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Russia-China deal will supply Siberian natural gas to China’s northern, eastern provinces

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Outlook 2013, IHS Energy, Eastern Bloc Research Note: Volumes shown for Russia-China gas deal assume minimal contract obligations. Increases in these volumes will lessen the amount needed from LNG imports and other contracts. China’s natural gas demand has been growing as the government seeks to move away from coal in favor of cleaner fuels. According to EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2013 (IEO2013) Reference case, demand will more than triple from 5.2 Tcf in 2012 to 17.5 Tcf by 2040. Russia’s largest natural gas company, Gazprom, finalized a deal with the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in May. Under the first phase of the new 30-year contract, Russia will supply China 38 billion cubic meters (bcm), or 1.3 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), per year of natural gas starting in 2018. Future phases could increase this volume to as much as 60 bcm (2.1 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Brent Rebounds From 14-Month Low on Speculation Losses Excessive

Brent crude rebounded from its lowest closing level in 14 months amid speculation that losses have been excessive amid risks to Middle Eastern supply. West Texas Intermediate was steady before U.S. inventory data. Brent futures advanced as much as 0.8 percent in London , having lost 5.1 percent in the past month. Iraqi security forces stepped up attacks against Islamic State militants after ousting fighters from the country’s largest dam with U.S. air support. Crude stockpiles in the U.S. probably dropped by 1.75 million barrels while gasoline and distillate supplies shrank for a third week, a Bloomberg News survey shows before an Energy Information Administration report. “It would take extraordinary circumstances to drive prices lower on a sustained basis,” analysts at JBC Energy GmbH in Vienna said in a report. “We thus see prices slowly recovering over the coming months to levels back above $105.” Brent for October settlement […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Rising on Warming Weather Forecasts

By Timothy Puko NEW YORK–Natural-gas prices briefly surged Tuesday morning as updated weather forecasts suggested warmer weather and a short-term bump in demand. Natural gas for September delivery is up 8.7 cents, or 2.3%, at $3.879 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract bounced off of a nearly nine-month intraday low on Monday and has now returned to the middle of its 23-cent trading range from the past month. Several weather models are showing the potential for increased heat for the next week, especially in the south and the Midwest. Hot weather leads to increased demand for air conditioning and the gas-fired electricity that powers it. There have also been recent signs that power plants are using a higher proportion of gas, relative to coal, as gas prices have hit their lowest points of the year. "Perhaps there’s a temporary bottom," said Anthony […]

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Militants attack major air base in eastern Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say Islamic extremists have launched an attack on a major air base in northeastern Syria, aiming to seize the last position held by the Syrian government in a province that is an Islamic State stronghold. The attack on the Tabqa air base had been expected for weeks. Islamic State fighters have tightened their siege of the sprawling facility in recent days, capturing a string of nearby villages. The group has virtually eliminated the military’s presence in the Raqqa province, with the exception of Tabqa. Wednesday’s attack was announced on militant websites. It was also reported by the Raqqa Media Center, an activist collective, which reported fierce clashes around the facility accompanied by government airstrikes. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the clashes.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq Ups Oil Output in South, as Militants Stem Northern Production

The West Qurna oil field in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, as seen in March. Output from the area is underpinning the country’s militant-threatened oil production. Reuters LONDON—Iraq is pushing forward with an ambitious increase in production at its prolific southern oil fields, as an Islamist insurgency has strangled output in the country’s north. Russian oil company Lukoil Holdings said on Tuesday that output at its West Qurna II field has reached over 280,000 barrels a day from 120,000 barrels a day when it first started pumping from the field in March. West Qurna II is one of several large tracts under development and is crucial to Iraq’s ambitious plans to ramp up output from its southern fields, which have remained shielded from the violence in the north of the country. The country, the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is targeting output of around 8.4 […]

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Kurds take tough line as Abadi races to form Iraq government

Iraqi prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi Iraqi prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi The threat of Iraq’s collapse has forced conciliatory tones from the country’s Sunni and Shia Arab populations – but the Kurds, once the kingmakers of Iraqi politics, are vowing to play hardball. Prime minister designate Haidar al-Abadi has 20 days to put together a cabinet, and foreign powers are pressing for a national unity government that can bring Iraq’s main parties together and slowly heal divisions along sectarian and ethnic lines. More On this story On this topic IN Middle East & North Africa The race to reach the political consensus Iraq needs to unlock greater foreign and internal support for its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis) takes place as its army, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shia militias separately battle to contain the territorial gains made by the group in a […]

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In Retaking of Iraqi Dam, Evidence of American Impact

MOSUL DAM, Iraq — The two bodies lay festering in the midday sun on Tuesday, some of the only remnants of the Sunni militant force that until Monday night controlled the strategically important Mosul Dam. Around them was the evidence of not just a fierce battle but also a different sort of fight: buildings reduced to rubble; cars churned into twisted metal; mammoth craters gouged from the road. All bore testament to the deadly effect American airstrikes were having on the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, who until this month were marauding over northern Iraq with little resistance and who two weeks ago seized control of the dam. It was not until President Obama authorized airstrikes by the United States military on Aug. 7 that the Sunni fighters’ advance was halted. Two days of concerted air assaults starting Sunday around the dam then […]

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Iraq army advances towards rebel-held Tikrit

Iraqi forces have launched an operation to retake Tikrit, the hometown of toppled President Saddam Hussein, from Islamic State fighters. Al Jazeera sources reported that the troops were advancing from the south and southwest and heavy clashes with the armed group were taking place 10km from the the city, capital of Salahidin province and located about 200km north of Baghdad. Tikrit fell to the group formerly known as ISIL on June 11 and has since been controlled mostly by Sunni armed groups, including former members of Saddam’s ruling Baath party. "We have to remember Tikrit is an urban city so there’s going to be fighting in urban areas. The army had abandoned their positions in much of the Sunni heartland in June when the IS group took control of that territory," Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reported from Erbil. "There’s a real risk of this becoming a Sunni-Shia war because […]

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Next Leader May Echo Maliki, but Iraqis Hope for New Results

BAGHDAD — The last time the United States pushed Iraqis to choose a new prime minister who could unite the country to confront a sectarian civil war was in 2006, and the Iraqis chose Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The result was another civil war. This time, with the country again on the edge of collapse, they have chosen Haider al-Abadi. Both men come from the same Shiite Islamist movement whose members, after decades of clandestine opposition to Saddam Hussein and the Sunni elite that dominated his rule, were asked to govern Iraq in an inclusive way that accommodated the Sunnis they considered their former tormentors. So far, that has proved elusive, but this time hope rests on a belief that Mr. Abadi is a different type of Islamist: one whose education, big-city upbringing and decades of living in Britain can surmount what have seemed the reflexive positions of Iraqi Shiite […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq Ups Oil Output in South, as Militants Stem Northern Production

The West Qurna oil field in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, as seen in March. Output from the area is underpinning the country’s militant-threatened oil production. Reuters LONDON—Iraq is pushing forward with an ambitious increase in production at its prolific southern oil fields, as an Islamist insurgency has strangled output in the country’s north. Russian oil company Lukoil Holdings said on Tuesday that output at its West Qurna II field has reached over 280,000 barrels a day from 120,000 barrels a day when it first started pumping from the field in March. West Qurna II is one of several large tracts under development and is crucial to Iraq’s ambitious plans to ramp up output from its southern fields, which have remained shielded from the violence in the north of the country. The country, the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is targeting output of around 8.4 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple