DBS Group Holdings reported a surprise drop in third-quarter profit as Southeast Asia’s largest bank boosted bad-loan allowances more than sixfold in an effort to deal with its problem lending to the regional oil and gas services sector.The bank reported a 23 percent drop in net income to S$822 million (602 million dollars), worse than even the most pessimistic of analyst forecasts, but indicated it now hopes to draw a line under the bad-debt issues by recognising more of its energy services

Troubles in the oil and gas services industry took the gloss off United Overseas Bank’s results, with bad loans increasing the most in more than a year.The Singaporean lender declared S$799 million (588 million dollars) of new nonperforming assets in the three months to September, overshadowing a better-than-expected profit figure that was driven by higher interest income and wealth-management fees.

Singapore Exchange’s chief executive officer said his company is still in the running to win a listing of the shares of oil giant Aramco, in what could be the world’s biggest initial public offering.“We’re as good as any other exchange,” Loh Boon Chye said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Sidoarjo regency in East Java, Indonesia is known for its cottage industries which produce traditional prawn and fish flavoured crackers. However, tourists who flock there aren’t just lured by the promise of crunchy titbits, but come to see the largest mud volcano in the world.The Sidoarjo mud flow, commonly called Lusi – an abbreviation of Lumpur Sidoarjo, “lumpur” means “mud” in Indonesian – has been spewing mud since it erupted in May 2006.

Brent crude surged to its highest in more than two years as Turkey threatened to shut down Kurdish oil shipments through its territory.Futures climbed 3.8 percent in London, and the US benchmark rose to the highest since April. Turkey can choose to “close the valves” on oil exports from Kurdistan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said as the Iraqi region holds an independence referendum.

Oil had its biggest weekly gain since late July as Texas refineries recovering from Hurricane Harvey processed more crude and global demand forecasts brightened.Futures rose 5.1 percent this week in New York, settling just below the 50-dollar-a-barrel threshold that’s kept the industry in thrall.

Vietnam has delivered a sharp rebuke to China over military drills in the South China Sea, the second such warning in a week as tensions rise between the countries over the disputed waterway.China and Vietnam have long traded barbs over the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea, which Beijing claims most of.Tensions have flared in recent months, with Vietnam suspending an oil exploration project operated by Spain's Repsol in an area off its coast claimed by Beijing.In June, a meeti

Saudi Arabia raised oil pricing for October sales to Asia, increasing its lighter grades for a second consecutive month, in an indication the world’s largest crude exporter sees strengthening demand in its biggest market.State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil, known as Saudi Aramco, increased its official pricing for Arab Light crude to Asia by 55 cents to 30 cents a barrel more than the regional benchmark, it said Monday in an emailed statement.