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Iran nuclear deal to see $20 oil if Tehran floods crude market

Iran nuclear deal to see $20 oil if Tehran floods crude market thumbnail Flights to Tehran from Dubai have been crammed in recent months with Western executives flooding into the Iranian capital ahead of a potential lifting of economic sanctions. Potentially one of the Middle East’s biggest economies, Iran has been frozen out by the West over its refusal to give up its aspirations to become a nuclear power. But a binding deal that would bring the Islamic state in from the cold appears tantalisingly close as negotiators thrash out terms in talks being held in Lausanne, Switzerland, over the weekend. In terms of commodities, the biggest impact that a resumption of normal economic relations with Iran will open up is in the oil industry. Tehran is a sleeping oil giant, which has been frozen out of international markets and denied access to key technology and investment that could […]

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Iran Backs Away From Key Detail in Nuclear Deal

Photo Foreign ministers from other world powers joined Secretary of State John Kerry in an effort to reach the outlines of a nuclear accord with Iran by a midnight Tuesday deadline. Credit Pool photo by Brendan Smialowski LAUSANNE, Switzerland — With a negotiating deadline just two days away, Iranian officials on Sunday backed away from a critical element of a proposed nuclear agreement, saying they are no longer willing to ship their atomic fuel out of the country. For months, Iran tentatively agreed that it would send a large portion of its stockpile of uranium to Russia , where it would not be accessible for use in any future weapons program. But on Sunday Iran’s deputy foreign minister made a surprise comment to Iranian reporters, ruling out an agreement that involved giving up a stockpile that Iran has spent years and billions of dollars to amass. “The export of […]

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U.S. Says Shipping Uranium Out of Iran Is Still Part of Possible Nuclear Deal

Photo The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, left, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran, center, and the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, on Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images LAUSANNE, Switzerland — American officials said on Monday that they were still negotiating with their Iranian counterparts on one of the main issues remaining in their efforts to reach a deal on Iran ’s nuclear program — how to dispose of Iran’s big nuclear stockpile — and that shipping the atomic fuel out of the country was still a possibility. The American officials were pushing back against public statements made on Sunday by Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, that seemed to rule out an accord under which uranium would be sent abroad. Those comments represented an apparent change in position by the Iranian negotiators, who had […]

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World powers mount final push to secure Iran nuclear deal

With just two days to go until a crucial deadline expires, diplomats are preparing to mount a final push to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, even as key elements of negotiations show signs of unravelling. Six foreign ministers of the P5+1 — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — gathered for the first time late on Sunday evening in the Swiss city of Lausanne to find a common position ahead of Monday’s continuing talks . “Starting tonight there will be a very serious push from the six,” one senior western diplomat told the Financial Times on Sunday. “One thing I have noticed is that when the six are together in front of the Iranians, usually we behave in a remarkably consistent manner.” Tense discussions with Iran had reached a deadlock over the weekend on the key issue of sanctions relief. Iran demands the […]

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Obama Ramps Up Lobbying on Iran as Deadline Looms

ENLARGE Iran’s atomic energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, second left, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, second right, during negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Sunday. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Press Pool As negotiations with Iran on a nuclear deal come down to the wire, the White House is ramping up a yearlong campaign to persuade lawmakers and the public to support an agreement. In recent days, officials have tried to neutralize skeptical Democrats by arguing that opposing President Barack Obama would empower the new Republican majority, according to people familiar with the discussions. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has lined up Republicans to try to tamp down a likely political battle over any deal with Iran and scientists to defend an agreement on its technical merits. Perhaps most significant, White House officials have begun to express privately a willingness to accept legislation that gives Congress some oversight of the nuclear deal if […]

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Iran Riches Coveted by Big Oil After Decades of Conflict

Kharg Island oil production. (Bloomberg) — Outside the boardroom of BP Plc’s headquarters on London’s swanky St. James’s Square, a display case houses the geological data from Masjid-i-Solaiman, Iran’s first oil well. The discovery of crude in 1908 laid the foundations for the company that would become British Petroleum and opened one of the richest opportunities that Western oil companies have ever enjoyed in the turbulent Middle East. Since then, the industry’s history in Iran is intertwined with CIA-backed coups, colonial exploitation and the anti-Western resentment surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Now, as Iran and the U.S. enter 11th-hour negotiations to reach a nuclear deal and ease sanctions, the Middle Eastern country is emerging again as a potential prize for Western oil companies such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Eni SpA and Total SA. The Chinese can also be expected to enter the race, while U.S. companies, more […]

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Setbacks and progress as Iran, six powers meet to end nuclear impasse

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of Iran and six world powers met on Monday in a final push for a preliminary nuclear accord less than two days before their deadline as Tehran showed signs of backing away from previous compromise offers. For days Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China have been holding negotiations to break an impasse in negotiations aimed at stopping Tehran having the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb in exchange for an easing of international sanctions that are crippling its economy. But officials at the talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne cautioned that attempts to reach a framework accord could yet fall apart. [ID:nL6N0WV09H] German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said there had been "some progress and some setbacks in the last hours". "I can’t rule out that there will be further crises in these negotiations," he told reporters in […]

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Libyan oil output at 564,000 bpd, expected to rise in coming days: NOC

CAIRO (Reuters) – Libya’s oil production is currently 564,000 barrels per day, a spokesman for the National Oil Corp (NOC) of Libya said. "We expect oil output to rise in the coming days," Mohamed El Harari said, adding that Libya’s natural gas production stood at more than 2 billion cubic feet. (Reporting by Feras Bosalum, writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Jason Neely )

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Iraq, IOCs eye changes in oil contracts to mitigate impact of falling crude

Iraq’s Oil Ministry and international oil companies are moving toward a shared vision on contract changes that will mitigate the impact of low oil prices and increase profits but will not be production sharing contracts, Iraqi oil minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi said on Sunday. The ministry has asked IOCs that have signed technical service contracts to recommend changes to the deals. The contracts are currently more expensive to the state, the minister said. In addition, they have a very quick cost-recovery process, which places a burden on the state at a time of low oil prices, he added. The cost recovery and remuneration fee payments are made in oil, which essentially means Iraq owes double the amount of oil to IOCs than it did a year ago when prices were twice today’s level. IOCs have complained of lagging in-kind nomination schedules, and both sides are worried of what the […]

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Fighting, airstrikes throughout Yemen as dialogue remains distant

ADEN (Reuters) – Yemeni fighters loyal to the Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi clashed with Iranian-allied Houthi fighters on Sunday in downtown Aden, the absent leader’s last major foothold in the country. Hadi loyalists in the southern port city reported a gun battle in the central Crater district in which three people were killed, and said they recaptured the airport, which has changed hands several times in the last five days of fighting. The Health Ministry, loyal to the Houthi fighters who control the capital, said Saudi-led air strikes had killed 35 people and wounded 88 overnight. The figures could not be independently confirmed. The Houthi fighters, representing a Shi’ite minority that makes up around a third of Yemen’s population, emerged as the most powerful force in the Arab world’s poorest country last year when they captured the capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia has rallied Sunni Muslim Arab countries in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple