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OPEC oil output hits three-year high in June on Iraq: Reuters survey

LONDON OPEC oil supply in June has climbed to a three-year high due to record or near-record output from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, a Reuters survey found, underlining the focus of the group’s top exporters on market share. The boost from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries puts output further above its target of 30 million barrels per day (bpd) and comes despite outages in Libya and Nigeria that curbed supplies. OPEC supply has risen in June to 31.60 million bpd from a revised 31.30 million bpd in May, according to the survey, based on shipping data and information from sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants. The group has raised output by more than 1.3 million bpd since it decided in November 2014 to defend market share rather than prices. A final deal between world powers and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear work could add to supplies. "If […]

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Iran Faces Slow Road Back to Oil Market Even With Nuclear Deal

As Iran nears a deal to ease oil sanctions after almost two years of talks, selling more crude remains a long way off. The nation’s goal of increasing exports 50 percent as soon as restrictions are lifted won’t be fulfilled, say Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Societe Generale SA. That would require an extra 500,000 barrels of daily output, which the banks say will take six to 12 months as OPEC’s fourth-biggest producer complies with terms of a deal and revives aging wells. The impact on prices will be limited, the banks predict. “They’ve got to meet the requirements of any agreement, and that’s going to take time,” Jeff Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, said by e-mail from New York on Monday. “When you shut these fields in to that significant of a degree, your ability to bring back production to previous […]

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Israeli gas exports could start up in 2-3 years

A framework for Israel’s gas sector, released Tuesday, would allow neighboring countries to receive offshore gas within 2-3 years by allowing exports from Tamar prior to the Leviathan field coming on line in 2019. Egypt and Jordan need gas and it was in Israel’s strategic interest to supply them, energy and water minister Yuval Steinitz told reporters. Last year the Tamar consortium — Delek Drilling, Noble Energy, Avner Oil and Gas, Isramco and Alon Gas Exploration — signed a letter of intent with Spain’s Union Fenosa for the sale of 4.5 Bcm annually for 15 years for its SEGAS LNG plant at Damietta, Egypt. Israeli energy industry sources said talks have resumed in recent weeks about signing a final agreement with Union Fenosa. One of the key elements of the framework, designed to end an impasse that has held up development of the huge field, is to foster competition […]

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Divide on Iran Nuclear Deal: Hard-Liners vs. ‘Invisible People’

Photo A small group of hard-liners gathered at the base of Tehran’s Freedom Tower to urge a nuclear deal with few compromises. Credit Newsha Tavakolian for The New York Times TEHRAN — In the little shade provided by Tehran’s Freedom Tower, a group of about 200 Iranian hard-liners, some with hats made of folded newspapers to protect them against the sun’s rays, sat in the searing heat Tuesday on blue plastic chairs next to blaring loudspeakers. Speakers railed against the devil, a.k.a. the United States, and its “oppressive” actions, drawing the usual chants of “Death to America” from the participants. They called for a “good nuclear deal” in the negotiations this week in Vienna, meaning one with few, or preferably no, Iranian compromises. In the distance traffic rolled by. Even during the fasting month of Ramadan, Tehran and its 12 million inhabitants are constantly on the move, on their […]

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Iran Back at Vienna Nuclear Talks as Khamenei Shows Support

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejoined nuclear talks, accompanied by the president’s brother and backed by the nation’s supreme leader, as the push for an accord with world powers entered its final stage. “I am here to get a final deal and I think we can,” Zarif told reporters on Tuesday in Vienna while sitting beside U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry inside the Palais Coburg, where the majority of the negotiations are taking place. In a show of support, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei posted a picture on Twitter of Zarif and Iran’s envoys to the talks dressed in white scientists’ coats. “I recognize our negotiators as trustworthy, committed, brave and faithful,” Khamenei said in an accompanying statement. Iran, holder of the world’s No. 4 oil and No. 2 natural gas reserves, is seeking the lifting of trade and financial sanctions that have hobbled its economy. For the […]

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Momentum Builds for Iran Deal as Negotiators Allow Another Week

Momentum built toward a historic nuclear deal, with Iran and negotiators giving themselves until July 7 to draft the text of a final agreement. Following a two-hour meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said only “procedural” issues needed to be addressed. The U.S. and Europe formally extended the terms of their interim agreement with Iran in order win time to settle on a deal. “The situation is moving in the right direction,” Lavrov told journalists at the Palais Coburg where talks convened for a fourth day. “We have every reason to believe that the result is within reach.” For Iran, holder of the world’s fourth-biggest oil and second-biggest natural-gas reserves, an agreement would mean the lifting of trade and financial sanctions that have hobbled its economy. For the U.S. and Persian Gulf nations wary of Iran’s influence, it would restrict […]

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U.S., Iran presidents issue warnings as nuclear talks extended

VIENNA Iran and world powers gave themselves an extra week to reach a nuclear accord, extending a deadline due to expire on Tuesday, while U.S. President Barack Obama said there would be no deal if all pathways to an Iranian nuclear weapon were not cut off. With talks in the final stretch, Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani also spoke out, saying his country would resume suspended atomic work if the West breaks its promises. Iran and six world powers are working towards an accord that would see Tehran halt sensitive nuclear work for at least a decade in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, potentially the biggest breakthrough in decades of hostility between Washington and Tehran. "Ultimately this is going to be up to the Iranians" to meet the requirements set out by the international community, Obama said during a news conference in Washington. Obama’s remarks were likely to […]

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OPEC Crude Production Surges as Iraq Pumps at Record Pace

Iraqi crude production climbed to a record this month, helping send OPEC output to the highest level since August 2012. Output by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries climbed 744,000 barrels to 32.134 million a day this month, according to a Bloomberg survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. Last month’s total was revised 189,000 barrels lower to 31.39 million a day, because of changes to the Saudi, Iraqi, Algerian and Nigerian estimates. OPEC has been boosting supply as it seeks to force higher-cost producers to cut output. The 12-member group agreed on June 5 to retain its collective output target of 30 million barrels a day, a level that it’s exceeded for 13 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “The unrelenting increase in OPEC supply is going to put a lot of pressure on the market,” John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based […]

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The Latest: Militant attacks in Egypt’s Sinai kill 30 troops

CAIRO (AP) — The latest news on the near-simultaneous militant attacks in Egypt’s restive northern Sinai Peninsula that have killed at least 30 soldiers (all times local): 11:30 a.m. Egyptian security and military officials say a heavy battle is taking place in the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid, where militants are besieging the town’s main police station. The fighting is part of a wave of coordinated militant attacks launched on Wednesday morning in restive Sinai, just two days after the country’s state prosecutor was assassinated in Cairo. The officials say that as part of the attacks, a suicide car bombing destroyed one military checkpoint while another was first hit by mortar shells and rocket propelled grenades, then assaulted by militants. — 10:35 a.m. Egypt’s military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir, says fighting is still underway in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, where militants unleashed a wave of attacks […]

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Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Spent N3.8 Trillion Illegally in Three Years – NEC

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) spent nearly half of the money it earned in three years and remitted the other half to the federation account, it was revealed yesterday. The corporation earned N8.1trn from crude oil sales from 2012 to 2015, withheld N3.8trn and paid only N4.3 trillion to the national treasury. Officials of the corporation revealed these facts themselves while briefing members of the National Economic Council yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. They also said that former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spent $2.1bn from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) without the approval of NEC. The governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, disclosed these while briefing State House journalists on the outcome of the four-hour meeting. President Muhammadu Buhari had inaugurated the National Economic Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Oshiomhole said the NNPC and the office of the Accountant-General […]

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