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Oil Prices Slump 1% as OPEC’s Output Hits Eight-month High

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Oil prices fell about one per cent Wednesday after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reported its September oil output at eight-year highs in its monthly Oil Market Report (OMR), thus eroding optimism over the carte’s pledge to bring a global crude oil glut under control.

This is coming as energy ministers from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Venezuela and Russia yesterday began informal closed-door talks with the Secretary General of OPEC, Mr. Mohammed Barkindo, in Istanbul, Turkey, as part of the coordinated efforts to rebalance the oil market.

Also, concerns that the American Petroleum Institute (API) could report the first built in United States crude oil stocks in six weeks in preliminary inventory numbers have fueled possibility of worsening the glut in the market as Reuters reported that analysts expected the US government to report that crude oil stockpiles rose 300,000 barrels last week.

Global benchmark crude oil Brent crude fell 52 cents, or one per cent, to $51.89 a barrel while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped 68 cents, or 1.3 per cent, to $50.11.

However, despite the drop, Brent is still up nearly 13 per cent since OPEC announced on September 27 that the group and other major crude oil producers would agree on a sizeable output cut or freeze to reduce a global glut by November 30 when OPEC meets in Vienna.

OPEC’s latest monthly report, issued yesterday, showed an increase in its oil production in September to the highest in at least eight years and a rise in the forecast for 2017 non-OPEC supply growth.

In its monthly market report, OPEC said expected total world oil demand for 2016 was revised upward from its previous report by 10,000 bpd to 1.24 million bpd.
Next year, world oil demand is expected to increase by 1.15 million bpd, a level unchanged from OPEC’s previous report.

The group produced 33.39 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up 220,000 bpd from August, and as much as 890,000 bpd above the new supply target.

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DJ Khaled Earns His First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With ‘Major Key’

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DJ Khaled scores his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, as his latest release, Major Key, debuts in the top slot. The set earned 95,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Aug. 4, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 59,000 were in traditional album sales — DJ Khaled’s largest sales week since 2007.

Major Key was released July 29 through We the Best/Epic Records. It is his first effort for Epic

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Aug. 20-dated chart (where Major Key is No. 1) will be posted in full to Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

Major Key’s sales launch is DJ Khaled’s second-biggest week in his career — his only larger frame was logged back in 2007, when We The Best bowed at No. 8 with 79,000 sold.

DJ Khaled made his Billboard 200 chart debut just over 10 years ago, with Listennn: The Album, which bowed on the June 24, 2006-dated list. The set peaked at its debut position, No. 12, and was the first of his nine charting albums to date.

He’s since scored seven top 10 albums, including Major Key. His highest charting album, until this week, was the No. 4 debut and peak of 2012’s Kiss the Ring.

The new album was exclusively available in its first week of release through the Apple Music streaming service and for sale as a download through the iTunes Store. It became widely available through other streamers and digital retailers on Aug. 5. It will be make its CD bow on Aug. 12.

The album features a bevy of A-list collaborators, including Jay Z, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Nas, Future, 2 Chainz and even Meghan Trainor.

Major Key is Epic’s second No. 1 album in 2016, following Future’s EVOL, which opened atop the list dated Feb. 27.

The new album boasts DJ Khaled’s second-highest charting single ever on the Billboard Hot 100: “For Free,” featuring Drake. The tune has so far risen to No. 14 on the list, nearing the No. 10 peak of DJ Khaled’s highest-charting single, “I’m On One,” featuring Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, in 2011.

Drake’s Views dips from No. 1 to No. 2, after 12 nonconsecutive weeks atop the chart (80,000 units; down 5 percent). Might Views return to No. 1 for a 13th frame? If it does, it may not be in the short term, as early indications from industry forecasters suggest the new Suicide Squad soundtrack has a good chance of debuting at No. 1 next week. The multi-artist effort was released on Aug. 5, the same day its parent film was released in theaters.

Back on this week’s chart, Twenty One Pilots’ Blurryface is steady at No. 3 with 39,000 units (up 8 percent).

Jake Owen notches his highest charting album ever, as American Love launches at No. 4 with 35,000 units (29,000 in traditional album sales). His previous high was tallied in 2011 when Barefoot Blue Jean Night debuted and peaked at No. 6 (with 55,000 sold in its first week). Owen recently snagged his eighth top 10 single on the Country Airplay chart with the new album’s “American Country Love Song,” which has so far peaked at No. 8.

Owen’s new album also bows at No. 1 on Top Country Albums — his second leader following Barefoot Blue Jean Night.

Rihanna’s former No. 1, Anti, falls one rung to No. 5 on the new Billboard 200 with 32,000 units (down 2 percent). The album recently surpassed 500,000 in total U.S. sales. Each of the diva’s eight studio albums have now sold more than a half-million copies.

Fantasia achieves her fourth top 10 album with the arrival of The Definition Of… at No. 6 with nearly 32,000 units (29,000 in pure album sales). Her last release came just over three years ago, when Side Effects Of You debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the May 11, 2013-dated list. It was her second No. 2-peaking album, following 2010’s Back To Me. She also visited the top 10 with her debut effort, Free Yourself, which peaked at No. 8 in 2004. (One further album, her 2006 self-titled set, peaked at No. 19.)

The new album has launched two top 20-charting singles on the Adult R&B Songs airplay chart: “No Time For It” (peaking at No. 6) and “Sleeping With the One I Love” (No. 17).

Hillary Scott & The Scott Family’s Love Remains debuts at No. 7 with 31,000 units (28,000 in traditional album sales). Scott — of country trio Lady Antebellum — also arrives at No. 2 on Top Country Albums and No. 1 on Top Christian Albums.

Scott is the second member of Lady Antebellum to chart their own side project away from the group in 2016 on Top Country Albums. She follows Charles Kelley’s The Driver, which peaked at No. 6. (Lady A’s third member, Dave Haywood, produced Post Monroe’s self-titled EP, which hit No. 42 in June.)

Adele’s 25 descends 7-8 on the latest Billboard 200 chart (29,000 units; up 1 percent), while Blake Shelton’s If I’m Honest flies 24-9 with 28,000 units (up 88 percent). The latter is also up 127 percent in sales (to 23,000 sold for the week) thanks largely to a 99-cent sale price tag for the album in the Google Play store. (Shelton himself promoted the sale, via Twitter and Facebook. On the latter, he wrote: “Thanks to Google Play, my album costs less than a gallon of gas right now!”)

If I’m Honest’s download sales are unsurprisingly robust, owed to Google Play. It sold 16,000 digital copies — a gain of 373 percent.

Closing out the Billboard 200’s new top 10 is the original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton, which moves from No. 8 to No. 10 (27,000 units; down less than 1 percent).

Read more : http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7461832/dj-khaled-earns-his-first-no-1-album-on-billboard-200-album-chart-major-key

OMG! See Zimbabwe’s New Exchange Rate, $1 For 35 Quadrillion Old Dollars

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Zimbabweans will start exchanging “quadrillions” of local dollars for a few US dollars next week as President Robert Mugabe’s government discards its virtually worthless national currency.

The southern African country started using foreign currencies including the US dollar and South African rand in 2009 after the Zimbabwean dollar was ruined by hyperinflation, which hit 500 billion per cent in 2008.

At the height of the country’s economic crisis, Zimbabweans had to carry plastic bags bulging with banknotes to buy basic goods. Prices were rising at least twice a day.

From Monday, customers who held Zimbabwean dollar accounts before March 2009 can approach their banks to convert their balance into US dollars, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, John Mangudya, said in a statement.

Zimbabweans have until September to turn in their old banknotes, which some people sell as souvenirs to tourists.

Bank accounts with balances of up to 175 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars will be paid $5. Those with balances above 175 quadrillion dollars will be paid at an exchange rate of $1 for 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars.

The highest – and last – banknote to be printed by the bank in 2008 was 100tn Zimbabwean dollars. It was not enough to ride a public bus to work for a week.

The bank said customers who still had stashes of old Zimbabwean notes could walk into any bank and get $1 for every 250tn they hold. That means a holder of a 100tn banknote will get 40 cents.

The bank has set aside $20m to pay Zimbabwean dollar currency holders.

Credit: Guardian

JTF Seizes Vessel Carrying 1,500 Metric Tons Of Stolen Oil In Bayelsa

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The Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Operation Pulo Shield, on Friday said it has impounded a vessel laden with 1,500 metric tons of illegally refined automotive gas oil.

The spokesperson of the JTF, Ado Isa, a lieutenant colonel, told reporters at the task force’s headquarters in Yenagoa on Friday that the vessel registered as MV Europort was seized at Foropa waterways in Bayelsa.

Mr. Ado said operatives of the JTF on patrol duties at about 2.30 a.m. on June 2 arrested the vessel in Forropa creeks in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area in Bayelsa.

“The 2,000 metric tons capacity vessel was arrested by the JTF operatives patrol team following a tip off at about 02.30 hrs on 2 June, 2015,” Mr. Ado said.

“The vessel was discovered carrying 1,500 metric tons of illegally refined automotive gas oil. The suspects boarded a speed boat and sailed into the high sea on sighting the JTF troops.”

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