Reuters Saudi Aramco and the Japanese government are set to agree on a roughly 2 million barrel expansion of crude storage capacity in Okinawa, used by the state-run firm to store oil, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said on Thursday. Under an agreement with Tokyo, Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) each store up to 1 ...

  Reuters Iraq’s oil exports from southern ports rose to more than 3.230 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, from 3.202 million bpd in July, as crude production increased, the oil ministry and sources at state-run South Oil Co said on Thursday. The West Qurna 1 field, developed by Exxon Mobil, and South Oil’s Luhais and Artawi fields contributed ...

  Bloomberg Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz is out to persuade big energy explorers put off by years of regulatory turmoil to search for natural gas off his country’s shores. At a road show in London this week, Steinitz will sit down with executives from large and mid-sized energy companies to make his case that prospects for finding big reserves ...

  Bloomberg Oil prices edged up slightly on Thursday after being hammered the day before by data showing a sharp rise in US stockpiles, while analysts warned a pick-up in the dollar would add further downward pressure. Both main contracts plunged Wednesday after the US Energy Department said commercial inventories in the world’s top oil consumer edged up last week ...

  Beirut / AFP Demonstrators crowded the streets on Thursday in a test of strength between Venezuela’s government and opponents seeking a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro, raising fears of violence. Thousands of protesters dressed in white marched in the east of the capital, waving signs reading “Change now” in what the opposition dubbed “The Taking of Caracas.” A rival ...

  PRAGUE / AP The Czech Republic’s counter-intelligence agency says there’s a threat of a potential attack by radicals on Czech territory. The agency, known as BIS, says in its annual report published on Thursday that such a threat comes from militants linked to the IS group and also from the Nusra Front, Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria. The announcement comes ...

  Luxembourg / AFP EU President Donald Tusk insisted on Thursday there would be no talks with Britain before London triggers the divorce process, saying he wants to “protect the interests” of the bloc’s remaining members. Tusk added that in the wake of the Brexit vote, the 27 EU leaders who are meeting without Britain in Slovakia on September 16 ...

  Rawalpindi /AFP Pakistan’s military on Thursday admitted for the first time that the IS group had a presence in the country but said it had apprehended hundreds of its militants and prevented them from carrying out major attacks. The army’s spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa said forces had foiled planned attacks by IS on foreign embassies and Islamabad airport, ...

  Singapore / AFP Malaysia on Thursday reported its first suspected case of Zika, a 58-year-old woman believed to have contracted it in neighbouring Singapore where more than 100 cases have been confirmed. The Malaysian woman had made a brief trip in late August to visit her daughter, who has already been confirmed as having the Zika virus, Malaysia’s health ...

  Phoenix /AFP White House hopeful Donald Trump issued a stern anti-immigration warning after visiting Mexico, saying people who cross into the United States illegally would never obtain legal status. It was one in a series of stark declarations that framed a sweeping plan to crack down on illegal immigration following his more measured tone earlier in the day, when ...