Oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico could suffer a decline unless the federal government confirms its deadline for the revision of a law regulating endangered species protection.

Without it, the regulatory process to ensure oil and gas operations are carried out in accordance with the Endangered Species Act would become a lot more cumbersome and complicated, potentially affecting production.

The revision was prompted by a court ruling last month in a case brought against the federal government by climate activists. They claimed the current endangered species risk assessment regulation for oil and gas operations, commonly known as the biological opinion, was inadequate and a new one was needed. The judge agreed and ruled that the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service had until December 20 to update the regulation.

Now, the American Petroleum Institute is warning that if the service takes longer than that, it would disrupt oil and gas operations, for which the biological opinion is mandatory.

“With the Gulf of Mexico producing 15% of our country’s oil supply, halting production would have serious, far-reaching consequences to our economy and energy security,” the API said in a post on X.

In addition to producing 15% of U.S. oil, the Gulf of Mexico also employs more than 400,000 people and generates over $6 billion in federal revenue, the API also said, as quoted by Reuters.

This is not the first time that the industry association has sounded the alarm about the federal government’s biological opinion. Last week, API senior vice president Dustin Meyer said “The ramifications could be potentially enormous for operations in what we and many others recognize is such a vital, producing region,” adding that “The level of concern is very high,” as quoted by Bloomberg.

Bloomberg noted in that report from last week that the Marine Fisheries Service had already started work on an update on the biological opinion but had said during court proceedings it would not be able to complete it “until late winter or early spring 2025.”

Source: OILPRICE

The platinum market is expected to see its biggest annual deficit in at least a decade but prices have so far been slow to react, according to an industry report.

A sharp rise in holdings by exchange-traded funds and strong growth in Chinese demand for large bars is forecast to help create a shortfall of more than 1 million ounces in 2024, according to a quarterly report from the World Platinum Investment Council. That comes after a deficit of 731,000 ounces last year.

“Even with deficits of this magnitude, the platinum price appears unresponsive,” said WPIC CEO Trevor Raymond. However, sentiment is shifting toward higher-for-longer automotive demand, which should help platinum’s strong underlying fundamentals play “a more prominent role”, he added.

Platinum has dropped about 30% from a peak in early 2021, while sister metals palladium and rhodium have posted much steeper drops amid uncertainty over demand from the auto industry, which uses the metals to curb emissions from diesel and gasoline vehicles. That’s dented the profitability of some higher-cost operations in South Africa, the biggest producer of platinum.

Holdings in platinum ETFs surged by 444,000 ounces during the April-June period — the highest quarterly inflow since 2020 — thanks to the precious metal’s relative underperformance versus gold and strengthening fundamentals, the report said. Full-year gains are forecast to moderate to just 150,000 ounces, it said.

Total platinum demand is forecast to rise to 8.12 million ounces in 2024, also helped by a 7% gain from the jewellery sector. Overall industrial and automotive demand, which make up the bulk of the market, are both expected to nudge higher.

Meanwhile, total mined supply is forecast to fall 2% to 5.51 million ounces in 2024, as operations in South Africa are restructured and refined production declines in Russia, WPIC said. Above-ground platinum stockpiles are expected to dwindle by 25% to about three million ounces.

“With the marked slowdown in the growth of battery electric vehicle market penetration rates and the normalisation of palladium and rhodium prices, underlying fundamentals are expected to return to being the major platinum price setting factor going forwards,” said Edward Sterck, director of research at the WPIC.

Source: Theedgemarkets

Blackstone Inc. is selling $1.05 billion of commercial mortgage bonds to help pay for a deal it struck in April to acquire AIR Communities, an apartment landlord.

The debt consists of six tranches of securities, with ratings ranging from AAA to BB-, according to people familiar with the matter. An interest-only loan backing the CMBS bonds will carry a floating rate, the people said.

The bonds add to an earlier $2.95 billion of CMBS that Blackstone sold in July which were also backed by AIR Communities properties.

A representative for Blackstone declined to comment.

Blackstone struck a deal in April to buy Apartment Income REIT, known as AIR Communities, for $10 billion. It said at the time that it would invest more than $400 million to maintain and bolster the company’s portfolio of apartment buildings.

Issuance of CMBS has been torrid recently, with overall sales this year through Monday of $69.7 billion. Spreads on the debt are wider today than they were at the start of the year, but are still below levels from much of last year when concerns over the credit quality of commercial real estate were widespread.

Source: Theedgemarkets

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