Regional News

Bloomberg China’s independent refiners burst onto the international oil market scene only a couple of years ago and lifted the nation past the US as the world’s No. 1 crude buyer. Now, a new generation of firms building some of the globe’s biggest plants are threatening to eclipse them. The original set of private processors, known as teapots, is clustered …

BENGHAZI / Reuters Libya’s giant Sharara oil field has been closed since late on Sunday, shutting off the production of more than 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), an engineer at the field and a Libyan oil source said. Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said in a statement on Monday that it was “working towards a swift restart of production. At …

Reuters Qatar’s economic growth slowed in the second quarter to its lowest rate since the global financial crisis because of a sagging oil sector, and sanctions by Arab states, reports said. Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, expanded just 0.6 percent from a year earlier in the April-June period, the slowest growth since the 2009-2010 crisis. GDP grew 0.5 percent …

Meed Saudi Arabia’s lifting of the ban on women driving could lead to an increase in its demand for gasoline, according to energy consultants First Global Energy (FGE). Saudi Arabia is the biggest consumer of gasoline in the region and is the world’s nine largest gasoline market. Current demand is around 580,000 barrels a day (b/d) – a figure that …

Emirates Business Intertek, a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide, certified Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP), an oil and petrochemical joint venture refinery between Saudi Aramco and TOTAL, as being compliant with the standard requirements of ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems Certification. This globally-recognised standard was developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and …

Bloomberg India needs to double its refining capacity by 2040 to meet rising fuel demand as an expanding middle class buys more passenger vehicles and its economy grows, a top refinery official said. India’s refining capacity must increase to 465 million tonnes by 2040, from about 230 million tonnes currently, and investments are already being made, said Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, …

MELBOURNE / Reuters The Australian government warned that the country’s east faced a worse-than-expected natural gas shortfall in 2018, but the competition watchdog said the gap could easily be filled by diverting uncontracted exports to the local market. It is now up to the government to decide by November 1 whether to pull the trigger on its Australian Domestic Gas …

Bloomberg The torrent of dirty water coming out of almost every American oil well is the next big bet for a former fund manager for billionaire Paul Allen. Getting rid of wastewater from onshore wells has become an increasingly costly problem for oil producers as US crude output surged in recent years, especially in the new shale fields from Texas …

LONDON / Reuters Saudi Arabia plans to further open up its stock market to foreign investors later this year as it seeks to become an international capital markets hub, Mohammed Abdullah Elkuwaiz, chairman of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said. Qualified foreign institutions (QFIs) were allowed to begin investing directly in Saudi stocks in 2015 and qualification requirements were eased …

Emirates Business Souqplace.com, the first Emirati online marketplace in the UAE, connecting quality SMEs and artisan products, in addition to branded ones to consumers, announces the expansion of its platform to Saudi Arabia. Capitalizing on the upward growth of e-commerce in the UAE and the support it has received over the period of two years, the Emirati e-commerce startup is …