RIYADH: Oil prices rose on Monday as fears of a recession in the US, which drove prices down for three straight weeks for the first time since November, started receding.
Brent crude futures were up $0.72, or 0.96 percent, at $76.02 a barrel at 10:20 a.m. Saudi time, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up $0.74, or 1.04 percent, at $72.08 a barrel.
Fears that the US banking crisis will slow the economy and sap fuel demand in the world’s biggest oil-consuming nation drove the Brent benchmark down 5.3 percent last week, while WTI plunged 7.1 percent.
However, a healthy US jobs report for April, a weaker dollar, and expectations of supply cuts at the next meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, together called OPEC+, in June, helped the benchmarks rebound about 4 percent each on Friday.
Australia’s biggest pension funds raise investment in fossil fuels, activist group says
Australia’s 30 biggest pension funds in 2022 raised their investment to more than $23 billion in companies most responsible for expanding fossil fuels, environmental activist group Market Forces said.
The superannuation or retirement funds increased their investment exposure to both Australian and foreign companies developing new or expanded coal, oil and gas projects by 50 percent over the past year, the group said in a report published on Sunday.
“Super funds are making a mockery of their own commitments to net zero by buying up wholesale in companies expanding fossil fuels and letting them get away with trashing our climate,” Market Forces campaigner Brett Morgan said in a statement.
Some funds have committed to becoming carbon-neutral in their investment portfolios by 2050.
Market Forces estimated more than $95 billion of Australians’ retirement savings are invested in fossil fuel companies through the funds, which have more than 9 percent of members’ share investments in these firms on average.
Last month, a group of Indigenous Australians filed a human rights complaint against 20 large Australian pension funds for investing in two gas projects of Santos Ltd, putting pressure on the funds over their fossil fuel investment plans.
Australia govt to change petroleum tax
Australia will change its Petroleum Resource Rent Tax to increase the tax paid by the offshore liquefied natural gas industry, moves that should increase revenue by $1.6 billion over the next four fiscal years, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Saturday.
The government will adopt eight of 11 recommendations from a Treasury review of gas transfer pricing rules, including a key proposal to limit the proportion of PRRT assessable income on LNG projects that can be offset by deductions to 90 percent from July 1.
“Under the current rules, most LNG projects are not expected to pay any significant amounts of PRRT until the 2030s. The changes announced today address this issue,” Chalmers said in a statement.
Other changes to be introduced over the next two fiscal years include equalizing the treatment of notional upstream and downstream entities so that losses will be split evenly rather than attributed entirely to the upstream entity.
The Treasury review of gas pricing was started under the previous conservative government. Chalmers said the Labor government would concurrently proceed with eight recommendations from a separate earlier review that were accepted by the previous government but not enacted.
Chalmers said both reviews had found that aspects of the PRRT were better suited to oil projects than LNG projects, and the deductions cap and other changes would help address that.
“These changes will mean the offshore LNG industry pays more tax, sooner, (and) will provide industry and investors policy certainty to allow the sufficient supply of domestic gas, and will ensure Australia remains a reliable international energy supplier and investment partner,” Chalmers said.
(With input from Reuters)
