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WTI Crude Slips With Brent to Pare Sixth Weekly Advance

West Texas Intermediate crude fell, paring a sixth consecutive weekly gain, on speculation prices have climbed more than justified as the heating season nears its end. Brent also slipped, narrowing a weekly advance. WTI decreased 0.5 percent while diesel futures, a proxy for heating oil, declined for the first time in six days. Supplies of distillate fuel , a category that includes heating oil and diesel, slid by 339,000 barrels last week, Energy Information Administration data yesterday showed, a smaller drop than forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Gasoline use sank to a one-month low. Futures reached a four-month high Feb. 19. “The market has climbed as much as possible on heating-fuel demand,” said John Kilduff , a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy. “The inexorable march of the calendar means that the heating oil season is coming to an […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. expected to keep oil embargo even if Iran nuclear deal struck

A unilateral U.S. oil embargo on Iran is expected to remain in place even if a long-term nuclear agreement between Tehran and six world powers is reached that includes an easing of international sanctions, a U.S. official said on Thursday. The embargo pre-dates the decade-long nuclear dispute with Iran. Washington cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran during a hostage crisis shortly following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and began imposing sanctions around the same time. "The American domestic oil embargo is expected to remain in place even if a comprehensive agreement is reached," the U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Western diplomats say U.S. companies would be unhappy about being left out if European Union and U.N. sanctions are lifted, allowing non-U.S. firms to resume business with the Islamic Republic. Iranian officials say they would have no problem with American oil companies returning to Iran. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds Have Not Agreed to Export Oil via Iraq's SOMO

Kurdistan has not agreed to export crude via Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), a spokesman for the autonomous region’s government said on Thursday, contradicting earlier comments by a top energy official in Baghdad. Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani said in a televised interview late on Wednesday that the Kurds had agreed to export through SOMO, which would have removed a major sticking point between them over oil exports. Kurdistan’s prime minister and top energy official travelled to Baghdad earlier this week, intensifying efforts to settle the long-running dispute over exports of oil from the region via a new independent pipeline to Turkey. But Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Safeen Dizayee said on Thursday that was not the case. "Absolutely we have not reached any agreement to export oil via SOMO. The dialogue and discussions are still underway". Dizayee described […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds Have Not Agreed to Export Oil via Iraq’s SOMO

Kurdistan has not agreed to export crude via Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), a spokesman for the autonomous region’s government said on Thursday, contradicting earlier comments by a top energy official in Baghdad. Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani said in a televised interview late on Wednesday that the Kurds had agreed to export through SOMO, which would have removed a major sticking point between them over oil exports. Kurdistan’s prime minister and top energy official travelled to Baghdad earlier this week, intensifying efforts to settle the long-running dispute over exports of oil from the region via a new independent pipeline to Turkey. But Kurdistan Regional Government spokesman Safeen Dizayee said on Thursday that was not the case. "Absolutely we have not reached any agreement to export oil via SOMO. The dialogue and discussions are still underway". Dizayee described […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fears of Syria militancy expand influence of Saudi prince

Saudi Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef, perhaps the most powerful younger prince in the ruling al-Saud family, is shaping Riyadh’s new emphasis on protecting the kingdom from a fresh wave of Islamist militancy inspired by the war in Syria. The United States pulled out the stops for him when he visited Washington last week to prepare for President Barack Obama’s fence-mending trip to Riyadh next month. Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey and National Security Agency director Keith Alexander all sat down with the 54-year-old, a veteran of Saudi Arabia’s fight against al Qaeda. Prince Mohammed seems likely to be a central figure in the world’s top oil exporter for decades to come. Many Saudis say he is a strong candidate to become king […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela and Chavez's Deadly Endgame

Venezuela’s cities are convulsed with riots . A local beauty queen was shot in the head during protests over . . . well, everything: chronic shortages of basic goods, increasing repression of free speech by a government that clearly feels it cannot tolerate any dissent. She is not the only person to have been killed in recent days. The government is cracking down — hard — on any and all opposition. It seems to me that this was always the inevitable end game to the disastrous policies of the late President Hugo Chavez. Diverting funds from capital investment into the nation’s oil fields was politically popular. But it was also disastrous: Venezuela’s oil is sludgy stuff, hard to get at and hard to refine, and it requires a high level of capital expenditure just to keep production level. Predictably, production is now well below pre-Chavez levels. That wasn’t so […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela and Chavez’s Deadly Endgame

Venezuela’s cities are convulsed with riots . A local beauty queen was shot in the head during protests over . . . well, everything: chronic shortages of basic goods, increasing repression of free speech by a government that clearly feels it cannot tolerate any dissent. She is not the only person to have been killed in recent days. The government is cracking down — hard — on any and all opposition. It seems to me that this was always the inevitable end game to the disastrous policies of the late President Hugo Chavez. Diverting funds from capital investment into the nation’s oil fields was politically popular. But it was also disastrous: Venezuela’s oil is sludgy stuff, hard to get at and hard to refine, and it requires a high level of capital expenditure just to keep production level. Predictably, production is now well below pre-Chavez levels. That wasn’t so […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Cheap Gasoline: Why Venezuela Is Doomed To Collapse

Riots in the streets. Killings of protesters. Shortages of consumer staples like toilet paper and flour. Power outages. Confiscations of private property. Capital flight. Inflation running at more than 50%. The highest murder rate in the world. The situation in Venezuela has grown so terrible that we could very well be witnessing the waning days of the Chavez-Maduro regime. But don’t hold your breath. Despots propped up by revenues from natural resources have had a surprisingly robust track record over the past 100 years. Saddam Hussein survived through ruthlessness and handouts to Baath party loyalists. Khadafi perfected the same model in Libya. The Saudis and other Gulf sultanates and emirates have survived by paying off tribe members. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is still around thanks to his trade in blood diamonds. In each case, the big boss keeps his head by paying off everyone who matters. Hugo Chavez appeared to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela 'revokes accreditation and visas' of CNN journalists

Mr Maduro said many international networks had created a false idea that Venezuela is facing civil war The American news network, CNN, says Venezuela has revoked the accreditation of its Caracas-based reporter, Osmary Hernandez. Two journalists who had been sent to Venezuela to cover the current crisis had their working permits cancelled. President Nicolas Maduro had vowed to expel CNN unless it "rectified" its coverage of recent opposition marches. Eight people have been killed in the protests, according to the government. Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz said 137 people had been injured in the current series of protests, which began earlier this month. The opposition leader who called for the marches, Leopoldo Lopez, was detained on Tuesday during a protest in Caracas. The government accused him of inciting violence as part of a right-wing coup plot. CNN […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela ‘revokes accreditation and visas’ of CNN journalists

Mr Maduro said many international networks had created a false idea that Venezuela is facing civil war The American news network, CNN, says Venezuela has revoked the accreditation of its Caracas-based reporter, Osmary Hernandez. Two journalists who had been sent to Venezuela to cover the current crisis had their working permits cancelled. President Nicolas Maduro had vowed to expel CNN unless it "rectified" its coverage of recent opposition marches. Eight people have been killed in the protests, according to the government. Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz said 137 people had been injured in the current series of protests, which began earlier this month. The opposition leader who called for the marches, Leopoldo Lopez, was detained on Tuesday during a protest in Caracas. The government accused him of inciting violence as part of a right-wing coup plot. CNN […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple