Saudi Aramco to invest more in Indonesia

CILACAP: Saudi Aramco is looking for further investment opportunities in Indonesia’s downstream refining and petrochemicals industry, the company’s CEO said on Thursday, after initiating a $5.5 billion project to upgrade the country’s largest refinery.

The Saudi Aramco CEO’s comments are positive for Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s efforts to attract investment after a clean-up of the country’s oil and gas sector that followed a series of scandals.—Reuters

Lloyds to cut 945 jobs

LONDON: Taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group said on Thursday it was cutting around 945 jobs in a restructuring plan first outlined a year ago with the aim of reducing the bank’s workforce by 9,000.

The staff affected are currently employed within the bank’s retail, commercial banking and consumer finance teams, and in several back office divisions, the bank said.—Reuters

PetroChina sells pipeline stake

SHANGHAI: State-owned Chinese oil giant PetroChina will sell half of a subsidiary that operates pipelines across central Asia for $2.4 billion, it said, raising hopes of possible reforms among nationalised firms. PetroChina’s Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline has pipelines connecting China with countries including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.—AFP

AirAsia swings to Q3 loss

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia-based AirAsia, the region’s biggest budget carrier by fleet size, said Thursday it suffered a loss in the third quarter, bogged down by foreign exchange losses and its Indonesian operations.

AirAsia registered a net loss of 405.72 million ringgit ($95.9m) in the quarter ending September 30.

The company earned 5.4m ringgit in the same period of 2014. Revenue increased by 15 per cent to 1.52 billion ringgit due to an increase in passenger numbers, fuelled in particular by increased demand from Chinese travellers, AirAsia said.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2015