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Iran’s Oil Revenue Falls 30% Because of Global Price Decline

Print Back to story Iran ’s revenue from crude sales, the OPEC member’s biggest export, dropped 30 percent because of the recent decline in global oil prices, according to President Hassan Rouhani. “International conditions are such that the country’s main source of income, i.e. oil revenues, has been cut by some 30 percent,” Rouhani said in remarks to parliament published yesterday on Shana, the Oil Ministry’s news website. “We have to deal with the new conditions and the global economic conditions.” Brent crude, a benchmark for more than half of the world’s oil, has plunged more than 20 percent since peaking in June at about $115 a barrel as supply, boosted by U.S. shale production, outpaced demand. Iran needs to achieve a break-even sales price of $143 a barrel this year to maintain its fiscal balance, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “The government probably will face a budget […]

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Non-oil exports grow for Iran

Iran says non-oil exports up 20 percent from last calendar year. (UPI/Shutterstock/Artens) Iranian government data show non-oil product exports earned Iran $27 billion during the first five months of a calendar year beginning March 21. Data show the Iranian economy exported petroleum products like butane and liquefied propane predominately to Afghanistan , China, India, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. Sanctions imposed on the Iranian economy in response to a controversial nuclear program means oil exports are at about half of their 2.2 million barrel per day rate in 2012. Iran is allowed to export some oil under an international sanctions agreement reached in November, though the International Monetary Fund said the oil-dependent economy is still shrinking at a rate of 1.7 percent. Hamid Farnam, the energy commissioner in the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, told the Oil Ministry’s news website Shana last week the government should work to push […]

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As Abu Dhabi Sizes Up Oil Partners, Western Firms Risk Being Left Out

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest member among the seven states in the United Arab Emirates, is shaking up its oil industry . It has allowed the expiration of some longstanding concessions to major Western oil companies and is considering replacing at least some of them with partners from Asia and elsewhere. For more than seven decades, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, also known as Adnoc, shared the operation of Abu Dhabi’s oil fields, the biggest onshore producers in the United Arab Emirates, with companies including Exxon Mobil , Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP , under the umbrella of the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations. The concessions, for 75 years, expired in January, but Abu Dhabi has yet to say which of the Western companies will have their rights renewed. There are also likely to be new entrants, possibly including […]

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Nigeria’s N13.4 Trillion 2014 Oil Earning at Risk Over Price Decline

Decline in the global price of oil is eroding Nigeria’s external reserves and increasing pressure on the country’s currency. THE Federal Government is at risk of losing part of its 2014 crude oil earnings of over $84 billion (N13.4 trillion) to the continuous decline in the prices of crude oil. Nigeria realized about $40 billion (N6.4 trillion) from crude oil export between January and June 2014, having earned N13.4 trillion in 2013. According to the United State Energy Information Administration (EIA), This revenue positioned Nigeria as the fourth highest earner among oil producing countries, after Saudi Arabia ($274 billion), Kuwait ($45 billion), and Iraq ($45 billion), during the same period. Already, members of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had its revenue slashed in the first half of this year due to the decline in the price of crude oil during the period. As at Monday this week, the cost […]

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Nigerian Bank Debt Taps Turned Off by Oil-Price Slump

Central bank rules to curb foreign-currency borrowing by Nigerian lenders threaten to halt Eurobond sales by banks in Africa ’s biggest oil producer as lower crude prices heighten risks to the naira. Banks will probably turn to rights offers and naira debt rather than selling dollar bonds, according to FBN Capital, the investment-banking unit of Nigeria ’s largest bank by assets, Lagos-based FBN Holdings Plc. (FBNH) Nigerian dollar notes lost 0.4 percent this month, compared with a 2.2 percent average return among 57 emerging markets tracked by Bloomberg indexes . Slumping oil prices are weighing on the outlook for Africa’s biggest economy, weakening the naira and eroding foreign-currency earnings. The central bank in a statement dated Oct. 24 capped the amount of borrowing banks can do in foreign currencies as percentages of shareholders’ funds. “The central bank rule will slow the issuance of dollar bonds,” Bunmi Asaolu, a banking […]

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PetroChina Profit Falls to Lowest in 8 Quarters on Crude

Brent has lost a quarter of its value from its peak in June. That’s bad news for PetroChina Co. (857) and Cnooc Ltd. (883) , which made most of their profit this year from oil and gas production. The shares dropped in today’s trading. PetroChina, the nation’s biggest explorer, posted its lowest profit in eight quarters yesterday, while Cnooc Ltd., which only reports quarterly sales, saw a decline of 4.6 percent. The plunge in crude may cause PetroChina’s profit margin to shrink and lead Cnooc, the country’s biggest offshore oil and gas producer, to stop some high-cost projects. “The negative impact from lower crude prices hasn’t fully materialized yet as the prices in July and August were still OK,” said Laban Yu, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Jefferies Group LLC. “The fourth quarter will be really challenging for all upstream players if crude prices don’t quickly rebound toward $100.” […]

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PetroChina Earnings Fall 6.2% On Weaker Oil Demand

HONG KONG—State-controlled PetroChina Co. Wednesday posted a 6.2% decline in its third-quarter net profit on lower contribution from upstream businesses amid weaker oil demand. China’s largest oil company by production capacity said third-quarter net profit fell to 27.9 billion yuan from 29.8 billion yuan a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.2% to 600.6 billion yuan from a year earlier. The company’s crude oil output rose 0.3% in the first nine months. Write to Yvonne Lee at [email protected]

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U.S. crude oil imports down 15 percent

Total U.S. crude oil imports down as output from shale basins increases, data show. (File/UPI/Gary C. Caskey) Total U.S. crude oil imports for the first nine months of the year are down 15 percent from two years ago, Energy Information Administration data show. EIA published monthly data for the U.S. energy sector. For the first nine months of 2014 , the United States imported an average 7.4 million barrels per day of crude oil, down from the 8.7 million bpd reported during the same period in 2012. In its latest weekly report , EIA said the country imported around 7.4 million barrels of oil for the week ending Oct. 10, down 7.4 percent from the same week in 2013. In his latest economic address to the nation , President Barack Obama said the country is producing more than it imports for the first time in nearly two decades. He […]

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5 Things to Know About Natural-Gas Liquids

Reuters Share Natural-gas liquids, which are produced alongside oil and natural gas, are a key byproduct of the U.S. shale boom . As supply and demand grow, so does trading activity and corporate investment in these products. Here are five things to know about natural-gas liquids. 1 There are five types Share on Twitter Natural-gas liquids, or NGLs, include propane, butane, isobutene, ethane and natural gasoline. (Natural gasoline is different from natural gas, which is not an NGL.) They are also called liquefied petroleum gases, or LPGs, although some say LPG is a narrower category that only includes propane and butane. The most common way to produce NGLs is to separate them out from natural gas in a processing plant. NGLs can also be produced in oil refineries alongside diesel and other fuels. 2 They are mostly used to make petrochemicals Share on Twitter Most of the NGLs produced […]

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