Bloomberg Japan’s plans to develop its renewable energy industry are lagging much of the world, as the nation has “prioritised keeping the status quo for fear of change,” Foreign Minister Taro Kono said. Japan wants renewable energy to account for 22 percent to 24 percent of its overall energy mix by 2030, while the global average today is already 24 ...

SINGAPORE / Reuters Singapore posted record sales volumes of marine fuels for the third straight year in 2017, even as the city state reva-mped the market last year leading to stiff competition and margin erosion. Singapore last year sold an all-time high 50.6 million tonnes of marine fuels, a 4.2 percent increase over the 48.6 million tonnes sold in 2016, ...

Bloomberg Morocco, which depends on imports for almost all of its energy needs, will soon tender for companies to build a $4.6 billion natural gas project, Energy Minister Aziz Rabbah said. The project will process gas for power and provide gas to industry, Rabbah said on Sunday in an interview in Abu Dhabi. With the financial and technical consultants chosen, ...

Bloomberg Tunisia’s main opposition parties derided a government pledge to increase aid for low-income families, urging Tunisians to step up protests over IMF-backed austerity measures as the country marks the seventh anniversary of the revolt that inspired the Arab Spring uprisings. “Government actions are just painkillers and cannot deal with the situation,” Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, head of the opposition Democratic ...

Reuters An Iranian oil tanker has sunk after burning for more than a week following a collision on Jan. 6 in the East China Sea, Chinese state media said on Sunday, adding that large amounts of oil are burning in the surrounding waters. Iranian officials said the remaining 29 crew members and passengers of the tanker were presumed dead. Iranian ...

ANKARA / Reuters Iran’s president said on Sunday the United States had failed to undermine a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers, and hailed the accord as a “long-lasting victory” for Iran, state television reported. US President Donald Trump delivered an ultimatum to European signatories of the deal to fix the “terrible flaws” of the agreement with Iran, or ...

BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Sunday his candidacy for the May 12 parliamentary elections to choose a prime minister. Abadi, a Shi’ite Muslim who led the country in the four-year war against IS, said he will seek to form a cross-sectarian block called ‘’the victory alliance’’ to contest the parliamentary elections, with candidates from other ...

Bloomberg Czech President Milos Zeman is heading into a runoff against a pro-European challenger in a ballot that’s become a public reckoning of a veteran politician who’s thrown his support behind Russian lea-der Vladimir Putin and mobilised voters with anti-migrant rhetoric. Zeman, 73, had 39 percent with nearly all districts counted after the first round of voting. The former prime ...

Bloomberg An alert mistakenly warning Hawaiians of an imminent ballistic missile attack — at a time the state’s residents are already anxious about nuclear tensions between the US and North Korea — resulted from human error, Hawaii’s governor said. The emergency notice was triggered after an “employee pushed the wrong button” during a shift change at the Hawaii Emergency Management ...

For more than 100 years, the Middle East has been defined by oil exploration, production and its boundaries. Now the region is getting repurposed by its aspiration to grow beyond fossil fuel. The shake-up in Saudi Arabia is also much about becoming a 21st-century economy. None of the region’s petrostates has moved further from its oilfield roots than Dubai, which ...