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Shell’s $7.4 Billion Loss Raises Stakes for CEO’s Big Takeover

Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s worst loss in at least 16 years has further stoked concerns about the wisdom of buying BG Group Plc. For now at least, investors are still giving Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden the benefit of the doubt. Europe’s biggest oil company said it will press ahead with its largest-ever acquisition even as the worsening outlook for energy prices contributed to asset writedowns of almost $8 billion. Van Beurden said in July that BG Group’s assets including Australian natural gas plants and Brazilian oil fields would add to Shell’s cash flow with crude at $67 a barrel in 2016, a position he declined to repeat Thursday. “He’s walking a thin line — a lot of investors believe the BG deal would be dilutive for Shell at these oil prices rather than accretive,” Philip Lawlor, a strategist at Smith & Williamson Investment Management LLP in London, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Prices Pare Earlier Gains; Fed Rate Move Eyed

Crude-oil prices edged lower in Asia trade Thursday as traders take profits after the overnight surge on Wall Street driven by a smaller-than-expected crude stockpile growth in the U.S. However, fear of a possible interest-rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve at the December meeting is deterring big bets, analysts said. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $45.73 a barrel at 4:03 a.m. GMT, down $0.21 in the Globex electronic session. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.23 to $48.82 a barrel. “As much as market pressures could influence the Fed to hike rates, we would think this could happen as long as the U.S. economy does not deteriorate any further,” said Daniel Ang, a Phillip Futures energy analyst, adding the U.S. third-quarter growth data, scheduled for release later today, will be indicative of the Fed’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Crude oil futures hold gains after Fed sits pat on rates, inventory build

A pump jack operates at a well site leased by Devon Energy Production Company near Guthrie, Oklahoma September 15, 2015. Crude futures held on to strong gains in early Asian trading on Thursday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged and a weekly government report on oil stockpiles showed an inventory build that was within expectations. U.S. and global oil benchmarks were little changed, having jumped on Wednesday after the government report on inventory build reversed earlier bearish market expectations. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were down 7 cents at $45.87 a barrel at 0100 GMT. They rose more than 6 percent on Wednesday, snapping three days of losses. Brent crude LCOc1 was down 15 cents at $48.90 a barrel, after rising nearly 5 percent in the previous session. U.S. crude stocks rose last week, while gasoline and distillate inventories fell more than expected, data from the Energy Information […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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‘Too Low’ Crude Prices Seen Rising to $80 in 2018 by Statoil

Statoil is Norway’s No. 1 oil and gas producer. Crude prices that have almost halved in the past year are unsustainable at current levels as cuts to investments and postponement of projects will lead to a decline in supply growth, according to Norway’s biggest oil company. “We think that the price level now is too low,” Eirik Waerness, chief economist and vice-president at Statoil ASA, said in an interview in Singapore on Thursday. “Some people will stop exploring for oil. With oil prices around $50, you get a stimulus for demand growth. That will tighten the market.” Crude is expected to climb to $80 a barrel in 2018 and increase gradually after that as existing supplies get used up, he said. Oil slumped more than 44 percent in the past year as U.S. stockpiles expanded at a time when OPEC producers bolstered output to retain market share, exacerbating a […]

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Iran to take a seat among world powers for Syria talks

AP Photo/Craig Ruttle Latest Syria News Iran to take a seat among world powers for Syria talks Iran to attend international talks on Syria’s future Russia pounds Syrian rebels, then reaches out to opposition Official: Iran has sent more military advisers to Syria UN: At least 120,000 displaced in Syria in past month var mytd = document.getElementById(‘mytd’); var mydiv = document.getElementById(‘spnrefmoneymarkets’); if (mytd != null) {mytd.innerHTML = spnrefmoneymarkets.innerHTML; mydiv.innerHTML = ”}; BEIRUT (AP) — Iran will take part in international talks on Syria for the first time this week, giving it a voice in the effort to find a resolution to the more than 4-year-old civil war that has so far defied even the slightest progress toward peace. A crucial backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Tehran has been shunned from all previous talks on Syria. Its inclusion now marks recognition by the United States that no discussion on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.N. targets thousands in vaccination drive against cholera in Iraq

The WHO said the first doses of the vaccine are expected to be administered in the next few days in response to the outbreak which has infected 2,055 people since mid-September (File Photo: AP) The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching a campaign to vaccinate 255,000 people against cholera in Iraq over the next month, in a bid to contain the country’s first major cholera outbreak since 2012, the U.N. agency said. The WHO said the first doses of the vaccine are expected to be administered in the next few days in response to the outbreak which has infected 2,055 people since mid-September. The illness, first detected in Baghdad’s western outskirts, has spread throughout the country, mainly affecting Iraqis who have been forced from their homes and Syrian refugees. The WHO said cholera has killed two people so far, although the Iraqi health ministry said last week it has […]

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New details of KRG oil deals reveal latent risks

Workers measure the pressure at the Central Processing Facility at the Tawke oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. (SEBASTIAN MEYER/Metrography/Iraq Oil Report) When the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) decided to walk away from an oil deal with Baghdad, in June, it gambled that it could generate a more stable revenue stream – and help remedy a crippling financial crisis – by exporting all of its oil independently.But four months later, new details of the KRG’s independent oil exports reveal a tenuous financial situation. While the KRG Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has increased the region’s overall income, it is also accumulating billions … 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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How Climate Change Is Threatening Iraq’s Fragile Security

Iraqi protesters chant slogans as they wave national flags during a demonstration against corruption in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, October 16, 2015. In a telling exchange during the first Democratic primary presidential debate earlier this month, the candidates were asked to articulate the greatest threat to US national security. “It’s certainly the chaos in the Middle East,” answered Lincoln Chafee, the former senator and governor of Rhode Island who later dropped out of the race. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders responded to the question by citing the “global crisis of climate change.” Whether you agree with either candidate’s assessment, it’s a mistake to talk about global conflict and climate change without highlighting how the two phenomena are inextricably linked. Extreme weather and resource scarcity exacerbated by climate change are worsening the effects of war, from the Middle East to sub-Saharan Africa, with civilians often bearing the brunt of […]

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Cholera spreading in Iraq, suspected case reported in Syria – UN health agency

WHO is mobilizing 510,000doses of oral cholera vaccine to help control the cholera outbreak among high-risk groups. Photo: UN OCHA Iraq 27 October 2015 – The World Health Organization ( WHO ) announced today that it would start vaccine treatments for cholera beginning this weekend to prevent further outbreaks in Iraq, where the disease has now been confirmed in 15 out of 18 governorates, while the agency also reported a suspected case was also found in northern Syria. WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told the regular press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, that the latest laboratory tests had confirmed 1,942 cases and two deaths in 15 out of 18 governorates in Iraq. “On 31 October, WHO will begin, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, the oral cholera vaccine treatment, and will use 510,000 of the global stock pile to ensure that 255,000 internally displaced persons and refugees in the affected […]

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How A Lone Oil Rig Embodies the Brazil Boom That Never Was

Oil majors had big plans for Brazil, but you can’t tell by looking at the country’s offshore drilling these days. After crude was first struck in the pre-salt formation in the seas off Rio de Janeiro, producers including BP Plc and Total SA were ready to flock to Brazil with billions of dollars in investments. For the country, it appeared to augur an unprecedented era of oil bounty. Nine years later, the promise remains unrealized: Spain’s Repsol SA and China Petrochemical Corp. are the only foreigners operating an offshore drilling rig. So what happened? While the crude-price collapse and an ongoing graft probe are part of the story, Brazilian officials who failed to auction enough exploration licenses and slowed approvals with miles of red tape were also major contributors to the boom that never came to be, according to Joao Carlos de Luca, a member of the IBP lobby […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple