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Oil gains on reports US may lift oil export ban

The price of U.S. oil rose Wednesday following reports that Washington is studying whether to lift a longstanding ban on crude oil exports. Benchmark U.S. crude for June delivery was up 33 cents to $102.03 a barrel at 0550 GMT on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, it jumped $1.11 to $101.70 a barrel, its highest close since April 24. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told reporters in Seoul, South Korea that the government was reviewing the issue of crude oil exports, given the mismatch between rising supplies of crude and the U.S. refining capacity, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Wednesday, the Energy Department is expected to report that U.S. crude oil supplies fell last week by 1.5 million barrels, according to a survey of analysts by Platts. It would be the second weekly decline since the nation’s supply of oil reached a record 399.4 million […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Hits 7-Week Low Due to Abundant Supplies

Natural-gas prices hit their longest losing streak since November as anticipation of healthy supplies pushed prices down for the fifth straight session. Prices for the front-month June contract fell 7.6 cents, or 1.7%, to $4.358 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are now down 9.2% since last Wednesday and at their lowest close since April 1. Traders have been selling steadily after inventory additions reported last Thursday beat the market’s expectations for a third straight week. The selling was forced by investors exiting long positions, or bets that prices would rise. A steadily declining prices forced sales to limit losses, analysts said. "People are taking a bath on those long positions, so speculators have to get out of them," said Aaron Calder, senior market analyst at energy-consulting firm Gelber & Associates in Houston. "This is the optimal bearish condition […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC Update with April MOMR Data Plus Eagle Ford

The new OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report  is out with the April Crude only data. No real big movers. Total OPEC crude production was up 131 kb/d but that was after March production had been revised down 148 kb/d. OPEC 12 crude only production stood at 29,593,000 bp/d. That is just over 2 million bp/d from their recent peaks in July 2008 and April 2012. Iraq was the only big mover, up 102 kb/d from last month. Saudi Arabia was up 23 kb/d but that was after March production had been revised down by 153 kb/d. Updated Charts of all 12 OPEC nations plus a couple of others can be found on the OPEC Charts page. The EIA has just published their latest Drilling Productivity Report . That report tries to guess where all LTO production will be through June. It seems that they have decided to revise their […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurds could opt out of next Iraqi government: president

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, said Iraq had been led in an authoritarian direction by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and threatened to end the oil-rich autonomous region’s participation in the federal government. Iraq held elections on April 30. The results have yet to be announced but Kurdish support is crucial to Maliki’s ambitions for a third term. The incumbent premier’s rivals, both Shi’ite and Sunni, are hoping Barzani and the Kurds will help them thwart Maliki’s bid to stay in office for four more years. Barzani said Kurdish parties would meet as soon as the results of the election were officially announced, expected in the next few days, to decide how to proceed in negotiations over the government formation. The talks could drag on for months and Barzani declined to give any more details of the Kurds’ […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraqi Kurdistan gambles on oil and Baghdad's benevolence

Iraqi Kurdistan is risking the loss of its share of Iraq’s national budget to secure greater independence and the right to manage its own oil. Although oil exports could net the Kurdistan Regional Government a healthy revenue stream, for now it cannot plug the gap if Baghdad continues to withhold the 17 percent of the national budget that it provides to Kurdistan every year. That revenue makes up the largest chunk of the Kurdish region’s budget, even though the Kurds say they regularly receive much less than promised.  Baghdad began withholding that money in January, and the KRG has already had to delay paying public sector workers’ wages – April’s paychecks still haven’t arrived, and some workers have gone on strike. Officials say they will have to dip into savings. The Kurds, spread across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, have long faced persecution and clamored for greater independence in each […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraqi Kurdistan gambles on oil and Baghdad’s benevolence

Iraqi Kurdistan is risking the loss of its share of Iraq’s national budget to secure greater independence and the right to manage its own oil. Although oil exports could net the Kurdistan Regional Government a healthy revenue stream, for now it cannot plug the gap if Baghdad continues to withhold the 17 percent of the national budget that it provides to Kurdistan every year. That revenue makes up the largest chunk of the Kurdish region’s budget, even though the Kurds say they regularly receive much less than promised.  Baghdad began withholding that money in January, and the KRG has already had to delay paying public sector workers’ wages – April’s paychecks still haven’t arrived, and some workers have gone on strike. Officials say they will have to dip into savings. The Kurds, spread across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, have long faced persecution and clamored for greater independence in each […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Al Qaeda's Iraqi offshoot gains ground in Syria amid rebel infighting

A rogue Iraqi offshoot of al Qaeda is now killing more rival al Qaeda fighters every week in Syria than President Bashar al-Assad’s forces as infighting intensifies among opposition gunmen. Clashes this year between al Qaeda’s official Syria wing, the Nusra Front, and the franchise’s disowned offspring, The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have killed hundreds of fighters and displaced tens of thousands of civilians. Nusra lost control of Raqqa – the only rebel-held city in Syria – to ISIL fighters in January and intense fighting over the weekend resulted in ISIL making gains in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, Syria’s oil region. If ISIL can take the province, it will control territory across Syria and into Iraq. Al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has repeatedly tried to rein in ISIL and this month he appealed to the group to return to Iraq […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Al Qaeda’s Iraqi offshoot gains ground in Syria amid rebel infighting

A rogue Iraqi offshoot of al Qaeda is now killing more rival al Qaeda fighters every week in Syria than President Bashar al-Assad’s forces as infighting intensifies among opposition gunmen. Clashes this year between al Qaeda’s official Syria wing, the Nusra Front, and the franchise’s disowned offspring, The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have killed hundreds of fighters and displaced tens of thousands of civilians. Nusra lost control of Raqqa – the only rebel-held city in Syria – to ISIL fighters in January and intense fighting over the weekend resulted in ISIL making gains in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, Syria’s oil region. If ISIL can take the province, it will control territory across Syria and into Iraq. Al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has repeatedly tried to rein in ISIL and this month he appealed to the group to return to Iraq […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Cairo: BP to invest big in Egypt

British energy company BP aims to invest about $1.5 billion in the Egyptian oil and gas sector, the Egyptian government said. State-run media in Egypt said Monday representatives from BP met Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and Oil Minister Sherif Ismal in Cairo to discuss work in the Egyptian energy sector. The government said the delegation welcomed Egyptian efforts to overcome "obstacles facing companies working on the Egyptian market." BP’s counterpart, BG Group, expressed concern about its future operations in Egypt, citing continued diversions of natural gas to the domestic market. No cargoes of liquefied natural gas left Egypt during the first quarter of 2014 and the company said it produced 66,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Egypt, down 35 percent from fourth quarter 2013. The Egyptian government said BP is investing $1.5 billion in the oil and gas sector during the second half […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libyan oil operations closed since March, OMV says

Operations in Libya for Austrian energy company OMV were curtailed sharply by security issues, CEO Gerhard Roiss said Tuesday. OMV said its production for first quarter 2014 was 311,000 barrels oil equivalent higher year-on-year. Roiss said in a statement production from his company’s portfolio in Norway helped offset losses from North Africa. "Libyan operations … were again impacted by security issues and production has been shut in since mid-March," he said in a statement . "We took several steps to further strengthen our upstream portfolio." OMV said the situation in Libya remains "very difficult to predict." Optimism over a rebound in the Libyan oil sector increased last month when the Libyan National Oil Company announced it lifted an emergency declaration on oil operations at its Zueitina terminal in the east of the country. OMV, however, said production from its operations in Libya has been shut […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple