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Bloomberg The federal gas tax should be increased to help modernise US roads, bridges and other public works, and Congress must expand funding and financing options for projects, US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said. The chamber is calling on Congress and the Trump administration to raise federal fuel taxes by 25 cents, pass initiatives including a new federal ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is ready for its initial public offering in the second half, with the government yet to decide where to list the shares, Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said. The kingdom will decide where the stock will be traded, not the company, Nasser said at Aramco headquarters in Dhahran, in eastern Saudi Arabia. One option being ...

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc agreed to annual deals to buy Libyan crude, underscoring how the North African country’s recovering production and improving security are enticing some of the world’s largest oil companies. Shell’s deal with Libya’s National Oil Corp. was the first of its kind since 2013, and Europe’s biggest oil company will load its first ...

Bloomberg OPEC and other global oil producers including Russia won’t be discussing how to end output cuts when they meet this weekend in Oman even as crude prices have recently been rising, Kuwait’s oil minister said. Compliance among all countries in the cuts was 125 percent in December, Bakheet Al-Rashidi told reporters in Kuwait City. The rate is preliminary as ...

Bloomberg When OPEC and Russia review their strategy for clearing a global oil glut, they’ll face an unusual problem: it could be working just a bit too well. As their output cuts, coupled with robust global demand, tighten the market, crude prices have soared to a three-year high near $70 a barrel. That’s prompted warnings — from Iran’s oil minister ...

Reuters Oman’s sovereign wealth fund is planning to start a $1 billion infrastructure fund to boost investment in projects including the Gulf state’s road, transport and energy systems, according to people familiar with the matter. The State General Reserve Fund is talking to international banks and potential investors for the financing, the people said, asking not to be identified because ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, has announced that the average value of foreign direct investment (FDI) received by the country in 2016 reached $9 billion. The UAE’s outgoing international investments also reached $15.7 billion, making the country the largest receiver of FDIs in the Arab region and the largest Arab investor abroad, he ...

DUBAI / WAM Umm Al Qaiwain Coop has offered 2.5 million stocks for public trade, to increase investment in its retail sector. An integral part of Union Coop and the UAE’s largest consumer cooperative, Umm Al Qaiwain Coop will launch an Initial Public Offering from January 21 onwards until February 8. The public will be able to purchase these stocks ...

DUBAI / WAM A new report from Middle East Electricity (MEE) states the GCC requires a combined $131 billion worth of investment in electricity generation, transmission and distribution over the next five years to cope with increasing demand from growing populations, expanding economies and climatic changes. The report, ‘GCC Power Market’, reveals that despite the GCC’s current power-generating capacity of ...

Dubai / Reuters Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the United Arab Emirates’ largest sharia-compliant lender, posted a 26 percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday, in line with analysts’ forecasts, according to Reuters calculations. DIB made AED1.15 billion ($313.1 million) in the three months to December 31, Reuters calculated from annual statements in the absence of a quarterly breakdown. This ...