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Q&A: Anbari tribal leaders

Members of Kataeb Hezballah, standing in front of their militia flag, distribute food for other fighters and displaced people in the desert near Ramadi city east of Anbar province on May 28, 2015 in Anbar, Iraq (AHMAD MOUSA/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Months before the so-called Islamic State (IS) organization chased pro-government forces out of Ramadi, Anbari tribal fighters throughout the province were raising alarms.On a practical level, the problem was that pro-government forces were not numerous or strong enough to defend the areas they still held while also wresting territory back from IS militants.On a strategic level, the problem was that Iraqi military planners were failing to recognize the limitations of their forces, launch… 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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Iraq: Arbil Denies Ceasing Oil Shipments To Baghdad

The Ministry of Natural Resources in Iraq’s Kurdish region has denied reports that it ceased oil shipments to the national government’s State Oil Marketing Organization, Shafaq News reported June 3. Earlier in the day, Reuters had reported that Arbil was no longer transferring crude to the state-owned company. The Kurdish regional government confirmed that it was abiding by its previous energy agreement with Baghdad, which dictates that it export an average 550,000 barrels per day through Baghdad. The semi-autonomous region has made moves toward energy independence in the past, but the shared opposition to the Islamic State has brought Kurds into closer cooperation with the Iraqi government. Stratfor provides global awareness and guidance to individuals, governments and businesses around the world. We use a unique, intel-based approach to analyze world affairs. Copyright © 2015 Stratfor Global Intelligence, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 221 West 6th Street Suite […]

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Iran urges OPEC to cut oil supplies to balance prices

TEHRAN, June 3 (Xinhua) — OPEC needs to reconsider crude supplies to the market as its excessive supply has led to the drop of oil prices, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh told Press TV on Wednesday. "It’s very clear that we have oversupply in the market and this oversupply puts pressure on prices," Zangeneh said, adding that the issue requires "appropriate decision" by OPEC. Zangeneh’s remarks came as OPEC member states are scheduled to meet in the Austrian capital Vienna on Friday. "It is now our responsibility to review this situation and to take an appropriate decision for balancing the market, but it depends on consensus among all OPEC members," he was quoted as saying. Iran has criticized some oil exporting countries for flooding the market with crude products. OPEC currently supplies 30 million barrels of crude oil per day to the global market. Iran is planning for a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Israel bombs Gaza sites after rocket attack claimed by Islamic State sympathizer

GAZA Israel retaliated on Thursday for rockets fired at it from Gaza with bombing raids against three militant training camps, and a radical group sympathetic with Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks on Israel. Witnesses and medics said the predawn attacks on two camps belonging to Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, and to the smaller Palestinian group Islamic Jihad caused some damage but no casualties. Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement that Israel held Hamas responsible for the rocket attacks from Gaza "even if those doing the shooting are rogue gangs from global jihadi groups trying to challenge Hamas by shooting at us". The rockets aimed at the Israeli city of Ashkelon and town of Netivot on Wednesday night were the second such attacks in the past week. They broke a hiatus in cross-border fire since a 50-day Israeli war with Hamas ended with […]

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Nigeria: Importation of Refined Petroleum Products Major Drain On Nigeria’s Revenue – PENGASSAN

Abuja — The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called on President Muhamadu Buhari to increase local refining capacity before embarking on any deregulation process This is contained in a statement on Tuesday by PENGASSAN National Public Relations Officer, Mr Emmanuel Ojugbana. The union called on the president to ensure that the focus of deregulation policy was based on local production rather than importation. It said that if local refining was not increased to meet local demand for petroleum products, especially the premium motor spirit (petrol), removing subsidy on petroleum products would bring more hardship on Nigeria. It stated that removing subsidy while the country depended on importation of refined products would make prices of refined products to be out of the reach of the masses and would cause inflation. It said that importation of refined petroleum products was a major drain on the […]

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Venezuela finds new front in attack on U.S. fracking: water

VIENNA Venezuela sought to open a new front in its months-long verbal assault on the U.S. shale oil industry on Wednesday, suggesting it posed a grave threat to water supplies. In the latest criticism of the hydraulic fracturing technology that has yielded a gusher of crude supplies in Venezuela’s biggest oil market, oil minister Asdrubal Chavez cited the "huge environmental impact" from shale. "This does not seem to raise any concerns among the governments promoting it or the companies involved," he told an OPEC seminar in Vienna attended by chief executives of some of the world’s biggest oil companies, including Exxon and BP, both of which operate in U.S. shale. "It is a responsibility of the conventional crude oil-producing countries to develop price mechanisms that take into account these economic and geopolitical actors that promote technologies that threaten the availability of the fundamental resource for human existence: water." The […]

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El Niño Clouds Prospects for Southeast Asian Crops

SINGAPORE—Unusually dry weather in parts of Southeast Asia in recent weeks has raised the prospect that food crops across the region could be severely harmed this summer by the return of the El Niño weather phenomenon. Countries in this region are among the top global producers of a range of agricultural commodities from coffee to rubber. If prolonged dry weather sets in, their crop output will likely be reduced, potentially hitting raw-material costs for a myriad of industries from food to tires. A growing number of weather forecasters, including the official U.S., Australian and Japanese weather bureaus, have confirmed that the El Niño weather pattern will return this year after a near five-year absence, although its likely duration and intensity is as yet unclear. El Niño is typified by a warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean and a cooling of its western region. That leads to a […]

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US Crude oil production heading 11 to 15 million barrels per day

The latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast for US crude oil production is for an increase to about 11 million barrels per day and then having a plateau. When US crude oil production gets past 10.1 million barrels per day then it will have passed the old production peak in 1970. This will take a further increase of about 500,000 barrels per day. About 5% more production. Getting to 11 million barrels per day is the the low oil price case. If oil prices strengthen and/or oil recovery technology improves more then the US crude oil production would head to 13-15 million barrels per day by 2025. The High Oil and Gas Resource case in AEO2015 was developed using assumptions that result in higher estimates of technically recoverable crude oil and natural gas resources than those in the Reference case. Estimates of technically recoverable tight and shale crude oil […]

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US coal exports down in April but show increased shipments to India

US coal exports totaled slightly more than 6.4 million mt in April, down 5.2% from the prior month and down 11.3% from the year-ago month, the US Census reported Wednesday. The weaker figures were partly due to weather-related delays in February, which pushed some loadings into March. However, the year-over-year decline also reflects continued weakness in the seaborne market for both thermal and metallurgical coal. Platts assessed the spot price for low vol US met coal FOB US East Coast on Wednesday at $102.50/mt, down 13.3% from a year-ago. Met coal exports totaled 3.8 million mt in April, down 20.2% from March and down 18.1% from the year-ago month. For the year, met coal exports total 16.1 million mt, down 19.5% compared with the same period last year. Article continues below… Platts Coal Trader provides the latest prices for key benchmark coals, as well as: Daily pricing for tons […]

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California Oil Spill Pipeline Was Badly Corroded, Government Report Finds

LOS ANGELES–A pipeline rupture that spilled an estimated 101,000 gallons of crude oil near Santa Barbara last month occurred along a badly corroded section that had worn away to a fraction of an inch in thickness, federal regulators said Wednesday. The preliminary findings released by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration point to a possible cause of the May 19 spill that blackened popular beaches with crude oil and created a 9-mile slick in the Pacific Ocean. The agency said investigators found that corrosion at the break site had degraded the pipe wall thickness to 1/16 of an inch. Additionally, the report noted that the area that failed was close to three repairs that had been made to the pipeline because of corrosion after 2012 inspections. The findings indicate that over 80% of the metal pipe wall had worn away over time because of corrosion, said Richard […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple