Regional News

DUBAI / Reuters Kuwait’s Agility, one of the largest Gulf logistics companies, said it had agreed to pay $95 million in cash to settle a civil lawsuit accusing it of defrauding the United States military on food supply contracts. It follows the earlier settlement of the parallel criminal portion of the case involving more than $8.6 billion of contracts that ...

VIENNA / Reuters OPEC and non-member oil producers could deepen output cuts or extend them for a year when they meet in Vienna this week as they seek to clear a global stocks overhang and prop up the price of crude, Kuwait said on Wednesday. The top oil producer in OPEC, Saudi Arabia, favours extending the output curbs by nine ...

KUWAIT / Reuters Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), one of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds, said it had incurred a loss of 312 million dinars ($1.03 billion) in the financial year ended in March 2016, according to the country’s state news agency. The loss was 0.2 percent of total assets, KUNA quoted a KIA statement as saying late on Monday, ...

Bloomberg OPEC and its allies were poised to continue their production cuts for another nine months after Iraq backed an extension, removing one of the last remaining obstacles to an agreement. The proposal is the latest attempt by oil producers from Saudi Arabia to Russia to prop up prices and revive their economies. The talks are closely followed elsewhere as ...

SINGAPORE / Reuters US President Donald Trump’s proposal to sell half of the United States’ strategic oil reserve surprised energy markets on Tuesday since it counters OPEC’s efforts to control supply in order to boost prices. The White House requested in its budget released late on Monday gradually selling off the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) starting in October 2018 ...

BEIJING / Reuters Russia has kept its top spot as oil supplier to China, beating Saudi Arabia for the second month in row, as independent refiners scooped up more volumes before their first batch of quotas expire. Saudi Arabia and Russia, both vying for more market share in China, have said they support an oil cut extension until March 2018 ...

LONDON / Reuters Iraq has achieved its share of the production cuts agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC producers at the end of last year but remains ready to meet future oil demand growth, Iraqi oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi said in a speech on Monday. “Iraq as the second-largest producer in OPEC confirms its achievement to the commitment to implement the ...

Riyadh / Reuters US agricultural trader Bunge is looking to bid for the Saudi state grain company’s milling operations, sources said, the second global commodities company to show interest in the privatisation of the kingdom’s sole wheat and barley buyer. A memorandum of understanding was signed by Bunge and Arabian Agricultural Services Company (ARASCO), a privately-owned Saudi firm, sources with ...

Bloomberg BHP Billiton Ltd. is considering further sales of its US shale gas assets as it fends off the second round of attack from activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. over the future of the energy business within the world’s biggest mining company. “If there is a natural owner out there who believes more upside can be achieved within this ...

Bloomberg Chevron Corp.’s Gorgon liquefied natural gas plant shut a produ-ction train for about a month, at least the eighth outage since operations started 14 months ago at the most-expensive project in the company’s history. Train 1 at the $54 billion project on Barrow Island off northwest Australia shut last week to replace a failed flow-measurement device, Cameron Van Ast, ...