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IEA sees non-OPEC oil supply growing

The International Energy Agency said Wednesday from Paris it expected crude oil demand to increase at the same time production from non-OPEC members rises. The IEA published its oil market report for December. It raised its estimate of global crude oil demand for 2013 because economies in the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development performed well during the third quarter of the year. OECD members include the United States and Canada, two countries leading in terms of oil production from states outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC, in its monthly market report for December, said it expected OECD economies to grow 1.9 percent next year, compared to the 1.2 percent growth rate for 2013. World economic growth is expected to increase from 2.9 percent in 2013 to 3.5 percent next year. Economic growth typically translates to a higher demand for petroleum […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC Update, November Production Data

OPEC just published their latest  Monthly Oil Market Report  with crude only production data through November 2013. Their October numbers were revised downward by 67,000 barrels per day to 29,827 kb/d. Their November production was 29,633 /b/d. That was 261 kb/d below their unrevised October production and 194 kb/d below their revised October production numbers. OPEC production at 29,633,000 bp/d is at their lowest point since June 2011. As you can see from the chart OPEC has hat two peaks since 2005. Actually these are the two highest peaks ever for OPEC if the EIA data is correct. I only have MOMR data going back to January 2005. The July 2008 peak was 31,672,000 bp/d and the April 12 peak was 31,619,000 bp/d. I thought it might be interesting to plot who was up and who was down since those two peaks. The […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Basra oil workers renew protests

Hundreds of workers in Basra’s oil sector, including those seconded to fields operated by foreign oil companies, have restarted a campaign to pressure the Iraqi government to accede to demands for increased compensation, better living conditions and an end to punishment of union leaders.A rally held Tuesday outside the state-run South Oil Company (SOC) headquarters included politicians who, though not the most powerful in the country, will give the workers’ plight an added spotlight just fou…

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Sanctions cloud Iran, Pakistan pipeline prospects

The Pakistani government said Wednesday it was ready to move ahead with a gas pipeline from Iran but needed assurances regarding the impact of U.S. sanctions. Pakistani Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi met Monday in Tehran with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh to discuss moving forward on a long-planned natural gas pipeline from Iran. A Pakistani government official told the Express Tribune on condition of anonymity there were concerns in Islamabad about U.S. sanctions on Iran. “We cannot move ahead with the project unless the issue of possible U.S. sanctions is resolved,” the official said. Iran got relief from Western economic sanctions in exchange for nuclear concessions after reaching an interim deal with multilateral negotiators last month. Iran’s trade in the energy sector, however, is still limited by sanctions. The Pakistani government said it needs more sources of natural gas […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Showdown on Iraqi Kurds' oil, gas is looming

The thorny dispute over Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil riches is likely to heat up in the weeks ahead, aggravating tensions in a flashpoint region at a time when al-Qaida bombers are wreaking havoc across the country spurred by the civil war raging in next-door Syria. The semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in the Kurdish enclave that spans three provinces in northern Iraq wants to export its oil and natural gas to neighboring Turkey through pipelines to be built by Ankara. Iraq’s federal government in Baghdad refuses to allow that and insists that the oil in question belongs to the state, and if it’s shipped north to Turkey should flow through state-controlled pipelines running from the Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey’s Mediterranean export terminal at Ceyhan. A few weeks ago, it looked like the KRG, headquartered in the city of Erbil, and Ankara had after months […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Showdown on Iraqi Kurds’ oil, gas is looming

The thorny dispute over Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil riches is likely to heat up in the weeks ahead, aggravating tensions in a flashpoint region at a time when al-Qaida bombers are wreaking havoc across the country spurred by the civil war raging in next-door Syria. The semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in the Kurdish enclave that spans three provinces in northern Iraq wants to export its oil and natural gas to neighboring Turkey through pipelines to be built by Ankara. Iraq’s federal government in Baghdad refuses to allow that and insists that the oil in question belongs to the state, and if it’s shipped north to Turkey should flow through state-controlled pipelines running from the Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey’s Mediterranean export terminal at Ceyhan. A few weeks ago, it looked like the KRG, headquartered in the city of Erbil, and Ankara had after months […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Syrian Industry Shot by Both Sides Suffers $2.4 Billion Hit

Syrian businessman Saeed Nahhas had already fled the country by the time his two workshops were engulfed by the civil war. Government shelling destroyed one that made packaging machines, and four months later rebels looted another that produced plastic bags and zippers. Nahhas was living in the Turkish province of Gaziantep near the Syrian border when he lost the two facilities. He decided to stay there and set up a new workshop while waiting for the conflict to end. “It’s a tragedy,” said Nahhas, 46. “And the longer the conflict drags on, the harder it will be for people to return and set up their businesses again.” As well as leaving more than 125,000 people dead since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began March 2011, the fighting has wiped out more than half of Syria ’s manufacturing output by crippling the network of small […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Top Western-Backed Rebel in Syria Is Forced to Flee

Islamist fighters ran the top Western-backed rebel commander in Syria out of his headquarters, and he fled the country, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The Islamists also took over key warehouses holding U.S. military gear for moderate fighters in northern Syria over the weekend. The takeover and flight of Gen. Salim Idris of the Free Syrian Army shocked the U.S., which along with Britain immediately froze delivery of nonlethal military aid to rebels in northern Syria. The turn of events was the strongest sign yet that the U.S.-allied FSA is collapsing under the pressure of Islamist domination of the rebel side of the war. It also weakened the Obama administration’s hand as it struggles to organize a peace conference next month bringing together rebels and the regime. The Islamic Front is a recently formed alliance of the largest Islamist rebel groups that excludes the two main al Qaeda-linked rebel groups—the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Suspends Nonlethal Aid to Syria Rebels

Just a month before a peace conference that will seek an end to the grinding civil war in Syria, the Obama administration’s decision to suspend the delivery of nonlethal aid to the moderate opposition demonstrated again the frustrations of trying to cultivate a viable alternative to President Bashar al-Assad. The administration acted after warehouses of American-supplied equipment were seized Friday by the Islamic Front, a coalition of Islamist fighters who have broken with the moderate, American-backed opposition, but who also battle Al Qaeda. Administration officials said that the suspension, confirmed on Wednesday, was temporary and that the nonlethal aid, which is supplied by the State Department, could flow again. But with rebels feuding with one another instead of concentrating on fighting Mr. Assad, and with the United States still groping for a reliable partner in Syria, the odds of any peace conference breaking the cycle of bloodshed […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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How Shale Helped Frack Mexico's Energy Impasse

After decades of inertia, the energy-reform proposal given general approval by the Mexican Senate late Tuesday goes even further than many had expected. The country’s rapidly changing energy relationship with its northern neighbor helps explain why. Mexico’s dismal decline in oil production, to 2.94 million barrels per day last year from 3.85 million in 2004, is the obvious impetus for trying to coax in more foreign money and expertise. But an even starker picture emerges when you look at Mexico’s overall energy trade in oil and gas with the U.S. Using trailing 12-month averages, Mexico’s exports of crude oil to the U.S. peaked at 1.63 million barrels per day in fall 2006. By August this year, that was down to less than 0.9 million barrels—a level last seen in the early 1990s. U.S. exports of crude oil are effectively prohibited, but that isn’t true for refined products such as […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple