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Move Comes as Islamic State Pushes Closer to Iraq’s Kurdish Area

U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. said it has cut the numbers of its overseas staff working in the Kurdish region of Iraq as the militant group Islamic State pushed their offensive closer to the area, and amid reports of a car bomb blast in the nearby northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Chevron’s move comes as shares in Kurdistan-focused oil producers listed in Europe plunged on Thursday. "We are closely monitoring the situation," a Chevron spokeswoman in London said. "We have reviewed the business critical positions and as a consequence made a reduction in the total numbers of expatriates in the region." Exxon Mobil is also evacuating staff from Kurdistan, Reuters reported Thursday, citing an industry source. A spokesman for the company said it doesn’t comment on security matters. Shares in London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd fell as much as 13%—to their lowest level since 2010—after the Islamic State captured […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Jihadists Rout Kurds in North and Seize Strategic Iraqi Dam

BAGHDAD — The crisis gripping Iraq escalated rapidly on Thursday with a re-energized Islamic State in Iraq and Syria storming new towns in the north and seizing a strategic dam as Iraq’s most formidable military force, the Kurdish pesh merga, was routed in the face of the onslaught. The loss of the Mosul Dam, the largest in Iraq, to the insurgents was the most dramatic consequence of a militant offensive in the north, which has sent tens of thousands of refugees, many from the Yazidi minority, fleeing into a vast mountainous landscape. In one captured town, Sinjar, ISIS executed dozens of Yazidi men, and kept the dead men’s wives for unmarried jihadi fighters. Panic on Thursday spread even to the Kurdish capital of Erbil, long considered a safe haven, with civilians flooding the airport in a futile attempt to buy tickets to Baghdad. As chaos tore through northern Iraq, […]

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Petrodollar Under Threat As Russia And Iran Sign Historic 500,000 Barrel A Day Oil Deal

Russia Delivers Blow To Petrodollar In Historic $20 Billion Iran Oil Deal Russia signed a historic $20 billion oil deal with Iran to bypass both western sanctions and the dollar based western monetary system yesterday. President Putin Admire Gold Bar (London Gold Delivery Bar) Currency wars are set to escalate as the petro dollar’s decline continues.   Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Iranian counterpart Bijan Zanganeh signed a five-year memorandum of understanding in Moscow, which included cooperation in the oil sector. "Based on Iran’s proposal, we will participate in arranging shipments of crude oil, including to the Russian market," Novak was quoted as saying. The five year accord will see Russia help Iran “organise oil sales” as well as “cooperate in the oil-gas industry, construction of power plants, grids, supply of machinery, consumer goods and agriculture products”, according to a statement by the Energy Ministry in Moscow. […]

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Israeli Billionaire Finds 3B Barrel Oil Reserve In Congo

An oil company owned by Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler said on Thursday it had discovered around 3 billion barrels of oil in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an amount similar to the proven reserves of oil producers Britain and South Sudan. The crude was discovered around Lake Albert on Congo’s eastern border with Uganda, Oil of DRCongo said in a statement. An analysis of seismic survey data "indicates around 3 billion barrels of oil in place", it said, although it was not yet clear what portion was recoverable. "These are very positive results from our extensive seismic campaign," said Giuseppe Ciccarelli, Oil of DRCongo’s CEO. "We continue to believe the project has the potential to provide significant revenues and multiple other benefits to the people of (Congo)." The nearby Ugandan blocks are estimated […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Petrobras's New Oil Stems Decline

Petrobras’ oil production from frontier fields offshore is soaring. Pictured, a platform prepares for its first day working a ‘pre-salt’ field in 2010. Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO—When Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA disclosed its biggest-ever oil find, in 2007, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva quipped that the discovery proved that God is Brazilian. New production figures are making believers out of many in the industry. Output from the "pre-salt" fields has passed 500,000 barrels of oil a day, nearly triple that of 2012, and now accounts for nearly a quarter of the company’s total production of two million barrels a day. It is a quick ramp-up for Petrobras, and is taking place in one of the most challenging oil patches in the world. The deposits lie nearly 200 miles off Brazil’s southeastern coast, buried deep below the sea floor under a thick layer of salt, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Petrobras’s New Oil Stems Decline

Petrobras’ oil production from frontier fields offshore is soaring. Pictured, a platform prepares for its first day working a ‘pre-salt’ field in 2010. Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO—When Brazil’s state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA disclosed its biggest-ever oil find, in 2007, then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva quipped that the discovery proved that God is Brazilian. New production figures are making believers out of many in the industry. Output from the "pre-salt" fields has passed 500,000 barrels of oil a day, nearly triple that of 2012, and now accounts for nearly a quarter of the company’s total production of two million barrels a day. It is a quick ramp-up for Petrobras, and is taking place in one of the most challenging oil patches in the world. The deposits lie nearly 200 miles off Brazil’s southeastern coast, buried deep below the sea floor under a thick layer of salt, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Mexico Opens Energy Sector to Private Investors

Mexican lawmakers late Wednesday completed an historic opening of the country’s energy sector to private investors after 76 years of state monopoly, in a move with far-reaching implications for the sector and the country’s economy. Completion of the overhaul is a political victory for President Enrique Peña Nieto, who made it the cornerstone of a reformist agenda intended to improve Mexico’s competitiveness and stimulate economic growth. The victory seemed unthinkable to many when he took office in December 2012. Over the past quarter century, every Mexican president had tried but failed to secure political support to diminish the state energy monopoly. The opening of the energy sector is the culmination of a decades-long effort to liberalize the Mexican economy that began in 1982, when then-President Miguel […]

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China Oil Data Show July Crude Imports at 23.76 Mln Tons

By Wayne Ma BEIJING–China imported 23.76 million metric tons of crude oil in July, equivalent to 5.6 million barrels a day, preliminary data from the General Administration of Customs showed Friday. Imports were 9.0% lower than the 26.11 million tons of crude shipped in during the corresponding month last year, and up around 2.0% from 23.28 million tons in June, according to The Wall Street Journal’s calculations. Refined oil product imports totaled 1.86 million tons, while exports totaled 2.31 million tons, the data showed. Write to Wayne Ma at [email protected]

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China Finds Shale Gas Challenging, Halves 2020 Output Target

China has halved the quantum of shale gas it expects to produce by 2020 after early exploration efforts to unlock the unconventional fuel proved challenging, according to an industry website and a government source. China, believed to hold the world’s largest technically recoverable shale resources, is hoping to replicate the shale boom that has transformed the energy landscape of the United States. About four years of early evaluations and drilling have so far yielded one large find – Fuling field – in the most prospective gas province of southwest Sichuan, but experts say the Fuling success is hard to repeat due to complex geology and high cost of production. Citing Wu Xinxiong, the head of China’s National Energy Administration, industry website www.cpnn.com.cn reported that China aims to pump 30 billion cubic metres (bcm) […]

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Plains All American Moving to Join Condensate Exporters

Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) says it should be on the list of companies that can export lightly processed oil from the U.S. The company has all the same assets in place that helped Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) and Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD) get relief from 29-year-old crude export restrictions this year, Plains Chief Executive Officer Greg Armstrong said in a conference call with analysts yesterday. “We have the stabilization, distillation towers and the pipeline system all the way to the dock, we can pretty much trace the pedigree of that barrel all the way through,” Armstrong said. “The only thing that might get in our way is political arbitrariness.” Pioneer and Enterprise jolted the oil industry when they said the U.S. Commerce Department issued private rulings allowing them to export ultra-light crude that has gone through a stabilizer that uses a distillation tower. The first […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple