Regional News

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will need higher crude prices to push ahead with his plans to reform the kingdom’s economy, making an about-face in oil policy unlikely in the short term. Yet, oil markets will be braced for an even more assertive Saudi Arabia in foreign policy. MbS, as the 31-year-old prince is known, has ...

Bloomberg China’s Sinochem Group is considering listing its oil-related business in Hong Kong, according to people with knowledge of the plan. The state-owned chemicals conglomerate is making ini- tial evaluations of its oil assets, which have a combined va- lue of around 100 billion yuan ($14.6 billion), said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is ...

Bloomberg Oil slid further into a bear market as rising global supply is countering efforts by OPEC and its allies to drain a glut. Futures fell as much as 1.1 percent in New York after front-month prices closed on Tuesday more than 20 percent below their February peak. Libya, exempt from the OPEC-led output cuts, is pumping the most in ...

LONDON­­­­ / Reuters Total will go ahead with development of a giant Iranian gas field this summer, its CEO told Reuters, in the first major western energy investment in the country since Tehran signed an international nuclear deal. Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said the French group would make an initial $1 billion investment after the United States extended sanctions relief ...

Bloomberg Oil halted its slide below $45 a barrel as investors weigh a forecast decline in US crude stockpiles against a revival in output from Libya, which is exempt from the OPEC -led cuts. Futures rose 0.3 percent in New York after falling 1.2 percent. US inventories probably shrank by 1.2 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey ...

Bloomberg Eni SpA was the biggest winner in Mexico’s latest auction of shallow-water oil prospects. The Italian oil giant took three of the 10 areas awarded, the national hydrocarbons commission said during an event in Mexico City. The tender, Mexico’s fifth since it ended a state monopoly in 2014, garnered winning bids from Royal Dutch Shell Plc, France’s Total SA, ...

Bloomberg There’s yet another concern growing as oil prices continue to erode: A record US fracklog. There were 5,946 drilled-but-uncompleted wells in the nation’s oilfields at the end of May, the most in at least three years, according to estimates by the US Energy Information Administration. In the last month alone, explorers drilled 125 more wells in the Permian Basin ...

DUBAI­­­­ / Reuters Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the oil market is heading in the right direction but still needs time to rebalance, the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Monday. “In my opinion, market fundamentals are going in the right direction, but in light of the large surplus in stockpiles over the past years, the cut needs time ...

Bloomberg Oil traded below $45 a barrel following a fourth weekly loss as US drillers continued to add rigs, blunting OPEC-led efforts to rebalance an oversupplied market. Futures fell as much as 0.7 percent in New York after capping the longest run of weekly declines since August 2015. US drillers targeting crude added rigs for a 22nd straight week, the ...

CAIRO­­­­ / Reuters Saudi Arabia is banning imports of Egyptian strawberries due to pesticide residues, said Abdel Hamid al-Demerdash, the head of Egypt’s Agriculture Export Council, the latest such ban to hit Egypt as it struggles to revive its economy. The temporary ban comes into effect on July 11, Demerdash told Reuters, adding that the memo received from Saudi Arabia ...