By Hyunjoo Jin

SAN FRANCISCO -Alphabet Inc unit Waymo said on Wednesday it has started offering driverless rides to employees in San Francisco, accelerating a race with General Motors Co-backed rival Cruise to commercialize the technology in the dense city.

Waymo also introduced autonomous rides to employees in downtown Phoenix with safety drivers behind the wheel, with a goal to open it to public testing.

“Operating fully autonomously in multiple markets — in addition to Waymo’s growing trucking operations — is a critical validator of the scalability of Waymo’s operations and technology,” it said in a statement.

A self-driving technology pioneer, Waymo started the first U.S. driverless taxi service in 2020, over a decade after it was born in 2009 as a project inside Google. While it gives paid rides to hundreds of people a week using Chrysler minivans, Waymo’s service has not expanded beyond suburban Phoenix areas that cover about 50 square miles (129.5 square kilometers). [nL1N2R80CD]

Waymo in August started giving autonomous rides free of charge to a limited number of people in San Francisco with safety drivers on board, using its Jaguar electric vehicles equipped with sensors such as spinning lidars on the top.

Waymo needs to receive at least two more permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to start charging passengers for driverless rides in San Francisco.

Waymo declined to comment on whether it had applied for the permits.

Cruise already is giving fully driverless rides to employees and members of the public free of charge in San Francisco. The company is seeking CPUC approval for commercial driverless service, with a goal to get permitted this year.

Self-driving technology firms, which have attracted billions of dollars of investments, face challenges of scaling up their technology, after missing their earlier targets to launch commercial services.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Mark Porter and Richard Chang)

By Scott DiSavino

NEW YORK -Oil prices gained about 3% on Wednesday as another U.S. crude stock drawdown indicated tight supplies and investors worried about new Western sanctions against Moscow with Russian forces continuing to bomb the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital.

On Tuesday, Russia promised to scale down operations around Kyiv in what the West dismissed as a ploy to regroup by invaders suffering heavy losses.

“After being fooled once, many traders that sold contracts in response to the peace talks are unlikely to make the same mistake the next time a Russia-Ukraine meeting is followed by optimistic comments,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois.

Brent futures rose $3.22, or 2.9%, to settle at $113.45 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $3.58, or 3.4%, to settle at $107.82.

U.S. crude stockpiles fell by a bigger-than-expected 3.4 million barrels last week, cutting inventories in the world’s top consumer to 410 million barrels, their lowest since September 2018, government data showed. [EIA/S]

“U.S. crude inventories have shown another draw despite production ticking higher and yet one more solid SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) release into commercial inventories,” said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler, noting the crude draw was driven by rising refining activity.

After seven weeks of holding steady, U.S. crude output inched up 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) last week to 11.7 million bpd, while crude stocks in SPR fell to their lowest since May 2002, and Gulf Coast refinery utilization rose to its highest since January 2020.

Price gains were limited by surprise builds in U.S. gasoline and distillate stocks last week and lower demand for both products, traders said.

The United States and its allies plan new sanctions on more sectors of Russia’s economy, including military supply chains.

The Kremlin indicated that all of Russia’s energy and commodity exports could be priced in roubles, as President Vladimir Putin seeks to make the West feel pain for the sanctions.

In response to possible Russian gas supply cuts, Germany triggered an emergency plan to manage gas supplies. Other European countries also took steps to conserve gas.

Sources, however, said Russia plans to keep the contract currency for gas exports to Europe unchanged but will seek final payment in roubles as one of the options to switch the currency of gas trade.

Keeping the market tight, major oil producers are likely to stick to their scheduled output target increase of about 432,000 bpd when OPEC+ – the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia – meets on Thursday, several sources close to the group said.

But weakening demand in China is pressuring oil prices, as the country has tightened mobility restrictions and COVID-19-related lockdowns in multiple cities including the financial hub of Shanghai.

U.S. data, meanwhile, showed private employers maintained a brisk pace of hiring in March, leading investors to worry that a possible rapid rise in interest rates could hurt economic growth and fuel demand.

(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in London, Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Muyu Xu in Beijing; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Kirsten Donovan)

By Huw Jones

LONDON -The Intercontinental Exchange is considering shifting the clearing of contracts that underpin global debt markets away from London, two industry sources said on Wednesday.

A potential relocation to Chicago is being evaluated, the sources said of a move that could stoke fresh concerns about Britain’s post-Brexit role in global finance.

Clearing has become a politically sensitive topic since Britain left the European Union, with Brussels saying that UK-based clearing houses such as ICE Clear Europe and the London Stock Exchange’s LCH would no longer be able to serve customers in the bloc after June 2025.

The EU wants to build autonomy in clearing and end heavy reliance on London.

ICE, owner of the New York Stock Exchange and a futures exchange in London, is a major clearing house for credit default swaps (CDS) contracts, which are widely used by banks and investors as insurance against companies defaulting on bonds.

ICE says it clears about 95% of cleared corporate and sovereign CDS market, with 85% in Chicago and 10% in London.

The sources said it is asking customers in London if they could move CDS clearing to Chicago to increase efficiencies.

“The reason they are asking customers is that it reflects the way CDS clearing is done now,” one of the sources said.

ICE, which declined to comment, has EU permission to clear CDS trades for EU customers from its Chicago business.

Any move by ICE will be closely watched by London Stock Exchange-owned rival LCH, which operates CDSClear.

“CDSClear continues to expand, and we are looking to develop our services for a wider range of customers,” said Frank Soussan, global head of CDSClear.

While clearing was given a three-year reprieve, a bar on euro derivatives trading between Britain and the EU following Brexit has forced banks in the bloc to use platforms in New York to trade swaps with a UK counterparty.

Banks warn that efforts by Brussels to force euro derivatives clearing to move from London to the bloc could also see swathes of the activity ending up in the United States.

“The EU’s constant bickering with London post Brexit has fundamentally destabilised the business case for derivatives in Europe making the U.S. appear the more flexible, pro-business choice,” said Patrick Young, who writes a daily newsletter on exchanges.

ICE shifted trading in 245 futures and options contracts in North American oil and natural gas liquids from London to the United States in February 2018 and moved its EU carbon trading from London to the Netherlands in June last year.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by David Goodman, Marguerita Choy and Mark Porter)