The regulator has cited the Iran war pushing up wholesale energy costs while justifying the move.

The rise, according to analysts, will undermine Burnham’s pledge to alleviate the United Kingdom’s cost-of-living pressures. The Ofgem announcement is also going to wipe out the benefits of the measures the new British PM announced last month, in which the tax got cut on electricity bills.

“High international gas prices are continuing to drive energy costs in the UK. We ⁠welcome the government’s intervention to remove VAT from electricity bills, without which customers would have faced even higher costs this winter,” said Neil Kenward, Ofgem’s director general for markets.

The post UK energy price cap to rise 4% as government’s electricity VAT cut faces test appeared first on International Finance.

The ‌refinery has submitted an application for a USD 5 billion IPO to Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, as per the reports. The final size of the listing, however, is not decided yet.

“We really want to drive participation. The mandate of the IPO was to be the people’s IPO,” CEO David Bird told Reuters.

As per Bird, the African energy giant wanted at least three years of ⁠proven production and financial performance before pursuing an overseas listing, which could support a stronger valuation. London has been mentioned as a possible venue.

While Bird didn’t say anything about the IPO’s size or the refinery’s valuation, reports suggest that the company could take into account the USD 2.5 billion raised in a July private placement, which valued the refinery at about USD 40 billion.

The post No foreign listing for now as Dangote Refinery eyes retail-focused IPO appeared first on International Finance.

Saudi energy giant Aramco witnessed a 44% increase in its Q2 2026 profits, as it faced windfall from higher crude oil prices, ‌refined products and chemicals while forced to reroute shipments to avoid the war-hit Strait of Hormuz.

The world’s top oil exporter posted net profit of USD 32.69 billion in the three months ended June 30, compared with USD 22.67 billion a year earlier.

Aramco said it maintained a supply reliability rate of 98.4% during the quarter despite continued geopolitical uncertainty in ‌the ⁠wider Gulf region.

The energy major’s adjusted net income during the quarter stood at USD 33.4 billion. For the H1 (first half) of 2026, the total number was USD 67.2 billion.

Cash flow from operating activities stood at USD 25.4 billion and USD 56.2 billion for Q2 and H1, respectively. Free cash flow, on the other hand, was at USD 12.3 billion and USD 30.9 billion at the same timeframes.

The post Aramco posts 44% profit rise as higher oil prices boost energy sector earnings appeared first on International Finance.

TotalEnergies also sees its production growing significantly in the third quarter, although exports will still be dependent on freedom of passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Hormuz is a battleground, and the risks of crossing are extremely high … We are beginning to consider this could become the new normal, with the strait opening on and off,” CEO Patrick Pouyanne told analysts on a results call.

TotalEnergies’ adjusted net income was USD 6 billion, in line with expectations, according to a consensus of analysts polled by LSEG.

However, weaker LNG earnings proved to be a big drag on the earnings. ⁠Still, the latest figures stood way above USD 3.6 billion, seen in the second quarter of 2025, and USD 5.4 billion, registered in the first quarter of 2026.

The company has also maintained its USD 1.5 billion share buyback scheme for the third quarter, with its stock rising 37% so far this year.

The Iran-Iraq war has disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, still cutting supplies, which is in turn causing massive price volatilities in the crude and gas segments. While the phenomenon has left a damaging imprint on the global economy, oil majors such as Norway’s Equinor have registered massive profit windfalls in this environment.

TotalEnergies’ exploration and production earnings reached USD 3.2 billion, a 64% rise from the same period a year ago and 25% higher than the first quarter of 2026, with Middle East operations slowly stabilising.

As per Pouyanne, both upstream and downstream segments benefitted from the war, which is unusual, as a higher upstream oil price means smaller margins on refining fuels. TotalEnergies’ refineries, mostly in Europe, have maximised diesel and jet ‌fuel production, ⁠which are earning the best premiums given low inventories across the continent.

“Income from refining and chemicals, which includes TotalEnergies’ oil trading division, rose 362% to USD 1.8 billion, helped by stronger fuel margins and robust oil trading — eclipsing last quarter’s standout USD 1.5 billion contribution,” Pouyanne noted, while stating that the French energy giant’s SATORP refinery in Saudi Arabia should return to full capacity by the end of the Q3 2026 after sustaining damage from Iran war-related attacks.

Talking about the LNG division, it earned USD 807 million, a 22% drop, due to trading ⁠underperformance amid flat demand in Europe. The electricity division was down 7% at USD 533 million, but cash flow excluding working capital was up 28% due to TotalEnergies nearly doubling its portfolio of gas-fired power plants in the continent after closing a deal with EPH in April.

TotalEnergies will soon finalise its exit ⁠from its 10% stake in the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 plant in Russia. The transfer of the venture’s 10% stake to Nordline, a subsidiary of the plant’s majority owner Novatek, has been approved by Russian authorities and will be completed ⁠in the short term.

Following Western sanctions on Russia in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Total maintained ownership in key Russian plants exporting LNG but had been considering selling the stakes as the European Union (EU) kerbs are targeting companies from importing that gas or selling it in other jurisdictions.

“Soon after Arctic LNG 2 became subject to US sanctions in November 2023, ‌Novatek ⁠approached us about a potential transfer,” Pouyanne said.

In 2022, the year which saw both the beginning of the Ukraine war and the West’s targeted economic response against Russia, Total took a USD 4.1 billion impairment on the project. In 2023, it declared force majeure. Total, however, is still earning about USD 400 million annually from selling cargoes from Russia’s Yamal LNG plant.

In Namibia, Total is expecting a final investment decision (FID) on the 150,000-barrels-per-day Venus development in the coming weeks. In Suriname, production on the Gran Morgu development will begin in 2028. In Cyprus, the Cronos gas field development will receive FID by the end of July 2026.

The post TotalEnergies posts strongest quarter in nearly three years, plans Arctic LNG 2 exit appeared first on International Finance.

The global economy is now expected to grow 3% in 2026, down from an April forecast of 3.1%, a modest slowdown partly offset by artificial intelligence (AI)-driven demand. Growth is projected to rebound to 3.4% in 2027, still below the 3.5% average recorded across 2024 and 2025. Global headline inflation is expected to reach 4.7% this year, up from 4.1% in 2025, before easing to 3.9% in 2027.

“The global outlook is being shaped by two powerful forces pulling in opposite directions: the lingering effects of the energy shock from the war in the Middle East and a technology-driven investment boom,” said Petya Koeva Brooks, deputy director of the IMF’s research department.

The downgrade came after the United States renewed strikes on Iran following attacks on three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, days before a second round of American bombing raids on Iranian targets.

President Donald Trump said he believed the ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was over, a remark that sent Brent crude up as much as 7%, briefly topping USD 79 a barrel. The IMF’s forecast assumes shipping through the Strait of Hormuz begins normalising in mid-July, with prewar conditions restored by March 2027.

Energy prices are now running about 25% above pre-war levels, with the fund pencilling in an average of USD 89 a barrel for 2026.

Deniz Igan, chief of the IMF’s World Economic Studies division, said the global economy had proven more resilient than expected in April, helped by the release of strategic oil reserves and improved energy efficiency, though she cautioned that a collapse of the ceasefire could catch the world economy in a weaker position than before.

The outlook varies sharply by region. The United States is forecast to grow 2.3%, the fastest among major advanced economies, supported by fiscal policy and continued technology-related investment.

The eurozone forecast was trimmed to 0.9%, Japan to 0.6% and Canada to 1.1%, while Brazil’s outlook was raised to 2.4%. China is expected to grow 4.6%, up from April’s 4.4% estimate, and India was downgraded slightly to 6.4%.

Countries at the centre of the AI hardware supply chain fared best. Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia all posted stronger-than-expected results, with South Korea’s annualised first-quarter growth reaching 7.5%, nearly four times the fund’s earlier estimate, despite its heavy reliance on Middle Eastern energy imports.

The Middle East and Central Asia region bore the brunt of the downgrade, with growth cut to 0.7% for 2026 before an expected rebound to 6.5% in 2027. Saudi Arabia’s forecast was reduced by 1.4 percentage points to 1.7%.

The IMF’s update follows a starker warning from the World Bank, which cut its own 2026 global growth forecast to 2.5%, describing the slowdown as the worst hit to the global economy since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fund urged policymakers to keep monetary policy focused on restoring price stability and to avoid broad-based subsidies or price controls that could distort markets.

Talking about the Iran war, the recent escalation of hostilities between the Washington and Tehran could upend the International Energy Agency’s forecast of a significant oil market surplus in 2027, it said on ‌Friday. While global supply jumped in June with the reopening of the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, supply levels haven’t been able to reach the pre-war levels.

The effective closure of the maritime chokehold had taken out ⁠as much as 14 million barrels per day of crude flows during the peak of the largest oil supply crisis in history.

As per the, IEA ‘s data, global oil supply rose by 4.1 million bpd in June, but remained 9.4 million bpd below pre-war levels. While the energy watchdog sees supply expanding by 7.5 million bpd in 2027 after a 3.7 million bpd contraction in 2026, realisation of the estimates will still be dependent upon the improvement in Hormuz transits.

“An escalation in hostilities on 7-8 July, however, ‌clouds ⁠the outlook and could upend the forecast that sees the market flipping to a surplus next year,” IEA said, adding that a lasting peace agreement is a “must” for oil markets to normalise.

The IEA’s 2027 forecasts imply that supply will outweigh demand by ⁠4.62 million bpd in 2027 from 2026’s deficit of 860,000 bpd, provided producers can restart fields and refiners can resume normal product shipments.

The Paris-based agency also sees global oil demand falling by 1 million bpd this year, before rebounding to rise two million bpd in 2027. In the nearer term, ⁠it sees the peak summer fuel demand season lifting consumption by around eight million bpd when compared with May’s low point at the peak of the Hormuz crisis.

The post Energy shock bites: Iran war forces IMF to cut global growth outlook appeared first on International Finance.

The scale of the exercise is worth noting. More than 5,800 companies across 43 countries and 20 industries were assessed, with 750 selected worldwide. The selection began with a shortlist of over 5,000 of the world’s largest and most influential firms, chosen for their revenue, market capitalisation and public prominence, before a four step process narrowed the field. Companies tied to fossil fuels, deforestation or major environmental scandals were automatically ruled out at the first stage, before the rest were scored against more than 20 sustainability indicators.

Topping the list this year is Schneider Electric, the French energy management giant. This is no one-off. The company has held the number one spot for three years running, in 2024, 2025 and now 2026, a run that analysts put down to the growing demand for decarbonisation technology.

How companies reacted
For firms that made the cut, the recognition has become something to shout about. Japan’s Ricoh, which has now appeared on the list for three consecutive years, had its sustainability chief call it a reflection of the firm’s push to embed transparency and accountability into daily operations.

Canada’s CAE described the listing as a considerable honour tied to its climate transition work, while Michigan based BorgWarner’s chief executive linked the recognition directly to long term growth, arguing that sustainability and business strength go hand in hand. Finland’s Elisa, ranked just behind fellow Finnish firm Nokia, called its own three year streak on the list proof of steady, long term work rather than a quick fix.

The broader picture
The context behind this year’s list is more complicated than the celebratory press releases suggest. Sustainability chiefs have had a difficult year, with many companies shifting focus towards cost savings, the US government withdrawing renewable energy tax credits and rolling back environmental rules, and an energy crisis stemming from the war in Iran threatening to push up prices across the board. Despite this, experts argue that most companies are staying the course. Maria Mendiluce, head of the We Mean Business Coalition, says pragmatism is taking hold among both companies and regulators, with Europe and Asia continuing to back green policy even as the politics get noisier.

One driver of this staying power is regulation. The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a tariff on carbon heavy imports that took effect at the start of 2026, has pushed more companies to pay closer attention to disclosure data so they can gauge how the tax will hit their bottom line. Similarly, the EU’s 2025 rule requiring a minimum share of sustainable aviation fuel at European airports has made operators like ninth placed Aena more active in encouraging its uptake.

Oxford researcher Kaya Axelsson sums up where this is heading. She argues that the next phase of corporate climate action will be less about setting individual targets and more about changing the systems companies operate within, even as economics make the case for a green transition clearer than the politics.

For everyday readers, the takeaway is simple. Sustainability is no longer a side project chasing good headlines. It is increasingly being tracked, measured and, as this list shows, rewarded.

The post TIME and Statista name world’s most sustainable companies for 2026 appeared first on International Finance.

The purchases come amid more oil shipments transiting the Strait of Hormuz, following the US-Iran ceasefire earlier in June 2026. However, the weak demand in Asia has freed up more Middle Eastern crude supply for other regions.

“Dangote imported one cargo of Umm Lulu crude and another ‌of either Das ⁠or Murban ⁠crude in June. The refinery receives about five to seven crude cargoes a month from Nigeria’s state-owned NNPC, benefiting from lower shipping costs, but has previously said it requires about 13 to 15 cargoes per month,” reported Reuters.

As per the Kpler data, the Dangote refinery, which has turned into a major exporter of middle distillates ‌to Europe due to fuel shortages linked ⁠to disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, also sourced up to 65,000 bpd of Libyan crude in May.

The two UAE cargoes, confirmed by S&P Global Commodity Insights on June 29, will arrive at Dangote’s Lekki facility in the coming weeks. Since the beginning of its commercial operations in early 2024, the facility has drawn its crude almost exclusively from Nigeria, the United States, and other Atlantic Basin suppliers. In 2025, approximately 70% of its imports originated from Nigeria under the naira-for-crude arrangement the African country’s federal government struck with the Dangote Group. The remaining 30% was split primarily between US grades.

In 2026, the refinery diversified its import options further, receiving cargoes from Angola, Ghana, Libya, and Guyana alongside domestic Nigerian supply. The UAE purchase marks the first time any Middle Eastern crude has been added to that growing roster.

The import by Dangote also serves as a double delight for the UAE’s crude grades, as the development, along with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, has brought the commodities back into the global supply picture at competitive prices. Benchmark UAE Murban crude was trading at approximately USD 66.40 per barrel on June 26, nearly USD 6 below pre-Iran war levels, making Middle Eastern grades an increasingly attractive option for a merchant refinery trying to widen the range of crude it can profitably process.

CEO David Bird, who joined Dangote in 2025 after two years running Oman’s Duqm refinery, wants to more than triple the number of crude grades the facility can process from approximately the current capacity of 40 to more than 120 in the coming years. The UAE’s key export grades, including Murban, Das Blend, Umm Lulu, and Upper Zakum, are broadly compatible with the refinery’s distillation unit configuration and would add significant flexibility to a facility currently running at full nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.

“The naira-for-crude agreement between NNPC and the refinery has guaranteed 13 to 15 cargoes of Nigerian crude monthly, helping to reduce the refinery’s foreign exchange exposure on the bulk of its feedstock. But that arrangement has faced persistent operational headwinds. Inadequate crude availability at export terminals and recurring technical issues at key loading points have compelled the refinery to seek additional crude sources outside Nigeria on a regular basis, a situation that Bird acknowledged had accelerated the timeline for building out the international procurement infrastructure. The UAE cargoes are the most visible expression yet of that imperative,” reported Billionaires Africa.

The Dangote refinery has already confirmed plans to double its processing capacity to approximately 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028, a level that would allow the business to process approximately 80% of Nigeria’s entire daily crude oil production in a single day. However, the drawback with the approach is that, going by things, domestic Nigerian crude supply will become structurally insufficient to feed the expanded facility and international sourcing at scale will become a permanent operational requirement rather than a supplementary buffer.

“The Middle East has historically been one of the primary sources of refined petroleum products imported into West and Central Africa. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and India together accounted for the majority of the region’s refined fuel imports before the Dangote Refinery began reshaping those trade flows. The refinery is now not only displacing Middle Eastern refined product imports across African markets but also beginning to buy raw crude from those same Middle Eastern producers to process in Nigeria. The direction of the trade is reversing,” Billionaires Africa concluded.

The post Nigeria’s Dangote refinery imports crude from UAE’s ADNOC for first time appeared first on International Finance.

LNG is simply natural gas that has been cooled to a liquid state so it can be loaded onto special ships and transported across oceans. For India, the world’s third-largest energy consumer and heavily reliant on imports, securing long-term LNG supply from Argentina matters strategically. It diversifies the Latin American country’s energy sourcing away from the volatile Middle East, where much of its current supply originates.

The contract was awarded by Southern Energy SA, jointly owned by Norwegian energy firm Golar LNG and Argentine oil producer Pan American Energy. APSEZ won the deal through a global competitive bidding process, partnering with Argentine firm Meridian Group. The two have formed a joint venture called Meridian Transportes Maritimos SA to carry out the work, backed by an estimated investment of USD 70 million.

In its first phase, the project is expected to produce 2.45 MT of LNG annually, equivalent to approximately 28 cargoes per year, making it Argentina’s first operational LNG export project.

Mr. Ashwani Gupta, whole-time director and chief executive officer (CEO), APSEZ, said, “This project reflects our growing capability to support large-scale energy infrastructure projects across geographies. With marine operations in 12 countries and a growing fleet of marine assets supporting ports, LNG terminals, national oil companies, refineries, and offshore facilities, we bring deep operational expertise to complex maritime environments. By combining these capabilities with strong local partnerships, we are helping create reliable maritime ecosystems that enable new energy trade corridors and strengthen long-term supply resilience.”

The team will handle all ship-related support needed to get LNG safely loaded and dispatched, including operating tugboats that guide massive tankers into and out of port, providing offshore supply support, and ferrying crew to and from the floating facility. Four specialized tugboats, one supply and anchor-handling vessel, and one crew boat will be deployed for the purpose.

The gas will be liquefied aboard a floating platform called the Hilli Episeyo, anchored in the San Matias Gulf off Argentina’s Patagonian coast. Commercial operations are expected to begin in September 2027, with the project initially producing around 2.45 million tonnes of LNG per year, equivalent to roughly 28 shipments annually.

The timing reflects Argentina’s broader economic ambitions. The Latin American country has been aggressively monetizing its vast Vaca Muerta shale gas reserves under market-oriented reforms, and this project is the first concrete result of that push reaching international markets.

Argentina already has agreements in place to export up to 10 million tonnes of LNG annually to India from 2027, making the Southern Energy project the opening chapter of a supply corridor that could reshape how the South Asian giant powers itself in the decades ahead.

The post Adani Ports secures marine services contract for Argentina’s first LNG export to India appeared first on International Finance.

As per the 11-member intergovernmental organisation, global oil demand would rise to 113.3 million bpd in 2030 from 105.1 million barrels per day in 2025. Compared to the 2025 report, the overall figures have remained little changed, while the 2030 forecast remains the same.

OPEC has ⁠steadily increased its long-term oil demand forecast in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, which in 2020 had prompted a demand contraction. Also, the organisation’s latest report comes amid the energy sector facing unprecedented challenges, as the Iran war has forced Gulf exporters to make huge export cuts, while the departure of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an OPEC country for almost 60 years, created a void within the group.

“Changes in government policy in the US, Europe and elsewhere and long-term growth in India, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America will drive the demand expansion, despite impressive progress by China in its shift to renewable energy,” OPEC said.

“The increased focus on energy security and energy affordability has shifted the energy policy landscape across the globe. This is reflected in policy adjustments and reversals, which are expected to be supportive of oil demand in ‌the medium ⁠and long term,” the report stated further.

OPEC also cited factors like a slower-than-expected take-up of electric vehicles in Europe and policy changes by United States President Donald Trump’s administration affecting support for renewables, EVs and fuel efficiency standards.

“For the longer term, OPEC expects world oil demand to reach 124 million barrels per day by 2050, up from 122.9 million bpd expected in last year’s report, and reiterated its view that there is no peak demand on the horizon,” the report noted.

In contrast, the IEA (International Energy Agency) said in ⁠November 2025 that oil demand would hit 113 million bpd by mid-century. While the IEA’s 2050 forecast is much lower than OPEC’s, the agency had earlier expected demand to peak by 2029.

As per the ship-tracking data, the United States has become the world’s largest oil exporter in 2026, reflecting the boom in its output driven by shale oil and disruptions ⁠to Saudi and Russian exports by wars and sanctions.

“US output of tight crude, another term for shale, likely peaked in 2025 at just over 9 million bpd and sees modest total US liquids supply growth of 400,000 bpd until 2030 and a production ⁠plateau thereafter,” OPEC said.

The intergovernmental organisation expects production from countries outside OPEC+ (the wider group that includes OPEC members plus Russia and other allies) to peak from the early 2030s.

OPEC has been calling for more oil industry investment and said the sector needs spending worth USD 17.7 trillion by 2050, compared with USD 18.2 trillion estimated in 2025.

The post Despite geopolitical disruptions, OPEC sticks to robust oil demand outlook appeared first on International Finance.

On June 10, Annick De Ridder, the transport minister of ⁠the Flanders region, made the announcement through a post on the popular micro-blogging platform X (formerly Twitter), stating, “I just signed the approval that allows Tesla to roll ‌out ⁠its technology after the company successfully carried out a series of tests in the country.”

⁠Authorizations granted in one of the three Belgian regions are considered valid in all ⁠the country’s territories. This came just a day after the EV giant securing a similar approval in Denmark. The Netherlands, Lithuania, and Estonia have already taken similar steps.

In Denmark, the Danish Road Traffic Authority granted provisional approval after reviewing the original type approval issued by the Dutch vehicle authority (RDW) on April 10, 2026. As per the reports, individual countries are now bypassing slower European Union-wide harmonization processes, accelerating the FSD’s deployment.

FSD Supervised comes with advanced driver assistance capabilities, including automatic steering, acceleration, braking, lane changes, and navigation through complex urban and rural environments. Tesla has designed the system for supervised use, making sure drivers get the opportunity to take over the vehicle’s control if the mechanism doesn’t perform as per their expectations, especially in situations like rain, night driving, and varied road types.

Early data from the Netherlands, the first EU member nation that approved the FSD’s launch within its territory, highlighted strong safety performance.

Between April 10 and June 5, vehicles using FSD Supervised recorded 3.5 times fewer collisions than manual driving overall, with zero crashes reported on highways across more than 16.6 million kilometers driven. As part of its European push, Tesla now has reached 12 countries with FSD supervised availability.

In Denmark, owners with compatible hardware, especially newer vehicles equipped with Hardware 4 (HW4), may gain the FSD’s access first, though exact timelines and eligibility details are not clear yet.

After securing regulatory nods in four European markets in just two months, the FSD technology is steadily advancing toward wider availability across the continent. The Elon Musk-led automaker is looking to refine the system further through ongoing data collection and software iterations.

The post Amid SpaceX IPO glitz, Elon Musk’s Tesla scores regulatory wins in Europe appeared first on International Finance.