Category:

Oil Prices Post Biggest One-Week Gain Since 2011

Oil prices posted their largest weekly percentage gain in three years as traders looked past the current world-wide glut of crude to focus on signals of future production cuts. Market participants said oil prices, which have fallen more than 50% in the past seven months, could be bottoming out as producers have reacted to the low prices by cutting expenditure and reducing drilling activity. Analysts caution that the global oil market is still oversupplied and there are few signs of a major uptick in demand, so prices could slip yet again. The market was particularly volatile this week, posting a one-month high Tuesday before plunging Wednesday and then regaining those losses by the end of the week. U.S. oil for March delivery settled up $1.21, or 2.4%, at $51.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices gained 7.2% this week, the largest weekly percentage gain since February […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil rallies another $1, but no rapid recovery seen

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Crude oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel on Friday, continuing a rebound from near-six-year lows plumbed last week, although no rapid recovery is expected amid rising global inventories and steady OPEC supply. Prices closed more than 4 percent higher on Thursday, pushed up by conflict in producer Libya and expectations of a boost to oil demand after China’s central bank easing. Benchmark Brent crude futures were $1 higher at $57.57 a barrel at 0741 GMT (2.41 a.m. EST), after closing up $2.41 on Thursday. U.S. crude for March delivery was also up $1 at $51.47 a barrel. The contract had finished up $2.03 the previous day. "There are signs of rejuvenation in short-term physical demand," National Australia Bank analyst Vyanne Lai said in a note. Physical demand has been boosted recently by traders storing crude on tankers to benefit from higher prices for delivery […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Spending cuts drive rally for crude oil

Crude oil prices rally as spending drops in exploration and production side of the global energy sector. UPI/Gary C. Caskey NEW YORK, Feb. 6 (UPI) — Crude oil prices extended their rally Friday, posting some of the biggest two-week gains in recent trading as markets show signs of moving above a floor price. The price for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, gained 2.75 percent from the previous session to trade at $51.87 per barrel for the March contract early in the trading day. WTI started the year at $52.69 before falling more than 15 percent by the end of January. Prices since the start of February are up nearly 7 percent. Crude oil prices have lost about half of their value since June as markets swing toward the supply side, driven in large part by a weak global economy and increased production from the United States. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Natural Gas Falls to 2 1/2-Year Low on Confidence in Supply

By Timothy Puko Natural-gas prices set another 2 1/2-year low, falling for the seventh time in eight sessions as traders show little concern about the health of supplies. The front-month March contract settled down 2.1 cents, or 0.8%, at $2.579 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This is the lowest front-month settlement since June 20, 2012, when gas closed at $2.517/mmBtu. Weather forecasts show above-normal temperatures spreading across nearly the entire country into next week. But they also show the chance for severe cold coming a week from now, with WeatherBELL Analytics LLC predicting temperatures about 20 degrees Fahrenheit below normal in an area including New York and Boston. Half of all U.S. homes use natural gas for heat, but this winter hasn’t been severe enough to spark the kind of heating demand that would overwhelm record production. "The cold needs to be more […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iran warns West that pragmatist Rouhani at risk from talks failure

ANKARA/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Iran’s foreign minister has warned the United States that failure to agree a nuclear deal would likely herald the political demise of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani, Iranian officials said, raising the stakes as the decade-old stand-off nears its end-game. Mohammad Javad Zarif pressed the concern with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at several meetings in recent weeks, according to three senior Iranian officials, who said Iran had also raised the issue with other Western powers. Zarif’s warning has not been previously reported. Western officials acknowledged that the move may be just a negotiating tactic to persuade them to give more ground, but said they shared the view that Rouhani’s political clout would be heavily damaged by the failure of talks. The warning that a breakdown in talks would empower Iran’s conservative hardliners comes as the 12-year-old stand-off reaches a crucial phase, with a March […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

At least 22 killed in two bombings in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 22 people were killed in two bombings in eastern Baghdad on Saturday, police said, hours before the government was due to lift a long-standing night-time curfew on the capital. At least 50 people were wounded in the blasts, the officials said. In the first attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt inside a restaurant in the Shi’ite neighborhood of New Baghdad, leaving 12 dead. In the second attack, two bombs ripped through the bustling Sharqa market district, killing 10 people. Earlier police had put the number of dead at 23. The interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan said he did not believe the blasts were linked to the decision to lift the curfew. The Iraqi government announced on Thursday that the decade-old curfew in the capital would end on Saturday at midnight and that four neighborhoods would be "demilitarized". The moves are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Some Kurdish oil exports suspended

Gulf Keystone Petroleum suspends oil exports from Kurdish north of Iraq because of payment row. Photo courtesy: Gulf Keystone Petroleum. LONDON, Feb. 6 (UPI) — Exports from the Kurdish north of Iraq through Turkey are suspended while payment negotiations continue, Gulf Keystone Petroleum said Friday. The British company said it’s owed an unstated amount in payments from the Kurdish government. As a short-term measure , crude oil was redirected to the local market and exports by truck through Turkey are suspended. "This is expected to be a short term measure until a regular payment cycle can be established for sales via the export route," the company said. In the meantime, the company said it was working on finding ways to get crude oil from the Shaikan development in the Kurdish north out of the region through pipeline networks. Last month, the company announced with its Hungarian partner MOL it […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Shiite rebels take power in Yemen, fan fears of civil war

AP Photo/Hani Mohammed World Video Latest News Buy AP Photo Reprints SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen’s Shiite rebels proclaimed a formal takeover of the Arab nation Friday, dissolving parliament in a dramatic move that completes their power grab in the region’s poorest nation where an al-Qaida terrorist offshoot flourishes. Angry demonstrators protested the rebels’ move in street rallies in several cities, raising fears of a full-blown sectarian conflict between Yemen’s new Shiite tribal rulers, known as Houthis, and the disenfranchised Sunni majority. The unrest could strengthen Yemen’s al-Qaida branch, considered the world’s most dangerous wing of the terror movement, and complicate U.S. counter-terrorism operations in Saudi Arabia’s southern neighbor. While Houthi rebels are bitter enemies to al-Qaida, they also are hostile to the United States, and frosty to the predominantly Sunni Saudis. The region’s Shiite powerhouse, Iran, looms as a potential key backer. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil Companies in the Cross Hairs of Libyan Violence

ENLARGE Firefighters worked to put out a fire at an oil-storage tank in the port of Sidra in January. Photo: Reuters The violence roiling Libya has increasingly targeted oil companies and their assets, upending long-term investments by Western companies and driving down production in a country that helped trigger the world-wide rout in oil prices. In short order, Libyan oil output has fallen to about 325,000 barrels a day in January from nearly 900,000 barrels a day in October, largely because of oil fields being taken over by Libyan militias or shutdowns due to security concerns, according to officials at the state-owned National Oil Co. The plunge in production comes after civil war broke out mid-2014, leading to two big closures at the end of the year. French major Total SA closed the Mabruk oil field in central Libya, a facility that once produced 30,000 to 40,000 barrels a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

U.S. Oil Workers’ Strike Expands to BP Plants With Talks on Hold

Union workers picket outside of the Marathon Petroleum Corp. Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City, Texas, U.S. Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — U.S. oil workers at two BP Plc plants in the Midwest are joining the biggest strike at refineries across the nation since 1980 as negotiations on a new labor contract were suspended until next week. Workers at BP’s Whiting refinery in Indiana and the Toledo plant in Ohio that it co-owns with Husky Energy Inc. notified management that they’ll be joining the strike at 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, Scott Dean a spokesman for BP, said by e-mail Friday. The United Steelworkers, which represents 30,000 U.S. oil workers, has suspended negotiations with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, bargaining on behalf of employers, until next week. The nine U.S. plants on strike and the two refineries headed for a walkout together total about 13 percent of the country’s refining […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple