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Russia mulls oil sales for Iran

The Kremlin said it’s reviewed selling oil for Iran during talks with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh on the sidelines of last week’s OPEC conference in Vienna. File Photo by UPI/Maryam Rahmanian MOSCOW, June 9 (UPI) — Iranian crude oil could make its way to the international market using Russian intermediaries, the Russian energy minister said. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said it’s too early to discuss direct oil imports from Iran, though expansion of bilateral trade may extend to global sales for the Islamic republic . "Our traders will facilitate sale of Iran’s oil on the global market if possible," he said. Novak said he spoke about trade issues with Iranian representatives on the sidelines of last week’s conference of ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna. Plans in the works since early 2014 include potential shipments of as much as 500,000 barrels per day […]

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Operational excellence becomes oil industry watchword (again): Kemp

LONDON Cost-cutting is set to remain the main focus for the oil industry for at least the next two years as petroleum producers adjust to an environment of much lower prices. If the boom was characterized by an emphasis on ambitious and complex engineering and technology projects, the downturn has brought a renewed focus on simplification and efficiency. It marks a return to what was called "operational excellence" during the long years of low oil prices in the 1990s. Operational excellence is about more than just short-term expenditure reduction. But not even the free fruit for employees at BP’s giant campus at Sunbury near London has been spared from the search for economies. The fruit is a good symbol of the industry’s approach to cost control: it was also axed during a previous cost-cutting drive in 2008 only to be restored when prices and revenues boomed again. But the […]

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U.S. Embracing a New Approach on Battling ISIS in Iraq

WASHINGTON — In a major shift of focus in the battle against the Islamic State, the Obama administration is planning to establish a new military base in Anbar Province and send 400 American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi. Although a final decision by the White House has yet to be announced, the plan follows months of behind-the-scenes debate about how prominently plans to retake another Iraqi city, Mosul, which fell to the Islamic State last year, should figure in the early phase of the military campaign against the group. The fall of Ramadi last month effectively settled the administration debate, at least for the time being. American officials said Ramadi is now expected to become the focus of a lengthy campaign to regain Mosul at a later stage, possibly not until 2016. The United States Central Command’s emphasis on retaking Mosul depended critically […]

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Syrian rebels seize largest army base in Deraa

The majority of Deraa province is controlled by opposition fighters [Getty] An umbrella group of opposition fighters have seized the largest army base in the southern province of Deraa – the birthplace of Syria’s four-year uprising – after 24 hours of fighting, a rebel spokesman and monitoring group have said. Essam al-Rayes, a spokesman for the Southern Front rebel alliance operating in the province, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that the "fully liberated" base "was one of the main lines of defence for regime forces". "It was a nightmare, because they used it to shell all the areas to the east of the province," he added. He said at least 2,000 rebel forces overran the base, which lies near a major highway running from Damascus to Syria’s southern border with Jordan, in a "short and quick" assault. Diaa al-Hariri, a spokesman for Faylaq al-Awwal, one of the […]

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ISIS Proves Its Persistence With Attacks in Libya and Iraq

CAIRO — Islamic State militants staged attacks near Baghdad and the Libyan city of Surt on Tuesday, underscoring the group’s persistent strength on both fronts despite a monthslong American-led air campaign against it in Syria and Iraq . In Libya, the Islamic State captured a critical power plant along the coastal road westward from its stronghold in Surt toward Misurata, a commercial center whose powerful militias are the backbone of a coalition that controls the capital, Tripoli. The loss was the second significant retreat in less than two weeks by the Misuratan militia that the provisional government in Tripoli had originally sent to expel the Islamic State from Surt. More than 1,500 miles to the east in Iraq, two gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked a local council building in Amiriyat al Falluja, a bold incursion into the center of a city about 37 miles southwest of Baghdad. The city […]

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Kurds Say Iraq’s Oil Payments Coming Up Short

LONDON—Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil minister said Tuesday that the Kurds’ fight against Islamic State militants risks being undermined by delays in oil payments from Baghdad for Kurdish crude. But an official from the Iraqi central government said Baghdad disagreed with the Kurds’ estimates of payments due. Baghdad and Kurdistan reached an agreement in December 2014 , allowing the Kurds to export 550,000 barrels of oil a day under the central government’s supervision in exchange for receiving 17% of the national budget. “The fight against ISIS across several thousand kilometers of front line cannot happen if you don’t have the economic means to do it,” Ashti Hawrami, the minister for natural resources of the Kurdistan Regional Government, told a conference here. “When we have three months of peshmergas [Kurdish fighters] not being paid, it’s very difficult to see how this can be sustained,” he added. While Islamic State has continued making […]

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London: Iraqi oil and security go hand-in-hand

Iraqi oil conference opens in London amid looming threat from the terrorist group calling itself the Islamic State, which now controls Sunni-parts of the country. Photo by Frontpage/Shutterstock LONDON, June 9 (UPI) — Good governance and sweeping national security are integral parts of the investment future in the Iraqi oil sector, the British energy minister said. An Iraqi oil exhibition opened this week in London. British Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom said that although British energy companies are playing an active role in Iraq, security and cooperation across the entire country is needed to improve the investment climate . "In Iraq, lower oil prices in particular have highlighted some weaknesses in economic institutions," she said. "Tackling these, along with some of the political divisions that risk undermining Iraq’s energy potential, is of great importance." British energy companies were among those last year that evacuated non-essential staff from Iraq amid the […]

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Kurdistan Warns Oil Output at Risk of Collapse on Lack of Funds

Oil producers in Iraqi Kurdistan will have to close operations if they don’t receive agreed export payments, according to the regional authorities. “We need to stabilize the payment situation,” Ashti Hawrami, natural resources minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, said Tuesday in London. “We can’t keep saying to oil companies: ‘Give us one more month.’ Eventually this will collapse around us. We need more money.” Kurdish authorities in December resolved months of feuding with Iraq’s central government over who had rights to export crude from the semi-autonomous region. Nevertheless, payments to producers have remained haphazard as the two sides continue to debate terms, while a slump in oil prices and the exorbitant cost of fighting Islamic State militants have reduced available funds. Norwegian producer DNO ASA said Tuesday that it can’t sustain investment and production levels if debts to the company aren’t paid. Genel Energy Plc and […]

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Saudi ministry says higher oil output driven by demand

LONDON Saudi Arabia’s oil ministry said on Tuesday the rise in its oil production over the past three months was a result of increased global demand and the needs of its customers and was not designed to compensate for lower oil prices. An official source at the ministry also said its petroleum policy did not reflect personal views and were formulated by an integrated team of experts and specialists in oil market economics, based at the ministry’s offices in Riyadh. "It is done in coordination with oil-producing countries, especially OPEC countries, so as to serve the Kingdom’s interests in the short and medium terms. It is also reviewed by the country’s senior leadership. The integrated team of experts and advisers supports the decision makers," the official said in a rare statement from the ministry. The source said the statement was issued after the Wall Street Journal published a story […]

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U.S. Oil Production to Peak at 43-Year High Before Trailing Off

U.S. oil output will peak at a 43-year high in 2015 as producers work through a backlog of uncompleted wells before trailing off in the second half of the year. Production will increase to 9.43 million barrels a day this year, the most since 1972, the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. That’s 240,000 barrels higher than last month’s estimate. Monthly output will fall in June through early 2016. The U.S. is producing more oil this year even as the number of oil rigs slid to the least since August 2010 in response to last year’s price crash. Prices are still high enough to support drilling in key shale formations in North Dakota, Texas and other states. “Production has increased as producers work through the backlog of uncompleted wells,” the EIA said in the report. “Projected 2015 oil prices remain high enough to support […]

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