(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia raised oil prices for customers in Asia, the U.S. and Europe after crude’s surge to almost $95 a barrel. State firm Saudi Aramco increased all grades for its main market of Asia in March. The company raised its key Arab Light oil for the region by 60 cents from February to $2.80 per barrel above the benchmark it us...

(Bloomberg) — Nigeria has started investigating an explosion on an oil production vessel capable of holding about 2 million barrels of crude. “I’ve instructed our field operatives to move in and carry out a full-scale incident report,” Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, said...

(Bloomberg) — The extreme cold that’s descended across Texas is prompting some oil producers in the Permian Basin to halt a small part of their output as icy roads disrupt critical trucking operations.  One large Permian driller had about 4,000 barrels a day of crude production shut because of the weather, according to a person familiar...

(Bloomberg) — Venezuela’s government and Chevron Corp. are in preliminary talks to give the company greater control of some operations in exchange for debt relief as the country’s socialist leaders try to increase production despite U.S. sanctions.  The head of Chevron’s Venezuela unit, Javier La Rosa, and the president of state oil...

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc has made an oil discovery in Namibia, an area where previous explorers have largely failed to find commercial resources. Searching for oil and gas in the waters of the southwest African nation has been compared to the early days of the North Sea, where a number of wells were drilled before any significant di...

(Bloomberg) — A fire on an oil production vessel that exploded off Nigeria’s coast has been extinguished, according to the government official in charge of investigating the environmental toll. The blaze was put out Thursday night, Idris Musa, director general of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, said by text message. The...

(Bloomberg) — Output in the U.S. shale patch is “re-booming” this year, with research and data analysis firm  forecasting production will surge by more than 1 million barrels a day. That’s the most bullish industry forecast yet. By comparison, the Energy Information Administration says the U.S. will end the year  abou...

(Bloomberg) — Africa’s biggest crude producer is preparing a crackdown on oil theft as part of an ambitious recovery plan to boost output that’s fallen by more than a quarter in two years. Nigeria loses as much as 150,000 barrels of oil a day to criminals who illegally tap pipelines crisscrossing the Niger Delta region, Nigerian Upstream P...

(Bloomberg) — Shell Plc expanded its share buybacks after reporting profit that blew past analyst estimates on the back of surging energy prices.  The positive fourth-quarter earnings cap a tumultuous year in which Shell was targeted by activist investor Dan Loeb, relocated its headquarters to London and dropped “Royal Dutch” from its...

(Bloomberg) — An oil production ship exploded off the coast of Nigeria in what may prove to be the nation’s second major environmental setback in three months. The Trinity Spirit, able to store about 2 million barrels of oil, blew up early Wednesday, Shebah Exploration & Production Co., which has the vessel on lease, said in a statement....