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WTI Trades Near One-Week High on U.S. Fuel Demand Outlook

West Texas Intermediate crude traded near the highest price in a week as stronger-than-forecast economic data bolstered the outlook for fuel demand in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil user. Futures were little changed in New York after rising 0.5 percent yesterday as U.S. unemployment benefit claims slid more than economists estimated. WTI is poised for a fourth weekly gain, the longest rally in seven months, as cold weather boosts consumption of distillate fuels. London-traded Brent crude climbed as Libya’s oil output fell after protesters tampered with a pipeline. “The positioning for the U.S. economy and what the market is perceiving is providing support for oil,” said Jonathan Barratt , the chief executive officer of Barratt’s Bulletin in Sydney who predicts investors may sell WTI contracts at about $98.80 a barrel. “The draw in the products is typical for this time of the year where we see inventories start […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Gasoline Rises to Five-Week High on Below-Forecast Supply Gain

Gasoline climbed to a five-week high as an Energy Information Administration report yesterday showed that stockpiles rose less than analysts expected after winter weather swept the U.S. Northeast last week. Prices advanced 1.6 percent. Gasoline inventories grew by 505,000 barrels last week, said the EIA, the Energy Department’s statistical arm. Supplies were forecast to increase by 1.15 million, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. “Gasoline may be supported by the fact that the inventory build yesterday was far less than the market anticipated in light of the poor weather,” said Andy Lipow , president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston. March-delivery gasoline rose 4.17 cents to $2.683 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange , the highest settlement since Jan. 2. Trading volume was 22 percent above the 100-day average as of 3:08 p.m. Futures jumped the most in two weeks as refineries […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Sags After Smaller-Than-Expected Storage Draw

Natural-gas futures fell Thursday after U.S. stockpiles of the fuel declined less than the market had expected. Natural gas for March delivery ended 2% lower, a mild loss compared with recent volatility, traders said. Last week, futures rose more than 10% in a session, only to fall more than 9% in the next session. "Based on the last two weeks, we really didn’t gain a lot, we didn’t lose a lot," said Phil Flynn, an analyst for Price Futures Group in Chicago. The March contract ended the day down 9.9 cents at $4.931 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The relatively small move came as traders weighed concerns that supply levels could fall to exceptionally low levels by the end of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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$5/gal benzene: Here to stay, or recurring but shortlived fad?

If you sell, buy or trade benzene or any of its derivatives, you have heard this assertion before: Five-dollar-a-gallon benzene is a reality. It’s here to stay. It’s not a new one. In fact, you probably first heard in early- to mid-2012, or earlier if you are really plugged in, as they say. Benzene prices went on to breach the $5/gallon ($1,495/mt) three times later that year. I once heard one forecaster tell an audience that $5/gallon would be the norm in 2013. I believed him (sort of). Yes, the styrenics chain guys in the room gasped a bit, and I’m pretty sure the other downstream guys (cumene, phenol, cyclohexane and others) would have had similar reactions. If you are unfamiliar with benzene, don’t feel bad. Just know that it is a key building block in the petchems world, that it has applications in everything from food packaging to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran determined to defend nuclear interests

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Thursday his country was working to resist the temptation to break off from Western negotiations. Iranian leaders have expressed frustration with what they said was bellicose rhetoric coming from U.S. officials in the wake of an interim nuclear agreement. Zarif said Thursday "perhaps the easiest" way to settle the row was to "close the doors to negotiation." "However, we firmly resist the temptation and [will] defend the Iranian national interests," he was quoted by the semiofficial Mehr News Agency as saying. Iran’s Fars News Agency said 190 of the 290 members of the Iranian Parliament endorsed a statement critical of testimony this week by U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman. Sherman told the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations the Iranian nuclear program was a "serious" threat to U.S. national security. A November interim agreement, she said, […]

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Iran says French majors drawn to its oil sector

Ali Majedi, Iran’s deputy oil minister, said French energy company Total is among those expressing an interest in his country’s oil sector. Iranian leaders hosted a trade delegation of roughly 140 representatives from French companies this week in Tehran. Majedi told the semiofficial Fars News Agency major French oil companies were among those who said they’re willing to invest in Iran. "The companies that have negotiated with us are considered the main group and include … Total [and oil services contractor] Technip," he said in an interview published Wednesday. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month his economy was opening up as a result of last year’s interim nuclear deal with Western powers. "Iran’s geopolitical situation, and also its access to the open seas, make it a geopolitically suitable model in the region," Majedi said. […]

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U.S. and Iran Jostle Ahead of Nuclear Talks

The U.S. and Iran are staking out increasingly entrenched and opposing positions over Tehran’s nuclear program, threatening the prospects of a vital foreign-policy initiative of President Barack Obama . The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced new enforcement actions against companies with links to Iran for allegedly evading American sanctions against the country and aiding its nuclear and missile programs. The enforcement comes as both Democrat and Republican lawmakers exert pressure on the Obama administration to toughen its posture against Iran ahead of Feb. 18 talks aimed at ending any nuclear-arms threat from Tehran. Some congressional members and U.S. allies are concerned that an initial easing of sanctions against Iran has begun to open the floodgates of investment to the country before it has made any major concessions. But Thursday’s move strained Washington’s diplomatic engagement with Tehran, which said that the move violated terms of the negotiating process both […]

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Bombing, shooting kill 6 people in Iraq

Iraqi authorities say a car bomb and a shooting have killed six people in the country’s north. The explosion killed four people and wounded 28 others on Friday on a commercial street in Tuz Khormato, said the town’s mayor Shalal Abdoul. Tuz Khormato is 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad. In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen shot dead two members of the Shabak minority in a drive-by shooting, said police and hospital officials. The Shabak are small ethnic minority, many of whose members follow an offshoot of Islam. Most live in villages east of Mosul, the provincial capital of the ethnically mixed Ninevah province that is predominantly Sunni Muslim. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media. © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn […]

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U.S. Issues Penalties Over Violations of Iran Sanctions

The Obama administration penalized nearly three dozen companies and individuals in eight countries on Thursday, accusing them of evading Iranian sanctions. It was the administration’s most extensive enforcement action to target Iran since a temporary international agreement on that country’s disputed nuclear program was completed in November and put into effect last month . Announced by the Treasury Department office that oversees sanctions enforcement, the punishments were at least partly devised to send a message that the United States is not relaxing economic pressures on Iran, apparently to blunt an atmosphere of optimism that has resulted from the temporary nuclear agreement. This week, Secretary of State John Kerry criticized France after it sent a large trade delegation to Iran. “Today’s action should leave no doubt that those who seek to evade our sanctions, support Iran’s nuclear program or assist in Iran’s promotion of international terrorism will continue to be […]

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Tensions rise as Iraqi Kurds' oil flows to Turkey

As Iraqi Kurdistan exports oil northward to Turkey through its own pipeline despite dire warnings from Baghdad about the consequences of such independent action, the prospect of a collision between Iraq’s central government and the semiautonomous Kurds increases. But as parliamentary elections loom in April, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seeking a third term amid a swelling al-Qaida insurgency raging in western Iraq, Baghdad may not be in a position to get tough right now or pick a fight with the restive Kurds and their new ally Turkey. Analysts have long speculated that the likely outcome of the Kurds’ defiance is that they could eventually declare their enclave across Iraq’s three northern provinces an independent state. The fear is that other regions, particularly the south, which contains two-thirds of Iraq’s oil reserves of 143.1 billion barrels, will also want greater autonomy from a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple