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Russia says sanctions ‘destructive’, will act in own interests

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia described "sanctions rhetoric" as destructive on Friday and said it would do what is in its national interests after European Union leaders kept economic sanctions in place over the Ukraine crisis. In comments to reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also accused Kiev of violating the terms of a peace deal for eastern Ukraine that was agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk. "We prefer to engage in creative matters, not destructive matters such as sanctions rhetoric. So we do not discuss sanctions and the Russian Federation will do what is in its national interests," he said. (Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, Writing by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Lidia kelly)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Peak Oil Mirage Is Evaporating as U.S Production to Last Generations

David Bernal, Allegro Development This article is written by David Bernal who is a Senior Solutions Manager for Allegro Development, a real-time commodity trading information services and risk management firm. Whether you blame technology, politics, softening demand or a mix of all three, the recent oil price plunge is testament to the dynamic nature of energy markets and the huge risks that emerge in a period of profound volatility. The most important question for energy market participants however, is how they can minimise our exposure? Technology in the form of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling has arguably made America the world’s pre-eminent oil producer, pulling up to 4m barrels a day from sources that were once called “unconventional”. So much oil is sloshing around that Congress has taken its first tentative steps toward removal of the crude export ban by allowing exports of certain condensates. Full-on exports of crude […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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« Lifting the U.S. Oil Export Ban Is No Solution to Low Oil Prices

Tight oil producers are hoping for an end to the U.S. oil export ban. They hired IHS to write the second report on this topic in less than a year.   In  Unleashing The Supply Chain , IHS argues that U.S. jobs are the casualty from the export ban. The problem, they say, is that the U.S. lacks the capacity to refine all of the light tight oil being produced and that lowers the price.   But there were plenty of jobs over the last several years when oil prices were high even though the export ban was in place.  That is because over-supply has lowered oil prices and over-production, not the export ban, is the problem.  The chart below shows that tight oil production from the U.S. and Canada is the anomaly responsible for global over-supply.  Leading liquids producing countries 2008-2014. Source: EIA and Labyrinth Consulting Services, Inc. (Click image to enlarge) And it’s a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Brent falls towards $54, heads for third weekly loss

SINGAPORE(Reuters) – Brent crude fell towards $54 a barrel on Friday and was on track for its third weekly loss, hurt by oversupply worries after Kuwait said OPEC had no choice but to maintain output levels. High inventory in the United States, the world’s largest oil consumer, also weighed on prices. Brent crude for May delivery LCOc1 had fallen 30 cents to $54.13 a barrel by 0743 GMT. The contract is set to fall nearly 1 percent this week in its third straight weekly loss. U.S. crude for April delivery CLc1 tumbled 52 cents to $43.44 a barrel, headed for its fifth weekly loss. The contract expires on Friday. "The U.S. crude inventory numbers have been climbing for the last 10 straight weeks, sitting at their highest levels in 80 years. So that’s a further supply side concern on top of news coming out of Kuwait," said Ben Le […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Prices Remain Choppy After Overnight Losses

Dow Jones Newswires By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures were choppy in Asian trade Friday, with Brent crude ticking marginally higher as investors weighed volatile currency markets and ahead of this week’s U.S. rig count data. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in traded at $ a barrel at , in the Globex electronic session. Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange to $ a barrel. Oil prices had resumed their decline in the last trading session with Nymex crude losing 1.6% and Brent down by 2.6% on rising U.S. oil stockpiles and a strong U.S. dollar. The latest U.S. drilling rig-count numbers from oil services company Baker Hughes will be released later today. Executives from oil services companies expect Brent crude prices to average $75 a barrel by end-March 2016, Gordon Kwan, head of oil research at Nomura, said in a report. He […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil falls as dollar up, Kuwait sees OPEC output steady

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices tumbled on Thursday as a rebounding dollar and Kuwait’s stance that OPEC had no choice but to keep producing in an oversupplied market undercut the previous day’s rally. Benchmark Brent oil settled down nearly 3 percent while U.S. crude lost almost 2 percent, weighed by the dollar’s rise against most currencies. In the previous session, Brent rose nearly 5 percent and U.S. crude about 3 percent as the dollar suffered its biggest one-day tumble in 18 months on disappointment over the lack of a clear timeline for a U.S. interest rate hike. [USD/] "It’s dollar play all over again today," said Phil Flynn, analyst at the Price Futures Group in Chicago. "The fact that the oil market is oversupplied is a given, so the only real variable now are currency moves and how they impact commodities demand." A stronger dollar weakens demand from […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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That Oil Rally Didn’t Last Long

There was a lot of movement in markets yesterday after a Fed announcement which was widely perceived as dovish . Stocks surged. The dollar dove. And oil finally caught a break, spiking hard after the news. But as you can see on this chart, that didn’t last long. Oil has given back almost all of its gains. The move in oil mirrors what we’re seeing in currency markets, where the dollar has made a big comeback since its initial post-Fed drubbing. The fundamentally bearish conditions for oil – rising production and storage facilities getting filled to the brim – remain in place. For more, read this QuickTake:   Oil Prices

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Preparing for a Brent Benchmark With No Brent Oil

ENLARGE LONDON—It was once a behemoth, a massive North Sea oil field whose importance to the world crude market was summed up by its name atop the global benchmark price: Brent. Today, the Brent field, northeast of Scotland’s remote Shetland Islands, is all but tapped dry. It produces about 1,000 barrels a day in a global market of 93 million daily barrels. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is awaiting approval to scrap the first of four Eiffel Tower-sized platforms that have sucked Brent-branded crude from the seabed for almost 40 years. In a few years, the Brent benchmark—a crucial metric for global oil prices—will contain no actual Brent at all. With aging North Sea fields running out of crude faster than predicted, changes to how the global price of oil is calculated are being accelerated, putting a spotlight on the methods used to put a value on the world’s most […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Slides on Inventory Data

Dow Jones Newswires By Nicole Friedman NEW YORK–Natural-gas prices dropped Thursday after weekly inventory data showed that supplies fell less than expected last week. Natural gas for April delivery settled down 10.7 cents, or 3.7%, to $2.813 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural-gas stockpiles fell by 45 billion cubic feet in the week ended March 13, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Thursday. Analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had called for a drop of 47 bcf. Inventories are now 53% above last year’s unusually low level and 13% below the five-year average for this week. "Even though it wasn’t a big withdrawal, the market was expecting a little bit more than that," said Santiago Diaz, a broker at INTL FCStone. Looking forward, he said, "it’s more of a question of, what is the weather telling is? Is winter going […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran Talks Stall Over Ending of Sanctions

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left center, talks with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, after a Thursday morning negotiation session in Lausanne with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over Iran’s nuclear program. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images LAUSANNE, Switzerland—When international sanctions on Iran would be lifted has emerged as one of the largest remaining stumbling blocks to an agreement to constrain Tehran’s nuclear program by a March 31 deadline, according to U.S., European and Iranian officials. Tehran’s negotiators in Switzerland, according to these diplomats, have hardened their position that United Nations sanctions on their country be repealed at the front end of any deal reached this month with the U.S. and other global powers. The U.S. and its European allies are demanding the U.N.’s sanctions be suspended or terminated in a phased time-frame over years. They believe sanctions relief should only come […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple