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U.S. Moves to Block Russian Military Buildup in Syria

Photo Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia has expressed surprise at receiving a call Saturday from Secretary of State John Kerry warning Moscow not to expand its military role in Syria. Credit Yuri Kochetkov/European Pressphoto Agency WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday moved to head off preparations for a suspected Russian military buildup in Syria as Bulgaria agreed to an appeal from the Obama administration to shut its airspace to Russian transport planes. The planes’ destination was the Syrian port city of Latakia. The administration has also asked Greece to close its airspace to the Russian flights, Greek and American officials said, but Greece has not publicly responded to the request. The apparent Russian military preparations and the Obama administration’s attempt to block them have escalated long-running tensions between the White House and the Kremlin. Although the United States and Russia agree that the Islamic State is […]

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Norway’s DNO Gets Paid for Kurdish Oil Exports

By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland OSLO–Norwegian oil company DNO ASA (DNO.OS) confirmed Wednesday that it has received $30 million from the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan for oil exports from the Tawke field, boosting hopes that payments will happen on a regular basis. The regional government in Kurdistan said Monday it had authorized payouts of a total $75 million to exporting oil companies, following an announcement in August that it would start paying companies on a regular basis. The previous government payout to oil companies in the region for their exports was in December 2014. The Kurdistan government is struggling to cover its financial needs amid lower oil prices, but acknowledged that it’s unrealistic to expect international oil companies to keep producing and exporting oil at the current pace without predictable payment. Oil exports from Kurdistan are taken to the global market through a pipeline to Ceyhan, Turkey, and is […]

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Expectations of Saudi oil shake-up stir uncertainty

A view of the Khurais oilfield, about 160 km (99 miles) from Riyadh, June 23, 2008. A shake-up of Saudi Arabia’s oil leadership by King Salman has introduced a new element of unpredictability to its energy policymaking at a moment when Riyadh is grappling with slumping crude prices and its war in neighboring Yemen. State oil giant Aramco has been without a permanent chief executive since April, when Khalid al-Falih was made health minister, and the old Supreme Petroleum Council, where energy policy was historically made, was abolished in January. While the world’s top crude exporter has always prized stability and consistency in crafting oil policy, the changes, alongside a shift in market strategy that contributed to the world price slump, have left analysts and traders guessing as to King Salman’s long-term vision. The main tenets of Saudi oil policy – maintaining the ability to stabilize markets via an […]

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Q&A: PKK spokesperson Zagros Hiwa

PKK spokesperson Zagros Hiwa stands in a cemetery of hundreds of PKK fighters in the Qandil mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan on Nov. 6, 2014. (DANIEL W. SMITH/Iraq Oil Report) The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) does not intend to make further attacks on the pipeline carrying oil from Iraq to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.That was the message delivered by Zagros Hiwa, spokesperson for the PKK, who spoke to Iraq Oil Report in a series of phone and email interviews over the past week."I can assure everyone that HPG is not hostile against anything related to interests of our people in southern Kurdistan [Iraqi Kurdistan], and such attacks will not repeat," Hiwa said.Th… 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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Oil Ministry names two new company chiefs

The Nahr al-Umran gas refinery in northern Basra, July 17, 2009. (ATEF HASSAN/Reuters) Iraq’s Oil Ministry has named new directors general for the state-run South Refineries Company (SRC) and North Gas Company (NGC).*The senior deputy director general of the South Oil Company (SOC), Mahmoud Abdul Amir Hashim, will be the new director general at SRC, according to a Sept. 6 Oil Ministry decree seen by Iraq Oil Report and subsequently confirmed by SOC and SRC employees. Ahmed Fadhil Dehaim, previously the head of the SOC administrative board, will replace Hashim as deputy directo… 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 .

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Saudi-led offensive in Yemen faces dangerous new phase

Supporters of the Houthi rebel movement at a rally to protest a military offensive by the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s ousted president, Aug. 24, 2015, in Sanaa. Mohammed Huwais / AFP / Getty Images ADEN, Yemen — When young garage mechanic Aidaroos Saleh heard the familiar ping of his smartphone, he could never have imagined the journey on which the incoming message would take him. In a matter of weeks, Saleh, 22, went from fixing cars in his adopted country of Saudi Arabia to the battle front of his southern Yemen homeland. The message was an official communication, a call to arms for Yemenis in Saudi Arabia to join a fighting force that would “defend Aden” — the southern Yemeni city that descended into civil war in mid-March. Four months after he responded to the message in April, the young fighter sat cradling an AK-47 assault rifle between his […]

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Coalition strikes Yemen capital, more foreign troops reported arriving

A Saudi-led alliance launched more air strikes on Yemen’s capital and more foreign troops were reported to be moving into the country as the campaign to rout Houthi forces intensified. The Houthi-run state news agency Saba said that 15 citizens were killed and 77 were wounded in the attacks by warplanes on Sanaa. Medical sources said at least 15 civilians were killed in similar attacks on Monday. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the figures. The alliance, made up mainly of Gulf Arab countries, has increased air strikes on Sanaa and other parts of the country since Friday, when a Houthi missile attack killed at least 60 Saudi, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates soldiers at a military camp east of Sanaa. They were part of a force preparing to assault the capital, which the Iranian-allied Houthis seized last September. Friday’s attack was the deadliest yet for Gulf […]

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New IEA chief Birol calls for ‘partnership’ with China on first official trip

The then-chief economist of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol speaks during a question and answer session at the Oil & Money conference in London in this file photo taken on October 1, 2013. The International Energy Agency’s new chief called on Wednesday for a "greater partnership" between his organization and China, the world’s largest energy consumer, in his first official trip. Fatih Birol, who took over the top post at the Paris-based IEA this month, told an audience of Chinese officials and foreign diplomats in Beijing that a top priority during his four-year tenure will be to strengthen ties with emerging powers that are non-members. "China is at the top of the list," he said. China is the world’s second largest oil importer, although it has been challenging the United States more and more for the No.1 spot, with its crude buys and the strength of its demand […]

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Humbled by cheap oil, Continental Resources trims budget

Storage tanks stand on a Continental Resources oil production site near Williston, North Dakota January 23, 2015. Continental Resources Inc cut its 2015 budget for at least the third time on Tuesday, as it grapples with the reality of cheap crude, but North Dakota’s second-largest oil producer said it still expects double-digit production growth this year. Founder and Chief Executive Harold Hamm canceled all of Continental’s oil hedges last fall after calling OPEC leader Saudi Arabia a "toothless tiger" in a bet that a price rebound would soon materialize. But no such sustained rebound has yet occurred, forcing thousands of layoffs across the oil industry and leading many of Continental’s peers to curb their own spending. Globally, oil companies have cut their budgets by about 20 percent this year, analysts at Barclays, the investment bank, said on Tuesday. But U.S. output has stayed quite resilient thanks to a rise […]

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Shell confirms has canceled Westward Ho pipeline project

Shell’s company logo is pictured at a gas station in Zurich April 8, 2015. BG Group’s bonds traded up strongly on Wednesday on the back of Royal Dutch Shell’s US$70bn offer to buy the UK firm. Royal Dutch Shell shelved its Louisiana-to-Texas Westward Ho pipeline after years of delays, reductions in scope and after other new pipelines began flowing, a spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday. "After a thorough review and as a result of changing market conditions, Shell Pipeline Company LP has decided to not proceed with the proposed Westward Ho Pipeline project," spokeswoman Kimberly Windon said. Proposed in 2011 at a top capacity of 900,000 barrels per day, Shell said Westward Ho would move Gulf of Mexico and imported crudes from the St. James, Louisiana oil hub to Houston. The leg between Nederland, Texas and Houston would move up to 500,000 bpd, and the entire project was targeted to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple