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U.S. oil imports rise, WTI contango deepens: Kemp

The word oil is pictured on an oil bank at a recycling yard in London March 2, 2011. Futures prices are making it increasingly profitable to store surplus crude in the United States, coinciding with a strong period of oil imports and a further build up of already swollen stockpiles. WTI crude futures prices imply the market is paying more than 61 cents per month to cover the cost of financing and storing oil at the Cushing delivery hub during the fourth quarter of 2015. The WTI contango for the fourth quarter of 2015 has tripled from less than 20 cents per month at the start of June. Over the same period, the contango for fourth-quarter Brent has increased by much less, from 37 cents to 48 cents per month ( link.reuters.com/puc35w ). It has become more profitable to store oil in the United States in a “cash and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. oil drillers add rigs despite crude price collapse: Baker Hughes

A service truck drives past an oil well on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, November 1, 2014. U.S. oil producers added 21 oil rigs in the past week, the most in over a year, data showed on Friday, suggesting that drillers were moving more aggressively than expected, just before crude prices’ latest dive down. Oil producers, who cut rigs in the face of falling prices late last year, began to add rigs back in the week ending July 2, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report. The latest addition comes amid a 21 percent collapse in U.S. crude prices from a recent high in June, data showed on Friday. The rise in the rig count this week was the biggest increase since April 2014. It was, however, only the third addition over the past 33 weeks, bringing the total rig count […]

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Turkish jets hit Islamic State positions in Syria: PM’s office

A Turkish Air Force F16 jet fighter prepares to take off from an air base during the Anatolian Eagle military exercise in the central Anatolian city of Konya April 28, 2010. Turkish fighter jets pounded Islamic State targets in Syria early on Friday, the prime minister’s office said, after Turkey said it would take any "necessary measures" to protect itself from Islamist and Kurdish militant attacks. Police, backed by helicopters and special forces, also launched overnight raids on more than 100 suspected Islamic State and Kurdish militant locations in Istanbul, according to media reports. Some 5,000 officers were deployed in the operation. Three F-16 fighter jets took off from a base in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey, in the early morning and hit two Islamic State headquarters and one "assembly point" before returning, the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement. "Turkish fighter jets didn’t cross the Syrian border during the […]

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Iraq’s southern oil exports head for another record in July

A worker walks at the Nahr Bin Umar field, north of Basra, southeast of Baghdad, November 16, 2014. Iraq’s southern oil exports have risen above 3.0 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in July, according to loading data and an industry source, setting shipments from OPEC’s second-largest producer on course for a monthly record. The Iraqi boost is an indication of continued high output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which is focusing on keeping market share rather than curbing supply to support prices. <OPEC/O> Exports from Iraq’s southern terminals averaged 3.06 million bpd in the first 23 days of this month, up from a record 3.02 million bpd in all of June. Shipments jumped in June after Iraq’s decision to split the crude stream into two grades, Basra Heavy and Basra Light, to resolve quality issues. This has allowed some companies working at Iraqi oilfields […]

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Iran offers state assets to foreigners in investment drive

Iran offered to sell state assets to foreigners, said it would cut the government’s role in the economy and pledged a tight monetary policy as it sought to attract billions of dollars of investment from abroad after over a decade of isolation. At a business conference in Vienna this week, the first such event since last week’s deal between Tehran and world powers on its nuclear program, top Iranian officials outlined an economic policy package designed to win foreign investment. The package was strikingly pro-market – many of the policies would not have been out of place in a center-right European government. If implemented, they could move Iran’s economy well beyond the tight restrictions and heavy state involvement that followed its 1979 Islamic Revolution. "The government, the parliament are trying to remove all the obstacles for free investment and for reducing interference of government in private investment,” said Minister […]

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At least 55 killed as Saudi-led warplanes hit Yemen’s Taiz: Saba

A Saudi soldier stands guard as servicemen on a Saudi military cargo plane prepare to unload aid at the international airport of Yemen’s southern port city of Aden July 24, 2015. A Saudi-led airstrike on Yemen’s Taiz killed at least 55 people and left tens injured, Houthi-controlled news agency Saba said on Saturday. A coalition of Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia, has been bombarding Iran-allied Houthi forces in Yemen since late March in a bid to reinstate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh. The Saba agency quoted a local source in Taiz as saying that the bombing targeted the Mokha area inhabited mostly by engineers and workers of a power station and some displaced families. The number of casualties is expected to rise as rescue services are still working in the area and several of those injured and transferred to nearby hospitals are in serious […]

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Nigeria: Delta Lost 3 Million Barrels of Crude to Pipeline Vandals in April – Okowa

Asaba — Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has appealed to communities to be vigilant against pipeline vandalism which he said led to loss of three million barrels of crude oil in the state recently. Addressing a delegation of Ukoko R’Ivie R’Urhobo, the umbrella body of traditional rulers from Delta-Central Senatorial District, said in April, 2015, the state lost three million barrels of crude oil as a result of attacks on oil pipelines. "I want to say to Deltans that we should be more vigilant against pipeline vandals. They are doing us a lot of disservice, because based on the indices that have been sent to us, we are losing a lot and it will reflect in this July allocation that will be sent to us", he said. The governor added that the amendment bill for the Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC) which has passed through second […]

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Experts: Mexican oil could have profound regional impact

Reforms embraced by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto could transform regional energy landscape, experts told a House subcommittee. File Photo by UPI/Photo by Dennis Brack WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) — The opening up the Mexican energy sector under the Peña Nieto administration could bring profound changes to regional energy security, experts testified. A subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere in the House Foreign Affairs Committee heard testimony about the impacts of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s decision to open Mexico up to private investors after more than 70 years under a monopoly controlled by state-run Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. "In hydrocarbons production, the completion of these reforms gives the United States, Canada and Mexico an opportunity to make North America a new foundation for global energy security," Carlos Pascual, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and senior vice president for consultant firm IHS, testified. The government recently auctioned off rights […]

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Russia, China Delay “Holy Grail” Gas Pipeline Sequel As China’s Economy Swoons

Last month in “ PetroYuan Proliferation: Russia, China To Settle ‘Holy Grail’ Pipeline Sales In Renminbi ,” we outlined how Moscow was set to deliver some 68 bcm/y in natural gas to China via the Power of Siberia line and the “Western Route”, or the “Altai” line. Here’s a quick recap: In May, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Moscow, where Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller and China National Petroleum Corp Vice President Wang Dongjin signed a gas export deal which paves the way for 30 bcm/y to China via a new “Western Route.” Last year, the two countries ratified a “Holy Grail” gas deal for the delivery of up to 38 bcm/y over 30 years via an “Eastern Route.” Also known as the “Power of Siberia” pipeline, the Eastern route was billed as the largest fuel network in the world with a total contract value of around $400 billion. […]

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China may bring in ‘two-child policy’

Thirty-five years after enacting draconian birth control rules blamed for millions of forced abortions and the creation of a demographic “timebomb”, China could be on the verge of introducing a two-child policy. The new regulation, under which all Chinese couples would be allowed to have two children, could be implemented “as soon as the end of the year if everything goes well”, a government source was quoted as saying by the China Business News . The highly controversial and often brutally enforced one-child policy was introduced by China’s Communist leaders in 1980 amid fears of a catastrophic population explosion. The government credits it with preventing 400 million births, but the human cost has been immense, with forced sterilisations and abortions, infanticide, and a dramatic gender imbalance that means millions of men will never find female partners. In 2012 – in one of the most shocking recent cases of human […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple