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Oil drama drives shares lower in Asia and Europe

LONDON (Reuters) – European shares sank for a third day on Tuesday as a slide in oil prices showed no sign of easing off, supporting traditional safe-haven assets such as top-rated government bonds, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. Asian shares had slumped overnight after another day of drama on oil markets that drove U.S. crude to less than $50 a barrel for the first time since the first half of 2009 and handed Wall Street its worst losses in three months. The resulting bid for safety drove the average of yields on German DE10YT=RR, U.S. US10YT=RR and Japanese JP10YT=RR 10-year debt to less than 1 percent for the first time. Also hit by a poor reading from a purchasing managers’ survey in Italy, all of Europe’s major exchanges were in negative territory an hour into morning trade. "Global risk sentiment has been hurt by sliding stocks and […]

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Top Five Factors Affecting Oil Prices In 2015

As we ring in the New Year, let’s take stock of where we are at with the oil markets. 2014 proved to be a momentous one for the oil markets, having seen prices cut in half in just six months. The big question is what oil prices will do in 2015. Oil prices are unsustainably low right now – many high-cost oil producers and oil-producing regions are currently operating in the red. That may work in the short-term, but over the medium and long-term, companies will be forced out of the market, precipitating a price rise. The big question is when they will rise, and by how much. So, what does that mean for oil prices in 2015? It is anybody’s guess, but here are the top five variables that will determine the trajectory of oil prices over the next 12 months, in no particular order. 1. China’s Economy. […]

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NYMEX February natgas settles at lowest level since September 2012

Houston (Platts)–5Jan2015/402 pm EST/2102 GMT The NYMEX February natural gas futures contract tumbled 12.1 cents to settle at $2.882/MMBtu on Monday, the lowest price since September 2012, as the market reacted to warmer mid-January weather forecasts. The contract had been in positive territory until about 1 pm EST (1800 GMT) before dipping sharply to settle below the New Year’s Eve close of $2.889/MMBtu. Monday’s settle is the lowest since September 24, 2012, when the prompt-month contract closed at $2.837/MMBtu. Gene McGillian, Tradition Energy senior analyst, said the earlier uptick in the February contract may have resulted from short-covering, while the late tumble reflected traders’ concerns over the fundamentals of the natural gas market this winter. "How much gas is coming out of the ground, the fact that cold weather is forecast for only the next week to 10 days … really doesn’t mark a turnaround for the selloff we’ve […]

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Natural Gas Retreats After Big Bump

By Timothy Puko Natural-gas futures plummeted to a new two-year low on Monday, undoing big gains that started the session as traders looked to cash in on a volatile market. Natural gas for February delivery settled down 12.1 cents, or 4%, at $2.882 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had climbed more than 5% after electronic trading opened Sunday evening, then steadily retreated just before floor trading opened in the morning. Both bulls and bears sold, a trader and a broker said. People who bet prices would rise late last week cashed out those bets to lock in profits, while people who believe prices will fall wanted to take advantage of higher prices to place new bets, they said. Record production is keeping many investors bearish even with a burst of cold spreading across the country this week, said Michael Doyle, a broker […]

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Libyan Air Force Plane Bombs Tanker, Killing Two

ENLARGE A member of the Libyan army stands on a tank on Dec. 23, 2014. The Libyan army has been battling Islamists who have taken control of much of Tripoli and the country’s second city of Benghazi. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Two crewmen on board a Greek-managed tanker were killed after a Libyan air force plane bombed the vessel while it was anchoring at port, Greek and Libyan officials said Monday, highlighting the turmoil that continues to ravage the north African country almost four years after the collapse of central government authority. The vessel, the Liberian-flagged Araevo, was in the Libyan port of Derna in the east of the country when it was hit by a bomb from the aircraft midday Sunday, in what appeared to be a case of mistaken identity. The airstrike killed a 29-year-old Greek cadet engineer and a 23-year-old Romanian seaman. Two other seamen, both Philippine […]

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Oil Tanker Bombed at Libyan Port as Risks to Shipments Rise

A Greek-operated oil tanker was bombed near a port in eastern Libya , killing two sailors and underscoring a fresh threat to shipments from the country with Africa ’s biggest crude reserves. The Araevo, bearing a Liberian flag, was struck by a rocket during an airstrike yesterday in front of Derna port, killing two crew members and seriously injuring two others, according to an e-mailed statement from Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp. The attack didn’t result in a leak and the vessel is now in Tobruk port also in the east, Ilias Syrros, the safety manager for Aegean Shipping Enterprises Co., the Piraeus, Greece-based firm operating the tanker, said by phone. Libya is split between the United Nations-recognized government of Abdullah al-Thinni in the east and Islamists who control Tripoli in the west. Al-Thinni’s forces bombed the ship after it failed to provide details on its itinerary, said Ahmad […]

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Milestone for Kurdish oil, companies announce

Companies working in the Kurdish north of Iraq say they’ve reached milestones in terms of production and export deliveries. UPI/Gary C. Caskey LONDON, Jan. 5 (UPI) — Companies operating in the Kurdish north of Iraq said Monday they reached a milestone in terms of production and shipments for exports through Turkey. Gulf Keystone Petroleum, a British company, announced with its Hungarian partner, MOL, it was now producing oil from seven wells in the Shaikan development in the Kurdish north of Iraq and expected an eighth to come online later this month. As of Dec. 29, the companies said production was around 40,000 barrels of oil per day, with a record number of 354 trucks crossing the Turkish border with a combined 58,000 barrels of Shaikan crude oil for export sale . "No question, reaching [the] production level is a significant milestone in the project," MOL Executive Vice President Alexander […]

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Iraq ends turbulent oil year on high note

Members of the Iraqi military guard an oil platform on Sept. 21, 2014, in the Basra Gulf. (HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/Getty Images) Iraq reported record monthly exports for December, though revenues dropped to a three-year low due to the falling price of oil.Exports for 2014 averaged 2.517 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the initial readout provided by Oil Ministry spokesperson Assem Jihad – the highest annualized level since 1989, when exports hit 2.595 million bpd, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.Iraqi crude was sold in December for an average price of $57 per barrel, Jihad sai…

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Iraq exports record high 2.94 mil b/d crude in Dec, up 430,000 b/d from Nov

Amman (Platts)–6Jan2015/501 am EST/1001 GMT Iraq’s crude oil exports reached 2.94 million b/d in December, a new record high, taking the country’s 2014 monthly average to 2.517 million b/d, as the recent deal with Kurdish authorities begins to bear fruit. The exports include 2.76 million b/d from southern Persian Gulf terminals, along with 180,000 b/d shipped from the Turkish port of Ceyhan, well-informed Iraqi oil sources confirmed to Platts Monday, January 5. Based on these figures, Iraq’s production during December is estimated at 3.4 million b/d, including 150,000 b/d of Kurdish crude. If confirmed, this would be the country’s highest production rate since 1979. November production was 2.89 million b/d, while exports were 2.51 million b/d, according to the official figures. Northern exports were up 152,000 b/d from November, while southern exports rose 278,000 b/d from 2.482 million b/d in November. Oil previously exported through an independent pipeline system […]

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‘ISIL is losing’: Iraqis optimistic for 2015

‘ISIL is losing’: Iraqis optimistic for 2015 thumbnail Iraqi security forces backed by Shia militias, Kurdish forces and Sunni Muslim tribesmen will drive the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from all Iraqi lands before the end of 2015, Iraqi security officials and analysts say. Iraq has been witnessing its worst security crisis since the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. In June, ISIL fighters overran Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul without any real resistance from Iraqi troops. A few days later, ISIL seized the neighbouring province of Salahaddin and swaths of Kirkuk and Anbar provinces. Thousands of civilians and troops have been killed since then in direct clashes or mass executions carried out by ISIL. About two million people have been displaced from the conflict zones. The dramatic collapse of Iraqi troops in the northern and western provinces and the rapid advance of ISIL […]

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