Energy

  TUNIS / Reuters Oil and gas industry contractor Petrofac is halting gas production in Tunisia after two weeks of renewed protests on the southern Kerkennah islands, officials said on Wednesday. The announcement comes just three months after Petrofac restarted operations at Kerkennah’s Chergui gas field, following nine months of disruptions due to protests. Petrofac had threatened in September to ...

  Bloomberg Oil retreated from the highest close since July 2015 as focus shifted to expanding US crude stockpiles after OPEC and other producing nations agreed to cut output to stabilize the market. Futures slid as much as 1.7 percent in New York after climbing 6.5 percent over the previous four sessions. US inventories rose by 4.68 million barrels last ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabian Oil Co. signed contracts with US companies to build dozens of oil rigs over 10 years as the kingdom builds for the long-term future of its most prized industry even while coordinating with other producers to cut output for six months to stabilize crude. The Saudi state producer known as Saudi Aramco signed a contract with ...

  Bloomberg Sharply falling water levels at Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa dam, sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest hydropower plant, are threatening electricity supplies to countries including South Africa, which buys about a third of its output. Levels are the lowest Phil Bezuidenhout, a lodge owner at the dam, has seen in the 24 years he’s operated on its shores in the country’s northwest. ...

  Paris / AFP A pact by leading producers to cut output could quickly begin sopping up the glut on the oil market that has weighed on prices, the IEA said on Tuesday as it also hiked its demand forecast. The agreements, if implemented, would “hasten the market’s return to balance by working off the inventory overhang,” said the International Energy ...

  Tehran / AFP Iran signed preliminary agreements with Russia’s Gazprom on Tuesday to develop two major oil fields in the latest of a flurry of deals with foreign firms, local media reported. The deals open the way for Gazprom to carry out studies at the Cheshmekosh and Changouleh fields near the border with Iraq, according to the Shana news agency, ...

  Bloomberg India’s biggest gas utility is seeking a price cut and other changes to a 20-year liquefied natural gas supply contract from Gazprom PJSC, the latest in a series of concessions sought by buyers amid a global gas glut. GAIL India Ltd. is pushing to overhaul the 2.5 million ton a year contract with the Russian gas giant that ...

  Bloomberg Rosneft PJSC agreed to pay as much as $2.8 billion to buy up to 35 percent of a natural-gas project off Egypt, joining Eni SpA and BP Plc in the largest discovery in the Mediterranean Sea. Rosneft will pay $1.13 billion for an initial 30 percent stake in the Shorouk concession, which includes the Zohr find, plus $450 ...

  Hong Kong / AFP Most energy firms in Asia jumped with a surge in oil prices on Monday after 11 non-OPEC countries agreed to huge cuts in crude production, while Saudi Arabia also signalled a bigger reduction in output than previously agreed. The 11 nations, led by Russia, said they would pump more than half a million fewer barrels ...

  AFP World oil prices surged on Monday after non-OPEC producers struck a deal to cut output, while Europe’s main stock markets were subdued before a key Fed meeting due this week. Indices in London, Frankfurt and Paris pulled back after soaring last week when the European Central Bank decided to extended its massive quantitative easing (QE) stimulus to December ...