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Highlights of the latest OMR

il prices rose marginally month-on-month in April, supported by continued tensions between Russia and the Ukraine, supply outages in OPEC and non-OPEC countries and stepped up crude buying as refiners complete seasonal turnarounds. ICE Brent futures were last trading at $109.85/bbl and NYMEX WTI at $102.10/bbl. Forecast global demand growth for 2014 has been raised marginally since last month’s Report , to 1.32 mb/d, on higher 1Q14 data. Baseline adjustments to 2012 add 0.1 mb/d to the historical average and total demand, now pegged at 92.8 mb/d in 2014.  Global supplies rose 700 kb/d month-on-month to 92.1 mb/d in April, with roughly half of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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"No tangible progress" made in Iranian nuclear talks: Iranian deputy FM

he forth round of Iranian nuclear talks ended Friday in Vienna, making "no tangible progress," but the negotiation will continue in coming months, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator was quoted as saying. Abbas Araqchi, who is also Iranian deputy foreign minister, on Friday made the remarks after a 3-day meeting with five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK and the United States) and Germany in Vienna. Araqchi believes "drafting" could be started "when the positions are closer to each other," without providing further details of the talks. Before the talks, U.S. and Iranian officials said the talk could be "very difficult" as the significant gap between Tehran and west remains. Western states suspect Iran has been developing atomic weapon undercover of its civilian nuclear plan, while Iran dismisses the allegation, saying its nuclear program is solely peaceful and the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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“No tangible progress” made in Iranian nuclear talks: Iranian deputy FM

he forth round of Iranian nuclear talks ended Friday in Vienna, making "no tangible progress," but the negotiation will continue in coming months, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator was quoted as saying. Abbas Araqchi, who is also Iranian deputy foreign minister, on Friday made the remarks after a 3-day meeting with five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK and the United States) and Germany in Vienna. Araqchi believes "drafting" could be started "when the positions are closer to each other," without providing further details of the talks. Before the talks, U.S. and Iranian officials said the talk could be "very difficult" as the significant gap between Tehran and west remains. Western states suspect Iran has been developing atomic weapon undercover of its civilian nuclear plan, while Iran dismisses the allegation, saying its nuclear program is solely peaceful and the […]

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Iran Nuclear Talks Stumble in Latest Round on Enrichment

Diplomats negotiating over Iran ’s atomic program ended the latest round of talks in Vienna without advancing their bid to reach a deal by July to impose nuclear curbs in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. The sides will meet twice next month in the Austrian capital to try to hammer out an accord, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. “There was no tangible progress in this round, but the trend of negotiations was good,” Araghchi said at a briefing broadcast by Press TV. “No drafting will be done until both sides have reached a mutual viewpoint.” A U.S. official, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public, said the latest talks were difficult and Iranian negotiators should be aware that more urgency will be needed to meet their July deadline. Diplomats at this week’s meeting were expected to begin drafting the text of a […]

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Nuclear Talks With Iran Fail to Yield Pact, Officials Say

The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers ended on Friday in Vienna, with Iranian and American officials saying that progress was slow and difficult, with serious gaps between the two sides on basic issues like the size of any nuclear enrichment capability Iran would be permitted to retain. A senior American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic negotiations, said that Iran needed to be more realistic in the talks. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told Iranian news media that “there was no tangible progress in this round of the talks” and that differences were too large to begin drafting an accord. But he said that the talks would continue next month. The American official agreed with Mr. Araghchi that “significant gaps” remained after three days of talks. “Iran still has to make some hard choices,” the official […]

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U.S. warns 'time is short' as Iran nuclear talks make little progress

Iran and six world powers made little progress this week in talks on ending their dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, U.S. and Iranian officials said on Friday, raising doubts over the prospects for a breakthrough by a July 20 deadline. After three months of mostly comparing expectations rather than negotiating compromises, the sides had intended to start drafting a final agreement that could end more than a decade of enmity and mistrust and dispel fears of a wider Middle East war. "We believe there needs to be some additional realism," a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity, declining to provide details on what issues had caused the most difficulty. "Time is not unlimited here." "In any negotiation there are good days and bad days, there are ups and downs, this has been a moment of great difficulty but one that was not entirely unexpected," […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. warns ‘time is short’ as Iran nuclear talks make little progress

Iran and six world powers made little progress this week in talks on ending their dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, U.S. and Iranian officials said on Friday, raising doubts over the prospects for a breakthrough by a July 20 deadline. After three months of mostly comparing expectations rather than negotiating compromises, the sides had intended to start drafting a final agreement that could end more than a decade of enmity and mistrust and dispel fears of a wider Middle East war. "We believe there needs to be some additional realism," a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity, declining to provide details on what issues had caused the most difficulty. "Time is not unlimited here." "In any negotiation there are good days and bad days, there are ups and downs, this has been a moment of great difficulty but one that was not entirely unexpected," […]

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Israel, U.S. import disputed oil from Iraqi Kurdistan

Israeli and U.S. oil refinerieshave joined the growing list of customers for crude from IraqiKurdistan, a region locked in a bitter struggle with the centralgovernment in Baghdad that says the sales are illegal. The United States imported its first crude cargo from theregion two weeks ago while at least four have gone to Israelsince January, ship tracking and industry sources said, aftertwo were shipped there last summer. The Iraqi government has repeatedly said oil salesby-passing Baghdad are illegal and has threatened to sue anycompany involved in the trade, yet Kurdish crude and lightcondensate oil has been sold to several European buyers. Baghdadrefuses to sell oil to Israel, echoing other Arab states. Israel’s Energy […]

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Kurdistan Rejects Report on Oil Sales to Israel, US

Kurdish officials rejected on Thursday a report by Reuters that the Kurdistan Region had sold shipments of oil to Israel and the US. “Those places mentioned in (Reuter’s) report have not been sold even a drop of oil,” said an official source from KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). Reuter wrote that Kurdish oil has been sold via the Turkish Powertrans to Israel’s Oil Refineries Limited’s (ORL) and that some oil shipments had reached refineries in Houston, Texas. “The United States imported its first crude cargo from the region two weeks ago while at least four have gone to Israel since January, ship tracking and industry sources said, after two were shipped there last summer.” Reuters reported. The report also mentioned that Kurdish natural gas condensate has been sold to Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Latin America. “Kurdistan oil has not been sold until now,” KRG […]

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Iraq: Maliki calls on army and police to continue efforts in Anbar

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki has called on the security forces to stand firm in battles with militants in Anbar, amid criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis in Iraq’s largest province. In his weekly address on Wednesday, Maliki said soldiers and police should ignore “disorderly voices” in the fighting to reclaim the city of Fallujah, which the government has been attempting to recapture from insurgents for five months. Those “voices” appeared to include members of the Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Maliki said: “There should not be any consideration given to the terrorists under any pretext,” and called for the “punishment of those who covered up, cooperated with or remained silent about this phenomenon . . . Laws must be complemented with maximum levels of resolve and force in the face of Al-Qaeda.” Maliki’s opponents in the Iraqi parliament have kept up their criticism […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple