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Brent Crude Skids on Reported South Sudan Recapture of Oil City

Brent crude futures slid Friday on news that the South Sudanese government has recaptured a key oil city from rebel forces. Brent crude on ICE Futures Europe fell as low as $106.06 a barrel on the news, after trading as high as $107.25 a barrel earlier in the session. Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 61 cents, or 0.6%, to $92.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Violence in South Sudan in recent weeks has boosted Brent, the international oil benchmark, as halted crude-oil exports from the young nation have reduced global supplies. Agence France-Presse reported Friday that South Sudanese troops have recaptured Bentiu, a key northern oil city, citing a spokesman for President Salva Kiir. Rebel forces seized Bentiu in late December, forcing oil companies to halt as many as 40,000 barrels a day of crude production from oil fields around the […]

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Oil Rises Most in a Month as Jobs Data Limits Fed Concern

West Texas Intermediate crude gained the most in a month as worse-than-expected jobs data reduced concern that the Federal Reserve will further pare bond buying. Futures rallied from an eight-month low and trimmed a second weekly decline. Payrolls increased in December at the slowest pace since January 2011 and the unemployment rate dropped as more people left the labor force . Prices also went up China’s crude imports climbed to a record and on speculation that an $8.66 slide in the previous eight days was excessive. “The Fed is probably not in any rush to tighten, and they’ll probably continue to have a very accommodative stand for quite some time,” said Kyle Cooper , director of commodities research at IAF Advisors in Houston. “The China data showed that global oil demand is still strong. Crude had fallen $8 in the last few days and it’s just a little bit […]

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Natural Gas Falls on Week as Cold Weather Subsides

Natural gas gained Friday, but ended lower for the week as traders weighed unusually strong heating demand earlier in the week against forecasts for more moderate temperatures. Natural gas for February delivery settled up 4.8 cents, or 1.2%, to $4.053 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices fell 5.8% on the week, the worst one-week decline since November. Prices traded above $4.25/mmBtu earlier in the week as record-cold temperatures across the central and eastern U.S. fueled demand for gas-powered heating in homes and offices. About half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. U.S. natural-gas demand hit a record high of 138.9 billion cubic feet […]

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Sources: Iran and Russia closing in on trade agreement

Iran  and  Russia  are negotiating an oil-for-goods swap worth $1.5 billion a month that would let Iran increase oil exports substantially, undermining Western sanctions that helped persuade Tehran in November to accept a preliminary deal to curb its nuclear program. Russian and Iranian sources close to the barter negotiations said final details were in discussion for a deal that would see Moscow buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods, according to the Reuters news agency. "Good progress is being made at the moment with strong chances of success," said a Russian source. "We are discussing the details, and the date of signing a deal depends on those details." The Kremlin declined to comment. "Our desire is to sign the deal as soon as possible," said a senior Iranian official, who declined to be named. "Our officials are discussing the matter […]

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Negotiators Move Closer on Iran Nuclear Pact

Iran and a group of six world powers moved closer on Friday to carrying out the nuclear agreement reached in November, with the Iranian side saying all outstanding issues have been resolved. The agreement, which still requires final approval by all the governments, would temporarily halt some of Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and deputy nuclear negotiator, said “we found solutions for all the points of disagreements” during a two-day meeting in Geneva with his counterpart representing the so-called P5-plus-1 countries: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, which are the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany. A spokesman for that side — represented by Helga Schmid, deputy to the lead negotiator, Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s top foreign policy official — issued a statement that did not go quite […]

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Iran, Western Powers Close on Verge of Interim Nuclear Deal

Iran and Western powers closed in on an interim accord Friday that would provide for a six-month relaxation of tensions and, they hope, pave the way for a longer-term deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear program. A deal would provide concrete steps for how to implement the Nov. 24 agreement, which requires Iran to curtail its nuclear activities in exchange for the easing of some of the West’s longtime sanctions against the country. If the interim deal is implemented, the two sides have given themselves 12 months to reach a broader, more comprehensive agreement that would represent a historic rapprochement between Iran and the West. But leaders of both sides say they hope to reach that deal sooner, within six months of the interim accord. U.S. and European officials hope that the implementation agreement will be finalized by the end of the month, marking the first formal warming of relations […]

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Al Qaeda group fights back against Syria rebel assault

Al Qaeda-linked jihadists struck back against rival rebels in eastern and northern Syria on Friday after a week of internecine fighting among opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in which 500 people have been killed, a monitoring group said. A coordinated offensive by armed groups had seized several strongholds of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in Aleppo, on the border with Turkey, and further east in Raqqa – the only city under control of Assad’s foes. But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said ISIL fighters pushed back rival rebels on the eastern approaches of Raqqa on Friday. They also killed 20 fighters in the town of Al-Bab, north-east of Aleppo, the monitoring group said. The fighting comes less than two weeks before the planned start of international peace talks aimed at ending nearly three years of conflict in Syria, which the Observatory says […]

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Baghdad warns of legal action against Kurdish exports

Iraq’s Oil Ministry said it is “exceptionally dismayed” by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) announcement of independent crude sales and has accused Turkey of breaching treaty obligations by collaborating with the KRG to commandeer a leg of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP).The “Iraqi Federal Ministry of Oil, represented by SOMO [the State Oil Marketing Organization], is the exclusive sole official body authorized to enter into contracts for the export of hydrocarbon resource.

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Jordan, Iraq mull prospects of pipeline from Basra to Aqaba

AMMAN, Jordan, Jan. 10 (UPI) — Jordan wants Iraq to move quickly on implementation of an oil pipeline from the Iraqi port city of Basra, the Jordanian prime minister said. Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour met in Amman with Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Karim al-Luaibi to discuss ties in the energy sector and said his government was interested in the quick development of a pipeline from Basra that could deliver as much as 150,000 barrels of oil per day to the Jordanian shore, the official Jordan News Agency reported Thursday. The pipeline would stretch from Basra to the Jordanian port city of Aqaba. Ensour said the private sector should play a role in a project that could eventually extend to Egypt and other Mediterranean countries. The Iraqi minister said there is the possibility of building an oil refinery and power plant in Aqaba in addition to a pipeline. In a […]

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Baghdad Says It Is 'Bewildered' by Kurdistan's Oil Pact With Turkey

Iraqi Kurdistan’s aspiration to become an independent oil exporter took a hit Friday, when Baghdad criticized the semiautonomous region for publicly planning international sales before striking a deal with the central government. The Kurdistan Regional Government said it plans to sell the first parcel of oil at the end of January through the Kurdistan Oil Marketing Organization, rather than Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization. Iraq’s oil ministry responded with "deep regret" and bewilderment, saying Friday that Kurdistan’s plans are a "flagrant violation of the provisions of the Iraqi constitution." The ministry also criticized Turkey’s government for allowing Kurdish oil to pass through the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline without Baghdad’s consent. Exports without Baghdad’s approval could prove fraught. Iraq’s oil ministry has threatened to take legal action against any company that buys Kurdish oil exported without Baghdad’s blessing. The twist is the latest on a long and tortured road to an agreement […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple