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Natural Gas Has Largest Rally Since January on Smaller-than-Expected Surplus

ENLARGE A natural-gas-fueled drilling rig on land owned by Apache Corp. in Mentone, Texas. Natural-gas prices rose 5.6% Thursday. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Natural-gas prices surged to their largest one-day gains since January after government data showed stockpiles grew less than expected. Prices for the front-month June contract settled up 14.5 cents, or 5.6%, at $2.751 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The market flipped from morning losses of 1.5% as traders were expecting one of the largest surpluses on record for April. That didn’t materialize, sparking the type of rally that is more common for gas in the dead of winter, when heating demand surges—not the spring, when that demand wanes. The settlement is the highest since March 24 and reverses, at least temporarily, what had been a monthlong grind downward. The June contract rose 4.2% in April. The U.S. Energy Information Administration […]

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OPEC oil output in April climbs to highest since 2012: survey

LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC oil supply in April has jumped to its highest in more than two years, boosted by record or near-record supplies from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, a Reuters survey showed, as key members stand firm in their focus on market share. The increase from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries puts output further above forecasts of demand for OPEC oil in the first half of the year, although second-half demand is expected to be stronger. OPEC supply has risen in April to 31.04 million barrels per day (bpd) from a revised 30.97 million bpd in March, according to the survey, based on shipping data and information from sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants. "We are in an oversupplied market, and this oversupply is unlikely to disappear any time soon," said Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. If the total remains unrevised, April’s supply […]

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U.S. Navy Starts Accompanying Ships in Strait Where Iran Seized Cargo Carrier

ENLARGE The USS Farragut, shown in an undated photo, Tuesday rushed to the area of a confrontation between Iranian warships and a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship. Photo: Reuters The U.S. Navy has begun accompanying American-flagged commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, defense officials said on Thursday, a vigorous response to Iran’s seizure of a Marshall Islands-flagged ship this week in the gateway to the Persian Gulf. Navy warships have started accompanying U.S.-flagged vessels through the narrow strait where Iranian patrol boats confronted the M/V Maersk Tigris on Tuesday and took control of the ship. While Iran characterized its seizure of the ship as the outgrowth of an unresolved financial dispute, American military officials saw it as a provocative show of force by Tehran. On Thursday, the Pentagon approved the escort plan, defense officials said. “It’s a fast moving train,” said one defense official. “This is a result of […]

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Iraqi forces overpowered at Baiji refinery

A militant stands guard on a road leading to the Baiji refinery. This photograph, taken in July 2014, was given to Iraq Oil Report by a technician at the refinery. BAGHDAD – Fighters from the so-called Islamic State (IS) group have made their largest incursion yet into the Baiji refinery, seizing most of the compound from pro-government security forces who have been hampered by inconsistent supply lines and incoherent strategic planning. Several security officials based in Salahaddin province – including one soldier from the 5th Brigade of the federal police who was reached by phone inside the refinery – said hundreds of fighters from the IS group (which is often referred to as "Daesh" in Arabic) have intensified their attacks over the past two days, using several car and truck bombs, suicide attackers, rockets, and heavy artillery. "We have very little food and ammunition, and we can’t withstand the […]

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Yemenis in Desperate Need of Food and Fuel After Weeks of Airstrikes

Photo Children who have taken refuge with their families in a water tunnel in Sana, Yemen. Credit Mohammed Huwais/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images CAIRO — In one of Yemen’s largest cities, residents have been reduced to a diet of rice. In another, they sleep overnight in lines waiting for gasoline. Hospitals may soon be forced to close, bombs and shells are raining down ever more thickly and randomly, and in places snipers target anyone brave or desperate enough to walk the streets. Five weeks after the start of a Saudi-led bombing campaign, more than 1,000 Yemenis have died in the fighting, and the United Nations says that at least 300,000 people have been displaced, forced to hunt for food and fuel in a country bereft of both. Fierce fighting in the port city of Aden has killed dozens of people in the last few days, left neighborhoods in flames […]

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Exclusive: Britain told U.N. monitors of active Iran nuclear procurement – panel

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Britain has informed a United Nations sanctions panel of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to two blacklisted firms, according to a confidential report by the panel seen by Reuters. The existence of such a network could add to Western concerns over whether Tehran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal due by June 30 in which it would agree to restrict sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. Talks between six major powers and Tehran are approaching the final stages after they hammered out a preliminary agreement on April 2, with Iran committing to reduce the number of centrifuges it operates and other long-term nuclear limitations. "The UK government informed the Panel on 20 April 2015 that it ‘is aware of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network which has been associated with Iran’s Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA) and Kalay Electric […]

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Saudi’s Naimi says succession changes positive for oil market

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabian King Salman’s appointment of two new heirs will help stabilize world oil markets by strengthening political stability in the kingdom, its Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi was quoted as saying by state media on Thursday. Salman named his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, and his son Mohammed bin Salman, 30, as his heirs on Wednesday, apparently setting the line of succession in the world’s top oil exporter for decades. The moves were part of a much wider government reshuffle in which Naimi retained his job as minister. "The royal decrees come in the national interest and impel it towards further growth and prosperity and progress and stability, and this political stability in the kingdom will positively reflect on its economic growth, and on stability of world oil markets," Naimi was quoted as saying by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA). At state oil company Saudi […]

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Pemex Expects to Recover Lost Output From Platform Accident

MEXICO CITY—National oil company Petróleos Mexicanos suffered a short-term drop in oil production from an April accident at a Gulf of Mexico processing platform, but is ramping output back up and expects to meet its 2015 goal of 2.29 million barrels of oil a day on average, a company official said. Exploration and production chief Gustavo Hernández said on a conference call Thursday that the April 1 accident at the Abkatun oil and gas processing complex in the southern Gulf shut in some production, as did a series of storms in early January, but Pemex expects to pick up the pace in coming months. Four workers died in the explosion and fire at the Abkatun platform, and three workers are still missing, Mr. Hernández said. So far this year, Pemex has averaged crude-oil production of about 2.27 million barrels a day, with the most recent April 1-26 period just […]

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China’s struggles argue for stimulus all round

SYDNEY (Reuters) – China’s factories stayed stuck in the slow lane in April while Japanese output went into reverse and South Korea suffered its worst export performance in two years, adding urgency to calls for more state stimulus in all three economies. Thailand has already surprised by cutting interest rates this week, while speculation is mounting that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will chop its rates to a record low of 2 percent at a May 5 policy meeting. The need for action is all the greater as China, the former engine of global growth, remains jammed in neutral. China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) held at 50.1 in April, just a fraction above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. "As the economy still faces strong headwinds and the risk of deflation has not diminished, the authorities will need to continue to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple