Regional News

Bloomberg As the price of oil rises, an international rush is on for Mexico’s untapped deep-water riches. The who’s who of the oil world — led by Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world’s two biggest drillers by market value — are lining up to bid in the country’s Jan. 31 deep-water auction. And the interest is ...

Bloomberg Northern Drilling Ltd., a company set up by billionaire John Fredriksen to buy offshore drilling rigs on the cheap, raised 2.03 billion kroner ($250 million) in a private placement to expand its fleet. The company said it sold 31.8 million new shares at 64 kroner apiece, equal to the stock’s closing price on the Oslo Axess market a day ...

Bloomberg Narendra Modi’s first term as leader of the world’s fastest-growing oil market coincided with the biggest price crash in a generation. Crude’s rebound into a bull market is set to test the Indian Prime Minister as he gears up for re-election in 2019. While low prices helped shrink deficits as Modi cut subsidies after taking the reins of Asia’s ...

Bloomberg Just five years ago it would have been almost unthinkable that one of the world’s biggest mining companies would not dig any coal. It’s now likely to become a reality. Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-largest miner, has been steadily backtracking from coal to focus on better assets. It’s now looking for buyers for its remaining coal mines in ...

Bloomberg Venezuela is set to pump the least oil in almost three decades, just when it needs petrodollars the most. Output is expected to slump to 1.84 million barrels a day next year, the lowest compared with official government data since 1989, according to a survey with four analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Rig counts hit a 14-year low in October, ...

VIENNA / WAM The 2017 OPEC World Oil Outlook (WOO) has been launched at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, with expectations that total primary energy demand is set to increase by 35 percent in the period to 2040. First published in 2007, the WOO offers a thorough review and assessment of the medium- and long-term prospects to 2040 for the ...

BASRA / Reuters Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to exit the Majnoon oilfield and hand over its operation to the state-run Basra Oil Co. by the end of June 2018, two oil officials close to the deal said on Wednesday. A letter signed by Iraqi oil minister Jabar Luaibi, dated August 23 and seen by Reuters, gave appr- ...

Bloomberg Chevron Corp. is planning a significant drilling program in the Duvernay shale formation, marking a vote of confidence in Canada’s energy industry in a year when it joined other majors in selling assets there. The initial development in the East Kaybob section of the formation will encompass about 55,000 acres (22,000 hectares), the San Ramon, California-based company said. Chevron ...

BEIJING / Reuters China has raised its 2018 crude oil import quota for “non-state trade,” generally meaning independent refiners, by 55 percent over 2017, raising the clout of the independents in the global market after a setback this year. The move took market participants by surprise after Beijing cut the quotas to independents for 2017. The annual quota setting, announced ...

Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp.’s deal in January for a swath of Permian Basin drilling real estate came with a sweetener for the sellers. The heirs of oil tycoon Perry Bass will get $1 billion in cash by 2032 — if drilling goes well for Exxon. That payout would be on top of the $5.6 billion in Exxon shares the Bass ...