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More Kurdish Oil Seen Coming to U.S. as Disputed Tanker Leaves

More Kurdish oil will probably head to the U.S. even as a tanker carrying 1 million barrels of disputed crude returns to the Mediterranean Sea six months and $60 million less valuable after anchoring off Texas . The United Kalavryta is heading to Gibraltar, Kyriakos Maragoudakis, operations manager at Piraeus, Greece-based Marine Management Services M.C. , the ship’s operator, said by e-mail Tuesday. The tanker didn’t unload, he said. The Kurdistan Regional Government plans to send more cargoes to the U.S., the semi-autonomous region’s lawyer said in a letter to the judge hearing the dispute between the KRG and Iraq over ownership of the cargo. The U.S. Gulf Coast can process more than twice as much oil as Iraq produces, with refineries that have invested in equipment to handle a wide range of crudes, making the region an attractive destination for cargoes. For now, this test case is a […]

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Crude Oil Plunge Damping Offshore Supply Vessel, Tugboat Demand

(Bloomberg) — Japan Marine United Corp., Japan’s No. 2 shipbuilder, said demand for offshore supply and support vessels has stalled after crude oil plunged to a six-year low. The company, formed by the merger of shipbuilding units at steelmaker JFE Holdings Inc. and IHI Corp., is the sole Japanese producer of anchor-handling tugs for drilling rigs and platform supply vessels. Interest in these vessels from customers has become quiet, JMU President Shinjiro Mishima said yesterday in an interview at its Tokyo headquarters. “They have changed to a ‘wait-and-see stance.’ We started to see this trend at the end of last year and into the beginning of this year.” JMU and rivals began to see demand slow as excess global supply saw oil prices more than halve since June. Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the biggest deepwater producer, is reviewing its $220 billion, five-year investment plan. While the recent oil plunge […]

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Iraq Oil Surge to Fan OPEC Rivalry That Triggered Slump

(Bloomberg) — The battle for customers among OPEC members that helped trigger oil’s collapse is about to escalate. Iraqi crude production is climbing from a 35-year high as it adds growing Kurdish supplies to its exports, while southern oilfields remain unscathed by Islamic State militants. Finding buyers for the new output means offering more attractive terms than rivals in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, say Citigroup Inc., DNB ASA and Barclays Plc. Oil’s biggest slump in six years gained momentum in October as a wave of discounts by Middle Eastern producers signaled OPEC members were intent on defending market share against booming shale output from the U.S. The price of Saudi crude for Asian buyers was cut to the lowest in at least 14 years last month, a move followed by Iraq, Kuwait and Iran. “This price war is not just between Saudi Arabia and the U.S., it’s […]

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Obama wins breathing space over Iran

Barack Obama won some political breathing space at home for his diplomacy with Iran on Tuesday when the Democratic senator who has co-authored a new sanctions bill said he would hold off voting on the proposal for another two months. Bob Menendez, the leading Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee and one of the most hawkish members of Congress on Iran issues, said in a letter to Mr Obama that any vote on Iran sanctions should be put off until the end of March. More On this story On this topic IN US Politics & Policy Republican leaders in Congress could still decide to go ahead with the proposed sanctions legislation, which is due to be discussed in committee hearings starting later this week. However, the temporary truce declared by Mr Menendez and other leading Democrats who had supported sanctions will make it almost impossible to get the […]

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Iran: Lawmakers Agree To React Harshly To More Sanctions

More than 80 Iranian lawmakers signed a motion agreeing to react harshly if the United States were to impose new sanctions on the country, Tasnim News Agency reported Jan. 27. The group’s response would include annulling the Geneva interim nuclear deal.  U.S. lawmakers are divided over their stance on Iran . Several members of Congress are pushing for more sanctions, but U.S. President Barack Obama has said he will veto any attempt to impose more sanctions while nuclear negotiations are still pending.

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What is driving Pakistan’s fuel crisis?

Pakistani motorists wait for their turn to fill their vehicles at a petrol station in Islamabad on January 22, 2015 (Photo: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images) The shortage of imported oil began some two weeks ago, with affected areas almost grinding to a halt. Across the country, many buses have been taken off the streets, and scuffles have broken out at gas stations where people wait in long queues for fuel. Although the situation has eased slightly, the crisis prompted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to pull out of last week’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. Pakistan has to deal with chronic power cuts, and tackling the energy issue was one of Sharif’s main campaign pledges ahead of the 2013 general election. The situation was recently exacerbated by an apparent rebel attack on a key power line which plunged around 80 percent of the South Asian country into darkness over the […]

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China plans to set 2015 growth target at ‘around 7 percent’

BEIJING (Reuters) – China plans to cut its growth target to around 7 percent in 2015, its lowest goal in 11 years, sources said, as policymakers try to manage slowing growth, job creation and pursuing reforms intended to make the economy more driven by market forces. The growth target, which is set to be announced by Premier Li Keqiang at the annual parliament session in March, was endorsed by top party leaders and policymakers at a closed-door Central Economic Conference in December, said a number of people with knowledge of the outcome of meeting who spoke to Reuters. The target, which is in line with market expectations, has not been previously reported. "This year’s economic growth target will be around 7 percent, but the 7 percent should be the bottom line," said one of the sources, an influential economist who advises the government. "The government will have to balance […]

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China: Most Cities Miss 2014 Growth Targets

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Obama Plans Offshore Oil Drilling From Virginia to Georgia

The Obama administration proposed opening to offshore drilling an area from Virginia to Georgia in a policy shift long sought by energy companies but opposed by environmentalists concerned about popular resorts such as the Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach. The proposed offshore plan for 2017-2022 marks the second time President Barack Obama has recommended unlocking areas in the U.S. Atlantic for oil drilling, and he has faced criticism from allies who say the risks of a spill along the populated coast don’t justify the payoff. The agency said Atlantic leases won’t be auctioned for at least six years and drilling wouldn’t begin for several years after that. “This plan takes a balanced approach to oil and gas development,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told reporters Tuesday on a conference call. “It protects areas that are just too special to develop.” Managing the U.S. oil and gas boom has become a […]

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Kemp: Factors That Will Drive US Oil Production In 2015

URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/136944/Kemp_Factors_That_Will_Drive_US_Oil_Production_In_2015 Rig counts are a highly imperfect guide to future oil production but they are one of the few readily available statistics on oilfield activity so it is unwise to dismiss their importance entirely. John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Rig counts are a highly imperfect guide to future oil production but they are one of the few readily available statistics on oilfield activity so it is unwise to dismiss their importance entirely. The sharp drop in crude oil prices since June 2014 and associated fall in rig counts published by state regulators and service companies such as Baker Hughes has sparked a lively debate about the short-term outlook for U.S. oil production. Some analysts have forecast the drop in rig counts will cause production to peak in the first six months of 2015 then begin […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple