DUBAI / Reuters OPEC member Iraq has formed a joint venture with a shipping company owned by Arab states to transfer, store and trade crude and oil products, according to official documents and industry sources. Middle East oil producers are venturing into buying and selling oil to boost their incomes as a sharp drop in crude prices since mid-2014 has ...
Read More »Libya’s Sharara oil output down after security breaches
BENGHAZI / Reuters Production at Libya’s Sharara oilfield dropped to between 130,000 and 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), from about 280,000 bpd, because of recent security breaches, an engineer who works at the field said on Tuesday. Field employees had difficulty accessing some of the field’s facilities after cars and mobile phones were stolen, said the engineer, who did not ...
Read More »OPEC’s oil fight morphs from skirmish to years-long drive
Bloomberg When OPEC and Russia first embarked on their strategy to clear a global oil glut, it was expected to succeed within six months. It now looks like the battle could last for years. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners plan to wrap up their production cuts next spring, already nine months later than originally expected. Yet ...
Read More »Ecuador agrees to cap output at higher level in deal with OPEC
Bloomberg A month after dealing a blow to OPEC, Ecuador says it will cap output at a more comfortable level than it had initially pledged. The South American country will limit its production at its current 541,000 barrels a day to avoid undermining the group’s output-curbs deal, Ecuadorian Oil Minister Carlos Perez said. While that breaches the 26,000-barrel-a-day cut to ...
Read More »Philadelphia refinery fights to survive after 2012 rescue
Bloomberg Five years after dodging a shutdown, the largest oil refinery on the East Coast is once again teetering on the brink. Sunoco Inc. and the private equity firm Carlyle Group LP formed Philadelphia Energy Solutions, a joint venture, in 2012 to rescue the refinery in an effort that also included $25 million in state aid. Now, after spending more ...
Read More »Aviva, China Resources mull UK wind farm bids
Bloomberg Aviva Plc and China Resources Power Holdings Co. are among companies considering bids for Statkraft AS’s stakes in its offshore UK wind farms, people familiar with the matter said, amid a surge in interest for Europe’s green energy assets. Macquarie Group Ltd. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners K/S are also weighing offers, the people said, asking not to be identified ...
Read More »From Alibaba to China Life join Unicom’s $11.7bn stake sale
Bloomberg Companies from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to China Life Insurance Co. will participate in a $11.7 billion share sale by China’s second-largest wireless carrier as part of a government push to draw private capital into its state-owned enterprises. According to the plan, investors including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc. will purchase about 10.9 billion shares, or 35 percent, ...
Read More »Apple tightens HK returns policy ahead of iPhone launch
Bloomberg Apple Inc. is making it harder for touts to profit from buying iPhones in Hong Kong only to sell them on the black market in China. From mid-August, all products bought online from Apple in Hong Kong will be ineligible for return or exchange unless they are defective, the company said on its website. Apple’s previous policy allowed 14 ...
Read More »India bans ‘gold exports’ to plug trade loopholes
Bloomberg India has banned the export of gold products with purity above 22 carats with immediate effect, a move that the industry sees as a way of curbing irregularities in the trade. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued a notice limiting shipments of jewelry, coins and medallions to 22 carats or below, without giving a reason. “The move may ...
Read More »Trump pivots back to blame ‘both sides’ for Virginia melee
Bloomberg A day after belatedly faulting white supremacists for deadly clashes in Virginia, President Donald Trump returned to his controversial position that there was “blame on both sides†for the weekend violence — remarks that caught his own aides off-guard. “You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that ...
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