BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq has agreed to swap up to 60,000 barrels per day of crude produced from the northern Iraqi Kirkuk oilfield for Iranian oil, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said. The agreement signed by the two countries provides for Iran to deliver to Iraq’s southern ports, on the Gulf, “oil of the same characteristics and in the same ...

Bloomberg Oil slipped to near $57 a barrel as US drilling expanded and OPEC nations Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates signalled they can phase out production cuts if the market improves. Futures fell 0.4% in New York after climbing 2.5 percent in the previous two sessions. Drillers boosted the rig count by two to 751, a three-month high, according ...

Bloomberg Pilot production at Egypt’s Eni SpA-operated Zohr natural gas field will begin “in the coming few days,” the oil ministry said, as the country nears its goal of commercial output from the biggest gas discovery in the Mediterranean Sea by the end of this year. Gas is being pumped from the national distribution system to test pipelines in preparation ...

Bloomberg China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) is restricting natural-gas sales to industries across the country to divert more of the fuel to heat homes in the northern part of the country. The move is a response to instructions from the Nati- onal Development & Reform Commission, which called on local governments and gas suppliers to combat gas shortages in the ...

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin flew to Russia’s airbase in Syria and declared “victory” in its two-year military campaign in support of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, as he issued an order to begin withdrawing forces from the war-torn country. Putin’s unannounced stop, where he was greeted by Assad, began a whirlwind day of Middle East diplomacy on Monday that includes talks ...

Bloomberg A Brooklyn man wearing a pipe bomb attached with Velcro and zip ties set off an explosive in the Times Square subway station on Monday morning, injuring himself and three others, sending ambulances racing and commuters fleeing as Christmas shoppers poured into New York City. The 27-year-old suspect, Akayed Ullah, wore the device that went off shortly after 7 ...

Bloomberg President Emmanuel Macron said he doesn’t intend to immediately revive past French Middle East peace initiatives, as Donald Trump’s administration stood behind his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there. “It is preferable not to multiply initiatives because they end up cannibalizing each other,” Macron said at a press conference in Paris with ...

Bloomberg As delegates from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress gather this week to pick a new leader to succeed President Jacob Zuma, they face a challenge that’s threatening to overshadow the contest: to stop the party from splitting. The likelihood of a breakup is probably the biggest in the ANC’s 105-year-old history, especially if Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the president’s ex-wife ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s main opposition alliance postponed indefinitely plans to swear-in its leader as president of a so-called People’s Assembly, after the government warned such a step would amount to treason. A ceremony that was to be held in the port city of Mombasa December 12 was called off after “extensive internal consultations and engagement with a wide range of national ...

Bloomberg Japanese prosecutors are investigating two of the country’s biggest construction companies, Obayashi Corp. and Kajima Corp., for suspected wrongdoing linked to a public-backed $79 billion magnetic-levitation rail network. After local media reported authorities were looking into bid-rigging related to construction of Central Japan Railway Co.’s maglev project, Obayashi Corp. said in a statement that prosecutors had raided its office ...