NORTH AMERICA Moving Crude by Railcar Stalls on the Track - WSJ.

com - Companies that thought they had found a relatively easy way to move crude from the booming oil fields of North Dakota to the West Coast are encountering obstacles. - Half a dozen companies are trying to build rail terminals on the coast of Washington state to receive trainloads of crude from the Bakken field in North Dakota. Fuel Fix Calpine to buy large power plant near San Antonio - Calpine Corp. is buying a natural gas-fired power plant near San Antonio for $625 million, another acquisition in Texas as it looks to build its footprint in the state, the company said Monday - The Houston-based power generator said its buying the 1,050 megawatt, combined-cycle power generating facility from MinnTex Power Holdings, a private equity-backed power company. The plant sits on a 110-acre site in Guadalupe County about 30 miles northeast of San Antonio. Big Oil to Get Brazil-Like Terms in Plan to End Mexico Monopoly - Bloomberg - Global oil majors from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to Chevron Corp. (CVX) are about to get the clearest indication yet of how far Mexican lawmakers will go to lure them into the largest unexplored crude area after the Artic Circle. Fuel Fix Shell outlines 2014 drilling plans - In a 64-page integrated operations plan filed with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Nov. 26 and released Wednesday, Shell outlines the broad contours of its planned activity in the Chukchi Sea. BOEM proposes lease sale for eastern Gulf of Mexico - Oil & Gas Journal - The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said it will hold an oil and gas lease sale covering the Gulf of Mexicos Eastern Planning Area on Mar. 19, 2014, in New Orleans. BOEM said the proposed Lease Sale 225 could result in the production of 71 million bbl of oil and 162 bcf of natural gas. - Lease Sale 225 is comprised of 134 whole or partial unleased blocks over 465,200 acres 125 miles offshore Louisiana in 2,657-10,213 ft of water. The area is south of eastern Alabama and western Florida Fuel Fix Crude oil is backing up along the Gulf Coast - Increased southbound pipeline and rail service has reduced a crude oil backup at the Cushing, Okla. pipeline hub, but has created a glut on the Gulf Coastpossibly presenting opportunities for investment in transportation infrastructure. - We would expect to see the Bakken rail terminals to the east coast filling up again and renewed talk of a Permian-to-west-coast pipeline, which had been shelved due to lackluster shipper interest, Sullivan wrote. SOUTH AMERICA

Vale Cuts Investment to Lowest Since 2010 to Boost Profit - Bloomberg - The Rio de Janeiro-based company will invest $14.8 billion, according to its 2014 business plan released in a statement today. That compares with this years $16.3 billion budget and a $14.5 billion average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg last week. Rio Tinto to Halve Capital Spending by 2015 in Focus on Cash - Bloomberg - The worlds second-biggest mining company, will cut capital spending to about $8 billion in 2015, less than half its outlay last year, as mineral producers conserve cash after prices fell. - Rios cutback underlines efforts by the worlds largest mining companies to rein in spending as a decade-long boom in metal prices wanes.

EUROPE Norway Readies Asset Sales as Statoil Ownership Under Review - Norway is readying a proposal targeting asset sales that the government has signaled will include its biggest energy company, Statoil ASA (STL), as the state loosens its grip on private enterprise. ASIA / PACIFIC Hess to sell Indonesian assets for $1.3 billion - Oil & Gas Journal - Hess Corp. entered into two separate agreements with a joint venture of PT Pertamina and PTT Exploration & Production Co. Ltd. to sell its interests in the Pangkah and Natuna A assets offshore Indonesia for $1.3 billion. The agreements are expected to close before the end of first-quarter 2014. Billionaire Seeks to Double Cairn Oil Output: Corporate India - Bloomberg - Cairn India has a mission to accelerate its target to 400,000 barrels a day from about 200,000 barrels, Chief Executive Officer P. Elango said. The company, which possesses about $3 billion of cash, plans to drill 450 new wells in its fields in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, he said.

AFRICA Ghana Power Utility Postpones $500 Million Bond Offer to 2016 - Bloomberg - Ghanas Volta River Authority, the West African nations largest utility, will look to loans and export-credit agencies to fund thermal-power plants after it delayed a $500 million bond sale to 2016. allAfrica.com: Ghana: $40 Million Steel Plant to Be Constructed in Ghana (Page 1 of 2) - Three African business giants, Jospong Group, Scaw Metals Group and Guma Group, on Wednesday announced investing US$40 million in the Ghanaian economy. - The consortium has been given first preference to supply products and services during and after the facility's construction, and is also expected to bring additional investment to Ghana by increasing the steel products range, through a company which will produce other steel-related products, including rolled products; long steel products, reinforcing bars, low and high-carbon wired rods, reinforcing coils, etc Billionaire Gertlers Congo Gold Deposit May Be World Class - Billionaire Dan Gertlers Moku-Beverendi gold project in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo may contain as much as 5 million ounces of the metal, his Fleurette Group said. - Moku-Beverendi, which borders Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (ANG)s Kibali Gold project, is a joint venture between Fleurettes Basel, Switzerland-based Moku Gold AG and Sokimo, a stateowned gold miner.

MIDDLE EAST Kurdistan Angers Baghdad With Turkey Oil Deal - WSJ.com - The autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan said it agreed to supply Turkey with oil through a pipeline in a landmark deal, raising tensions with Baghdad, which fears the move could encourage other Iraqi provinces to seek de facto independence. Exxon to Sell Stakes in Iraq Field to PetroChina, Pertamina - WSJ.com - Exxon said Thursday that PetroChina would take a 25% stake in the project and Pertamina would take a 10% stake. PetroChina's purchase comes as Beijing has become a significant buyer of Iraqi crude, more than doubling its imports from the country since 2009, according to Chinese customs data.