Regional News

Bloomberg The Middle East’s largest ports banned entry to all vessels sailing to and from Qatar, deepening the economic isolation of the gas-rich Gulf state from its largest Arab neighbours. Maritime authorities in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain all said they had closed their berths to ships traveling in and out of Qatari ports. The impact was …

Bloomberg Oil pared gains after the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute was said to report a jump in fuel stockpiles last week. API was said to report that US gasoline stockpiles rose by 4.08 million barrels last week, outweighing a 4.62 million-barrel drop in crude supplies. Distillate stocks incre- ased by 1.75 million barrels. A Bloomberg survey found that US crude …

Bloomberg The windfall from being the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas has allowed Qatar to amass about $335 billion of investments around the world through its sovereign wealth fund. Now, a diplomatic spat with neighboring countries threatens to hamper the Qatar Investment Authority’s ability to continue making headline-grabbing global deals. Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries cut …

SINGAPORE / Reuters Oil price agency S&P Global Platts, a unit of S&P Global Inc, said on Tuesday it has initiated with immediate effect a review of the deliverability of crude oil loading from Qatari ports. The move follows major Arab nations cutting commercial and diplomatic ties with Qatar. During the review period, and until further notice, Al-Shaheen crude oil …

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, raised pricing for July sales of all crude grades to Asia, the US and Northwest Europe as it seeks to take advantage of increased demand after suppliers extended production cuts to help curb a global glut. State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco, increased official pricing for Arab Light crude …

Bloomberg Shenhua Group Corp., China’s biggest coal miner, and China Guodian Corp., one of the nation’s largest coal-fired power generators, are in merger discussions, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The talks are preliminary and the merger may not go ahead, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. The Hong Kong-listed …

Bloomberg Eni SpA led a group that signed off on a $7 billion investment in a project to export natural gas from Mozambique. The country’s President Filipe Nyusi and Eni Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi attended a ceremony in the capital Maputo to formally approve the Coral South liquefied natural gas project. Once built, the floating LNG plant, with a …

Bloomberg The good news from OPEC wasn’t good enough. Hedge funds trimmed bets on rising crude prices to the lowest level since November as oil futures dipped below $50 a barrel amid skepticism an OPEC-led campaign to cut output will soon curb a worldwide supply glut. Speculators fled bearish positions for a second week. During the reporting period, the Organization …

Bloomberg Russia’s most powerful oil boss said the deal between OPEC and its partners to curb output won’t stabilize the crude market over the long term as US shale fills the supply shortfall. “A decrease in production under an agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC could largely be balanced out by an increase in US shale oil production by the middle …

Bloomberg Shares in Lamprell Plc gained the most in more than two years after the builder of oil rigs partnered with Saudi Aramco to develop the biggest maritime yard in the region. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., also known as Aramco, established a joint venture with the kingdom’s national shipping company Bahri, South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. and Lamprell …