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Qatar Risks Budget Deficit in 2016 Due to Low Oil Prices, IMF Says

ENLARGE A construction site in Doha, Qatar, which is pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure projects in the runup to its hosting of the 2022 soccer World Cup. Photo: Zuma Press The Qatari government risks posting a budget deficit in 2016 as low oil prices continue to pose a challenge to energy-dependent nations, the International Monetary Fund said. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas and those revenues have allowed the Persian Gulf nation to pour billions of dollars into the country’s infrastructure as it tries to reduce its dependence on energy-related income and as it prepares to host the soccer World Cup in 2022 . For years, Qatar benefited from an oil price that hovered above $100 a barrel but in the past six months that fell to about $60 . More than 90% of Qatar’s budget revenues and exports stem from activities tied to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq’s Four-Mile Line of Supertankers Fuels Ship-Rates Surge

Iraq’s biggest oil exports in more than three decades and winter winds are helping to keep shipping rates at a six-year high as a four-mile line of supertankers waits to load the nation’s crude. There are 22 of the industry’s biggest tankers, or almost 5 percent of the fleet, waiting to collect cargoes from the Basra Oil Terminal in the Persian Gulf, from where most of Iraq’s crude is shipped. The daily rate for supertankers transporting crude from the Middle East to Japan rose to $51,042 on Thursday, bringing the average for this year to $61,306, data from the Baltic Exchange in London show. Iraq’s oil output is rising faster than any other nation in OPEC as supplies from its southern oil province expand even as Islamic State fighters seize parts of the north. Tankers leaving Basra in the past week waited an average of 16 days, ship tracking […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Leaders Have High Hopes for Yemen Airstrikes, but Houthi Attacks Continue

Photo People fearing new airstrikes fled the Yemeni capital, Sana, with their belongings on Thursday. Credit Mohamed Al-Sayaghi/Reuters CAIRO — Two months after ascending to the throne, King Salman of Saudi Arabia bet his prestige as a new leader on rallying his Arab allies for a military campaign to save Yemen from an Iranian takeover — all under the direction of his son, the new defense minister and chief of the royal court. The results a week later showed just how big a risk they took. The Houthis, portrayed as Iranian proxies by the Saudis but few others, have continued their advances despite nine nights of Saudi-led airstrikes. On Thursday, Houthi fighters captured a presidential palace in the southern port of Aden, killed a Saudi soldier in a skirmish at the border and wounded five others. Islamist militants, meanwhile, capitalized on the chaos caused by the airstrikes to free […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s services sector expands in March, job growth at 10-month low: survey

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s services sector expanded in March even as growth in employment and new business fell to their lowest in at least eight months, a private survey showed on Friday, in yet another sign that the weak Chinese economy may need more policy aid. The HSBC/Markit China Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) inched higher to 52.3 in March, compared with February’s 52.0, and above the 50-point level that separates growth from a contraction in activity on a monthly basis. But the marginal expansion was offset by lackluster growth in employment, which fell to a 10-month trough of 51.1. Growth in new businesses was at an eight-month low. "Chinese manufacturers and service providers both managed only modest increases in output at the end of the first quarter," said Annabel Fiddes, economist at Markit, adding that data "suggests that relatively weak client demand had dampened growth across both sectors". […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Keystone XL Traded For Arctic Drilling Rights?

Few debates in energy have been more contentious than Keystone XL (KXL). Environmental groups opposed the pipeline and turned out a grass roots movement that astonished even battle weary Enviros. It also caused serious problems for the industry as their assets became stranded and they were forced to ship crude by rail and barge. It is estimated that this amounted to approximately $17B over the past few years in lost revenue due to public accountability campaigns. But it looks as though the Obama Administration and Big Oil merely traded KXL for Arctic drilling rights. An announcement was made, rather quietly, this week which did not seem to receive much attention. It came from the Department of Energy’s Oil Council which is made up largely of energy company executives, some government officials, analysis firms and nonprofit organizations. The Council released a study which was produced by the National Petroleum Council […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Texas-sized Dose of Hypocrisy Served Up To Local Governments Statewide in an Effort to Overturn Denton’s Fracking Ban

On March 24, the Texas House of Representatives’  Energy Resources Committee  passed a bill that would rescind the fracking ban in Denton and other efforts by local Texas municipalities to protect themselves from the oil and gas industry. Once language in the bill is finalized, which could happen today, the legislation will make its way to the full Texas Senate for a vote.  “The oil and gas industry are getting what they always wanted – to get these pesky cities out of the way. They’re utilizing the lack of diligence and gullibility of state government – who are bought and paid for by industry, by using the Denton fracking ban to get what they want,” Denton Councilman Kevin Roden told DeSmogBlog.  “It is a political cliché to take advantage of a good crisis. And the fracking ban gave them a good crisis.” Roden said. Instead of fighting the ban in the courts, industry made a preemptive move to eliminate local ordinances […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Californians Who Conserved Wonder if State Can Overcome Those Who Didn’t

Photo Some Californians have cut down on watering their lawns, and others have decided to forgo greenery for native plants. Credit Max Whittaker for The New York Times LOS ANGELES — Some Californians are already showering just once a week, with buckets at their feet to catch every errant drop. They are building rainwater tanks in their backyards and replacing their lawns with mesquite and desert sage. They glare at water-wasting neighbors, and post photographs online to “drought shame” businesses that spray down their sidewalks. But a day after Gov. Jerry Brown announced sweeping mandatory cuts to water use, Californians said they worried that their efforts to scrimp and conserve were simply not enough in the face of a four-year drought that has drained reservoirs, robbed mountains of snow and raised concerns about an increasingly scarce and precious resource. In Marin County, just outside San Francisco, Chas Blackford, 64, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. oil rig count cull eases, approaches low point

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two weeks of thin declines in the U.S. rig count have raised expectations that drilling activity is nearing a pivotal level that could dent production, bolster prices and coax idle rigs back to the field after a precipitous cull since October. Energy producers responded quickly to a steep drop in oil prices over the last six months, idling nearly 800 rigs, or 50 percent, since a peak of 1,609 rigs in October. In the last week of January, rigs fell by 94, the biggest drop on record, according to a weekly survey by oil service firm Baker Hughes. [RIG/U] U.S. companies remain nervous about oil prices. Spending has been cut as prices fail to rebound significantly, and further price drops could quickly lead to more shrinkage in the rig count. But the decline has slowed, dropping by just 23 rigs in the last two weeks, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russian Oil Output In March Hits New Post-Soviet High

MOSCOW, April 2 (Reuters) – Russian oil output edged up 0.6 percent in March to a post-Soviet high of 10.71 million barrels per day on increased production at Gazprom and Rosneft, Energy Ministry data showed on Thursday. The output topped December’s high of 10.67 million barrels per day (bpd), the data showed. The data includes output for crude oil and gas condensate which reached 45.275 million tonnes in March, versus 40.696 million the month before. Crude oil exports through oil pipeline monopoly Transneft rose by 2 percent to 3.91 million bpd, the ministry said. Oil and natural gas production accounts for half of Russian budget revenue, which has been hit by a 50 percent plunge in oil prices since June and Western sanctions over Moscow’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis. Oil and gas condensate production at Gazprom, the world’s top natural gas producer, jumped by 14 percent in March […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Baker Hughes: US Oil Rig Weekly Decline Smallest Since December

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the US declined by 11 this week to 802, the smallest decline since December, Baker Hughes says. April 2 (Reuters) – The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States declined by 11 this week to 802, the smallest decline since December, oil services firm Baker Hughes said in its closely watched survey on Thursday. The data, which was released a day earlier due to the Good Friday holiday, compares with declines of 12 and 41 rigs in the prior two weeks and is a sign the collapse in drilling over the past few months has reached its low point. After a precipitous drop since October, the U.S. oil rig count is nearing a pivotal level that experts say could begin to dent production, bolster prices and even coax oil companies back to the well pad in the coming […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple