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Kurds announce oil payment mechanism

Kurdish forces draw on oil revenue for support. Semiautonomous Kurdish government extends financial hand to oil companies working in northern oil fields. File Photo by Mohammed al Jumaily/UPI ERBIL, Iraq, Aug. 3 (UPI) — The Kurdish government in Iraq said Monday it would allocate some of its revenue to international oil companies on a monthly basis to help cover their expenses. British energy company Gulf Keystone Petroleum, one of the key players in the Kurdish oil sector, in early 2015 suspended crude oil exports through Turkey and directed sales to the local market briefly because of a lack of payment from the Kurdish government. The Kurdish north hosts some of the larger oil fields in Iraq. The Ministry of Natural Resources for the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government said that, while crude oil exports are its principle source of revenue, energy companies operating in the region face difficulties moving forward […]

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Gulf Arab States Voice Support for Iran Nuclear Deal

DOHA, Qatar—Gulf Arab states cautiously backed the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran , giving the White House a potentially important diplomatic win as it seeks to build support for its signature foreign-policy initiative. The positive response from the Gulf Cooperation Council—which is composed of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain—followed months of intense lobbying by the White House that included offers of increased arms sales, intelligence-sharing and military training. Secretary of State John Kerry held a daylong summit on Monday with the council’s foreign ministers to explain the terms of the nuclear agreement and the need for increased cooperation between Washington and the GCC to guard against Iran expanding its influence in the region. “This was the best option amongst other options in order to try to come up with a solution for the nuclear weapons of Iran though dialogue, and this came […]

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Nigeria to Lose Billions Without Oil Sales Reforms, Report Says

Nigeria must urgently reform the way it sells oil to prevent Africa’s biggest crude producer losing billions of dollars of revenue, according to a new report. The approach of the national oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., “suffers from high corruption risks and fails to maximize returns for the nation,” the New York-based National Resource Governance Institute said in a 73-page report published on Tuesday. The NNPC should end the practice of allocating about 445,000 barrels of oil a day to Nigeria’s four domestic refineries, which process less than a quarter of that total. The allocation has become the “main nexus of waste and revenue loss from NNPC oil sales,” according to the report. Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said last month the U.S. will help trace and recover funds from the sale of about 250,000 barrels of oil that are stolen each day in the country. The oil industry, […]

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China’s Response to Stock Rout Exposes Regulatory Disarray

BEIJING—As China’s summer stock slide deepened, threatening a key plank of Beijing’s plan to overhaul the world’s No. 2 economy, the country’s premier pounded the table and demanded that regulators get their act together. Meeting with senior financial and economic officials in Beijing on July 4, Li Keqiang criticized them for failing to anticipate the severe market plunge, officials with knowledge of the gathering said. Then he urged them to act in a coordinated way to stanch the bleeding, these officials said. “I want strong measures to rescue the market,” ordered the usually mild-mannered premier, according to the officials. At the meeting were those in charge of China’s central bank, the country’s securities and banking regulatory agencies and the Finance Ministry. The regulators, who had previously acted in isolation and sometimes at cross-purposes, responded. China’s central bank unleashed a flood of money aimed at a state agency tasked with […]

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Natural Gas Pipeline from Iran to Iraq could be Ready in 20 Days

Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company says pipeline could be ready before the end of August Managing Director of the Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company Alireza Gharibi said the company finished testing 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) of pipeline that will run from Iran to neighboring Iraq. Gharibi said the company hopes to export natural gas to Iraq in 20 days, reports Iran’s PressTV . “At present, we are discharging water from the pipeline and after a few final tests, which will take to the end of this month, the pipeline will be ready for exports,” Gharibi was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s official SHANA news agency. Gharibi said that the first phase of the projects operations will have a capacity of 5 million cubic meters (Mcf/d) of gas to Iraq and the figure will rise after the completion of the Sixth Iranian Gas Trunkline (IGAT-6). […]

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Saudi energy consumption is highest in MENA

The widely reported fall in Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in May — the first time in five months — led many to assume that this may counter the fall in crude oil prices. This is not the case. To start with, the fall in Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports was reported by Saudi Arabia itself to the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI), a global organisation that includes Opec, IEA and many other energy organisations and individual nations. The fall in crude exports hides the rise in domestic refining and product exports in addition to the seasonal rise in direct crude oil burn for power generation. While Saudi Arabia’s production in May stood at 10.333 million barrels a day (mbd) slightly higher than April’s, its exports were 6.935 mbd, down from 7.737 mbd a month earlier, domestic refineries ran 2.4 mbd, up from 2.2 mbd in April and 20 […]

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Russia-Iran-Iraq: The Emerging Natural Gas Mini-OPEC

Iran’s natural gas stands in the mind of many as a question mark in the post-sanctions global ties with Tehran. President Obama said in mid-July that Moscow was very helpful in getting the negotiations with Iran to a fruitful conclusion. “I was not sure given the strong differences we are having with Russia right now around Ukraine, whether this (Russia’s role) would sustain itself. Putin and the Russian government compartmentalized on this in a way that surprised me, and we would have not achieved this agreement had it not been for Russia’s willingness to stick with us and the other P5-Plus members in insisting on a strong deal.”, the President said. But why would Russia do that? If Moscow supplies the EU with almost one third of its natural gas requirements, wouldn’t it be self-damaging to Moscow to introduce another seller to its preferred client in the West? Iran’s […]

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Nigeria: Country Lost Over N6.4 Trillion to Corruption-Ridden NNPC Oil Sales – NRGI Report

Nigerian would have been buoyant enough to finance its 2015 budget of N4.36 trillion and still pay off its external debts of N2.03 trillion if it had not lost more than that amount — $32 billion (N6.4 trillion at N200/$1) — to massive corruption that characterized oil sales by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation during the last administration, a new report has said. An independent investigative analysis by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) has revealed that over $32 billion oil revenue was lost to NNPC’s mismanagement of Domestic Crude Allocation (DCA), opaque revenue retention practices and corruption-ridden oil-for-product swap agreements. The report offered a deep, independent analysis of how NNPC sells its oil, and found that the national oil company’s discretionary spending from domestic crude oil sale revenues has skyrocketed, exceeding $6 billion a year for the 2011 to 2013 period (i.e. over $18 billion in three years). […]

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Oil-and-Gas Debt Deals Sting Investors

It is shaping up as a cruel summer for debt investors wagering on a rebound in the oil-and-gas business. The investments may still hold advantages for the funds, despite the sharp declines in oil-related securities in July. The deals generally were struck at terms advantageous to the funds, including giving some preferred treatment in any restructuring, reflecting the intense cash squeeze on many oil producers late last year. The investments appeared well timed earlier this year, when oil prices rebounded as much as 30% after a deep decline in 2014. July’s commodity tumble—front-month crude futures fell 21% last month and another 4.1% Monday, to $45.17 a barrel—has extended the pain already felt around the sector. Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM -1.45 % and Chevron Corp. CVX -3.25 % said Friday they are both slashing stock-buyback programs, while Linn Energy LINE -18.81 % LLC said last week it planned to stop […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple