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Oil Falls as China Reform Talks Weigh

Crude-oil futures edged lower in Asian trade Tuesday as the U.S. dollar strengthened, while sentiment was cautious ahead of the outcome of a key meeting of top Chinese leaders on the country’s economic reform. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $94.83 a barrel at 0550 GMT, down $0.31 in the Globex electronic session. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.23 to $106.17 a barrel. Oil had settled higher in overnight floor trade on signs of strength in the U.S. economy and after weekend talks between Iran and Western leaders failed to produce a formal agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program. However, Iran Monday agreed to allow the United Nations to conduct additional inspections of its nuclear sites. The secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Abdalla El-Badri, was also hopeful that sanctions against Iran […]

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Natural-Gas Futures Gain for Fifth-Straight Sessions on Cold Weather

–Price up 1.5 cents to settle at $3.574/mmBtu, most since Oct. 31 –Gas up 3.5% over five sessions; longest streak since March –Near-term cold across eastern half of U.S., before warming trend (Adds price chart.) By David Bird NEW YORK–Natural-gas futures rose for a fifth day Monday as the eastern U.S. felt its strongest chill of the season, raising expectations of higher demand for gas-fired home heating. Natural gas for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled 1.5 cents higher, at $3.574 million British thermal units, the highest price since Oct. 31. Prices gained 12.9 cents, or 3.7%, over the past five sessions as the colder outlook formed. That is the longest string of gains since mid-March when a lingering stretch of late-winter cold temperatures fueled a rally. Analysts said the potential for the current rally to continue looks limited, as forecasts call for a broad return […]

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WTI Oil Drops From November High as Crude Stockpiles Seen Rising

West Texas Intermediate fell from the highest closing price this month amid speculation crude stockpiles rose to the most since June in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Futures slid as much as 0.4 percent in New York after two days of gains. U.S. crude supplies climbed for an eighth week, adding 500,000 barrels in the period ended Nov. 8, according to a Bloomberg News survey before a report from the Energy Information Administration this week. Iran and United Nations atomic inspectors signed their first accord in six years yesterday, giving monitors broader access to nuclear facilities in the Persian Gulf country. “The continued surplus in U.S. domestic production will put pressure on the downside” for crude prices, said David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “Inventory levels are heading in the wrong direction.” WTI for December delivery dropped as much as 34 cents to […]

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Crude Climbs as Meeting Ends Without Iran Nuclear Accord

Crude advanced after Iran and six world powers concluded a meeting in Geneva without coming to an agreement on the nation’s nuclear program, tempering projections of a resolution to the dispute that has cut Iranian oil exports. Brent futures rose 1.2 percent in London while West Texas Intermediate oil in New York gained 0.6 percent. Iran’s talks with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany will resume Nov. 20 in Geneva. The International Atomic Energy Agency signed the first accord in six years with Iran today, giving the monitors broader access to nuclear facilities in the Persian Gulf country. “Crude is up because we’ve gotten over the fear of an Iranian nuclear deal,” said Tim Evans , an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. “Prices came off over the last few weeks on the prospect of an agreement and the lifting […]

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Petronas Stands by Brent Even After Manipulation Claim

Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Malaysia ’s state energy company, remains committed to using Brent as a benchmark for buying and selling oil even amid accusations of price fixing, its chief executive said. “I don’t see any manipulation,” Chief Executive Officer Shamsul Azhar Abbas told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today. “Brent is still the most acceptable benchmark.” Four energy traders claimed in a lawsuit last month that some of the world’s biggest oil companies including BP Plc, Statoil ASA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc conspired with Morgan Stanley and energy traders such as Vitol Group to fix spot prices for Brent for more than a decade. The North Sea oil price as assessed by Platts, a unit of New York-based McGraw Hill Financial Inc., is used to price more than half the world’s crude including Australia ’s Cossack, Malaysia’s Tapis and Castilla in Colombia . The case is one of at […]

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Tony Hayward, After Deepwater Horizon Debacle, Seeks Oil in Somalia

When London’s Genel Energy GENL.LN -0.92% Genel Energy PLC U.K.: London GBp 960.05 -8.95 -0.92% Nov. 12, 2013 9:16 am Volume : 22,722 P/E Ratio 0.26 Market Cap GBp2.23 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee GBp2,292,700 09/09/13 Genel Pulls Out Somaliland Sta… More quote details and news » GENL.LN in Your Value Your Change Short position PLC decided last year to search for oil in Somalia, it didn’t negotiate with the country’s internationally recognized government in Mogadishu. Instead, Genel Chief Executive Tony Hayward flew to a city about 500 miles north: Hargeisa, the dusty capital of breakaway Somaliland. He visited the separatist president at home and told the resources minister that Genel could spend about $100 million prospecting there. “We will find oil,” said Mr. Hayward at the July 2012 meeting, according to him and the resources minister, Hussein Abdi Dualeh. Somaliland gave Genel permission to prospect. Mr. […]

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Defying predictions after BP's huge spill in 2010, offshore drilling has taken off

After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the largest in U.S. history, there was a lot of talk about the possibility of offshore drilling being scaled back. Instead, the opposite has happened. Since the moratorium imposed on deep-water drilling in the U.S. in May 2010 was lifted in October of that year, offshore exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has continued uninterrupted and taken on new momentum, as it has around the world. Today, deep-water drilling—500 feet or more below the surface of the sea—remains the next big frontier for oil and natural-gas production. Some environmentalists have expressed concerns that expanded offshore drilling poses new risks of spills and other damage to the environment. “We still don’t know all the impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill on the ecosystem,” says Sean Dixon, a water-policy attorney at environmental-protection group Clean Ocean Action […]

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Defying predictions after BP’s huge spill in 2010, offshore drilling has taken off

After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the largest in U.S. history, there was a lot of talk about the possibility of offshore drilling being scaled back. Instead, the opposite has happened. Since the moratorium imposed on deep-water drilling in the U.S. in May 2010 was lifted in October of that year, offshore exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has continued uninterrupted and taken on new momentum, as it has around the world. Today, deep-water drilling—500 feet or more below the surface of the sea—remains the next big frontier for oil and natural-gas production. Some environmentalists have expressed concerns that expanded offshore drilling poses new risks of spills and other damage to the environment. “We still don’t know all the impact of the Deepwater Horizon spill on the ecosystem,” says Sean Dixon, a water-policy attorney at environmental-protection group Clean Ocean Action […]

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Typhoon in Philippines Casts Long Shadow Over U.N. Talks on Climate Treaty

Olai Ngedikes, the lead negotiator for an alliance of small island nations, said in a statement that the typhoon, named Haiyan, which by some estimates killed 10,000 people in one city alone, “serves as a stark reminder of the cost of inaction on climate change and should serve to motivate our work in Warsaw.” Naderev Saño, the chief representative of the Philippines at the conference, said he would stop eating in solidarity with the storm victims until “a meaningful outcome is in sight.” “What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness; the climate crisis is madness,” Mr. Saño said. “We can stop this madness right here in Warsaw.” His declaration, coupled with the scope of the disaster, moved many of the delegates to tears. Yet scientists remain cautious about drawing links between extreme storms like this typhoon and climate change. There […]

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Iran Says It Has Agreed to ‘Road Map’ With U.N. Agency on Nuclear Inspections

PARIS — The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday that Iran had agreed to resolve all outstanding issues with the agency and would allow international inspectors “managed access” to two important nuclear facilities that have not been regularly viewed. But the promise of wider scrutiny did not extend to one of the most contentious locations: the Parchin military site southwest of Tehran. Inspectors from the agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, have been trying for months to see selected areas of that site, where they suspect that Iran at one time tested triggering devices for nuclear weapons. “This is an important step forward to start with, but much more needs to be done,” Yukiya Amano, the director general of the agency, told reporters in Tehran. The agreement came on the heels of talks between Iran and six world powers over Iran’s nuclear program. Those talks ended without an […]

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