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Diesel Prices Tank Amid Global Glut

The world is awash in diesel, sending prices plunging and delivering some commuters a rare bounty. Diesel at the pump was cheaper than regular gasoline in 21 states Wednesday, according to auto club AAA. The national average price for retail gasoline, at $2.75 a gallon, was 4.6 cents below diesel, compared with an average discount of 37 cents from 2010 to 2014. The national average gas price last exceeded diesel’s in 2009, AAA said. Diesel fuel typically costs more than gasoline because U.S. refineries export much of their diesel output, leaving less available for the domestic market, and federal taxes are higher for diesel than for gasoline. As gasoline demand has risen around the world, refineries are running at high rates to produce as much of it as possible. Facilities from Russia to China to the U.S. make diesel alongside gasoline, so in their rush to produce gasoline they […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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World Bank projects crude oil to average $57/b in 2015, $61/b in 2016

The World Bank on Wednesday revised upward its 2015 crude oil price forecast to $57/barrel from $53/b in April, with demand higher than expected in the second quarter, particularly in the US. However, large inventories and rising output from OPEC "suggest prices will likely remain weak in the medium-term," John Baffes, the World Bank’s senior economist, said in a statement. The bank said it expects the price to rise to $61/b in 2016 as supply growth slows. The price projections are included in the organization’s latest quarterly Commodity Markets Outlook. Article continues below… Oilgram News brings you fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news on and including: Industry players, upstream and downstream markets, refineries, midstream transportation and financial reports Supply and demand trends, government actions, exploration and technology Daily futures summary Weekly API statistics, and much more It noted that the US rig count is down 60% since its November […]

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World Bank Sees Commodities Headed for Another Bad Year on Glut

The outlook for commodities is looking grim for yet another year, except that oil will fall a bit less than previously forecast, the World Bank said. Average prices for fuels such as crude, natural gas and coal will tumble 39 percent this year from 2014, while those for materials like metals and fertilizers will fall about 12 percent, the Washington-based lender said in its quarterly “Commodity Markets Outlook” released Wednesday. “All main commodity price indices are expected to decline in 2015, mainly due to abundant supplies, and in the case of industrial commodities, weak demand,” the bank said in the report. Commodities are trading at their lowest in 12 years following a decade-long bull market fueled by growth in developing nations such as China and India. The bank said that metals and coal consumption in particular may slow in China as the nation shifts to a more services-oriented economy […]

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Post-sanctions Iran initially won’t shake markets up, executive says

Iran’s resumption of oil and gas exports, once sanctions are lifted under the recently negotiated nuclear limits agreement, probably won’t flood global markets initially, the chief executive officer of Crescent Petroleum forecasts. Majid Jafar said Iran Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh has said he wants to increase the country’s crude oil production to more than 4 million b/d in the near future, and plans to unveil National Iranian Oil Co.’s new petroleum contract in late August. “I think Iran can achieve this, but it won’t be easy—and it won’t have as big an impact as it might have had in the 1990s when there weren’t so many other options,” Jafar said during a July 22 address at the Atlantic Council. NIOC reportedly is trying to reform its contract terms to attract new outside investment, but faces considerable challenges similar to other countries in the region that have state-owned oil companies, […]

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Republicans, pro-Israel groups step up campaign against Iran deal

An image of Iranian leaders is projected on a giant screen in front of demonstrators during a rally apposing the nuclear deal with Iran in Times Square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 22, 2015. Top Republicans vowed Wednesday to do their utmost to scrap President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran as the biggest pro-Israel lobby prepared for an all-out campaign to pressure wary lawmakers into rejecting the agreement. A bigger push against last week’s historic accord in Vienna was being met with a counteroffensive by senior Obama administration officials, who have already spent hours on in-person and telephone briefings with members of Congress. Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew briefed the entire House of Representatives and Senate in separate closed-door sessions on Wednesday and will defend the deal at a public Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing […]

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UN envoy voices deep concern over Syria barrel bombing

Sunni fighters say the army has now encircled them within a five square kilometre radius inside the city [File: Getty Images] The United Nations envoy for Syria has said government forces have dropped a large number of barrel bombs on Zabadani city, "causing unprecedented levels of destruction". Staffan de Mistura cited local sources on Thursday, saying the air strikes caused many civilian deaths in the city, located about 45km northwest of the capital Damascus, and about 10km from the border with Lebanon. " [The] Army of Fatah (a Sunni rebel alliance), that controls Zabadani, retaliated by firing rockets and mortar bombs on two Shia villages, Al Foua and Kefraya, near Idlib city in the north," de Mistura said. "In both cases, civilians are tragically caught in the middle of the fighting." Syrian state television said the army had destroyed a 70-metre-long tunnel used by the rebels to transport equipment […]

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Nigeria: Oil Theft – Axe Dangles On Ex-Ministers, Others

Presidents Obama and Buhari with aides following Oval Office meeting. Whichever documents we are able to get and subsequently trace the sale of the crude or transfer of money from ministries, departments, Central Bank, we will ask the cooperation of those countries to return those monies to federation accounts and we will use those documents to arrest those people and prosecute them. This, I promise Nigerians He said his administration will recover the mind-boggling funds stashed in foreign bank accounts. The President, who made the vow during his meeting with members of Nigerians In Diaspora Organization, NIDO, resident in the United States and Canada at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC, also expressed difficulty in identifying genuine Boko Haram leaders with whom to negotiate for the release of Chibok girls, disclosing that the sect was plotting to exchange some of their leaders being held by the government with the […]

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Beijing’s stock rescue has $800 billion bark, small market bite

Investors look at computer screens in front of an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China, in this July 14, 2015 file photo. China has enlisted $800 billion worth of public and private money to prop up its wobbly stock markets, a Reuters analysis shows, but the impact of the unprecedented government-orchestrated rescue has so far been modest. Public statements, media reports and market data reveal that Beijing unleashed 5 trillion yuan ($805.2 billion) in funds – equivalent to nearly 10 percent of China’s GDP in 2014 and greater than the 4 trillion yuan it committed in response to the global financial crisis – to calm a savage share sell-off. But while the 2008 stimulus package staved off recession, analysts wonder what benefit the stock rescue package can bring to offset the risk the government is buying stocks at valuations private investors are no […]

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North Dakota oil well completions slow sharply: Kemp

A service truck drives past an oil well on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, November 1, 2014. No new well completion reports have been filed in North Dakota since July 10, the longest gap this year, according to daily activity records published by the state’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). Completions, rather than wells drilled, provide the best guide to short-term changes in output, since operators can always delay completing a well and putting it into production, either because they are waiting for completion crews to be available or to wait for better prices. Completion is usually defined as a single operation including the stimulation and testing of a well as well as the installation of surface production equipment (“Dictionary of petroleum exploration, drilling and production” 2014). North Dakota’s regulators consider a well completed when the first oil is produced through wellhead equipment into tanks from […]

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Lifting Oil Export Ban Left out of Bipartisan Senate Energy Bill

The leaders of the Senate energy panel released a bill Wednesday that includes measures to promote energy efficiency and protect the electric grid from cyber threats, but avoids the controversial issue of lifting a ban on exporting U.S. oil. The bill was drafted by both Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the Republican chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Maria Cantwell, the panel’s top Democrat. A similar bill is advancing in the Republican-led House. “This represents the universe of where there is bipartisan agreement,” Robert Dillon, a Republican spokesman for the Senate committee, said. Congress hasn’t passed major energy legislation since 2007, as the parties have clashed over renewable energy commitments and projects like the Keystone XL pipeline to link Canadian heavy crude with U.S. refineries. The bill, which the committee will begin debating on July 28 and may vote on later that week, is the common […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple