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Iran and Russia working on oil-for-goods deal

The director of the National Iranian Oil Co. said talks with Russia for a deal to swap oil for goods have taken on a serious tone. NIOC Director Roknoddin Javadi said Russian tankers could start taking on Iranian oil from southern ports under the terms of a deal that would see more Russian goods imported in exchange. "We are engaged in negotiations with the Russian side (on reverse crude swap)," he said in an interview published Sunday by the semiofficial Fars News Agency. "The negotiations are continued seriously but the time for the start of the swap operation has not been finalized yet." Iran and Russia are close partners in Iran’s controversial nuclear sector. Iran has touted its potential for oil exports since brokering an interim deal in November to roll back parts of its nuclear program. Iran in return secured modest relief from […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russia oil talks pose new hurdle to Iran nuke pact

Reports of multibillion-dollar oil talks between Iran and Russia are emerging as the latest obstacle to a comprehensive pact eliminating the threat of an Iranian nuclear arsenal. The Obama administration is weighing potentially deal-breaking sanctions if a contract is completed. The Russian business daily Kommersant has reported Russia plans to buy 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day, shattering an export limit under the interim nuclear agreement world powers and Iran reached last year. Moscow and Tehran are far from finalizing the contract, the newspaper said, but the U.S. has expressed alarm. A senior U.S. official said the administration had no information to suggest the oil-for-goods contract had been reached. The arrangement would break the interim agreement reached in November in Geneva and "potentially trigger U.S. sanctions," said the official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name and briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. […]

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Iran Nuclear Haggling Hits Midpoint With Talks Over Arak Reactor

Diplomats gathering in Vienna will seek a compromise over an Iranian reactor that could produce weapons ingredients when they resume talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program today. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will join diplomats from China , France , Germany , Russia, the U.K. and U.S. The sides have set a target of July 20 for a permanent accord after breaking a decade-long deadlock in Geneva last year. After the last round of talks in March, Russia called on Iran to “demonstrate goodwill” by finding a way to modify the Arak heavy-water reactor and allay concerns that it can produce plutonium, a key ingredient in nuclear weapons. Robert Einhorn, a former U.S. negotiator, said in a report for the Brookings Institution that Iran should convert the project into a light-water reactor that wouldn’t produce plutonium. Princeton University researchers […]

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Iraq: No vote in parts of Anbar due to clashes

An Iraqi electoral official says there will be no balloting in parts of the Sunni-dominated Anbar province engulfed in clashes between security forces and al-Qaida-inspired militants. Muqdad al-Shuraifi from the Independent High Electoral Commission said on Tuesday that families displaced by the fighting will be allowed to vote in areas deemed "safe" or in parts of the province where they found shelter. The April 30 parliamentary election is the first balloting in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in late 2011. But the exclusion of major Sunni cities such as Ramadi and Fallujah – where most of the fighting is underway as Iraqi forces try to wrest back areas overrun by militants – from the voting could deepen Sunni fears of being marginalized by the country’s Shiite majority.

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Libya Oil Sales to Rise as Rebels Surrender Two Ports

Libyan rebels surrendered control of two oil ports to the government, potentially enabling the OPEC member to triple crude exports this month with an increase of at least 180,000 barrels a day. Brent futures dropped. The self-declared Executive Office for Barqa handed over the oil terminals of Zueitina and Hariga overnight, said Ali Al-Hasy, a spokesman of the group that seeks self rule for the region that is also known as Cyrenaica. An agreement yesterday with the government also provides for the rebels to relinquish the other two ports they control, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, in two to four weeks, he said. The government confirmed the agreement in a statement on its website. With Africa ’s largest oil reserves, Libya’s oil production slumped by more than 1 million barrels a day in the past year as protests halted oil fields and ports. Brent crude futures, which fell 1.3 […]

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Kashagan oil field hits restart delays

It may cost as much as 15 times more to rebuild the pipelines needed to restart operations at the giant Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea, a metallurgist said. Kashagan is one of the largest oil fields in the world, with an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil reserves. Production was halted in October, less than a month after it started, when a pipeline associated with the field cracked open. A source close to the project told online energy news website Quartz corrosive hydrogen sulfide found within the natural gas associated with the field causes the field’s pipelines to crack open almost as soon the hydrogen sulfide is exposed to moisture. Barry Hindin, a corrosion engineer at Battelle Memorial Institute, told the news site a nickel-based steel alloy that would resist hydrogen sulfide may cost the consortium operating Kashagan as much as 15 times more than conventional pipelines. In […]

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Nigeria: Oil Production

Oil theft looks set to push Nigeria off its spot as top African crude oil exporter in May and exports could fall to their lowest since records began in 2009, data have shown. Nigerian exports in May are set to be at around 1.59 million barrels per day (bpd) excluding the Forcados and Ebok grades of crude oil, which had still not emerged. Exports are far below the high above 2.2 million bpd reached in 2011, and the May figure is set to fall beneath the exports of Angola, which is usually the continent’s second largest exporter. According to Reuters, Angolan exports in May were set to be 1.67 million bpd, a provisional shipping list indicated. Production of the Forcados grade has been hit by underwater pipeline leakage due to oil theft which led operator, Shell, to declare a force majeure on the grade last week.   Copyright © […]

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Nigeria's Crude Export to Us Declines By 91 Percent – India, Highest Buyer of Nigeria's Crude

NIGERIA has started to witness the negative effect of shale oil exploration in the United Stated of America, USA, and other parts of the world, as Nigeria’s crude oil export to North America dropped by 91.31 per cent in one year. Specifically, data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s, December 2013 Petroleum Information, disclosed that Nigeria exported 1.438 million barrels of crude oil to North America as at December 2013, down by 15.111 million barrels in December 2012. North America accounted for 22.19 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export by December 2012, but it dropped to 2.23 per cent by December 2013. Prior to the decline, the US was the highest buyer of Nigeria’s crude, purchasing 14.279 million barrels in December 2012, thereby, accounting for 19.15 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export and 86.28 per cent of total crude export to North America. By 2013 end, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigeria’s Crude Export to Us Declines By 91 Percent – India, Highest Buyer of Nigeria’s Crude

NIGERIA has started to witness the negative effect of shale oil exploration in the United Stated of America, USA, and other parts of the world, as Nigeria’s crude oil export to North America dropped by 91.31 per cent in one year. Specifically, data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s, December 2013 Petroleum Information, disclosed that Nigeria exported 1.438 million barrels of crude oil to North America as at December 2013, down by 15.111 million barrels in December 2012. North America accounted for 22.19 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export by December 2012, but it dropped to 2.23 per cent by December 2013. Prior to the decline, the US was the highest buyer of Nigeria’s crude, purchasing 14.279 million barrels in December 2012, thereby, accounting for 19.15 per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export and 86.28 per cent of total crude export to North America. By 2013 end, […]

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Brazil Vice President Sees No Fuel Price Boost as Election Looms

Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer said he sees no room for a fuel price increase before elections in October and that inflation surpassing 6.5 percent would be a “disaster.” “I don’t think so. I can’t say with complete certainty,” Temer, 73, said in an interview yesterday at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York , in response to whether Petroleo Brasileiro SA would raise fuel prices before the election. “I don’t have information about it, but I’m not seeing the possibility.” Petrobras rose 6.6 percent to 16.46 reais yesterday, the biggest jump in more than a week, after a poll showed reduced support for President Dilma Rousseff’s re-election bid. The government controls Petrobras’s board with a majority of voting shares, and investors were encouraged by the possibility of a change in administration, said Paulo Brito, an investment manager at the brokerage firm HPN Invest in Recife, Brazil . The company’s refining […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple