Brent crude has climbed to $62 per barrel in Asian trade on February 17, despite growing uncertainty regarding the Eurozone's future which has been caused by the recent failure in Greece's debt negotiations.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light crude futures for March delivery were traded at $53.16 per barrel, while on London’s ICE Futures exchange Brent crude for April delivery mounted by $0.70/1.1% reaching $62.10 a barrel.
One of the main producers of renewable energy in Europe, Spain’s
solar industry, is edging toward bankruptcy. Producers say they’ll be
unable to repay credits after the government’s decision to cut
subsidies. Banks will suffer and jobs will be lost.
Energy Minister José Manuel Soria has introduced a new
compensation plan for calculating levels of "reasonable
profitability" for renewable-energy production, distribution
and transportation. It will reduce payments to companies serving
the nation's electrical system by up to 2.7 billion euro
annually. It’s hoped the move could help cope with the
electricity system deficit that has been growing since 2005 and
now exceeds 25 billion euro.
To sap the annual deficit, which has been estimated by the
government at 4.5 billion euro this year, Spain is set to raise
consumers' electric bills by about 3.2 percent starting from
August, contributing about 400 million euro in extra revenue for
the system this year and 900 million euro next year, the Wall
Street Journal reports.
Greece has finished marathon talks with the ‘Troika’ of creditors
over its €31.5bln aid package, according to the Greek Prime Minister
Antonis Samaras.
“Today we finished talks on the austerity measures and the budget. We did everything possible,” the Prime Minister said on Tuesday. "Should
the agreement be approved [by the Parliament], and the budget adopted,
Greece will remain within the Eurozone and will go out of the crisis.”
Samaras added that Athens had achieved “significant improvement” in the deal on offer, and warned of “chaos” if the measures were rejected by MPs.