Regional News

Reuters Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) on Asian routes continue to sink on a glut of available tonnage as owners wait for supply disruptions caused by Hurricane Harvey to help support the market, brokers said. Charter rates for VLCCs from the Middle East have fallen to around 36 on the Worldscale measure. “In terms of VLCCs we’ve ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s state-owned electricity utility will sign delayed power-purchase agreements with independent producers by the end of October, but not before pricing on the deals is renegotiated, Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is expected to conclude agreements for 26 projects, Kubayi said in Pretoria. The power company stalled for more than a year on the ...

Bloomberg Gasoline rose to a two-year high as Tropical Storm Harvey hit the US Gulf coast again after already knocking out a fifth of the nation’s refining capacity. Motiva Enterprises LLC’s Port Arthur refinery, the country’s biggest, was said to be shutting because of severe flooding. The disruption helped send motor fuel as much as 3.3 percent higher in New ...

Bloomberg Gazprom PJSC’s profit slumped in the last quarter, cooling the prospect of an increased dividend from the world’s largest natural gas producer. Net income plunged 80 percent as record gas exports to Europe were offset by foreign-currency losses, the Moscow-based company said in a statement late on Tuesday. Gazprom aims to keep its dividend payments in rubles no lower ...

AMMAN / Reuters Jordan will open its main border crossing with Iraq on Wednesday for the first time since 2015, now that Iraqi forces have gained control of the main highway to Baghdad from IS militants, both governments said. Iraqi troops pulled out of the Tureibil post, on the 180 km (110 mile) border, in summer 2014 after the militants ...

BEIRUT / Reuters Lebanon has begun reforms to repair its fragile economy after years of paralysis in decision-making but is under pressure to do more to prevent its rising debt spinning out of control. President Michel Aoun, elected last year after 29 months without a head of state, signed off last week on public sector pay rises and tax increases ...

Bloomberg ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ As devastating as the flooding has been for oil refiners in the US Gulf Coast, surplus fuel inventories may help the industry withstand the worst storm to hit the country in more than a decade. Deluges from Tropical Storm Harvey have turned Houston’s busiest highways into canals of standing water and displaced thousands of people and livestock. The ...

Bloomberg OPEC’s second-largest producer is stepping up the campaign to get more for its oil by looking to revamp the way it sells crude to its biggest customers. Iraq is considering plans to use a new reference price for sales to Asia, according to traders, who received a notice from the state oil company SOMO. The producer is proposing to ...

Bloomberg China’s move to create the world’s biggest power company is expected to be the first such government-managed mega-merger by the largest energy consumer. The newly created China Energy Investment Corp. — a combination of Shenhua Group Corp., the nation’s largest coal miner, and China Guodian Corp., one of its top-five power generators — may be the first of multiple ...

Bloomberg In another sign that the petroleum era is drawing to a close, Denmark is selling off its last oil company with barely a peep. Once considered a strategic asset, on a par with national carriers or shipyards, the oil and gas division of A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is being bought by French giant Total SA. The $7.45 billion deal is ...