Bloomberg Soaring production in North America’s most prolific oil field helped propel Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. to bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter profits. Chevron surprised analysts and investors with a $25-billion stock buyback pledge and shares for both explorers were among the day’s best-performing energy stocks. Exxon surpassed analysts’ forecasts by almost one-third with the biggest refining bonanza in six years ...

Bloomberg The Gulf of Mexico is turning into a parking lot for Venezuelan crude, as the US sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela SA essentially stop the flow of oil from the Latin America country. Tankers holding about 6 million barrels of Venezuelan oil are floating in the US Gulf Coast or heading there, according to data from cargo-tracking and intelligence ...

Bloomberg First, Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya faced losing his “palatial” London home, with UBS Group AG saying it wanted to foreclose. Then, a judge said he should be extradited to India. Now, banks are eyeing two superyachts and a collection of valuable cars that they believe he may own. A group of Indian banks — which are trying to collect ...