Regional News

KHOBAR / Reuters An advisory council to Saudi Arabia’s government has asked the kingdom’s securities regulator to study the impact of listing Saudi Aramco on the local bourse amid concern that a huge initial public offering could damage the market. The Shura Council’s fiscal committee has also asked the Capital Market Authority (CMA) to make sure that the stock market’s ...

Bloomberg Iceland’s hope of finding oil offshore its coast is fading after China and Norway decided to back out of the island nation’s only remaining exploration license. Cnooc Ltd., China’s state-controlled producer, and Petoro AS, Norway’s state-owned oil company, decided to relinquish their interest in the license, Iceland’s National Energy Authority said in a statement. Their junior partner, Eykon Energy ...

Bloomberg Japan’s thermal coal imports rose to a record last year and liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases climbed for the first time in three years, as the fuels filled the gap in power generation left by the country’s slow restart of its nuclear power plants. The figures underscore the country’s continued reliance on imported fossil fuels for power generation, as ...

BEIJING / Reuters China is pulling in ships from all over to avoid a natural gas supply squeeze ahead of another cold snap and as the world’s most populous nation prepares for Spring Festival celebrations. Fuel demand in January and February typically slows as temperatures improve compared with the busiest month, December, but data suggests this year could buck the ...

Bloomberg The global oil industry’s backlog of big drilling projects is starting to shrink as prices improve. From production vessels tapping Brazil’s deep-water reserves to pipes connecting rigs to underwater wells in China, the number of ventures delayed since the oil crash that finally got approval to get off the ground totaled 18 last year, according to a report by ...

Bloomberg Scraping the bottom of the oil barrel for cheap fuel may be turning into a multi-billion-dollar headache for India’s largest crude refiner. The South Asian nation’s battle against pollution has left Indian Oil Corp. searching for alternative markets to sell petroleum coke, the cheapest and dirtiest among the oil products. A host of new limits on the fuel’s use ...

Bloomberg India’s biggest oil and gas explorer has widened its first debt-raising plan to as much as $5.48 billion to buy state-run refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Oil & Natural Gas Corp’s board has approved raising as much as 350 billion rupees in loans to buy the government’s 51.1 percent stake in HPCL, Chairman Shashi Shanker said in New Delhi. That ...

BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq agreed a deal with US energy company Orion on Monday to process natural gas extracted at its giant Nahr Bin Omar oilfield. The memorandum of understanding, signed in Baghdad by representatives of the oil ministry and the US company, will allow Orion Gas Processors to build facilities to capture the gas from the field located in ...

Bloomberg Libya’s powerful black market traders are encountering an unfamiliar sight: people showing up with bundles of dollars for sale. Rising oil prices have relieved financial pressure on Libya, allowing authorities to channel more dollars to importers since the start of the year. Meanwhile, the central bank has eased restrictions on currency transfers that had made the black market the ...

Bloomberg Brent crude steadied after Saudi Arabia and Russia pledged to continue supply cuts. Futures rose as much as 0.5 percent in London before paring those gains. Output limits should remain through 2018 as rebalancing may be achieved next year, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said in a Bloomberg television interview held with his Russian counterpart. Russia is prepared ...