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Traders have rebranded more than $1 billion of Venezuelan oil shipments to China as Brazilian crude over the past year, according to two tanker tracking firms, company documents and four traders, helping buyers to cut logistics costs and circumvent U.S. sanctions. Independent refiners in China are the main buyers of seaborne oil shipments from countries sanctioned by the United States, with offshore Malaysia serving as a key trans-shipment hub for Venezuelan and Iranian crude. Since July [Read more]

Oil prices rose on Monday after both sides in U.S.-China trade talks over the weekend touted their progress, which lifted market sentiment that the world's two largest crude users may be moving toward a resolution of their trade dispute. Brent crude futures climbed 27 cents, or 0.4%, to $64.18 a barrel at 0001 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $61.30 a barrel, up 28 cents, or 0.5%, from Friday's close. Both benchmarks increased more than $1 on Friday and [Read more]

MONTREAL - As Alberta flirts with the possibility of a referendum on separation, Quebec sovereigntists are watching with interest — and a healthy dose of skepticism. Some are hoping a wave of separatist sentiment in Alberta will put wind in the sails of Quebec’s own independence movement, which took a blow in the recent federal election when the Liberals made big gains in the province at the expense of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois. But others see Alberta’s brand of separatism, grown [Read more]

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday an 80% tariff on Chinese goods "seems right," suggesting for the first time a specific alternative to the 145% levies he has imposed on Chinese imports ahead of closely watched weekend talks between the two countries. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer will meet Chinese economic tsar He Lifeng in Switzerland to discuss containing the damaging trade war between the world's two biggest economies, which has [Read more]

CALGARY - An Alberta court has denied the appeal of a Calgary man convicted three years ago of a Ponzi scheme that saw his clients bilked out of millions of dollars. Arnold Breitkreutz was sentenced to 10 years in 2022 in what the Crown called a multimillion-dollar scheme where more than 100 investors believed they were putting money into safe first mortgages. Breitkreutz's appeal argued the judge made legal errors and that his trial counsel was not experienced enough to handle such a [Read more]

Fifteen state attorneys general sued U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday to try to block his national energy emergency, which the states said is an unlawful effort to disregard regulations and fast-track permitting for oil and gas development. The Democratic state attorneys general, including those from California, Washington and New York, said using emergency powers to bypass normal permitting processes for hundreds of proposed projects will cause irreparable harm to natural and historic [Read more]