Regional News

Bloomberg Australia’s largest power generator, AGL Energy Ltd., has urged the government to exclude coal from its planned clean energy target and said there is no appetite among private investors to fund new coal-fired power plants. AGL, which sources 77% of its electricity generation from coal, said including the fossil fuel in the target would send wrong signal for industry, ...

Bloomberg The weather was hot and humid on July 21, 1977, the day the US government began stockpiling oil. It started small. Just 412,000 barrels of Saudi Arabian light crude stashed in a Southeast Texas salt cavern. In the wake of the Arab oil embargo, which sent prices through the roof and forced Americans to ration gasoline, creating a national ...

Bloomberg Oil bulls grappling with OPEC’s weakened resolve to curb output are also having to worry about waning demand in the world’s biggest buyer of overseas crude. State-run China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the globe’s largest oil refiner, will process about 1 million metric tons a month less than previously planned over June to August, according to people with knowledge ...

Bloomberg Oil was steady amid mixed signals on US crude invento-ries, with industry data showing supplies increased last week while government statistics were expected to indicate a decline. Futures were little changed in New York after adding 0.8 percent. US inventories rose by 1.63 million barrels last week, according to people familiar with the API data. That contrasts with a ...

Bloomberg Libya’s rebounding oil output is undermining the supply curbs masterminded by Saudi Arabia and Russia. But any pleas for the OPEC member to exercise restraint will probably be resisted by the technocrat overseeing the North African nation’s turnaround. Production has climbed to a four-year high of 1.1 million barrels a day, with Libya adding output since April that’s equivalent ...

Bloomberg Ecuador has dealt a blow to OPEC unity by announcing it will start raising oil production this month, arguing it needs the money. OPEC has for years cheated on its own agreements, particularly when oil prices fail to recover after an output cut. But Ecuador has taken the rare step of saying publicly it will increase production, making it ...

Bloomberg Oil traded near $46 a barrel as crude production rebounded in Libya, an OPEC member exempt from output curbs. Futures gained 0.3 percent in New York after sliding 1.1 percent on Monday. Libya has increased output to 1.1 million barrels a day, according to a person familiar with the matter. The country will attend a meeting with some OPEC ...

Bloomberg Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trader, walked away from a deal to buy a stake in the Richards Bay Coal Terminal from a company controlled by South Africa’s Gupta family. “The consortium comprising Vitol and Burgh Group Holdings will not be proceeding with the acquisition,” the commodities-trading house said in a statement. The proposed deal, first reported ...

Bloomberg Petronet LNG Ltd. sees a lifeline arriving for its loss-making Kochi liquefied natural gas import terminal by 2019 after it boosts capacity use fourfold. The only LNG terminal in southern India is operating at about 10 percent of its 5 million-ton-a-year capacity, according to Finance Director R.K. Garg. Capacity use may increase to 2 million tons annually after a ...

Bloomberg Oil skeptics are letting a little sunshine in. After the worst June for oil in six years, hedge-fund bets on declining West Texas Intermediate retreated. That made room for futures to rebound more than 5 percent last week on optimism that the summer will finally boost demand for crude and gasoline. “The market is starting to recognize that demand ...