Bloomberg India will offer larger areas with higher oil and natural gas reserves in the next auction of discovered fields later this year as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government seeks to curtail rising crude oil imports. “The next round would be meatier, bigger and players can expect even better fields,” Atanu Chakraborty, head of oil regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, …

NEW DELHI / Reuters India imported 335,400 barrels per day (bpd) oil from Iran in August, the lowest level since February 2016, posting a fall of about 42 percent from a year ago, according to ship tracking data obtained from industry sources and data compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts. August imports from Iran were down 19.2 percent …

NEW DELHI / Reuters Libya’s Sharara oilfield is producing about 180,000 barrels per day (bpd), 100,000 bpd below recent levels, because of security problems, two workers at the field said. They said that a facility about 40 km west of the field was shut because of poor security, hindering the recovery of production since the field reopened after a pipeline …

KHOBAR / Reuters Saudi Aramco is expected to complete the first major unit of a new refinery in southwestern Jizan province by the end of this year but refining operations will only start a year later, industry sources said. The refinery on the Red Sea is part of a plan to revive the region by building an economic city which …

Bloomberg Cnooc Ltd. is searching for partners to develop oil prospects deep into the Gulf of Mexico as the Chinese giant extends its global reach. After bidding alone for exploration rights in Mexico’s first-ever deep-water auction in 2016, Cnooc is seeking deals known as farmouts, a common type of joint venture where a stake in an oil prospect is exchanged …

Bloomberg A $9 billion stake in one of the world’s biggest oil companies may not be enough for CEFC China Energy Co. A week after China’s largest private energy company struck a deal for a chunk of Rosneft PJSC, it’s been pegged as a possible investor in a Russian metals and power business and a free-trade zone in Georgia’s Black …

Bloomberg NTPC Ltd., India’s biggest electricity producer, has boosted natural gas-fired generation as a drop in hydropower, nuclear and wind energy increases demand for thermal power, according to company officials with knowledge of the situation. Plant utilisation at NTPC’s gas-fired stations has almost tripled to 60 percent in the past three to four days, said the officials, who asked not …

Bloomberg Ant Financial is expected to make a third try for US approval of its takeover of MoneyGram International Inc. as a secretive national security panel throws up hurdles for Chinese investors seeking to buy American companies. The former affiliate of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is preparing to resubmit the $1.2 billion deal for review before the US …

Bloomberg McDonald’s Japan took a series of hits starting in 2014 that threatened to crack its Golden Arches: a supplier was selling expired chicken, a human tooth was found in french fries and a child was injured by a plastic shard inside a sundae. Sales plummeted to their lowest since the company went public in 2001, and the chain closed …

Bloomberg Tata Group’s feud with one of India’s richest families deepened after the country’s biggest conglomerate moved to change its holding company’s legal status to one that would restrict the Mistry family’s ability to sell its stake to external investors. Shareholders of the closely held company, Tata Sons Ltd., are scheduled to vote September 21 on changing its registration to …