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Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc finally gave investors the share buybacks they’ve been demanding, even as profit fell short of expectations despite resurgent crude prices. The Anglo-Dutch energy producer said that it is starting a $25 billion share-repurchase programme, initially buying up $2 billion of stock over three months. That should soothe investors who have grown increasingly anxious about when …

HODEIDAH / WAM Up to 2800 Yemenis in Ad Durayhimi District of the Hodeidah Governorate have benefitted from an extensive humanitarian airdrop operation carried out by Saudi-led Arab Coalition Forces, for second time in a week. Utilising state-of-the-art technology, including parachutes and GPS techniques, the airdrop, which included 400 food parcels, as well as mineral water provided by the Emirates …

DUBAI / WAM DP World has signed a 20-year concession with an automatic 20-year extension with the Republic of Mali to build and operate a 1000-hectare modern logistics hub outside of Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali. The multimodal logistics platform, Mali Logistics Hub (MLH) will have inland container depots (ICD) and Container Freight Stations (CFS) that will …

Bloomberg Russia, one of the world’s top three crude producers, is preparing the most radical shakeup of its oil-tax system since 1999. The changes, which will allow the nation’s producers to export crude and oil products duty-free while raising their costs at the wellhead, is set to get the go-ahead from President Vladimir Putin by year-end, bringing in much-needed funds …

Bloomberg On a hot sunny day in July, Europe’s largest port is busy loading super-chilled liquefied natural gas onto a tanker, creating snow flurries during a heat wave. The cargo loaded at the Gate terminal in Rotterdam, which was built to import the fuel. Around the same time, a vessel from the Russian Arctic region arrived with another batch of …

Bloomberg Shares of California utility owners PG&E Corp, Edison International and Sempra Energy climbed after Governor Jerry Brown indicated that utilities shouldn’t be responsible for future wildfire damages without considering whether they acted “reasonably.” The proposal wouldn’t affect the billions of dollars in potential liabilities PG&E and Edison face for blazes in 2017, Brown said. But it’s a win for …

ABU DHABI / WAM Borouge has awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for an additional Polypropylene Plant, PP5, to be integrated with the existing Borouge 3 complex in Ruwais and grow the polymer production capacity to almost 5 million tonnes per annum by 2021. The EPC contract has been awarded to Tecnimont SPA, a subsidiary of Italy’s Milan-based …

Bloomberg The dark storm clouds that have been hanging over the oil industry during the crude-price slump have suddenly started raining cash. After cutting billions of dollars of costs to survive the biggest downturn in decades, Big Oil is now riding a price rebound to generate enough cash to pay dividends and still have plenty left over. The big question …

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc is in talks to sell two Nigerian oil licenses in an area that’s at the heart of environmental and human rights controversies for $2 billion, according to people familiar with the plan. The Anglo-Dutch oil major is discussing selling oil mining licenses 11 and 17 to Heirs Holdings Ltd, a company run by Nigerian tycoon …

Bloomberg The UAE’s carrier Emirates ruled out investing in South Af-rican Airways (SAA) narrowing number of potential saviours of the loss-making state airline. While Emirates and SAA are working closely to enhance their code-sharing agreement, there are no plans to invest, an Emirates spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Monday. The Dubai-based company commented after Joha- nnesburg-based newspaper City …