Daily Update — March 20, 2025
Power and Policy; Cyber Insurance Demand; and Nord Stream Talks
Today is Thursday, March 20, 2025, and here’s your curated selection of essential intelligence on global markets from S&P Global. Subscribe to be notified of each new Daily Update.
Energy Transition & Sustainability
CERAWeek: Takeaways on power, permitting, and policy
As S&P Global’s CERAWeek energy conference concluded, Taylor Kuykendall, co-host of the “Energy Evolution” podcast, sat down with S&P Global Commodity Insights Co-President Dave Ernsberger, LNG news reporter Corey Paul and power news reporter Kassia Micek to discuss interesting themes and moments from the event.
With the AI race front and center at CERAWeek, some of the biggest conversations revolved around powering datacenters. And with a new Trump administration, the spotlight shifted to investment and production from decarbonization and clean technology, with a focus on energy policy and geopolitics.
Learn more about the factors impacting the energy transition during S&P Global Sustainable1’s upcoming webinar, Capturing $60T energy transition opportunities, while managing $25T climate risks.
Technology & Innovation
Cyber Risk Insights: Cyber Catastrophe Bonds Offer Greater Scope For Risk Mitigation
The cyber insurance-linked securities market is growing significantly, necessitating a thorough assessment of the creditworthiness and risks associated with these financial instruments. According to S&P Global Ratings, key factors influencing the credit quality of cyber insurance-linked security transactions include regulatory risk, policy terms and conditions, cedent risk, asset risk/collateral and modeling requirements. Demand for cyber insurance is on the rise, with premiums expected to increase to about $23 billion by the end of 2026 from approximately $14 billion in 2023, driven by companies' need to protect their digital assets and sensitive information.
As the insurance industry enhances its understanding of cyber losses, the frequency and severity of cyber incidents continue to grow, prompting the need for additional coverage capacity. Cyber catastrophe bonds have emerged as an option for insurers and reinsurers to transfer some of the risks associated with traditional cyber underwriting to investors and tap into a broader capital market. However, the industry still grapples with the challenge of effectively modeling systemic risks, such as coordinated ransomware attacks, due to their complexity and the limitations of available data.
Learn more about cyberrisk in companies’ ecosystems with our Cybersecurity Factors dataset.
Global Trade
Talk of Russian gas supply via Nord Stream would be 'wrong direction': Habeck
Germany’s federal minister of economic affairs and climate action, Robert Habeck, opposed the resumption of Russian gas deliveries to Germany through the repaired Nord Stream pipelines. Ahead of an EU energy ministers' meeting, Habeck said that any conversation about relying on Russian gas again, especially while Ukraine still faces aggression from Russia, is misguided. Habeck also cautioned against replacing Germany's previous dependence on Russian gas with a new reliance on US LNG, saying that the focus should instead be on phasing out fossil fuel imports and investing in renewable energy sources.
Habeck's remarks followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments that additional Russian gas supplies to Europe are possible if a new energy cooperation agreement with Washington is reached. Speculation about the revival of Russian gas exports has increased due to ongoing peace talks between the US and Russia concerning Ukraine.
In case you missed it
- Pakistan plans to auction nearly 40 offshore oil and gas blocks and about 31 onshore blocks to scale up supplies, meet the country's energy needs and trim its energy import bill.
- LNG bunker fuel demand in Asia is expected to strengthen for the remainder of 2025, driven by a narrowing price spread between LNG and very low sulfur fuel oil, a surge in orders for LNG-fueled ships and the increasing adoption of alternative fuels.
- Amid calls from some state insurance regulators to eliminate the Federal Insurance Office, a leading Republican member of Congress said there is a case to preserve the agency, but only if it refocuses its priorities.
Upcoming events
- Capturing $60T energy transition opportunities, while managing $25T climate risks | March 26 (Webinar)
- The resilience of credit: market dynamics and outlook | March 27 (Webinar)
- Sustainable1 Summit 2025 | April 30 (In-person: London) and June 26 (In-person: Singapore)