Business

STORD, Norway — At an industrial yard in southwestern Norway, decommissioned oil platforms are slowly being dismantled for a second life in the circular economy.

Three gigantic disused platforms stand on the docks on the island municipality of Stord where they are being taken apart bit by bit — as much as 98 per cent of their total 40,000 tonnes is suitable for recycling. 

"If you come here in a year-and-a-half, you will see nothing left," says Sturla Magnus, a senior official at Aker Solutions, a group specialised in both building and dismantling oil platforms. 

Behind him, workmen in hardhats and fluorescent jackets are busy on the three structures: The platform from the Gyda field that was closed in 2020, and two others that have paid their dues at the Valhall field still in operation. 

Once the security inspections are complete and the electrical equipment and dangerous materials like asbestos have been removed, the remainder — the giant, empty shells — are left to powerful cutting machines.

The most attractive waste are the tens of thousands of tonnes of high-quality steel, which can be reused on new oil platforms, other industrial structures or offshore wind turbines. 

"This is steel that has to stand up to the harsh weather conditions in the North Sea. In other words, this is the best there is," says Thomas Nygard, project director for decommissioning at Aker Solutions.

While the company is a player in the highly polluting oil industry and still makes more oil installations than it demolishes, it is in favour of recycling.

According to various estimates, 1 kilo of recycled steel generates 58-70 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than a kilo of new steel.

10,000 installations to dismantle 

The North Sea is one of the oldest offshore oil and gas basins in the world and is gradually being depleted. Many of the oil platforms there are coming to the end of their life spans.

In a 2021 report, the industry association Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) — which has since changed name to Offshore Energies UK — forecast that more than one million tonnes of North Sea platforms would need to be dismantled by the end of the decade.

That is a large market, and one that is growing. Several years ago, OGUK's forecast was for 200,000 tonnes.

"If you look globally, it's probably close to 10,000 installations which are going to at some point in time come back to shore," Magnus says.

Aker Solutions' current workload is scheduled through 2028.

Meanwhile, some platforms are being maintained despite their advanced age.

One of Norway's oldest platforms, Statfjord A, has been in use since 1979. It was due to be taken out of service in 2022, but oil giant Equinor decided in 2020 to extend its life span until 2027.

The same is true for two other platforms in the same field, Statfjord B and C, which are only a few years younger, but have been extended until 2035.

The reprieve is due to the remaining oil reserves which are believed to be "considerable", a decision sure to have been sugar-coated by soaring oil prices.

Environmental stakes 

Nevertheless, even some environmental activists are reluctant to see the platforms disappear entirely.

The earliest installations were made with legs of concrete — metal was preferred for later models — and according to the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth, the cement made for "fantastic" artificial corals because of its rough, pock-marked surface. 

"All those who have worked on a platform will tell you: There are a lot of big fish that live nearby because there's no industrial fishing and the fish can grow to be up to 10 years old", says the group's marine biologist, Per-Erik Schulze. 

The organisation has therefore called for the cement pillars to be left at sea, difficult as they are to uproot. The rest can be dismantled and marine reserves created around the sites.

After siphoning the depths of the oceans for decades, Norway's oil sector could thereby end up helping to protect them — even if just a little. 

HALABJA, Iraq — Kurdish Iraqi farmer Azad Muhamad has become a social media star by sharing tips on growing fresh fruit and vegetables in the sun-parched country that is highly vulnerable to climate change. 

The moustachioed 50-year-old with almost half a million Facebook followers posts weekly videos on topics such as protecting fruit trees, dealing with insects and helping people get more from their farms and gardens.

"They should make you agriculture minister," one of his fans, Ahmed Hassan, commented on a recent video.

Muhamad also uses his popular online platform to raise awareness about protecting the environment and the need to support local farmers, in his native Kurdistan region and beyond.

"Developed-country farmers have government support and harvesting machines," said Muhamad. 

"Our farmers do everything themselves with their own sweat — and when they lose money at the end of the year, they start over with the same passion and energy."

He also has a message for authorities in Iraq, which the UN classifies as the world's fifth most vulnerable country to climate change and where many are mired in poverty despite Iraq's oil wealth.

"Our land is fertile, and our earth is like gold," Muhamad said.

Therefore, he said, the government should "focus on agriculture rather than oil, for a sustainable economy".

'Preserve environment' 

From his farm near Halabja, Muhamad squats among grape vines and other plants, wearing traditional Kurdish clothing as a friend uses a mobile phone to film him.

Many of his followers, he said, are not farmers but people who "have transformed their roof into gardens — and that's a way to better preserve the environment".

He invites his Facebook followers to post their questions, and says some farmers have sent him videos of their crops, thanking him for his help.

"That makes me very happy," he said.

In one video, he advises farmers to space their trees out by just two metres (six feet) instead of four to keep the soil shady and damp, protecting it from the scorching summer heat.

"With desertification, and low rainfall, we must change how we plant trees," he said.

"Look at these tomatoes," he added, gesturing at a group of plants. "Because they are in the shade, they are juicy and perfect — whereas these that are in the direct sun have been burned."

Iraq's northern Kurdistan region has been spared the worst effects of desertification, water scarcity and drought that have ravaged other parts of the country.

"The region has high rainfall precipitation compared to the rest of Iraq," said a 2019 study involving United Nations agencies and the autonomous Kurdistan regional government.

But the report warned that "local agricultural production is in severe competition with foreign goods with largely lower prices" ... "mainly from Turkey and Iran, whose products have flooded Iraqi markets".

It urged "more investments" to improve irrigation, along with water management to promote sustainability, to ensure the efficient use of resources and "mitigate the effects of climate change".

'Fresh and organic' 

Hamid Ismail Abdulrahman, a fellow farmer in Halabja, said low water levels in wells had impacted agricultural development.

Twice a week, the 47-year-old opens his farm to families who can buy "fresh and organic products", from tomatoes to corn and eggplant.

He said climate change had greatly affected agriculture all over Iraq, though "southern Iraq has the lion's share of this impact, while in the north the effect is less".

With Iraq already witnessing record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years, Muhamad warned that "if the government doesn't act now and present a concrete plan... the damage will be done".

Muhamad has recently opened a small educational area on his farm, and now also receives visits from university students.

He says he hopes his initiatives will have a longer-term impact.

"Some people leave behind a mosque" when they die, he said, but "I want to leave behind my agricultural knowledge."

TOKYO — Japan's SoftBank Group on Monday reported a record quarterly net loss of $23.4 billion, after interest rate hikes tanked tech shares.

The telecom firm-turned-investment behemoth posted a net loss of 3.16 trillion yen, nosediving from a net profit of 761.5 billion yen in the same April-June period the previous year.

"Global stock declines and the rapid depreciation of the yen" contributed to the slump, CEO Masayoshi Son told reporters.

A company statement elaborated, blaming the "global downward trend in share prices due to growing concerns over economic recession driven by inflation and rising interest rates".

SoftBank's big stakes in global tech giants and volatile new ventures have made for unpredictable earnings, and it has lurched between record highs and lows in recent years.

The portfolio companies that suffered large losses for the quarter included South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang and US meal delivery platform DoorDash, SoftBank Group said.

The outspoken Son said he wanted to reflect and learn from the huge losses suffered by SoftBank's technology-focused Vision Fund, which suffered even worse declines than the tech-rich Nasdaq.

"All sorts of things can be used as excuses, such as the bad market environment, the war and the pandemic. But if we had been a bit more selective and made proper investments, we wouldn't have suffered so much pain," he said.

"I don't know how long this winter will continue," he added, referring to the challenging global situation for business.

"It could be three months. It could be three years," Son said, joking that his "worries are reflected on his hair".

'Long-term' lens 

Japanese media outlets including Kyodo News said the Q1 result was the largest quarterly loss the country has ever seen.

In May, SoftBank reported its worst-ever full-year net loss — and a then-record quarterly loss for Q4 — after a bruising 2021-22 that saw its assets hit by a US tech stocks rout and a regulatory crackdown in China.

That came after logging Japan's biggest-ever annual net profit in 2020-21, when people moved their lives online during the pandemic and sent tech stocks soaring.

In 2019-20, SoftBank Group reported a then-record annual net loss of 961.6 billion yen, as the emergence of COVID-19 compounded woes caused by its investment in troubled office-sharing firm WeWork.

SoftBank "faces a very tough situation in the immediate term", said Hideki Yasuda, senior analyst at Toyo Securities, speaking before the earnings announcement.

"They have to wait for the market to rebound. You have to look at the company through the lens of long-term investment. It may experience one or two bad years, but over a decade or more, the world economy will keep growing and it could grow further."

The US Federal Reserve and many other central banks have announced aggressive rate increases aimed at battling sky-high inflation linked to the Ukraine war and COVID-related supply chain woes.

But going against the grain, the Bank of Japan has stuck to its long-held monetary easing policies because it sees the latest price hikes as temporary.

This has pushed Japan's currency down to 24-year lows against the dollar in recent months, driving down the yen value of SoftBank's investments.

On Monday, Son also announced a new 400 billion yen share buyback, effectively extending its current trillion-yen buyback scheme.

DAMASCUS — Syria's internal commerce ministry has announced a petrol price hike of around 130 per cent in the war-torn country facing fuel shortages and extended power cuts. 

The cost of a litre of subsidised fuel will rise to 2,500 Syrian pounds, from 1,100 previously, a rise of 127 per cent, the ministry said in a statement quoted by the official SANA news agency late Saturday. 

The cost of non-subsidised petrol will rise from 3,500 to 4,000 Syrian pounds, the ministry added. 

The increases represent the third time this year that authorities have increased the price of fuel, as the Syrian pound continues to depreciate.

Syria's currency is trading at around 4,250 to the dollar on the black market, compared to an official rate of 2,814. 

"This measure will hit everyone," said Raed Al-Saadi, a warehouse worker. "Our salary is now only enough to get us to the workplace, and not even enough to get us home again." 

"Life has become very difficult and I don't where this situation will lead us," the 48-year-old added. 

Since the outbreak of war in 2011, Syria's oil and gas sector has suffered losses amounting to tens of billions of dollars.

The economy has been hit hard by both the long-running war and sanctions imposed against Damascus. 

A UN commission in March called for a review of sanctions against President Bashar Assad's regime because of concerns that the measures were hitting ordinary people too hard.

The conflict in Syria started in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful protests and escalated to pull in foreign powers and global jihadists. 

It has killed around 500,000 people and displaced around half of the country's pre-war population.

DHAKA — Thousands of Bangladeshis besieged fuel stations across the country after the government raised prices by as much as 52 per cent, the largest jump on record, on the back of higher oil prices.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has seen global energy prices soar, though oil has fallen back in recent weeks as recession fears mount.

Dhaka announced on Friday that the price of petrol was going up by 51.7 per cent and diesel by 42.5 per cent from midnight.

Motorcycle riders raced to fuel stations nationwide to try and fill up before the price rise went into effect. Some stations paused sales, and sporadic protests broke out.

Demonstrators said the increases will disproportionately hit the country's tens of millions of poor people, who use diesel to power transport and farming irrigation pumps.

In Sylhet, retailers tried to impose the higher prices immediately after the hike was announced, Police Commissioner Md. Nisharul Arif said. 

"People gathered and protested in front of all the fuel pumps in Sylhet city."

There were similar protests in other cities.

Energy minister Nasru Hamid told reporters the decision was driven by global markets.

"Some adjustments have to be made in view of the global situation. If the situation normalises, the fuel prices will be revised accordingly," he said.

Bangladesh has been hit by higher energy prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine, spurring a struggle to source fuel for power stations.

Diesel power plants accounting for 1,500 megawatts of generation capacity — 10 per cent of the total — have been taken offline, as have some gas-fired plants.

In recent weeks, electricity blackouts of up to 13 hours a day have resulted.

Dhaka has asked the International Monetary Fund for $4.5 billion, the Daily Star newspaper reported, after a visit by representatives of the Washington-based lender.

The Bangladeshi taka has declined by around 20 per cent against the dollar in the past three months, further weakening the nation's finances — with the current account deficit hitting $17 billion.

LONDON — The Bank of England (BoE) unleashed on Thursday its biggest interest rate hike since 1995 as it forecast inflation topping 13 per cent this year and warned of a looming year-long recession.

The bank's Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 in favour of lifting its key interest rate by 0.50 percentage points to 1.75 per cent.

The increase tallied with expectations and took borrowing costs to the highest level since December 2008.

The move also mirrors aggressive monetary policy from the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank last month, as the world races to cool red-hot inflation that has been fuelled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It also ramps up loan repayments for UK consumers and businesses, who are already facing a squeeze from a worsening cost of living crisis.

UK inflation is set to peak at 13 per cent, or the highest level in more than 42 years, according to the BoE.

"Inflationary pressures in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe have intensified significantly" since May, read a statement after the decision.

"That largely reflects a near doubling in wholesale gas prices since May, owing to Russia's restriction of gas supplies to Europe and the risk of further curbs.

"As this feeds through to retail energy prices, it will exacerbate the fall in real incomes for UK households and further increase UK CPI inflation in the near term."

In more grim news, the BoE predicted the UK economy would enter a painful recession that will last until late 2023.

"GDP growth in the United Kingdom is slowing," the BoE said.

"The latest rise in gas prices has led to another significant deterioration in the outlook for activity in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.

"The United Kingdom is now projected to enter recession from the fourth quarter of this year."

However, the recession will be shallower than the 2008 crash that was sparked by the global financial crisis.

The UK economy is expected to shrink by up to 2.1 per cent in size from its highest point, according to the central bank's forecast.

Global inflation is surging as energy prices continue to rocket on key gas and oil producer Russia's war on neighbouring Ukraine. 

Consumer prices have also rocketed on supply-chain strains as demand rebounds on the easing of COVID restrictions.

That has forced central banks to raise interest rates, risking the prospect of recession as higher borrowing costs hurt businesses and consumers.

Inflation is also running at a 40-year peak of 9.1 per cent in the United States, and a record high of 8.6 per cent in the eurozone. 

The Fed in July delivered its second straight 0.75-percentage-point increase, in what economists have called the most aggressive Fed tightening cycle since the 1980s.

The European Central Bank then surprised markets last month with a bigger-than-expected 0.50-percentage-point hike, bringing an end to the era of negative interest rates in the eurozone.

Policymakers are anxious to quell inflation before it becomes dangerously entrenched — and sparks a prolonged economic downturn.

TOKYO — Nintendo said on Wednesday its first-quarter net profit jumped 28 per cent on-year, mainly thanks to a weaker yen, but hardware and software sales declined because of a chip shortage and COVID-19 supply issues.

The yen has plummeted more than 10 per cent against the dollar this year as sky-high US inflation fuels a widening monetary policy gap — a boon for Japanese companies like Nintendo who sell products overseas.

For the three months to June, the gaming giant posted a net profit of 118.9 billion yen ($893 million), citing the positive impact of "the depreciation of the yen".

But the company left its annual forecast unchanged, warning that the global shortage of semiconductors and other logistical snarl-ups could hamper console production and distribution.

New game releases got off to a good start, including "Nintendo Switch Sports" and "Mario Strikers: Battle League", it said, but sales were still no match for the previous year during the pandemic gaming boom.

"Due to the effects of supply shortages in semiconductors and other components among other factors, hardware sales were down 22.9 per cent year-on-year, and software sales were down 8.6 per cent year-on-year," Nintendo added.

Soaring demand for indoor entertainment during virus lockdowns sent the company's profits soaring to an annual record of 480 billion yen in 2020-21.

The firm nearly matched that figure in the last financial year, with its blockbuster Switch console continuing to perform well and strong software sales, especially for "Mario Party Superstars" and the latest Pokemon titles.

But Nintendo now has a more cautious outlook as life returns to normal, causing the gaming craze to slow, and expects to report a 340 billion yen net profit in 2022-23.

Hideki Yasuda, senior analyst at Toyo Securities, warned that the chip shortage and supply problems linked to COVID-19 lockdowns in China would continue to pose headaches for Nintendo.

"The company is feeling significant pressure on its supply chain," he told AFP before the earnings release. "The Switch is sold out at stores. There is not enough supply."

It will be "very difficult" for Nintendo to hit its annual production target for the console if the problems continue, Yasuda said, after Switch sales declined 20 per cent on-year in 2021-22.

However, a recession in the United States or elsewhere is unlikely to pose a major problem, he said.

"Video gaming doesn't feel the impact of recessions. When the economy is strong, people buy products. When the economy weakens, people spend more time playing games."

ZURICH — Switzerland, a key refiner and manufacturer of gold bars, is banning imports of the precious metal from Russia, the government said on Wednesday.

The central government aligned itself with EU sanctions which, on July 21, added a ban on gold imports of Russian origin to the list of restrictions following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The ban comes into effect at 6:00pm (16:00 GMT) on Wednesday, Switzerland's Federal Council said in a statement.

Under the new sanctions, Switzerland forbids "buying, importing or transporting gold and gold products from Russia", the statement said, adding that "services in connection with these goods are also prohibited".

Traditionally neutral, Switzerland broke with its usual stance in the days after the start of the war in Ukraine by aligning itself with European Union economic sanctions.

In May, three tons of gold from Russia were imported from Britain, but it was not clear which company was responsible for bringing it to Switzerland, Bloomberg News reported.

The Swiss Association of Manufacturers and Traders in Precious Metals (ASFCMP), which represents the country's largest refineries, contacted its members and said none of them were responsible for the imports.

The association insisted that "doubtful gold" had "no place in Switzerland" and urged its members to act "with the utmost caution".

Swiss customs said at the time they were examining the imports in light of the sanctions, but insisted that gold imports from Russia were not banned.

While gold exports were already subject to sanctions, imports were not banned under the sanctions order, customs officials said.

The fourth package of sanctions imposed by the EU included luxury goods, banning the sale, supply, transfer or export of luxury goods to Russia, including gold, silver, pearls and diamonds.

But on July 21, the EU also explicitly added a ban on importing gold from Russia, including in the form of powder, debris or gold coins.

Switzerland has several refineries to recycle gold and melt ingots.

The sector employs 1,500 people, according to ASFCMP.