Regional News

DUBAI / Reuters Iran is exporting around 350,000 barrels of crude oil a day to India and hopes to increase this number, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying on Saturday after meeting Indian counterpart Dharmendra Pradhan. The Shana news agency, linked to Iran’s oil ministry, quoted Zanganeh as saying Indian oil purchases from Iran were at 350,000 barrels ...

LONDON / Reuters Oil refineries are shifting into high gear to produce as much gasoline as possible for the world’s fuel-hungry drivers – kicking the problem of a worsening diesel glut further down the road. The “margin” or profit derived from refining crude into diesel has plunged in Europe, hitting multi-year lows this week as demand for the fuel – ...

BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq plans to lower the oil price forecast in its 2016 budget to about $32 a barrel from $45, widening its fiscal deficit by several billion dollars, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a senior government official said. The new price estimate is based on the continued low level of global oil prices in recent months, said ...

Bloomberg While two years of crashing prices for oil, natural gas, and coal triggered dramatic downsizing in those industries, renewables have been thriving. Clean energy investment broke new records in 2015 and is now seeing twice as much global funding as fossil fuels. One reason is that renewable energy is becoming ever cheaper to produce. Recent solar and wind auctions ...

KUWAIT / Reuters All signs suggest that a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing countries in Doha on April 17 will produce an initial agreement to freeze output, Kuwait’s OPEC governor Nawal Al-Fuzaia said on Tuesday. Fuzaia, giving a speech at the oil ministry, also said she expected the oil market to achieve a balance between supply and demand ...

CAIRO / Reuters Saudi businessmen are investing $4 billion in projects including the Suez Canal, energy and agriculture, and have already deposited 10 percent of that sum in Egyptian banks, the deputy head of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council told Reuters, two days before Saudi Arabia’s King Salman visits Cairo. Egypt has been struggling to attract foreign investors since an uprising ...

REUTERS Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways said on its major shareholder had no current plans to divest its stake in the airline. The carrier was responding to press reports that Boodai Corporation, an investment holding conglomerate, hired HSBC Bank Middle East Limited to advise it on a possible stake sale. Sources had confirmed this to Reuters early last week. Jazeera Airways’ major ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is pressing ahead with an expansion of the Khurais oil field despite lower crude prices and plans to double its production of natural gas over the next 10 years, the company’s chief executive officer said. The world’s biggest oil exporter, known as Saudi Aramco, won’t cancel any oil, gas or refining projects, Amin Nasser told ...

Emirates Business As upstream oil and gas companies scrutinize every dollar invested, they’re spending smarter today on digital technologies, seeking to drive value and reduce costs amid low oil and gas prices, a new survey by Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) reports. Respondents to the ‘2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey’ included international oil companies ...