Regional News

Bloomberg General Electric Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. have cleared a second major antitrust hurdle in their effort to create the world’s second-biggest oilfield services provider. GE won approval from the US Justice Department to combine its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes. The clearance follows by two weeks a similar decision by European regulators, and comes just hours ...

CAIRO / Reuters Egypt’s gross domestic product is projected to grow 5.3 percent by 2019, suggesting the economy of the most populous Arab state is recovering after years of turmoil, the World Bank has said. In its monthly Global Economic Prospects report for June, the Bank estimated Egypt’s GDP would grow 3.9 percent in the 2016-17 fiscal year, which ends ...

Bloomberg Oil held gains near $46 a barrel before US government data forecast to show crude stockpiles resumed declines after an unexpected rise. Futures climbed 0.2 percent in New York after advancing 1 percent in the previous two sessions. Inventories are forecast to have slid by 2.25 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey before an Energy Information ...

Bloomberg Glencore Plc is doubling down on coal, even as rivals BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group move away from the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel. The company, run by former coal trader Ivan Glasenberg, made a surprise eleventh-hour $3.5 billion bid for a huge patch of thermal coal-rich ground on Australia’s east coast controlled by Rio Tinto Group and ...

Bloomberg Crude markets are taking oil optimists by surprise yet again. Hedge funds boosted bets on a rally just before West Texas Intermediate prices tanked from a report showing surging American stockpiles. Wagers rose 7.3 percent to the highest since April in the week through June 6, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. The next day, futures fell the ...

Bloomberg Oil steadied after a third weekly loss on speculation that sustained drilling by US producers will blunt efforts by OPEC and Russia to re-balance an oversupplied crude market. Futures were little changed in New York after sliding 3.8 percent last week. Inventories are declining and reductions will accelerate in the next three to four months, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister ...

SINGAPORE / Reuters The costs to ship fuel and crude oil from Qatar are expected to rise after the United Arab Emirates banned vessels that previously called at Qatar from docking at UAE ports, multiple sources from the oil and shipping sectors said on Monday. After Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and others last week severed diplomatic and transport links ...

Bloomberg India’s oil demand bounced back in May, led by the highest growth in gasoline consumption in nine months and the fastest increase in diesel usage since November. Total fuel consumption rose 5.4 percent to 17.79 million tons in May, the most in six months, according to the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Demand for diesel, which accounts ...

LONDON / Reuters OPEC’s battle against an oil glut is under threat as unsold crude from members Nigeria and Libya, which are exempt from a global production-cutting deal, is swamping the Atlantic Basin. Nigeria has more than 60 million barrels of unsold crude, traders of its oil said, surpassing the level reached when global oversupply peaked two years ago. More ...

Bloomberg Iraq, the world’s third-biggest crude exporter, plans to triple refining capacity by 2021 to shake off its reliance on refined-product imports. Processing capacity will increase to 1.5 million barrels a day from just over 500,000 now, not including Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, Deputy Oil Minister Fayyad Al-Nima said in an interview in Baghdad. The country spends more than $2 ...