Encyclical Letter Of The Holy Father On Care For Our Common Home
1. “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a Continue Reading
Oil Prices Fall on Firming U.S. Dollar
Oil prices fell Friday on the firming U.S. dollar as investors tracked the latest twists in the Greek debt negotiations and braced themselves for the looming deadline in the Iran nuclear talks. Light, sweet crude for July delivery, the U.S. benchmark, lost 84 cents, or 1.4%, to $59.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It finished the week down 35 cents, or 0.6%. The global Brent contract for August ended down $1.24, or 1.9%, at $63.02 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. For the week, it lost $1.62, or 2.5%. Oil markets Friday followed a common recent pattern of taking cues from moves of the dollar, even largely ignoring an updated count on the amount of oil drilling in the U.S., analysts said. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of other currencies, spend most of Friday’s session in […]
Oil little changed, held down by demand outlook, shale output forecast
SEOUL Oil prices were little changed in thin trade on Friday, with a forecast of higher output by U.S. shale oil producers this year adding to worries over demand and preventing the market from extending the previous session’s gains. U.S. July crude CLc1 had lost 14 cents to $60.31 a barrel as of 0256 ET after closing up 53 cents on Thursday. Brent crude LCOc1 for August gained 3 cents to $64.29 after settling up 39 cents. "Without much change in fundamentals as well as changes to dollar strength, crude oil prices continue to move sideways. We believe that this would likely continue for today as we do not expect much change," Daniel Ang at Phillip Futures said. He added that oil prices were showing little sign of moving far from $60 and $64 for WTI and Brent respectively. U.S. shale oil producers have projected a rise in output […]
The State of the Kurds
It is a time of good news for the Kurds, a people more accustomed to tragedy than to triumph. Just last week in Turkey, a political party rooted in the struggle for Kurdish rights vaulted over the 10% threshold for parliamentary representation, giving the Kurds their biggest say ever in Turkish politics. Days later, allied Kurdish fighters in Syria seized a crucial border crossing from Islamic State, thus uniting Kurdish areas that now stretch from Iraq halfway to the Mediterranean Sea. In Iraq, the Kurds repelled an assault by Islamic State last year, and their budding autonomous government in northern Iraq has taken advantage of the collapse of the Iraqi army to seize full control of the disputed northern city of Kirkuk—often dubbed the “Kurdish Jerusalem” because of its historic significance—and the all-important oil fields nearby. Amid an imploding Middle East ravaged by religious hatreds, the Kurds are providing […]
IRAN
Iran holds the world’s fourth-largest proved crude oil reserves and the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves. Despite the country’s abundant reserves, Iran’s crude oil production has substantially declined, and natural gas production growth has been slower than expected over the past few years. International sanctions have profoundly affected Iran’s energy sector and have prompted a number of cancellations or delays of upstream oil and gas projects. Iran holds some of the world’s largest deposits of proved oil and natural gas reserves, ranking as the world’s fourth-largest and second-largest reserve holder of oil and natural gas, respectively. Iran also ranks among the world’s top 10 oil producers and top 5 natural gas producers. Iran produced almost 3.4 million barrels per day (b/d) of petroleum and other liquids in 2014 and an estimated 5.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of dry natural gas in 2013. The Strait of Hormuz , off the […]
Iran Still Supports Terrorism, State Department Finds
WASHINGTON — Iran continued its “terrorist-related” activity last year and also continued to provide broad military support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria , the State Department said Friday in its annual report on terrorism. The State Department’s assessment suggests that neither the election of President Hassan Rouhani nor the prospect of a nuclear accord with the United States and its negotiating partners has had a moderating effect on Iran’s foreign policy in the Middle East. “In 2014, Iran continued to provide arms, financing, training and the facilitation of primary Iraq Shia and Afghan fighters to support the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown,” the report said. “Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior Al Qaeda members it continued to detain and refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody,” it added. The report does not contend that Iranian officials are conspiring to kill Americans. Nor does it […]
Iran Terrorism Highlighted by U.S. as Nuclear Deadline Looms
With a June 30 deadline looming for an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program, the U.S. State Department said the Islamic Republic’s terrorist activities continue “undiminished,” a finding sure to inflame opponents of any deal with the regime in Tehran. Asked if Iran can be trusted to abide by a nuclear deal while it continues terrorist activities that destabilize the Middle East, a senior State Department official on Friday said that the nuclear negotiations are important to curb Iran’s actions. If Iran agrees to nuclear curbs in exchange for relief from economic sanctions, the U.S. won’t lift sanctions on any Iranians cited for terrorism, Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, said at a press conference. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, notorious for its involvement in terrorist activities and its control of major sectors of Iran’s economy, will remain under U.S. sanctions, Kaidanow said. Asked if entities controlled […]
Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports slip in April
KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia’s April crude exports fell by 161,000 barrels per day (bpd) as domestic refiners processed more crude, official data showed. Exports fell to 7.737 million bpd from 7.898 million in March when they hit their highest levels in almost a decade. Domestic refiners processed 2.224 million bpd, up 315,000 bpd from 1.909 million bpd in March, figures supplied by Riyadh to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) showed. JODI compiles data supplied from oil-producing members of global organisations including the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Saudi Arabia has traditionally been the world’s biggest exporter of crude and the kingdom’s rapid transition into one of the largest oil refiners adds an extra dimension to global oil markets. The growth puts its national oil company Saudi Aramco’s owned or equity stakes in refining at 5.4 million bpd, at least […]
Saudi Arabia Pumps Oil Flat Out in Citi, Goldman’s New Oil Order
Not content with the blow it’s dealt to U.S. oil drillers, Saudi Arabia is set to escalate the battle for market share by raising production to maximum levels. The world’s largest oil exporter has already increased output to a 30-year high of 10.3 million barrels a day in a bid to check growth from nations including the U.S., Canada and Brazil. It will add even more to the global glut, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Citigroup Inc. predicts the kingdom will push toward its maximum daily capacity, which the bank estimates at about 11 million barrels, in the second half of 2015. Saudi Arabia steered the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in November to protect its market share in the face of swelling U.S. crude output, rather than cut supplies to shore up prices as it did in the past. Having abandoned the role of swing supplier — […]
Yemen Mediator Optimistic as Humanitarian Crisis Worsens
Photo Yemenis waited to buy food and water in Taiz on Friday. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has appealed for a two-week humanitarian truce in honor of Ramadan, which began this week. Credit European Pressphoto Agency UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations mediator for Yemen peace talks said on Friday that four days of discussions had ended with no agreement for even a brief pause in fighting, but that he remained “optimistic,” as aid agencies warned that the humanitarian crisis enveloping the country had worsened. “We feel it requires further consultation and we can achieve it pretty soon,” said the mediator, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed , a Mauritanian diplomat, at a news conference in Geneva, broadcast on the United Nations website. “I remain optimistic.” Yemen has been pummeled by Saudi-led airstrikes since late March, after Houthi rebels from the north drove the sitting president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour […]