The volume of Venezuelan crude floating at sea has spiked to the highest level in more than three years after the US seized the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and asserted control over its energy resources. More than 29 million barrels of Venezuelan oil are now on vessels stationary at sea, up from about 20 million barrels earlier this week, according to data from Kpler. Most of the increase ha...
The volume of Venezuelan crude floating at sea has spiked to the highest level in more than three years after the US seized the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and asserted control over its energy resources. More than 29 million barrels of Venezuelan oil are now on vessels stationary at sea, up from about 20 million barrels earlier this week, according to data from Kpler. Most of the increase has been seen in waters in Asia, where China has long been the largest importer of the South American nation’s output. “Chinese teapots are already bracing for the possibility that the barrels now in transit will be their last,” said Muyu Xu , a senior crude analyst at Kpler, referring to independent Chinese processors. The oil market has been rocked this week by the US intervention into OPEC member Venezuela, which sits on the world’s largest proven crude reserves. The Trump administration has said it plans to control future sales of Venezuelan oil and hold the proceeds, with the new arrangement to last “indefinitely,” according to Energy Secretary Chris Wright. It has also maintained a naval blockade on flows, although US-bound cargoes have been allowed. The upheaval has cast doubt on where the Venezuelan oil that’s now in transit or floating storage will end up. Still, Wright also said Washington would not prevent China from accessing Venezuelan oil, according to comments to Fox News. “ We’re not going to cut off China ,” he said. “The illicit trade in oil with Iran and Russia, the illegal gun-running stuff, that’s going to be cut off.”
India’s economy is not showing signs of a robust recovery and the risk of higher US tariffs as well as increased dumping of low-cost Chinese goods could weaken the outlook, former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said in an interview. Data released this week as part of government’s advance estimates show the economy expanding 7.4% in the year ending in March, extending India’s world-beati...
India’s economy is not showing signs of a robust recovery and the risk of higher US tariffs as well as increased dumping of low-cost Chinese goods could weaken the outlook, former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said in an interview. Data released this week as part of government’s advance estimates show the economy expanding 7.4% in the year ending in March, extending India’s world-beating growth streak. “We should read that figure cautiously,” Subramanian said in an interview on Friday with Bloomberg Television’s Menaka Doshi . He said the estimate may suffer from the “age-old problem” of whether it is well measured, given an unusually low deflator, which is used to strip out inflation from the gross domestic product calculation. “Even directionally, it is not obvious that the economy is recovering,” said Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He pointed to decelerating nominal indicators and slowing high-frequency data as reasons for caution about both the level and direction of growth. “I would not put a precise number on growth, but if growth next year ends up similar to this year, India should consider itself fortunate and view that as a job well done, given the heightened uncertainty,” he said. Risks from US trade policy also remain high. President Donald Trump’s punitive 50% tariffs on Indian goods, partly linked to New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, added to the uncertainty. “It is now looking less likely that there will be a trade deal,” Subramanian said, adding that “tariff rates may even move higher.” READ: Modi’s Failure to Call Trump Derailed Trade Deal, Lutnick Says India also faces pressure from what Subramanian described as “Chinese mercantilism,” as it rapidly exports and diverts goods to developing countries, including India, weighing on the domestic economy. He also flagged concerns around public finances. “While the macro position is reasonably strong, the fiscal situation, partly because ...
Over the past few decades, there's been a paradigm shift in how audiences consume entertainment . Many viewers have abandoned broadcast and cable TV in favor of streaming services . This shift has coincided with a secular decline in movie theater ticket sales. Leading the charge has been Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) . The streaming giant reported over 300 million global subscribers to close out 2024, al...
Over the past few decades, there's been a paradigm shift in how audiences consume entertainment . Many viewers have abandoned broadcast and cable TV in favor of streaming services . This shift has coincided with a secular decline in movie theater ticket sales. Leading the charge has been Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) . The streaming giant reported over 300 million global subscribers to close out 2024, although the company no longer provides updates on its subscription data. The company's insistence on shorter theatrical windows and "day-and-date" -- the practice of releasing movies to its vast streaming audience on the same day its movies hit cinemas -- caused a long-standing rift between Netflix and cinema operators. AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE: AMC) , the world's largest theater chain , opposed these practices, and CEO Adam Aron has long been one of Netflix's most vocal opponents. However, the past few months have seen a warming of relations, and a couple of successful collaborations suggest the tide has turned. Continue reading