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WTI Trades Near Four-Week High on Cushing Supplies

West Texas Intermediate traded near a four-week high amid speculation crude supplies will shrink further at Cushing, the biggest U.S. oil-storage hub, halting gains in nationwide stockpiles. Brent was steady in London as Libyan oil facilities remained unaffected by renewed violence. Futures were little changed in New York after rising 0.6 percent yesterday. Total U.S. crude inventories were unchanged after increasing five of the last six weeks, a Bloomberg News survey shows. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he ordered the withdrawal of troops near Ukraine’s border, signaling a possible easing of tension days before the country’s presidential election. A rogue general in eastern Libya gained support against the government among soldiers and some separatist groups. “The U.S. recovery is gaining ground and that is positive for energy demand, and it’s drawing on inventories,” Jens Naervig Pedersen , a commodities analyst at Danske Bank A/S, said by phone from Copenhagen. […]

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Oil Futures Flat Ahead of Inventories

Crude-oil prices were marginally higher in Asia Tuesday, but traded within a narrow range ahead of weekly U.S. oil inventory data that analysts say is expected to show rising supply levels. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $102.73 a barrel at 0550 GMT, up $0.12 in the Globex electronic session. July Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.13 to $109.50 a barrel. "In the U.S., analysts predict a modest rise in crude stocks and a draw in distillate inventories as the country approaches the start of the driving season following the Memorial Day holiday on 26 May," ANZ said in a report. U.S. oil stockpile data for last week are due from the American Petroleum Institute, a trade body, later Tuesday. The more definitive oil stockpile data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration are due Wednesday. While […]

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Natural-Gas Prices Climb on Forecast for Warm Weather

Natural-gas futures touched their highest level in a week Monday as forecasts for warmer weather suggested an uptick in spring-time demand. Prices for the front-month June contract closed up 5.7 cents, or 1.3%, to $4.47 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In intraday trade, prices had climbed above $4.50/mmBtu for the first time in a week. Updated weather forecasts showed some of the first sustained heat of the year, with warmer-than-normal conditions spreading across most of the country through the next two weeks. Forecasts for early June point to temperatures in the 80s from Houston to Boston. That could lead to gas-fired electricity powering air conditioners three weeks before the official start of summer. It may not be a heat wave, but traders have to factor in the chance of an early summer and how unseasonably high demand could stretch the […]

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Iran expects more from South Pars field

Three more sections of the South Pars natural gas field in the Persian Gulf are expected online this year, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangenah said. The Iranian government expects Phase 12 of a gas field it shares with Qatar will boost South Pars production by more than 875 million cubic feet per day once it’s online in late May or early June. Zanganeh said during a Sunday tour of the infrastructure associated with the field’s development that Phase 12 is one of three new segments of the field expected online during the Iranian calendar year, which began March 21. "Phase 12 is one of the important and big phases of the South Pars and its completion is important," he told the semi-official Fars News Agency. South Pars accounts for about 35 percent of the total volume of gas produced from Iran . In the past, […]

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Officials say attacks across Iraq kill 14

A series of attacks in Iraq, mainly bombings targeting markets and commercial streets, killed 14 people Sunday, officials said. Police officials said the deadliest attack took place shortly before sunset when a bomb exploded at an outdoor market in the town of Mahmoudiya, killing four people and wounding 12. Mahmoudiya is 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of the capital. A bomb blast at an outdoor market in Baghdad’s eastern suburb of Maamil killed three shoppers and wounded seven, police said. In western Baghdad, police said a bomb blast in a commercial street killed two people and wounded seven. In the northern city of Mosul, police said a car bomb exploded near an army patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing two soldiers and wounding four. Sunday night, police said gunmen using weapons fitted with silencers stormed an apartment in eastern Baghdad, killing three off-duty policemen. […]

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Libyans Begin Taking Sides After General Wages Attacks

Towns, tribes and armed groups across Libya chose sides on Monday in response to a renegade general’s assault on the country’s Islamist militias and lawmakers. The general, Khalifa Heftar, has threatened to start something like a coup or even a civil war, though it is far from clear he has the power to do so. He has faulted the large Islamist blocs in the transitional Parliament for ineffectiveness and accused them of condoning the militias. In an apparent concession aimed at averting conflict, the interim government on Monday proposed selecting a new prime minister and suspending Parliament until the next election, which has not yet been scheduled. But it was unclear how Parliament might respond, and the proposal did not appear to have much chance of defusing the standoff. Mr. Heftar, 65, is a retired army officer who turned against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi decades ago and […]

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Libya’s Oil Rebels Side With General Attacking Islamists

A rogue general in who’s confronting Islamist militias and seeking to shut down the country’s parliament gained support in the east of the country among both soldiers and some separatist groups. Rebels who hold ports in eastern Libya, where they’ve been blocking oil exports since July, expressed support for Khalifa Haftar, the retired military leader who heads a self-proclaimed National Army. Haftar’s stated goal of crushing armed Islamist groups also won backing from a key army commander in the east. As Libya’s government accuses Haftar of attempting a coup, his forces put on a show of strength at both ends of the country, attacking Islamist groups in Benghazi and storming the parliament in Tripoli. The fighting is the latest evidence of the breakdown of authority in the oil-rich north African nation three years after the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi . Conflicts in Libya, where oil production has slid to […]

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Algeria oil company to withdraw workers from Libya

An official close to Algeria’s state oil giant Sonatrach says authorities have decided to evacuate the company’s employees from Libya due to the deteriorating security situation. The decision follows the evacuation of Algerian diplomats from Libya Friday in response to what the Foreign Ministry said was a "clear and present" threat. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had yet to be made, said Tuesday it was feared that with Algerian diplomats gone, terrorists would target oil workers. Sonatrach is working oil fields in the Ghadames basin in southern Libya, near the Algerian border. A renegade general has taken up arms against the Islamists dominating Libya’s fractured government sparking fighting in major cities. Libya is also home to al-Qaida-linked groups battling the Algerian government.

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Food Crisis Worsens in South Sudan as Civil War Is Displacing Millions

At the beginning of the rainy season every year, Nyaaker Onwar, 34, would plant the sorghum and vegetables, while her husband and eldest son herded the cows and caught fish from the White Nile. They ate what they produced, and when the harvest was bountiful, they sold the rest in a nearby market town. In February, armed men looted their cows, burned their fishing boat and kidnapped some of their relatives. Ms. Onwar fled with her husband and seven children to this village through rain and deep mud. She has been here for weeks with thousands of people displaced by South Sudan’s civil war. When she arrived, she was hungry, with no money and few options. “We had to sell our clothes to buy food,” she said. Five months of war in South Sudan has led to the deaths of thousands and the displacement […]

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Nigeria: MEND Claims Responsibility for NNPC Jetty Explosion

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s explosion at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) jetty, Okrika, Rivers State, which left an unspecified number of people dead and scores injured. This came as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) called for urgent probe of the incident. In a statement posted online Monday afternoon, MEND said the explosion was part of its Operation ‘Hurricane Exodus" aimed at sabotaging oil installations in the Niger Delta region. The statement signed by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, read, "The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) takes responsibility for the sabotage on Sunday, 18 May, 2014 , on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Refinery Jetty pipelines in Okrika, Rivers State of Nigeria" .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple