BEIJING / Reuters Russia held on as China’s largest crude oil supplier for the ninth month in a row in November, also topping Saudi Arabia for the year so far, Chinese customs data showed on Tuesday. Shipments from Russia in November reached 5.12 million tonnes, or 1.26 million barrels per day (bpd), up 11 percent from a year ago, according ...

Bloomberg India’s biggest oil explorer plans to snatch up producing assets to reach its goal of raising overseas output by more than half in about three years, a faster route than drilling for new reserves. ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas investment unit of state-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp., spent $2.2 billion last year on an existing Russian project, which ...

DUBAI / Reuters Oman will delay the introduction of a 5 percent value-added tax until 2019 instead of introducing it next year as originally planned, local media reported, a decision that may hurt its effort to strengthen shaky state finances. All six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council agreed among themselves to impose VAT at the start of 2018. But ...

Bloomberg French tycoon Dominique Louis is doubling down on atomic power, betting that global warming will foster a nuclear renaissance. Three months ago, his nuclear engineering group Assystem SA sold 61 percent of its automotive and aircraft business for 400 million euros ($472 million). Louis used the proceeds to buy back some of the company’s shares and acquire 5 percent ...

Bloomberg Oil’s bull run is grinding to a halt. Hedge funds lowered their bets on Brent crude after they rose to a record a week earlier. And the net-bullish position on West Texas Intermediate, which hit a nine-month high last month, dwindled for a third straight week. The message: After a months-long build-up, investors are wavering, concerned US crude will ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. looks like it’s having a not-so Merry Christmas. Analysts have lowered iPhone X shipment projections for the first quarter of next year, citing signs of lackluster demand at the end of the holiday shopping season. Sinolink Securities Co. analyst Zhang Bin said in a report that handset shipments in the period may be as low as 35 ...

Bloomberg ADT Inc., the security company backed by Apollo Global Management LLC, filed for a US initial public offering. The company filed with an initial offering size of $100 million, a placeholder that’s typically used to calculate fees and will likely change, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. ADT intends to use the proceeds to ...

Bloomberg A picture of inflation-squeezed consumers and Brexit-wary companies emerged in the UK’s latest overview of its economy. Annual growth in the third quarter slowed to 1.7 percent, slightly higher than previously estimated but still the weakest pace in 4 1/2 years, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The economy expanded an unrevised 0.4 percent from the second quarter, ...

Bloomberg For millions of Americans suffering from debilitating nerve pain, a once-overlooked option has emerged as an alternative to high doses of opioids: implanted medical devices using electricity to counteract pain signals the same way noise-cancelling headphones work against sound. The approach, called neuromodulation, has been a godsend for Linda Landy, who was a 42-year-old runner when a foot surgery ...

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin is using the threat of additional US sanctions to encourage wealthy Russians to repatriate some of their overseas assets, which exceed $1 trillion by one estimate. Putin told lawmakers that a new capital amnesty program was needed “given the foreign restrictions, which instead of lessening are now worsening,” according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin’s ...