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Natural Gas Jumps on Demand Expectations

-Natural-gas prices rocketed more than 10% to a four-year high Wednesday on concerns that sustained frigid weather would lead to robust demand for the heating fuel well into February. Natural gas for February delivery jumped 52.4 cents to $5.557 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest closing price since Jan. 25, 2010. Futures posted their largest one-day percentage gain since June 14, 2012. The February contract expired at settlement. The more actively traded March contract rose 52.4 cents, or almost 11%, to $5.465/mmBtu. Prices have soared 31% this month as forecasts continue to call for colder-than-average weather, maintaining demand for indoor heating sources. About half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The February contract surged late in the session Wednesday. The buyers […]

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Sanctions-hit Iran oil to take 'years' to return to market: FGE's Fesharaki

A landmark interim deal last November between the Western powers and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program could see about 200,000-300,000 b/d of additional oil released into the markets by mid-year, but any further increments are likely to take years, according to US-based consultancy FACTS Global Energy’s chairman Fereidun Fesharaki. The November deal between Iran and the so-called P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia, the US and Germany — took effect on January 20 and holds for six months. The agreement, which has eased some of the crippling economic sanctions against Iran for a period of six months, could see Iranian crude supplies going up by around 200,000-300,000 b/d by July, Fesharaki told the 32nd JCCP International Symposium in Tokyo Wednesday. But a full return of the estimated 1.2 million b/d of Iranian crude locked out of the markets as a result of several […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Sanctions-hit Iran oil to take ‘years’ to return to market: FGE’s Fesharaki

A landmark interim deal last November between the Western powers and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program could see about 200,000-300,000 b/d of additional oil released into the markets by mid-year, but any further increments are likely to take years, according to US-based consultancy FACTS Global Energy’s chairman Fereidun Fesharaki. The November deal between Iran and the so-called P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia, the US and Germany — took effect on January 20 and holds for six months. The agreement, which has eased some of the crippling economic sanctions against Iran for a period of six months, could see Iranian crude supplies going up by around 200,000-300,000 b/d by July, Fesharaki told the 32nd JCCP International Symposium in Tokyo Wednesday. But a full return of the estimated 1.2 million b/d of Iranian crude locked out of the markets as a result of several […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya's eastern district lays down oil gauntlet

Oil will flow again from eastern export terminals once the government in Tripoli meets demands from the region, a Cyrenaica administrator said. Abdraba Abdulhameed al-Barasi, leader from the regional Cyrenaica government, told the Libya Herald the central government agreed to form a committee to oversee future production and exports from Cyrenaica, Fezzan and Tripolitania states. Tripoli has yet to answer, however, on whether Cyrenaica can take in profits generated from oil produced in the region, the Libyan newspaper reports. Agreeing to all of the demands is the only way to restart exports from eastern terminals, Barasi said Tuesday. In November, rebel groups in the east of the country, some of which helped topple the regime of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, declared independence for Cyrenaica, which hosts some of Libya’s key oil terminals. Before the 2011 conflict, Libya produced on average 1.6 million bpd […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya’s eastern district lays down oil gauntlet

Oil will flow again from eastern export terminals once the government in Tripoli meets demands from the region, a Cyrenaica administrator said. Abdraba Abdulhameed al-Barasi, leader from the regional Cyrenaica government, told the Libya Herald the central government agreed to form a committee to oversee future production and exports from Cyrenaica, Fezzan and Tripolitania states. Tripoli has yet to answer, however, on whether Cyrenaica can take in profits generated from oil produced in the region, the Libyan newspaper reports. Agreeing to all of the demands is the only way to restart exports from eastern terminals, Barasi said Tuesday. In November, rebel groups in the east of the country, some of which helped topple the regime of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, declared independence for Cyrenaica, which hosts some of Libya’s key oil terminals. Before the 2011 conflict, Libya produced on average 1.6 million bpd […]

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Baghdad waiting for Kurdish response on oil plan

Iraq’s deputy prime minister called on the government in the Kurdish north to respond to a proposal from Baghdad on oil sales from the region. Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani sent a written proposal to the Kurdish government calling for oil sales from the region to be handled by the State Oil Market Organization. Once funds are deposited, the Kurdish government would draw 17 percent of its share in the revenue to pay oil companies, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Genel Energy, a company with large investments in the Kurdish north, said in mid-January exports of Kurdish oil through a pipeline to Turkey are "expected to commence in the near future." The Kurdistan Regional Government has already sent oil to a storage facility at the Turkish port of Ceyhan and Genel said deliveries should ramp up throughout 2014. A January announcement from the […]

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Militants storm government office in Baghdad

An Iraqi official says militants have stormed a government office in eastern Baghdad, triggering a firefight with police and a siege of the building by security forces. Interior Ministry spokesman, Saad Maan Ibrahim, says at least six gunmen stormed the state-run Company for Transportation on Thursday morning. Maan told state TV the police shot and killed three of the militants while the rest remain inside. Maan says security forces managed to get most of the employees out. It was unclear if anyone remained inside the building or was taken hostage. The brazen attack comes as Iraq is facing a stubborn insurgency in the country’s western Anbar province led by a local al-Qaida branch, which seeks to undermine government efforts to maintain security ahead of national elections on April 30. © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or […]

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Syria ships out less than 5 percent of chemical arms

Syria has given up less than five percent of its chemical weapons arsenal and will miss next week’s deadline to send all toxic agents abroad for destruction, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The deliveries, in two shipments this month to the northern Syrian port of Latakia totaled 4.1 percent of the roughly 1433 metric tons of toxic agents reported by Damascus to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It’s not enough and there is no sign of more," one source briefed on the situation said. The internationally backed operation, overseen by a joint OPCW-United Nations mission, is now 6-8 weeks behind schedule. Damascus needs to show it is still serious about relinquishing its chemical weapons, the sources told Reuters. Failure to eliminate its chemical weapons could expose Syria to sanctions, although […]

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Seoul gives green light to two nuclear reactors

The South Korean government has granted final approval to build two nuclear reactors at the Shin Kori Nuclear Power Plant in Ulsan, about 255 miles southeast of Seoul. Construction on the $7.09 billion project is scheduled for September, with completion slated for December 2020, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. Each reactor will have a generation capacity of 1.4 million kilowatts. Yonhap reported Reactor Unit 5 at the Hanul Nuclear Power Plant came to an automatic halt Wednesday morning after a warning signal was activated at the facility, 205 miles southeast of Seoul. "The reactor currently remains stable," Yonhap quoted a Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. official as saying. The official, whose name was not reported, said an investigation was in progress and may take up to two days. It is the second time since July operations at Hanul’s No. 5 reactor have had […]

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As China’s Economy Slows, the Pain Hits Home

Piles of unsold coal line rural roads in north-central China. Some iron ore mines near Beijing are operating at a fraction of capacity. Chinese farm products are even increasingly scorned by the Chinese consumer. While China remains nearly self-sufficient in all these categories, it is importing more from other emerging markets. Economists and investors around the world have been fretting in recent days about the effects on smaller emerging markets if China’s economic slowdown worsens. Those concerns have driven down share prices and currencies from Jakarta to Istanbul to Buenos Aires, although emerging markets staged a partial recovery on Wednesday. They helped to prod the central banks of Turkey and India to raise benchmark interest rates unexpectedly on Tuesday. Yet the most vulnerable producers these days may not […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple