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Natural-Gas Market Arrests Slide Despite Cooler Outlook

By Christian Berthelsen Natural-gas prices edged higher Monday, arresting Friday’s steep slide in a move analysts attributed to traders closing out bearish positions and locking in profits from the recent selloff. Front-month September futures ended the day up 1.6 cents, or 0.4%, at $3.792 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The market touched a low of $3.727 in overnight trading but rebounded in the morning and stayed aloft the rest of the day. The market fell more than 3% on Friday as the fundamental picture for natural-gas supply and demand weakened. That picture didn’t improve on Monday, with fresh forecasts continuing to turn cooler for the northern U.S. and the eastern seaboard through the end of August, and continued projections for larger-than-average additions to gas stockpiles. But a combination of low prices and traders closing out bets that the market would fall likely stopped […]

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Libya Oil Output Rises as Fields Ramp Up Production

LONDON—Libya’s production has jumped to 550,000 barrels a day, state-owned National Oil Co. said Monday, as production ramps up at fields across the country . The recovery of Libya’s oil sector is in contrast with continuous fighting between militias in the capital of Tripoli—which is far from Libyan oil fields. NOC spokesman Mohamed el-Harari said Libya is now producing 550,000 barrels a day, compared with 400,000 barrels a day last week. The number remains less than half the country’s production capacity of about 1.6 million barrels a day. Mr. el-Harari said the increase was due to a ramp up in production, including in Sharara—the largest field in the country located in Western Libya—and Misla and Sarir; two large fields in the east. The news follows last Wednesday’s resumption of exports by the key eastern terminal of Ras Lanuf after a year-long interruption. Libya’s largest oil port, Es Sider, is […]

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Visit to Iran to Discuss Nuclear Program Was 'Useful' Says IAEA Chief

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, right, met Yukiya Amano, left, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency at the weekend ahead of a deadline for Tehran to answer allegations of past nuclear weapons research. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency said a weekend visit to Tehran was "useful" as the IAEA continues to push for clarification on Iran’s previous nuclear work. Iran is scheduled to deliver information on two key aspects of its past nuclear work by next Monday. The West suspects the research was aimed at developing nuclear weapons , which Tehran denies. The intensifying talks between Iran and the IAEA are separate from the broader international talks over Iran’s nuclear future, but are considered critical to the success of those talks. The visit to Iran by Yukiya Amano, IAEA’s director general, was his first since a broad agreement last November in which […]

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Visit to Iran to Discuss Nuclear Program Was ‘Useful’ Says IAEA Chief

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, right, met Yukiya Amano, left, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency at the weekend ahead of a deadline for Tehran to answer allegations of past nuclear weapons research. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency said a weekend visit to Tehran was "useful" as the IAEA continues to push for clarification on Iran’s previous nuclear work. Iran is scheduled to deliver information on two key aspects of its past nuclear work by next Monday. The West suspects the research was aimed at developing nuclear weapons , which Tehran denies. The intensifying talks between Iran and the IAEA are separate from the broader international talks over Iran’s nuclear future, but are considered critical to the success of those talks. The visit to Iran by Yukiya Amano, IAEA’s director general, was his first since a broad agreement last November in which […]

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Iran leans on oil for economic recovery

An economic adviser to Iranian President said developing the oil and gas industries could pull the nation’s economy back from the brink. An April report from the International Monetary Fund said inflation and unemployment are both high in the Iranian economy and the outlook was "highly uncertain." Constraints on oil revenues as a result of Western economic pressure means the Iranian economy is expected to continue contracting at least through the rest of this year, the bank said. Masoud Nili, the economic advisor to the president, said the economy could recover with the help of oil and gas sector development. A package developed for Tehran puts much of the focus on oil. "The package is expected to remove hurdles and challenges in the production sector and spur production," he said Sunday. The government said oil production increased 11 percent in the four months since the March 21 start of […]

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Obama Says U.S. to Keep Up Airstrikes to Halt Militants

Photographer: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images Related President Barack Obama said the U.S. will continue “limited” airstrikes against Islamic State militants, which have stopped their advance on the city of Erbil and helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces recapture a key dam at Mosul. The U.S. approach has led to “important progress” against the insurgents, Obama said yesterday at the White House. He said the U.S. is working to pull together an international coalition to support humanitarian relief in northern Iraq. Obama, who pressured former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki to step down, is seeking quick appointment of a new Iraqi government under Prime Minister-Designate Haidar Al-Abadi as a stabilizing step for the region for both Iraq and Syria. The future of Iraq depends on formation of a “credible Iraqi government,” he said. “They’ve got to get this done because the wolf’s at the door.” Obama spoke after meeting with Vice President […]

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Oil Search Temporarily Suspends Well in Kurdistan Due to Turmoil

Oil Search Ltd. (OSH) temporarily suspended a well in Iraqi Kurdistan after violence in the region disrupted its ability to get skilled technicians and equipment to the Taza oil project. Oil Search’s other operations in the area are continuing with the security situation stable, the oil producer said today in a statement as it posted a 34 percent gain in first-half profit. Oil Search declined 0.4 percent to A$9.41 as of 10:52 a.m. in Sydney trading. “We are continuing to monitor the security situation closely and plan to re-commence Taza-2 operations once we are confident that the long-term integrity of our supply chain has been safely re-established,” according to the statement. Oil companies including Chevron Corp. and Afren Plc evacuated staff and halted drilling operations in Kurdistan earlier this month as Islamist militants advanced into northern Iraq. Oil Search plans further drilling in the semi-autonomous region where the economy […]

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Kurds retake key Mosul dam in morale boosting victory over Isis

Kurdish forces advance to fight jihadis at Mosul dam on Monday Kurdish forces wrested control of Iraq ’s Mosul dam from jihadis on Monday, after the US launched its most intensive day of air strikes since intervening in the conflict 10 days ago. Although Kurdish peshmerga forces, with the support of US air power and Iraqi military on the ground, were still clearing the last resistance by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant , local officials said they had retaken the dam in the most significant defeat for Isis so far. More On this story On this topic IN Iraq Iraqi and US officials feared that Isis could use the Mosul dam, three decades old and poorly maintained, as a weapon. Whoever controls the dam could cut off power or water to millions of Iraqis. If destroyed, the dam could cause devastation that would destroy […]

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Troops in Iraq Rout Sunni Militants From a Key Dam

WASHINGTON — Iraqi and Kurdish ground troops overran Sunni militants and reclaimed Iraq’s largest dam on Monday, President Obama said, as American warplanes unleashed a barrage of bombs in an expansion of the limited goals laid out by the president in authorizing the military campaign in Iraq. Mr. Obama, who interrupted a family vacation on Martha’s Vineyard to meet Monday with his national security team in Washington, maintained that the airstrikes around the Mosul Dam were within the constraints of what he initially characterized as a limited campaign meant to break the siege of stranded Yazidis on Mount Sinjar and protect American personnel, citizens and facilities in Iraq. Administration officials repeatedly painted that second directive — the protection of Americans in Baghdad, 290 miles away — as the justification for the intense air campaign over Mosul Dam, seized two weeks ago by militants with the Islamic State in Iraq […]

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Mexico Oil Output Bloated by Water Barrels, Official Says

Petroleos Mexicanos , facing a 10th straight year of production declines , is including water in its oil output and may revise previously reported data, according to a company official briefed on the matter. A record gap this year between reported output and what the state-owned company processes is partly explained by measuring systems at older fields that are unable to differentiate water-heavy oil from actual crude, the official said, asking not to be named as Pemex debates reducing figures for the past three years or more. Last month, the company cut its 2014 output forecast to 2.44 million barrels a day. Pemex, which is preparing to form partnerships with private producers for the first time in seven decades, produced 2.48 million barrels a day through June, while its distribution system processed 2.32 million barrels a day, according to the National Hydrocarbons Commission . The commission didn’t give a […]

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