Regional News

  Reuters Saudi Arabia’s government has cut the income tax paid by national oil giant Saudi Aramco to smooth the company’s initial public offer of shares next year, which is expected to be the world’s largest equity sale. A royal decree on Monday, retroactive to Jan. 1, set a tax rate of 50 percent for the firm. Previously, Aramco had ...

  Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc has agreed to sell its onshore oil assets in Gabon to a unit of Carlyle Group LP for $587 million, taking it closer to its $30 billion divestment target. Carlyle’s unit Assala Energy Holdings Ltd. will also take on $285 million of debt from Shell’s Gabon unit and will make an additional payment of ...

  Washington / AP President Donald Trump greenlighted the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline, declaring it a “great day for American jobs” and siding with energy advocates over environmental groups in a heated debate over climate change. The presidential permit comes nearly a decade after Calgary-based TransCanada applied to build the $8 billion pipeline, which will snake from Canada through the ...

  Bloomberg Algeria’s state-run energy producer plans to boost crude oil output by 14 percent in the four years to 2019 and invest billions of dollars in exploration projects. Sonatrach Group expects to invest $9 billion from 2017 to 2021 in its search for new deposits of oil and natural gas, said Farid Djettou, head of the company’s associations division, ...

  Bloomberg A trio of Houston-based private-equity funds is sifting through the oil industry with a view to potentially reaching $4 billion of investments after the market crash created some bargains. Argus Energy Managers, made up of three firms that invest in smaller explorers and service providers, expects to end the year with combined funds north of $2 billion and ...

  Bloomberg Chevron Corp. has signaled the end of major new LNG projects in Western Australia and is unlikely to sanction an expansion of its Gorgon and Wheatstone export developments as it focuses on boosting returns from $88 billion of investment. The climate for developing large greenfield LNG projects has shifted to smaller developments given a slump in the price ...

  Bloomberg Libya’s major oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf are resuming operations and preparing to export crude after a two-week halt in shipments due to military clashes in the holder of Africa’s largest crude reserves. Libya’s total production rose to 646,000 barrels a day from 621,000 barrels on Sunday mostly due to an increase from Waha Oil ...

  Bloomberg The Asian energy companies sitting on the largest hoard of cash outside China are ready to put it to use. Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production Pcl and its parent company have nearly $11 billion combined in cash and marketable securities, such as bonds and other short-term investments. The explorer is ready to spend from its portion on projects ...

  Bloomberg Oil fell as US drilling continued to rise, undermining the potential for even an extended OPEC output-reduction deal to rebalance the market. Futures lost as much as 1.6 percent in New York after gaining 0.6 percent last week. Producers added more oil rigs to US fields, extending a drilling surge into a 10th month, Baker Hughes Inc. said. ...

  Bloomberg More Asian LNG buyers are trying to avoid taking the US supplies they signed up for just a few years ago in order to cut shipping costs. GAIL India Ltd. and Indonesia’s PT Pertamina are both seeking to trade liquefied natural gas cargoes they are contracted to buy from the US in exchange for supplies shipped from projects ...