Brent crude futures rose $1.33, or 1.34%, to $100.58 a barrel by 1303 GMT while West Texas Intermediate futures gained 65 cents, or 0.72%, to $91.17

International News via Reuters:

Oil prices held near their lowest in more than two weeks on Wednesday as improving Gulf crude supplies weighed on the market, though diesel refining margins hit a record high on potential restrictions to US diesel exports.

Brent crude futures rose $1.33, or 1.34%, to $100.58 a barrel by 1303 GMT while West Texas Intermediate futures gained 65 cents, or 0.72%, to $91.17.  

The Brent benchmark hit its lowest since September 8 in the previous session at $97.36. WTI touched its lowest since September 1 earlier on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, European low-sulphur gasoil’s premium to Brent crude futures hit a record of about $95 a barrel after U.S. President Donald Trump said he backed the idea of a diesel export ban to lower prices that have hit record highs owing to a global supply shortage.

Europe has been highly dependent on diesel and jet fuel imports from the United States since the US-Israeli war on Iran has disrupted Middle East supplies. 

“Brent is being underpinned by surging gasoil prices amid renewed worries the US may introduce a diesel export ban,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.

Analysts and market watchers, however, have warned that such a measure would do little to ease high energy prices and could worsen supply and economic disruptions around the globe.

Oil prices have come under pressure this week on rising Gulf supplies and hopes for diplomatic talks to halt hostilities in the Middle East.  

Trump warned on Tuesday that he could “annihilate” Iran, but he also said his envoys had held productive talks with mediators of Iran to end the war.

“The only news that is worth focusing on from a lower price point is the reopening of the East-West Saudi pipeline,” Hansen added. 

Saudi Arabia resumed operations on its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea on Tuesday, said three sources briefed on the matter.

Drone attacks, which Saudi Arabia has blamed on Iraqi militia, forced the kingdom to shut the pipeline on September 11, halting crude loadings at Yanbu port.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday offered more barrels to Asian refiners for lifting from locations outside of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iraq, too, is increasing oil exports, its oil minister said on Tuesday. The country is exporting more than 3 million bpd, he said, and expects to boost exports via Turkey to more than 600,000 barrels per day.

Meanwhile, further supporting the improved supply outlook, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that the Strait of Hormuz could reopen within seven days if the United States eases military pressure and lifts its blockade on Iranian ports.

Adding to downward pressure on oil prices, industry data showed that US crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels in the week to September 18. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a decline. [API/S]

Official weekly inventory figures from the US Energy Information Administration are due at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT).

Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee and Enes Tunagur in London, Helen Clark in Perth and Siyi Liu in SingaporeEditing by David Goodman

Global airlines have struggled with the spiralling cost of jet fuel, with airBaltic the latest to announce it was entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings

International News via Reuters:

Ryanair group CEO Michael O’Leary said on Wednesday the airline “will not levy a fuel surcharge” despite higher jet fuel prices, but predicted rivals will do so next summer and forecast more European consolidation as a result of the elevated costs.

Global airlines have struggled with the spiralling cost of jet fuel, with airBaltic the latest to announce it was entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Meanwhile, Ryanair cut its forecast for passengers flown from 216 million to 214 million for fiscal 2027 as a result of planned limits to capacity in an effort to lessen the impact of its small percentage of unhedged jet fuel. 

O’Leary said Ryanair was in a strong position to weather further challenges associated with high jet fuel prices.

“Most of the airlines were well hedged into the summer of 2026, and therefore we absorb the kind of shock of the much higher oil prices this summer,” he told reporters.

“None of us will be able to absorb those much higher oil prices next year … and it will get passed on in the form of fuel surcharges on higher airfares.

“Ryanair will not levy a fuel surcharge, but the legacy guys certainly will next summer.”

O’Leary said he expected more carriers to fail, adding that Ryanair was already in talks with airports concerned that capacity will be cut by further airline bankruptcies. 

“I very much hope that jet (fuel) prices will rise faster into next year because that will accelerate the extent to which other airlines will fail,” he said, adding that he expected airfares at other carriers to rise by 10% to 20% next summer. 

“Airlines who are currently loss-making will fail. It will accelerate the consolidation of Europe into four large airlines: BA (British Airways), Lufthansa, Air France and Ryanair,” he said.

Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; writing by Sam Tobin; editing by Sarah Young and Alexander Smith

Andrea Moretti, a 22-year-old technician, died after falling several metres while installing a new lighting system inside the ancient Roman arena

International News via Reuters:

Italy’s Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli ordered the one-day closure of the Colosseum on Wednesday as a mark of respect after a worker was killed overnight in an accident.

Andrea Moretti, a 22-year-old technician, died after falling several metres while installing a new lighting system inside the ancient Roman arena.

Built 2,000 years ago, the Colosseum was the biggest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire, used to host gladiator fights, executions and animal hunts. It is Italy’s most visited tourist attraction.

“The news of the tragic death of Andrea Moretti, a skilled worker who died overnight … has deeply shocked and saddened us,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said.

Culture Minister Giuli also ordered the suspension of all construction and maintenance work at the Colosseum until further notice.

Initially, only a partial closure of the monument was announced, but this drew protests from Italy’s biggest union, the CGIL.

“Humanity comes before tourists,” said Natale di Cola, the CGIL’s Rome chief, adding that the union was calling on Giuli to explain all the circumstances surrounding Moretti’s accident.

The incident comes less than a year after the death of a Romanian worker who was trapped for hours under the rubble of a partially collapsed medieval tower near the Colosseum last November.

Reporting by Anna Uras, editing by Gavin Jones

Greece has proposed that European Union states should create a European Spectrum Union which could use some of the funds raised by future national sales of 6G mobile spectrum for technology investment

International News via Reuters:

Greece has proposed that European Union states should create a European Spectrum Union which could use some of the funds raised by future national sales of 6G mobile spectrum for technology investment, easing pressure on the bloc’s budget.

“The potential initial financial scale could be around €12–15 billion,” according to the proposal, developed by the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Kyriakos Pierrakakis and presented to EU ministers on Tuesday.

“At this stage, this is a planning assumption rather than an official valuation or forecast, and does not include any potential future contribution from selected 5G rights,” it said.

If the idea is accepted by the 27 countries making up the EU, the money could help ease the problem of how to finance the EU’s 2028-2034 budget, proposed at €2 trillion – the main source of financing for all of the EU’s main policies.

Negotiations on the financing are tough, because the budget will have to deal with new challenges like more spending on defence and making Europe more competitive, while retaining most of the spending on old policies to support farming and cohesion.

Among other new financing options, rejected by some countries and supported by others, is using a share of the cash that EU governments get from selling CO2 emissions permits to companies and a share of the tax on goods imported into the EU that were made in countries where climate policies are weaker than in the EU.

Other options include a tax on non-collected e-waste, a share of the tobacco excise duty and an annual lump-sum ​contribution from large firms operating and ​selling in the EU.

Further proposals ⁠include a levy on extreme wealth, on digital services, online gambling and crypto asset capital gains. Ireland will now have to see which of these options, or a mix of them, has a chance to get unanimous ​support from all 27 EU countries by the next EU summit scheduled for October.

Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Alexandra Hudson

European policymakers are trying to tackle the EU’s economic underperformance relative to the United States, which is home to many of the world’s largest companies and is leading the race to develop artificial intelligence

International News via Reuters:

The European Union could close a third of its productivity gap with the United States if it had as many large companies, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday, adding its voice to calls for reforms that make it easier for businesses to scale up.

European policymakers are trying to tackle the EU’s economic underperformance relative to the United States, which is home to many of the world’s largest companies and is leading the race to develop artificial intelligence.

EU workers produce 20% less output per hour than their US counterparts, according to academic studies. They were almost on an even keel in 1995.

ECB staff found that if Europe had the same distribution of large and small firms as the United States – without changing how productive each type of company is – the productivity gap would shrink by roughly one-third.

Large firms are significantly more productive than smaller ones. Companies with at least 250 employees generate an average of €86,800 in value added per worker annually, while firms with fewer than 10 employees produce less than half that amount.

The ECB said Europe’s weaker productivity performance also reflects lower innovation, fragmented regulation and less developed capital markets, all of which make it harder for companies to grow and compete internationally.

The central bank backed the proposed “EU Inc” framework, an EU-wide corporate law regime aimed at reducing barriers to cross-border business activity.

Modelled loosely on Delaware’s corporate framework in the United States, EU Inc would create a single legal structure operating across the bloc, bypassing a patchwork of 27 national company law systems and dozens of corporate forms.

“EU Inc. has the potential to support the Single Market, by strengthening competition, innovation and productivity growth,” the ECB said.

Reporting by Francesco Canepa; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne