Saturday, 19 September 2020

Nigeria Bars Emirates, Talks With EU About Lufthansa, Air France - Bloomberg

Nigeria Bars Emirates, Talks With EU About Lufthansa, Air France - Bloomberg:

Nigeria is adding Emirates Airline to the list of carriers not allowed to fly into the West African country, Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said.

Nigerian officials held talks with European Union officials over the ban on flights by Lufthansa, Air France and KLM, the minister said on Twitter. “The meeting progressed well,” he said.

Africa’s most populous country of more 200 million people barred a number of airlines as it resumed international flights on Sept. 5 following a prolonged lockdown to curb spread of the coronavirus, saying it was in retaliation for similar restrictions. Emirates can’t fly to Nigeria with effect from Sept. 21, said Sirika.

Libya NOC Says It’s Restarting ‘Secure’ Fields, Ports - Bloomberg

Libya NOC Says It’s Restarting ‘Secure’ Fields, Ports - Bloomberg:

Libya’s National Oil Corp. said it will allow the restart of oil from fields and ports that it sees safe and free from armed groups.

The NOC is lifting force majeure from oilfields and export terminals that are “secure” and has given instructions to operating companies to resume production, while the eight-month ban would remain in place in other facilities that still has fighters, it said in a statement on Saturday.

The NOC didn’t mention which ports will resume or how much production the partial restart means. But the Arabian Gulf Oil Co. which produces about 290,000 barrels a day and exports its crude via Hariga port in the east, announced it’s restarting operations.

“Force majeure continues in fields and ports where the presence of fighters from Wagner and other armed groups that hinders the activities and operations is confirmed,” it said. The NOC will only resume operations in safe regions where “technical evaluation is undergoing to resume production and exports.”

Rolls-Royce in talks with sovereign wealth funds to raise £2.5bn | Financial Times

Rolls-Royce in talks with sovereign wealth funds to raise £2.5bn | Financial Times:

Rolls-Royce is in talks with sovereign wealth funds, including Singapore’s GIC, as part of a plan to raise around £2.5bn from investors next month, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.  


The UK aero-engine group is working with bankers at Goldman Sachs on the planned equity raise as it looks to become the latest company to tap stock market investors to repair a balance sheet badly damaged by the pandemic. 

The group is aiming to launch the equity raise in the first weeks of October, two of these people said. As part of the talks Rolls-Royce and its bankers are in discussions with multiple sovereign wealth funds including GIC, the state fund of the island-nation where the company has significant operations.

However discussions over the equity raise are ongoing and one person cautioned that the board has been determined to push the decision to the last minute.

Rising bankruptcy toll shows US oil patch is not ‘OK now’ | Financial Times

Rising bankruptcy toll shows US oil patch is not ‘OK now’ | Financial Times:

It is less than two months since Donald Trump travelled to Texas to declare that the US energy industry, laid low by this year’s oil price crash, was back on its feet. “We’re OK now,” the president told the assembled crowd.

But bankruptcy numbers released this week tell a different story. Another 16 upstream US oil and gas companies — producers and service providers — hit the wall in August, the same number as in July, according to law firm Haynes and Boone.

Bigger drillers such as Chaparral and Valaris have joined a pile-up that has seen companies with a combined $85bn worth of debt file for protection from creditors over the past eight months.

“We’re continuing to see a steady stream of oil and gas producer bankruptcies and oilfield service bankruptcies. And we do not anticipate any immediate interruption in that steady stream, especially on the oilfield service side,” said Charles Beckham, a partner at Haynes and Boone.