Regional News

Bloomberg Chesapeake Energy Corp’s agreement to sell shale assets in Ohio for about $2 billion boosted the natural gas producer’s shares as it moves to whittle down debt. The deal announced with closely held Encino Acquisition Partners is Chief Executive Officer Doug Lawler’s biggest in 3 1/2 years. After Chesapeake said almost all of the proceeds will be used to ...

Bloomberg Europe will build more terminals to import US liquefied natural gas, the head of the European Commission told US President Donald Trump during a meeting aimed at averting a transatlantic trade war. “They want very much to do that, and we have plenty of it,” Trump said, referring to the US shale boom, which has unleashed record supplies of ...

Bloomberg Saudi Basic Industries Corp, the Middle East’s biggest petrochemicals producer, posted an 81 percent increase in second-quarter profit on higher sales prices and volumes. Net income rose to 6.7 billion riyals ($1.8 billion) from 3.71 billion riyals a year ago, the company known as Sabic said in a statement. Revenue climbed 26 percent to 43.3 billion riyals. The company ...

Bloomberg BP Plc agreed to pay $10.5 billion, its biggest acquisition in almost two decades, for most of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s onshore US oil and natural gas assets, including in the prized Permian Basin. The deal gives the London-based energy giant a position in the Permian, a swath of west Texas and New Mexico that’s the world’s fastest-growing major oil ...

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc finally gave investors the share buybacks they’ve been demanding, even as profit fell short of expectations despite resurgent crude prices. The Anglo-Dutch energy producer said that it is starting a $25 billion share-repurchase programme, initially buying up $2 billion of stock over three months. That should soothe investors who have grown increasingly anxious about when ...

Bloomberg Russia, one of the world’s top three crude producers, is preparing the most radical shakeup of its oil-tax system since 1999. The changes, which will allow the nation’s producers to export crude and oil products duty-free while raising their costs at the wellhead, is set to get the go-ahead from President Vladimir Putin by year-end, bringing in much-needed funds ...

Bloomberg On a hot sunny day in July, Europe’s largest port is busy loading super-chilled liquefied natural gas onto a tanker, creating snow flurries during a heat wave. The cargo loaded at the Gate terminal in Rotterdam, which was built to import the fuel. Around the same time, a vessel from the Russian Arctic region arrived with another batch of ...

Bloomberg Shares of California utility owners PG&E Corp, Edison International and Sempra Energy climbed after Governor Jerry Brown indicated that utilities shouldn’t be responsible for future wildfire damages without considering whether they acted “reasonably.” The proposal wouldn’t affect the billions of dollars in potential liabilities PG&E and Edison face for blazes in 2017, Brown said. But it’s a win for ...

Bloomberg The dark storm clouds that have been hanging over the oil industry during the crude-price slump have suddenly started raining cash. After cutting billions of dollars of costs to survive the biggest downturn in decades, Big Oil is now riding a price rebound to generate enough cash to pay dividends and still have plenty left over. The big question ...

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc is in talks to sell two Nigerian oil licenses in an area that’s at the heart of environmental and human rights controversies for $2 billion, according to people familiar with the plan. The Anglo-Dutch oil major is discussing selling oil mining licenses 11 and 17 to Heirs Holdings Ltd, a company run by Nigerian tycoon ...