News in Brief
German expects lower power reserve needs
REUTERS – Germany’s energy regulator said on Friday it has asked for less reserve power capacity to avoid supply shortfalls in the coming winter than it did last year, citing increased capacities reactivated when Russia stopped gas flows last year.
The Federal Network Agency, called Bundesnetzagentur, said it had cut the amount of winter power capacity needed in reserve for the 2023/24 season by 44% from 2022/23 to 4,616 megawatts (MW).
Bank of Japan sticks to negative rates
CNBC – The Bank of Japan left its interest rates unchanged in newly appointed Governor Kazuo Ueda’s first policy meeting.
The decision was in line with economist expectations for no changes to the benchmark interest rate, which has been held at -0.1% since the central bank took rates below zero in 2016.
The central bank also kept the tolerance range for 10-year Japanese government bonds unchanged at 50 basis points above and below its target of 0%.
OPEC says IEA should be ‘very careful’
AFP – OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said the International Energy Agency (IEA) should be “very careful” about discouraging investment in the oil industry, which was vital for global economic growth.
Such comments could lead to oil market volatility in future, he said.
Al Ghais also said that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, were not targeting oil prices but focusing on market fundamentals.