Regional News

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s non-oil revenue could surge by about 80 billion riyals ($21.3 billion) next year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, boosting the kingdom’s efforts to reduce the economy’s reliance on crude. The increase would be driven by the implementation of value-added taxation, a tax on luxury products and higher fees imposed on expatriates’ dependents, London-based economist Jean-Michel …

Bloomberg Oil Search Ltd., the Papua New Guinea-focused energy explorer, raised its full-year production target because of record output from the country’s liquefied natural gas project. The company lifted the lower end of its 2017 production guidance to 29 million barrels of oil equivalent from the previous 28.5 million, while leaving the upper end at 30.5 million barrels, citing record …

Bloomberg Zema, a 94 year-old retailer of toys and appliances in Brazil’s interior, has become an unlikely thorn in the side of state-controlled oil behemoth Petroleo Brasileiro SA. This year Zema, which also runs gas stations, got its first fuel import license and joined a fast-growing group of new players that managed to, at least temporarily, squeeze Petrobras out of …

Bloomberg Total SA agreed to buy the oil and gas unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the French company’s biggest acquisition since 1999 and another sign of the accelerating pace of energy deals after a long downturn. Total will pay Maersk with $4.95 billion of its own shares and assume $2.5 billion of the Copenhagen-based company’s debt, according to a statement …

Bloomberg US utility owner Sempra Energy has agreed to buy control of Texas power distributor Oncor Electric Delivery Co. for $9.45 billion, topping a bid by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. just last month. Sempra’s deal for Energy Future Holdings Corp., which owns 80 percent of Oncor, is valued at about $18.8 billion including debt, the San Diego-based company said …

SINGAPORE / DUBAI / Reuters Iraq has informed its customers that it plans to switch its price benchmark for Basra crude in Asia to DME Oman futures from January, dropping the average of Platts’ Oman-Dubai quotes, in a major shift in the way it prices its oil. The proposal by state-oil marketer SOMO would mark a significant change by OPEC’s …

BEIRUT / Reuters Attracting foreign investment for Iran’s oil sector will continue to be a top priority during President Hassan Rouhani’s second term, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said. “Attracting foreign investment and technology is a priority for us in the oil industry, whether in shared fields or for increasing the production of oil at fields that are already operational,” …

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc is seeking creative solutions to bring gas from Israel and Cyprus to market, a step that could help turn the Mediterranean region into a major gas- producing hub. Shell is in talks to buy natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan field, combine it with output from Cyprus’s Aphrodite field, in which it owns a 35 percent …

Bloomberg GreenWish Partners, a renewable energy company run by a former Morgan Stanley executive, is planning to invest $800 million on solar-powered telephone towers across Africa. The project could fuel economic growth by providing power for essential services. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest rates of energy access in the world and is home to about half of the world’s 1.2 …

Bloomberg The Philippines is seeking investment from China and Japan for $135 billion worth of power projects that President Rodrigo Duterte’s government is ready to fast-track. The Southeast Asian nation has held discussions with China, Japan, Russia and other countries about helping it boost generation capacity by 43 gigawatts in the coming decades to stabilize its power supply as the …