Bloomberg A pledge by crude producers to consider extending their output-cut deal failed to excite oil bulls, with prices dropping as more time was seen needed to trim swollen global stockpiles. Futures lost as much as percent 1.3 percent in New York, extending their third weekly drop this month as rising US supplies offset the effect of output curbs …

  Reuters Saudi Arabia’s government has cut the income tax paid by national oil giant Saudi Aramco to smooth the company’s initial public offer of shares next year, which is expected to be the world’s largest equity sale. A royal decree on Monday, retroactive to Jan. 1, set a tax rate of 50 percent for the firm. Previously, Aramco had …

  Reuters As the cost of light crude drops, some refiners in Asia are snap-ping up cargoes of the oil that is easier and cheaper to process than their usual diet of heavy crude, chasing profits from making diesel and gasoline. As a result of the OPEC production cuts, the world’s oil supply has become more light and those oil …