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Oil Remains Elevated on Iraq Turmoil

Crude-oil futures were mixed in Asian trading hours Friday but remained elevated as the situation in Iraq continued to deteriorate. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at $106.58 a barrel at 0542 GMT, up $0.15 in the Globex electronic session. August Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.02 to $115.04 a barrel. Islamist rebels took control of Iraq’s largest oil refinery on Thursday, according to workers at the refinery, although an Iraqi army spokesman said the Iraqi military was in control of the refinery. Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama Thursday ordered up to 300 members of U.S. special-operations forces to Iraq, but ruled out any immediate airstrikes against Sunni extremists. An overnight spike in Brent prices implies that the oil market has little confidence that Iraq can organize a quick and effective campaign to regain control of its […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Brent Heads for Second Weekly Gain on Iraq Violence; WTI Steady

Brent crude headed for a second weekly gain as the U.S. said it will send military advisers to Iraq amid escalating violence in the OPEC producer. West Texas Intermediate was steady in New York. Futures were little changed in London after rising the past three days. President Barack Obama said he’s dispatching as many as 300 troops to help the Iraqi army battle an insurgency, and the U.S. is prepared to take additional “targeted” action if necessary. WTI is trading near a technical level where last week’s price advance stalled, data compiled by Bloomberg show. “Tensions have grown within the last couple of days,” Hannes Loacker , an analyst at Raiffeisen Bank International AG in Vienna, said today by e-mail. “If there’s a realistic threat that the production in the south will be affected, then oil prices will rise much higher. But, as of today, it seems not to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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NYMEX July gas settles 7.5 cents lower on bearish storage report

The NYMEX July natural gas futures contract settled 7.5 cents lower at $4.584/MMBtu Thursday after a day of choppy trading as the market reacted to a record sixth straight triple-digit injection to US storage inventories. The US Energy Information Administration on Thursday reported a 113 Bcf injection to storage for the week that ended Friday, somewhat higher than the 107-111 Bcf expected by most analysts. The build was well above the 92 Bcf injection reported in the same week last year and the five-year average of 87 Bcf, and marked a record sixth straight week of 100 Bcf or higher injections. Article continues below… Gas Daily Gas Daily offers the most detailed coverage of natural gas prices at interstate and intrastate pipeline and pooling points in major U.S. markets. Gas Daily keeps you informed about complex state and federal regulations that affect competition in the gas industry. You will […]

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Natural Gas Prices Fall After Report on Stockpiles' Increase

Natural-gas prices fell Thursday after the release of a report showing a larger-than-expected increase to U.S. stockpiles last week. That’s the sixth straight week stockpiles have increased by more than 100 billion cubic feet, an unprecedented run, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration dating back to 1994. Contributing to the decline were forecasts calling for milder temperatures next week in the West and parts of the Northeast. Natural gas for July delivery fell 1.6% or 7.5 cents, to $4.584 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The EIA said 113 billion cubic feet of gas were added to storage in the week ended June 13. That is four bcf more than consensus expectations for a 109-bcf build, based on a Wall Street Journal survey of traders and analysts. Still, the total gas in storage remains at relatively low levels […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Prices Fall After Report on Stockpiles’ Increase

Natural-gas prices fell Thursday after the release of a report showing a larger-than-expected increase to U.S. stockpiles last week. That’s the sixth straight week stockpiles have increased by more than 100 billion cubic feet, an unprecedented run, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration dating back to 1994. Contributing to the decline were forecasts calling for milder temperatures next week in the West and parts of the Northeast. Natural gas for July delivery fell 1.6% or 7.5 cents, to $4.584 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The EIA said 113 billion cubic feet of gas were added to storage in the week ended June 13. That is four bcf more than consensus expectations for a 109-bcf build, based on a Wall Street Journal survey of traders and analysts. Still, the total gas in storage remains at relatively low levels […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural-Gas Export Facility Clears Federal Hurdle

WASHINGTON—A federal agency on Thursday approved a natural-gas export terminal in Louisiana, marking the second time the U.S. government has signed off on such a project. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorized Cameron LNG LLC, a unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy , to operate and construct a liquefied-natural-gas export facility in Hackberry, La., just east of the Texas border. The approval focused on the project’s environmental assessment. It was the last major regulatory hurdle Cameron had to overcome and mostly clears the way for the nearly $10 billion project to begin construction. Sempra expects to begin construction later this year and will export up to 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day by 2019. In the wake of the U.S. oil and natural gas boom, companies have been scrambling in the past few years to get federal approval to export natural gas, a reversal from market […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran Nuclear Talks Tough, Intense as Major Gaps Remain

Talks between Iran and six major powers inched forward this week, with diplomats describing hints of progress Thursday but still citing "important differences" on most key issues. Diplomats from the six powers on Thursday described four days of negotiations in the Austrian capital as intense, tough and serious. While there was no sign of any major breakthrough in the talks, some officials pointed to positive signs. Everyone is "working with serious purpose" to reach a deal by July 20, one Western diplomat said, adding that there was "more clarity in seeing how this could be done." The discussions this week have been "a lot more real," the person said. A second official from the six-power group—the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia—said there is "no doubt" both sides want to reach a deal. But the official said this week was "another really tough round." "Unsurprisingly…there are still […]

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In Chaos, Iraq’s Kurds See a Chance to Gain Ground

The chair Col. Imad Muhammad sat in belonged to a commander in the Iraqi Army. So did the tiny cup from which he was drinking his tea, the ashtray where he snuffed out his cigarettes and the Ping-Pong table and treadmill outside his office. “They left everything behind,” said Colonel Muhammad, of the Iraqi soldiers who fled last week after Islamist extremists besieged northern Iraq. Colonel Muhammad is an officer in the pesh merga, the Kurdish security forces that have occupied an air base, once home to the American military and then the Iraqi government, here in Kirkuk. In doing so, they claimed for the Kurds a divided city that many of them regard as their spiritual homeland. It is rich in oil, too, which could accelerate the Kurds’ longstanding drive for economic independence and eventual statehood. But as he spoke in an interview this week, […]

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Will the Iraqi Siege Cause Oil and Gasoline Prices to Spike?

Should we be worried about a major spike in oil prices—and summer gas prices—because of the sectarian conflict in Iraq ? It’s an important question in the markets right now, because every $10 increase in the price of oil shaves 0.5 percent of global growth. I’m cautiously optimistic for the moment that the answer will be: no. Oil, as I’ve written before , is amongst the most fear driven commodities. Supply and demand are supposed to rule markets, but every time there’s a major conflict in the oil rich Middle East—from the Iranian revolution to the Gulf War—prices go up about 30 percent higher than they should be, regardless of the facts on the ground. Even when supply isn’t interrupted, even when there’s plenty of oil to fuel world markets, the price of crude is typically driven by fear rather than reality. So what are the […]

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Fierce battles for key Iraqi sites

Islamist-led militants and pro-government forces are engaged in fierce battles for the Baiji oil refinery and Tal Afar airport in northern Iraq. Baiji, Iraq’s biggest refinery, is surrounded by the rebels, who say they have seized most of Tal Afar airport. The fighting comes a day after the US said it would send some 300 military advisers to help the fight against the insurgents. President Barack Obama stressed that US troops would not fight in Iraq. US Secretary of State Kerry is expected to travel to Iraq soon to press for a more representative cabinet, hoping this could ease tensions between the country’s rival Muslim sects. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has been accused of pursuing anti-Sunni policies, pushing […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple