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EU, Kiev, Moscow gas talks suspended

MOSCOW, Sept. 15 (UPI) — Talks were scheduled for Saturday. A ministry spokesperson told state news agency RIA Novosti an alternate date depended on Energy Minister Alexander Novak’s schedule. "We told the European Commission that the proposed date is not suitable for us," the spokesperson said. "Another date is being discussed." The European Union last week enforced new sanctions on the Russian energy sector in response to ongoing crises in eastern Ukraine. A government decision in Kiev in November to suspend efforts to join the EU sparked political upheaval in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic. That, in turn, led to intervention by Russia, which annexed the Crimean Peninsula and has supported separatists in eastern Ukraine. On Saturday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk submitted to Parliament the text of an association agreement with the EU. Europe is trying to avert a repeat of an energy crisis that erupted in 2006 […]

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Gazprom Neft marks arctic milestone

MOSCOW, Sept. 15 (UPI) — Russian oil company Gazprom Neft said Monday it reached a milestone with the production of its 1 millionth barrel of oil from the arctic Prirazlomnoye field. Gazprom Neft Board Chairman Alexander Dyukov said his is the first Russian company to pull oil from the Russian arctic shelf . "The production of the millionth barrel of oil at the Prirazlomnoye field is a milestone and further proof of the consistent development of the project and its final transition into full-scale development," he said in a statement. "Gazprom Neft plays a leading role in developing oil deposits on the Arctic shelf and we can build on this experience for new Arctic projects in the future." The company expects 2.2 million barrels worth of production from Prirazlomnoye during the first full year of development. A tanker with 1 million barrels worth of storage capacity is set to […]

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EU Postpones Decision on Granting Russia Gas-Pipeline Access

BRUSSELS-The European Union Monday again postponed a decision on whether to grant Russia full access to its OPAL natural-gas pipeline, frustrating Moscow’s efforts to boost energy exports to the 28-country bloc. The European Commission cited technical reasons for the delay, which coincided with its announcement that planned talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU to resolve a gas feud were also postponed. The commission had hoped to hold the three-way gas talks in Berlin on Saturday in a bid to break the long-running deadlock between Kiev and Moscow, but said an agenda clash on the Russian side meant the negotiations would have to be held at a later date. Russia suspended gas deliveries to Ukraine in June over a pricing dispute that the EU has been hoping to resolve ahead of winter, fearing energy shortages in several European countries that are heavily dependent on Russian gas imports. No fresh […]

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Russian ruble drops to historic low amid sanctions

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s currency dropped to an all-time low against the dollar on Tuesday as investors fret about long-term economic damage from Western sanctions. The United States and the European Union last week imposed a new round of sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine that consisted in, among other things, blocking off Western financial markets to key Russian companies. The Russian currency fell more than 1 percent to 38.80 rubles against the U.S. dollar by noon Moscow time Tuesday. The ruble has lost over 2.7 percent in just two days. The Russian Central Bank allows the ruble to trade in a range against the dollar and sometimes intervenes in markets to prop it up. It has not been doing so in the past months, however, leaving the ruble to trade only 0.40 rubles away from the minimum level. Economist Alexei Kudrin, who served as finance minister […]

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Tony Hayward: Sanctions against Russia could spur $150 oil

Tony Hayward: Sanctions against Russia could spur $150 oil Western sanctions against Russia, coupled with ongoing political instability in Libya and the advance of ISIS militants in Iraq, could leave the global oil supply exposed and push up oil prices to $150 per barrel, former BP chief Tony Hayward has warned. The former CEO of BP and now chairman of Glencore Xstrata said the recent boom in US shale production has painted an unrealistic image of the world’s global oil supply, and created a false sense in energy security. “The world has been lulled into a false sense of security because of what’s going on in the US,” Hayward said in an interview with the Financial Times . The hydraulic fracturing boom in the US began in 2008 and has increased US crude output by 60 percent, but Hayward warned it could wane. “When US supply peaks, where will […]

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Oil Prices Continue Downtrend

By Cassie Werber The downward trend in Brent and WTI crude showed no sign of slowing Monday, as poor demand and high supply continued to weigh on prices. "The oil market has been in a downtrend since the middle of June," said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM. Struggling global economic growth has slowed oil demand, he said, while political shocks in the Middle East and Ukraine have failed to limit oil supplies. JBC Energy said the weakness is likely to continue for the rest of the year, largely because European and Chinese demand has slumped, and supply continues to ramp up from Libya and Iraq. "Looking at the price developments of the past few months as well as at West African crude differentials, it is evident that something sizable has happened to the Atlantic Basin crude balance," the energy consultancy wrote in a note to clients. "Given our current […]

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Brent Crude Falls to Two-Year Low as China Output Slows

Brent crude declined to its lowest intraday level in more than two years as China ’s industrial output expanded at the weakest pace since the global financial crisis. West Texas Intermediate also fell. Futures slid as much as 0.9 percent in London. Factory production in China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer, rose 6.9 percent from a year earlier in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sept. 13, compared with 9 percent in July and a median estimate of 8.8 percent in a Bloomberg News survey. Crude output in Libya increased to 870,000 barrels a day, according to state-run National Oil Corp. The Chinese data “is one of the main weak sides of the market,” Andy Sommer, an analyst at Axpo Trading AG in Dietikon, Switzerland , said by phone. “This weak data can mean the certainty, or confidence, in their expected growth is declining more and more. Currently […]

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Speculators Cut Gas Bets to 9-Month Low on Supply Growth

Hedge funds reduced bullish wagers on natural gas to the lowest level in more than nine months as U.S. shale production surges to an all-time high. Speculators lowered their net-long position across four benchmark contracts by 12 percent in the week ended Sept. 9, the third consecutive drop, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Short positions, or bets on falling prices, increased to the most since December. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Barclays Plc cut their gas price forecasts for the fourth quarter and next year as the jump in shale production outpaces government estimates. Output from the Marcellus in the eastern U.S. is forecast to top 16 billion cubic feet a day for the first time in October. Futures gained 2.4 percent in the week of the report before tumbling 3.2 percent through Sept. 12. “Last week we had another failed rally because we continue to get […]

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Arab Nations Offer to Fight ISIS From Air

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Sunday that “several” Arab nations had offered to join in airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but any sustained military campaign does not appear imminent, and is likely to require an even more significant commitment from other nations and fighting forces in the region. In interviews and public statements, administration and military officials described a battle plan that would not accelerate in earnest until disparate groups of Iraqi forces, Kurds and Syrian rebels stepped up to provide the fighting forces on the ground. Equipping, training and coordinating that effort is a lengthy process, officials cautioned. American officials have made it clear they do not want the airstrikes to get ahead of the ground action against ISIS, which they said would take time to mass. “This isn’t going to be ‘shock and awe’ with hundreds of airstrikes,” one official said, referring […]

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Airstrikes Have Halted Islamic State, U.S. Says

WASHINGTON—A five-week campaign of U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq has forced them to conceal their movements and blunted their acquisition of territory, U.S. officials said. However, the reaction of the group’s fighters—moving and living in more stealthy ways—also makes them harder to target. As military officials prepare to expand the campaign, initial intelligence reports point to noticeable effects in arresting the progress of the militants, while questions remain about whether airstrikes can ultimately succeed in rolling back the group. The U.S. strikes have prevented Islamic State militants from massing large formations of fighters and have exerted pressure on checkpoints the group has tried to operate. The expanded strikes also make it difficult for the group to operate convoys, forcing them to move ammunition and equipment more surreptitiously, the U.S. officials said. Since the airstrikes began in early August, the group has curbed its open use of […]

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