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Oil prices recover from Monday’s loss

Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Oil markets still favoring the supply side, though prices recovering somewhat from late January lows. Photo by Kyle Waters/Shutterstock NEW YORK, March 3 (UPI) — Geopolitical issues helped oil prices recover ground lost during the previous session, with Brent crude oil moving Tuesday back above $60 per barrel. Brent entered March on a down note as the rally that began in early February lost steam. Markets rebounded Tuesday, however, as talks continue on Iran’s controversial nuclear program. Iran’s crude oil production is curtailed by sanctions. Ukraine, meanwhile, avoided a short-term natural gas crisis after debt talks with Russian and European negotiators. Brent, the global benchmark, moved up 2.4 percent from the previous close to $61 per barrel early in the Tuesday session. The Bank of England, meanwhile, warned investors should be wary of long-term bets in fossil fuels as major economies embrace […]

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Egypt to Pay Back Its Oil-Company Debt by Mid-2016 – Minister

By Summer Said Egypt plans to repay its $3.1 billion debt to international energy companies operating in the country by mid-2016, almost a year later than initially planned, the country’s oil minister said. "We have already reduced the debt from $6.3 billion at the start of 2013 to $3.1 billion at the end of last year," Oil Minister Sherif Ismail told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. "We have no certain timetable for the next payments but we plan to pay back the entire amount by mid next year." Since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the turmoil that ensued, Egypt has struggled to pay foreign energy companies that provide oil and gas for its domestic market, including: BP PLC (BP), Apache Corp. (APA), BG Group (BG.LN) and Dana Gas PJSC (DANA.AD), an energy company based in the United Arab Emirates. Egyptian officials hope the […]

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KRG receives first 2015 budget payment

A worker walks on an oil pipeline at the Khurmala Dome formation of the Kirkuk oil field on Dec. 13, 2013. (STRINGER/Reuters) The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has received its first 2015 budget payment from Iraq’s federal treasury.Ahmed Abdulrahman, spokesman for KRG Minister of Finance Rebaz Hamlan, confirmed that 250 billion Iraqi dinars ($208.3 million) was received on Thursday, and went toward making overdue payments to public sector employees."We used the money to complete December payments of six ministries, the three presidencies and retired civil servants," Abdulrahman said.Under Iraq’s 20…

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Netanyahu Speech Raises Burden for Obama on Iran Nuclear Talks

WASHINGTON — President Obama ’s task of selling a potential nuclear agreement with Iran to a skeptical Congress became far harder on Tuesday after an impassioned speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to lawmakers already nervous about the deal. “The president has a very heavy burden of persuasion here,” said former Representative Lee H. Hamilton, a Democrat and the onetime chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who now directs Indiana University’s Center on Congress. “That task is made much more difficult when a powerful case is stated against the emerging deal, as the prime minister has done.” Although Mr. Hamilton said he doubted many minds were changed by Mr. Netanyahu’s words, he said that “what a speech like this does is reinforces and intensifies the opposition at a critical point.” To be sure, others argued that Mr. Netanyahu’s address would have an effect opposite to the […]

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Iraqi Campaign to Drive ISIS From Tikrit Reveals Tensions With U.S.

BAGHDAD — Tensions between Iraq and the United States over how to battle the Islamic State broke into the open on Tuesday, as Iraqi officials declared that they would fight on their own timetable with or without American help, and as United States warplanes conspicuously sat out the biggest Iraqi counteroffensive yet amid concerns over Iran’s prominent role. On Monday, Iraq launched a politically sensitive operation to oust Islamic State militants from Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, without seeking American approval, officials said. Even as Iraq was taking a first step into a bigger battle to oust the Islamic State from the northern city of Mosul, it was also signaling that its alliance with the United States might be more fraught than officials had let on. American officials, for their part, voiced unease with the prominent role of Iran and its allied Shiite militias in the Tikrit operation. […]

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Saudi Arabia ups official oil prices amid signs of stronger demand

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia raised the official selling prices (OSPs) for its oil deliveries to Asia and the United States on Tuesday, in the latest signal OPEC’s largest exporter is seeing signs of stronger demand. The Kingdom raised all U.S.-bound crude prices by $1 a barrel and hiked extra-light crude oil to Asia by $1.40 a barrel, in a vote of confidence oil demand is growing in two of its biggest markets following the price crash since June. While the increase was largely anticipated by traders amid other signs of robust demand, it bolsters the impression Saudi Arabia is comfortable with the rebound in Brent crude to around $60 a barrel after hitting a six-year low of $45 in January. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members sharply cut OSPs in 2014 as the group decided to fight fast-growing U.S. shale producers for market share, abandoning its policy […]

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Iraq Troops Enter Tikrit, Drive Islamic State From Oilfields

(Bloomberg) — Iraqi forces entered the central city of Tikrit in an attempt to drive out Islamic State militants, and regained control of two oilfields in the region, a local official said. Iraqi forces entered Tikrit from the north and south, and took control of several sites including the police academy and hospital, Khalid al-Khazraji, deputy chief of security in Salahuddin province, said by phone. Another three or four days may be needed to gain full control of the city, he said. The Ajeel and Hamrin-Alas oilfields in Salahuddin were recaptured on Tuesday and are under the control of soldiers backed by local militias and tribes,al-Khazraji said. Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, fell to Islamic State during its initial surge of conquest in northern Iraq in June last year. Iraq’s government this week announced a major military offensive to recapture it, with army units backed by pro-Iranian Shiite militias. While […]

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Iraq seeks bond revenue to make delayed IOC payments

Iraqi Minister of Oil Adil Abd al-Mahdi (R) takes a tour of Basra Gulf export platforms on Sept. 21, 2014, (HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/Getty Images) Iraq is planning to borrow billions of dollars to make payments to international oil companies, which have been delayed due to a severe financial crisis."The Oil Ministry has the right to ask his excellency the prime minister and the minister of finance to issue treasury bonds worth $12 billion," said Oil Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi at a press conference Sunday. "We have started this process, in order to cover the payments to the companies."Some oil companies have not received payments th…

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Nigeria: Govt Reassures Nigerians On Availability of Fuel

Abuja — THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured Nigerians that the queues at filling stations across the country will disappear before the end of this week. Group Executive Director Commercial and Investment, Aisha Abdulrahman, who stated this Tuesay in Abuja when the Supervising Minister of Information, Chief Edem Duke led a team of reporters for on-the-spot assessment of the situation in the filling stations, said the glitch that disrupted fuel supply in the last few days had been addressed, adding that the NNPC now had adequate stock that could last between twenty and thirty days. Abdulrahman encouraged filling stations to complement NNPC retail outlets by selling petrol for 24 hours in order to clear the fuel queues across the country. She discouraged speculation, panic buying and hoarding because the NNPC had flooded the country with petroleum products. In his remarks, the Supervising Minister of Information, Chief Edem […]

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Nigeria: Fuel Scarcity Gets Worse Nationwide

Petrol Station in Nigeria Photo: Daily Trust Abuja — As fuel scarcity bites harder nationwide, fresh facts emerged, yesterday, indicating that a combination of policies from Nigeria’s Central Bank and the high level of indebtedness of product marketers to some banks led to the low supply of Premium Motor Spirit PMS (petrol). Because of the high level of indebtedness of marketers to banks, most of the banks have refused to issue Letters of Credit to them. A competent source at the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, disclosed that "the National Consumption level is predicated at 40 million litres daily and this is shared at ratio 50:50 between NNPC and other petroleum products marketers. "Against the foregoing, available record shows that at the moment, NNPC is meeting its allocated ratio while other marketers have blatantly refused to contribute a drop of their own quota". The Federal Government, in a […]

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