar with crypto tools including DefiLlama, Nansen, Chainalysis. The push comes as SpaceX merges with xAI. Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAi is recruiting for over a dozen crypto and traditional finance roles to train its models, the firm’s website showed on Tuesday. Among the positions advertised are finance expert roles spanning crypto, equity and fixed-income, private credit, and quantitative trading. The new crypto role “will contribute directly to xAI’s mission by training and refining our advanced AI models,” the posting said. Duties include teaching AI models “how crypto quantitative traders analyze blockchain data, model tokenomics, evaluate on-chain flows, manage extreme volatility.” The job also requires using leading crypto tools, including Nansen, Chainalysis, and DefiLlama, xAI said. xAI did not immediately respond to a request for commentary on its crypto ambitions when asked by DL News. Musk and his companies have long been involved in crypto markets, too. In February 2021, the billionaire dubbed Dogecoin “the people’s crypto,” sending the token soaring by some 800%. Tesla was one of the first publicly traded US companies to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet in 2021. Musk‘s consolidation The slew of new roles comes as Musk’s rocket venture SpaceX is taking over xAI as the billionaire continues consolidating his business interests. The merger is valued at over $1 trillion, Bloomberg reported on Monday, though the terms of the deal are not public. xAI began as a unit within the social media company X, formerly Twitter, after Musk bought the firm in 2022. It has since been incorporated and is valued higher than X. Overall, xAI has drummed up $42 billion from venture investors, placing it behind only OpenAI, one of its competitors in the large language model segment. Tesla, the electric vehicle company led by Musk, also invested $2 billion int...
Key Points Netflix stock fell 11% in January 2026 as the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war intensified. Investors seem uneasy whether Netflix wins or loses the Warner Bros. deal. Patient investors may find current prices attractive despite the near-term chaos. 10 stocks we like better than Netflix › Shares of Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) fell 11% in January 2026, according to data from S&P Global Marke...
Key Points Netflix stock fell 11% in January 2026 as the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war intensified. Investors seem uneasy whether Netflix wins or loses the Warner Bros. deal. Patient investors may find current prices attractive despite the near-term chaos. 10 stocks we like better than Netflix › Shares of Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) fell 11% in January 2026, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The video-streaming pioneer started sliding in October 2025, as unexpected tax charges met rumor mill whispers about a potential buyout bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD). The negative trend continued as Netflix actually launched the rumored Warner Bros. bid in December, followed by an unsolicited rival offer. In January, the Warner Bros. drama dominated Netflix's Wall Street vibe. A solid fourth-quarter report wasn't robust enough to stop the downtrend. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now, when you join Stock Advisor. See the stocks » Why Netflix investors can't catch a break The Warner Bros. deal is a potential game changer. Putting Warner's namesake movie studio and the top-shelf HBO channel together with Netflix's world-class distribution network would reshape Hollywood in many ways. It would also radically alter Netflix's balance sheet, as the company would need to borrow a lot of cash to finance its revised all-cash offer of $82.7 billion. The bid moved from a cash-plus-stock structure to a pure cash deal in response to Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ: PSKY) issuing a higher all-cash bid of its own. Paramount's offer is technically a hostile takeover bid, where shareholders are asked to reject the negotiated Netflix deal and then replace Warner Bros. Discovery's board of directors with a new slate that supports the Paramount deal. The drama continues, and Netflix shares keep falling, whether the needle is swinging toward a successful Netflix-Warner merger or a P...
00:00 Julie When you're talking about silver prices going up, we know memory chip prices have been going up, costs have been going up for the data center build out. So, how do you think about that in the context of your ownership of tech stocks and your strategy around tech stocks? 00:18 Christian Yeah, so investors have to be more selective about where they go in that value chain. Okay. 00:25 Chr...
00:00 Julie When you're talking about silver prices going up, we know memory chip prices have been going up, costs have been going up for the data center build out. So, how do you think about that in the context of your ownership of tech stocks and your strategy around tech stocks? 00:18 Christian Yeah, so investors have to be more selective about where they go in that value chain. Okay. 00:25 Christian Now, the thing is we just had earnings, right? So we have the CAPEX projections from say the large hyperscalers, like if you look at Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, they're going to spend 460 billion in 2026. 00:36 Christian So for investors, there's all these pockets of value and you really want to focus on the inputs into the data center buildout where firms have moats and a lot of pricing power. So memory is a really interesting one. So OpenAI secured 40% of the global DRAM mark- market in October. 00:54 Christian And if you look at data centers, they use a certain type of memory. It's called high bandwidth memory, HBM. There's only three companies in the world that can produce it at scale. One is in the US, it's called Micron. The other two are in Korea, 01:07 Christian SK Hynix and Samsung. And if we look at the Kospi, last year it was up 90%. It's selling off today, but it's up 25% again this year. And what's interesting about that is they have an enormous amount of pricing power. So memory prices are going up on the order of 50 to 100% every single month because the demand is insatiable. 01:24 Christian And there's a lot of spillover effects related to that. So consumer electronics, we saw it on the Apple earnings call. There were questions around the cost of manufacturing the iPhone and concerns about their ability to secure memory. So there's all these sort of spillover effects tied to the AI narrative and this data center buildout. But if investors can find these firms that have that pricing power and they're a core input uh into the investment, uh there's...
"In 2025, we continued to advance leading-edge science to deliver transformative medicines and vaccines that are improving health outcomes for patients around the world," said Robert M. Davis, chairman and chief executive officer. "Our business benefited from demand for our innovative portfolio, including for KEYTRUDA, increasing contributions from new launches in cardiometabolic and respiratory a...
"In 2025, we continued to advance leading-edge science to deliver transformative medicines and vaccines that are improving health outcomes for patients around the world," said Robert M. Davis, chairman and chief executive officer. "Our business benefited from demand for our innovative portfolio, including for KEYTRUDA, increasing contributions from new launches in cardiometabolic and respiratory as well as vaccines, and strong performance of Animal Health. The transformation of our portfolio, bolstered by the acquisitions of Verona Pharma and Cidara Therapeutics, is well underway, and momentum is building as we continue to execute on our strategy. Our progress positions us to continue delivering on our purpose for patients and creating durable value for shareholders." RAHWAY, N.J., February 03, 2026 --( BUSINESS WIRE )--Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025. Expects Non-GAAP EPS To Be Between $5.00 and $5.15; Outlook Reflects a One-Time Charge of Approximately $3.65 per Share for the Acquisition of Cidara Reached Agreement With U.S. Government To Expand Access to Medicines and Lower Costs for Americans Received FDA Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers for Enlicitide and Sacituzumab Tirumotecan (Sac-TMT), Providing an Opportunity To Expedite Potential FDA Review Timelines for These Phase 3 Candidates Augmented Pipeline and Portfolio Through Acquisitions of Verona Pharma and Cidara Therapeutics and License Agreement With Hengrui Pharma Full-Year 2025 GAAP EPS Was $7.28; Non-GAAP EPS Was $8.98; GAAP and Non-GAAP EPS Include Charges of $0.20 per Share Related to Certain Business Development Transactions Fourth-Quarter GAAP EPS Was $1.19; Non-GAAP EPS Was $2.04; GAAP and Non-GAAP EPS Include a Charge of $0.05 per Share for the Acquisition of MK-8690 Sole Global Rights Reports Strength in Oncology and Animal Health, Plus Increa...
5 papers from the Super Bowl of Economics toggle caption Nick Fountain/NPR For most Americans, the Super Bowl is this Sunday. But for several of us at Planet Money, and several thousand economists from all around the world, our Super Bowl was a few weeks ago in Philadelphia … at the annual gathering of the American Economic Association. This conference is always a who's who of the econ world. Big-...
5 papers from the Super Bowl of Economics toggle caption Nick Fountain/NPR For most Americans, the Super Bowl is this Sunday. But for several of us at Planet Money, and several thousand economists from all around the world, our Super Bowl was a few weeks ago in Philadelphia … at the annual gathering of the American Economic Association. This conference is always a who's who of the econ world. Big-name economists debated on stage some of the most pressing questions in the field: Is there economic opportunity in the U.S. anymore? (Kind of.) Can we still trust government statistics? (Yes.) Did the pandemic change how inflation works? (Still up for debate.) Sponsor Message The real highlight, though, is when economists present their latest research. Like a lot of academic research, economics research can be slow, tedious, laborious. But the papers we get to see presented at this conference are hot off the presses, or even before the presses. They're in their early drafts, pre-peer review. It's in these paper sessions that we peek into what will be news in economics, what big ideas are coming, and we find new ways to think about the things we've been covering at Planet Money. (And while we're talking nerdy economic learning…if you like this newsletter, check out the Planet Money book coming out in April. If you pre-order it, you can get a free poster to go with it.) Anyway: here are some papers that jumped out at us at the AEA conference. First AI slows you down, then it speeds you up One of the interesting papers we discovered at AEA was titled, "The Rise of Industrial AI in America: Microfoundations of the Productivity J-curve(s)." It's by Kristina McElheran, Mu-Jeung Yang, Zachary Kroff and Erik Brynjolfsson, and it gives a glimpse into what actually happens to a firm's productivity when they start using new technologies like AI. They find that first, productivity goes down. Then, it rises. Tevhey call this a "J" curve, after the shape of the letter. Sponsor Message T...
Verizon is going on the offensive, which should be good for the stock. In October, new Verizon (VZ +0.42%) CEO Daniel Schulman said the company was going to make a fundamental strategy shift after continuing to lose wireless customers, saying it would move to a more customer-focused approach from a technology-centric one. It didn't take long for this new tactic to pay off, with the company seeing ...
Verizon is going on the offensive, which should be good for the stock. In October, new Verizon (VZ +0.42%) CEO Daniel Schulman said the company was going to make a fundamental strategy shift after continuing to lose wireless customers, saying it would move to a more customer-focused approach from a technology-centric one. It didn't take long for this new tactic to pay off, with the company seeing its highest quarterly net subscriber additions since 2019. Strong subscriber growth During the quarter, Verizon added 1 million net subscribers, including 616,000 postpaid phone subs. It also added 372,000 broadband net additions, including 319,000 fixed wireless subs and 67,000 Fios households. Verizon's overall revenue rose 2% year over year to $36.4 billion, with service revenue edging up 0.1% to $28.2 billion and wireless equipment revenue climbing 9.1% to $8.2 billion. Consumer revenue increased by 3.2% year over year to $28.14 billion, with service revenue up 0.9%. The company's business unit continued to lag, with revenue decreasing by 1.8% year over year to $7.4 billion, as wireline customers continue to churn off. Expand NYSE : VZ Verizon Communications Today's Change ( 0.42 %) $ 0.18 Current Price $ 44.70 Key Data Points Market Cap $188B Day's Range $ 43.88 - $ 45.48 52wk Range $ 38.39 - $ 47.35 Volume 422 Avg Vol 29M Gross Margin 45.64 % Dividend Yield 6.13 % Overall adjusted EPS slipped by 0.9% to $1.09, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) fell 0.6% to $11.9 billion. Looking ahead, Verizon projected it would add between 750,000 to 1 million postpaid phone subscribers in 2026. It is looking for mobility and broadband service revenue to rise between 2% to 3%, and for adjusted EPS to climb by 4% to 5% to between $4.90 and $4.95. Verizon also announced a huge $25 billion buyback to be completed over the next three years, while reiterating its commitment to its dividend. This will be backed by its strong free cash flow, whic...
Europe's Russian Gas Ban Is Set To Trigger New Wave Of LNG Tanker Demand Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com, The European Union’s plan to ban LNG imports from Russia will prompt a surge in demand for LNG carriers to the tune of 30 new vessels, a senior Vortexa analyst said ahead of the LNG Qatar gathering that starts today. According to Ashley Sherman, senior LNG analyst at the company, if th...
Europe's Russian Gas Ban Is Set To Trigger New Wave Of LNG Tanker Demand Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com, The European Union’s plan to ban LNG imports from Russia will prompt a surge in demand for LNG carriers to the tune of 30 new vessels, a senior Vortexa analyst said ahead of the LNG Qatar gathering that starts today. According to Ashley Sherman, senior LNG analyst at the company, if the EU sanctions leave currently unsanctioned Yamal LNG free to deliver liquefied gas to European buyers, at least 30 new low ice-class or non-ice-class LNG carriers to satisfy demand for the fuel from the second-largest importing region after Asia. In December last year, the European Union agreed a legally binding, gradual reduction in both LNG and pipeline gas imports from Russia, eventually resulting in a full ban on these exports, with the deadlines set for the end of 2026 for LNG and the autumn of 2027 for pipeline gas. Last month, the European Council gave the final approval to the ban. It also gave EU members until March to “prepare national plans to diversify gas supplies and identify potential challenges in replacing Russian gas.” Hungary and Slovakia have protested the move on the grounds it would raise their energy costs to unacceptable levels. The Yamal LNG facility, operated by Novatek, has been excluded from direct sanctions so far due to the Europea Union’s strong demand for gas, but the EU has sanctioned vessels loading from the Western Siberian LNG plant. Novatek’s second LNG plant, however, Arctic LNG 2, along with Gazprom’s Portovaya LNG plant, are under Western sanctions. They still export liquefied gas to China, despite the sanctions on both production facilities and LNG carriers servicing them. Meanwhile, the EU imported record volumes of LNG last month amid harsh winter weather, with the total calculated at 12.7 billion cu m, Russia’s TASS news agency reported , citing figures from Gas Infrastructure Europe. Tyler Durden Tue, 02/03/2026 - 06:30