Category:

Israel won’t strike Iran alone, no matter how much it hates the nuclear deal

Tags: AIR STRIKES | Benjamin Netanyahu | Iran | Iran Nuclear Deal | Israel An Israeli F-16 fighter jet takes off at Ramon air base in southern Israel during routine training, October 21, 2013. REUTERS/Amir Cohen The day after a nuclear deal with Iran was announced, the sun rose high above Jerusalem’s shimmering hills just as it does every July, as if the ancient land shrugged off two decades of apocalyptic warnings from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and decided to go about its usual routine. Israeli officials across the political landscape decried the “very bad deal,” as Netanyahu termed the agreement, which the United States and five world powers hope will curb Iran’s weaponization of its nuclear program. But no one, not even the prime minister, rattled the sabers of war. “An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites is no longer a relevant scenario,” wrote Amos Harel, military […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iran’s possible oil production response post-sanctions: Kemp

Malta-flagged Iranian crude oil supertanker ”Delvar” is seen anchored off Singapore March 1, 2012. Iran could increase its oil production by up to 1 million barrels per day within 12 months of sanctions being lifted, provided it can find buyers for the crude. In 2014, the country produced an average of just over 1,350 barrels per day (bpd) per well, from 2,280 wells, according to the OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin ( link.reuters.com/xes25w ). In 2011, the last year before sanctions were tightened, the country produced an average of around 1,750 bpd per well from 2,025 wells. The reduction of 400 bpd in per-well output since 2011 gives some indication of how far the country has been forced to choke back the wells because it cannot find buyers for more crude. If Iran increased flow rates from the existing stock of producing wells by an average of 400 bpd, back […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

First Iranian ship storing oil sails for Asia after nuclear deal

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh talks to journalists before a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Austria, June 5, 2015. An Iranian supertanker with two million barrels of oil is heading to Asia after sitting in Iranian waters for months, the first vessel storing crude offshore to sail after a nuclear deal this week, data showed on Thursday. Iran and six major world powers reached a landmark nuclear deal on Tuesday, clearing the way for an easing of international sanctions on Tehran and higher oil exports. While oil analysts do not expect Iran to make a major return to the market until next year, it has been parking millions of barrels of oil on tankers for months. The fully laden Starla, operated by Iran’s top tanker group NITC, had been used for floating storage since Dec. 12, a tanker tracking source said. "This is the first tanker to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iran’s Oil Spigot

Sanctions against Iran, devised to bring it to the negotiating table and curb its nuclear program, made it hard for the country to sell its oil. Deprived of customers and investment, Iranians saw production fall to less than half its peak before the 1979 revolution. A July 13 deal between Iran and six major nations could lift those sanctions, and the oil will flow.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil ‘El Dorado’ Iran Can Double Output by 2020, Scaroni Says

International oil companies will rush back to Iran after the removal of sanctions, helping the OPEC member double production by the end of the decade, according to former Eni SpA Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni. The country can restore production to 1970s levels of 6 million barrels a day by 2020 as its “plentiful” and inexpensive reserves draw in foreign oil explorers despite the risk of sanctions being restored, Scaroni said. The flood of Iranian oil into a global market that’s already oversupplied will keep crude prices low for the rest of the decade, he said. “Iran is one of three or four countries which are part of the ‘El Dorado’ of oil in the world,” Scaroni, now deputy chairman of NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd., said by phone from London Wednesday. “In a world of oil prices that are low and will become probably even lower, it is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russia says to discuss oil markets, Iran with OPEC on July 30

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reacts during a plenary session at the United Nations building in Vienna, Austria July 14, 2015. Russia and OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri will discuss oil markets and the Iran situation in Moscow on July 30 amid sliding oil prices, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. The prospect of an influx of Iranian crude onto the already-overhung market has dampened oil prices, which have halved from their level in June last year of $115 per barrel. "We will discuss the situation on the oil and gas market on the whole, taking into account the lifting of sanctions on Iran," Novak told reporters about the forthcoming meeting with Badri. He said he did not expect a big impact on prices from additional oil volumes from Iran. "The prices will be determined by the production costs of shale oil," Novak said. Iran and six world powers […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iran Risks Will Curb Investor Enthusiasm Even as Sanctions Ease

Gas flares burn near an oil well in Khuzestan province, Iran. Photographer: Vahid Salemi/AP Photo The end of economic sanctions on Iran under this week’s nuclear deal has been portrayed as a gold-rush opportunity in an oil-rich Gulf state, but returning to business as usual won’t be as easy as the burst of enthusiasm suggests. Investors who wait months for sanctions to be lifted will then have to gamble that they won’t run afoul of enduring blacklists or the vow by the U.S. and other world powers that sanctions will “snap back” into place if Iran fails to live up to commitments to restrict its nuclear program. “Hotel rooms in Tehran will be booked solid for months to come, and I think we’ll see some quick movement even by significant players in different markets,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran and Persian Gulf energy analyst at the Brookings Institution in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iranian Hard-Liners Say Nuclear Accord Crosses Their Red Lines

Photo Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, issued in June a list of seven "major red lines" that should not be crossed in a nuclear agreement. Credit Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images TEHRAN — When Iran ’s supreme leader sent a note to the country’s president, thanking him for bringing the nuclear negotiations with the United States and other world powers to a conclusion, he added an important caveat. The comprehensive plan needs “close scrutiny,” the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , wrote, adding: “Be concerned about possible violations of the commitments in the accord by other parties.” The tone of the letter might have seemed friendly to those not familiar with the supreme leader’s style, said Hamidreza Taraghi, a political analyst close to Ayatollah Khamenei. “But the reaction was cold,” he said. “Notice how he only thanked the negotiators but did […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Netanyahu May Turn Iran Defeat to His Favor

Photo The British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel delivered joint statements on Iran in Jerusalem on Thursday. Credit Pool photo by Debbie Hill JERUSALEM — Israeli commentators have described this week’s Iran nuclear deal as a “personal failure,” a “stinging failure,” and a “colossal failure” for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu . Yair Lapid, a rival who heads an opposition faction in Israel ’s Parliament, called it “the greatest failure in foreign policy of any Israeli prime minister since the state’s establishment” and demanded his ouster. Mr. Netanyahu has framed his career over two decades around Iran , and battered Israel ’s critical alliance with the United States by alienating President Obama with his aggressive approach. Since the deal was announced, he has seemed lifeless, gray, even in deep despair during public appearances this week, analysts said. Yet there is little indication Mr. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Car bomb explosion kills one in Saudi capital

A car bomb has exploded at a security checkpoint in the Saudi capital Riyadh, killing the driver and wounding two policemen, the interior ministry said. The blast went off on Thursday when policemen manning the checkpoint on Al-Hair Road stopped the car for a routine control, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, quoting a ministry spokesman. The policemen were taken to hospital and were in a "stable condition", the spokesman said. "The driver blew up the car and killed himself," he was quoted as saying. The Saudi authorities were investigating the explosion, which took place on the last day of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Source: Agencies

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple