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WTI Declines as Crude Stockpiles Expand at Cushing

West Texas Intermediate fell for the first time in three days as crude stockpiles increased at the biggest U.S. oil-storage hub. Brent was steady in London . Futures dropped as much as 0.5 percent in New York . Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma , the delivery point for WTI contracts, expanded by 508,000 barrels to 20.7 million last week, the Energy Information Administration reported yesterday. That’s the highest level since July. Libya may boost production to 1 million barrels a day by the end of the September, according to state-run National Oil Co. The crude benchmark “took minor losses after the weekly U.S. fuel inventory report from the EIA posted crude gains for Cushing,” Andrey Kryuchenkov , an analyst at VTB Capital in London, said in a report. “The market in London is likely to remain in the current sideways pattern.” WTI for October delivery declined as much as 43 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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New gas demand price driver, forecast shows

Bentek Energy, a forecasting unit of energy reporting group Platts, said non-traditional and recovering sources of gas demand could pass the 5 million cubic feet per day mark by 2019. These new sources of demand, from new export facilities for liquefied natural gas to more gas-fired power plants, could be a driver in a future North American shale market. Rocco Canonica, lead author of a 50-page report on demand, said the trends show an era where cheap energy reserves sourced from shale basins in North America may be drawing to a close . "If demand growth reaches its full potential, we could expect a tighter U.S. market and upward price pressure," he said in a statement Wednesday. The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the interests of the energy sector, said the U.S. economy would be better off with more natural gas production, particularly if producers could tap into export […]

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Kurds claim win in latest oil row

A Texas court ruling to dismiss an order to seize Kurdish oil parked off the U.S. coast should give potential buyers confidence, the Kurdish government said. A Texas judge had ordered U.S. Marshals to seize Kurdish oil loaded onto the United Kalavrvta tanker, parked off the coast of Galveston, Texas, in international waters. The semiautonomous Kurdish government and the federal government in Baghdad filed competing claims in Texas, though the court eventually sided with the Kurdish claims that its oil could reach U.S. ports. "The ruling of the Texas court should give confidence to buyers of Kurdistan crude oil in the United States and elsewhere," Kurdish Minister of Natural Resources Ashti Hawrami said in a statement Tuesday. The minister said all Kurdish crude oil exports and sales are legal according to the terms spelled out in the Iraqi constitution, a claim countered by Baghdad. The U.S. government in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fractures in Arab Gulf alliance a greater threat to oil security than Islamic State

French 15-year-olds thought to be youngest jihadis to travel to Syria In 1981 six Arab monarchies, which today control about a fifth of the world’s oil supply, formed the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). As the war between Iraq and Iran intensified, the Sunni Arab sheikhdoms of the Gulf peninsula – Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar – originally came together in theory to form a Middle Eastern version of the European Union. Although the group has no formal political charter like the EU, it still provides the only official forum where all six leaders of these oil-rich countries can sit down together to debate and agree on mutually beneficial policies in the region. But the rise of Islamic extremism across the Middle East, America’s growing willingness to deal with Iran and lingering leadership succession issues amongst member states are now unpicking the ties that […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran Altering Reactor in Bid for Nuclear Deal

Atomic power engineers in Iran have started redesigning a partly constructed reactor in the northwest city of Arak to limit the amount of plutonium it produces, the country’s top nuclear official said Wednesday, expressing hope that the change would help alleviate Western objections that the plutonium could be used in weapons. The official, Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, did not specify how much plutonium would be produced under the redesign of the reactor, which officials have said was constructed for the peaceful purpose of creating medical isotopes. But in remarks reported by Iran’s state-run Press TV website, Mr. Salehi said experts at the facility had offered to “redesign the heart of the reactor in order to allay the concerns of some countries.” Both plutonium and uranium can be used as the fuel of nuclear weapons . The Arak reactor is one of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Backing the Kurds will stabilise Iraq

Since US airstrikes began on Islamic State targets in Iraq’s Kurdistan region,  a number of Western countries  have finally decided to empower and arm Iraq’s Kurds in the ever-expanding battle against the radical group. The West has finally made the right decision, as the Islamic State group can only be confronted and defeated with the help of a reliable regional ally such as the Kurds. Western support for the Kurds should be part of a long-term strategy aimed at stabilising Iraq as a whole. In other words, help the Kurds help Iraq. Iraq’s problems are the Kurds’ problems Iraq’s Kurds and Arabs can work together. The retaking of the Mosul dam through a joint Kurdish-Arab force – a dam that the Islamic State could have used to flood cities like Baghdad – proves that not only is intervention in Iraq working but also that these are reliable and organised […]

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Analysis: Kurdistan’s export quest remains unfinished

Analysis: Kurdistan’s export quest remains unfinished In Dohuk province, a pipe-laying machine stands beside sections of 36-inch diameter steel pipe, which await welding. (PATRICK OSGOOD/Iraq Oil Report/Metrography) Nine months after inaugurating its oil pipeline to Turkey, Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is still striving to build a track record of reliable international oil sales.The KRG has scored some notable victories recently, including a U.S. court decision Monday that cleared the way for a Kurdish-chartered ship, the United Kalavryta, to offload more than 1 million barrels of Kurdish exports onto American shores. But even that progress has been equivocal: Monday’s narrow ru… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Military Skill and Terrorist Technique Fuel Success of ISIS

BAGHDAD — As fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria continue to seize territory, the group has quietly built an effective management structure of mostly middle-aged Iraqis overseeing departments of finance, arms, local governance, military operations and recruitment. At the top the organization is the self-declared leader of all Muslims, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , a radical chief executive officer of sorts, who handpicked many of his deputies from among the men he met while a prisoner in American custody at the Camp Bucca detention center a decade ago. He had a preference for military men, and so his leadership team includes many officers from Saddam Hussein’s long-disbanded army. They include former Iraqi officers like Fadel al-Hayali, the top deputy for Iraq, who once served Mr. Hussein as a lieutenant colonel, and Adnan al-Sweidawi, a former lieutenant colonel who now heads the group’s military council. The pedigree of […]

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Islamic State Fills Coffers From Illicit Economy in Syria, Iraq

Islamic State militants have overrun parts of Iraq and Syrian provinces such as Raqqa, above, capturing munitions. The group, formerly known as ISIS or ISIL, raises money through extortion, oil pirating and kidnapping. Reuters The Islamic State runs a self-sustaining economy across territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, pirating oil while exacting tribute from a population of at least eight million, Arab and Western officials said, making it one of the world’s richest terror groups and an unprecedented threat. That illicit economy presents a new picture of Islamic State’s financial underpinnings. The group was once thought to depend on funding from Arab Gulf donors and donations from the broader Muslim world. Now, Islamic State—the former branch of al Qaeda that has swallowed parts of Iraq and Syria—is a largely self-financed organization. Money from outside donors "pales in comparison to their self-funding through criminal and terrorist activities," a U.S. […]

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Islamic State Entrenches in Syrian City as Obama Mulls Next Step

In the Syrian city of Raqqah on the banks of the Euphrates River, Islamic State militants are busy building a capital fit for their followers. Human rights observers say they have stoned women to death for adultery, while residents report that religious textbooks have been imported for schools and the market flooded with black cloaks for girls as young as 6 years old. Even as it wages war on multiple fronts, the group has had time to focus on the details, recruit thousands into its forces and celebrate victories by parading the heads of its enemies. It’s a reflection of how entrenched the group has become in Syria and how difficult it will be to uproot it from the country where it was able to assemble and train enough forces to push into Iraq in June. U.S. airstrikes alone won’t do it and the international community doesn’t have any […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple