Regional News

Bloomberg A global glut in natural gas is threatening to undermine a $4 billion investment by Reliance Industries Ltd. aimed at boosting profits at the world’s largest oil refining complex. The project made all the sense in world when energy magnate Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate announced it in 2012: convert petroleum coke, or petcoke, one of cheapest and dirtiest refinery by-products, …

Bloomberg Rosneft PJSC’s second-quarter net income fell as the Russian giant suffered the effects of weaker oil prices and production cuts, but the decline was less severe than analysts expected. While the results show the impact on Rosneft of the Druzhba crisis, in which millions of barrels of exports to central Europe via the Soviet-era pipeline were contaminated with chemicals, …

Bloomberg After years pouring funds into the shale boom, bond buyers are getting increasingly selective as defaults rise and many explorers continue to burn more cash than they make. While Exxon Mobil Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. have recently sold a combined $20 billion of investment-grade debt, junk rated issuers are getting a far different market reception. High-yield energy companies …

Bloomberg South Sudan has made a new crude find in the northern oilfields of Adar and plans production by the end of the year, Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth said. The oil will be linked to the nearby Paloch oilfields that are managed by Dar Petroleum Operating Co., Lueth said on Monday by phone from the capital, Juba. Petroleum Minister …

Bloomberg Freyr AS, a startup planning to build one of Europe’s first battery gigafactories in Norway, has a bigger vision for the region: a “Nordic Battery Belt.” The Norwegian company is still gathering approvals, technology licenses and funding for its initial, 40 billion-krone ($4.5 billion) project in northern Norway. But it already sees the scope for as many as four …

Bloomberg Glencore Plc reported the weakest profit in three years and announced plans to halt about a fifth of the world’s cobalt production after prices for the battery metal plunged. Glencore will shutter Mutanda project in the Democratic Republic of Congo for about two years in a move to put a floor under cobalt market, which has seen prices fall …

Bloomberg India’s biggest aluminum producer Vedanta Ltd. is prioritising controlling costs as it embarks on expanding capacity, according to CEO. Vedanta plans to double alumina capacity at its refinery in the eastern state of Odisha to 4 million tons over the next 2.5 years and raise aluminum smelter production capability by 30% to 3 million tons “at an all-in cost …

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to shower its investors in money, pledging returns of $125 billion between 2021 and 2025 — twice as much as a decade earlier. The oil and gas major says it can pull off this feat with crude at $60 a barrel and only a small increase in capital spending, an aggressive move to keep …

Bloomberg China Three Gorges Corp. is weighing a deal to gain cont-rol of EDP-Energias de Portugal SA’s Brazilian business, people with knowledge of the matter said. State-owned Three Gorges is considering merging its own Brazilian assets with EDP’s operations in the South American country, which are run through publicly-traded EDP-Energias do Brasil SA, according to the people. Three Gorges may …

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc is planning to acquire an oil-block stake in a second deal in South Africa’s relatively unexplored waters, months after a major discovery by Total SA boosted the country’s hydrocarbon prospects. Shell has applied to take a stake in a license owned by OK Energy, located in deep waters off South Africa’s west coast, according to …