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Natural Gas Falls as Weather Signals Soft Demand

By Timothy Puko Natural gas fell to its lowest settlement in nearly a month as temperate weather forecasts suggest soft demand on the way. The front-month August contract settled down 4 cents, or 1.5%, to $2.716 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A two-day losing streak has now pushed gas below the tight, 17-cent range it had settled within every session since June 9. Weather forecasts are suggesting that the early part of the summer isn’t going to be hot enough to drive the kind of demand needed to soak up near-record production, analysts said. Hot weather can lead people to use air conditioning and gas-fired power. But the Northeast and Midwest, some of the largest markets, are seeing normal to unseasonably cool forecasts, said Paul Markert, senior meteorologist at MDA Weather Services in Maryland. "It’s harder to believe that hot weather will bail […]

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Kurdish government in Iraq selling more oil

Kurdish government of Iraq said its selling more of its own oil, accusing Baghdad of falling short of its obligations. A portion of funding from oil sales supports Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State. Photo by Frontpage/Shutterstock ERBIL, Iraq, July 7 (UPI) — The semiautonomous Kurdish government in Iraq said it increased direct oil sales in response to debts stemming from budget cuts imposed by Baghdad. The Kurdish government said the Turkish sea port of Ceyhan received an average 571,000 barrels of oil per day and an average 150,000 bpd was delivered to the federal State Oil Marketing Co. in June. The government said it increased direct oil sales because of "significant debt backlog arising from the budget cuts of 2014 imposed by the federal government, and the need to pay down debts accumulated in 2014 from pre-payments for oil sales." Under the terms of an agreement reached in […]

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Six powers and Iran to continue nuclear talks past deadline: EU

VIENNA Iran and six major powers will keep negotiating past Tuesday’s deadline for a long-term nuclear agreement as they tackle the most contentious issues, including the continuation of a U.N. arms embargo on Iran, the big powers said. "We are continuing to negotiate for the next couple of days. This does not mean we are extending our deadline," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said outside the hotel where the talks between Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States are taking place. The spokeswoman for the U.S. delegation, Marie Harf, said the terms of an interim deal between Iran and the six would be extended through Friday to give negotiators a few more days to finish their work. "We’re frankly more concerned about the quality of the deal than we are about the clock, though we also know that difficult decisions won’t get any easier with […]

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Iran talks to continue beyond Tuesday deadline to Friday

Negotiations on a nuclear deal that could see additional Iranian oil flowing onto world oil markets within months will continue past Tuesday’s deadline to Friday July 10, State Department adviser Marie Harf said. US Secretary of State John Kerry will remain in Vienna to continue talks with other P5+1 partners, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Harf said in an emailed statement. "We’ve made substantial progress in every area, but this work is highly technical and high stakes for all of the countries involved. We’re frankly more concerned about the quality of the deal than we are about the clock, though we also know that difficult decisions won’t get any easier with time — that is why we are continuing to negotiate," she said. "To allow for the additional time to negotiate, we are taking the necessary technical steps for the […]

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Iran Talks Drag On With Make-or-Break Date Pushed Back to Friday

Foreign ministers meet during the nuclear talks in Vienna, today. Photographer: Thomas Imo/Photothek via Getty Images Diplomats missed another deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran and may prolong talks until the end of the week or beyond, as they spar over an arms embargo and what would happen if the accord is breached. World powers extended until July 10 the interim arrangement that freezes Iran’s most sensitive nuclear work in exchange for limited relief from sanctions. While the negotiators in Vienna are playing down talk of deadlines, the timetable for review by the U.S. Congress means that any further easing of the curbs will be delayed by at least a month if a final agreement isn’t reached by Friday morning. “We’re frankly more concerned about the quality of the deal than we are about the clock, though we also know that difficult decisions won’t get any easier with […]

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U.S. Suggests Open-Ended Iran Talks

International powers negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran failed to meet another deadline on Tuesday, the second missed target in a week, raising the prospect of an open-ended diplomatic process over an issue on which President Barack Obama has staked his foreign-policy record. Senior administration officials in Vienna and Washington said progress was still being made and negotiators “have never been closer” to a comprehensive deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions. Mr. Obama has said talks would end in a deal that reflects a framework reached in April, or with no agreement at all. But with negotiations making little headway, the White House on Tuesday laid the groundwork for a third outcome: continuing talks while keeping in place a November 2013 interim agreement that provided Iran with limited sanctions relief in exchange for rolling back parts of its nuclear program. Such an outcome […]

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OPEC Beware: West Africa Could Lead The World’s Next Production Boom

The right technology and tolerance for risk could make West Africa the next "North Sea," possibly offsetting the balance of the world’s production hub. During the early 1970s, Saudi Arabia cut production as a reminder that it held the cards to the world’s petroleum resources. What the swing country did not count on was the slew of development and production that would subsequently take place in the North Sea. As a result, a new oil supply was born far away from the Middle East. Fast forward to today: With oil saturating the market again, Saudi Arabia has kept its spigots on this time to try and prove once again its place on top of the hydrocarbon pyramid. Despite its effort to slow production – primarily from shale in the United States – there is still room for surprise in the oil marketplace. The small offshore oilfields of West Africa, […]

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Oman to Build Giant Solar Plant to Extract Oil

A rendering of a solar-thermal facility in the desert. For years, the unforgiving desert of Oman has required special tools to extract some of the planet’s heaviest crude. The Persian Gulf sultanate’s repertoire now includes a technology not generally associated with oil pumping: solar power. One of the world’s largest solar plants will be constructed to coax Oman’s heavy oil out of the ground, according to Oman and its partners, Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A -0.29 % PLC and French energy company Total SA TOT 0.59 % . Called Miraah, which means “mirror” in Arabic, the 1,021 megawatt solar-thermal facility is slated to be completed in 2017 and located at the Amal West oil field in South Oman. The solar plant will be built by Petroleum Development Oman, a joint venture between the Omani government, Shell and Total, and GlassPoint Solar, a Fremont, Calif.-based solar manufacturer. The construction of a […]

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Deadly car bombs hit Yemen, day after almost 200 killed

Two deadly car bombs hit the capital Sanaa and a southern city in Yemen on Tuesday, state news agency Saba reported, a day after air strike and clashes killed almost 200 people nationwide. Islamic State in Yemen claimed responsibility in a statement posted online for the Sanaa attack, latest in a string of recent actions by the hardline Sunni Muslim group against Shi’ite Houthis who run the capital. One of the explosives-laden cars detonated near a hospital in downtown Sanaa, which the news agency controlled by Yemen’s dominant Houthi group said killed and injured "numerous" people, while another killed around 10 people in al-Bayda, capital of a province in the country’s battle-weary south. Saudi-led coalition air strikes and clashes killed at least 176 fighters and civilians in Yemen on Monday, residents and media run by the Houthi movement said, the highest daily toll since the Arab air offensive began […]

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Nigerian President Denies Oil Savings Account to Be Depleted

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari denied that the oil savings account will be depleted to pay government debts, including civil servants’ salaries. The government will use a $2.1 billion dividend paid into the Treasury by Nigeria LNG Ltd., Africa’s biggest producer of liquefied natural gas, to pay wages, Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement from the capital, Abuja. Nigeria’s 36 states and local arms of the government will also be able to draw “soft loans” from the central bank and have some debt restructured, he said. The comments seek to clarify statements made by Nigeria’s Accountant General Ahmed Idris on Monday that the Excess Crude Account, which holds the nation’s oil savings and has a balance of about $2 billion, will be drawn down by $1.7 billion. The funds will be shared by the federal, state and local governments to meet their financial obligations, Idris said. […]

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