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Oil Slips As Market Reassesses Iraq

Oil prices fell Tuesday as supply disruption from Iraq remained minimal and those betting on higher prices began to doubt the possibility of more profit to be made. Brent crude was down 0.1% at $113.96 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, after a gain of 2.1% last week that took it to fresh nine-month highs. WTI was down 0.3% at $105.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The net long position, or bets that crude will rise, neared record highs in both the U.S. WTI market and Europe’s Brent market this week. This may have gone too far, said Ole Hansen, commodity analyst at Saxo Bank. When insurgents moved to attack cities in Iraq, the oil market shot higher on anticipation of a cut in supplies. But Iraq’s oil fields remain unaffected and very little supply disruption has yet materialized. "Investors have got a bit carried away […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Drops as Iraq Violence Seen Sparing Crude Supplies

Brent crude declined for a third day and West Texas Intermediate slipped amid speculation that Iraqi oil production won’t be disrupted by escalating violence in OPEC’s second-largest producer. Futures decreased as much as 0.4 percent in London. Iraqi forces regained control of the Baiji refinery in the north from Islamist militants, and fighting hasn’t spread to the south, home to more than three-quarters of the country’s crude output. In the U.S., a government report tomorrow may show oil stockpiles slid for a fourth week, according to a Bloomberg News survey. “ Iraq is still the talk of the town, even though the situation on the ground has not escalated materially,” Amrita Sen, chief oil markets analyst at London-based consultant Energy Aspects Ltd., said in a report. “Iraqi supply losses have been minimal so far.” Brent for August settlement dropped as much as 50 cents to $113.62 a barrel on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural-Gas Futures Fall on Expectations of Growing Stockpiles

Natural-gas prices slid to a four-week low Monday as market participants remain confident that U.S. stockpiles of the fuel would grow at a faster-than-expected pace. Natural gas for July delivery is down 8.5 cents, or 1.9%, at $4.4460 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The U.S. Energy Information Administration confirmed Thursday that the amount of gas added to storage was above 100 billion cubic feet for the sixth-consecutive week, a streak that has put a downward pressure on prices. "The market is anticipating a pretty sizable injection again this week," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. The EIA is scheduled to release the weekly storage data at 10:30 a.m. EDT Thursday. The amount that can be added to stockpiles is largely dependent on demand for electricity, particularly to run air conditioning, which has so far been […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kerry promises 'intense and sustained' U.S. support for Iraq

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday promised "intense and sustained" U.S. support for Iraq, but said the divided country would only survive if its leaders took urgent steps to bring it together. Hours before Kerry arrived in Baghdad, Sunni tribes who have joined a militant takeover of northern Iraq seized the only legal crossing point with Jordan, security sources said, leaving troops with no presence along the entire western frontier which includes some of the Middle East’s most important trade routes. U.S. President Barack Obama has offered up to 300 American advisers to Iraq but held off granting a request by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite Muslim-led government for air strikes to counter the two-week advance by Sunni militants. Officials have meanwhile called for Iraqis to form an inclusive government. The insurgency has been fuelled largely by a sense of materialization and persecution among Iraq’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kerry promises ‘intense and sustained’ U.S. support for Iraq

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday promised "intense and sustained" U.S. support for Iraq, but said the divided country would only survive if its leaders took urgent steps to bring it together. Hours before Kerry arrived in Baghdad, Sunni tribes who have joined a militant takeover of northern Iraq seized the only legal crossing point with Jordan, security sources said, leaving troops with no presence along the entire western frontier which includes some of the Middle East’s most important trade routes. U.S. President Barack Obama has offered up to 300 American advisers to Iraq but held off granting a request by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite Muslim-led government for air strikes to counter the two-week advance by Sunni militants. Officials have meanwhile called for Iraqis to form an inclusive government. The insurgency has been fuelled largely by a sense of materialization and persecution among Iraq’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq’s Kurds Weigh Dealing With Baghdad or Going It Alone

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdish capital, today to make his case for national unity to the ethnic minority that may hold the only winning hand in the country’s sectarian turmoil. Kerry will meet with Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and other Kurdish leaders, bringing the same plea for cooperation he delivered yesterday to Shiite and Sunni politicians in Baghdad. In advance of Kerry’s arrival from Amman, Jordan, Barzani signaled yesterday that the “time is here” for the Kurds, a minority of 6.5 million, to decide on independence instead of what’s now a semi-autonomous state within Iraq . As fighting rages between extremists and Iraqi forces, the Kurds are in a position to be deal makers in political talks for a new government. “During the last 10 years, we did everything in our ability, we made every effort and show […]

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Kurdish leader cites 'new reality' in Iraq

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The president of Iraq’s ethnic Kurdish region declared Tuesday that "we are facing a new reality and a new Iraq" as the country considers new leadership for its Shiite-led government as an immediate step to curb a Sunni insurgent rampage. The comments by Kurdish President Massoud Barzani came as he met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is pushing the central government in Baghdad to at least adopt new policies that would give more authority to Iraq’s minority Sunnis and Kurds. Kerry has repeatedly said that it’s up to Iraqis – not the U.S. or other nations – to select their leaders. But he also has noted bitterness and growing impatience among all of Iraq’s major sects and ethnic groups with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Barzani told Kerry that Kurds are seeking "a solution for the crisis that we […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurdish leader cites ‘new reality’ in Iraq

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The president of Iraq’s ethnic Kurdish region declared Tuesday that "we are facing a new reality and a new Iraq" as the country considers new leadership for its Shiite-led government as an immediate step to curb a Sunni insurgent rampage. The comments by Kurdish President Massoud Barzani came as he met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is pushing the central government in Baghdad to at least adopt new policies that would give more authority to Iraq’s minority Sunnis and Kurds. Kerry has repeatedly said that it’s up to Iraqis – not the U.S. or other nations – to select their leaders. But he also has noted bitterness and growing impatience among all of Iraq’s major sects and ethnic groups with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Barzani told Kerry that Kurds are seeking "a solution for the crisis that we […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraqi Kurdistan Gets Around $100 Million for First Major Oil Export

ERBIL, Iraq—The semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq received close to $100 million for the first million barrels of oil it piped to Turkey and shipped to international markets, an official said Monday, marking a critical step in Kurdish efforts to become independent crude exporters. Buyers of oil from the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, deposited $93 million of the $97 million owed on the first tanker of crude at Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS , Turkey’s state-owned lender known as Halkbank, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Monday in Ankara. The payments came in phases and both Baghdad and Kurdish authorities have been notified about their receipt, Mr. Yildiz said. The first deposit for KRG oil exports comes as the regional authorities in Erbil face a significant budget squeeze. Iraq’s central government started cutting off payments to the KRG in January amid a dispute over the Kurds’ contested right […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraqi Insurgents Secure Control of Border Posts

ERBIL, Iraq — The Sunni militant extremists who have seized a broad area of Iraq extended their control on Monday to the country’s entire western frontier, having secured nearly all official border crossings with Syria and the only one with Jordan, giving them the semblance of the new independent state that they say they intend to create in the region. With the seizure of the Jordan crossing, which militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria first assaulted late Sunday night, the Iraqi military defenses crumpled, as they have in other battlegrounds in the western and northern parts of the country over the past two weeks. ISIS control of the Jordan border raised the risks that its insurgency could menace not just Syria and Iraq, but Jordan and Saudi Arabia, two important American allies. The border seizure came as Secretary of State John Kerry made an emergency visit […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple