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Oil markets adrift after reaching 2015 high

Low price of oil could throttle future growth potential from key shale basins in the United States, a federal briefing said Friday. File photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI NEW YORK, April 24 (UPI) — Crude oil prices were in mixed territory early in the Friday session following a record-setting day, though analyst sentiment still favors a bear market. The price for Brent crude oil , the global benchmark, made modest gains early Friday to trade near $65 per barrel, its record high for the year. Brent struggled to hold $50 per barrel in late 2014 and early 2015 as markets were weighed heavily on the supply side. For the week, the price is up 3.6 percent after hitting a record high for the year in Thursday’s session. Crude oil prices are low enough to put pressure on the exploration and production side of the global energy sector as companies […]

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Brent/WTI spread settles above $8/b on Yemen risk, bearish US supply

The June ICE Brent/NYMEX WTI spread settled $1.02 wider at $8.13/barrel Friday after hitting a one-month high early in the session amid ongoing fighting in Yemen and bearish supply pressure in the US. The prompt spread widened to $8.41/b during morning US trade, the highest since March 23, when the spread settled at $8.47/b. NYMEX June crude settled 59 cents lower at $57.15/b, while ICE June Brent ended 43 cents higher at $65.28/b. Products were led by NYMEX May RBOB, which settled 1.23 cents higher at $2.0079/gal. May ULSD settled 44 points higher at $1.9283/gal. "The broad perspective is this ongoing concern regarding Yemen, with the Saudis and their allies increasing the pressure there, when we had thought earlier in the week that they were going to back off," CHS Hedging analyst Tony Headrick said. Article continues below… "So there’s the familiar risk premium being added to Brent, while […]

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Natural Gas Unchanged

By Timothy Puko Natural gas pared gains back to unchanged as bearish bank analysts are advising summer speculators not to get excited. Natural gas for May delivery settled at $2.531 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have been falling since November as near-record production has kept the market oversupplied. BNP Paribas SA said Friday it cut its 2015 price forecast by 5% to $2.85/mmBtu because it doesn’t expect there to be enough demand for the fuel to heat or cool building in the months to come. "The mild start to the cooling season threatens to extend the discount window for natural gas prices," analyst Teri Viswanath said in a note to clients. Bets on falling prices outnumber bets on rising prices by more than three to two, according to data from U.S. regulators. But that has helped limit losses in recent weeks, analysts […]

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Iraq tells partners to lift Basra Heavy crude from May: sources

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) has informed its partners they can start loading Basra Heavy crude from May, instead of its flagship light grade, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday. The No.2 OPEC producer is splitting its southern oil production into two streams – a light and a heavy grade – to resolve quality issues dogging its exports. SOMO told its partners that the new heavy grade could be loaded from single point mooring units 1 and 3 in southern Basra, the sources said. But two of its partners due to receive the heavy grade complained they had already sold Basra Light crude that was allocated to their companies 1-2 months ago for loading in April and May. "We were expecting it (the launch of Basra Heavy) to happen in June but it came earlier than expected," said a source […]

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American Naval Force Off Yemen Gets Credit After Iranian Convoy Turns Away

WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials on Friday credited the deployment of an American aircraft carrier group in waters off the coast of Yemen for a decision by Iran to turn back a naval convoy suspected of carrying weapons bound for Shiite rebels. Although it was unusual to dispatch such a large American naval force to the Arabian Sea on an interdiction and deterrence mission, Pentagon officials said the deployment — and Iran’s apparent response — had lowered tensions in the continuing regional proxy war between Tehran and Saudi Arabia. The nine-ship Iranian convoy had turned north and east near the coast of Oman, in the direction of Iran, Defense Department officials said. Col. Steven H. Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said, “We do not know their future intentions,” but added that “it’s fair to say that, yes, this appears to be a de-escalation of some of the tensions.” Earlier this week, […]

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Yemeni Rebels Lash Out at Saudis on Border

ENLARGE Saudi soldiers on watch from behind sandbag barricade at the border with Yemen in Jazan, Saudi Arabia this past week. Photo: Hasan Jamali/Associated Press NAJRAN, Saudi Arabia—Yemen’s Houthi militias have no ability to confront the Saudi jets that pound them with deadly airstrikes. But on the ground, they are a much more formidable foe, exacting revenge in Saudi casualties with a string of border attacks. The 870-mile-long frontier stretches from the craggy mountains in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea province of Jizan, where deadly fighting with the Houthis tested the mettle of Saudi troops in 2009, and through the sandy deserts and basalt hills in the province of Najran, farther inland, where most of the recent Houthi attacks concentrate. These parts of Saudi Arabia were incorporated into the kingdom only after a war with Yemen in 1934, and, like many Yemenis, the Houthis—whose stronghold of Saada lies just an […]

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More fighting, air strikes in Yemen, civilian death toll exceeds 550

ADEN (Reuters) – Fighting between Yemen’s warring factions raged in southern and central parts of the country and air strikes hit Houthi militia forces in Aden on Friday, but there were no fresh moves toward dialogue. Saudi Arabia says it is winding down its month-old bombing operation against the Iran-allied Houthis and forces loyal to Yemen’s former president. But Riyadh pounded targets with at least 20 airstrikes across Yemen on Thursday and 10 more on Friday. The civilian death toll from the fighting and airstrikes since the bombing started on March 26 has reached an estimated 551 people, the United Nations said on Friday. Its children’s agency UNICEF said at least 115 children were among the dead. Washington and other Western countries backing the Saudi-led aerial campaign have grown increasingly worried about the humanitarian crisis on the ground and also about the risk of Sunni Muslim jihadist groups taking […]

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Billions at risk for Ghana, oil firms from ocean boundary ruling

DAKAR/ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana’s decision to seek arbitration in a dispute with Ivory Coast over an oil-rich basin in the Atlantic could prove costly for the country and a consortium led by Tullow if a court halts development there. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will rule on Saturday on Ivory Coast’s February request for a moratorium on activity in the basin. The decision is part of legal proceedings on a maritime border dispute sought by Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama in September. Although many expect the dispute to be ultimately settled in Ghana’s favor, analysts say a ruling that prevented the $4.9 billion offshore TEN oil and gas field opening in mid-2016 would be a further blow to the battered Ghanaian economy. "Even if Ghana wins on the boundary eventually, as most people expect, they stand to lose two years of revenues from TEN which […]

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Kazakhstan hosts oil-spill roundtable

Parties to a roundtable discussion on oil spills in Kazakhstan look to response to Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010 as a case study. File Photo by UPI/U.S. Coast Guard. ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 24 (UPI) — The government in oil-rich Kazakhstan hosted a roundtable discussion on developing a regional response to spills, the OSCE said Friday. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in coordination with the Kazakh Energy Minister and the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan organized a discussion on how best to plan a regional response to an oil spill program. "Once approved, the regional oil spill plan will be an important tool to ensure that the regional authorities have a system that will ensure effective co-ordination and integration of all relevant resources both from government and private sectors," Peter Taylor, a manager for the regional oil spill response organization, said in a statement. The roundtable brought more […]

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Nigeria: Petroleum Minister, Alison-Madueke, Denies Seeking Asylum

Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has denied planning to flee the country to escape alleged corruption charges under the incoming Buhari government. Mrs. Alison-Madueke struck a defiant tone Wednesday, dismissing allegations that six countries had denied her requests for asylum. The minister said she had no plan to escape as she was not indicted for any offence. Following her recent meeting with former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, the minister said speculations have been rife that she is looking for a “soft landing” from the in-coming administration. “I have not sought such assistance because I am not aware that I have been indicted of any crime that I will need a soft landing,” Mrs. Alison-Madueke told journalists at the presidential villa in Abuja Wednesday. “Over the last four years, I have been severally and unfortunately accused and labeled in so many malicious and vindictive ways. “I have […]

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