Regional News

Bloomberg Five US refiners either significantly reduced or totally replaced purchases of Venezuelan crude in 2018, and more may follow suit as president Donald Trump mulls new sanctions against the South American nation. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Phillips 66 haven’t processed Venezuelan crude in their US refineries since the US imposed financial sanctions against the country and its oil ...

Bloomberg Satorp, the joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Total SA, hired Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) and Riyad Bank to help raise funds to develop a petrochemical facility in the kingdom, according to people with knowledge of matter. Financing for the $5 billion Amiral project is expected to be arranged from banks and export credit agencies, the people said, ...

Bloomberg Opec and its allies plan to hold a meeting in March to assess their oil-production accord in Azerbaijan, and then ministers will gather to set policy in April, according to the organisation’s top official. The body that reviews the implementation of Opec’s supply cuts, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, will convene in the Azeri capital of Baku on March ...

Bloomberg India will not share the limited supply of Iranian crude allowed under a US waiver from sanctions with private refiners, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That is a departure from the earlier practice of splitting exempted volumes. The government has asked four state refiners led by Indian Oil to share the entire 9 million barrels of ...

Bloomberg Italy’s top oil producer and Oman’s energy minister predict the latest oil rebound will stick. Prices are up more than 20 percent since hitting an almost two-year low in December. Oman Oil Minister Mohammed Al-Rumhi told Bloomberg TV that the agreement between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and partners including Russia and Oman can sustain prices at $60 ...

Bloomberg S&P Global Ratings cut the credit rating of Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farms to junk, noting that the plant counts on embattled utility giant PG&E Corp for all of its revenue. S&P lowered ratings on Topaz Solar by five notches to ‘B’ from ‘BBB-’ and maintained the ratings on CreditWatch, meaning it may make further cuts. In ...

Bloomberg Output cuts in oil-rich Alberta and Saudi Arabia are combining to leave heavy-crude refiners from the Gulf of Mexico to Asia in a bind. While curtailments in the Canadian province have propelled local prices to their strongest level in almost a decade, other grades like Arab Heavy and Heavy Louisiana Sweet are also surging. The Saudis are expected to ...

Bloomberg Sinopec, China’s top oil refiner, won approval from the country’s cabinet for a long-awaited initial public offering of the retail unit that runs its vast chain of gas stations and convenience stores, people with knowledge of the matter said. The green light from the State Council clears the final Chinese regulatory hurdle for the deal and means the IPO ...

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc is seeking buyers for an Ontario refinery and some sour gas facilities in Alberta as the company focuses on its $31 billion liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia. “These assets have been a cornerstone of Shell Canada for many years, however, they are no longer a fit with Shell’s evolving portfolio,” the company said ...

Bloomberg Saudi Aramco could tap the bond market for about $10 billion to help fund the acquisition of petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp, according to the country’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih. The kingdom will decide in the “next few weeks” about the size of the proposed bond, though the offering would not be “huge,” Al-Falih told reporters in Abu ...