20121123 1138 Global Markets & Energy Related News.

GLOBAL MARKETS-Shares set for weekly gain as outlook improves
SINGAPORE, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Asian shares marked time but were on course for a weekly gain of nearly 2 percent, after manufacturing surveys from China and the United States raised hopes that the global growth outlook is improving at last.
The euro was also enjoying a positive week, despite data on Thursday pointing to the euro zone sliding into its deepest recession since 2009, with the currency standing up around 1 percent on last Friday's close on optimism that a funding deal for debt-choked Greece will ultimately be agreed.

FOREX-Euro boosted by Greece aid deal hopes, yen wobbly
LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The euro hit its highest point against the yen since late April on Thursday on expectations that international lenders will soon agree an aid deal for Greece and that Japan will ease monetary policy again.
"The lack of any really bad news today has helped euro higher after the failure of lenders to agree on a Greece deal earlier in the week," said Saeed Amen, quantitative FX Strategist at Nomura.

OIL - Oil dips in holiday-thinned trade on Gaza, EU data
NEW YORK, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Oil dipped in moribund trade on Thursday, as a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip eased supply concerns and gloomy manufacturing data for Europe tempered upbeat figures from China.
"I think it will last...but it seems as if the market is pretty sceptical," said Thorbjørn Bak Jensen, an analyst at A/S Global Risk Management.

Brazil's HRT ups estimated Namibia offshore oil, gas
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's HRT Participações em Petróleo SA  said on Thursday that it had raised its estimated oil and equivalent natural gas in four offshore exploration blocks in Namibia by 457 million barrels of oil and natural gas equivalent (boe).
The Rio de Janeiro-based company said in a statement that it has 7.391 billion boe of "mean potential prospective resources" in the blocks, according to an assessment made by U.S. oil consulting group DeGolyer & MacNaughton (D&M) based on three-dimensional seismic data.

Pemex to announce Chicontepec oil auction in 3 weeks
MEXICO CITY, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex will announce in three weeks the auction of six blocks in its massive Chicontepec basin which contain roughly 400 million barrels of crude reserves each, the company said on Thursday.
The blocks make up 15 percent of the basin's total reserves, and Pemex says it expects to award the contracts in July 2013.

BP, Rosneft formalise terms for tie-up
LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Oil companies BP  and Rosneft  came closer to sealing their tie-up deal on Thursday, winning Russian government approval for a key part of it and signing a sale and purchase agreement for scrutiny by regulators around the world.
The deal, announced in October, involves BP selling its 50 percent interest in Russia's third largest oil firm TNK-BP  to Rosneft. In exchange, BP gets $12.3 billion of cash and an 18.5 percent stake in an enlarged state-backed Rosneft which exerts increasing control over production in the world's biggest producing country.

OPEC seaborne exports to rise in 4 weeks to Dec 8-analyst
LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Seaborne oil exports from OPEC, excluding Angola and Ecuador, will rise by 640,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the four weeks to Dec. 8, an analyst who estimates future shipments said on Thursday.          
Exports will reach 24.72 million bpd on average, compared with 24.08 million bpd in the four weeks to Nov. 10, UK consultancy Oil Movements said in its weekly estimate.  

UAE's ADNOC to store crude in S.Korean facility for 3 yrs -KNOC
SEOUL, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The UAE's state-run energy giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) will lease oil storage facilities in South Korea capable of storing six million barrels of crude for three years, state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) said on Thursday.
This is the first time the United Arab Emirates' ADNOC has leased storage in South Korea, a KNOC spokesman said. It becomes the twelfth international company to hold storage facilities located in the world's fifth-largest crude importer, joining other producers, oil majors and investment banks.

IEA sees Asia paying less for LNG as prices converge
TOKYO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Asia should benefit from the convergence of global liquefied natural gas markets amid signs of change for its pricing structure linked to oil, the head of the West's energy watchdog told Reuters on Thursday.
Gas has historically been pegged to the oil market through long-term contracts, because both fuels used to be produced by the same exporters and were often used in the same industries.

Small fire hits Venezuela's Cardon refinery naphtha unit
PARAGUANA, Venezuela, Nov 22 (Reuters) - A small fire hit the naphtha unit of Venezuela's 310,000 barrel per day Cardon refinery, workers said on Thursday, though the unit was already halted for maintenance.
"The fire was extinguished within 10 minutes," a worker told Reuters. State oil company PDVSA was not immediately available to comment.

Russia's Sberbank in talks over TNK-BP takeover finance
FRANKFURT, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Sberbank , Russia's biggest bank, is in discussions over financing a takeover of oil company TNK-BP  by state-controlled Rosneft , the lender's Chief Executive German Gref said.
Banking sources last week said that Rosneft was receiving banks' initial commitments to a $32.5 billion loan to back its $55 billion acquisition of TNK-BP.