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U.S. SPR oil sale before strategic review would be a mistake: Kemp

A field of 14 storage tanks that each hold 510,000bbls of oil can be seen at the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Marine Terminal in Valdez, Alaska on August 8, 2008. “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not an ATM,” Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee warned the Senate this week. “It is certainly not the petty cash drawer for Congress.” The senator from Alaska was criticizing a proposal to sell 101 million barrels of crude from the government’s stocks to offset a shortfall in funding in the highway trust fund. “Others are potentially looking to our Strategic Petroleum Reserve as nothing more than a piggybank,” Murkowski admonished her colleagues in a floor speech delivered on Wednesday. There is nothing new or particularly surprising about Congress raiding pots of apparently surplus assets to pay for short-term spending priorities. Between fiscal 1993 and fiscal 2005, almost $6 billion worth of […]

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Philadelphia Energy Solutions seeks to buy Bakken logistics assets

The Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery owned by The Carlyle Group is seen at sunset in Philadelphia March 26, 2014. Philadelphia Energy Solutions is pursuing a joint venture that would give the U.S. East Coast refiner greater control over its supply chain out of North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, the company has disclosed in federal filings ahead of a initial public offering. PES, a joint venture partly owned by Carlyle Group LP, said in a filing that in early June, it entered into a preliminary agreement with Globe Resources Group, parent company of BOE Midstream. The deal would give PES controlling interest in a 210,000 barrel-per-day crude rail loading facility, nearly 1 million barrels of crude oil storage and a 39-mile pipeline in North Dakota. The Bakken rail terminal will serve the 335,000 bpd PES refinery complex in Philadelphia, the largest consumer of Bakken oil in the country. The […]

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Ruble Sinks With Oil as Bets for Rate-Cut Pause Hit Russia Bonds

The ruble fell to a four-month low as Brent crude extended losses in a bear market, boosting wagers for Russia’s central bank to limit interest-rate cuts this week to avoid accelerating the selloff. As the currency weakened as much as 2.4 percent against the dollar, forward-rate agreements showed traders trimming bets for policy easing to the lowest since December. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG said the Bank of Russia may opt to keep interest rates on hold on July 31 to avoid exacerbating the ruble’s slump and stoking inflation. Russian bonds decreased for a sixth day. “Should oil and the ruble continue falling in the coming days, this could reduce room for decisive policy easing” even though the state of Russia’s economy warrants a larger rate cut, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts including Anatoliy Shal said in an e-mail to clients. While all […]

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Bleak outlook for oil has Russian investors pulling back

Market analysts are predicting a worse outlook for the prices of crude oil, Russia’s biggest export. Photo by Shutterstock MOSCOW, July 27 (UPI) — As international sanctions push Russia toward its first recession since 2009, market analysts are predicting a worse outlook for the prices of crude oil, the country’s biggest export. The bleak outlook for the price of crude oil has prompted money managers at Franklin Templeton Investments and Paribasto to cut back in Russia, Bloomberg reported. "For now there’s stability, but the price of oil seems to be settling in at a new normal," Ruchir Sharma, the head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, told Bloomberg Business. "It’s a stability, but stability with stagnation. I don’t know how long they can coexist, but this seems to be the prognosis for now." Brent crude oil dropped 19 percent from this year’s high as the ruble went […]

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Ruble Close to Erasing 2015’s Gains as Oil Spurs Inflation Risk

The ruble weakened past 60 against the dollar for the first time since March, tracking the price of oil and raising the likelihood that Russia’s central bank will hold off on cutting interest rates this week. The currency fell 1.1 percent to 60.32 per dollar by 10:23 a.m. in Moscow. Government bonds known as OFZs fell for a seventh day, with the yield on five-year securities climbing nine basis points to 11.17 percent. The ruble is less than 1 percent away from erasing this year’s gains after posting five straight weekly drops, potentially spurring the cost of imports and jeopardizing the Bank of Russia’s efforts to curb inflation. This presents a “difficult choice” to policy makers before they meet to decide on interest rates on July 31, according to Capital Economics. The central bank has lowered rates four times this year to support the slowing economy. “On the one […]

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BP Swings to Second-Quarter Loss on Lower Oil Price, Deepwater Horizon Deal

BP fell to a loss in the second quarter. LONDON— BP BP -1.42 % PLC on Tuesday swung to a loss in the second quarter, as earnings were hit by lower oil prices and a multibillion-dollar charge relating to the deal it reached earlier this month to settle U.S. federal and state claims over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The U.K. oil giant said its replacement cost loss—a number analogous to the net income that U.S. oil companies report—was $6.27 billion, compared with a profit of $3.18 billion a year earlier. The sharp decline includes a $9.8 billion pretax charge that BP recorded as part of an $18.7 billion agreement with the U.S. government and five states to settle legal claims relating to its Deepwater Horizon fatal oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The net charge recorded by the company for nonoperating items amounted to $7.5 billion. It […]

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BP Has Worst Profit in 10 Years on Libya Write-Off, Trading

BP Plc reported the lowest quarterly profit in at least 10 years after a boom in trading faded and the conflict in Libya forced almost $600 million of writedowns. Profit adjusted for one-time items and inventory changes dropped to $1.3 billion in the second quarter, 64 percent lower than a year earlier, the London-based company said Tuesday in a statement. That missed the $1.7 billion average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. “I am confident that positioning BP for a period of weaker prices is the right course to take” The weaker-than-expected results pile pressure on Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley to cut capital spending to maintain dividends. The company is no longer benefiting from the strong trading that added about $350 million to profit in the first quarter, while a halt to operations in Libya eroded earnings from oil and gas exploration. “The miss is primarily because […]

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41 more North Sea oil, gas licenses announced

An offshore oil rig in the North Sea. Photo by I. Newton/Wikimedia LONDON, July 27 (UPI) — The United Kingdom Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) announced 41 new licenses Monday to explore the U.K. Continental Shelf in the North Sea. An additional 134 licenses were awarded in November 2014. The total of 175 licenses makes the round of applications among the largest since the licensing process began in 1964. "The U.K. Continental Shelf remains a world-class hydrocarbon province where significant resources and economic value remain to be realized. The good level of interest in the 28th round highlights the continued attractiveness of the U.K.’s oil and gas resources. Licenses are, however, just a start and industry, government and the OGA now need to work together to revitalize exploration activity across the basin and convert licenses into successful exploration wells," OGA Chief Executive Andy Samuels said in a statement Monday. […]

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Oil prices fall on oversupply worries; investors await Fed meeting

A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. Oil prices fell on Monday after closing the previous session at their lowest levels since March on renewed oversupply concerns from the United States and Iraq, although a weaker dollar helped to limit deeper losses. Investors are looking to the U.S. Federal Reserve for direction this week. The central bank starts a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday that could result in a September interest rate hike that would strengthen the greenback. "The markets are looking for price guidance from Janet & Co," said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at Sydney’s OptionsXpress, referring to Fed Chair Janet Yellen and the bank. "There is scope for the dollar bulls to be disappointed this week (which) might be a driver for oil prices and the commodities complex overall," Le Brun said. A weaker dollar makes dollar-denominated commodities, including oil, […]

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Oil Bulls Flee at Fastest Pace in Three Years as Glut Expands

Speculators’ conviction that oil will rally weakened at the fastest pace in three years, just before futures tumbled into a bear market. The net-long position in West Texas Intermediate contracted 28 percent in the seven days ended July 21, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Long positions dropped to a two-year low while short holdings climbed 25 percent. Oil traded in New York fell more than 20 percent from its June high, meeting the common definition of a bear market. U.S. output has held near a four-decade high while the largest OPEC members pump at record rates, keeping the market oversupplied. The drop was part of a broader retreat in commodity prices to a 13-year low, driven by concern that slower economic growth in China and a stronger dollar will hurt demand. “Supply is still in excess of what would balance the market,” Katherine Spector, a commodities strategist […]

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Turkey strikes Islamic State, Kurdish militants in drive for ‘safe zone’

Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (C) chairs a security meeting in Ankara, Turkey, in this July 25, 2015 handout provided by Turkey’s Prime Minister’s Press Office. Turkish fighter jets and ground forces hit Islamic State militants in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq on Saturday, in a campaign Ankara said would help create a "safe zone" across swathes of northern Syria. The strikes followed Turkey’s first-ever air attacks on Islamic State in Syria a day earlier and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference the heightened security operations will go on. "These operations are not ‘one-point operations’ and will continue as long as there is a threat against Turkey," he said. Turkey has dramatically cranked up its role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, which has seized much of Syria’s north and east, since a suspected IS suicide bomber killed 32 people this week […]

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Iraqi Forces Retake Anbar University

BAGHDAD—Iraqi government forces recaptured Anbar University from Islamic State militant group Sunday after hours of fierce clashes, provincial officials said, as part of its push to reclaim territory across the embattled province. The university, located 3 miles south of Anbar’s provincial capital, the militant-held city of Ramadi, was under the full control of government forces, which had entered the complex early Sunday amid intense combat with the militant group. Athal al-Fahdawi, a provincial councilman, said a number of buildings in and around the university complex have been badly damaged or destroyed, but that the militants retreated. Another Anbar councilman, Faleh al-Issawi, told The Associated Press that about two dozen Islamic State fighters were killed in the clashes. He declined to provide more details. The Iraqi military launched a large-scale operation this month to retake Anbar province, in which most of the biggest cities are held by the Islamic State […]

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U.S.-Turkey Deal Paves Way to Set Up Buffer Zone in Northern Syria

The deal allowing U.S. planes to use Turkish bases to strike Islamic State militants is paving the way for establishment of a de facto no-fly zone in northern Syria, Turkish and American officials said. The broad sketches of the understanding include eventually relying on moderate Syrian rebels to help take control of a buffer zone along the Turkish border, according to a Turkish official who spoke on Sunday. Turkey has pledged to use its F-16 fighter jets to help clear the extremist group’s forces from a safe zone about 55 miles wide and 25 miles deep, the Turkish official added. If rebels can take control, the area would be protected by coalition airstrikes so Syrian refugees, including some of the nearly two million living in Turkey, can return to their country, the Turkish official said. The evolving plans open a risky new front for the U.S. in its fight […]

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Syria’s Assad Admits War Is Taking Toll on Government Forces

President Bashar al-Assad acknowledged in an unusually frank public admission on Sunday that the Syrian military is unable to hold on to some parts of the country because his forces have been depleted by desertions and defections. Mr. Assad attributed the regime’s recent battlefield setbacks to this shortage of manpower and the need to defend areas deemed more strategic and vital than others. “The idea that we were going to win all battles everywhere at the same time is unrealistic, impossible and not doable,” said Mr. Assad in a televised speech delivered at the presidential palace in Damascus to members of trade and professional unions. “This is why priorities were set.” He said the decision on where to mobilize forces was based on the military, political, economic and strategic importance of the area, among other factors. “When we want to concentrate our forces in an important area, what happens […]

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Strikes on Kurd Militias Elevate Tensions in Turkey

Photo Sympathizers with the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party tried to protect themselves as Turkish riot police officers fired a water cannon at an antigovernment demonstration Sunday in Istanbul. Credit Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images ISTANBUL — As Turkish fighter jets pounded Kurdish militia targets in northern Iraq late Friday, the implications of the attack weighed heavily on Turks and Kurds across the border in Turkey , as they faced the prospect of being drawn back into a bloody civil conflict after years of relative peace. In 2013, Turkey brokered a historic settlement with the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., vowing to grant the long-suppressed Kurdish minority greater rights and autonomy in exchange for a cease-fire after a three-decade insurgency that had claimed more than 40,000 lives. The cease-fire brought calm and stability to Turkey’s volatile, predominately Kurdish southeast region. But the peace process sputtered last month, prompting […]

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Turkey and U.S. Agree on Plan to Clear ISIS From Strip of Syria’s North

Photo The Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey. Turkey and the United States agreed on a plan that would create what officials are calling an Islamic State-free zone, which the Turks say could also be a “safe zone” for displaced Syrians. Credit Murad Sezer/Reuters BAGHDAD — Turkey and the United States have agreed in general terms on a plan that envisions American warplanes, Syrian insurgents and Turkish forces working together to sweep Islamic State militants from a 60-mile-long strip of northern Syria along the Turkish border, American and Turkish officials say. The plan would create what officials from both countries are calling an Islamic State-free zone, which the Turks say could also be a “safe zone” for displaced Syrians. While many details have yet to be determined, including how deep the strip would extend into Syria, the plan would significantly intensify American and Turkish military action against Islamic State […]

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U.S.-Turkey deal aims to create de facto ‘safe zone’ in northwest Syria

Turkey and the United States have agreed on the outlines of a de facto “safe zone” along the Turkey-Syria border under the terms of a deal that is expected to significantly increase the scope and pace of the U.S.-led air war against the Islamic State in northern Syria, according to U.S. and Turkish officials. The agreement includes a plan to drive the Islamic State out of a 68-mile-long area west of the Euphrates River and reaching into the province of Aleppo that would then come under the control of the Syrian opposition. If fully implemented, it would also bring American planes in regular, close proximity to bases, aircraft and air defenses operated by the Syrian government, and directly benefit opposition rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Operations in the targeted area would stop short of meeting long-standing Turkish demands for a full-scale, declared no-fly zone, but the area could […]

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Turkey arrests dozens more in sweep against Islamic State, Kurdish militants

Turkish police detained dozens more suspected Islamic State and Kurdish militants in early morning raids on Monday, local media said, amid a crackdown on the armed groups and air strikes in Syria and Iraq. Long a reluctant member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, Turkey last week made a dramatic turnaround by granting the alliance access to its air bases and bombarding targets in Syria linked to the jihadist movement as well as detaining suspected members in Turkish cities. Turkish jets also attacked Kurdish insurgent camps in Iraq for a second night on Sunday, in a campaign that could end Ankara’s peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Broadcaster CNN Turk said more than 800 suspected Islamic State and PKK members had been arrested in the past week in a domestic crackdown carried out alongside the air strikes. Some 500 police swept through the Haci Bayram district […]

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Assad, in Rare Admission, Says Syria’s Army Lacks Manpower

Photo In a speech on Sunday, President Bashar al-Assad said that the army had ceded some areas to insurgents to hold onto others. Credit SANA, via European Pressphoto Agency BEIRUT, Lebanon — In a striking admission, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria said on Sunday that the country’s army faced a manpower shortage and had ceded some areas to insurgents in order to hold onto other regions deemed more important. Mr. Assad also acknowledged in a speech televised from Damascus, the Syrian capital, that many Syrians could not watch the address because of the lack of electricity in many areas and noted the economic hardships that people are facing after more than four years of an increasingly complex civil war. What was unusual was not the fact of the struggles that Mr. Assad mentioned, which have been obvious for some time, but his mentioning them at all. It was his […]

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Foreign insurers taking cautious look at Iran after nuclear deal

A staff removes the Iranian flag from the stage after a group picture with foreign ministers and representatives of Unites States, Iran, China, Russia, Britain, Germany, France and the European Union during the Iran nuclear talks at the Vienna International Center in Vienna,… Western and Middle East insurance specialists see Iran as an appealing $8 billion (£5 billion) market in the wake of its nuclear deal with world powers, though uncertainty over when sanctions on Tehran will be lifted means they are treating the country with caution. Eight out of 11 insurance and reinsurance specialists who responded to questions emailed by Reuters this week said Iran was an attractive or very attractive market, especially in the marine and energy sectors. Responses were on an anonymous basis due to the sensitivity of the issue. While several said they expected to have entered the Iranian market by the end of 2016, […]

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Iran Ready to Export Natural Gas to India

After India left the IP Gas Pipeline project, a consortium of some Indian companies headed by South Asia Gas Enterprise Pvt. Ltd. (SAGE) expressed willingness to import Iran’s natural gas, Kameli told SHANA on Saturday. He went on to say that the company is waiting for the termination of anti-Iran sanctions to fund the construction of a 3000 km underwater (deep-sea) pipeline. The history of border conflicts between India and Pakistan made the Indian side opt for using a totally independent pipeline for importing gas from Iran, Kameli added. For years there has been talk of an India-Iran-Oman energy triangle, whereby an under-sea natural gas pipeline would connect Oman and India. As India’s economy grows, demand for gas will continue to exceed supply from domestic sources and imported gas will play an important role in bridging the demand-supply gap in the market. At first, India was supposed to import […]

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Liquid Gold – Qatar’s Natural Gas

Qatar has recently passed Lichtenstein to occupy the position as the world’s wealthiest nation. Despite claims from tourist sites that the country owes its economic fame to the 19th century pearl industry , the true source of Qatar’s fortunes lies under its windswept sands. Qatar, it is estimated, has the largest non-associated (i.e., not found with oil) natural gas fields in the world. The primary company charged with excavating and exporting the natural gas, is Qatar’s domestic Qatargas which, despite being partially owned by foreign investors, serves to fill the country’s coffers. Established in 1984, just 10 years after Qatar nationalized its energy resources, Qatargas pioneered the technique of creating liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Middle East. Today, Qatargas is the largest producer of LNG on the planet. Natural gas has substantially contributed to building Qatar’s national identity. From the futuristic skyline of Doha to the extravagant lifestyle […]

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India quenches gasoline thirst with unusually high imports, shrinking exports

India’s oil product exports plunged nearly 30% to six-year lows in June as refiners diverted diesel to the domestic market to meet surging summer demand, while growing preference for petrol-driven vehicles supported gasoline consumption and triggered unusually high imports of the fuel. The sharp drop in exports occurred despite record runs at state-run and private refiners. "India’s product exports fell despite record refinery runs due to strong domestic demand. Burgeoning gasoline demand has forced Indian refineries to import gasoline. We expect gasoline demand to remain strong and hence imports to continue," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects. India has imported 488,000 mt of gasoline in the first half of 2015, compared with just 61,000 mt in the same period the previous year, data released recently by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell showed. Article continues below… The Platts Global Energy Awards is a competitive awards program […]

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China Stocks Suffer Sharpest Daily Fall Since 2007

China stocks suffered their sharpest daily percentage decline since 2007, as worries mount that authorities are pulling back on measures to prop up the market. The Shanghai Composite Index ended down 8.5% at 3725.56, its second-straight day of losses and worst daily percentage fall since February 27, 2007. China’s main index is up 6% from its recent low on July 8, but still off 28% from its high in June. The smaller Shenzhen Composite fell 7% to 2160.09 and the small-cap ChiNext Closed 7.4% Lower at 2683.45 Analysts say the selling came as investors fear the government is curbing its purchases of blue-chip stocks—and could even be testing whether the market can support itself. “The previous support from the government funds is apparently unsustainable,” said Fu Xuejun, a strategist at Huarong Securities. “They may withdraw support today to test whether the market has recovered its resilience. The government wants […]

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Deep-Sea Plan Fails, Leaving Korean Shipyards Struggling

Daewoo ship workers look at the Pazflor floating production, storage and offloading unit at a shipyard in Geoje, South Korea. Photographer: Jean Chung/Bloomberg The deep-ocean strategy is coming back to bite South Korean shipyards. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. — South Korea’s Big Three shipbuilders — ventured into offshore oil rigs starting around 2010. The goal was to avoid direct competition with China, where inexpensive labor could churn out low-profit tankers at cheaper rates. With oil prices climbing toward $100 a barrel, offshore rigs seemed like a savvy bet. Today the strategy seems to have backfired. Struggling with technology and a plunge in oil prices that has discouraged exploration, Korean vessel makers are racking up debt and could show billions of dollars in losses when they report earnings starting Monday. It’s the latest example of difficulties for the global […]

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China stocks tumble, suffer biggest one-day loss in eight years

An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, July 24, 2015. Chinese shares tumbled more than 8 percent on Monday amid renewed fears about the outlook for the world’s No. 2 economy, reviving the specter of a full-blown market crash that prompted unprecedented government intervention earlier this month. Major indexes suffered their largest one-day drop since 2007, shattering a period of relative calm in China’s volatile stock markets since Beijing unleashed a barrage of support measures to arrest a slump that began in mid-June. The CSI300 index .CSI300 of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen plunged 8.6 percent, to 3,818.73, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC lost 8.5 percent, to 3,725.56 points. While the falls followed lackluster data on profit at Chinese industrial firms on Monday and a disappointing private factory sector survey on Friday, there […]

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Sudden Drop in Crude-Oil Prices Roils U.S. Energy Firms’ Rebound

U.S. energy companies are planning more layoffs, asset sales and financial maneuvers to deal with a recent, sudden drop in U.S. crude-oil prices to under $50 a barrel, the lowest level in four months. The companies had been banking on a rebound in oil prices in the second half of 2015 after falling sharply late last year. Prices began to regain ground in the spring, rising so quickly that some American producers started hiring back drilling rigs to pump more crude. That speedy return to the oil patch and the threat of new Iranian oil production have pushed down prices more than 20% over the past six weeks to $48.14 as of Friday , bringing storm clouds back to the energy patch. Oil-field services providers that help drill wells have quietly revealed job cuts that were deeper than initially announced, and warned of more layoffs to come. Halliburton Co. […]

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Companies to Pledge $140 Billion in Efforts to Cut Carbon Emissions

WASHINGTON—More than a dozen U.S. companies on Monday will pledge to invest more than $140 billion in efforts to cut carbon emissions as part of a new Obama administration initiative leading up to the United Nations climate-change summit later this year. As soon as next week, the Environmental Protection Agency is set to issue final rules cutting carbon emissions from U.S. power plants. These regulations are the biggest driver behind the administration’s efforts to forge a global agreement at the U.N. conference in Paris to cut carbon emissions. Monday’s event is important because the administration sees corporate support for climate action as key to building momentum for the Paris talks in December. “It’s significant because they are carbon-intensive, energy-consuming companies making a bottom-up commitment to address climate change,” said Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington-based analysis firm. None of the companies taking part in Monday’s […]

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Oil Heading for Fall as Diesel’s Engine Sputters

If you want to understand why oil is back below $50 a barrel and likely headed much lower once summer ends, start with PetroChina PTR -1.50 % ’s stock prices. Mainland-listed shares in China’s national oil champion are up 27% so far this year, while their Hong Kong-listed equivalents are down 9%. The former have, of course, been juiced by Beijing’s desperate measures to prop up the mainland stock market. The latter are more reflective of what is really happening with oil supply and demand. China is showing signs of strain. While official gross-domestic-product data continue to helpfully meet Beijing’s targets, other numbers—and the stock-market panic— point downward. The latest, preliminary reading of the Caixin China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index hit a 15-month low . The State Council promptly announced measures to boost trade. Broad-based drops in the prices of industrial commodities from iron ore to copper serve as […]

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Arch Coal’s Future Gets Darker

One of the world’s largest coal companies in terms of reserves, Arch has seen its stock slump some 99.7% in the past five years to 20 cents recently. That should be a more respectable $2 or so after Monday—but only because the number of shares will fall due to a reverse stock split . Big Coal is at once a faint shadow of itself yet still vital economically. Mainly used for power generation and metallurgy, the percentage of U.S. electricity from coal-fired plants recently fell to 30% , just below the share from natural gas, according to SNL Energy. Five years ago, coal had twice the share of gas at 44%. But years of cheap, abundant shale output and tightening environmental standards have led many utilities to shut coal plants. That shift hasn’t been enough to absorb the glut of North American gas, something that would be a relief […]

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US EPA unveils Methane Challenge to entice ‘ambitious’ emissions reductions

A proposed framework for a program seeking voluntary methane reduction and reporting commitments from oil and natural gas companies was met with cautious optimism by industry groups, while environmentalists said the program would not do enough to curb emissions. The voluntary Natural Gas STAR Methane Challenge Program, which the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed, is designed to recognize companies going above and beyond existing voluntary actions. EPA said Thursday that participation would be limited to those looking to achieve "ambitious" methane reduction goals, transparently track and account for their progress and demonstrate continuous improvement over time. The agency touted the program’s emphasis on meaningful and transparent commitments yielding "significant methane emissions reductions in a quick, flexible, cost-effective way." But industry groups are more skeptical about the proposal. Oil and gas groups expressed interest in working with EPA on the program, but also noted emission-reduction successes already seen, based on […]

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This Is Why A Serious Decline In U.S Shale Plays Is Not Far Away

The plunge in oil prices last year led many to say that a decline in U.S. oil production wouldn’t be far behind. This was because almost all the growth in U.S. production in recent years had come from high-cost tight oil deposits which could not be profitable at these new lower oil prices. These wells were also known to have production declines that averaged 40 percent per year. Overall U.S. production, however, confounded the conventional logic and continued to rise– until early June when it stalled and then dropped slightly. Anyone who understood that U.S. drillers in shale plays had large inventories of drilled, but not yet completed wells, knew that production would probably rise for some time into 2015– even as the number of rigs operating plummeted. Shale drillers who are in debt–and most of the independents are heavily in debt–simply must get some revenue out of wells […]

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Greek PM Tsipras under pressure over covert Syriza drachma plan reports

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, Greece July 24, 2015. Some members of Greece’s leftist government wanted to raid central bank reserves and hack taxpayer accounts to prepare a return to the drachma, according to reports on Sunday that highlighted the chaos in the ruling Syriza party. It is not clear how seriously the plans, attributed to former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, were considered by the government and both ministers were sacked earlier this month. However the reports have been seized on by opposition parties who have demanded an explanation. The reports came at the end of a week of fevered speculation over what Syriza hardliners had in mind as an alternative to the tough bailout terms that Tsipras reluctantly accepted to keep Greece in the euro. Around a quarter of the party’s 149 lawmakers rebelled over the plan to pass sweeping […]

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Investors Flee Russia as Morgan Stanley Sees Long Market Chill

Russia’s cooling market climate has spurred an exodus of international investors. And the forecast calls for the cold snap to linger. A worsening outlook for the price of crude, the country’s biggest export, and international sanctions that are pushing Russia toward its first recession since 2009 have prompted money managers at Franklin Templeton Investments and BNP Paribas SA to retrench. With the world’s largest energy exporter so dependent on oil, which along with natural gas accounts for half its budget revenue, Morgan Stanley predicts “a long winter” absent any other growth drivers. “For now there’s stability, but the price of oil seems to be settling in at a new normal,” Ruchir Sharma, the head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “It’s a stability, but stability with stagnation. I don’t know how long they can coexist, but this […]

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Nonlinear: New York, London, Shanghai underwater in 50 years?

Those under the impression that climate change is advancing at a constant and predictable rate don’t understand the true dynamics of the issue. The rate of increase of the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, went from 0.75 parts per million (ppm) per year in 1959 to about 1.5 ppm each year through the 1990s, to 2.1 ppm each year from 2002 to 2012, and finally to 2.9 ppm in 2013. The fear is that the ability of the oceans and plants to continue to absorb half the carbon dioxide human civilization expels into the atmosphere each year may have become impaired. That means more carbon dioxide is remaining in the atmosphere where concentrations are building at the fastest rate ever recorded in the modern era. Permafrost across the most northern reaches of land on the globe wasn’t expected to start melting until […]

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Oil prices climb, but stay in bear market territory

Stacked rigs are seen along with other idled oil drilling equipment at a depot in Dickinson, North Dakota June 26, 2015. Oil prices edged up on Friday after closing at their lowest in months in the previous session as oversupply and disappointing Chinese factory activity dragged on the market. Oil prices in the United States have slumped more than 20 percent in the past six weeks, a slide considered by many traders to constitute a bear market. The oil demand outlook dimmed further on Friday after a preliminary private survey showed factory activity in China’s struggling economy contracted by the most in 15 months in July. "Concerns around the demand environment were heightened further today by the PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) read out of China," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney. "The lack of supply side response means that the downtrend looks to be […]

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Saudi Arabia Having to Borrow Billions – Could Be Bankrupt by End of the Decade

Over the past year, Saudi Arabia – once among the richest nations on the planet – has wound up having to sell some $4 billion in bonds. It has been necessary in order to maintain levels of spending on public works and continue financing the war against Yemen. The Saudi government has also had to draw on its reserves of foreign currency. Falad al-Mubarak, who heads the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (the nation’s equivalent of the U.S. Federal Reserve), predicts “an increase in borrowing” in the face of a projected $130 billion deficit. The primary cause is the drastic decline in the price of crude oil. Since hitting a peak of around $125 in February 2011, the price of a barrel of oil is currently under $50. It’s not going to get better anytime soon. Oil company executives predict it may be years before petroleum prices rebound. In order […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Turkey Attacks Kurdish Militant Camps in Northern Iraq

ISTANBUL — Turkish fighter jets, which on Friday attacked Islamic State targets in Syria , have launched a wave of airstrikes in northern Iraq , targeting camps of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party for the first time in four years, the prime minister’s office said Saturday. The Iraq incursion, which began late Friday and continued into Saturday, effectively ended an unstable two-year cease-fire between the Turkish government and the Kurdish militants, known by the initials P.K.K. After 30 years of conflict that claimed at least 40,000 lives, the two sides reached a fragile peace in 2013, though there have been a few minor clashes since then. Fighter jets also struck Islamic State targets in Syria for a second night, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s office said in the statement Saturday. The jets entered Syrian airspace to do so, the statement said, unlike during the previous strikes , which the government […]

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Commodity Collapse Isn’t Slowing Down Amid Worst Week of 2015

The commodity collapse that sent gold to a five-year low and pulled crude oil into a bear market isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. The Bloomberg Commodity Index fell 4.3 percent this week, the most since November, and extended a drop to a 13-year low. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the biggest publicly traded copper producer, are poised for the worst week since 2011 as the metal dropped to a six-year low in New York. Brent oil is on its way to the longest run of weekly declines since January. Fresh evidence of the slowdown in China, the world’s top consumer of metals, grains and energy, helped prices extend losses on Friday. The Bloomberg commodity measure has tumbled about 28 percent over the past year amid expanding gluts. Investors are still holding a net-long position, or bets on a price gain, across raw materials. They increased those wagers in […]

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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 […]

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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