Category:

OPEC according to the EIA

OPEC publishes monthly production data for all OPEC nations in their Monthly Oil Market Report . The data crude oil production only and does not include condensate. I have found the data to be highly accurate and any errors are corrected in the next month’s report or the month following that. The OPEC data is from OPEC’s “Secondary Sources”. The EIA also publishes OPEC production data in their  International Energy Statistics . However the EIA does not publish crude only data. Their data includes condensate. All data is in thousand barrels per day. The last EIA data point is December 2014 and the last OPEC data point is April 2015. O v E Algeria Almost 20% of Algeria’s production is condensate if the EIA is correct. Algeria does produce a lot of condensate but I have serious doubts about the accuracy of the EIA data. As you can see […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Islamic State faces battle in Iraq, bombs in Syria

BAGHDAD/BEIRUT Islamic State poured more fighters into Ramadi as security forces and Shi’ite paramilitaries prepared to retake the Iraqi city that fell to the Islamists a week ago in a major setback for the government. In Palmyra, the Syrian air force struck at buildings captured by the Sunni militant group, whose arrival has raised fears that the city’s famed Roman ruins will be destroyed. The air force leveled Islamic State "hideouts" and killed a large number of its members around Palmyra’s military air base, Syrian state media said. Islamic State has killed at least 217 people execution-style, including children, since it moved into the Palmyra area 10 days ago, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another 300 soldiers were killed before the Syrian city was captured, the monitoring group said. The insurgents reinforced Ramadi on Monday, deploying fighters in preparation for battle against security forces and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iran to raise oil output by 170,000 bpd from new fields by March 2016: IRNA

DUBAI Iran plans to raise its oil output by 170,000 barrels per day by end of the current Iranian year, which ends on March 20, 2016, the official IRNA news agency cited an Iranian oil official as saying on Monday. Soltan Kamali, managing director of Arvandan Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the state’s National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said the "additional output will be available once the initial phases of North Azadegan and Yadavaran oilfields come into operations," IRNA reported. The OPEC producer aims to boost crude exports by up to 1 million bpd if Tehran and six major powers finalize a nuclear agreement by a June 30 deadline. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal, editing by David Evans)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Islamic State’s Gains Reveal New Prowess on Battlefield

ENLARGE Islamic State identified six men, including a man it named as Abu Adam al-Lubnani, of Lebanon, as among the suicide bombers who helped the group’s victorious battle surge in Ramadi. Photo: no credit In late April, a commander for Islamic State said his forces were ready to launch an offensive to take Ramadi, and the group called for fighters to redeploy to Iraq from Syria. Three weeks later, the jihadist group seized the capital of Anbar province after relentless waves of suicide bombings. U.S. defense chief Ash Carter has blamed Ramadi’s fall mainly on Iraqi forces’ lack of will to fight. But Islamic State’s battlefield performance suggests the terrorist group’s tactical sophistication is growing—a development the Iraqis and the U.S.-led coalition have so far failed to counter, said Iraqi officials, former U.S. officials and military analysts studying the organization. An examination of how Ramadi fell indicates that Islamic […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Only Iran is confronting Islamic State, paramilitary chief says

DUBAI The general in charge of Iran’s paramilitary activities in the Middle East said the United States and other powers were failing to confront Islamic State, and only Iran was committed to the task, a news agency on Monday reported. Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force responsible for protecting the Islamic Republic’s interests abroad, has become a familiar face on the battlefields of Iraq, where he often outranks local commanders. "Today, in the fight against this dangerous phenomenon, nobody is present except Iran," the Tasnim news agency quoted Soleimani as saying on Sunday in reference to Islamic State. Iran should help countries suffering at the hands of Islamic State, said Soleimani, whose force is part of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Mehr news agency reported. The Sunni militant group has taken key cities in Iraq and Syria in the past week, routing regular forces […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Thousands flock to mass funeral for Saudi attack victims

Latest News Buy AP Photo Reprints DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Tens of thousands of mourners poured into the streets of eastern Saudi Arabia on Monday to attend a mass funeral for victims of last week’s suicide bombing attack at a Shiite mosque that was claimed by the Islamic State group, attendees said. Chanting religious slogans and carrying banners denouncing sectarianism, the mourners made their way with the victims’ bodies along a route to a cemetery in the village of al-Qudeeh, in the oil-rich eastern Qatif region. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack and warned of more "black days" to come for Saudi Shiites. Saudi officials have confirmed the group was behind the blast, which officials said killed 21 people. It was the country’s deadliest terrorist attack since 2004. King Salman has vowed to punish those responsible. Like many ultraconservative Sunnis in Saudi Arabia, the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

U.S. shale oil producers to ramp up drilling at current price: Goldman Sachs

SINGAPORE Shale oil producers, benefiting from lower costs, are expected to ramp up drilling activity if the price of U.S. oil stays near $60 a barrel, Goldman Sachs said. "We believe that should West Texas Intermediate prices remain near $60 a barrel, U.S. producers will ramp up activity, given improved returns, with costs down by at least 20 percent," analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a report. U.S. drillers cut the number of rigs by just one last week, data from oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc showed, signaling that higher crude prices may be starting to steady the sector after 24 straight weeks of drill rig declines. "Last week’s rig count is a first sign of this response and suggests that producers are increasingly comfortable," the Goldman Sachs analysts said. (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Nigeria: Fuel Crisis – Oil Workers Reach Agreement With Govt, Lifting Begins

The senate has intervened in the ongoing fuel crisis in the country leading to a commitment from all critical stakeholders to pave way for the lifting of fuel in the next six hours. This resolution was reached at the Senate inquest into the fuel crisis organised by the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Upstream and Downstream. LEADERSHIP recalls that sequel to a resolution of the Senate last week mandating its committees on petroleum resources (Upstream and Downstream) to investigate the persistent fuel scarcity in the country, the committees summoned the coordinating minister for the economy and finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and her petroleum ministry counterpart, Diezani Alison-Madueke, over the scarcity. Also invited by the joint committee, the group managing director of the NNPC, managing director, PPMC, director DPR, PPPRA, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) , Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and National Association of Road […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Nigeria’s Cocoa Industry Fears Shutdown Due to Fuel Shortage

By Obafemi Oredein Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES IBADAN, Nigeria–A severe shortage of petroleum products in Nigeria could shutdown the country’s cocoa industry, officials, traders and exporters said Monday. The nationwide shortage, now entering its fourth week, has affected the operations of commercial banks, telecommunication companies and the other key sectors of the economy. Commercial banks in Nigeria normally close at 4 pm local time, but a shortage of gasoline and diesel used to run generators is forcing them to shut earlier than normal. "If banks close down now, cocoa business is off," Monday Awulu, a senior official at Saro Agro Allied Ltd., a major cocoa exporting company in Nigeria, told Dow Jones Newswires. He said the severe petrol shortage didn’t have a major impact on the movement of cocoa, "but if diesel becomes difficult then cocoa movement becomes difficult as most of the vehicles we use are diesel-powered." […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple