Euronews Business takes a closer look at how Europe’s petroleum oil import bill has risen amid tensions in the Middle East - and experts do not expect costs to fall in the near future.
Korean financial authorities said Thursday they will closely monitor the impact of the U.S. midterm elections on financial markets and take immediate countermeasures if necessary in the event of sharp market fluctuations. Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il held discussions on the issue with Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov.
Shin Hyun-song, Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon and Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Lee Chan-jin after the U.S. Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate steady overnight. The Fed decided to maintain the rate in the 3.75-4.00 percent range in a 10-2 vote. The decision left the gap between the key interest rates of Korea and the United States at up to 1 percentage point.
"The decision appears to reflect the Fed's continued focus on stabilizing consumer prices while assessing the impact of September's rate hike and other economic indicators to determine its future policy direction," Lee said. Lee noted that earnings and investment outlooks for major technology firms, along with movements in global oil prices, are fueling volatility in financial markets
Korea will ease export restrictions currently imposed on diesel starting in November on condition that domestic supply remains stable, the industry ministry said Thursday. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said the government will allow diesel exports of up to 110 percent of the volume recorded in the same month a year earlier, up from the current cap of 100 percent.
The higher cap will apply only when oil refiners fulfill their domestic supply obligations and maintain adequate inventories, the ministry added. Korea adopted export restrictions on fuel products when it implemented the oil price cap system in March to maintain stable domestic supply. Local oil refiners have recently called for such restrictions to be eased.
The industry ministry said crude supplies remain stable, citing crude import volumes for October and November equivalent to at least 100 percent of last year's monthly average. "With tensions in the Middle East lingering, the government will closely monitor the supply of petroleum products and immediately reinstate the previous cap should further supply conce
Saudi Arabia's oil exports are going strong and holding near war-time highs despite the ongoing wave attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, according to maritime tracking firms.
The Conservatives have argued the law is undermining Canada's prosperity by limiting the potential for oil exports from B.C.'s northern coast to international markets.
Regional mediators led by Qatar are trying to reach a diplomatic deal to restart negotiations between the U.S. and Iran and prevent the resumption of war after the midterm elections, three U.S., Israeli and regional sources say.The Qataris are working to convince Iran to allow UN inspectors to visit its bombed nuclear sites in return for some sanctions relief from the U.S.
Why it matters: A renewed bombing offensive appears likely shortly after the midterms without a last-minute deal. IDF chief of staff Gen. Eyal Zamir spoke on Monday with CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper to coordinate ahead of potential attacks.Such an operation is expected to include a week of massive strikes on Iranian leadership, energy, nuclear and infrastructure targets, U.S. and Israeli officials say.What he's saying: President Trump told Axios in a brief interview Wednesday that negotiations with Iran are taking place through mediators but stressed that he doesn't know whether they'll bear fruit."We need to finish the job — either through a deal or another way — we will find out if negotiations can succeed," he said."While our Brave Armed Forces are fully prepared to defend the Homeland, Iran continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X Wednesday.Behind the scenes: The mediation efforts are being led by Qatar, with the support of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, sources say.
Qatari negotiator Ali al-Thawadi visited Tehran earlier this week for talks with Iranian officials about a potential deal with the Trump administration. A regional source briefed on the talks said the Qataris presented ideas for how to bridge the gap between the U.S. demand that Iran give up its enriched uranium stockpile and Iran's insistence that the U.S. first lift its naval blockade and release Iran's frozen funds.The regional source and a U.S. official said the mediators are telling Iran that accepting the proposals may be the only way to avoid major attacks after the midterms.Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani security officials reinforced that message during a visit to Tehran several days ago.
The Iranians responded that they will seek Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's approval for the ideas in the next several days, the regional source said. After the visit to Tehran, Saudi officials told the White House that the Iranians are concerned about a possible U.S.-Israeli bombing operation after the midterms, per a U.S. official.
The Saudis asked Trump not to rush into war and to allow more time for negotiations. Zoom in: One idea under discussion is returning to the agreement that Iran reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency last year in Cairo.The September 2025 agreement allowed UN inspectors to resume visits to Iran's nuclear sites.
It was suspended after the UN Security Council reimposed "snapback" sanctions on Iran a month later. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told the UN Security Council Tuesday that reviving the Cairo agreement could provide a framework for restoring inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities damaged in U.S. and Israeli strikes.If Iran agrees to allow UN inspectors to visit its nuclear sites, it could receive waivers to sell oil and see some of its frozen funds released to buy food and other humanitarian goods, the regional source said."There is some movement.
We are waiting for the Iranian response," that person said. "The idea is that the Iranians will be able to say that they didn't give up the enriched uranium up front, and the U.S. will be able to say that it got some nuclear concessions from Iran."The other side: The regional source said the White House told mediators it will weigh in on the proposed deal after learning whether Iran accepts it.
Trump discussed Iran with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff during a trip to Texas on Air Force One Tuesday. On Wednesday, he discussed Iran with his national security team as part of his intelligence briefing, U.S. officials say. "As the President stated, they have been systematically destroyed, both militarily and financially, and unless they change their ways, rapidly, we will soon finish the job," a White House official said."The United States is in a very strong position with control of the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranian economy collapsing," the official added.
"Iran has been decimated, and one way or the other, the conflict in Iran will be over very soon."
Washington and Moscow are discussing a possible return of American oil companies to Russia as part of negotiations over Ukraine. Proposed projects include Sakhalin production and Russian oil exports through the Druzhba pipeline, but no final decisions have been made. The discussions follow confirmed talks over Lukoil’s foreign assets and Ukrainian warnings about expanding US-Russian economic ties.
It’s budget day, but there’s plenty vying for investors’ attention
Korea is working to open an era of 30 million foreign visitors by shifting its tourism focus from Seoul to regional areas, Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young said Wednesday. "An unprecedented future has already arrived and Korea is fully preparing to welcome 30 million and eventually 40 million overseas travelers," Chae said during a press conference in Seoul.
"To ensure that regional tourism genuinely drives local economies, we will manage not just the total number of inbound visitors, but also focus on qualitative growth while actively addressing overtourism concerns." The country's tourism sector is currently riding a wave of record-breaking growth, with cumulative foreign tourist arrivals surpassing the 2025 annual total of 18.94 million as of Tuesday.
Despite global challenges like high oil prices, inflation and the Middle East conflict, the ministry credited K-culture popularity, industry innovation and local hospitality for the steady growth. To sustain this upward momentum, the government has boosted its 2027 budget for the tourism sector to 1.756 trillion won ($1.31 billion), a 19 p
The Trump administration is moving to weaken a regulation that requires oil and gas companies to limit leaks of methane, a more potent driver of climate change than carbon dioxide.President Donald Trump announced the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulation at an event in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday evening.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said earlier this month that the agency was “days not weeks” away from issuing the proposal, roughly outlining its contents.“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” Trump said at the rally. “We were working on this before the war broke out,” he added, referring to the Feb.
28 attack on Iran. Get Climate Coach newsletterNews and guidance on climate, science and technology. Sign up for freeThe move comes even as several major oil companies, including Chevron and ExxonMobil, have long supported direct federal regulation of methane, arguing that industry-wide rules are needed to curb leaks.
But that support has not always extended to every provision: The companies have at times pressed regulators to narrow monitoring and reporting requirements.Smaller independent producers and their trade groups have more aggressively fought methane rules as burdensome and costly. Executives at some of those firms — including several major donors to Trump — have pushed to roll them back.Methane, which traps about 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, accounts for roughly 12 percent of greenhouse gases, according to an EPA webpage that the agency removed from its site after Trump took office.
Another EPA report says methane “emissions represent the greatest opportunity for low or no-cost mitigation” of climate change.Last year, Zeldin said the rule aimed at curbing methane leaks and dozens of other regulations were being reconsidered in what he has called the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history, aimed at saving businesses and consumers money.
Environmental advocates say any savings are more than outweighed by public health costs and damage to the economy caused by climate change and increasing weather extremes.“Americans must be able to afford to heat their homes in the winter and fill up their car and drive to work,” Zeldin said in a statement earlier this month, before the proposal’s release, while attending the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association’s annual meeting.
“They can’t do that when the people producing the energy are weighed down by unnecessary burdens.”The 2023 Biden-era rule requires companies to reduce methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas infrastructure, demanding monitoring and retrofitting old equipment to reduce leaks. The standard also instituted curbs on volatile organic compounds, which can cause air pollution that is harmful to breath or warm the climate.“The oil and gas industry says it’s a ‘good-faith’ partner eager to help craft regulations, but time and time again it’s worked behind the scenes to delay and weaken them.
As a result, the United States today emits more methane from its oil and gas sector than any other country in the world,” Julia Kane, a researcher with Fieldnotes, an oil and gas watchdog group, said in a statement.“Now, Lee Zeldin’s EPA is giving oil and gas corporations exactly what they’ve long wanted: a toothless methane standard they can use to pretend they’re well-regulated, all while they continue to knowingly leak and flare dangerous amounts of the heat-trapping gas.”Most Read From The Washington PostBoomer women are dating after divorce.
Men don’t always meet their standards.I went to Mexico to test-drive the cars Americans can’t buyAt 80, he’s a top dementia expert. Here’s how he keeps his brain healthy.Grand jury declines to indict Cassidy Hutchinson over Jan. 6 testimonyTrump defends White House redecorating — and Cheesecake Factory — from Obama’s mockingThe Trump EPA proposal is expected to reverse the 2023 rule’s ban on routine flaring, allowing companies to burn off excess gas rather than capturing it.
The draft policy would also eliminate the Super Emitter Program, which required companies to take action on major methane leaks when detected by third-party watchdogs.Methane has accounted for about 30 percent of global temperature rise since the industrial revolution, according to the International Energy Agency, and the rollback is alarming environmental advocates.The proposed regulation would also change standards for “marginal wells,” which produce only 6 percent of U.S. oil and gas but account for about half of the sector’s methane emissions.Zeldin said in October that the old rules wrongly lumped together “mom and pop” oil and gas producers, which he said could be put out of business by the rules, with multinationals such as Exxon and Chevron.“Part of this process has been to keep the concerns that are coming in from the application of [the regulations] to these far smaller operations and how to get the regulation right for them,” Zeldin told reporters in a briefing at EPA headquarters.
Myron Ebell, who ran the EPA’s transition team going into Trump’s first term, praised the potential regulation change for trying to “level the playing field” between Big Oil and independent producers.The EPA weakened enforcement of existing methane regulations last year, saying the agency’s “enforcement and compliance will no longer focus on methane emissions from oil and gas facilities” in a memo on March 12, 2025. The Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group, estimates that additional gas released or flared in the first year under that policy could have otherwise supplied nearly 19 million households.In November, the EPA also delayed deadlines to comply with many of the 2023 standards until 2027.This article originally appeared on Washington Post at https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2026/10/27/trump-announce-relaxed-rules-oil-firms-methane-leaks/
Emissions from exported oil would not count against carbon budget, insiders say – reasoning likely to draw dismay from climate campaignersThe giant Rosebank oilfield can be approved without breaching the UK’s emission targets, according to government insiders, in a boost to those in the cabinet who are pushing for it to be given the go-ahead.The Guardian revealed last week that Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, was leaning towards rejecting the project, but her position has put her at loggerheads with cabinet colleagues, including the chancellor, John Healey, who are lobbying for an approval.
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JOINT BASE ANDREWS — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would respect the results of the U.S. midterm elections "if they're honest," in what appeared to be a fresh bid to sow doubt ahead of next week's crucial vote. Trump has ramped up his baseless, years-old claims of mass voter fraud as polls show Republicans could lose control of Congress in Tuesday's elections.
"I will, if they're honest elections," Trump told reporters when asked if he would respect the results of the midterms, as he headed on a campaign trip to Texas. The 80-year-old president also gave a guarded pledge to work with the rival Democrats if Republicans lose their grip on the House of Representatives and Senate.
"We'll figure a way. Look, I have strong veto. I hope that that won't be the case, but if it is, that's happened before with many presidents," Trump said at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. "You have strong veto, and you end up working on deals."
Republicans fear a Democrat "blue wave" in the midterms as voters punish them over inflation stoked by oil prices that have soared since Trump launched his war
Ras Tanura is home to the kingdom’s largest refinery and one of the world’s most important oil export terminals.
Higher MSPs, firm edible-oil demand and expanded use of improved seed varieties are expected to push mustard acreage to a record 9.5 million hectares in 2026-27. Even with unchanged yields, higher sowing could lift production, helping India reduce its heavy dependence on edible-oil imports.
The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates on hold on Wednesday, six days before the US midterm elections, but with inflation at 3.7% and oil prices still elevated, investors see another hike in December as likely and will scour Chair Kevin Warsh's words for clues.
Leftover cooking oil is attracting the attention of state-owned majors as an alternative feedstock.