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Bloomberg Oil steadied near the highest level in almost four years as fears of a supply crunch outweighed expectations for an increase in American crude inventories. Futures were trading around $75.50 a barrel in New York, up around 0.4 percent. Supply losses from Iran to Venezuela continued to rattle markets, boosting volatility and driving prices higher. The ongoing outlook for …

Bloomberg Saudi International Petrochemical Co. signed a non-binding agreement to acquire Sahara Petrochemical Co. in an all-share deal valued at just over $2 billion. Saudi International Petrochemical Co., or Sipchem, will issue each Sahara shareholder with 0.8356 new Sipchem shares, the companies said in statements on Wednesday. The deal is valued at about $2.2 billion, according to Tuesday’s closing price. …

Bloomberg Oil traded near the highest level in almost four years as investors grapple with doubts over OPEC’s ability to replace falling exports from Iran. Futures rose 0.2 percent in New York after closing at the highest since November 2014. Iranian crude and condensate exports declined to their lowest in 2 1/2 years before the impending return of US sanctions. …

Bloomberg Russia’s oil production rose to a post-Soviet high last month as the country completely rolled back the output cuts it had agreed on with Opec, then pumped some more. The country produced a record 11.356 million barrels of oil and condensate a day in September, according to data released on Tuesday by the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK statistical unit. That’s …

Bloomberg Iraq exported more than 4 million barrels a day for a second consecutive month in September as buyers sought alternative supplies to Iran ahead of US sanctions. Shipments from Opec’s No. 2 producer were 4.062 million barrels a day, the highest since November 2016 and compared with 4.061 million a day in August, according to Bloomberg calculations from tanker …

Bloomberg In the race to solve a fuel-import crisis in Nigeria, Africa’s richest person faces competition from a swarm of tiny challengers. Billionaire Aliko Dangote is building a 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Nigeria that will help cut the nation’s $7 billion annual fuel-import bill. Such is the pressure on its finances, the government is pursuing another option, giving licenses to …

Bloomberg South Africa’s Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is still running low on fuel at more than half of its power stations and expects to finish supply contracts in October that will replenish the stockpiles. There are 10 of Eskom’s 15 baseload stations throughout the country that have less than three weeks of coal, Khulu Phasiwe, a spokesman for the utility, …

Bloomberg YPF SA, Argentina’s state-run energy producer, is closing the tap on some of its natural gas wells as the nation’s second recession in three years curbs demand, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The company had been investing heavily in shale gas as the government subsidized production to reverse a costly energy trade deficit. But the …

Bloomberg The US and Canada have agreed on a trade deal that would save the North American Free Trade Agreement as a trilateral bloc, according to three people familiar with the matter. US and Canadian negotiators worked around the clock to secure an agreement, allowing leaders from those nations and Mexico to sign the accord by late November. The 24-year-old …

Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is poised to cut its forecast for global growth as Managing Director Christine Lagarde warns trade wars and tighter credit are darkening the outlook. Three months since predicting the world economy would grow 3.9 percent this year and next, Lagarde signaled in Washington that she is no longer quite so optimistic. The fund will …