Regional News

  Reuters Saudi Arabian money supply growth picked up in December in a sign that the economy is regaining strength after a slump last year caused by low oil prices and government austerity measures, central bank data showed on Sunday. Annual growth in M3 money supply, the broadest money supply measure, rose to 0.7 percent in December, its highest level …

  Bloomberg PetroChina Co., the country’s biggest listed oil and gas producer, said full-year net income in 2016 fell by as much as 80 percent, putting it on pace to report a record-low profit. The slump is due to lower international oil prices and domestic natural gas prices dropping “drastically” compared with the previous year, it said in a filing …

  DALLAS / AP TransCanada has quickly filed a new application to build Keystone XL, one of two big oil pipelines being given a second chance by President Donald Trump. Former President Barack Obama rejected the Keystone XL in 2015. The Army halted construction of the Dakota Access pipeline last month. The move by Trump fulfills a campaign promise to …

    ALGIERS / Reuters An Algerian company has signed a deal with a US group to set up agricultural projects worth $300 million in the North African country as it seeks to reduce dependence on imports, Algeria’s agriculture ministry said. Under the deal, privately-owned Algerian dairy company Tifralait and the American International Agriculture Group (AIAG) will set up a …

  Bloomberg EON SE and RWE AG delayed the refueling of some reactors to this winter to avoid paying a tax that has cost them billions of euros in the past, damping supply just as cold weather increases demand. As a result, the nation’s nuclear production is at the lowest since 2011 and is expected to remain subdued through next …

  Reuters Saudi Arabian construction firm Abdullah Abdul Mohsin al-Khodari and Sons said that the total value of its delayed work as of Dec. 31 last year was 312.7 million riyals ($83.4 million), a slight improvement from the previous quarter. As builders in the kingdom rely on the government for most of their contracts they’ve suffered as the pace of …

  Reuters Saudi Aramco has shelved plans for a multi-billion-dollar refining and petrochemical joint venture with Petronas in Malaysia, industry sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. The Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) at Pengerang in the state of Johor in southern Malaysia was to have had a 300,000-barrel-per-day refinery and petrochemical complex with a chemical output …

  Bloomberg Gazprom PJSC, the world’s biggest natural gas producer, is considering asset sales, freezing dividends and increasing its borrowing as export earnings wane, according to its three-year budget. The state-controlled company aims to raise 350 billion rubles (around $6 billion) from asset sales this year, while borrowing may climb to 288 billion rubles and more than double from that …

  Bloomberg Cnooc Ltd. plans to raise capital spending for the first time since crude began its crash in 2014 as China’s biggest offshore oil and gas producer prepares for life after the slump and a second year of falling output. The Beijing-based explorer will increase expenditure, including in the Gulf of Mexico, to 60 billion to 70 billion yuan …

  Reuters A plunge in Saudi Arabia’s inflation rate, to its lowest level in more than 10 years, is good news for the kingdom’s efforts to reduce a huge state budget deficit without stifling economic growth. Annual consumer price inflation slowed to 1.7 percent in December from 2.3 percent in November, the Central Department of Statistics reported on Monday. On …