No sands were encountered at the shallower of two primary targets although drillers observed gases and an oil sheen in the drilling mud across the interval.

The gases are believed to indicate an active petroleum system in the basin. The oil is suspected to have entered the well from a prospect bounding fault that might be acting as a conduit for migrating oil.

No oil or gas shows were observed in the well’s deeper objective.

Petro Matad focuses on oil exploration in Mongolia. Its assets involve production-sharing contracts over the following exploration blocks:

• Matad Block XX with an area of 10,340 sq km in the far-eastern part of Mongolia near the Chinese border.

• Bogd Block IV and Ongi Block V, adjacent to each other in west central Mongolia, covering about 50,000 sq km.

The fresh round of returns, which will be funded with the proceeds from the company’s sale of its last remaining Australian coal assets, follows Rio’s previous promise to return up to $7 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

Rio said it would conduct an off-market share buyback for up to 41.2 million of its Australian-listed shares, worth about $1.9 billion.
Not surprisingly, investors welcomed the news, with shares closing Thursday 3.58% higher in Sydney to A$78.10, while they were up 2.81% in London to 3,827p by 1:38 p.m. local time.

Rio said it would conduct an off-market share buyback for up to 41.2 million of its Australian-listed shares, worth about A$2.7 billion ($1.9B), as well as on-market purchases of its London-listed stock.

Previous buybacks have favoured the London arm of the Anglo-Australian miner and further returns to shareholders may be just around the corner as Rio has yet to complete its $500 million sale of the Aluminum Dunkerque smelter in France.

“Returning $3.2 billion of coal disposal proceeds demonstrates our commitment to capital discipline and providing sector-leading shareholder returns,” Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques said in the statement.

Top Pick
Since Jacques took the helm in July 2016, Rio has focused on cutting costs, generating cash and returning as much of it as possible to investors through dividends and share buybacks.

BMO Capital Markets praised Rio’s move in a note Thursday calling the company its “top pick” among the diversified majors .

It also note that while Rio’s buybacks amounted to a shareholder return well ahead of its peers, the miner would eventually have to find other options to drive value, including possible acquisitions.

The construction project has registered 700,000 man hours without lost time incident since financial closing in August, 2017 and has been finalized 2 months ahead of schedule. The height of the construction mobilized around 400 workers, of which more than 95 percent Mongolians.

The celebration of the 55 MW Sainshand wind farm was attended by representatives of the Mongolian government, parliament members, organizations of energy sector, local government representatives, German Ambassador, representatives of the French Embassy, lenders, investors and other major stakeholders of the project.

The wind park and other ongoing energy developments will enable the Dornogobi aimag (province) to supply cities like Sainshand and Zamiin–Uud with renewable energy. Furthermore, the installed energy generation capacity also enables to export the sustainable energy to the South–Gobi grid.

Sainshand Salkhin Park will supply more than 100,000 households with energy and contribute to a greener economy with a potential reduction of more than 200 thousand tons of CO2 emissions per year.

The wind park project was initiated by Mr. Davaanyam and developed by the German Ferrostaal GmbH with world leading french energy company Engie. The total investment of 120 million USD is financed by lenders European Investment Bank, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development & EKF from Denmark together with the equity investors and developers including the Danish Climat Investment Fund.
source: Sainshand Salkhin Park LLC

“This commitment is based on friendly China-US cooperation and the rational and objective premise of bilateral trade,” Ma said Wednesday. “The current situation has already destroyed the original premise. There is no way to deliver the promise.”

While promising to “promote the healthy development” of Sino-US trade, the 54-year-old entrepreneur noted that the “previous basis for trade has been undermined,” amid ongoing trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies.

“Trade is not a weapon and cannot be used for wars,” he added, in an exclusive interview with Xinhua news agency. “Trade should be the propeller of peace.”

Instead of helping American small businesses reach Chinese consumers, one of the richest men in China said Alibaba will seek business opportunities elsewhere, mainly in Russia, Europe, South America, and Africa.

Ma, who recently announced his departure as the chairman of the Chinese retail giant next year, slammed Trump’s policies just two days after Washington announced a 10 percent tariff on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Beijing hit back on Tuesday with levies on $60 billion of US products.

Along with the overseas IPO of ETT, the government is also aiming to attract more foreign investment into the coal sector, according to the Mongolian Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry, Dolgorsuren Sumiyabaza, during the 8th Coal Mongolia International Conference. To this effect the government is looking to introduce more advanced technology to coal mining operations in order to improve the competitiveness of Mongolian coal exports. (Fitch Solution)

The current Northern Mongolian border was established in 1911, but at that time, Mongolia shared it with two countries, the Tuvan Republic and the Soviet Union. Now, it is shared only with Russia, after the Soviet Union annexed the Tuvan Republic in 1944. The Tuvan section of the Mongolia/Russia border has always been problematic due to cattle thefts across the border and a thriving smuggling trade, subsequently Border Crossing No. 487 was considered particularly challenging.

Border Crossing No. 487 is set deep inside thousands of hectares of Siberian forest, both on the Mongolian and Russian side. On the Mongolian side, very few hamlets can be found across this desolate landscape, and the infrastructure is extremely poor. What is more, winter brings abundant snowfall and subarctic temperatures (reaching -55 degrees F), making these places reachable only by horses and the sturdiest 4×4 vehicles.

Since its closure, Border Crossing No. 487 has become a destination for a trickle of local tourists. The two posts delimitating the Mongol and Russian territories are set about 10 feet apart, and a white stump of a post was placed in the middle to demarcate the exact border point. It is a simple sight, but in historical and geographical terms, it is a truly remarkable place. (atlasobscura)

To determine the sales managers’ index, World Economics takes into account five main factors: the employment rate, business confidence index, market growth, sales, and price changes.

According to World Economics analysts, Mongolia's employment rate was at 61.7 percent in September – its highest rate over the last five years. Price changes have consistently scored more than 50 points since April, indicating that inflation has been rising.

The USD/MNT pair rose sharply to 2,510 in the country's domestic market, exceeding the level of 2,500 for the first time. The exchange rate stood at 2,490 on Monday.

The rise was mainly attributed to increasing imports and seasonal business activities that lead to the outflow of dollars, experts from the central bank said, adding that the Tugrik's depreciation was a temporary phenomenon. Enditem