Regional News

Bloomberg Asia pushed past the rest of the world last year to become the biggest buyer of America’s crude oil — and it’s poised to do it again in 2018. Just two years after Washington ended its crude-export ban, the continent soaked up 37 percent of the oil the US sent abroad in 2017, up from about 9 percent in ...

LONDON / Reuters Europe will face a gas shortage and price spike as soon as the next decade if it doesn’t decide quickly to boost imports from Russia as gas purchases from the United States fail to match demand, Kremlin energy giant Gazprom told Reuters. The Trump administration has said it intends to level the playing field in energy markets ...

BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq seeks around $100 billion in foreign investment in transport, energy and agriculture as part of a plan to rebuild parts of the country and revive the economy after a three-year war on IS. The government’s National Investment Commission published a list of 157 projects it will seek investment for at an International Conference for Reconstruction of ...

Bloomberg BP Plc dodged the disappointment that afflicted other oil-company earnings as it did a better job of exploiting the upswing in crude prices. Oil and gas output rose following the startup of seven new projects last year, helping the London-based giant post a fivefold increase in fourth-quarter profit from a year earlier to the highest since the start of ...

CAPE TOWN / Reuters Angola sees no further OPEC cuts in 2018 and Africa’s No. 2 crude exporter hopes to join the ranks of gold producers next year as it strives to diversify an economy long based on oil and diamonds, its minerals and petroleum minister said on Tuesday. Angola, where oil wealth has failed to translate into wider prosperity, ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia plans to spend 120 billion riyals ($32 billion) on subsidised home loans for borrowers, as it seeks to create conditions for an expanded private-sector role in a mortgage market dominated by the government. The kingdom’s new housing program, announced, also includes an 18 billion riyal loan-guarantee program to boost access to funding, and 12.5 billion riyals to ...

Bloomberg Halliburton Co. isn’t content to limit its battle for market share with Schlumberger Ltd. to the oil field these days. It’s opened a new front in an unlikely place: the patent office. The Houston-based provider of drilling services is waging an aggressive campaign to persuade the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel some of Schlumberger’s fracking-related patents, telling ...

Bloomberg Oil slid to a two-week low and headed for its longest losing streak in two months as a plunge in US equities dragged other markets lower. Crude futures in New York fell a third day, sliding as much as 1.3 percent. Stock indexes from Japan to Germany tumbled on Tuesday after a frantic sell-off in US shares sent the ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia kept pricing for its main crude grade to Asia unchanged for a second month as the world’s largest crude exporter responds to slower seasonal demand. State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco, set the official pricing for Arab Light crude to Asia at a premium of $1.65 a barrel more than the regional benchmark, it ...

BEIJING / Reuters China’s natural gas production is rising at the fastest pace in four years but that will not be enough to meet the demand for the fuel that has been unleashed through a government program to raise gas usage in order to clean the country’s polluted air. Gas output in China rose to a record 147.4 billion cubic ...