Regional News

LONDON / Reuters More than $200 billion of investment in liquefied natural gas is needed to meet a boom in demand by 2030, Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s top LNG trader, said. The LNG market is set to continue its rapid expansion into 2020 as facilities approved for construction in the first half of the decade come on line, in ...

TOKYO / Reuters The United States will overtake Russia as the world’s biggest oil producer by 2019 at the latest, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday, as the country’s shale oil boom continues to upend global markets. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said at an event in Tokyo the United States would overtake Russia as the biggest crude ...

RIYADH / Reuters Marriott International expects to attract $2 billion of investment in Saudi Arabia in the next four years by almost doubling the number of hotel rooms it operates there, an executive said. The kingdom aims to boost domestic and international tourism in its drive to diversify the economy away from oil exports. It is has set a target ...

Bloomberg Oil traded near a three-week high after a supply disruption in Libya and as investors await US inventory data. Futures in New York slid 0.3 percent after closing at the highest since February 5 as crude exports from a key Libyan terminal were disrupted. The focus now shifts to US stockpiles, which are forecast to have risen last week. ...

Bloomberg Big oil tankers sailing from the US are set to bring along some benefits for refiners in Asia while allowing them to sidestep traders serving the world’s top crude-buying region. The new option to load oil into very large crude carriers at the US Gulf Coast terminal operated by the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP, will reduce costs ...

Bloomberg Oil steadied as Libya’s crude exports from a key terminal were disrupted and Saudi Arabia pledged that global producers will ease their output curbs without shocking the market. Futures in New York were little changed, after rising 3 percent the previous two sessions. Libya’s crude loadings from the Mellitah terminal will be “modified” after protests impeded output at the ...

Bloomberg China’s natural gas imports from Central Asia, a long-time source of the fuel via pipeline, slipped last month, worsening a winter shortage and increasing the world’s biggest energy user’s reliance on seaborne supplies. Imports during January from Turkmenistan, China’s biggest overseas source of gas last year, dropped 14 percent from a year earlier, and 4 percent from December, data ...

Bloomberg Ghana may start locking in future prices for oil and petroleum imports from the end of March as it seeks to contain inflation, said Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. A net exporter of crude oil, Ghana could benefit from rising prices while continuing to keep domestic costs in check by agreeing to buy fuel at pre-set prices, Ofori-Atta said in ...

Bloomberg The outlook for declining oil production in Venezuela may get grimmer if the US bans supply of a key commodity used to help Venezuelan crude flow from oilfields to the coast. Production in the Orinoco oil belt, which accounts for half of the country’s output, depends on heavy naphtha imported from the US to reach global markets. Naphtha is ...

Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. has shut production platforms and a processing plant in the highlands of natural gas exp-orter Papua New Guinea after an earthquake struck the Pacific nation. The US oil giant closed the facilities to assess damage from a magnitude 7.5 earthquake early on Monday morning, it said in a statement. Administrative buildings, living quarters and a mess ...