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Russia Seen Turning to Crisis Playbook to Prevent Ruble Rout

Elvira Nabiullina, governor of Russia’s central bank. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg Russia’s central bank may pick up where it left off earlier this year to avert another run on the ruble. To take the pressure off the currency, the Bank of Russia will restart one-year foreign-exchange repurchase operations that were halted June 1, according to 14 of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Other support measures may include “targeted” currency interventions and a delay of further interest-rate cuts, according to BNP Paribas SA. Policy makers will start verbal intervention with the oil price below $50 a barrel, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said. The central bank may be forced to take a page from the playbook used to fight Russia’s worst currency crisis since 1998 as companies face growing repayments of external debt and last week’s suspension of foreign-exchange purchases fails to arrest a plunge in the ruble. It made […]

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Russia Stakes New Claim to Expanse in the Arctic

MOSCOW — Russia formally staked a claim on Tuesday to a vast area of the Arctic Ocean, including the North Pole. If the United Nations committee that arbitrates sea boundaries accepts Russia’s claim, the waters will be subject to Moscow’s oversight on economic matters, including fishing and oil and gas drilling, though Russia will not have full sovereignty. Under a 1982 United Nations convention, the Law of the Sea , a nation may claim an exclusive economic zone over the continental shelf abutting its shores. If the shelf extends far out to sea, so can the boundaries of the zone. The claim Russia lodged on Tuesday contends that the shelf extends far north of the Eurasian land mass, out under the planet’s northern ice cap. Russia submitted a similar claim in 2002, but the United Nations rejected it for lack of scientific support. So this time, the Kremlin has […]

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July exports dip despite rising Basra output

An Iraqi oil worker at the al-Basra Oil Terminal waits for a tanker to dock on Feb. 21, 2010. (BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report) Iraq maintained near-record export levels in July due to rising output from Basra, which helped offset disruptions to northern oil sales caused by political disputes and pipeline outages.The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) reported an average 3.105 million barrels per day (bpd) of exports in July (a total of 96.245 million barrels), which is down from 3.187 million bpd in June and 3.145 million bpd in May, though more than in April.Almost all of those exports flowed through Basra… 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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As oil falls below $50, analysts eye ‘mid-price’ era

A worker fills a tank with subsidized fuel at a fuel station in Jakarta April 18, 2013. . A slump in oil below $50 a barrel – a level it has held above for most of the past decade – has raised the prospect of a new era of lower prices, although a return to super-cheap oil seems unlikely. Prices below $50 for the two crude oil benchmarks, North Sea Brent LCOc1 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1, were the norm prior to 2005. Brent averaged just $18.37 a barrel in the 1990s, WTI $19.70 a barrel, and both only broke above $50 for the first time in late 2004. China’s explosive economic growth over the past decade, coupled with flatlining global output, saw Brent soar above $140 in 2008 and it has spent more than 90 percent of the past decade above the $50 mark. But producers […]

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Oil prices edge up after 5 percent fall, but outlook weak

A customer holds a nozzle to fill up his tank in a gasoline station in Nice December 5, 2014. Oil prices edged up on Tuesday, following a 5 percent drop in the previous session, as high global production and a weakening economic outlook in Asia prompted analysts to warn of further falls. Oil output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached the highest monthly level in recent history in July, and production could rise further if Iran achieves a plan to raise output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) as soon as sanctions are lifted. With U.S. production also near records and China’s economy showing further signs of slowing, prices on Monday were pulled down close to the six-year lows touched at the start of 2015 and Brent LCOc1 fell below $50 per barrel for the first time since January. It has spent over 90 percent […]

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Asian shares edge down, oil stabilizes after rout

An employee looks at monitors at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo June 29, 2015. Asian shares edged lower on Tuesday after downbeat economic data pressured Wall Street ahead of key U.S. jobs data later this week that could provide a key clue to the timing of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate increase. Crude oil prices stabilized after plunging overnight, with U.S. crude CLc1 adding about 0.6 percent to $45.42 a barrel. Brent LCOc1 gained 0.4 percent to $49.73 after skidding 5 percent to six-month lows. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.2 percent in early trading, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index .N225 slipped 0.5 percent, after breaking a three-day winning streak in the previous session. U.S. equities markets logged solid losses on Monday, after manufacturing data from China and U.S. figures released on Monday both disappointed. The Institute for Supply Management’s […]

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Oil Prices Drop to Four-Month Low on Supply Glut Concerns

HONG KONG–Oil prices slid to fresh four-month lows Monday as a rise in the number of U.S. oil rigs fueled supply glut concerns even as weak China manufacturing activity weighed on the demand outlook. The oil-rig count in the U.S. rose by five to 664 in the latest week, according to Baker Hughes Inc. BHI -0.92 % This offset the positive impact of signs that the country’s oil production might have peaked and has begun to decline in the past two months. The supply-side concerns also rose as Iran’s oil minister said the country can increase oil production in one week after international sanctions are lifted, ANZ said in a report. In China, the Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, fell to a two-year low of 47.8 in July, compared with 49.4 in June. Though Chinese oil imports have held steady despite a stream […]

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Oil sinks to six-month low amid weak data, slump in gasoline

Oil sank to six-month lows on Monday with Brent crude falling below $50 a barrel on sluggish U.S. and Chinese economic data and bets for weaker gasoline consumption in the United States after tearaway demand earlier in the summer. Evidence of growing global oversupply and a stock market collapse in China, the world’s largest energy consumer, have weighed on oil for weeks, leading in July to U.S. crude futures’ largest monthly decline since the 2008 financial crisis. With August trading in its first session, the rout accelerated as gasoline prices fell more than that of crude. Supply worries aside, traders pinned the latest losses on sluggish U.S. and Chinese data. U.S. consumer spending advanced at its slowest pace in four months in June as demand for automobiles softened. Growth in Chinese manufacturing activity, meanwhile, unexpectedly stalled in July as demand at home and abroad weakened. "Economic weakness has set […]

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Natural Gas Prices Rise on Warming Weather, Falling Production

By Timothy Puko Natural gas prices made small gains Monday as warming weather and falling supply helped the market bounce back from Friday’s three-week low. The front-month September contract gained 2.9 cents, or 1.1%, to $2.745 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The boost sent gas back to the middle of the 31 cent trading range it has settled in every session for nearly two months. Part of the gain comes from weather forecasts that are now retreating from predictions of widespread below-normal temperatures for this week. In the summer, hot weather can lead to stronger demand for gas-fired power to run air conditioners. A hot spring has already led power plants to consume their second-highest amount of natural gas ever for the month of May, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said late Friday. It reported that gas deliveries to power plants hit 23.7 […]

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Kemp: Caught In The Cross-Fire – Non-OPEC, Non-Shale Producers

John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) – The biggest losers from the current price war between OPEC and the shale producers seem set to be producers outside the Middle East and North America caught in the cross-fire. Expensive production from the North Sea, Canada’s oil sands, offshore megaprojects, weaker African and Latin American members of OPEC, and frontier exploration areas around the world are all being squeezed hard by the price slump. According to oilfield services company Baker Hughes, the number of rigs drilling for oil outside North America has fallen by over 200, or about 19 percent, since July 2014 ( http://link.reuters.com/ser35w ). Rig counts have fallen in every region, with 28 fewer active rigs in Europe, 47 fewer in the Middle East, 33 in Africa, 66 in Latin America and 34 in Asia Pacific. Proportionately, the […]

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