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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 […]

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Oil up 6 percent on Libya violence, China easing; volatility expected

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil was up about 6 percent on Thursday as rising violence in producing country Libya and an expected boost in oil demand from a central bank easing in China helped crude rebound from one of its sharpest daily routs ever in the previous session. Traders and analysts said they expect higher-than-usual volatility in coming days as the market tries to find a bottom to a seven-month selloff that took prices to near six-year lows. But many were pessimistic about the market making a sustained rally, with record-high U.S. crude inventories rekindling renewed worries about a supply glut. "It is just a changing market sentiment as more and more players are starting to believe production cuts are coming in the U.S. and that will be enough to erase the surplus," Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute, New York, said on the Reuters Global […]

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Oil Majors Fail To Find Reserves To Counter Falling Output

Large oil companies are failing to find enough oil and gas to counter falling output. LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Big oil companies had a poor record of finding and producing oil and gas last year, according to figures out in the past week – and big cuts in spending in response to falling crude prices could undermine their plans to turn that around. Four of the world’s six biggest oil firms by market value – Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and ConocoPhillips – released provisional figures showing together they replaced only two-thirds of the hydrocarbons they extracted in 2014 with new reserves. Combined, those four and industry leader Exxon Mobil posted an average drop in oil and gas production of 3.25 percent last year. All predict their output will increase and new reserves will be added in coming years. But the 2014 results echo longer-term trends. Over the […]

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Kurd Oil Producers Resort to $30 Sales as Export Income Stalled

(Bloomberg) — Foreign oil producers in Iraqi Kurdistan are resorting to selling crude at about $30 a barrel in the domestic market as the government hangs on to companies’ export earnings amid weaker world prices and a costly battle with Islamic State. “The government’s announcement was that there would be payments coming,” said Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, executive chairman of Norwegian producer DNO ASA, said in an interview in Oslo. “That payment I think got disrupted because of lower prices and the resolution of the budget issues.” That’s forcing DNO to increase sales to the local market. “The companies cannot go on forever investing,” Mossavar-Rahmani said. “Local sales are an opportunity for us to get oxygen as we wait for those larger issues to come together.” DNO, Genel Plc and Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. received an initial $75 million from the Kurdistan Regional Government for their exports last year that was […]

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In oil price war, Gulf producers grab market share in Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s move to slash the price it charges in Asia for its oil this week to the lowest in more than a decade is the latest aggressive action by Gulf states to defend market share in the world’s top oil consuming region. A price war between producers has raged since Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC allies last November chose to keep their taps open in a bid for market share over price, sending oil prices down more than a third to under $50 a barrel in just two months. Since then, Gulf producers – including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have steadily increased shipments to Asia, helped by low production costs that allow aggressive discounts, at the expense of West African and Latin American supplies. Middle East exports to China, by far the region’s biggest importer, increased 2.5 percent to around […]

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In Iran, as in U.S., Nuclear Deal is Hotly Debated

TEHRAN—In the chamber of Iran’s parliament recently, consternation mounted quickly over what hard-liners saw as a grave development: The foreign minister had taken a private stroll through a Geneva garden with his American counterpart, John Kerry, during a break in nuclear negotiations. Critics of the urbane Javad Zarif, a fluent English speaker, demanded last week that he appear before the legislature to recount what he had discussed with the U.S. secretary of state in mid-January. “Our nation can never tolerate this!” thundered lawmaker Ali Taheri from the main rostrum to what appeared to be a largely unfazed crowd of legislators going about other business. In a hall outside the chamber, another turbaned hard-liner Hamid Rasaee who belongs to what is known as the “steadfast” or “resistance” front, unleashed a tirade about the tête-à-tête before television cameras from the national broadcasting channel. “It’s a big mistake to have any relationship […]

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The emerging Iran nuclear deal raises major concerns

FILE – In this Jan. 14, 2015 file picture US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, listens to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as they walk in the city of Geneva, Switzerland, during a bilateral meeting ahead of nuclear discussions. (Martial Trezzini/AP) AS THE Obama administration pushes to complete a nuclear accord with Iran, numerous members of Congress, former secretaries of state and officials of allied governments are expressing concern about the contours of the emerging deal. Though we have long supported negotiations with Iran as well as the interim agreement the United States and its allies struck with Tehran, we share several of those concerns and believe they deserve more debate now — before negotiators present the world with a fait accompli. The problems raised by authorities ranging from Henry Kissinger, the country’s most senior former secretary of state, to Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, Virginia’s junior Democratic senator, […]

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Libya’s Guard Takes Oil Field Stormed by Islamist Gunmen

(Bloomberg) — Libya’s Petroleum Facilities Guard restored control over an idled oil field captured on Tuesday by Islamist gunmen who were said to be seeking a source of funds in the politically divided North African country. The assailants took three Philippine workers as hostages in their retreat from al-Mabruk oil field, Ali al-Hasy, a spokesman for the guard, said by phone on Thursday. Of the 15 guards deployed at the site when it came under attack on Feb 3., two survived and 13 are missing, he said. The field, operated by Total SA as part of a joint venture with Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp., stopped pumping crude on Dec. 15 after an Islamist attack shut Es Sider, the country’s largest oil port and the export terminal for al-Mabruk. Libya’s oil production dropped to 300,000 barrels a day last month from a peak in 2013 of 1.4 million barrels, […]

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Oil Companies in the Cross Hairs of Libyan Violence

Dow Jones Newswires By Benoît Faucon And Georgi Kantchev 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 launch the world-wide rout in oil prices. In just three months, Libyan oil production has fallen from nearly 900,000 barrels a day in October to about 325,000 barrels a day in January, largely because of oil fields being taken over by armed Libyan groups or shutdowns due to security concerns, according to officials at the National Oil Co. The plunging output comes after civil war broke out mid-2014 and caused 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 day. And the country’s main oil port, known as Sidra, was closed […]

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Saudi Arabia Deepens Asia Oil Discount to Record Low

A flame from a Saudi Aramco oil installion known as "Pump 3" is seen in the desert near the oil-rich area of Khouris, 160 kms east of the Saudi capital Riyadh. Saudi Aramco, as the producer is known, raised the premium for Arab Light crude to the U.S. by 15 cents a barrel to 45 cents to U.S. Gulf Coast benchmarks. Photographer: Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images (Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, cut pricing for March oil sales to Asia, a sign that the desert kingdom is continuing to fight for market share. State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. lowered its official selling price for Arab Light crude by 90 cents to $2.30 a barrel less than Middle East benchmarks, the company said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. That’s the lowest in at least the 14 years since Bloomberg began gathering data. “This is further evidence that they […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple