Bloomberg Bahrain has enough foreign reserves to maintain its currency’s peg to the US dollar, central bank governor Rasheed Al-Maraj said, as higher oil prices help the island-kingdom ease pressure on its strained public finances. Al-Maraj, speaking in an interview in the capital Manama, said he wasn’t aware of any current talks between Bahrain and its Gulf Arab allies over ...
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Natural gas exports poised to gain as Iran deal dies
Bloomberg Another darling of the Trump administration is poised to gain from the Iran deal breakup as oil surges: Natural gas exports. With the move to curb Iran’s oil output encouraging more shale drilling, prices for natural gas produced alongside crude in West Texas could crater, falling to zero some days, according to Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. Already, the ...
Read More »Oil surges to three-year high as Trump tells buyers to cut back on Iranian crude
Bloomberg Oil rose to a three-year high after the US told buyers of Iranian crude they have six months to curb their purchases or face tough penalties. While the full impact of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal is still unclear, the re-imposition of far-reaching sanctions is expected to start reducing shipments from the Middle East’s ...
Read More »Exxon Mobil unit sells Italy refinery, fuel terminals to Algeria
Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. agreed to sell a refinery and three fuel terminals in Italy to Algeria, as the OPEC member seeks to cut fuel imports by refining its own crude. Esso Italiana Srl, a unit of Exxon Mobil in Italy, signed an agreement for the sale of its Augusta refinery in Sicily to Algerian state energy producer Sonatrach, according ...
Read More »Shell’s Canadian Natural sale removes cloud weighing on shares
Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s plan to sell its $3.3 billion stake in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. put a dent in the oil-sands producer’s shares, but there’s a silver lining. The impending sale removes a cloud that had loomed over Canadian Natural since Shell took the shares as part of a $7.25 billion deal last year and signalled it would ...
Read More »Shell nears $30bn divestment goal with oil-sands stake sale
Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s agreement to sell out of oil-sands producer Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. brings its $30 billion divestment goal within reach. The Anglo-Dutch company’s Shell Gas BV unit will divest all its shares in Canadian Natural for total pretax proceeds of $3.3 billion, The Hague-based Shell said. The sale serves the dual purpose of shedding one of ...
Read More »Saudi non-oil income rises 63% on new taxes
Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s non-oil revenue climbed 63 percent in the first quarter of 2018, propelled by improved tax collection as part of a drive to reduce the economy’s reliance on income from oil exports. Revenue rose to 52.3 billion riyals ($14 billion), partly due to the introduction of value-added taxation and measures taken over the past two years, including a ...
Read More »OPEC isn’t targeting 5-year oil inventory average: Saudi
Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said bringing global oil inventories back to their five-year average isn’t the target of OPEC’s output cuts, and the group is yet to accomplish its goal of stabilising markets. The rolling five-year average of stockpiles is inflated by the glut that’s been around since 2014, Khalid Al-Falih said in Tokyo. The objective of production curbs ...
Read More »Sasol CEO expects oil volatility with long-term price around $60
Bloomberg Sasol Ltd. expects a “volatile environment†for crude oil as geopolitics help sway the market. “It’s going to move back and forth depending on what’s happening in the world — political tensions, supply disruptions,†said Steve Cornell, co-chief executive officer of the South African energy and chemicals company. Market drivers include the much-anticipated US decision on the global nuclear ...
Read More »China’s oil deal with Rosneft nixed amid fall of suitor CEFC
Bloomberg The big, rushed and opaque deal for an enigmatic Chinese energy company to buy into Russia’s state oil behemoth has disintegrated. CEFC China Energy Co.’s agreement last year to purchase a $9 billion stake in Rosneft PJSC came to end as the sellers decided not to proceed with the deal. Separately, meetings scheduled for investors holding 15.1 billion yuan ...
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