Investments

• Tuesday, November 17th 2015 - 09:07 UTC

  Marriott agrees to buy Starwood, making it the largest hotel chain in the world

  

  Marriott International has agreed to buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts in a $12.2 billion deal that will make it the largest hotel chain in the world. The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved a merger agreement, Marriott announced this morning. The combined companies will operate or franchise more than 5,500 hotels with 1.1 million rooms worldwide. About 35% of the properties are outside the USA.

• Monday, November 16th 2015 - 06:49 UTC

  St Helena airport official opening has been delayed from February to May 2016

  

  The opening of St Helena Airport in the south Atlantic Ocean has been delayed from February 2016 to May 2016 to allow for additional refinement of the aerodrome's infrastructure.

• Friday, November 13th 2015 - 14:04 UTC

  Premier Oil defers project development and exploration spending into 2016

  

  The successful Falkland Islands' exploration company Premier Oil has cut full-year capital expenditure as the oil producer deferred some project development and exploration spending into 2016, it said on Thursday. Like its peers, Premier Oil has to reduce spending to cope with a halving in oil prices since a peak in June last year that has eaten into revenues.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2015 - 06:47 UTC

  Argentina to purchase Israel fighter jets, according to defense media reports

  

  After almost two years of negotiations and endless speculations surrounding the question of what fighter jet Argentina would go for, Argentine media report that a decision has been made to purchase the IAI Kfir jets to replace the Air Force’s Mirages. According to the report, in Interdefensa Militar Argentina, the decision is currently awaiting final approval from the Cabinet.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2015 - 06:11 UTC

  Argentina's Supreme Court orders YPF to publicly release 2013 contract with Chevron

  

  Argentina's supreme court has ordered state-controlled YPF to publicly release all clauses of a 2013 contract with Chevron to develop shale oil in the country's vast Vaca Muerta formation. In a 3-1 ruling, the justices sided with opposition Socialist Senator Hector Ruben Giustiniani, ruling that the state's 51% stake in the firm effectively makes it a public company subject to transparency laws.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2015 - 07:39 UTC

  Oil megaprojects won't stay on the shelf for long

  

  One casualty of the oil price downturn could be the megaproject. For years, as conventional oil reserves depleted and became increasingly hard to find, oil companies ventured into far-flung locales to find new sources of production.

• Tuesday, November 10th 2015 - 06:49 UTC

  Another can of worms in Petrobras: 1.2bn dollars for a century old Texas refinery

  

  Brazilian officials are investigating allegations that Petrobras overpaid hundreds of millions of dollars for the Pasadena, Texas, refinery and funneled money into a massive kickback scheme that's led to dozens of convictions and arrests and fueled calls for the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff, who chaired the company until 2010.

• Saturday, November 7th 2015 - 07:48 UTC

  YPF focusing on boosting natural gas production; investors waiting for “post-election clarity”

  

  Argentina's state-run energy company YPF said on Friday it plans to focus on boosting natural gas production in 2016, while also pursuing a gradual reduction in drilling and completion costs and looking for more partnerships for shale and tight play projects. It also admitted that potential investors are waiting for post-election clarity on economic and energy policies before “making any decisions”.

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 06:37 UTC

  Falklands' Humpback well finds non-commercial quantities of oil and gas

  

  Humpback is the first well to encounter oil in the potentially larger systems in deeper waters off the southeast of the Falkland Islands; however the oil and gas across a number of reservoir targets in the well drilled to a depth of 5.136 meters, were in non-commercial quantities.

• Tuesday, October 27th 2015 - 07:43 UTC

  Japanese company acquires part of Petrobras gas distribution unit

  

  Japan-based Mitsui has signed an agreement with Petrobras for partial acquisition of shares in the latter's natural gas distribution unit Petrobras Gás (Gaspetro) for about R$1.9bn ($489m).