BEIRUT / Reuters Lebanon said it had signed its first offshore oil and gas exploration and production agreements for two blocks, including a block disputed by neighbouring Israel. Lebanon’s energy minister said the dispute with Israel would not stop Lebanon benefiting from potential undersea reserves in the contentious Block 9, while consortium operator Total said it would not drill the ...

Bloomberg While many oil producers are stepping back from their retail operations, Royal Dutch Shell Plc is doubling down. Shell, which has about 44,000 filling stations around the world, opened its first one in Mexico last year, the start of $1 billion in investments over the next decade. Shell also is ramping up spending in China, India, Indonesia and Russia, ...

Bloomberg Asia pushed past the rest of the world last year to become the biggest buyer of America’s crude oil — and it’s poised to do it again in 2018. Just two years after Washington ended its crude-export ban, the continent soaked up 37 percent of the oil the US sent abroad in 2017, up from about 9 percent in ...

Bloomberg Walmart Inc. is in discussions to pay several billion dollars for as much as 20% of India e-commerce leader Flipkart Online Services Pvt, according to a person familiar with the matter. The world’s biggest retailer would invest in Flipkart as part of a proposed deal that would increase the startup’s valuation as high as $20 billion, said the person, ...

Islamabad / Bloomberg Pakistan will use its national identity database to build profiles of potential taxpayers in a renewed bid to broaden its tax base, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said. The plan aims to increase the number of taxpayers in a country where less than one percent of its 210 million people pays taxes. It seeks to plug leakages, ...

Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to buy a 15 percent stake in a chain of Chinese home improvement and furniture stores as part of its pushing into “new retail,” the company said on Sunday. The e-commerce giant will invest about 5.45 billion yuan ($865 million) in Beijing Easyhome Furnishing Chain Store Group Co., and support the digital transformation of ...

Bloomberg China’s ability to export inflation to the world appears to be waning, right at a time when investors are worried that global prices are taking off amid faster economic growth. Factory prices, which feed through into the prices export customers pay, are continuing to soften, suggesting the world’s biggest trading nation won’t be passing on much more by way ...

Bloomberg Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Chairman Terry Gou, best known for assembling Apple Inc.’s iPhones, plans to increase its focus on artificial intelligence and big data over the next few years as he seeks to transform the contract manufacturer into a more influential force in the global technology industry. Gou, at an annual gathering in Taipei for employees and ...

Bloomberg Justin Trudeau’s latest mission to bolster Nafta ended on an upbeat note, as the Canadian leader said there’s still a “clear path” to a deal while pushing back against US President Donald Trump. Trudeau capped a US swing in Los Angeles after stops in Chicago and San Francisco. During the trip he rejected the belief that trade deals see ...

Bloomberg Expedia Inc. shares tumbled the most in more than three months after outlining plans to spend a lot more in 2018, in an effort to modernize operations and bolster its short-term vacation rental unit. The company gave a forecast for 6 percent to 11 percent annual growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — a measure of ...