March, 2019

• 3 March

  South Africa’s oil hub woos global traders with million-barrel tanks

  

  Bloomberg What started as a strategic oil storage for South Africa during apartheid is now gearing up to attract the biggest traders as it turns into a global center for crude. A venture building a dozen new interconnected tanks on Africa’s southern tip will add to neighbouring government-owned capacity, making it one of the world’s biggest hubs. They are on ...

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• 3 March

  Sanction-stained oil sits off Venezuela

  Bloomberg Venezuela is running out of space to store its sanction-stained crude that few dare to buy, forcing it to reduce output at a time when the world is thirsty for heavy, sulfurous oil. Tankers holding 8.36 million barrels of Venezuelan crude worth upwards of a half-billion dollars are floating off the country’s coast as the nation struggles to find ...

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• 3 March

  Enbridge pipeline delayed in hit to Canada oil sector

  

  Bloomberg In a major blow to the Canadian oil industry, Enbridge Inc. now expects the replacement and expansion of its Line 3 crude oil pipeline to be in service about a year later than expected. The project, previously slated to start shipping crude in the fourth quarter of this year, is now expected to enter service in the second half ...

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• 3 March

  US, South Korea end military drills after summit collapse

  

  Bloomberg The US and South Korea agreed to end their biggest annual joint military drills in a bid to ease tensions with North Korea, a move that comes just days after Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un failed to reach an agreement on denuclearization at a summit in Vietnam. US Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan and South Korea’s Defense Minister ...

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• 3 March

  Russia vows to help Venezuela avoid any military intervention

  

  Bloomberg Russia will “do everything possible” to avoid outside military intervention in Venezuela, Parliament Speaker Valentina Matvienko told the Latin American nation’s vice president. “We are very concerned that the US are ready for any kind of provocation to start bloodshed and justify military intervention in Venezuela,” Matvienko told Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. “We’ll do everything possible to avoid this. ...

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• 3 March

  Mueller’s report to ignite an epic war over disclosure

  

  Bloomberg When Special Counsel Robert Mueller closes up shop and submits his long-awaited final report — possibly within days — it will be only the start of an explosive chain of events. There will be a struggle in Congress, on cable TV and social media and probably in the courts over how much must be disclosed from what will begin ...

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• 3 March

  Protests persist in Balkans over leaders

  

  Bloomberg Thousands of protesters marched through the capitals of Serbia and Montenegro as demonstrators kept up pressure on governments to curb corruption and allow more freedom in a region that hopes to integrate with the European Union. In Montenegro’s capital Podgorica, several thousand people took part in a fourth weekend rally in a row over allegations of corrupt practices of ...

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• 3 March

  US renews pressure on Europe over ‘IS fighters’

  

  Bloomberg The US will keep pressing its European allies to take back citizens caught fighting for IS in Syria if they’re released, National Security Adviser John Bolton said. The fate of the estimated 800 to 1,000 captives taken by Kurdish militias in northeastern Syria has been a sore point since President Donald Trump tweeted in February that the UK, France, ...

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• 3 March

  $43bn race to fix Jakarta’s choking traffic begins now

  

  Bloomberg Muhammad Ridick would rather endure a back-breaking five hours of commuting on his motorbike each day than ride Jakarta’s public transport. “It’s very difficult to get a seat on a bus or train during rush hour,” said Ridick, 25, an employee at PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, whose 80 kilometer round-trip journey to work and back means he often doesn’t reach ...

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• 3 March

  China looks to buy soybeans from US

  

  Bloomberg A week after US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said China pledged to buy more American soybeans, no sales have been done. While Chinese buyers returned to the market asking for offers, traders familiar with the process say no deals have been done. That’s a disappointment for American farmers looking to offload a bumper harvest that’s been piled in bags ...

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