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Oil Futures Ease Ahead of Inventory Data

Crude-oil futures cooled off in Asian trading hours Thursday after a sharp overnight surge and on disappointing manufacturing data from China. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $96.65 a barrel at 0609 GMT, down $0.08 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.24 to $108.03 a barrel. The preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for January was at 49.6, compared with a final reading of 50.5 in December, the first contraction in six months. A score above 50 indicates an increase in manufacturing, while a score below points toward contraction. China is the world’s second-largest oil consumer after the U.S. and slowing economic activity is likely to weigh on crude prices, analyst Tan Chee Tat at Phillip Futures Pte. Ltd. said. U.S. crude inventories for the week ended Jan. 17 rose […]

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WTI Halts Advance on Speculation China Fuel Demand

West Texas Intermediate halted an advance near a three-week high amid speculation China ’s fuel demand will slow after a manufacturing index unexpectedly contracted. Futures were little changed in New York after rising for a third day to close at the highest level since Dec. 31. A preliminary Purchasing Managers ’ Index in China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, declined more than estimated in January to the lowest level in six months, according to a private gauge. Crude stockpiles in the U.S. probably increased last week as refiners reduced processing, a Bloomberg News survey shows before data from the Energy Information Administration today. “A weaker PMI will translate to slowing China oil demand,” said Gordon Kwan , the regional head of oil and gas research at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong . “Expect oil prices to drift much lower after the ‘U.S. Arctic Express’ cold weather departure.” WTI […]

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Natural Gas Futures Post Highest Settlement In Over Two and a Half Years

-Natural gas futures soared to a more than 2 1/2 year high on Wednesday as a deep freeze stretching across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. boosted demand for the heating fuel. Natural gas for February delivery rose 25.8 cents, or 5.8%, to $4.689 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange and reached its highest settlement since June 10, 2011. Nymex natural gas posted its largest one-day dollar gain in about 19 months and has added 36.3 cents, or 8.4% over the past two sessions. The gains came as weather forecasters, including MDA Weather Services, a Gaithersburg, Md., company, projected "a prolonged period of intense cold […]

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Megaprojects A Megaheadache For Oil Bosses

Giant oil and gas extraction projects will be giving oil industry executives headaches to match for the years ahead as delays, cost overruns and increasing risks call for new strategies to manage them. The sheer scale and complexity of such projects is threatening to outgrow the ability of even the largest oil companies to manage them. They have emerged as the central topic for debate as oil executives gather on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum this week in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos. Almost all the top companies have seen huge delays and broken budgets at projects ranging from record-breaking Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) schemes to the enormous and a technically challenging Kazakhstan oilfield in the freezing Caspian Sea. The subject has elbowed out last year’s hot topic, security, which was forced […]

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Iran delays London oil conference

The Iranian government said Wednesday a conference planned for the introduction of a new framework governing oil contracts has been delayed to July. The Oil Ministry had planned an April conference in London to introduce the new framework, though the ministry’s official news website, Shana, reports the conference is rescheduled for July. Mehdi Hosseini, the head of a committee tasked with overhauling the oil contract framework, said Iran wanted a "win-win" formula for the new contracts. He provided no specific reason for the delay other than to say U.S. and European sanctions on Iran were discouraging foreign investors from playing a major role in Iran’s oil industry. Shana reported Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh wants to woo "giant oil companies" to Iran’s energy sector. "We have arranged many plans for boosting investment," he was quoted as saying. The European Union announced Monday it lifted […]

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Rouhani Says Iran Has No Plan for Nuclear Weapons

Describing himself as an advocate of “prudent moderation” as he pursued a diplomatic offensive to remold his country’s image on Thursday, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said he sought “constructive engagement” with its neighbors and pledged that his country had no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. He was speaking in this Alpine village at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum while, elsewhere in Switzerland, international negotiators sought to persuade Syrian government representatives and their exiled adversaries to sit down face-to-face at peace talks seeking an end to Syria’s nearly three-year civil war. Iran is a key player in the region’s diplomacy and the principal regional ally of President Bashar al-Assad. Mr. Rouhani referred to recent cooperation with the United States and other powers on his country’s nuclear program as a “major development” and urged American leaders to accept his country’s Islamic revolution as the […]

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Basra Governor faces legal challenge, demands oil contracting rights

Majid al-Nasrawi has been holding community meetings in the heart of oil country asserting the rights of the Basra government in oil contracting and threatening to stop oil production if an increase in petrodollar revenue redistribution doesn’t take effect. His controversial workload and high stress of the job are what officials close to the first-time politician said they blame for Nasrawi’s heart attack last week in Baghdad followed by angioplasty surgery in Kuwait. Nasrawi, who became g…

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Iraq oil exports dip in 2013

Iraq exported a total of 872.3 million barrels of oil last year, or 2.39 million bpd, according to oil ministry figures Baghdad (AFP) – Iraq’s oil exports in 2013 declined compared with the previous year, new figures showed on Wednesday, despite the country’s efforts to dramatically ramp up crude sales to fund much-needed reconstruction. Exports in December recovered from multi-month lows earlier in the year, but were still below their peak, with overall exports and revenues for the year lower than similar figures for 2012, according to oil ministry data compiled by AFP. Overall, Iraq exported 72.6 million barrels of oil in December, an average of 2.34 million barrels per day (bpd), bringing in revenues of $7.47 billion (5.5 billion euros). Those figures were higher than in November, and also represented marked increases on September, when Iraq managed to export just 2.07 million bpd. "The exports and income in […]

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Mideast looks at $50B to spend on solar power by 2020

The Middle East, spearheaded by the oil-rich Persian Gulf monarchies, could spend up to $50 billion on developing solar power over the next seven years, says the Middle East Solar Industry Association. The MESIA group based in Dubai, financial center of the United Arab Emirates, estimates the region will install 12,000-15,000 megawatts of solar power by 2020, with another 22,000-25,000 gigawatts from other renewable energy sources such as wind and hydro-power. The rapid expansion of power generation is a critical issue for governments and rulers across the region in the coming decade as populations swell and industrialization spreads, particularly in the petrostates of the gulf which have found their oil exports are suffering because they’re diverting too much oil to power plants. “It is estimated that installed generating capacity in the region will be required to double by 2020 to […]

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Algeria readies oil, gas auction

Algeria called on oil and natural gas companies to prepare for an August auction for exploration and exploitation of natural resources in the country. Sid Ali Betata, director of the National Agency for the Promotion of Hydrocarbon Resources, announced the call for tenders Tuesday, the official Algeria Press Service reported. The announcement comes one year after terrorists sympathetic with al-Qaida stormed the country’s In Amenas natural gas facility, leaving 38 civilians and 29 militants dead. Algeria has the 10th largest natural gas deposits in the world and is the third-largest gas supplier to Europe. Its exports have been in decline, however, because of lagging foreign investments. In Amenas has a production capacity of approximately 315 million cubic feet of natural gas per year, its operators Sonatrach, BP and Statoil said. In terms of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Algeria had 12.2 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple