Regional News

Bloomberg The Bakken shale is roaring back to life, and Kevin Black sees the evidence almost every day as he looks out the window of his blue Ford F-150 pickup truck. The president of Creedence Energy Services, which provides chemicals for oil wells, Black, 29, drives about two hours to Williston, North Dakota, at the heart of the oil-rich formation, ...

Bloomberg Oil’s sinking back down to earth. Euphoria that’s driven the longest monthly rising streak in almost seven years is giving way to concern that US stockpiles will rebound as the rally encourages American drillers. That’s sparked a 3.1 percent drop in New York futures this week, marring crude’s best January since 2013. The sour sentiment is bleeding into equities, ...

Bloomberg OPEC-led production cuts will last for the rest of the year, and an early termination in June would be a surprise to the market, the International Energy Agency’s markets division head said. The oil market will move from surplus into a small deficit after the first quarter but it will be fairly balanced overall this year, the IEA’s Neil ...

Bloomberg OPEC’s second-biggest producer is relinquishing some control over its prized oil in exchange for better prices. In a rare move, Iraq is allowing buyers to load its crude without saying where the cargo will finally end up. They will only have to let the Middle East producer know about the destination two weeks after the shipment’s bill of lading, ...

Bloomberg Ethiopia’s fast-growing economy has Asian investors lining up to build a new $4 billion oil refinery, even as a Blackstone Group LP-backed fuel pipeline project is shelved. The proposed 120,000 barrels-a-day plant has generated interest from Japanese, South Korean and Indian investors, said Zemedeneh Negatu, chairman of US-based Fairfax Africa Fund. The refinery in Awash, east of the capital ...

Riyadh / Reuters Saudi Aramco, the state oil company of Saudi Arabia, is considering entering India as part of its Asian expansion, Nikkei said, citing Aramco’s CEO who said that plans for an Indian refinery are crystallising. “Saudi Aramco is looking at additional investments in China, and India is also a very important destination which we are giving great consideration, ...

Bloomberg The center of gravity in Europe’s natural gas market is heading south as one of the continent’s biggest pipeline operators builds a system that could make Italy an exporter of the fuel for the first time. Fortified with new supplies due from a $5.6 billion pipeline link to the Caspian Sea as well as tankers full of gas in ...

Bloomberg Nigeria plans to start building a $5.8 billion hydro-power plant in the eastern Mambila region this year, after it agrees on loan terms with China’s Export-Import Bank. “We hope to break ground this year if we can conclude the financing,” Power, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola said in a Jan. 23 interview in the capital, Abuja. “Contracts are ...

Bloomberg PetroChina Co, the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, forecast that full-year profit rebounded off a record low and may have tripled amid cost cutting and higher energy prices. Net income for 2017 may have jumped by as much as 16 billion yuan ($2.5 billion), the state-run oil giant said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, ...

Bloomberg Saudi International Petrochemical Co. is considering investing in the US shale industry in what would be the company’s first foreign venture as it faces higher costs and a shortage of feedstock at home in Saudi Arabia. Sipchem, as the business is known, may seek a US partner in its effort to tap into the booming shale industry, though Chief ...