Energy Crunch: the global picture
Three things you shouldn’t miss this week The dwindling emissions budget if we are to limit global warming to no more than 2°C. International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook 2013 Continue Reading
Oil rises above $94 as Yellen defends stimulus
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The price of oil rose above $94 a barrel Friday after incoming Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen indicated that economic stimulus will remain in place pending further improvement in the U.S. economy. Benchmark U.S. crude for December delivery was up 35 cents to $94.11 a barrel at midafternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract slipped 12 cents to close at $93.76 on Thursday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 13 cents to $108.41 a barrel on the ICE exchange in London. Yellen, who is slated to replace Ben Bernanke in late January, testified Thursday to the Senate Banking Committee. She said the U.S. economy has gained ground but still needs the Fed’s support because unemployment remains too high at 7.3 percent. The Fed is buying $85 billion of government bonds and mortgage securities a month […]
WTI Trims Sixth Weekly Loss as Investors Weigh Stimulus Outlook
West Texas Intermediate crude rose, trimming a sixth weekly decline, as speculation the U.S. will maintain economic stimulus countered a surge in supplies in the world’s biggest oil consumer. Futures gained as much as 0.6 percent in New York and are poised for the longest weekly losing streak since December 1998. U.S. crude stockpiles climbed to the highest level since June as production expanded last week, according to the Energy Information Administration. Janet Yellen , the nominee for Federal Reserve chairman, said she will ensure the central bank’s asset purchases don’t end too soon. “Dovish comments from Yellen are providing support,” said Michael McCarthy , a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney. “Some of those funds that are being redeployed across asset classes are flowing into oil. The fundamentals, the supply side in particular, are pointing in the other direction and that’s another reason why today looks like […]
WTI Crude Falls on Supply as Brent Spread Widens
West Texas Intermediate crude fell as rising U.S. inventories overcame optimism that Janet Yellen will maintain Federal Reserve stimulus efforts. WTI’s discount to Brent grew to the steepest since March. WTI slid 12 cents after touching a five-month low in intraday trading as the Energy Information Administration reported a 4.6 percent surge in supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the futures’ delivery point. Crude reduced losses as Yellen, the nominee for Fed chairman, said she will ensure the central bank’s asset purchases don’t end too soon. “Rising stockpiles are going to keep the pressure on WTI,” said Chip Hodge , who oversees a $9 billion natural-resource bond portfolio as senior managing director at Manulife Asset Management in Boston. “The discount to Brent keeps widening, as a result, and I don’t see it abating anytime soon.” WTI for December delivery settled at $93.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after […]
IEA sees steady decline in OPEC output
PARIS, Nov. 14 (UPI) — The International Energy Agency said in its monthly market report, released Thursday, oil production from OPEC declined in October for the third straight month. The IEA, which has headquarters in Paris, said cuts from Saudi Arabia helped push oil production down from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for the third month in a row last month. OPEC, in its monthly report, said its members produced, on average, 29.89 million barrels of oil per day in October. The IEA said OPEC ministers are expected to keep their production benchmark of 30 million bpd in place when they meet in Vienna next month. The IEA said oil-producing countries outside the 12-member OPEC cartel recorded a “record-high” output, which lifted global oil supplies by 600,000 bpd in October to 91.8 million bpd. In its World Outlook Report for 2013, published earlier this week, the […]
Hello Warsaw, This Is Haiyan Calling
Via Flickr from hmcotterill This commentary is a joint publication of Foreign Policy In Focus and TheNation.com . It seems these days that whenever Mother Nature wants to send an urgent message to humankind, it sends it via the Philippines. This year the messenger was Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda. For the second year in a row, the world’s strongest typhoon barreled through the Philippines, Yolanda following on the footsteps steps of Pablo, a.k.a Bopha, in 2012. And for the third year in a row, a destructive storm deviated from the usual path taken by typhoons, striking communities that had not learned to live with these fearsome weather events because they were seldom hit by them in the past. Sendong in December 2011 and Bopha last year sliced Mindanao horizontally, while Yolanda drove through the Visayas, also in a horizontal direction. That it was climate change creating […]
IEA Says Mideast Disruptions Pose Risk to Oil Market
Supply losses in the Middle East and North Africa may offset rising shale oil output and push prices higher next year, the International Energy Agency said. Crude prices may “come under renewed upside pressure” as refiners returning from seasonal maintenance eat into supply already curtailed by unrest in Libya and Iraq , the agency said today in its monthly market report. The IEA slightly increased estimates for global oil demand in 2014, and for production from outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, resulting in a “comfortable” balance for early next year. “Production problems in Libya and Iraq, among others, continue to relentlessly fester, and may prove more market-supportive in a context of rising demand than they have been during the recent” refinery overhaul season, the Paris-based adviser to 28 nations said. Brent futures have slipped 3.1 percent this year to trade at about $107.70 a barrel in London […]
Obama Calls for Patience in Iran Talks
WASHINGTON — President Obama made a vigorous appeal to Congress on Thursday to give breathing space to his efforts to forge a nuclear deal with Iran, and the prospects for an interim agreement may have improved with the release of a report by international inspectors who said that for the first time in years, they saw evidence that the Iranians have put the brakes on their nuclear expansion. The inspectors, from the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that very few new advanced centrifuges had been installed since President Hassan Rouhani of Iran took office in June, promising a new start with the West, and that little significant progress has been made on the construction of a new nuclear reactor, which became a point of contention in negotiations in Geneva last week. The slowdown, according to diplomats familiar with the Iranian work, was clearly political, not driven by technical problems. […]
Iran puts brakes on nuclear expansion under Rouhani, IAEA report shows
VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has virtually halted a previously rapid expansion of its uranium-enrichment capacity since Hassan Rouhani became president, a U.N. inspection report showed on Thursday, in a potential boost for diplomacy to end the Iran nuclear dispute. In another finding that may be seen as positive by the West, the quarterly report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said no further major components had been added to a potential plutonium-producing reactor since August. The marked slowdown in the growth of Iranian activity of possible use in developing nuclear bombs may be intended to back up Rouhani’s dramatic shift in tone towards the West after years of worsening confrontation, and strengthen Tehran’s hand in negotiations with world powers due to resume on November 20. The Arak reactor, which Iran previously said it would start up in the first quarter of 2014 but later postponed, is of great […]
Iran FM hopeful on next round of nuclear talks
AP Photo TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister says he is hopeful ahead of next week’s negotiations with world powers and reiterated Tehran’s demand for recognition of what it calls its “nuclear rights.” Talks between world powers and Iran are set to resume on Wednesday in Geneva after failing to strike an accord last weekend. Both Iran and the United States have blamed each other for the failure to reach agreement to limit Tehran’s uranium enrichment in exchange for an easing of Western sanctions. Mohammad Javad Zarif says in comments carried by the semi-official Fars news agency on Friday that there is no chance for the upcoming round of talks to succeed if the West ignores Iran’s demand for formal recognition of its right to enrich uranium. Iran denies it’s pursuing a nuclear weapon. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be […]