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Crude Looks Ahead to a Flush '14

Burgeoning crude supply is liable to drive prices lower in 2014 after a run of years when emerging markets supported demand, as shifting dynamics continue to change the oil landscape. A historically jittery commodity, crude oil has seen calm prices for three years, and one big factor has been helping smooth the wrinkles: U.S. shale oil. Three leading energy agencies recently said production from outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would increase this year, much of it from U.S. shale. Added to that is the possible return to market of millions of Middle East barrels as Iran, Iraq and Libya potentially ramp up production. All of that is set to press on prices. A major disruption still could push oil higher, but potential oversupply makes even that less likely. Emerging-market demand once kept supply so tight that any disruptions led to striking price moves, said Ole Hansen, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Crude Looks Ahead to a Flush ’14

Burgeoning crude supply is liable to drive prices lower in 2014 after a run of years when emerging markets supported demand, as shifting dynamics continue to change the oil landscape. A historically jittery commodity, crude oil has seen calm prices for three years, and one big factor has been helping smooth the wrinkles: U.S. shale oil. Three leading energy agencies recently said production from outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would increase this year, much of it from U.S. shale. Added to that is the possible return to market of millions of Middle East barrels as Iran, Iraq and Libya potentially ramp up production. All of that is set to press on prices. A major disruption still could push oil higher, but potential oversupply makes even that less likely. Emerging-market demand once kept supply so tight that any disruptions led to striking price moves, said Ole Hansen, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC December Output Drops to Two-Year Low in Survey

OPEC crude production dropped to the lowest level in more than two years in December, led by a decline in Venezuelan output, a Bloomberg survey showed. Output by the 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decreased 33,000 barrels to an average 29.955 million barrels a day this month from 29.988 million in November, the survey of oil companies, producers and analysts showed. The November total was revised lower by 19,000 because of changes to the Kuwaiti and Ecuadorean estimates. Production slipped to the lowest level since July 2011 as ministers decided to keep their output target unchanged at 30 million barrels a day on Dec. 4 in Vienna. “OPEC production has taken a downward direction since September and it’s continuing,” Mohammed al-Shatti wrote in Kuwait Petroleum Corp.’s newsletter in his capacity as an analyst. “OPEC is […]

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2 Conservatives Join Iran Nuclear Panel

Two members of Iran’s hard-line-dominated Parliament were added to a supervisory council responsible for monitoring the country’s nuclear negotiating team, Iranian news media reported Wednesday. The additions appeared to strengthen the influence of critics of the talks between Iran and world powers. The two members of Parliament were not identified by name, but they were described as “legal and technical experts who will be able to prevent misunderstandings by the Americans.” The supervisory council’s precise monitoring role has never been made clear. But it now includes one representative from President Hassan Rouhani’s government, one from the judiciary, one from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and three members of Parliament, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is also Iran’s leading negotiator in the nuclear dispute, has always emphasized that his negotiation team is fully authorized by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali […]

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Iraqi security forces arrest Shiite militia leader

An Iraqi government spokesman says security forces have arrested a controversial Shiite cleric who leads an Iranian-backed militia. The Interior Ministry spokesman, Saad Maan Ibrahim, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Wathiq al-Batat, the leader of the so-called Mukhtar Army, was arrested in Baghdad on Wednesday. Al-Batat last year formed his Iranian-backed militia to protect Shiites from attacks by Sunni extremists. Earlier, he was a leader in Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades, which is not related to the better-known Lebanese Hezbollah. Al-Batat claimed responsibility in November for firing six mortar shells at a region of Saudi Arabia bordering Iraq and Kuwait, describing it as retaliation for Saudi religious decrees that allegedly insult Shiites and encourage killing them. He also claimed responsibility for attacks on a camp hosting an Iranian opposition group. © 2014 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

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Egypt sets Jan. 28 for ousted Morsi's 3rd trial

An Egyptian judge says Jan. 28 has been set as opening day for the third trial of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, this one on charges of organizing prison breaks with the help of foreign militants. Judge Medhat Idriss says the Cairo Appeals Court set the date Thursday. The jailbreaks took place during the January 2011 uprising against Morsi’s predecessor, autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Morsi was jailed in Cairo at the time and escaped with more than 30 others, while more than 20,000 inmates escaped from prisons across Egypt, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian militant Hamas members. Morsi faces three trials on various charges, most of which carry the death penalty, from conspiring with foreign groups to inciting violence that led to the killings of protesters during his year in power. © 2014 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egypt sets Jan. 28 for ousted Morsi’s 3rd trial

An Egyptian judge says Jan. 28 has been set as opening day for the third trial of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, this one on charges of organizing prison breaks with the help of foreign militants. Judge Medhat Idriss says the Cairo Appeals Court set the date Thursday. The jailbreaks took place during the January 2011 uprising against Morsi’s predecessor, autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Morsi was jailed in Cairo at the time and escaped with more than 30 others, while more than 20,000 inmates escaped from prisons across Egypt, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian militant Hamas members. Morsi faces three trials on various charges, most of which carry the death penalty, from conspiring with foreign groups to inciting violence that led to the killings of protesters during his year in power. © 2014 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China gives local governments go-ahead to roll over debt

Faced with a mountain of maturing loans this year, China has given local governments the go-ahead to issue bonds as a way of rolling over their debt to avoid defaults. The announcement by the National Development and Reform Commission, a top central planning authority, is the most explicit official endorsement of a massive debt refinancing operation that has become unavoidable and is already under way, analysts said. The need for the rollover highlights the tricky balance that Beijing must strike as it tries to rein in debt without triggering a sharp downturn in growth. Local government debt levels have soared 70 per cent to almost $3tn in less than three years, according to an official audit published on Monday. Nearly 40 per cent of that overall amount will mature before the end of this year, placing huge pressure on local governments to come up with the cash to make […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Asian Refiners Get Squeezed by U.S.

Asian oil refiners have become significant players in the global market for liquid fuels, thanks to investments in large, modern facilities. But they are facing growing pressure from a previously unlikely region—the U.S. Refiners in the U.S. have gained access to relatively inexpensive domestic shale oil and Canadian crude, which is giving them a competitive edge in the export market for fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Rivals in Asia started feeling the pressure when tankers leaving U.S. ports started unloading cargo in Europe and South America. Now the U.S. companies are starting to venture into Asia. BP BP.LN -0.36% BP PLC U.K.: London GBp 486.29 -1.76 -0.36% Jan. 2, 2014 11:31 am Volume : 4.34M P/E Ratio 6.00 Market Cap GBp90.97 Billion Dividend Yield 4.77% Rev. per Employee GBp2,864,460 01/01/14 Asian Refiners Get Squeezed by… 12/26/13 For Big Oil, Asset-Sale Option… 12/24/13 Judge Rejects BP Bid to Exclud… […]

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Draining Indonesia Oil Fields Raise Import Need: Southeast Asia

Magenta-colored bars creep up on a monitor screen at the control room of Senipah-Peciko-South Mahakam oil terminal in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province, indicating three storage tanks are being filled. “It takes more than 60 days now to fill a 500,000 barrel tank with crude from Bekapai field,” said Kristanto Hartadi, a spokesman at Total E&P Indonesie, a unit of the French oil major Total SA (FP) that operates the facility. “That compares with about 10 days when it was at full production.” Bekapai, which pumped more than 50,000 barrels a day in 1978, now flows at just 7,000 barrels, a symbol of the decline in Indonesia’s oil and gas production. Aging fields, rising exploration costs and increased fuel demand will force Southeast Asia’s most populous nation to import 90 percent of the oil it needs by 2030, according to the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology. Domestic […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple