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Brent Drops as Premium to WTI Narrows to Least Since September

Brent crude fell, shrinking its premium to West Texas Intermediate to the least since September, as signs of a slowdown in China bolstered speculation of reduced demand in the world’s second-largest oil consumer. Futures dropped as much as 0.5 percent in London , narrowing the gap to WTI for a fifth day. China’s exports and imports unexpectedly declined in March as the economy headed for its slowest growth since the global financial crisis. U.S. crude stockpiles gained for the 11th time in 12 weeks while gasoline supplies slid, the Energy Information Administration reported. “These trade figures have cooled off the market,” Gordon Kwan , the regional head of oil and gas research at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong , said by phone today. “That suggests intensifying concerns about weak manufacturing and slowing growth in the Chinese economy.” Brent for May settlement decreased as much as 52 cents to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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NYMEX oil price jumps on EIA’s reduced oil production forecast

The benchmark US crude oil futures price jumped more than $2/bbl on Apr. 8 after the US Energy Information Administration released a report saying government analysts reduced their earlier oil production forecast for this year and next. EIA estimates the US will produce 8.37 million b/d during 2014, down from an earlier forecast of 8.39 million b/d. During 2013, US oil production was 7.44 million b/d. For 2015, EIA revised its production forecast to 9.13 million b/d, down from an earlier forecast of 9.16 million b/d. US total oil consumption for 2014 was forecast at an average 18.9 million b/d, up slightly from EIA’s earlier forecast of 18.89 million b/d. EIA also increased its price forecast for 2014. Benchmark light, sweet crude was forecast to average $95.60/bbl for the year, up 27¢ from EIA’s forecast made in March, and $2.31/bbl lower than the 2013 average, the agency said in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural-Gas Futures Climb Ahead of Key Storage Report

Natural-gas futures climbed to a four-week high as traders focused on forecasts calling for another late-season cold snap and fretted about a potentially disappointing storage report due Thursday. Natural gas for May delivery settled up 5.2 cents, or 1.2%, at $4.5860 a million British thermal units, the highest since March 11, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Lower-than-average temperatures in the U.S. are expected to persist over the next week or two, supporting the need for gas to heat homes. Market observers appear divided over the ability of producers to replenish stockpiles that were depleted during the recent harsh winter. Energy-advisory firm Gelber & Associates said traders are "trying to make sense of tomorrow’s storage report, expected to be the first injection of the season." A survey of 20 analysts by The Wall Street Journal predicted the report would show 13.75 billion cubic feet of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nuclear Talks With Iran Need ‘Intensive Work,’ Envoys Say

Iran and the group of six major powers negotiating a permanent agreement to resolve the Iranian nuclear dispute concluded a two-day round of talks in Vienna on Wednesday, asserting that “a lot of intensive work” remained to complete a draft accord by their self-imposed deadline in three months. The lead negotiators, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Catherine Ashton, the top foreign policy official of the European Union, made the assertion in a joint statement that said the next round of talks would be held May 13. The statement suggested that both sides were still struggling with extensive disagreements and described the further negotiations as an attempt to “bridge the gaps in all the key areas.” The talks took place against rising tensions surrounding Iran’s estranged relations with the West, punctuated by new flare-ups with both the United States and the European Union on nonnuclear issues. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran, Major Powers Conclude Third Round of Nuclear Talks

Iran and six major powers wrapped up a third round of nuclear talks Wednesday with the parties saying a solution to the decade-old standoff remains possible by July but that the toughest work has barely begun. This week’s talks marked the halfway point in the five-month period Iran and the six powers fixed to seal a comprehensive nuclear agreement. A deal would aim to address all international concerns on Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for lifting the sanctions regime on Tehran. Iranian and Western officials said the next talks, which start May 13, would mark a transition from discussing key issues to the real drafting work—a crucial moment that may quickly reveal whether both sides are ready to make the tough political compromises a deal will require. The mood in Vienna was generally positive, with tentative signs of gaps narrowing on a few key issues. But the two sides […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran Nuclear Talks: The Real Work Is Just Beginning

Forget the last 11 years: the false starts, the glimpses of hope, the long periods of near-breakdown and despair. On May 13, Iran and six major powers will begin a grueling period of just over two months in which they hope to bury once and for all international concerns over the nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for agreeing a phased lifting of sanctions. The two sides have set a target date of July 20 to finalize a deal. Talks could extend an additional six months if both sides agree but everyone seems keen to build on current momentum and seal an accord. But those who experienced the long days of tense negotiations in Geneva last October and November that eventually produced a landmark interim agreement probably ain’t seen nothing yet. After the latest round of talks closed Wednesday , European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq Hopes to Complete Oil Pipeline to Raise Exports This Year

Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said on Wednesday his country hoped to complete construction of a 200 km (124 miles)oil pipeline to raise exports to Turkey to more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) this year. “We are building a pipeline in Iraq,” Luaibi was speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference in the Turkish capital Ankara. “I believe the daily oil flow will exceed one million barrels a day when that line is completed. I hope it happens this year.” RIGZONE

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Deadly Wave of Blasts Hits Baghdad

The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, experienced a series of violent attacks on Wednesday when eight car bombs and two mortar shells killed as many as 25 people in episodes around the city, according to security personnel. Most of the attacks appeared to target Shiite areas of the capital, such as Kadhimiya, Shaab, Shamaiya and Sadr City. Another bomb placed in a car parked near a school in southern Iraq, in Kut, killed five civilians and wounded 18 others, according to a security official. The attacks come on the 11th anniversary of the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, an event which many Iraqis regard as the fall of Baghdad, and just weeks before the first parliamentary elections since the United States withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. The vote is scheduled for the end of the month.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraqi budget stalled until after election season

Key oil revenue disputes are too much to overcome now that campaigning for April 30 national elections has begun. Iraq will not pass its 2014 federal budget before national elections on April 30, according to several members of Parliament – a setback that threatens to complicate the formation of a new government and hamper the country’s ability to execute badly needed investment projects."The issue of the budget is over now," said Kassim Mohammed Kassim, a Kurdish MP. "The current MPs who are standing as candidates will be busy with their electoral campaign, and the other MPs who aren’t standing as… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Following Jail Breaks, Baghdad to Transfer Some Inmates to Kurdistan

The fortress prison is located between Sulaimani and Dukan, and was built in the 1980s by the former Iraqi regime as a military base. In 2004, US forces renovated the facility and used it to house important prisoners from the rest of Iraq. Photo: defense.gov ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi government is transferring a number of hardcore prisoners from Baghdad to the Fort Suse prison in the autonomous Kurdistan Region because of a worsening security situation in the capital, a Kurdish official told Rudaw . He said the inmates, from jails in Baghdad and nearby Abu Ghraib, were being transferred as a precautionary measure against the al-Qaeda splinter, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has freed hundreds of hardened militants in a series of daring prison breakouts. “Swapping prisons was according to a decision by the Iraqi government. The prisoners who will be transferred to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple