Regional News

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia may cut energy subsidies more gradually and take longer to balance its budget, Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said, as the kingdom seeks to soften the impact of its drive to repair public finances. The prices of some subsidized domestic energy products will rise to international levels later than previously envisaged, Al-Jadaan said in an interview in Washington. …

Bloomberg It’s been a bad year for oil explorers in Norway’s Arctic: a record campaign in the Barents Sea yielded little; the most exciting well in years proved to be a flop; and Norwegians grew increasingly skeptical about the industry that made them rich. But companies led by Norway’s state-controlled Statoil ASA and Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum AB aren’t about to …

Bloomberg To understand the implications of Brexit, it helps to go nuclear. Of all the international regulatory challenges created by the UK’s impending departure from the European Union, the atomic-energy industry may best encapsulate the decision’s bottom-line effect: more bureaucracy and costs for a country that has long fought to curb both within the EU. Untwining the UK from decades …

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is considering delaying the international portion of the giant initial public offering of its state oil company until at least 2019, according to people familiar with the situation, who said a domestic share sale in Riyadh could still happen next year. A two-stage Saudi Aramco IPO is one of several options being considered, the people said, asking …

RIYADH / Reuters The $23 billion Riyadh Metro launched an auction on Sunday for private companies to name and advertise in select metro stops when the system opens in 2019, an initiative that could generate millions of dollars to help cover operational costs. Construction on the 176-kilometre (110 miles) metro began in 2014 after contracts were awarded to consortiums headed …

BEIJING / Reuters China has bought a rare cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Norway, Reuters shipping data shows, the latest sign that the world’s second-largest economy has rushed to increase spot purchases to ensure fuel supplies ahead of the coming winter. Trade flow data on Thomson Reuters Eikon shows LNG tanker Grace Cosmos, with a cargo of 143,625 …

BEIRUTH / Reuters The only bidder in Lebanon’s first tender for five offshore energy blocks was a consortium made up of France’s Total, Italy’s ENI and Russia’s Novatek, Minister of Energy and Water Cesar Abi Khalil said. The consortium submitted two bids for block 4 and block 9, Abi Khalil said in a statement on Facebook. Lebanon sits on the …

LONDON / Reuters Global supply and demand for crude oil will be largely balanced next year, as growth in consumption helps erode a three-year-old overhang of unused fuel and should mostly offset a steep rise in output, the International Energy Agency said. In its monthly oil market report, the Paris-based IEA said it continues to see global demand for crude …

Bloomberg Oil climbed to the highest level in two weeks as dwindling US crude stockpiles and near-record Chinese imports signaled the worldwide glut is eroding. Futures advanced 1.7 percent in New York, posting the biggest weekly gain in a month. In China, the world’s second-biggest oil market, crude imports in September jumped to the second-highest on record. US oil inventories …

LONDON / Reuters China has built its crude oil stockpiles at a record pace in 2017 and while its purchases could tail off towards the year-end, inventories could hit the billion-barrel mark in six months, the International Energy Agency said. China has spent around $24 billion on building its crude reserves since 2015, at an average of $50 a barrel, …