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Natural-Gas Prices at Six-Month Low Again; Low Demand Expected

Natural-gas prices closed at a new six-month low, resuming the market’s sluggish July as unseasonably cool weather keeps damping demand. Prices for the front-month August contract settled down 5 cents, or 1.2%, to $4.097 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop ended two days of nominal gains and brought prices down. They are now 14% lower since last month’s high on June 12. Record production and strong surpluses have been the market’s major influence since then. Money managers who once flooded the market with bets on rising prices started retreating during a record eight-week string of stockpile additions larger than 100 billion cubic feet. Preliminary forecasts from several analysts estimate a return to additions larger than 100 bcf this week. Weather forecasts are calling for temperatures more than 10 degrees below normal in some big Midwestern cities at a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Rises From Two-Month Low on Cushing Supply

West Texas Intermediate rose from the lowest price since May as crude stockpiles shrank in the U.S. Brent recovered from a three-month low as China ’s economic growth exceeded forecasts. Futures rose as much as 0.7 percent in New York . U.S. crude inventories probably fell by 2.75 million barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey shows before government data today. Supplies at the storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma , dropped by 944,000 barrels, the American Petroleum Institute was said to have reported yesterday. China’s gross domestic product expanded by 7.5 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, according to the statistics bureau in Beijing. “WTI is being supported by the stockpile draw-down of nearly 1 million barrels at Cushing reported by the API yesterday,” said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultant Energy Aspects Ltd. in London. “The Chinese economic data for June was supportive, with […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Goldman Forecasts Lower Commodity Prices as Super-Cycle Ends

Commodities from iron ore to copper and Brent crude will drop over the next five years as global supplies climb, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which highlighted oil’s recent losses as a sign of increased output. There will be substantial declines in some metals, energy and bulk commodities, analysts including Chief Currency Strategist Robin Brooks wrote in a report. The period of continued year-on-year price rises for most commodities is over, they said in the report, which was dated yesterday. Banks from Citigroup Inc. to Deutsche Bank AG have called an end to the commodities super-cycle, when China ’s surging demand combined with supply constraints to more than double prices in the 12 years through 2010. Raw materials rallied this year from three annual losses as a lack of rain in Brazil lifted coffee and a ban of ore exports from Indonesia spurred a rally in nickel. The […]

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Iran says it will work closely with Gazprom

The Iranian government said a joint working group may be set up with Russian natural gas company Gazprom in an effort to broaden bilateral relations. Deputy Petroleum Minister Hamid Reza Araqi, who also heads the National Iranian Gas Co., said Iran would cooperate with Gazprom at the working group level on equipment supply, technology transfers and financing of oil and natural gas projects. NIGC and Gazprom have discussed ways to expand their footprints in the global market, he said Monday. Iran announced a series of joint efforts in the energy sector with its Russian counterparts this year. Both sides cooperate on nuclear energy issues , with Russia supplying nuclear fuel for Iran’s reactor at Bushehr. "Establishment of a joint committee comprising National Iranian Gas Company and Russia’s Gazprom has been put on the agenda with the aim of expanding ties and cooperation," Araqi said . Washington […]

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Tangible Progress Made in Iran Nuclear Talks, Kerry Says

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a news conference in Vienna on Tuesday. Reuters VIENNA—After two days of talks over Iran’s nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Tuesday there had been progress but that significant differences remain. In comments that appear to significantly raise the chance that Washington will agree to extend talks beyond July 20, Mr. Kerry said he sees a way for the negotiations to advance and that there is much work still to do. Mr. Kerry said the U.S. is committed to a "diplomatic course" in the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. "I have said—and I repeat—there has been tangible progress on key issues," Mr. Kerry said. "However, there are also very real gaps on other key issues." The U.S. has been calling for a significant reduction in Iran’s nuclear capabilities in return for a […]

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Libya's Oil Production Rises Faster Than Expected

Libya’s oil production has risen to about 554,000 barrels a day as production ramps up faster than expected at the country’s largest field Sharara, an oil official said Tuesday. The official at state-run National Oil Corp. said the production includes about 50,000 barrels a day of condensates and is up from 470,000 barrels a day Monday. The news come despite intense fighting in recent days at Tripoli airport, in the worst violence in six months in the capital.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya’s Oil Production Rises Faster Than Expected

Libya’s oil production has risen to about 554,000 barrels a day as production ramps up faster than expected at the country’s largest field Sharara, an oil official said Tuesday. The official at state-run National Oil Corp. said the production includes about 50,000 barrels a day of condensates and is up from 470,000 barrels a day Monday. The news come despite intense fighting in recent days at Tripoli airport, in the worst violence in six months in the capital.

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Total Pulls Some Expat Employees From Libyan Capital Amid Violence

France’s Total SA said Tuesday it had started pulling out some expatriate employees from Tripoli as the worst clashes in the Libyan capital in six months start affecting the oil industry. The new challenge to the country’s most strategic sector suggests a Libyan oil-production recovery that has pushed crude prices lower may still be fraught with risk. A spokeswoman for Total told The Wall Street Journal it had opened a Malta office this year "to adapt the number of expatriates present in Tripoli to the evolution of the security situation. That’s what we are currently doing given the situation in the airport." A Libyan official said the French company is now considering a force majeure on its operations in the country. The Total spokeswoman said no force majeure has been decided. A force majeure offers legal protection to a company if exceptional circumstances limits its ability to fullfil its […]

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Libyan militia tighten control of Tripoli airport

Libyan militia fighters with anti aircraft guns and mortars fanned out on Tuesday across Tripoli’s airport, transformed into a battlefield by two days of fighting that has cut the Libyan capital off from the outside world. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was working to help end to violence that has brought the north African country to the edge of chaos three years after the uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi. At least 15 people have been killed in the capital and the eastern city of Benghazi since Sunday. Fighting between rival militias at the capital’s airport damaged the control tower and wrecked 11 civilian aircraft parked on the tarmac. The main terminal building has been turned into a field hospital. In Benghazi, irregular forces loyal to renegade former general Khalifa Haftar, a former Gaddafi ally, bombarded Islamist militia bases as part of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya Airport Is Crippled in Fighting by Militias

The halls of this city’s international airport have been emptied of passengers and converted into a barracks for fighters, with a kitchen and a field hospital. Smoke rose from the building on Tuesday, while beyond it, on the airfield, mortar shells crashed into the tarmac. Three days of pitched battles between feuding militias have left most of the airport’s commercial airplanes, runways and even the tower badly damaged, all but stranding Libyans as their country slides further into turmoil. The country has been plagued by violence for much of the time since Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s fall in 2011, as the central government has tried in vain to wrest authority from the powerful militias that control territory and vital installations like the airport. But the latest dark turn, marked by the demoralizing destruction of the airport but also by furious, deadly battles in Libya ’s two largest cities, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple