Ukraine’s natural resources are at centre stage in the ongoing war
Three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world now knows the exact price for American military support of Ukraine. During a recent interview with Fox News, United States President Donald Trump put a $500 billion price tag on American aid to the war-torn country.
But there was a catch: the exchange should be made in the form of Ukraine’s valuable natural resources, including rare earth minerals. “We have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money,” Trump said in the interview.
OGDCL boosts daily oil production by 10,000 barrels
Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) has successfully increased its daily oil production by 10,000 barrels after implementing advanced technology across multiple wells, company officials announced.
The state-owned company deployed Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) technology at 12 oil wells, effectively halting an annual decline of 5,000 barrels while simultaneously boosting production from aging wells by an additional 5,000 barrels daily.
New era to begin in natural gas and oil: minister
“In the upcoming period, we may change our strategy. We aim to open a new era in oil and gas exploration in Türkiye,” Bayraktar told daily Hürriyet.
The flow of Turkmen gas will commence on March 1, the minister recalled, adding that: “We have a long-term swap agreement target. This year, we are likely working on a program to extend the five-year swap agreement.”
According to the swap agreement, the Turkmen gas will be delivered via Iran and 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas will be delivered this year, Bayraktar noted.
Türkiye’s total consumption is 53 billion cubic meters and the Turkmen gas to be received this year is enough to supply around 1.5 million households, he added.
“We aim to sign a long-term swap agreement. This year, we are likely working on a program to extend the five-year swap agreement. Ideally, our main goal is to bring Turkmen gas to Türkiye through a Caspian-transit pipeline as was initially planned,” Bayraktar said.
Kazakhstan is the world’s biggest coal producers
Kazakhstan is one of the world’s biggest coal producers, along with China, India, the United States, Russia, Australia, and South Africa. The country exports and relies on coal for domestic energy production, with nearly 70 percent of its electricity generated from coal—meanwhile, renewable energy makes up nearly 6.5 percent of the energy mix. While the country strives toward a green transition, experts are now asking: what should be done with its vast coal reserves?
Experts provide varying estimates on the country’s coal reserves. Government agencies project they could last 250 to 300 years at current consumption rates, while some experts suggest they could last up to 650 years. Under Kazakhstan’s obligations as part of the Paris Agreement and its goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, coal consumption is expected to decline.
Sugar industry announces to sell discounted sugar
The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (Punjab Zone) has announced that the sugar industry will provide sugar at a discounted rate of Rs130 per kg during Ramazan through designated sale points across the country. The industry expressed support for the federal and provincial governments’ efforts to ensure affordable sugar prices for consumers during the holy month.
A spokesperson for the association stated that sugar prices are largely dictated by supply and demand, but speculators manipulate the market by spreading misleading information to profit at the expense of consumers, farmers, and the industry. The association urged the government to take action against these elements to stabilize the market.
Following last year’s sugar exports, domestic sugar prices declined and remained low, but no sugar exports have been permitted in the current crushing season. The industry claims that despite low sugar recovery rates, high taxation, and rising production costs, Pakistan produces one of the cheapest sugar varieties globally. In contrast, the imported cost of sugar currently exceeds Rs200 per kg due to crop shortages in India and Brazil.
Massive simandou mine can end Australia’s golden iron ore age
The term gamechanger is often over used enough to be rendered meaningless, but the huge Simandou mine in the West African country of Guinea is going to be just that as its start up is set to rock the seaborne iron ore market.
The first cargoes from the project may arrive by the end of this year and it’s expected that it will ramp up to its full capacity of 120 million metric tons per annum fairly quickly.
The four blocks of Simandou are impressive in their scale and infrastructure challenges, boasting a 620 kilometre (384 mile) rail line, a new port with dedicated trans-shipment vessels that will load bulk carriers offshore.
But Simandou is more than a technical marvel, as it will meet around 10 percent of the annual seaborne imports of China, the world’s biggest buyer of the key steel raw material, taking about 75 percent of global seaborne iron ore.
Surge in German steel sales
Steel sales in Germany experienced an impressive rise in January 2025, surging by 76.3 percent compared to the previous month, totaling 814.86 thousand tons. This substantial month-on-month increase is documented by the data of the Association of German Steel Distributors (BDS) and reported by S&P Global. Despite the strong performance in January, the sales figures represent a slight 0.9 percent decline when compared to January 2024. IndexBox data further corroborates that this rise was primarily driven by a significant boost in flat products sales, which climbed 80.8 percent month-on-month to reach 508.12 thousand tons, although remaining 5.1 percent lower year-on-year.