Argentina needs foreign technical and financial assistance to tap its considerable shale resources. Unable to access international debt and capital markets after a recent default, the country is restructuring legislation to make investment opportunities more attractive to international oil companies. [Reuters] Global accounting firm Ernst & Young released its latest quarterly Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness… Keep reading →
On September 12, 2014, the United States issued another round of targeted sanctions against the Russian financial, defense, and energy sectors. Today’s measures were a combination of new measures and modifications of prior measures issued pursuant to Executive Order 13662 (EO 13662), including:
– Financial Services Sector – Directive 1 has been modified to further restrict prohibited “new debt” with a maturity exceeding 30 days.
– Defense Sector – New Directive 3 prohibits “new debt” with a maturity exceeding 30 days issued by listed defense companies.
A climate researcher recently discovered some of the darkest snow and ice on record in Greenland and the findings have potentially alarming climate-change implications. “There are several potential explanations for what’s going on here. The most likely is that some combination of increasingly infrequent summer snowstorms, wind-blown dust, microbial activity, and forest fire soot led… Keep reading →
As US- and EU-led economic sanctions against Russian energy players crank up, the degree to which Western interests could be collaterally damaged is again being called into question. The EU has shied away from sanctioning Russian gas industry participants because the bloc is so reliant on Russian gas supply, but oil market pressure could also… Keep reading →
For Europe energy has always been at the top of its political agenda but despite the many achievements in strengthening its infrastructure and diversifying its suppliers, the EU remains vulnerable to energy shocks and disruptions to energy supplies. One could argue that it is inevitable as the EU is a highly import dependent country. Today… Keep reading →
In anticipation of the UN Climate Summit, the majority of media coverage around the event has been delivered from the perspective of industrialized and relatively wealthy countries. In an attempt to offer a new perspective, let’s take a look at international climate negotiations through the lens of a country that doesn’t always expect the lights… Keep reading →
Fifteen governors penned a letter sent to the White House yesterday claiming the EPA’s proposed rule to regulate emissions from existing power plants is illegal. Several of these governors also climate change deniers. “Five of the states represented by those governors — Alabama, Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming — are also part of a lawsuit filed… Keep reading →
Recently the United States and the EU imposed additional targeted sanctions against Russia in response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Although previous sanctions issued by the U.S. and EU since March 2014 affect various sectors of the Russian economy, including Russia’s military industrial complex, the most recent sanctions target Russia’s financial and energy sectors.
U.S. Sanctions
Since March 2014, the United States has imposed visa bans on certain government officials and blocked property and interests in property of certain persons and entities that are stated to contribute to the situation in Ukraine. The most recent sanctions imposed restrictions on exports and re-exports of oil- and gas-related items for deepwater, Arctic offshore, or shale projects in Russia. These sanctions have been imposed primarily by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”).
Deemed one of the most-well-funded terrorist networks, the Islamist State in Syria and Iraq is reportedly making millions of dollars daily from smuggling, stealing, refining and selling oil. Completely shutting down their vast operation appears unlikely according to expert consensus. “When Islamic State fighters stormed across the Syrian border into Iraq and seized Mosul, a… Keep reading →
The Department of Energy and Climate Change published a Consultation on 6 August 2014 seeking views on its proposals to introduce new criminal offences for insider dealing in and the manipulation of the wholesale energy markets. This forms part of the UK Government’s continued efforts to ensure the proper functioning of the wholesale energy markets and to strengthen the UK enforcement regime in line with the EU Regulation on Wholesale Energy Markets Integrity and Transparency (“REMIT”), prohibiting insider dealing and market manipulation in respect of the wholesale energy markets.
REMIT refers to the wholesale energy markets as encompassing both commodity and derivative markets, including regulated markets, multilateral trading facilities, over-the-counter transactions and bilateral contracts. As a result, certain trading activity in the wholesale energy markets does not relate to qualifying investments admitted to trading on a prescribed market and therefore does not come within the scope of market abuse in the financial sector.
The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) regulates commodity derivatives, but not the underlying physical markets and has the power to bring enforcement action (both civil and criminal) against traders who breach the regulation on energy derivatives in an FCA regulated market. The majority of trading regarding gas and electricity does not take place on markets regulated by the FCA. If a similar derivative was traded on a platform coming within the scope of REMIT, only the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (“Ofgem”) currently has the power to enforce civil penalties. The absence of criminal penalties in the energy markets for behaviours almost identical to those subject to criminal penalties in the financial markets creates a risk that wrongdoing is directed towards the energy sector. The Government’s proposals are aimed at addressing the gap between the regulation of the financial and wholesale energy markets.
