Regional News

Bloomberg Oil traded above $65 a barrel as global trade tensions showed signs of easing, countering concerns that US crude stockpiles may have resumed their expansion last week. Futures in New York rose 0.3 percent, remaining near the year’s highest close set in January at $66.14. A resurgence in risk appetite has helped lift markets from equities to commodities after ...

BEIJING / Reuters China’s crude futures kicked off to a roaring start on Monday as western traders and Chinese majors eagerly traded the world’s newest financial oil instrument, which many expect to become a third global price benchmark alongside Brent and WTI crude. Global commodity trader and miner Glencore, and big merchants Trafigura, Freepoint Commodities and Mercuria were among the ...

BEIJING / Reuters Russia kept its spot as the largest crude oil supplier to China in February, data showed, a role it held in January and for the past two years on an annual basis. Russia supplied 5.052 million tonnes, or 1.32 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up 17.8 percent from a year earlier, data from the Chinese ...

Bloomberg Norway’s oil industry has one more thing to worry about. After an unprecedented lawsuit against Arctic drilling, environmentalists have launched a new legal battle to challenge a tax incentive that’s been a cornerstone of the country’s policy to stimulate oil exploration. The move comes at a bad time for Norway, which needs to step up the search for new ...

Bloomberg Vitol Group, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, suffered a 25 percent drop in annual profit as income from assets sales failed to offset weaker trading results. Net income fell to $1.5 billion in 2017, from $2 billion the year before, according to a person familiar with Vitol’s results. The energy-trading environment has deteriorated as output curbs by OPEC ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump may be helping to revive Canada’s dream of a liquefied natural gas export industry to supply growing markets in Asia. The tariffs Trump formally ordered against $50 billion in Chinese goods threaten to raise construction costs for LNG projects in Texas and Louisiana, providing a leg up to rival projects on Canada’s Pacific Coast. With ...

Bloomberg China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the world’s biggest refiner, will pay a record-high dividend as its massive fuels and chemical segments helped it post a nearly 10 percent increase in full-year profit. Net income climbed to 51.2 billion yuan ($8.1 billion), the company known as Sinopec said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange on Sunday. The company ...

Bloomberg Alberta is looking beyond its oil industry as it works to end years of red ink. Still, a recovery to balanced budgets is a long ways off. Canada’s top oil-producing province projected a narrower budget deficit next year, despite declining revenue from non-renewable resources. Wh-ile it expects that revenue stream to rebound in future years, by the time the ...

Bloomberg America’s first exporter of liquefied natural gas from shale is awaiting a federal ruling on whether it can restart storage tanks it was forced to shut after a leak. Regulators ordered Cheniere Energy Inc. to take two of the five tanks at its Sabine Pass LNG export terminal in Louisiana out of service last month, citing a potentially “serious ...

WASHINGTON / Reuters OPEC members will need to continue coordinating with Russia and other non-OPEC oil-producing countries on supply curbs in 2019 to reduce global oil inventories to desired levels, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said. OPEC and non-OPEC countries struck a production supply agreement in January 2017 to remove 1.8 million barrels per day from global markets and ...