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Bloomberg Oil hit the lowest in a month after the US government data showed expanding crude stockpiles. Futures fell as much as 3.2 percent in New York on Wednesday. Domestic crude inventories rose by more than twice the rate forecast by analysts last week, according to the Energy Information Administration. Stored supplies have been growing for four weeks, the longest …

Bloomberg Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) again sought to reassure markets after one of its biggest customers complained about the pain of high prices. “There is no cause for alarm,” Opec Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said, adding that India had sent a letter bemoaning the state of the oil market. While insisting supplies are sufficient, he neglected to specify how …

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc’s pension manager plans to invest 250 million pounds ($329 million) of its pension scheme into renewable energy infrastructure for wind and solar in the UK, joining around 30 other firms making similar climate change pledges. Amazon.com Inc. also committed to installing 20 megawatts of solar power at depots around the country, while EDF Energy Plc said …

Bloomberg PG&E Corp. has deliberately left customers in the dark for the first time as a precaution to prevent wildfires from breaking out. Almost 60,000 customers in six counties across the Sierra Nevada foothills and Northern California country were blacked out during a windstorm, according to Melissa Subbotin, a company spokeswoman. About 70 percent of those customers will have electricity …

ABU DHABI / Emirates Business In a bid to elevate the standard of living in developing countries and eradicate global poverty, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the leading national entity for development aid, has highlighted its allocation of nearly AED11 billion ($2.99 billion) towards development projects in the education as well as healthcare sectors. In its report marking International …

Bloomberg US and Chinese officials clashed in Geneva on Tuesday as the world’s two largest economies disagreed over how to reform the global trading system. Deputy US Trade Representative Dennis Shea said the World Trade Organization (WTO) must confront China’s trade abuses while rethinking its preferential rights as a developing nation. Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen countered that “no one can …

ABU DHABI / Emirates Business The value of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), transactions with any Middle Eastern & North African (Mena) involvement rea-ched $45.1 billion during the first nine months of 2018, according to Refinitiv, formally Financial & Risk business division of Thomson Reuters. The amount is 65% more than the value recorded during same period in 2017 and an …

Bloomberg Abu Dhabi shelved plans for an initial public offering of a 25 percent stake in Spanish oil refiner Cepsa. “Recent international economic developments have created uncertainty in international capital markets,” said Cepsa, which is controlled by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Mubadala Investment Co. The offering would have valued Spain-based Cepsa at between 7 billion euros ($8.1 billion) and 8.1 billion …

DUBAI / WAM Arab Health, an exhibition for healthcare and trade professionals in the Mena region, has outlined the role of tech start-ups in playing a more vital role in the healthcare industry in areas such as personalised medicine and more efficient technology-enabled care models. The report, titled ‘Technology: Accelerating Innovation Across Healthcare’, revealed that digital health start-ups are said …

CAIRO / WAM Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, announced that the UAE will host the 22nd Conference of Arab Culture Ministers in 2020, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (Alecso), and the UAE’s hosting of the world’s arts and culture at Expo 2020 in Dubai. …