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Baker Hughes: US drilling rig count leaps to 1,861

The US drilling rig count jumped 30 units to reach a total of 1,861 rigs working during the week ended Apr. 25, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. The US now has 107 more rigs working compared with this week a year ago. Land-based rigs accounted for most of the gain, collecting 28 units to 1,793. The other 2 were offshore rigs, which now total 54. Rigs drilling in inland waters, at 14, were unchanged from a week ago. Oil rigs were up 24 units to 1,534; gas rigs, meanwhile, increased 7 units to 323. Rigs considered unclassified dropped 1 unit to settle at 4. Horizontal drilling rigs shot up 21 units to 1,245. Directional drilling rigs rose 2 units to 218. Canada’s rig count took a 31-unit hit, leaving that country’s total at 168—still 46 more than this week a year ago. The total was almost evenly split between oil […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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European Firms Seek to Minimize Russia Sanctions

With the showdown over Ukraine escalating and President Obama warning Moscow of a tough new round of sanctions, Russia and its allies in the European private sector are conducting a separate campaign to ensure that they can maintain their deep and longstanding economic ties even if the Kremlin orders further military action. European banks and businesses are far more exposed to the Russian economy than are their American counterparts. Trade between the European Union and Russia amounted to almost $370 billion in 2012, while United States trade with Russia was about $26 billion that year. As a result, they have lobbied energetically to head off or at least dilute any sanctions, making it hard for American and European political leaders to come up with a package of measures with enough bite to influence Moscow’s behavior in Ukraine. Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea , energy companies, exporters, big […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Gazprom Says Won't Halt Gas Flows to Europe Over Ukraine Gas Price Row

Russian natural-gas giant OAO Gazprom won’t stop pumping gas to its European customers even if Ukraine doesn’t pay its arrears—-expected to reach $3.5 billion next month—but it can’t guarantee those supplies will reach its intended customers, the company’s Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev said Friday. Russian state-controlled Gazprom supplies about 30% of Europe’s gas needs, around half of which travels through pipes that cross Ukraine. Any disruption to those flows could have a significant impact on European customers, including utilities in Italy and Germany, and push up prices across the region. But Russia also depends on the revenues from its energy exports which account for around 50% of federal income. Russia has cut off supplies to Ukraine twice in recent years, in 2006 and 2009, in both cases citing pricing disputes. The 2009 shut-off sent prices rising across Europe and triggered some gas shortages in Eastern Europe. Mr. Medvedev, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Gazprom Says Won’t Halt Gas Flows to Europe Over Ukraine Gas Price Row

Russian natural-gas giant OAO Gazprom won’t stop pumping gas to its European customers even if Ukraine doesn’t pay its arrears—-expected to reach $3.5 billion next month—but it can’t guarantee those supplies will reach its intended customers, the company’s Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev said Friday. Russian state-controlled Gazprom supplies about 30% of Europe’s gas needs, around half of which travels through pipes that cross Ukraine. Any disruption to those flows could have a significant impact on European customers, including utilities in Italy and Germany, and push up prices across the region. But Russia also depends on the revenues from its energy exports which account for around 50% of federal income. Russia has cut off supplies to Ukraine twice in recent years, in 2006 and 2009, in both cases citing pricing disputes. The 2009 shut-off sent prices rising across Europe and triggered some gas shortages in Eastern Europe. Mr. Medvedev, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S., Europe Delay Moves to Impose More Sanctions on Russia Over Ukraine

U.S. and European leaders Friday struggled to overcome divisions over how to expand sanctions against Russia, a delay that Ukraine complained has emboldened Moscow to continue fanning separatist sentiment in the country’s east. President Barack Obama spoke Friday with leaders of the U.K., France, Germany and Italy to stress the need for concerted measures, and they agreed on the need for action. At the end of the day, the Group of Seven, which also includes Japan and Canada, issued a statement saying they would move swiftly to impose additional targeted sanctions. They didn’t say when or specify the targets. But U.S. and European officials said earlier they have identified areas of greater common ground and suggested the new sanctions are set to come on Monday. "Given the urgency of securing the opportunity for a successful and peaceful democratic vote next month in Ukraine’s presidential elections, we have committed to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Crimea may play role in Russia's LNG ambitions

The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said Friday it was reviewing options to build ships for liquefied natural gas transport at Crimean ports.The government said a number of shipbuilding companies in Crimea and Sevastopol are either idled or working at below capacity. "One of the options for filling the bag orders of the shipbuilding yards is being developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and it is the possibility of building LNG carriers for shipping liquefied natural gas from the Russian arctic oil fields," the ministry said . A former Soviet republic, Ukraine has tilted toward the European Union following a November uprising. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty to annex Crimea, a peninsula of Ukraine, and geopolitical and military tensions continue to escalate . Crimean officials have said Russian energy company Gazprom aims to tap into the more […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Crimea may play role in Russia’s LNG ambitions

The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade said Friday it was reviewing options to build ships for liquefied natural gas transport at Crimean ports.The government said a number of shipbuilding companies in Crimea and Sevastopol are either idled or working at below capacity. "One of the options for filling the bag orders of the shipbuilding yards is being developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and it is the possibility of building LNG carriers for shipping liquefied natural gas from the Russian arctic oil fields," the ministry said . A former Soviet republic, Ukraine has tilted toward the European Union following a November uprising. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty to annex Crimea, a peninsula of Ukraine, and geopolitical and military tensions continue to escalate . Crimean officials have said Russian energy company Gazprom aims to tap into the more […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukraine’s DTEK Says Crimea Power Supply at Risk From Debts

DTEK, the Ukrainian energy company led by the nation’s richest man, said customers in Crimea run the risk of power cuts after they didn’t fully pay for electricity they consumed in March. Companies and organizations owe Krymenergo, DTEK’s Crimean unit, 741 million Hryvnia ($64.4 million), the company with offices in Kiev and Donetsk said in a statement on its website today. DTEK is controlled by Rinat Akhmetov , who has a personal fortune of about $11.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “The main condition of supplying power to the peninsula is 100 percent payment in Ukraine ’s currency,” according to the statement. The unit isn’t authorized to supply customers if it hasn’t received payment, Dmitriy Gontar, director for sales at DTEK Krymenergo, said in the statement. The escalating crisis in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea last month led to the worst standoff against the U.S. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Holds Onto Gains on Ukraine Tensions

Crude-oil futures held onto overnight gains in Asian trading hours Friday on heightened tensions between Ukraine and Russia that kept global financial markets on edge. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $101.92 a barrel at 0549 GMT, down $0.02 in the Globex electronic session. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.01 to $110.32 a barrel. Ukrainian forces killed several militants outside a pro-Russian stronghold in eastern Ukraine on Thursday as it attempted to regain control of the region, prompting Russian military exercises on its side of the border. "With Russia warning of ‘consequences’ and Ukraine complaining of Russian ‘interference’ and ‘permanent threats and blackmail,’ worries over the possibility that escalation either via arms or sanctions could disrupt Russian oil and gas exports remained high," Citi Futures analyst Tim Evans said in a note. U.S. President Barack […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Set for Weekly Loss on Supplies as Discount to Brent Widens

West Texas Intermediate headed for the first weekly loss in three weeks and its discount to Brent widened as crude stockpiles expanded to an 83-year high in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Futures were little changed in New York today and down 2.3 percent this week, the most in more than a month. Crude inventories have increased to 397.7 million barrels, the highest since 1931, Energy Information Administration data show. WTI traded as much as $8.57 a barrel below Brent in London as Russia ’s military began drills near the border with Ukraine , prompting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to warn that it could be making “an expensive mistake.” “The expanding stockpiles in the U.S. further widens the spread between Brent and WTI,” Will Yun, a commodities analyst at Hyundai Futures Co. in Seoul , said by phone today. “U.S. crude supplies are expanding, which […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple