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LONDON / WAM Biopharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, said on Thursday it had received the first agreements to supply at least 400 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with the University of Oxford, reported Reuters. The British drugmaker said it has a total capacity sourced for one billion doses through 2020 and into 2021, and continues to increase capacity ...

Bloomberg Oil was headed for its longest run of daily gains since February 2019 after a drop in US crude stockpiles added to signs that the market is starting to balance. West Texas Intermediate futures rose for a sixth day in New York to near $34 a barrel. American inventories fell for a second week, and there was a record ...

Bloomberg Oil rose for a fifth day as investors weighed signs the market is rebalancing against what’s still a precarious economic outlook. Futures in New York for July delivery gained to above $32 a barrel. A report that a virus vaccine study didn’t produce enough critical data to assess its success added some caution to markets, which have been buoyed ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE on Monday welcomed the signing of a power-sharing agreement in Afghanistan between President Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah Abdullah while expressing hope that the deal represents a step towards enhancing stability, peace, and security throughout Afghanistan. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation renewed its call for an immediate ceasefire ...

Bloomberg Oil rose to the highest in two months as demand in China returned to near pre-virus level and output curbs continued in the US and elsewhere. Futures in New York climbed as much as 9.8%. Chinese oil use is at 13 million barrels a day, just shy of the levels of a year earlier, traders and executives said. The ...

DUBAI / WAM Drydocks World on Monday held a steel-cutting ceremony to mark the start of production on a conversion project for Boskalis B.V. According to a press statement, Drydocks World will convert a drill ship YAN into an offshore installation vessel named Bokalift 2. This vessel is designed to carry out offshore operations for windmill installations in Taiwan. The ...

Bloomberg The government of Nigeria, whose revenue could be slashed by more than half this year due to the oil-price slump, finalised plans for a revised budget that keeps spending almost intact, and that will mean more borrowing. Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed got approval from the West African’s nation’s cabinet to go ahead with the new budget that cuts expenditure ...

Bloomberg In the face of an unprecedented oil market collapse, Opec+ is responding with an urgency never seen before. With unusual speed, the alliance is launching an unparalleled program of production cutbacks this month to offset the slump induced by coronavirus pandemic. The 23-nation coalition is well on its way to cutting 9.7 million barrels of daily crude output — ...

Bloomberg The outlook for global oil markets has “improved somewhat,” with demand a little stronger than expected and supply reined in by a brutal price crash, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. World oil production is on track for a “historic decline” this month to the lowest level in nine years, the IEA said in a monthly report. Opec and ...

NEW YORK / WAM The UAE has emphasised that multilateralism and international cooperation remain essential to resolving global challenges at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe and lessons learned for preventing future atrocities. “While we commemorate the end of the Second World War on European ...