Bloomberg The world’s largest energy trader says oil prices are set to rally further as Opec output cuts and American sanctions on Iran and Venezuela cause a “shortage” of the low-quality heavy crudes refiners rely on. “From here there’s probably the potential to be a little bit higher,” said Russell Hardy, chief executive officer of Vitol Group. “Oil supply is ...

Bloomberg Centrica Plc plunged to the lowest in almost two decades after tougher trading conditions in the UK energy market prompted the utility to forecast a gloomy outlook for next year. Hurt both by a government-imposed cap on consumer energy bills and by outages at nuclear plants and gas wells, a target range for average adjusted operating cash flow “is ...

Bloomberg British Steel Ltd. may face a financial hit of 100 million pounds ($130 million) or more in three weeks’ time if Prime Minister Theresa May is unable to secure a Brexit deal, two people familiar with the matter said. The costs relate to the private equity-owned steelmaker’s carbon pollution bill for 2018, which is due for payment by March ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG expects to boost revenue and maintain profitability this year even as the German manufacturer said it’ll face more challenging economic conditions, costly new tests on emissions and tougher competition. The world’s biggest carmaker, reporting annual earnings that met expectations, repeated its 2018 goal for an adjusted operating return on sales of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent for ...

Bloomberg A group of Microsoft Corp. employees are demanding that the company abandon a $480 million contract with the US Army to build versions of its HoloLens augmented reality headsets for the battlefield, the latest in a series of protests from workers at technology companies objecting to certain uses of the products they’re building. “We are alarmed that Microsoft is ...

Bloomberg There’s no dispute that a $48.9 billion merger announced in 2015 between health insurers Anthem Inc. and Cigna Corp. imploded two years later over antitrust concerns. Now, the question is whether one owes the other billions for the deal’s failure. A Delaware judge will start the process of deciding that pricey dispute on Monday in a trial of dueling ...

Bloomberg After days of preparation, the trucks rolled out. They bore beans, rice, sugar, salt and the possibility that Venezuela’s army would desert autocratic President Nicolas Maduro and the moribund nation might begin its revival. Instead, there came violent action but little motion. Maduro avoided a bloodbath despite a massive border face-off between protesters and soldiers. His army didn’t desert ...

Bloomberg Afghanistan civilian casualties rose 5 percent in 2018 to the highest level in a decade, reflecting an increase of suicide attacks by Taliban and IS militants, according to a United Nations report on the conflict that has dragged on for 18 years. The report showed 3,804 deaths and 7,189 injured, with 63 percent of the casualties blamed on anti-government ...

Bloomberg France remains committed to fighting militants in West Africa, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said, two days after French troops killed a prominent extremist leader. Philippe spoke during a visit to Mali, where France has deployed about 3,000 soldiers to hunt militants following a 2012 insurgency that almost led to the collapse of the state. Despite the deployment of more ...

Bloomberg Kim Jong-un’s arrival in Vietnam this week for a second meeting with US President Donald Trump may be most remarkable for how normal it’s becoming. Since opening talks with South Korea last year, the once-reclusive North Korean leader has turned into one of the most sought-after guests in Asia. At each stop — from Beijing to Singapore and now ...