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OPEC’s Future Seen in Mining Slump as Oil Price Pummeled

Oil producers reluctant to curb output even as prices tumble to five-and-a-half year lows don’t need to guess what the future holds. They can ask a miner. In coal to iron ore markets, suppliers have raised volumes even as prices slumped, boosting global gluts and jeopardizing profits as the most dominant players seek to maintain revenue and squeeze out higher cost rivals. Prices of thermal coal , used to generate electricity, and metallurgical coal , a key ingredient in steel, have tumbled more than half since 2011 on supply additions and slowing demand in China , the biggest commodities consumer. With OPEC insistent that it won’t curb crude output, and U.S. production rising to its fastest weekly pace in more than 30 years, oil markets may be in line for similar prolonged pain. “If OPEC every now and again looks over their shoulder at what is happening in other […]

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Iran Blames Oil-Price Plunge for Delay in Minister’s Saudi Visit

A meeting between the foreign ministers of OPEC’s Iran and Saudi Arabia was delayed in part due to discord over falling crude prices, said Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, made an invitation in May to Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif for talks in the kingdom with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal. The visit, postponed a few months ago because of differences over the Syria conflict, has been pushed off again “due to oil-price declines,” Amir-Abdollahian said on Al-Alam state-run television, according to its website. Oil producers in the Persian Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, “are expected to make efforts to stop the fall in oil prices and not let the decline have a lasting impact on oil-producing nations’ economies,” Amir-Abdollahian said, according to Iran’s Al-Alam . Brent crude has dropped 53 percent in the past year. […]

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Saudis Kept Oil Exports at 7-Month High as OPEC Met

Saudi Arabia ’s oil exports rose to a seven-month high in November when it led OPEC to keep production unchanged as the largest crude shipper fought to keep market share with output rising from the U.S. to Russia. Saudi Arabia’s oil exports rose to 7.3 million barrels a day from 6.9 million barrels in October, according to data yesterday on the website of the Joint Organisations Data Initiative. Crude stockpiles at the end of the month stood at 305.8 million barrels, the highest level since at least January 2002, figures on the group’s website showed. Saudi Arabia dropped its official selling prices in Asia for November sales to gain market share in the fastest-growing region for petroleum demand while it helped domestic refiners to be profitable. Brent crude futures have dropped about 35 percent since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries unexpectedly maintained its production target of 30 million […]

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Libyan government army declares cease-fire

Libya’s internationally recognized government in the northeastern Tobruk has declared a cease-fire , with U.N.-brokered peace talks set to resume in Geneva next week. The Tobruk government’s rival, the self-declared Fajr Libya (Dawn of Libya) government in Tripoli had declared a truce earlier in the week, but said on Sunday that it would not participated in the talks unless they were held in Libya, but that they were willing to negotiate. Jason Pack from Libya-Analysis.com, speaking to Al Jazeera from London, said that the cease-fire agreement was only moderately promising, adding that while Fajr Libya , which is comprised of several militia groups, had agreed to a truce, many other militia groups operating in the country had not.  "We also do not have both sides of the political leadership of Tripoli represented in Geneva," Pack said, but added that the current situation in Libya was not necessarily a result of […]

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Oil Boss Says More Job Cuts Ahead

A sign tower reaches toward the sky at the entrance to oil-field services company Schlumberger. ASSOCIATED PRESS Energy companies aren’t finished shedding jobs due to crude oil prices that are half what they were about six months ago, the world’s biggest oil-field-services provider warned soon after disclosing 9,000 job cuts. Paal Kibsgaard, chief executive of Schlumberger Ltd. , said on Friday U.S. oil producers that focus on shale fields are worse off than rivals elsewhere because of their higher costs. “The new oil prices are clearly going to test the resilience of several North American land producers going forward,” he said, citing “their ability to get financing, their ability to continue to drive efficiencies and reduce costs and their ability to maintain production at current levels.” Some of the largest U.S. oil-and-gas producers have cut 2015 capital spending budgets by 20% or more. Investment bank Cowen and Co. said […]

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Falling oil prices threaten electric cars and biofuels

Tesla Motors Chairman and CEO Elon Musk (in driver’s seat) and chief designer Franz von Holzhausen (in passenger seat) drive the new Tesla Model S all-electric sedan out into the street as members of the media look on, at the car’s unveiling in Hawthorne, California on March 26 2009 Tumbling oil prices look set to hit electric cars and biofuels harder than other parts of the green power industry, the head of the world’s leading renewable energy agency has warned. That is because they compete directly with rivals such as petrol-fuelled cars that are becoming cheaper to run as oil prices fall. More On this topic IN Energy But wind farms, solar plants and other renewable electricity generators should not be affected by the price plunge because they do not face anything like the same level of competition, said Adnan Amin, director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency , […]

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Michigan’s Governor Snyder eyes phasing out coal-fired power generation, unlike counterparts

Louisville, Kentucky (Platts)–16Jan2015/617 pm EST/2317 GMT Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is setting his energy stall out early in the state’s two-year legislative session, saying he wants to look into weaning the state off coal-fired generation. Currently, Michigan sources about 50% of its power from coal-fired plants, but Snyder told the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum Thursday that "now is the time to look at a long-term transition away from coal." In the long term, Snyder sees potential replacements for coal such as natural gas and wind "as viable options for Michigan, both of which have begun to build a presence in the state," Dave Murray, the governor’s deputy press secretary, said Friday. And the former business executive and venture capitalist’s stance on potentially expanding the state’s 10% by 2015 renewable portfolio standard during this year’s session could hold influence in the Republican-dominated state Legislature — which began its session on […]

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Repsol Abandons Drilling off Canary Islands

ENLARGE Repsol’s drilling program off the coast of Spain’s Canary Islands angered environmental groups. A sign from a 2014 protest, above, reads ‘No to oil companies, yes to renewables.’ Agence France-Presse/Getty Images MADRID— Repsol on Friday said it would abandon drilling off the Canary Islands, ending a year-long conflict that had pitted the Spanish oil company and central government against islanders worried about the effect oil extraction may have on the environment. An exploratory well reaching more than 3,000 meters below sea level found methane and hexane gases but it “lacked the necessary volume and quality to consider future extraction,” Repsol said. The company said it would seal off the well within a week and that it won’t carry out a previously planned second drilling. The well closure puts a cork in a controversial project that began over a decade ago, when seismic studies first suggested there could be […]

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EU Considers Bigger Loan for Ukraine

ENLARGE Ukrainian and European Union flags. EU governments discussed Friday increasing the amount the bloc lends to Ukraine over the medium term. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images BRUSSELS–-European Union governments discussed Friday increasing the amount the bloc lends to Ukraine in the medium term, with a number of bigger member states saying the proposed loan package floated by Brussels wasn’t large enough, according to people familiar with the debate. Last week, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposed a €1.8 billion ($2.10 billion) balance of payment loan for Ukraine through 2015 and early 2016. The money is planned alongside fresh assistance from the U.S. and other international sources to help the government in Kiev fill a funding gap estimated by the country at around $15 billion through the first quarter of 2016. Earlier this week, the U.S. pledged $2 billion in additional loan guarantees for Ukraine. According to two officials, a number […]

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Is Moscow bluffing on redirecting European gas supplies?

Is Moscow bluffing on redirecting European gas supplies? thumbnail Moscow says it’s planning to build a pipeline to the Turkish-Greek border and no longer ship natural gas to Western Europe through Ukraine within 3 years. The project is far more about political competition than economics. Russia has announced that it will stop supplying Europe directly with natural gas via pipelines that transit through Ukraine within three years, Russian news agencies reported last week. The move threatens the European Union ‘s energy security and may force Europeans to move quickly to wean the continent from its long-standing dependence on Russian gas. Russia says it will use a newly-announced pipeline through Turkey to bypass Ukraine and channel about 60 billion cubic meters of gas — about 40 percent of all Russian exports to Europe — to a new gas hub on the Greek-Turkish border. Europe will be required to make its […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple