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 Danske Bank A/S isn’t expecting to see financial losses as a result of the client flight triggered by its money laundering scandal, according to its interim chief executive officer, Jesper Nielsen. The bank said it lost about 11,000 retail customers in Denmark, net, last year. It also pointed to “negative impact” of the laundering case on its corporate clients …