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Crude-Oil Price Collapse Takes Toll on Williston

Oil-pump jacks in Williston, N.D., last November. ENLARGE Photo: Associated Press WILLISTON, N.D.—As the epicenter of the North American oil boom, this town was a magnet for blue-collar job seekers. But the collapse in crude prices means truck-choked Williston is no longer the land of opportunity it was less than a year ago. “I tried to get in on the oil rigs, but by the time I got here they were laying off,” says Jimmy Sidwell, who arrived in Williston from Atlanta in January. He had figured the oil fields were one of the few remaining places where he could earn a good salary without having a college degree. Instead, Mr. Sidwell has been digging ditches and sleeping in motels, hoping that something better will open up. “It’s like everyone is here looking for the pot of gold,” he says. In 2008, energy companies figured out how to combine […]

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IS HUMANKIND ALREADY WITNESSING THE SLOW ARRIVAL OF “PEAK OIL”?

March 11, 2015 (NATIONAL) — If you’ve never heard of the concept of "peak oil" don’t feel left out. The news media rarely mentions it even though it may be one of the most significant events in the history of humans on earth. Because if peak oil hits in our lifetime, things could get dicey for every human being on the planet sometime this century. LIfe as we know it in a modern world could change forever. Peak oil is a predicted future event made famous by Marion Hubbert (October 5, 1903 – October 11, 1989) who was a a geoscientist working at the Shell research lab in Houston, Texas. He made important contributions to geology and petroleum geology, including what is called the Hubbert curve and Hubbert peak theory, a basic component of peak oil. Peak oil refers to the point in time when the maximum rate of […]

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IMF: Energy reforms key to Ukraine’s success

With bailout in hand, the International Monetary Fund nonetheless says Ukrainian economic woes stem from "deep-rooted" issues. UPI/Ivan Vakolenko Energy sector reforms and the addressing of "deep-rooted" structural issues in Ukraine will return the country’s economy to growth, the IMF said. The International Monetary Fund announced it approved the immediate disbursement of about $5 billion to Ukraine, with a little more than half of that allocated to budget support for the former Soviet republic. The Ukrainian administration that took over in the wake of political upheaval in late 2013 said the economy was left in shambles by former President Viktor Yanukovych . More than a year later, the IMF said real gross domestic product is expected to contract by 5.5 percent. Gripped by conflict and interference by its former Soviet patrons, the IMF nonetheless said some of the onus lies with Kiev . "Addressing deep-rooted structural problems is critical […]

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The Real Story Behind The Oil Price Collapse

Many reasons have been provided for the dramatic plunge in the price of oil to about $60 per barrel (nearly half of what it was a year ago): slowing demand due to global economic stagnation; overproduction at shale fields in the United States; the decision of the Saudis and other Middle Eastern OPEC producers to maintain output at current levels (presumably to punish higher-cost producers in the U.S. and elsewhere); and the increased value of the dollar relative to other currencies. There is, however, one reason that’s not being discussed, and yet it could be the most important of all: the complete collapse of Big Oil’s production-maximizing business model. Until last fall, when the price decline gathered momentum, the oil giants were operating at full throttle, pumping out more petroleum every day.  They did so, of course, in part to profit from the high prices.  For most of the […]

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Oil Choppy, High U.S. Supplies Weighs on WTI Prices

By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures were choppy in Asian trade Thursday as markets weighed South Korea’s surprise interest-rate cut and pressure from rising U.S. oil supply levels. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $48.33 a barrel at 0556 GMT, up $0.16 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.56 to $58.10 a barrel. Oil prices had diverged in the previous trading session, with Brent posting gains on the back of a technical correction and ahead of the expiry of the April contract, according to Citi Futures. Market sentiment also received a boost after the Bank of Korea’s surprise rate cut early Thursday, in line with other central banks that have taken similar measures to boost growth. U.S. crude-oil inventories rose by 4.5 million barrels to 448.9 million barrels in the week ended […]

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Oil market shrugs off worries about crude stocks: Kemp

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil watchers have spent much of the last two months speculating about whether overproduction and the rapid accumulation of crude oil inventories in the United States would cause storage space to run out and trigger another fall in spot prices. Commercial crude stocks held at refineries, tank farms and in pipelines across the United States have surged by more than 63 million barrels, an average of more than 6 million barrels per week, this year and are at their highest since the 1930s, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The volume of crude in storage last week was almost 80 million barrels higher than the corresponding week in 2014, and 106 million barrels above the 10-year average. ( link.reuters.com/qym34w ) Storage facilities in the U.S. Midwest were 69 percent full, while those on the Gulf Coast were 56 percent full, the EIA reported on […]

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Natural-Gas Prices Rising on Winter’s ‘Last Gasp’ — Update

By Timothy Puko Natural-gas prices made their biggest gains Wednesday in more than two weeks as weather forecasts show a cooler start to spring. Natural gas for April delivery settled up 9.2 cents, or 3.4%, at $2.824 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It is the largest percentage gain since Feb. 20, and two winning sessions have now nearly cancelled out massive losses from Monday. Short sellers–investors who bet prices would fall–likely bought back in to close out those trades, an analyst and trader said. Colder-than-normal weather now forecast for the last week of March and into April could be limiting a further collapse in prices, said Gene McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy. "We have maybe one last gasp of winter," he said. Traders may also think that heavy withdrawals from stockpiles could buoy the market, Mr. McGillian added. Cold weather has been […]

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Exclusive: Iraq builds up arrears to majors as oil price drops – sources

LONDON (Reuters) – Iraq is building up debts to the oil companies developing its giant fields, industry sources said, a further sign of how the oil-price drop is putting a squeeze on revenues in OPEC’s second-largest producer. Western oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil are working at Iraq’s southern oilfields under service contracts, which are currently based on a fixed dollar fee for additional volumes produced. As a result of the halving of oil prices to around $56 a barrel from $115 in June, the amount of crude needed to pay the companies has roughly doubled – reducing revenue to a government fighting an Islamic State insurgency. "The Iraqis have a problem. The number of barrels they have to give to the companies as service fees has risen two-fold because the oil price has fallen two-fold. So Iraq simply has less barrels for themselves," said […]

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Low Oil Prices Are Hurting Iraq’s War Against ISIS

The budgetary blow from falling oil prices is being acutely felt in crude revenues-dependent Iraq, which is undermining the government’s efforts to pay for a war against Islamic State extremists. Senior writer for global energy issues Bill Spindle joined  the Moneybeat show to discuss his page one story and explain how this funding shortfall means that Iraq’s government is increasingly having to rely on Iran-backed militias in the fight against the extremists. “The problem is that these militias are really very sectarian, they are entirely made up of Shiites, but when they move into areas like they are doing now…those are all Sunni-dominated areas. And as they move into them you get all sorts of tensions that result from all of this and it’s all just being exacerbated by the lack of money now.”

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Palestinian side cancels Israeli gas deal

Palestinian power company cancels contract with counterparts controlling Israeli natural gas reserves. (UPI/Shutterstock/James Jones Jr.) Operators at the Leviathan natural gas field off the Israeli coast said Wednesday a Palestinian group canceled a $1.2 billion purchase contract. Delek Group, which alongside Noble Energy holds an 85 percent stake in the Leviathan project, said it received a "conditioned cancellation notice of the natural gas supply agreement from the Leviathan project to Palestine Power Generation Co." Leviathan is one of the largest regional gas fields, with an estimated 18 trillion cubic feet of reserves. Development was curtailed in late 2014 when the Israel Antitrust Authority said Delek Group and its partners at Noble Energy held a monopoly over all of the gas reservoirs off the nation’s coast. Both companies also control the nearby Tamar, estimated to hold as much as 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Delek in a statement […]

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Saudi Nuclear Deal Raises Stakes for Iran Talks

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman greeted South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Riyadh last week. ENLARGE Photo: Saudi Press Agency/Reuters WASHINGTON—As U.S. and Iranian diplomats inched toward progress on Tehran’s nuclear program last week, Saudi Arabia quietly signed its own nuclear-cooperation agreement with South Korea. That agreement, along with recent comments from Saudi officials and royals, is raising concerns on Capitol Hill and among U.S. allies that a deal with Iran, rather than stanching the spread of nuclear technologies, risks fueling it. Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a member of the royal family, has publicly warned in recent months that Riyadh will seek to match the nuclear capabilities Iran is allowed to maintain as part of any final agreement reached with world powers. This could include the ability to enrich uranium and to harvest the weapons-grade plutonium discharged in a nuclear reactor’s spent fuel. Several U.S. and […]

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Turkey Seeks to Replace Ukraine as Energy Hub

Russia says it will stop sending natural gas to Europe through Ukraine and will start sending it through Turkey. Turkey welcomes the decision. For ten years the country has aimed to be a major energy hub, or distribution center. But some critics say Turkey is not prepared to play such a role. Atilla Yesilada is a senior partner at Global Source Partners, a research group in Turkey. He says Russia’s decision is a major opportunity for his country. “Turkey simply becomes the next Ukraine and Turkey could become a major energy hub that supplies Europe.” But Mr. Yesilada says Turkey has a lot of work to do before that can happen. He says Turkey will need to understand the gas market, know the buyers, predict prices and build places to store natural gas. He says being an energy hub will require a big investment but it may also bring […]

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Plan to Verify Delhi Pollution Data Raises Suspicions

Photo A thick blanket of smoke at a garbage dump in New Delhi. The government says it will authenticate pollution levels before releasing the information to the public, a plan that critics say will deprive residents of the opportunity to protect themselves against bad air. Credit Altaf Qadri/Associated Press NEW DELHI — This megacity’s modest effort to warn residents about unhealthy spikes in air pollution levels in real time may soon end, after a decision to first send the data to be authenticated by the central government. Some experts and activists immediately questioned the need for such checks, accusing the government of trying to hide — or worse, alter — data that shows Delhi’s air to be the world’s most toxic at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing for greater industrialization. Recent high readings, which consistently exceed Beijing’s pollution readings, have alarmed the city’s Indian elites […]

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Jamaica Seeks Agreement to Pay Off Venezuelan Oil Debt

Peter Phillips, Jamaica’s finance minister. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Jamaica is in talks with financial institutions on a plan to pay off debt it owes Venezuela for oil it received through the Petrocaribe energy program, Finance Minister Peter Phillips said. The talks come less than two months after the Dominican Republic struck a deal to pay $1.9 billion for nearly all of the $4.1 billion it owed Petroleos de Venezuela SA, which administers Petrocaribe. Phillips said a similar deal makes sense for Jamaica, but he declined to provide details on how the deal would be structured or how soon an agreement could be reached. “We certainly have valued and continue to value the Petrocaribe arrangement,” Phillips said Wednesday in an interview at the Jamaica Investment Forum in Montego Bay. “We are mindful of the particular needs of our Venezuelan counterparts and in that space there is some prospect […]

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The Dirty Truth About Asia’s Cruise-Ship Emissions

ENLARGE Sulfur caps for cruise ships are the subject of an election debate in Sydney. Australia restricts ships’ emissions of sulfur to 3.5% of fuel volume—a level that is 35 times the U.S. and European limit. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images SYDNEY—Operators of some of the world’s biggest cruise ships are facing calls to bring their fuel emissions while at Asia-Pacific ports into line with stricter air-quality standards in the U.S. and Europe. Many popular destinations, including Singapore, Australia and several of the Pacific Islands, apply international maritime guidelines restricting ships’ emissions of sulfur—a pollutant associated with acid rain—to 3.5% of fuel volume. But that is 35 times the U.S. and European limit. Responsibility for regulating sulfur emissions—found by a number of air-quality studies conducted by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cause conditions ranging from breathing difficulties to premature death—rests with local authorities. Activists […]

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US crude stocks grow, likely to continue building

U.S. commercial crude oil stocks rose 4.5 million barrels during the week ended March 6, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by Platts on Monday had expected crude oil stocks to increase 4.2 million barrels week over week. At 448.9 million barrels, inventories pushed further into record-high territory. Crude oil imports dropped sharply the week ended March 6, though stocks still built as production was estimated to have risen 42,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 9.366 million b/d. Daily crude oil output exceeded the year-ago level by 14.5%. Stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, increased 2.3 million barrels, marking a return to large, weekly builds at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) futures contract delivery point. In 2015, Cushing stocks averaged an increase of 2 million barrels each week through February. For the week ended February 27, however, Cushing inventory rose only 536,000 barrels, sparking debate as […]

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Husky reports start of production from Sunrise oil sands project

Husky Energy Inc., Calgary, reported the start of production at the first of two 30,000-b/d plants at the in situ Sunrise Oil Sands Project in northeastern Alberta. Husky said it expects the project’s total production to ramp up its full 60,000 b/d capacity (gross) by yearend 2016. Steam operations for the project began in December 2014 ( OGJ Online, Dec. 12, 2014 ). Husky is the operator of Sunrise, which lies 60 km northeast of Fort McMurray, with equal working interest with BP PLC , which operates the jointly-owned BP-Husky Toledo refinery. Bitumen from Sunrise can be processed at that refinery. Sunrise contains estimated reserves of 3.7 billion bbl (440 million proved, 2.4 billion probable, and 860 million possible) as of Dec. 31, 2013. Husky has a 50% working interest in these reserves. 03/11/2015 Abu Dhabi Co. for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO), through a subcontractor, has let a contract […]

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Chevron shrugs off low oil prices

Chevron said market fundamentals still supportive of the oil industry even if spending and staff reductions are necessary. (UPI/Shutterstock/num_skyman) Fourth quarter earnings of $3.5 billion represented a 30 percent decline year-on-year for Chevron. Full year 2014 earnings were $19.2 billion, compared with $21.4 billion the previous year. Oil prices are down more than half from June 2014 peaks and up only 9 percent since the start of the year. John Watson , Chevron’s chairman and chief executive officer, said at the company’s annual security analyst meeting in New York the market situation was not overly detrimental . "The fundamentals of the oil and gas business remain attractive for our company and investors, as our products are vital to a growing world economy," he said during Tuesday’s conference. A research note published Monday by CME Group said oil prices may be depressed for several years, though the industry itself will […]

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Western Canadian oil and gas output declines

Historic oil and natural gas production in Northwest Territories in Canada on the decline, federal data show. Photo by Calin Tatu/Shutterstock Oil and natural gas production from frontier prospects in the Northwest Territories is on a steady decline, federal Canadian data show Wednesday. The National Energy Board published data on production from the Norman and Ikhil fields in the Northwest Territories. The regional government estimates the western area may hold as much as 37 percent of the marketable light crude oil in Canada and as much as 35 percent of its gas. NEB said it estimates the region produced 3.9 million barrels of oil and around 2.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas last year. That’s down around 25 percent for oil and 17 percent for natural gas when compared with production figures from 2010. David Ramsay, the regional minister of industry, told members of the Canadian Parliament last […]

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Time ripe for Atlantic wind, advocates say

Ocean advocacy group says offshore wind could provide effective balance to U.S. energy economy with the right policies in place. (UPI/Shutterstock/Teun van den Dries) One of the main barriers to a diverse energy economy in the United States is an investment scenario that benefits oil and gas, an ocean advocacy group said. "It’s time for the U.S. to join many other parts of the world and invest in our clean energy future," Nancy Sopko, a campaigner with Oceana, told UPI in response to email questions. The European Commission this week announced some member states had already met their 2020 goals for renewable energy development . While solar power in the United States is gaining momentum, sectors like offshore wind have yet to reach commercial capacity. With high bids totaling $448,000, the Interior Department in January doubled the total acreage available for wind energy development off the coast of Massachusetts […]

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Trains Carrying Crude in Canada to Face Tougher Safety Standards

(Bloomberg) — Canada is strengthening proposed new safety standards for rail cars carrying crude oil, requiring thicker steel and other improvements after a 2013 derailment killed 47 people. The latest Transport Canada proposals, published online Wednesday, go beyond earlier announcements by requiring rail cars carrying crude to have thicker steel, full “head shields,” mandatory thermal “jacket” protection among other upgrades. Canada continues to work with the U.S. on rail standards, the document said, adding the U.S. will make its own decisions. In its online update, Transport Canada said the Transportation Safety Board had pushed for improvements from those initially published in January 2014. Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced the new standards, which are still subject to federal cabinet approval, in parliament Wednesday. The standards create “a new class of tank car specifically designed to transport flammable liquids by rail,” said Zach Segal, a spokesman for Raitt. The updated proposals […]

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How Big Oil Is Profiting From the Slump

The Royal Dutch Shell Plc Olympus tension leg platform (TLP) sets sail from Kiewit Offshore Services in Ingleside, Texas, U.S. Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Europe’s largest oil companies are gaining support from an unlikely source as they confront the industry’s worst slump since the financial crisis: lower oil prices. Although better known for their oil fields, refineries, and petrol stations, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA are also the world’s biggest oil traders, handling enough crude and refined products every day to meet the consumption of Japan, India, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. The trio’s sway in commodities trading, largely unknown outside the industry, is set to pay off in 2015 as the bear market allows traders to generate higher returns by storing cheap oil today to sell at higher prices later and using lower prices to make more bets with the same […]

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The U.S. Has Too Much Oil and Nowhere to Put It

Overflowing storage tanks could lead to another drop in prices Photo Illustration: Braulio Amado; Source: Alamy (2) Seven months ago the giant tanks in Cushing, Okla., the largest crude oil storage hub in North America, were three-quarters empty. After spending the last few years brimming with light, sweet crude unlocked by the shale drilling revolution, the tanks held just less than 18 million barrels by late July, down from a high of 52 million in early 2013. New pipelines to refineries along the Gulf Coast had drained Cushing of more than 30 million barrels in less than a year. As quickly as it emptied out, Cushing has filled back up again. Since October, the amount of oil stored there has almost tripled, to more than 51 million barrels. As oil prices have crashed, from more than $100 a barrel last summer to below $50 now, big trading companies are storing their crude […]

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Fuel-Thirsty California Looks to Eastern Canada, Asia for Supply

A bicyclist rides past an oil tanker as it unloads a shipment of oil through an underwater pipeline connected to the Chevron El Segundo refinery in El Segundo, California. The state’s gasoline demand has waned in the last decade and U.S. refiners have raised their own production because of cheaper crude and natural gas costs. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Fuel producers in California, facing plant outages and upsets that are squeezing supplies, are looking as far off as Asia and eastern Canada for reinforcements. A tanker carrying refined products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel was bound for Los Angeles on Wednesday after loading at the Point Tupper terminal in Nova Scotia, shipping data compiled by Bloomberg show. At least seven other fuel tankers were headed to the U.S. West Coast after leaving Asia, the data show. Tankers are bound for California after a spate of refinery […]

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Russia to Keep Oil Output Steady to 2035 Despite Price Drop

(Bloomberg) — Russia plans to maintain oil output at current levels for the next two decades, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said, shrugging off sanctions and the slump in crude prices. Production will remain at about 525 million metric tons a year, or 10.5 million barrels a day, until 2035, Novak said Wednesday at a conference in Moscow. Russia, which ranks with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. among the world’s biggest producers, pumped 10.71 million barrels a day in January, a post-Soviet record. Crude oil dropped 48 percent last year because of global oversupply, prompting speculation that producers would curb output as fields became unprofitable. U.S. shale oil output will expand at the slowest pace in more than four years in April, according to a U.S. government report Monday. “We aren’t making any assumptions about reducing output currently,” Novak said. “Our task and plan, as you know, is to maintain […]

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Brent rebounds towards $57 after U.S. crude stocks fall

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude rose towards $57 a barrel on Wednesday, paring some of the previous session’s sharp losses, after data showed U.S. crude stocks fell for the first time in two months. The benchmark closed nearly 4 percent down in the previous session on a rallying U.S. dollar and before an industry group said U.S. crude inventories fell by 404,000 barrels last week. Analysts had expected a 4.4 million barrel build in stocks. Brent for April delivery LCOc1 rose 21 cents to $56.60 a barrel by 0340 ET after dropping $2.14, or 3.66 percent, in the previous session. West Texas Intermediate for April delivery CLc1 climbed 51 cents to $48.80 a barrel after falling $1.71, or 3.42 percent, on Tuesday. "The sell-off was overdone," said Jonathan Barratt, chief investment officer at Sydney’s Ayer’s Alliance. "I think it was more of a knee-jerk reaction because of the substantial […]

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Natural Gas Rebounds as Demand Outlook Improves

By Timothy Puko Natural gas prices bounced back Tuesday after a day of big losses and an improving outlook for demand. Natural gas for April delivery settled up 5.4 cents, or 2%, at $2.732 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gains come a day after natural gas lost 5.7%, its third-largest drop of the year. Open interest in the market dropped, a sign Monday’s fall was from buyers getting out of their positions, and not from short-sellers–people betting prices will fall–flooding in, said Frank Clements, co-owner of Meridian Energy Brokers Inc. outside New York. If people aren’t getting into new positions, it limits momentum, he added. "You’re not going to get any kind of sustainable move when people are liquidating," Mr. Clements said. "Traders are just sitting on the sidelines right now." The balance of supply and demand does look tighter, and a […]

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Oil Prices Drop on Supply Expectations

Oil prices slid Tuesday on expectations that U.S. crude stockpiles hit another record high last week. Light, sweet oil for April delivery fell $1.71, or 3.4%, to $48.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since Feb. 26. Brent, the global benchmark, settled down $2.14, or 3.7%, at $56.39 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, the lowest level since Feb. 11. The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its inventory data for the week ended March 6 on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect that crude supplies rose by 4.8 million barrels in the week. Crude stocks are already at their highest level in about 80 years. The analysts also expect the EIA to report that gasoline supplies fell by 1.7 million barrels, while stocks of distillates, including heating oil and diesel, fell by 2.3 million barrels. The American Petroleum Institute, an […]

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Oil price rally waning, though WTI holding strong

Though data show U.S. shale oil production may slow, crude oil prices deflate from recent highs. Photo by David Gaylor/Shutterstock The price for Brent, the global benchmark, slid about 1.3 percent from Monday’s close to trade near $57.70 per barrel for the April contract early in Tuesday trading. Brent hit a low mark of around $45.13 per barrel mid January and climbed 37 percent by late February. The rally, however, ran out of steam in March, with Brent crude oil prices down about 5.3 percent since the start of the month. Crude oil prices entered a bear market in June as markets swung toward the supply side in response to gains in U.S. oil production. Prices had dipped to the point that most major oil companies were cutting back on revenue streams for exploration and production, with rig activity in the Bakken oil reserve area of North Dakota falling […]

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Iran, IAEA Exchange Data in Nuclear Talks, Plan Next Meeting

ENLARGE International Atomic Energy Agency Deputy Director General Tero Varjoranta photographed at Vienna’s Schwechat airport on his return from Iran last month. Photo: Associated Press Iran and the United Nations atomic agency exchanged additional information about Tehran’s past nuclear work on Monday and will meet again next month, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday, but there was little sign of a sudden breakthrough. Talks between Iran and the IAEA are aimed at clearing up questions on whether Iran’s past work was linked to nuclear weapons research. U.S. and European officials have said progress is needed in the IAEA discussions to help seal a separate nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers on Tehran’s future nuclear activities. An IAEA team led by Tero Varjoranta, the agency’s deputy chief, held a day of technical meetings with Iranian officials on Monday, the IAEA said in a brief statement. The agency […]

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Republican Moves Imperil Democratic Cooperation on Iran

WASHINGTON — The open letter that 47 Senate Republicans sent to Iran’s leadership on Monday warning about making a nuclear agreement with President Obama is forcing Democrats to choose between confronting Tehran and rallying around Mr. Obama as he searches for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff. Democrats say that as concerned as they are about an emerging deal with Iran, Republicans’ extraordinary moves to undermine Mr. Obama’s efforts to reach an agreement are weakening their resolve to cross party lines and challenge their own president. “I think Republicans have made it harder for us to approach this in a careful and bipartisan way,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who has been a leader in his party on pushing for congressional review of the administration’s policies on war and sanctions, and is a sponsor of a bill to review any removal of congressionally imposed sanctions on […]

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Oil could lead to the downfall of ISIS

BLASTED: An aerial photograph showing what United States military officials describe as a Command and Control Facility in the town of Tikrit, Iraq, after air strikes appears in this recent undated military handout photograph. As the empire continues to collapse, imperialism and the blatant lies (that come with it) will no longer matter. The PTB will plow forward steamrolling anything in the unrelenting ways of “progress”. We all know what the perpetual war in the middle east is about. Most mindlessly go about filling the car and shopping, whispering to themselves, “We see it, we know it, we just are not allowed to say it”, for fear of losing the false sense of security that the deception of empire instill, through delusion of comfort and “security”. “Oh holy crude” sung to the tune of “Oh Canada.” Elijah and the Widow would be proud ( The Peak of The Oil […]

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Sweden cancels military deal after Saudi human rights snub

Margot Wallstroem, Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Sweden is cancelling a controversial military deal with Saudi Arabia a day after an unusually frank diplomatic bust-up between the two countries over human rights. Government officials in Stockholm said that Sweden would not prolong an arms and training deal that had threatened to tear apart the centre-left coalition in the country. More On this topic IN Europe Swedish business leaders, including dozens of prominent chief executives and chairmen, had publicly lobbied for the deal to be extended, arguing that contracts worth billions of krone with Saudi Arabia could be at risk. But on Monday Saudi Arabia blocked Sweden’s foreign minister Margot Wallström from addressing the Arab League in Cairo. Ms Wallström, who had been invited after Sweden became the first EU country officially to recognise Palestine , said she had been told that Sweden’s discussion of human rights and democracy was […]

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ISIS Seizes Opportunity in Libya’s Turmoil

SURT, Libya — The Islamic State has established more than a foothold in this Mediterranean port. Its fighters dominate the city center so thoroughly that a Libyan brigade sent to dislodge the group remains camped on the outskirts, visibly afraid to enter and allowing the extremists to come and go as they please. “We are going to allow them to slip out, because the less people we have to fight, the better,” said Mohamed Omar el-Hassan, a 28-year-old former crane operator who leads the brigade from a prefabricated shed on a highway ringing the city. “Why make the city suffer?” he said, trying to explain his delay more than 16 days after the brigade arrived in Surt. Nearly four years after the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi , Libya ’s warring cities and towns have become so entangled in internal conflicts over money and power that they have opened […]

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Iraq fully retakes badly damaged fields

Smoke billows during clashes between Iraqi army forces, supported by Shiite militias, against IS militants near Tikrit on March 9, 2015. (ALI MOHAMMED/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Pro-government forces have regained control of the Ajil and Hamrin oil fields, but militants from the so-called Islamic State (IS) group set fire to more than a dozen wells as they retreated. "The blowout of the wells took place sequentially," said a senior official from the state-run North Oil Company (NOC), which officially operates the fields. "IS bombed 11 oil wells at Hamrin, another seven wells at Ajil. All are burning."Before the fields were seized by IS militants in June 2014, Aj…

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Iraqi and Shiite Forces Seize Large Parts of Tikrit From Islamic State

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militias seized large parts of Tikrit on Tuesday, amid reports that most of the Islamic State militants battling to hold the city had begun retreating, security officials said. The progress came after a week of heavy fighting to retake Tikrit, a city in the so-called Sunni triangle that holds strategic and emotional importance in the effort to roll back the Islamic State’s lightning advance toward Baghdad in June. The offensive is the largest pro-government military operation yet, involving a combined force of more than 30,000. And if it succeeds, it would be a significant step in the march north to Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and an early conquest for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Still, previous announcements of victory for the Iraqi government have been reversed before, notably in parts of Anbar Province and at an oil […]

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Private investors building financial life raft for KRG

Todd Kozel, then CEO of Gulf Keystone Petroleum, in a Jan. 9, 2014 company presentation announcing the restart of exports of Shaikan crude. (Source: GKP TV) of Iraq Oil Report Recommend 146 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Two former executives at the heart of Kurdistan’s oil contracting boom are wooing investors for a venture that would seek to profit from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) financial crisis by providing a cash infusion now in exchange for a share of future oil revenues.The executives, Todd Kozel and Ian Hannam, are looking to form a private investment fund that would purchase the rights to a portion of the so-called "capacity building payments" (CBP) that the KRG will receive from s…

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Hungary Mulls Sending Troops To Iraq

March 10, 2015 EU and NATO member Hungary says it is considering sending 100 troops to join the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State militants in Iraq following an American request. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told journalists on March 10 that a parliament decision could come in mid-April "and Hungarian troops could arrive in Iraq during the second half of May." Szijjarto said, "Hungary is already a part of the conflict with the Islamic State, because it belongs to the Western community of values, which was attacked by the terrorist organization." He said the soldiers’ role would be to protect a training centre in Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, in the north, where coalition troops are training local forces. The mission needs approval by a two-thirds majority in parliament, meaning that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party needs one opposition vote. Based on reporting by AFP

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Nuclear Power Gains Traction in China

ENLARGE A nuclear reactor to be operated by China Guangdong Nuclear Power was under construction in Taishan, Guangdong province, in October 2013. Photo: Reuters BEIJING—China’s government is breathing life into its nuclear sector with the approval of the country’s first new reactors in more than two years. The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic-planning agency, approved construction of two reactors in the country’s northeastern Liaoning province by state-owned China General Nuclear Power Corp., according to a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the company’s listed unit, CGN Power Co. The statement said the NDRC approved units five and six of the Hongyanhe nuclear-power plant, located near the coastal city of Dalian. China has two operating reactors at Hongyanhe as well as two others already under construction, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The NDRC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the […]

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OPEC is winning its battle with U.S. shale: Kemp

LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. shale producers are falling behind in the Red Queen’s Race as the downturn in drilling means that new oil production is failing offset falling output from existing wells. The famous race is named after the scene from Lewis Carroll’s novel “Through the Looking-Glass”, in which the Red Queen warns Alice: “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run twice as fast.” The race is a metaphor for the relationship between increased oil production from newly drilled wells on the one hand and declining output from old wells on the other. The net result is that the downturn in drilling is threatening to cut output for the first time since the start of the shale revolution. Other forms of oil production, notably from offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico, […]

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History Suggests OPEC’s Days Could Be Numbered

"The last time they were in a parallel situation, with oil prices plummeting in the 1980s, you had all these proclamations that OPEC was dead," said Benn Steil , also at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he’s director of international economics. "Yet they weren’t, because when the fundamental forces of the business settled at a higher level of oil prices, they started to regain some relevance." You can read the World Bank study, which was authored by John Baffes, Ayhan Kose, Franziska Ohnsorge and Marc Stocker, here .

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Venezuela’s Maduro seeks decree powers to face U.S. ‘imperialism’

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro was seeking special decree powers from Venezuela’s parliament on Tuesday in response to new U.S. sanctions, drawing opposition protests of a power-grab. If as expected the government-controlled National Assembly approves his request for an "Enabling Law", it would be the second time the 52-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez has gained these expanded powers since winning election in 2013. "I’m going to ask for an anti-imperialist Enabling Law … to preserve the nation’s peace, integrity and sovereignty," Maduro said in a speech late on Monday night, without specifying further what decrees he might use it for. Opposition leaders slammed Maduro, saying he was using the worst flare-up with Washington of his nearly two-year rule to justify autocratic governance, sidetrack parliament and distract attention from Venezuela’s grave economic crisis. "Nicolas, are you requesting the Enabling Law to make soap, nappies and medicines appear, to lower […]

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Nigeria: Another Round of Petrol Shortage

editorial Frequent petrol shortages are not uncommon in the world’s 5th largest oil producer, but the sudden return of queues at service stations nationwide about a fortnight ago, in spite of the glut in world markets, jolted many Nigerians. The ugly sights of vehicles that snaked for kilometres out of filling stations were a reminder of the enduring fragility of the fuel distribution system in the country, and the instability in the petroleum industry generally. As often the case, it was payday for black marketers, who sold at between 150 naira and 250 naira per litre, against the official price of 85 naira per litre. As the shortage bit harder, the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) announced that a billion litres of the commodity would be imported to bridge shortfalls in supply. As usual, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources announced that there was sufficient stock of petrol […]

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Venezuela sanctions don’t extend to oil

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro facing internal pressure as nation’s economy gets squeezed by sanctions and low oil prices. (UPI Photo/Mohammad Kheirkhah) While an official in Caracas said sanctions are an act of war, a top U.S official said the measures will have no direct impact on oil revenue for Venezuela. President Barack Obama issued an executive order Monday that sanctions seven Venezuelan officials for human rights offenses. A White House spokesman said the Obama administration is "deeply concerned" by the culture of political intimidation in Caracas. "Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent," the spokesman said. President Nicolas Maduro has faced mounting pressure from his opponents at least since taking the reins in Caracas after his predecessor Hugo Chavez died in 2013. María Corina Machado, a former assemblywoman who helped lead protests against Maduro last year, recently called on Pope Francis to step in to a fracturing Venezuela. […]

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US EIA holds natural gas price projections steady

Washington (Platts)–10Mar2015/330 pm EDT/1930 GMT The US Energy Information Administration added just a few pennies to month-ago estimates for quarterly and annual US natural gas prices, pointing to relatively strong production, demand and storage numbers. In its latest short-term energy outlook, EIA put the new first-quarter Henry Hub average spot price target at $2.92/MMBtu, up 3 cents from last month’s forecast. The second-quarter average now figures to be $2.93/MMBtu, 2 cents more than the February report, the agency said. Similar hikes were predicted for this year, up 2 cents to $3.07/MMBtu, and 2016, up 1 cent to $3.48/MMBtu. EIA noted that the Henry Hub spot price averaged $2.87/MMBtu in February, a decline of 12 cents from January. Article continues below… Gas Daily offers the most detailed coverage of natural gas prices at interstate and intrastate pipeline and pooling points in major U.S. markets. Gas Daily keeps you informed about […]

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Get Ready for Oil Deals: Shale Is Going on Sale

A gas flare burns as a driver monitors a water tank while loading saltwater from an oil well storage tank near Sidney, Montana, U.S. The value of about 75 shale-focused U.S. producers based on their reserves fell by a median of 25 percent by the end of 2014 compared to 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — A decision by Whiting Petroleum Corp., the largest producer in North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin, to put itself up for sale looks to be the first tremor in a potential wave of consolidation as $50-a-barrel prices undercut companies with heavy debt and high costs. For the first time since wildcatters such as Harold Hamm of Continental Resources Inc. began extracting significant amounts of oil from shale formations, acquisition prospects from Texas to the Great Plains are looking less expensive. Buyers are ultimately after reserves, the amount of […]

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For Chinese Economy, Steel Goes From Strength to Weakness

HONG KONG — China’s exports of steel are soaring. But that is not a good sign for the economy. China has far more steel mills than it needs, a problem made worse by the country’s shrinking housing market, the most voracious consumer of the metal. Domestic steel prices have collapsed. Thousands of workers have been laid off as mills have scaled back or closed. With scant demand at home, those mills still in business have turned to foreigners as buyers of last resort. China shipped a record 100 million metric tons of steel overseas in the 12 months to the end of February, a 55 percent increase from the previous 12 months. “It’s true that companies have dumped steel globally last year,” said Louis Kuijs, the chief economist for greater China at the Royal Bank of Scotland, based in Hong Kong. “I’m sure they are happy that at least […]

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IMF: Canada squeezed by low oil prices

Low oil prices having secondary impacts on Canadian economy, a review from the International Monetary Fund found. (UPI/Shutterstock/Lilac Mountain) A January report from the IMF found lower crude oil prices would be a drag on investment activity in Canada, with the energy sector bearing the brunt of market trends. In its latest review, the IMF said Canada is facing additional pressures from an "over-heated" housing market and high household debt. Forecasters in January warned the Canadian housing market be slowing as interest rates rise with lower oil prices. Oil-rich Alberta province faces a risk of a "hard landing" in response. "Canada’s overvalued housing market may be cooling off," the IMF’s latest report said. Alberta leaders take up fiscal issues Tuesday when they convene for the start of a new legislative session. Premier Jim Prentice last week said lawmakers need to focus on a sustainable economic model that does away […]

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EIA: Eagle Ford, Bakken oil production to fall in April

US shale oil production is expected to increase by a mere 1,000 b/d from March to April, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Drilling Productivity Report (DPR), signifying a slowdown in growth caused by reduced company budgets and a shrinking rig count. Total oil output from the most prolific shale areas in the Lower 48—the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Marcellus, Niobrara, Permian, and Utica—will remain virtually unchanged at 5.6 million b/d in April. The DPR focuses on those seven plays, which accounted for 95% of US oil production increases and all US natural gas production increases during 2011-13. April growth will be pushed down by declines of 10,000 b/d in the Eagle Ford to 1.7 million b/d, 8,000 b/d in the Bakken to 1.3 million b/d, and 5,000 b/d in the Niobrara to 413,000 b/d. Production from the Permian, meanwhile, will expand 21,000 b/d to nearly 2 million b/d. […]

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Chinese Stocks Fall to Three-Month Low in Hong Kong After Data

(Bloomberg) — Chinese stocks trading in Hong Kong fell to the lowest level since December after data showed industrial output posted its weakest start since 2009, and retail sales and fixed-asset investment trailed estimates. China Shenhua Energy Co. and China Coal Energy Co. slumped more than 2 percent in Hong Kong. Jiangxi Copper Co. and Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. led declines for material producers in Shanghai. Qingdao Haier Co. jumped 10 percent to lead a rally for mainland-listed household appliance companies. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid for a second day, losing 0.7 percent to close at 11,427.34. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.2 percent to 3,290.90 even as most stocks fell. Factory production rose 6.8 percent in January and February, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That compared with the estimate of 7.7 percent. “The economic data are poor though it didn’t surprise the market […]

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