Bloomberg US equities plunged at the start of a busy week as declining oil prices pulled down energy stocks. Crude slipped from a two-year high after US drillers expanded operations while OPEC and Russia prepare to discuss longer supply curbs. The S&P 500 Index erased early gains as companies including Hess and Marathon Oil dropped. Financial and technology shares also …

Reuters Saudi Arabia’s stock index edged higher on Monday after Al Jouf Cement and Saudi Industrial Export Co announced an export deal with Jordan, but the region as a whole traded in small ranges. The Saudi index closed 0.1 percent higher at 6,939 points. Al Jouf rose 3.4 percent and Saudi Industrial Export Co jumped 5.1 percent. Saudi Industrial Export …

BEIJING / Reuters China’s domestic prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on Monday topped 7,000 yuan ($1,061) a tonne, highest since at least 2011, as demand soared with millions of homes burning gas for the winter instead of coal. Wholesale LNG prices have gained more than half their value from mid-November, meaning the jump in prices has come less than …

BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraq on Monday invited foreign companies to bid for contracts to explore and develop oil and natural gas reserves in nine new blocks as the OPEC nation seeks to boost its output capacity. “We invite all international companies to participate,” Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi told a news conference in Baghdad. “This new exploration bidding round aims to …

DHAHRAN / Reuters More petrochemical projects will follow after Saudi Aramco agreed to join a $20 billion venture to convert crude oil to chemicals, the state oil company’s chief executive told Reuters. Aramco and Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) signed a preliminary deal to build a petrochemicals complex with start-up seen in 2025. Aramco has been looking to develop its …

Bloomberg Gulf Energy Development Pcl’s billionaire founder Sarath Ratanavadi plans 150 billion baht ($4.6 billion) of investment in power plants over the next four years after the company’s listing this month. The initial public offering’s proceeds will help fund some of the outlay, with the rest coming from loans, Sarath, the company’s chief executive officer, said in an interview in …

Bloomberg GAIL India Ltd. received notification from Russia’s Gazprom PJSC that it plans to start deliveries of liquefied natural gas through a contract the Indian buyer is trying to renego- tiate, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The world’s largest gas producer wrote to GAIL this month saying it’s preparing to send cargoes from April under the 2.5 …

Bloomberg The world’s biggest miner and Wall Street’s top-ranked merger firm are among the high-profile backers of a remote solar project nestled among banana crops in Australia’s far tropical northeast. For BHP Billiton Ltd., it’s a chance to unlock renewable technology for the global mining sector. As mining companies grapple with energy costs and seek to curb emissions, Melbourne-based BHP …

Bloomberg Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s rise into a $500 billion company was fuelled by a culture of internal competition, where teams raced against each other to make ideas work. To become an advertising powerhouse like Facebook Inc., the internal barriers are starting to come down. The seven main business units of China’s largest company are working to synchronise data and study …

Bloomberg Huochebang and Yunmanman, China’s two biggest apps for Uber-like truck services, have agreed to merge, creating a company valued at more than $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Wang Gang, a backer of Yunmanman’s and an angel investor in ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, will become the chief executive officer of the new entity, the people said, asking …