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Basra, Kurdistan oil exports to keep momentum

A ship docks at the al-Basra Oil Terminal. (BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report) Oil exports from southern Iraq are expected to average around 3 million barrels per day (bpd) at least through August, though total Iraqi export quantities are unclear as more northern Iraq oil is being sold as independent Kurdistan exports.Southern exports have averaged slightly over 3 million bpd so far this month, according to ship loading data seen by Iraq Oil Report. Iraq exported 3.022 million bpd via the Basra Gulf in June.The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), meanwhile, has a… 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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Shale does not mean end to Argentina’s natural gas imports: IAPG

Argentina likely will continue to import natural gas supplies to meet peak demand, even as its production from large shale and tight gas resources grows in the next two decades, the Argentine Institute of Oil and Gas (IAPG) said. This is because it would not be economically viable to install production and transport infrastructure to meet peak demand in winter, due to the high cost of maintaining excess capacity simply to have it available for up to 90 days of the year, the industry group said in its gas demand forecast for 2015-2035. "It is cheaper to import LNG, than to build infrastructure and drill wells to meet peak demand," said IAPG president Ernesto Lopez Anadon. IAPG forecast that gas demand would rise to 260 million cubic meters/d in 2035, with peaks of 290 million cu m/d in the May-September cold season. That compares with average gas demand of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Arabia triggers potential fuel price war by flooding market with diesel

The world’s top crude oil exporter Saudi Arabia has turned itself into a major power of refined fuels, offering customers millions of barrels of diesel and potentially triggering a price war with Asian competitors as its exports feed into a glut. Saudi Arabia, a leading member in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), already pledged last November to keep crude output high to defend its market share against higher-cost producers. While the strategy has kept crude markets well-supplied and prices low, the Kingdom has seen mixed success in defending its market share as global production remains high despite low prices. Saudi Arabia is now processing more of its crude at home as its massive refineries turn it into the world’s fourth-largest refiner, in a tie with Royal Dutch Shell, that allows the Kingdom to export more fuel products than ever before. Aramco Trading Co, a subsidiary of state […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Yemen fuel shortages could kill more than ‘bullets or bombs’ as truce ignored

Aden: Fuel shortages in war-torn Yemen could cause more deaths than the continuing conflict, which rages on three days after the start of a UN-brokered humanitarian truce, an international aid agency said on Tuesday. The lack of fuel, caused by fighting and restrictions on imports, has affected food deliveries, water supplies and health services for most of Yemen’s population, according to Oxfam. A Saudi-led Arab coalition has been bombarding the Iranian-allied Al Houthi rebel movement — Yemen’s dominant force — since late March in a bid to reinstate exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to Riyadh. A week-long pause in the fighting was meant to have started on Saturday to allow aid deliveries, but the Saudi-led alliance said it had not been asked by President Hadi, in whose name it is acting, to stop its raids. “In Yemen, fuel is critical,” Oxfam country director for Yemen […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Mexico Energy Reform Starts With Thud in Offshore Oil Auction

Mexico’s first auction of offshore oil leases fell short of the country’s expectations as several majors decided not to participate and only two of 14 blocks received qualifying bids. Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total SA passed on the 14 shallow-water oil blocks auctioned by Mexico Wednesday in the country’s first-ever sale of territory in the Gulf of Mexico, 77 years after seizing energy assets. The 14 percent success rate was less than half the 30 percent to 50 percent goal that the government said would be its minimum for judging the auction a success. The auction was the first in a series that will help determine whether Mexico can reverse a decade-long decline in crude output and fulfill President Enrique Pena Nieto’s pledge to double the pace of economic expansion. The output drop and an almost 50 percent plunge in oil prices during the past year had […]

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Cooling of China’s Stock Market Dents Major Driver of Economic Growth

HONG KONG — As the usual drivers of economic growth have faltered in China, the stock market euphoria has helped pick up the slack, driven by a slate of businesses feeding off the frenzy. With the market now cooling, the Chinese economy is losing a major boost, adding pressure on the government to take further action. “Definitely, it can’t last,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics, referring to the stock market’s lift to the country’s growth. “It’s not sustainable.” The stock market rise was fast and furious. At their peak in mid-June, China’s main share indexes, for the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, had more than doubled over the course of a year. “What stands out in China’s case is the sheer velocity of the increase in prices,” analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote this week in a research note. To find a comparable performance in the United […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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US limits on crude, LNG exports violate world trade commitments: report

US limitations on crude oil and liquefied natural gas exports are examples of resource nationalism, violate international trade commitments and have strained relations with key allies, particularly in Asia, according to a new report. The report, released Wednesday by the American Council for Capital Formation, an economic policy organization which has been pushing for an end to energy export restrictions, argues these policies hurt US credibility on global free trade and could set the US up for a challenge at the World Trade Organization. "It is hard to see how the United States would successfully defend its current resource nationalism policies, if a serious challenge were brought forth," the report states. In two recent WTO cases, the US has fought against resource nationalism, the use of government policy to control the export of a commodity in order to seek a benefit which may not be available through free trade. […]

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Savage Services Cuts Jobs in Bakken

More Oilfield Layoffs Savage Services Corp, a North Dakota railcar and logistics facility, laid off 10% of its full time employees this week. Savage is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the region and employed 118 people before this layoff. Company sources blame the layoffs on decreased demand for railcars to transport Bakken crude oil, saying that as pipeline construction has increased, the demand for railcars is the lowest it has been in three years. This is contrary to other data about the prevalence of transporting crude oil by rail. In May, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its latest data for crude by rail across the country that shows a 1700% increase over the last five years. It has been almost two years since Savage announced the expansion of the Bakken Petroleum Services Hub in Trenton, ND as a result of its acquisition of Ft. […]

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Amazon to build North Carolina wind farm

Amazon subsidiary looks to wind power to meet energy needs of cloud-based subsidiary in North Carolina. File Photo by UPI/Pat Benic SEATTLE, July 15 (UPI) — The first utility-scale wind farm in North Carolina is part of a broader effort to reduce the carbon footprint, an arm of online retailer Amazon announced. The technology infrastructure division of the retailer, Amazon Web Services, announced it contracted Iberdrola Renewables to help build and operate a 208 megawatt wind farm in North Carolina . Dubbed Amazon Wind Farm U.S. East, the facility will generate about 670,000 megawatt hours of electricity and be the state’s first utility-scale wind farm once up and running by December 2016. The Amazon subsidiary in November committed to getting 100 percent of its electricity needs from renewable resources, with the aim of meeting 40 percent of that goal by the end of 2016. Jerry Hunter, a vice president […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple