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Angola’s heavier crude complex facing reduced buying interest: traders

The Angolan heavier crude complex is facing reduced buying interest due to higher outright prices, high offer levels and seasonality factors, according to traders. Most of the heavier Angolan grades like Pazflor and Dalia are experiencing a lack of demand adding up to six available cargoes or 66.6% of the unplaced parcels remaining in the country’s June program, according to data collated by Platts. "Dalia and Pazflor are looking very expensive on the offer side, which pushes away potential buying interest," a Chinese buyer said. "It’s not the peak season for WAF heavier grades at this period." Furthermore, buyers will either purchase lighter grades for better yields or buy heavier grades for lower differentials, traders said. Article continues below… For over 100 years Platts has been at the forefront of pricing and news in the energy markets. Today, we publish the essential information that you need to navigate the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s Exports Unexpectedly Fall 6 Percent

BEIJING — China’s exports unexpectedly fell 6.4 percent in April from a year earlier, while imports tumbled by a deeper-than-forecast 16.2 percent, fueling expectations that Beijing will quickly roll out more stimulus to avert a sharper economic slowdown. April imports tumbled 16.2 percent from a year earlier, following a 12.7 percent drop in March that highlighted tepid domestic demand as the world’s second-largest economy slows. That left the country with a trade surplus of $34.13 billion for the month, the General Administration of Customs said on Friday. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected exports to rise 2.4 percent in April from a year earlier, and predicted imports would fall 12 percent. “This is bad. I expect an interest rate cut this weekend,” said economist Tim Condon at ING in Singapore. “This is going to make 7 percent (GDP) growth hard to attain. It looks like the weakness in the […]

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Obama, Bush and Understanding Changes in Oil Production

Demonstrators hold signs against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico in front of the White House in Washington, DC earlier this year. NICHOLAS KAMM/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES ROBERT RAPIER: I have friends and colleagues across the political spectrum, and among the topics on which they differ is the Obama administration’s impact on the U.S. oil industry. My friends on the right argue that the Obama administration has made life more difficult for the oil industry. There have been tougher restrictions on the industry, and President Obama has dragged his feet on approving projects that the industry wants, such as the Keystone XL Pipeline expansion. My friends on the left will point out–as President Obama himself has stressed in his State of the Union addresses–that oil production has surged under his leadership. This, they argue, directly contradicts claims that he has been bad for the […]

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Senator Murkowski plans bill to kill oil export ban

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Thursday she will unveil a bill next week that would reverse the 40-year-old ban on U.S. oil exports. Murkowski, the Republican chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said she would unveil the bill on Tuesday, although it was uncertain when the measure would get a vote in her committee. Murkowski has been one of the biggest supporters of reversing the ban Congress passed in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo led to fears of energy shortages. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner ; Editing by Will Dunham )

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Exclusive: Statoil U.S. execs leave for private-equity backed oil startup

WILLISTON, N.D. (Reuters) – At least five senior Statoil executives and engineers have left the Norwegian oil giant’s North Dakota unit to form their own U.S. exploration and production company backed by $500 million in private equity. The move is one of the first to show that billions of dollars waiting to finance energy deals in the wake of the last year’s crude price drop have started flowing to industry veterans eager to strike out on their own. It also highlights that the wildcatter, the nostalgic American term for investors who prospected, well by well, for oil and built their own companies, is still very much alive despite doubts the entrepreneurial practice could survive after so much land was gobbled up by the U.S. shale boom. Lance Langford, until recently the head of Statoil’s North Dakota unit, has formed Luxe Energy LLC in Austin, Texas, with equity financing from […]

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Investors Urged to Avoid Oil Sands After Alberta Election

Pipelines run toward oil storage tanks stand at the Enbridge Inc. Cushing storage terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma. Energy suppliers cut about $126 billion of expenditure following last year’s price drop of almost 50 percent, estimates Wood Mackenzie Ltd., an Edinburgh-based consultant. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Investors may want to steer clear of oil sands developers and coal producers and buy royalty stocks and companies with assets outside Alberta. That’s the advice of portfolio managers and analysts after energy stocks declined Wednesday following the surprise election victory by the New Democratic Party in Alberta. An index of Canadian energy companies plunged the most in three months after the win by Rachel Notley’s NDP, which has pledged to boost corporate taxes, review the government’s royalty rates for energy producers and phase out coal power. Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. is among the most exposed to a potential hike in royalties and stricter environmental […]

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Oregon may end self-serve gas ban _ but only in rural areas

AP Photo SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon is one of only two states where drivers aren’t allowed to pump their own gas, but lawmakers appear ready to allow people cruising through rural areas to serve themselves. That would leave New Jersey as the last holdout with statewide restrictions. Oregon’s not ready to completely jettison its 64-year-old ban, but concerns that travelers could get stranded in places with few gas stations open in the middle of the night may bring self-service pumps to vast expanses of the state. Parts of Oregon are so remote that people unfamiliar with the landscape don’t realize hundreds of miles separate gas stations, said Rep. Cliff Bentz, sponsor of a bill that would let gas stations offer self-service fuel when there isn’t an owner, operator or employee around. Rural businesses in the middle of nowhere can’t afford to keep someone manning the pumps 24 hours […]

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Dalrymple: North Dakota needs more pipelines

North Dakota’s governor sees latest oil train incident as an example of why the state needs to build pipeline capacity. Photo by Heather Snow/Shutterstock BISMARCK, N.D., May 7 (UPI) — As emergency crews respond to the latest oil train derailment in North Dakota, the state’s governor called for the quick development of more pipeline capacity. Six tank cars carrying Bakken crude oil through Heimdal, N.D., derailed Wednesday morning. The flames forced the evacuation of the town of less than 50 people. No injuries were reported and cars not involved in the derailment were moved to a secure location. North Dakota’s crude oil production has increased to the point that there’s not enough pipeline capacity to handle the boom. That means energy companies are relying more on rail to take up the slack. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple said that, while the latest incident shows an urgent need for improved […]

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Curb gas flaring, U.S. lawmakers say

U.S. lawmakers press for better rules on controlling gas flared from federal deposits. Photo by Steve Oehlenschlager/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) — The U.S. Interior Department needs to take steps to ensure gas associated with produced reserves isn’t wasted, or flared, bicameral leaders said. House and Senate Democrats issued a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewel urging her to review a report from the Government Accountability Office finding federal standards on gas capturing are behind the curve . The letter states most of the gas vented from federal lands is methane, a potent greenhouse gas. "Eliminating this waste not only would reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to removing some 3.1 million cars from the road, but would generate $23 million annual for the [federal government]," the letter read. Jewell said in March her agency would propose "in the coming months" standards meant to cut emissions and reduce the […]

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Oklahoma production soars for Continental

Continental is the latest energy company to show operating costs decline in key shale basins in the United States. File Photo by Calin Tatu/Shutterstock. OKLAHOMA CITY, May 7 (UPI) — Shale production from Oklahoma basins increased 23 percent from the fourth quarter, rivaling North Dakota by nearly a quarter, Continental Resources said. In terms of production, Continental’s output from the Bakken shale in North Dakota was up 4 percent from the fourth quarter and 39 percent year-on-year to an average 135,538 barrels of oil equivalent per day. From the so-called SCOOP basin in Oklahoma, production increased 23 percent from fourth quarter and 70 percent year-on-year for an average 49,882 boe per day. Continental said last year its acreage in the SCOOP basin was a "significant" part of its growth strategy. Data from oil field services company Baker Hughes show 108 active rigs in Oklahoma and all of them are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple