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Supreme Test for Iran’s Leader to Cap Anti-U.S. Career With Deal

To make up for lost growth, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for conglomerates controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and conservative religious foundations to give up their tax-exempt status and pull their weight. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an implacable opponent of America and its allies for most of his rule, will have to concede ground if he’s to end a nuclear dispute that has spanned three U.S. presidencies. Khamenei was selected as guardian of the mainly Shiite Islamic Republic on the death in 1989 of revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini as the country reeled from a newly concluded eight-year war with U.S. ally Iraq. Under his tutelage, Iran sparred with neighboring Sunni states for regional primacy, while sanctions deepened its isolation and crippled the economy. Through it all, Khamenei, 75, stressed self-sufficiency, pious loyalty and animosity toward the U.S. — the “Great […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kerry Says Difficult Issues Persist in Nuclear Talks With Iran

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday said that negotiators were still grappling with difficult issues in the talks on limiting Iran ’s nuclear program , but that they had made some headway. “We are pushing some tough issues, but we made progress,” Mr. Kerry told reporters in Lausanne during a break in the talks. It was not yet clear, Mr. Kerry said, whether the United States team would return to Washington on Friday or remain here through the weekend to continue negotiating with the Iranians. Iranian officials have spoken optimistically about the chances for sealing an accord in the coming days. The Iranian statements may be intended to build public pressure on the United States and its allies to make concessions, as well as to strike a positive tone for the Iranian public. But the United States and some of its European negotiating partners have […]

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More Iran Oil May Flow Within Months of Deal, Officials Say

(Bloomberg) — World powers have offered to suspend U.S. and European oil sanctions against Iran within months of signing an agreement if the Islamic Republic adopts strict limits verified by intrusive inspections of its nuclear program for at least a decade, according to U.S. and European officials. Limits on Iran’s oil exports would be suspended after Iran complies with an initial set of restrictions, such as disconnecting the majority of its centrifuges and submitting them for verification, according to the officials who spoke to Bloomberg News on condition of anonymity to describe the private negotiations under way in Lausanne, Switzerland. Negotiating teams from six powers — the U.S., U.K,, France, Germany, China and Russia — are working toward a self-imposed March 31 goal to reach the framework of a nuclear agreement with Iran. Both sides are seeking a final deal by the end of June laying out steps that […]

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Deadly tribal conflicts hit southern Iraq

Members of Iraq’s anti-terrorism unit for oil facility protection take their positions during a training exercise in Basra on Nov. 18, 2012. (ATEF HASSAN/Reuters) Recommend 171 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Security forces in southern Iraq are struggling to contain a spate of recent tribal conflicts that have left citizens dead and injured, disrupted transportation routes, and damaged energy infrastructure.Three battles this week – two in Basra province and one in Missan – have highlighted the limited capacity of government security forces, which have been stretched thin because many of the most capable units have redeployed to fight the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group in other …

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OPEC’s Gulf core steels for longer wait, lower prices in shale struggle

DUBAI (Reuters) – U.S. shale drilling may be slowing, but not fast enough for OPEC to change policy at its June meeting or to prevent oil prices maybe falling more, in the view of the group’s Gulf members. Actual oil output from the United States could prove harder to beat back, sources in the Gulf say after poring over the latest data with top consultants. The message is, do not underestimate the ability of the oil industry to adapt: there can be cost cuts, restructuring and consolidation and that would take time, the sources said. "These two years, 2015-16, are still a discovery, everybody is talking about the economics of tight oil but nobody is talking with certainty… you have to wait and see," said a source from a Gulf OPEC producer. At its last meeting in November, OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia persuaded fellow members to keep production unchanged, […]

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Truckers killed in Basra bombing

At least three people were killed by a truck bomb Wednesday in Basra province – an area that has recently been relatively insulated from such attacks.The explosives-laden truck blew up in a parking lot on the main freeway linking Umm Qasr port with the town of Safwan, about 20 kilometers south of Basra city, on the border with Kuwait."Most of the victims were truckers heading to Umm Qasr’s commercial port," said Talib Alhusona, the mayor of Zubair.Various officials gave different c…

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Libya’s State Oil Firm Operating Independently Of Rival Governments

TRIPOLI, March 19 (Reuters) – Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) is working independently without taking orders from either of the country’s rival governments, the Tripoli-based group said on Thursday. The internationally-recognised government said on Tuesday it wanted to route oil exports through an eastern NOC entity under its leadership rather than via Tripoli, which has traditionally handled oil exports. "The NOC board of directors confirms that NOC’s position is neutral and (that it) receives no directives from either the Tripoli- or Bayda-based governments," it said. Bayda is the seat of the recognised government in the east. "(It) operates in complete independence from both sets of authorities," NOC said. "All revenue proceeds are directly deposited into a Central Bank of Libya designated account." The two governments and parliaments are allied to armed factions fighting for territory and control of oil facilities. The eastern-based government has appointed a new head for […]

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Africa: Statoil’s Historic Disclosures Blow Holes in Exxon and Shell’s Campaign for Secrecy

press release Transparency campaigners call on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to follow Norway’s lead The Norwegian energy giant Statoil today became the first major oil company to publish its payments to governments under a new, mandatory transparency standard being rolled out across the world. As the Securities and Exchange Commission works to create a similar transparency rule for US-listed oil and mining companies, campaigners in the Publish What You Pay coalition are calling on U.S. regulators to follow Norway’s lead. (1) Norway is the first country to bring the standard into effect, which requires oil, gas and mining companies to disclose the revenues they pay into government coffers – such as taxes, royalties and licence fees – for all countries they operate in. (2) Greater transparency will enable citizens to monitor payments worth hundreds of billions of dollars each year, and hold their governments to account for […]

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U.S. commercial crude oil inventories now provide the most days of supply since 1985

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum and Other Liquids and Short-Term Energy Outlook Note: U.S. crude oil inventories exclude Strategic Petroleum Reserves. December 2014 to February 2015 are estimates. With lower U.S. refinery runs and increases in domestic crude oil production, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories at the end of February provided the most days of supply since the mid-1980s. Commercial crude inventories were sufficient to supply 29 days of U.S. refinery demand, based on expected refinery runs in March. The number of days of supply is calculated by dividing the commercial crude oil inventory level at the end of the month by the forecast crude oil refinery runs in the following month. This calculation excludes government-held inventories such as the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The days-of-supply calculation is an indicator of how loose or tight oil markets are by showing the number of days current commercial inventories will […]

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Growing U.S. oil export debate has now spread to geopolitics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lifting the longstanding ban on U.S. crude oil exports would boost the country’s economy and enhance its global leadership, a former senior Obama administration official will tell senators on Thursday, introducing a strategic dimension to the growing debate over selling American oil abroad. In testimony submitted ahead of a Senate energy committee hearing on U.S. crude export policy, the Pentagon’s former undersecretary of defense for policy, Michele Flournoy, argues "policymakers in the United States should embrace these various benefits to our allies and ourselves and liberalize our crude export rules. "Market conditions merit such a step and security dividends will not be fully realized without it,” said Flournoy, co-founder of the Center for a New American Security. A host of economic and geopolitical factors, from plummeting oil prices, near-capacity storage facilities and sanctions against Iran and Russia, are forcing both sides of the debate to address […]

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