Regional News

  Bloomberg As they guided Europe’s largest oil companies through the industry’s worst slump in two decades, the bosses of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc had a simple message for investors: we’ll protect the dividend at all costs. Not everyone is convinced they’ll be able to keep their word. Even after they raised billions of dollars by cutting …

  Dubai / Reuters Saudi Aramco is paying a significant premium to the government and to its previous borrowing in its first sale of Islamic bonds, reflecting uncertainty over oil prices and an upcoming sale of the state-owned oil giant’s shares. Aramco is offering 7-year, riyal-denominated sukuk at 25 basis points (bps) over the six-month Saudi Arabian Interbank Offered Rate …

  Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) expects double-digit growth in its project finance business in the Middle East in 2017, driven partly by Saudi Arabia’s efforts to reduce its dependence on oil, the bank’s co-head in the region Elyas Algaseer said. Saudi Arabia’s push to diversify its economy under its National Transformation Plan provides a big opportunity for international …

  Bloomberg Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund plans to expand in the UK and the US, as top officials said long-term commercial opportunities would outweigh political uncertainty roiling the two countries. The gas-rich Gulf emirate will add 5 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) to its UK portfolio in the next three to five years, and will set up an office soon in …

  Bloomberg Saudi Aramco could have a market value of more than $1 trillion, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. estimates, after the government slashed the oil producer’s tax burden to attract investors ahead of what may be the world’s biggest initial public offering. The tax cut will increase Aramco’s net income by 300 percent, putting its per-barrel income in a …

  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 …