Category:

Natural Gas Sinks on Heavy Production

By Timothy Puko Natural gas fell to its lowest settlement in more than a week as heavy production keeps a lid on prices. The front-month August contract settled down 6.6 cents, or 2.3%, to $2.756 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Most of the session’s losses came in limited electronic trading on the Friday holiday, which were included in Monday’s settlement. Prices were nearly unchanged since electronic trading reopened Sunday evening. Late Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration warned that record production from several states in the middle of the shale-drilling boom had the potential to bring hub prices down even further. Much of the new production coming from eastern states including Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia is still trapped by pipeline bottlenecks, but a series of new pipelines is going to be carrying that production out of the region soon. Many regional spot […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iran Says Nuclear Deal Must Include Lifting of U.N. Arms Embargo

VIENNA—Iran is pushing for the United Nations’ arms embargo on the country to be completely lifted, as part of a final agreement to curb its nuclear program, a senior Iranian diplomat said on Monday. Tehran’s demand is among the final issues still being negotiated between Iran and six world powers—Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.S.—in an effort to reach a final agreement in the Austrian capital. The Obama administration has cited Tuesday as the deadline for concluding the talks. But U.S. and Iranian officials have suggested privately in recent days that the negotiations could extend to later in the week. “What has been the reason for the inclusion of the arms embargo in the first place? This is one of the important issues we are discussing,” a senior Iranian negotiator said on the sidelines of the negotiations on Monday. “There should not be a place for the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Israeli Gas Boon Blocks Out Solar Industry Hopes

TARABIN, Israel—The residents of this village in the Negev desert have everything they need to build a solar-panel field: construction permits and loans, a contract with a company to build the field, and plenty of sun. But Tarabin village doesn’t yet have permission from the government to sell its solar power to the national grid—a crucial prerequisite for making the project economical. Dozens of communities across Israel are in the same situation, and executives and backers of the solar industry here are blaming an unlikely culprit: natural gas. Two big offshore gas finds in 2009 and 2010 shifted priorities and resources away from solar projects, they say. Shortly after, the government stopped approving the hookup of new solar projects to the grid. That has left villages like Tarabin waiting. It has also devastated the small, once-promising solar-power industry here. The proposed site for the field outside of town here […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iranians Divided Over Nuclear Talks

TEHRAN—Inside Tehran’s Mosalla mosque, a handful of prostrate worshipers were chanting “Death to America” in between prayers—a phrase that has come to epitomize Iran’s relationship with the West since its 1979 revolution. But outside Tehran’s main mosque recently, an argument erupted over the headline of a hard-line newspaper, the Martyrs of Islam, that read–“Mullahs Sign Agreement With Unbelievers.” “You can’t say that,” one worshiper said. He argued that the nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supported talks with world powers to lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on the country’s nuclear program. “You’ll have to complain to the editor,” the newspaper seller responded. A woman walks in front the compound of the Mosalla mosque in Tehran.. A robust debate has unfolded in the cloistered Islamic Republic as negotiators in Vienna close in on a sanctions deal this week and the country veers toward an agreement that could unlock billions […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudi Arabia to Invest up to $10 Billion in Russia

MOSCOW—Saudi Arabia has signed a commitment to invest up to $10 billion in Russia, the Russian Direct Investment Fund said Monday. Russia’s latest pact with its closest oil-producing rival marks Moscow’s efforts to replace Western funding, which has been hit by sanctions , just a few days before a summit of five major emerging economies, known by the acronym of Brics, to be held in Russia’s town of Ufa. The majority of the $10 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, will be spent on Russia’s agricultural projects, as well as on medicine, logistics, and the country’s retail and real estate sectors, RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriev told The Wall Street Journal. The agreement was reached after a “great” contribution from Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during an annual economic forum in Saint Petersburg in June, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

U.S. Seeks Mideast Shift to Follow Iran Deal

WASHINGTON—The White House is crafting a Middle East strategy for the remaining 18 months of President Barack Obama ’s term that would more forcefully address conflicts in Iraq, Yemen and Syria amid tensions over the conclusion of talks with Iran. U.S. and Iranian negotiators narrowed some key differences for completing a deal that would scale back Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. The talks face a Tuesday diplomatic deadline, but the two sides remained at odds on Monday over several critical elements. Any reorientation of Mr. Obama’s Middle East strategy would test the durability of his broader foreign-policy doctrine, and senior administration officials said the president is intent on cleaning up leftover messes in the region before leaving office in 2017, including relations with key allies that have been strained by the Iran talks. White House officials see the conclusion of Iran talks as a gateway […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iraqi Forces Plan Offensive to Retake Ramadi From ISIS

Photo Members of Iraq’s Shiite militia and security forces gathered on Monday in Anbar Province. Credit Reuters Seven weeks after their frenetic retreat from Ramadi, Iraqi security forces are preparing to mount a counteroffensive in the coming weeks to try to reclaim the pivotal western Iraqi city from the Islamic State, American and Iraqi officials say. Since the Islamic State seized Ramadi in May, about 2,000 militant fighters have been building up defenses — including rigging empty buildings with explosives. Struggling to regain the momentum in its campaign to “degrade” and ultimately defeat the Islamic State, the militant group also known as ISIS or ISIL, the Obama administration wants the Iraqis to retake the city before the militants dig in even more. At the Pentagon on Monday, President Obama said the fall of Ramadi was a setback that had “galvanized” the Iraqi government and accelerated an American effort that […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Dana Gas claims headway in legal fight with KRG

The processing facilities run by the Sharjah-based company Dana Gas at the Khor Mor field in Iraqi Kurdistan. (BEN VAN HEUVELEN/Iraq Oil Report) A multi-billion dollar dispute between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its largest gas sector investor continues, as an international arbitration court issued a second, partial ruling on July 2.The ruling itself remains confidential, and the two sides have offered vastly different characterizations of its contents. But the stakes are high, with claims and counter-claims worth billions of dollars, and the fate of Kurdistan’s most prospective gas assets hanging in the balance.I… 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
Category:

Uganda: Country Fails to Lure Majors Into Oil Industry

Last week, the ministry of Energy and Mineral Development released a list of 19 multinational companies that expressed interest in taking up licenses to explore for oil in the Albertine graben. However, the list reveals one glaring reality: Uganda has failed to attract a major company into its oil industry. By most measures, all the companies that have expressed interest are what one would call junior firms, which are more willing to take risks with exploring for oil in wildcat wells. Many of the firms are from Nigeria, South Africa, United Arab Emirates (EAE), and USA. Petroleum directorate officials had said global oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Shell had shown interest in coming to Uganda, after it had been de-risked with success stories from companies such as Heritage Oil and Tullow Oil. Releasing the list of companies on Wednesday, the permanent secretary in the ministry of Energy, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Nigeria: Oil Crash, Dwindling Revenue Threaten Nigeria’s 2015 Budget

One of the first major tasks the administration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari will have to contend with will be how to finance the 2015 budget in the wake of low oil price and rising threats from declining revenue. This becomes very critical when viewed against the backdrop of the tough economic conditions witnessed over the last couple of months in the country, especially in the area of declining crude oil and gas receipts and Federal Government’s inability to meet some of its financial obligations. Budget highlights It was bad enough that the 2015 budget was being passed more than four months into the year, and was passed by the House of Representatives some days ago at a higher spend rate. The House increased the budget to N4.493 trillion from the N4.358 trillion proposed by the Executive, without taking into consideration the prevailing volatility in crude oil prices. The House […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple