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Russian gas giant Gazprom extends reach

Russian energy company Gazprom extending global reach with a flurry of proposals brokered from St. Petersburg. Photo courtesy of Gazprom ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, June 19 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom during an investment forum in St. Petersburg has moved to strengthen its global hand with a new deck of proposals. Gazprom this week already signed memoranda with its partners in the twin Nord Stream pipeline to Germany to potentially add two new lines to the route. The first leg of Nord Stream went into service in 2011. A year later, British energy company BP said it was considering linking the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline to British ports. Nord Stream runs through the Black Sea to Germany and is among Gazprom’s routes that avoids geopolitically sensitive territory in Ukraine. Russia meets about 20 percent of the European demand for natural gas, though more than half of those reserves […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Putin Takes Credit for Dodging ‘Deep Crisis’ as Slump Deepens

President Vladimir Putin gave himself credit for avoiding the “deep crisis” that faced Russia last year as tumbling oil prices combined with sanctions over Ukraine to push the economy into decline. “It hasn’t happened,” Putin said Friday in his annual address to investors at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, his premiere business event of the year. “We stabilized the situation.” Putin, 62, is facing the biggest challenge of his rule as he juggles the fallout of a pro-Russian rebellion in Ukraine with the country’s first recession in six years. The Kremlin said yesterday experts will study a proposal by a close ally to move up presidential elections now slated for March 2018, a move that could extend Putin’s 15-year rule while his approval rating continues to hover above 80 percent. The economic woes are being exacerbated by the continued conflict in Ukraine, which has provoked the worst confrontation […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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ECB boosts emergency funding as Greek banks bleed, Tsipras calm

ATHENS/LUXEMBOURG The European Central Bank expanded emergency funding to keep Greece’s stricken banks on their feet as a steady flow of withdrawals continued on Friday ahead of a summit next week that could decide whether the country can stay in the euro. With pressure on Greece’s fragile banking system growing daily, the ECB held a teleconference and raised the cap on so-called emergency liquidity assistance, which the banks rely on to keep operating, by 1.8 billion euros, Greek officials said. That should be enough to keep the system running until euro zone leaders meet on Monday night in a last-ditch effort to reach an aid-for-reforms deal with Athens. As the country edged closer to a possible default at the end of the month, leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras assured Greeks that prophets of "crisis and terror" would be confounded, and his government would strike a deal with European Union […]

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Greece, Russia Strike Preliminary Gas Pipeline Deal

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—Greece and Russia signed a preliminary agreement Friday for cooperation on a pipeline that will bring Russian gas to Europe through Greece and Turkey. The agreement, which isn’t legally binding, was signed by the Greek and Russian Energy Ministers, respectively Panagiotis Lafazanis and Alexander Novak, on the sidelines of an economic forum. It comes amid last-ditch efforts to prevent further economic collapse in Greece and the country’s possible exit from the eurozone as Athens and its international creditors are yet to agree on the terms of a new financial bailout before Greece has to make multibillion-dollar debt repayments later this month. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to meet with the Russian President Vladimir Putin later Friday. After a meeting between the two leaders last month, Mr. Putin, said that Russia was ready to consider financial help to Greece in exchange for Greece’s agreement to sign […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Greece and Its Creditors Pummel Each Other, but Fight Is Not Over Yet

Like prizefighters, the two sides of the negotiations over the Greek bailout have been circling each other, throwing punch after punch. On Friday, Greece ’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras , headed to Russia and suggested he was looking for “safe harbors,” while the day before officials at the European Central Bank sent gasps through Athens by declaring that Greek banks might not open on Monday. It is a mesmerizing slugfest, if only because it is so out of step with the way things are usually done in the pastel corridors of the European Union headquarters in Brussels, where agreements are hashed out behind closed doors and all parties emerge with smiles and set scripts. Perhaps as never before, Europe — and indeed the world — are witnessing a messy public negotiation, where each side seems willing to predict the end of civilization as we know it unless the other […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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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 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Markets Higher on Weaker Dollar

Oil prices made small gains Thursday on the back of a weaker dollar and data that suggests a decrease in crude at a key U.S. storage hub. Light, sweet crude for July delivery, the U.S. benchmark, gained 53 cents, or 0.9%, to $60.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The global Brent contract for August ended up 39 cents, or 0.6%, at $64.26 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. In another sign of the market’s weakening volatility, this was the first four-session stretch since October that front-month U.S. prices have moved less than 1% a day. “The market really seems centered around $60,” said Kyle Cooper, managing director of research at IAF Advisors, a Houston consulting firm. Analysts have increasingly pointed to oil finding its new balance around this price after a tumble that has dropped it more than 40% from last year’s highs. Rampant […]

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Oil up third day on dollar slump, U.S. crude draw data

NEW YORK Oil prices settled up for a third straight day on Thursday, boosted by a slipping dollar and reports that data showed a draw in crude this week at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for U.S. crude futures. The dollar fell to a one-month low against a basket of currencies .DXY after the Federal Reserve disappointed investors anxious for a clearer signal on a U.S. rate hike. The euro also got a boost from hopes for a positive end to the Greek fiscal crisis. [FRX/] Market intelligence firm Genscape reported a draw of about 870,000 barrels of crude at Cushing in the week to Tuesday, according to market sources who saw the data. Between Friday and Tuesday alone, some 1.2 million barrels were drawn. On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) also cited the first weekly build in Cushing inventories since mid-April. Oil still ended off the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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ISIS-Imposed Fuel Embargo Threatens Syria’s Medical Centers

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Islamic State fighters are preventing fuel shipments from reaching rebel-held parts of northern Syria , causing severe shortages that are paralyzing ambulances, stopping medical centers from providing care and shutting down bakeries, according to antigovernment activists and aid workers. Adding to the misery, international aid groups said, the forces of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, are targeting medical centers in opposition areas, killing some workers and forcing facilities to shut down. The fuel shortages highlight how more than four years of war in Syria have ravaged the economy and allowed the warring parties to use the country’s scarce resources as a vise to squeeze their enemies. Since the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, seized oil-rich regions in Syria’s north and east, it has used their output to finance its efforts to build an Islamic emirate that straddles the Syria-Iraq border. Traders from elsewhere in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple