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Barzani term limit disputes roil Kurdistan politics

KRG President Masoud Barzani gives an interview in Erbil on June 2, 2013. (AZAD LASHKARI/Reuters) Just two months from the end of Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani’s term, politicians are scrambling to avoid a governance crisis and leadership vacuum.The president is legally barred from a third term, and Barzani was already granted a controversial two-year extension to his second term, which is about to expire. But political leaders remain deadlocked over fundamental questions of how to elect the next president and balance the presidency’s powers with those of the Cabinet and Parliament… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Stocks Drop on Oil as Ramadan Weighs on Mideast Markets

Saudi Arabian stocks, opened last week to foreign investors for the first time, sank the most in 12 weeks following a decline in the price of crude oil. The Tadawul All Share Index retreated 1.7 percent to the lowest level in more than two months. Al Rajhi Bank, the lender with the biggest weighting on the gauge, led the decline with a 2.9 percent drop, followed by National Commercial Bank’s 3.1 percent slide. Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the world’s top petrochemicals manufacturer by sales, dropped 2.2 percent. “It’s a reaction to the weakness of oil prices on Friday,” Sebastien Henin, the head of asset management at The National Investor in Abu Dhabi, said by telephone on Sunday. “Investors are selling as there wasn’t the spike they were expecting after the market opened up for direct foreign investment.” Foreign ownership of the kingdom’s shares was little changed at the end […]

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Tullow Oil to Settle Uganda Tax Dispute for $250 Million

Tullow Oil Plc settled a capital gains tax dispute with the government of Uganda after agreeing to pay $250 million related to a 2012 deal with Total SA and Cnooc Ltd. The company paid $142 million at the time and will pay the remaining $108 million in three equal installments, it said Monday in a statement. The first $36 million portion has already been paid with remainder due in 2016 and 2017, it said. Significant output of oil in Uganda, first discovered there in 2006, has been restrained by delays including wrangling between the East African country and companies about how much crude to process locally or export through a pipeline. Uganda has an estimated 3.5 billion barrels of crude, according to the Energy Ministry, with Tullow, Total and Cnooc planning to tap the Lake Albert fields. “In recent months, the government of Uganda has proposed welcome and necessary […]

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Nigeria: Oil Glut – Crude Differential Hits 10-Year Low

As the nagging oversupply of physical oil takes its toll, official prices for Nigerian crude have hit their lowest in at least a decade. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) lowered the official selling price for its largest crude oil stream, Qua Iboe, to dated Brent plus 35 cents per barrel, the lowest differential since May 2005. Bonny Light, once in demand for its high yield of valuable motor fuels, fell to dated Brent plus 23 cents, with the differential below May 2005 levels, traders said. According to a report by Reuters yesterday, the drop follows North Sea crude, which hit a 10-year low earlier this week as all Atlantic Basin sellers, particularly those with light, sweet oil, struggle to place cargoes. "They’re playing along now, towing the line with other OPEC members to try and capture market share," said Kash Kamal, senior research analyst with Sucden. Nigeria is […]

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Nigeria: Four Refineries to Resume Production in July

Nigeria’s four refineries are set to roll back to life in July, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said. Ohi Alegbe, the spokesperson for the NNPC told PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday that the ongoing phased maintenance of the refineries was nearing completion and that the facilities would soon commence production. "I think by July, the four refineries should begin to work," Mr. Alegbe said. He said the two refineries in Port Harcourt are scheduled to begin to receive crude next week while those in Warri and Port Harcourt would follow shortly after. Mr. Alegbe said the turnaround maintenance of the refineries, which he said began in November 2014, was being undertaken by NNPC’s in-house engineers. "We had to resort to in-house engineers after the original builders of the refineries, who were called in to do the job, kept coming up with outrageous bills," he said. He said parts of […]

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Oil-Sands Megaproject Era Wanes as Suncor Scales Back

Oil sands in Alberta. Photographer: Ben Nelms/Bloomberg The era of the megaproject in Canada’s oil sands is fading. Crude’s price slump, pressure to get off fossil fuels and tax increases in Alberta are adding to high costs and a lack of pipelines, prompting producers from Suncor Energy Inc. to Imperial Oil Ltd. to accelerate a shift to smaller projects. Companies are deferring new mines in favor of cheaper, bite-sized drilling programs that deliver quicker returns and require less labor. The moves will help reduce cost overruns and make Canadian companies more competitive with U.S. shale producers. The trade off will be reduced production growth and a smaller economic boost for the country’s oil patch. “Capital likes certainty and it’s a bit of an uncertain world at the moment,” Steve Williams, Suncor’s chief executive officer, said June 10 in an interview at Bloomberg’s Calgary office. With crude about 46 percent […]

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Exclusive: Gazprom building global alliance with expanded Shell

ST PETERSBURG, Russia Gazprom is building a global strategic alliance with energy major Royal Dutch Shell that will include asset swaps and allow the Russian gas giant to penetrate new markets, its chief executive told Reuters. Gazprom, the world’s top gas producer, said on Thursday that Shell and its long-time gas buyers in Europe – Germany’s E.ON and Austria’s OMV – had agreed to build two new Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic sea to Germany. In a rare interview, chief executive Alexei Miller said the agreement with Shell also foresaw an expansion of the firms’ joint $20 billion liquefied natural gas plant on the eastern island of Sakhalin as well as global upstream asset swaps. "Documents of such significance are signed only once every five years or maybe even 10," Miller said on the sidelines of Russia’s top forum for investors in Saint Petersburg. The deal with […]

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EU welcomes 11th-hour Greek proposals in ‘forceps delivery’

BRUSSELS/ATHENS The European Union welcomed new proposals from Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as a "good basis for progress" at talks on Monday where creditors want 11th-hour concessions to haul Athens back from the brink of bankruptcy. EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker’s chief-of-staff spoke of a "forceps delivery" as officials worked late into the night to produce a deal ahead of a summit of euro zone leaders in Brussels that they hope can keep Greece in the currency bloc. Giving no detail of a proposal he said was also received by the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, German EU official Martin Selmayr tweeted: "Good basis for progress at … Euro Summit. In German: ‘eine Zangengeburt’." After four months of wrangling and with anxious depositors pulling billions of euros out of Greek banks, Tsipras’s leftist government showed a new willingness at the weekend to make concessions that would […]

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Novak: Russian Arctic Offshore Drilling To Be Postponed To 2016 Or Later

MOSCOW, June 18 (Reuters) – Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that Arctic offshore drilling planned for this year will be postponed until 2016 or later. "Drilling of wells (in Russia’s Arctic offshore territory) scheduled for 2015 will be delayed to the next year and possibly even longer," Novak told Rossiya-24 state TV in an interview. He did not name specific projects. Sources previously told Reuters that Russian state oil producer Rosneft will be forced to postpone drilling a second well in the Kara Sea for at least two more years, as a result of Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Jack Stubbs)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple