Regional News

Bloomberg An obscure gasoline additive could lead to a windfall of more than $6 billion for struggling US oil refiners. There’s just one hurdle: the Internal Revenue Service. Fuel makers are examining whether their occasional use of butane — a liquefied petroleum gas — qualifies for a big tax credit under a now-expired law that was intended to promote the ...

Bloomberg Helium resources discovered in Tanzania last year may be almost twice as large as first thought, helping address possible future shortages of the gas used in medical scanners and nuclear energy when production begins, possibly as early as 2020, the exploration company said. Researchers working with Lisbon-based Helium One Ltd. calculated the Rukwa gas field in southwestern Tanzania could ...

Bloomberg Saudi energy services com- pany Arkad, which is building a nationwide pipeline netw- ork for oil giant Saudi Aramco, will expand outside the kingdom in a venture with ABB Ltd. that opens the doors to business in North Africa and the Gulf region. Arkad signed a deal to acquire a majority stake in a new joint venture with ABB’s ...

HASSI RMEL / Reuters Algeria’s state energy firm Sonatrach on Monday started $2 billion of new investments into the Hassi Rmel gas field to keep production stable at the country’s biggest gas field. “The objective is to maintain the 190 million cubic metre output for the next 10 years,” Chief Executive Abdelmoumene Ould Kaddour told reporters at the site. Hassi ...

KHOBAR / Reuters State-controlled utility Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) reported a 6.8 percent increase in third-quarter net profit on Monday due to falling costs as the company improves efficiency. SEC made a profit of 5.26 billion riyals ($1.40 billion) in the three months to Sept 30, according to a bourse statement, up from 4.92 billion riyals a year earlier. The ...

Bloomberg The acquisition spree that returned much of Alberta’s oil sands to Canadian hands is so far working out as the buyers projected, with results at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Cenovus Energy Inc. beating expectations on the back of higher output and lower costs. Canadian Natural posted third-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates as its buyouts of Royal Dutch ...

Bloomberg China Poly Group plans to start exporting natural gas from Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden basin by mid-2019 as it continues to explore near the border with Somalia, Petroleum Minister Motuma Mekassa said. Shipments from the Calub and Hilala fields will be exported along a 700-kilometer (435-mile) pipeline to a port complex being built in neighboring Djibouti, Motuma said in an ...

WAM The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has issued a series of orders, that included relieving Prince Miteb bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz from office as Minister of National Guard and appointing Prince Khalid bin Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Ayyaf Al Muqren as Minister of the National Guard. According to Saudi Press Agency, the ...

Bloomberg Petroleos Mexicanos announced its biggest onshore discovery in 15 years, just three months after Mexico reported the first major find by private companies, bolstering the nation’s efforts to revive its oil industry. The Ixachi-1 well that lies 72 kilometers (45 miles) south of the port of Veracruz is believed to contain 1.5 billion barrels of oil in place, or ...

Bloomberg Tesla Inc. is installing far less solar power than its SolarCity unit did as an independent company. Tesla installed 109 megawatts of energy-generation systems in the third quarter, according to a statement Wednesday from the Palo Alto, California-based company. That’s down from the 187 megawatts of panels that SolarCity deployed in the same period last year, its final quarter ...