Regional News

MANAMA / Reuters Bahrain will go ahead with imposing a value-added tax to stren-gthen state finances, Minister of Finance Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa said on Wednesday, after domestic political opposition slowed the plan. “We’ll be working with parliament on VAT and aim to have everything set up by the end of 2018,” Sheikh Ahmed told an investment conference in ...

Bloomberg The US Energy Department is throwing its support behind a request by utilities to extend the life of some nuclear power reactors — keeping them in operation for as long as 80 years. An official with the department, who asked not to be named to discuss its decision-making process, said the agency was conducting research and working with utilities ...

Bloomberg Oil dropped as US stockpiles were forecast to have expanded for a fourth week, raising questions about OPEC’s success in draining a global oversupply. Crude in New York lost as much as 1.4 percent. Inventories in America rose by 3 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey. Oil has struggled to regain January’s highs as equities remain ...

Bloomberg The natural gas industry may be one of its own worst enemies. Most energy executives underestimate how much they can cut emissions as they extract and transport natural gas, according to a survey by the Energy Institute. Producers can reduce greenhouse gas flows by 75 percent simply by improving practices in the supply chain of the fuel, which consists ...

TUNIS / Reuters Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) is suffering ongoing delays in receiving budget money from the government and this could reduce production, the head of the state company said. Mustafa Sanalla made the comments after meeting the head of Al Jouf Oil Technology Company, who said the NOC subsidiary was suffering from financial problems that had delayed projects ...

Bloomberg The flood of US oil exports stepped up a gear on Monday after the first fully laden supertanker sailed from an American port, alleviating a bottleneck that’s limited overseas shipments. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP, the only deep water port in the US able to handle the industry’s biggest tankers, said in a statement it had successfully ...

Bloomberg Indonesia will hold roadshows in the US and Europe later this month to lure investments from the world’s top energy companies as the former OPEC member seeks to reverse a decline in oil and gas production. The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is seeking bids for 24 oil and gas blocks, 1 coal-bed methane block and 1 shale block, ...

Bloomberg Snowy Hydro Ltd., Australia’s largest hydropower producer, is considering raising as much as A$2 billion ($1.6 billion) by the end of 2018 for a project expansion, which will boost its 4,100 megawatt capacity by as much as 50 percent. The company, jointly owned by the federal government and the Victorian and New South Wales state governments, has begun talks ...

Bloomberg Oil shook off some of the fears that had rattled the market to extend gains above $62 a barrel as the dollar weakened and global equities rebounded from a rout. Futures rose as much as 1.4 percent in New York after advancing 4.2 percent last week, propped up by a relief rally that helped US equities to their best ...

Bloomberg Three of the world’s biggest oil companies called on Norway to help maintain funding for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that is stagnating amid concerns about whether it can ever be cost-effective. The chief executive officers of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and Norway’s state-controlled Statoil ASA gathered on the sidelines of an energy conference in Oslo ...