Bloomberg Bob Ravnaas raised a paddle in a Houston auction house to secure his first block of mineral rights 19 years ago, when oil prices were swooning below $20 a barrel. A generation later, that same West Texas oilfield is still spinning off royalties, part of a mineral-rights empire amassed by Ravnaas that stretches across 20 states and delivers millions ...

Bloomberg Add costlier debt and thinner profit margins to the list of woes for Canada’s oil patch. The Bank of Canada’s decision to increase its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 0.75 percent will raise borrowing costs for oil producers already grappling with prices stuck near $45 a barrel. The rate hike also sent the Canadian dollar to ...

Bloomberg Xie Shuijuan, a lifelong textile seller in Shaoxing, eastern China, says a clampdown by zealous officials on pollution caused by the local dyeing industry has boosted prices, squeezed her margins, and bankrupted some of her friends. Yet she’s not opposed. “This river used to smell in the summer and garbage floated on the surface,” Xie said, sitting in her ...