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British shale company Cuadrilla plans new campaign

British shale gas explorer Cuadrilla Resources announced its intention to submit a plan for exploration work to the county council in Lancashire. "This application could be a really important milestone for Lancashire and the U.K. as we seek to unlock Lancashire’s shale gas potential," Cuadrilla Chief Executive Officer Francis Egan said in a statement Sunday. The company said it would submit its planning application for a hydraulic fracturing campaign for four exploration wells to the Lancashire County Council before the end of May. In March, the company said it believes there are 200 trillion cubic feet of shale natural gas in the Bowland basin in Lancashire . Cuadrilla was the target of major demonstrations last summer when exploratory operations in the southern village of Balcombe were viewed as a prelude to fracking. In January, the company sent a letter to village residents, saying it was […]

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Gazprom: All South Stream offshore contracts signed

Russian energy company Gazprom said all contracts for the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline’s offshore section have been signed. Gazprom touts South Stream — which would stretch about 575 miles long offshore and more than 900 miles through the territory of southern European countries — as an option to ensure European gas supplies are stable. Ukraine hosts the bulk of Russian gas supplies for Europe, exposing the European energy sector to the associated with ongoing disputes between Kiev and the Kremlin. Gazprom said it’s concluded all of the contracts needed to start construction of the onshore section of the pipeline later this year. It’s placed orders for more than 150,000 sections of pipeline already. Henning Voscherau, chairman of the South Stream board of directors, said the pipeline would be beneficial not only to European consumers but to stakeholders as well. "I am sure […]

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Oil Futures Extend Gains

Oil futures were slightly higher in Asian trading hours Monday with both the U.S. and European oil benchmarks extending strong gains from the previous week. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $102.16 a barrel at 0531 GMT, up $0.14 in the Globex electronic session. July Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.20 to $109.95 a barrel. Nymex WTI crude has risen for six of the past nine weeks and ICE Brent crude has been up for four of the past six weeks. German officials warned over the weekend that Russia would have to face additional sanctions if Moscow disrupts the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine on May 25. The situation in Ukraine, which is the main support for Brent crude, shows no signs of easing ahead of the coming weekend’s presidential election, ANZ said in a report. […]

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Brent Extends Weekly Gain on Libya Fighting; WTI Climbs

Brent extended its first weekly gain this month amid speculation escalating violence in will further disrupt supplies from the holder of Africa ’s biggest oil reserves. West Texas Intermediate also rose in New York . Futures climbed as much as 0.5 percent in London . Libya accused a retired army general in the eastern city of Benghazi of planning a coup while the nation’s General Assembly in Tripoli was said to be suspended after it was stormed by a militia. Libyan crude production is down about 80 percent from a year ago, data compiled by Bloomberg show. “A restart from Libya is needed to balance the global supply-demand in the third quarter and for now that is still not coming,” Olivier Jakob , managing director at Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Switzerland , said by e-mail. Recent efforts to restore Libyan production didn’t last long, so the country was already […]

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Natural Gas Bets Drop to Five-Month Low on U.S. Supply

Faster-than-expected gains in U.S. natural-gas inventories are easing concern that a shortage is looming next winter, spurring speculators to cut bullish bets. Money managers’ net-long position fell 9.1 percent in the week ended May 13 to the lowest level since December, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said. Bearish wagers are the highest in more than four months. Gas futures fell 9.2 percent in the period as stockpile gains topped analysts’ forecasts for a third week. Production from shale deposits in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest climbed to a record 16.1 billion cubic feet a day in the week ended May 9, Credit Suisse Group AG said in a report May 15. “We’re on the path to a more comfortable supply situation by the end of the summer,” Tom Saal, senior vice president of energy trading at FCStone Latin America LLC in Miami, said by phone on May 16. […]

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Energy agency predicts oil shortage unless supply boosted

Industrialised countries could be facing the prospect of an oil supply squeeze and higher prices later this year unless production is lifted, according to a report just released by the International Energy Agency. In its latest Oil Market Report, the IEA says recent production gains will not be sufficient to meet market needs in the second half of the year when consumption picks up. "Crude prices remain elevated and forecast balances call for a significant rise in OPEC production from current levels for the second half of the year," the IEA said. The IEA says OPEC nations will have to increase third quarter production by another 900,000 barrels per day from current levels to 30.7 million barrels per day to meet the expected demand. "While OPEC has more than enough capacity to deliver, it remains to be seen whether it will manage to overcome the above-ground hurdles that have […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Nations Put Out Welcome Mat for Western Companies

For years, Mexico, Iran, Iraq, Algeria and Libya—most of them among the top 10 producers world-wide—were fiercely nationalistic when it came to oil. They either offered Western companies punitive terms to develop their reserves or didn’t do business with them at all, controlling their supplies tightly with state-owned companies. Now, facing a range of problems, these nations are looking to tap more of their reserves—and they’re offering Western companies generous deals to win their help. What could it all mean? Plenty. Windfall for Countries In many cases, liberalizing represents a potential economic boon for countries. Asset manager BlackRock says liberalization could add a full percentage point to Mexico’s annual gross-domestic-product growth—equivalent to about $12 billion. There are local and global political considerations in play, too. In Iran, Libya and Algeria, the population is addicted to low energy prices and high oil-funded social spending. All of that is in jeopardy […]

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Gunmen Storm Libya Parliament as Violence Grips Oil-Producer

A Libyan military police chief said he disbanded parliament after a militia group he backs stormed it yesterday, spreading violence in the energy-rich nation to its capital and sending world oil prices higher. In a televised speech late yesterday preceded by clashes, Mukhtar Fernana said parliament will be replaced by a 60-member group. Nuri Abu Sahmain, the head of the General National Congress, denied that it had been suspended and said yesterday he was running it from a “safe place,” the state-run Libyan News Agency reported. Fernana said he won’t allow Libya to become a safe-haven for extremists or a “home for terrorists.” The assault, he said, was not a coup and reflects the “freedom that Libyans wanted and fought for.” Brent for July settlement increased as much as 49 cents to $110.24 a barrel on the London-based ICE Europe Futures exchange and was at $110.14 at 3:55 p.m. […]

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Militant group vows to fight Libyan general

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — An al-Qaida-inspired group in Libya said Monday it will fight troops loyal to a renegade general behind an attack on the country’s parliament the day before and join forces with Islamic militias who were targeted by the general’s secular followers. The announcement by the influential Lions of Monotheism Group further adds to the quagmire in Libya, three years after the overthrow of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. On Sunday, forces loyal to Gen. Khalifa Hifter, a former rebel in the fight against Gadhafi, stormed the parliament in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, saying they were suspending the house in a struggle against Islamist lawmakers and officials whom they blame for allowing extremists to hold the country ransom. The attack saw militia members backed by truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns, mortars and rocket fire raid the parliament building in the heart of Tripoli, sending lawmakers fleeing for their lives as gunmen […]

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Ex-General Claims Responsibility for Libyan Parliament Attack

TRIPOLI, Libya — A retired Libyan general claimed responsibility for an attack on the Parliament building here on Sunday, two days after his irregular force launched an attack aimed at eradicating powerful Islamist militias from the eastern city of Benghazi. Militia members using antiaircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and light arms engaged Sunday in some of the heaviest clashes in months here in the capital, killing two people and wounding 60, according to hospital officials cited by The Associated Press. The fighters’ affiliation was unclear, but militias from Zintan, southwest of Tripoli, claimed responsibility on social media, calling Parliament “the main backer of terrorism in Libya.” Mohamed el-Hejazi, a spokesman for Khalifa Heftar, the retired general, claimed in an interview that the fighters from Zintan had been acting on the general’s orders. He said: “They are not militias. They are units loyal to the Libyan National Army,” referring to a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple