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OPEC is winning battle to stimulate gasoline demand: Kemp

The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, August 21, 2015. OPEC’s bid to curb production of high-cost oil is taking time to produce results but the organization is already making good progress on its other objective of stimulating fuel demand. In the first half of the year, gasoline deliveries into U.S. local markets jumped by 4.3 percent compared with the same period in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The United States is the world’s largest gasoline consumer and its gasoline demand accounts for 10 percent of all crude and condensates produced worldwide. In the first six months of 2015, U.S. gasoline consumption rose at the fastest rate since 1985 – another occasion on which the real price of oil halved over 12 months and stimulated demand ( link.reuters.com/xux65w ). U.S. gasoline sales have fallen […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iran Sees Oil Exports Starting to Rise as Early as Late November

GENEVA—Iran expects to be able to increase its oil exports by 500,000 barrels a day by late November or early December with sales to Asia, a top Iranian oil official said Thursday, even before most western sanctions would lift. By mid-2016, Iran expects that its exports will exceed today’s by 1 million barrels a day under that scenario, said Ali Kardor, the chief of investment for the National Iranian Oil Company. “We are ready,” Mr. Kardor said, speaking on the sidelines of a conference here in Geneva promoting business ties between Europe and Iran. The timeline laid out by Mr. Kardor is faster than many analysts and market participants believe Iran is capable of achieving. Iran has been the target of crippling sanctions from much of the western world since 2012 over the Persian Gulf country’s attempts to create a nuclear program. Persian Gulf members of the Organization of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC’s Family Feud

Photo illustration: 731; Photographs: Alamy When Venezuelan Oil Minister Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso resigned in 1963, he blasted the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, at the time torn by internal rivalries, for failing to produce any benefits for his country. Half a century later, OPEC is still split and Venezuela is again unhappy, this time at the unwillingness of the organization’s top producer, Saudi Arabia, to rescue oil prices from a six-year low that’s dragging the battered Venezuelan economy into an even deeper crisis. On Sept. 10, Venezuela’s oil minister, Eulogio del Pino, tweeted appeals for OPEC and non-OPEC countries “to have a discussion on fair prices, minimum prices to ensure sustainability” and to “overcome our differences of opinion.” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on Sept. 16 that he was making progress on organizing a summit of petroleum exporting countries to have that discussion. OPEC member Algeria is backing […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC focuses on rival mega projects, lives with shale swing output

The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, August 21, 2015. After almost a year of painfully low oil prices, OPEC members are beginning to believe they are winning against upstart U.S. shale producers in a short-term market share contest. Yet insiders and experts say OPEC is looking for a longer-lasting impact on other high-cost production oil field plans, many in deep oceans, with bigger time scales, even if that means a period of cheap oil prices lasting for years. Privately, OPEC’s core Gulf members say they have resigned themselves to the idea that the U.S. shale industry’s high-tech flexibility means it will respond quickly when prices start rising again, making the United States the new swing producer in world oil, the role held for so long by Saudi Arabia. "The oil surplus is slowly being drawn from […]

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We Should Have Seen This Refugee Crisis Coming

There are some things we can never know: The grief of a Syrian father as he finds his three-year-old son lifeless on the beach; how it feels to leave your home and community behind in the dark of night, knowing you may never return, with nothing but the need to keep your family safe from harm. But we should be able to know when and where the next migration will occur. We should be able to predict how many people it will affect and the impact on surrounding areas. We have the technology—right here, right now—to create a new, agile, insightful model that will predict mass migrations and help us better serve displaced families even before they are displaced. We can do all this now. And we must. Over the past few weeks I have watched along with the rest of the world as the refugee crisis reached a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC sees oil prices returning to $80/barrel by 2020

The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, August 21, 2015. OPEC forecasters expect oil prices will rise by no more than $5 a barrel a year to reach $80 by 2020, with a slowing in rival non-OPEC production growth not enough to absorb the current oil glut, according to OPEC sources. The sources said the figures came from an updated mid-term strategy report discussed this week by representatives from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, which has yet to be fully endorsed by OPEC ministers. The report forecasts that non-OPEC supply would amount to 58.2 million barrels per day by 2017, some 1 million barrels per day lower than in the previous forecast. That effectively means OPEC will have to supply the world with 1 million extra barrels per day – good news […]

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IEA: Age of LNG in question

International Energy Agency says short-term planning may jeopardize growth in the LNG industry. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI TOKYO, Sept. 16 (UPI) — Short-term planning from energy policymakers might keep liquefied natural gas off the global stage, the IEA director said during a visit to Tokyo. "If it can compete, then there is a great chance for gas to become a major and relatively clean contributor to energy security," Fatih Birol , the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said during a speech from Japan. "But the current low prices provide only a temporary window of opportunity — an opportunity that policy makers and the industry must seize." The IEA said liquefied natural gas, a super-cooled and denser product with more deliverability options, represents "a golden opportunity" for Asian economies. Asian demand for natural gas is expected to grow steadily through the end of the decade, according to […]

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OPEC’s new medium-term forecasts show higher demand for its oil: delegates

The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, August 21, 2015. OPEC’s new medium-term forecasts point to higher demand for the group’s oil, OPEC delegates said, a sign that its strategy of letting prices fall is discouraging supplies from competing producers. The forecasts, to be published in OPEC’s World Oil Outlook later this year, are expected to be discussed on Thursday during the second day of a meeting of OPEC’s national representatives taking place at its Vienna headquarters. "The new medium-term numbers show a higher demand for OPEC crude," said one OPEC delegate, who added that oil prices are assumed to be lower than previously. "There is an impact on higher-cost producers." OPEC’s 2014 World Oil Outlook expected demand for its oil to fall to 28.50 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2016 from 30 million bpd in […]

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Venezuelan leader says to travel to push for OPEC, non-OPEC meeting

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday he would travel shortly to seek support for his push for a summit between OPEC and non-OPEC producers on lower oil prices. Maduro has lobbied for months for an emergency meeting and coordination with non-OPEC nations, but OPEC’s Middle East producers have pledged to maintain high output in a fight to defend market share against rising competition. This week Maduro reiterated calls for action within OPEC and beyond OPEC, mentioning controls on output and price bands. "Probably in coming days I will travel to reinforce work to achieve this historic summit between OPEC producers and non-OPEC producers," Maduro said after a four-hour televised broadcast. His calls for action come as Venezuelan oil prices, which averaged $41.08 last week, exacerbate a dire economic crisis that has goods ranging from cancer medication to car batteries in short supply, while raging inflation slams purchasing power […]

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OPEC says the world will want more of its oil next year

The logo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is pictured at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, August 21, 2015. OPEC on Monday predicted higher demand for its crude oil next year, sticking to its view that a strategy of letting prices fall will tame the U.S. shale boom and cut a global surplus. The monthly report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also said a weaker outlook for China would contribute to slower global oil demand growth next year. "U.S. oil production has shown signs of slowing," OPEC said in the report. "This could contribute to a reduction in the imbalance of oil market fundamentals, however, it remains to be seen to what extent this can be achieved in the months to come." OPEC said it expected demand for its crude next year to average 30.31 million barrels per day (bpd), up 190,000 bpd […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple