News

BEIJING / Reuters Independent oil refiners in China’s Shandong province are planning to form a consortium to integrate their production of oil products and petrochemicals, according to a planning document reviewed by Reuters. Since late 2015, China has allowed 31 mostly privately-owned oil refineries to import crude oil, the majority of them based in Shandong province. With a combined capacity ...

Bloomberg The UK North Sea is on track for the biggest year of oil and gas field startups in a decade, continuing the aging province’s surprising resilience to the crude-market slump. Fourteen projects with combined peak production of 230,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day will start in the region this year, according to data from consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. ...

Bloomberg Hurricane Harvey’s crushing blow to the US energy industry reveals just how dependent Mexico has become on natural gas from its northern neighbor. The storm’s wrath forced cross-border gas pipelines in Texas to shut and prevented tankers from loading cargoes of the fuel. Mexican consumers, who are burning record amounts of gas from America’s prolific shale basins, had no ...

Bloomberg Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is nearing a deal to acquire Cenovus Energy Inc.’s Pelican Lake oil asset for about C$1 billion ($807 million), according to people familiar with the matter. Canadian Natural advanced to the final round of bidding alongside Cona Resources Ltd. for the asset, which is located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Edmonton, said the ...

Bloomberg State-owned conglomerate China Merchants Group is exploring acquisitions of offshore rig operators, which have struggled to recover from a collapse in oil-industry spending, people with knowledge of the matter said. As part of this analysis, the Chinese firm has looked at various assets and companies including Seadrill Ltd. and Shelf Drilling Ltd., the people said, asking not to be ...

Bloomberg UK Brexit Secretary David Davis dismissed as “nonsense” published reports that Prime Minister Theresa May is set to approve paying as much as 50 billion pounds ($64.8 billion) to leave the European Union. May is ready to agree to the total in a bid to kickstart trade talks, but won’t disclose details until after the Conservative Party conference in ...

Dubai / WAM Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) announced that the authority has made progress in the supply, extension and commissioning of major water transmission networks, with a total length of 46km, and a total cost of AED260 million, in various parts of Dubai. Al Tayer said, “To date, approximately 13km, ...

Dubai / WAM Despite the summer being a typically slow period for markets, the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) witnessed an uptick in trading volumes in key products, predominantly driven by increased investor interest in the Exchange’s offerings in Euro Futures, INR Options and Indian Single Stock Futures. The Exchange has strategically used the summer months to roll-out several ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Ministry of Education and the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), on Sunday announced a plan to begin a process to achieve the standardisation of their education systems to support a unified and highly-performing education sector across the nation. The plan will unify the education sector through the development of the Emirati School Model across all ...

Dubai / WAM The future plans for the use of the Expo 2020 Dubai site after it closes its doors in April 2021 will be revealed at CityScape Global 2017, taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre next week, from September 11-13. The integrated development of the Expo site, post-2021, has been a central part of the planning process ...