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WTI Rises Before Fed Decision as U.S. Crude Supplies Drop

West Texas Intermediate rose after industry data showed U.S. crude inventories shrank for a third week and before the Federal Reserve decides whether to pare stimulus in the world’s biggest oil consumer. Futures climbed as much as 0.4 percent in New York. Crude stockpiles fell by 2.5 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said yesterday. An Energy Information Administration report today is forecast to show supplies dropped by 3 million, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The Fed will disclose its plans today for its $85 billion monthly bond buying program after a two-day meeting in Washington. “Everybody is watching the Fed and that’s the main driver at the moment,” Hans van Cleef, an energy economist at ABN Amro Bank NV in Amsterdam, said by telephone. “The market is well-balanced at the moment and I don’t see that changing at all in 2014. Demand will pick up […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Perks Up as Cold Weather Looks Set to Continue

Natural gas futures strengthened Tuesday as updated weather forecasts raised expectations that demand for gas-powered heating could remain strong through the end of the month. Prices slumped earlier Tuesday as forecasts shifted to project mild temperatures in the next six to 10 days, which could reduce demand for the heating fuel. About half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating source, according to the Energy Information Administration. But a midday forecast update from the National Weather Service showed colder projections for the Midwest next week. More than one-fourth of total winter heating demand for natural gas comes from the Midwest, said Teri Viswanath, senior natural gas strategist for BNP Paribas. "The Midwest is very, very important," […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran Nuclear Deal Talks Expected to Resume This Week

Talks on implementing last month’s interim nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers are set to resume this week, two European diplomats said Tuesday. On Thursday, implementation talks in Vienna were put on hold after four days of negotiations when Iran reacted angrily to a U.S. decision to expand its list of Iranian sanctions targets. Over the last 48 hours, Western officials have worked to kick-start the talks. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to work out a way forward in the talks. On Tuesday morning, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Brussels to discuss the state of play. Mr. Zarif said Monday that Iran would return to the negotiations even as he hit out at what he called the U.S.’s "improper" actions. The European diplomats said there was no final […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Bombings kill 10 Shiite pilgrims in Iraq

Bombings in and near Baghdad killed 10 Shiite pilgrims on Tuesday as they were making their way on foot to a holy city in southern Iraq, officials said. In the deadlier of the two attacks, a suicide bomber set off his explosive belt among a group of pilgrims south of Baghdad, near the town of Mahmoudiya. That attack killed six people and wounded 16, police officials said. The pilgrims were headed to the city of Karbala, 90 kilometers (55 miles) to the south, to commemorate Arbaeen, the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, a revered Shiite figure. About two hours earlier, a bomb blast struck another group of Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, also on their way to Karbala. That bombing, in the southeastern neighborhood of New Baghdad, killed four people and wounded 11, the police […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.N. told up to 500 killed in South Sudan clashes: diplomats

The United Nations received reports from local sources in South Sudan on Tuesday that between 400 and 500 people had been killed and up to 800 wounded in the latest violence, and the government said it had arrested 10 politicians in connection with a "foiled coup". "Two hospitals have recorded between 400 and 500 dead and (up to) 800 wounded," a diplomat in New York said on condition of anonymity, citing an estimate United Nations peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous gave during a closed-door briefing for the 15-member body. Another diplomat confirmed Ladsous’ remarks, adding that the United Nations was not in a position to verify the figures. Earlier on Tuesday, a South Sudanese health ministry official told Reuters that at least 26 people were dead after fighting in Juba between rival groups of soldiers from Sunday night into Monday morning. Sporadic gunfire and blasts continued […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi expulsions leave broken dreams in Africa and Asia

More than a million people from across the world – managers, maids, accountants and laborers – have left Saudi Arabia since March, after years or even decades working in the Gulf Arab state, which sustains its own citizens with oil revenues. Around 120,000 Ethiopians have been deported in the past month alone as part of a visa crackdown aimed at pushing more Saudis into employment to ensure future political and economic stability. "We were kicked out of our homes and our jobs," said Mohamed Ahmed, 27, waiting with thousands of other Ethiopians at a transit centre behind Addis Ababa’s Bole Airport after disembarking with a few bags from Saudi Arabian Airlines jets. Like many others, Ahmed, who spent five years in Saudi Arabia after crossing the Red Sea in a fishing boat and trekking through turbulent Yemen, had to leave at short notice. "We left […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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In Lebanon, minority Alawites wounded in attacks in latest spillover from Syria’s civil war

One man was dragged from his taxi. Eight others were ordered off a bus on their way home from work. The victims were shot in the legs by masked gunmen, a brutal tactic that officials say has been used on dozens of members of Tripoli’s minority Alawite community in recent months. The intimidation campaign is the latest spillover from neighboring Syria’s long-running civil war, which has been re-created in microcosm in this impoverished port city, Lebanon’s ­second-largest. Alawite residents of the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood who back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , a fellow Alawite, have frequently clashed with Sunni residents of nearby Bab al-Tabbaneh, who support the Syrian rebels. The Alawites are a minority Shiite sect. In August, two Sunni mosques were bombed , killing more than 40 people; Alawite leader Ali Eid was charged with aiding one of the suspects. A few days after the […]

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Rapid Population Growth Imperils Egypt

The world’s population broke the 7 billion person barrier in 2011 and is projected to increase by 40 percent in the coming forty years. Population growth averages vary among the world’s nations, with the populations of developed nations expected to increase by just 10 percent, and the greater part of population growth expected to come from developing nations, especially the least developed, where population is expected to double in the coming four decades. So what about Egypt’s population outlook? Egyptian census data shows that in 1948, Egypt’s population reached nearly twenty million, added another twenty million by 1975, twenty million more by 1994, with the populace reaching sixty million. Another twenty million over the next seventeen years means eighty million Egyptians by 2011. Egyptians needed thousands of years to reach the first twenty million, before managing to double several times in a few years, without creating a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigeria’s Jonathan Weakened by Oil Dispute, Obasanjo Attack

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is facing the biggest test of his three years in office after reports the central bank questioned the lack of accounting for $50 billion in oil revenue and a former leader criticized him for failing to tackle corruption. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a stalwart of the ruling People’s Democratic Party , said in a letter to Jonathan this month that he has failed to tackle graft and security threats in Africa ’s biggest oil producer. He also accused him of widening a split between the mainly Muslim north and largely Christian south in a bid to retain power. Obasanjo’s criticism came after newspapers including Lagos-based ThisDay said Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Lamido Sanusi wrote Jonathan a letter alleging that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. is withholding more than three-quarters of oil revenue earned from January 2012 to July this year. The […]

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BP to Write Off $1 Billion on Failed Well

BP PLC said Wednesday it would write off more than $1 billion in costs related to an unsuccessful Brazilian well, but also said it made a large oil discovery in the deep water Gulf of Mexico. BP said the Pitanga exploration well on Block BM-CAOL-13 in the Camamu-Almada basin, offshore Brazil, found no commercial quantities of oil or gas. The company said it would therefore write off $1.08 billion in costs, of which $850 million relates to the value of the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple