Category:

Russia Plays Down Threat of Low-Priced Saudi Oil Sales to Europe

PlayCurrent Time 0:00/Duration Time 0:00Remaining Time -0:00Stream TypeLIVELoaded: 0%Progress: 0%00:00Fullscreen00:00MutePlayback Rate1Subtitles subtitles off Captions captions settings captions off Chapters Chapters No compatible source was found for this video.Foreground—WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan—OpaqueSemi-OpaqueBackground—WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan—OpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindow—WhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyan—OpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyDefaultMonospace SerifProportional SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional Sans-SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsDefaultsDonexShare & EmbedCopy CodeAdvertisement Oil and Gas Outlook: What’s Ahead in 2016? Russian officials said Saudi Arabia won’t be able to maintain the discounted crude prices offered to refiners in Eastern Europe as the nation toned down its criticism of oil shipments from the biggest OPEC producer. Saudi Arabia has priced its oil at a six-year low for Europe after starting to ship crude to traditional Russian markets such as Poland. The discounted crude “is a temporary situation and it won’t work for a long period,” Nikolay Tokarev, chief executive officer of Russia’s state-run oil pipeline operator, Transneft OJSC, said in an interview on Friday. Oil executives in Russia, which ships almost 70 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Large-scale MENA oil investment must continue to sustain industry: Naimi

Arab oil producers will need about $700 billion in financing for petroleum sector projects over the next 10 years to assure the sustainability of the Middle East and North Africa region’s key industrial sector, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said Thursday. Forecasting a continued rising trend in global oil demand to the tune of about 1 million b/d, despite the current market oversupply and sluggish world economic growth, Ali al-Naimi said annual depletion from producing fields was running at about 4 million b/d. He calculated that the petroleum industry would need to add 5 million b/d of new production every year to satisfy future demand. "This needs financial solutions at the Arab and international level. Investment should include all the phases of production and manufacturing," he said during a keynote speech at the Apicorp Energy Forum in Bahrain. In the context of the sustained slump in oil prices since mid-2014, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudi Minister Calls for More Investment in Oil Production

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi at a conference in Riyadh last month. MANAMA, Bahrain—Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi on Thursday called for more investment in petroleum production, warning that new output was needed this decade as global demand grows annually by more than a million barrels a day. Mr. Naimi, one of the most influential figures in the global petroleum industry, said the investments had to be made despite a precipitous drop in the price of crude oil, which is down more than 60% from highs of $114 a barrel in 2014. About $200 billion in new oil and gas projects have been delayed or canceled this year because of the drop in prices, according to Wood Mackenzie, the Scottish consultancy. Mr. Naimi said oil production capacity across the world would drop by about four million barrels a day each year. With demand growing steadily, he said, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudi Oil Minister Says OPEC With Others to Stabilize Market

Saudi Arabia is working with other OPEC members and producers from outside the group to stabilize the market, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said. The world economy is going through an unstable situation, al-Naimi said. Crude demand is expected to rise by 1 million barrels a day every year in this decade, and the world requires more investments in oil to compensate for decline rates, he said. The decline rate of recovery at the world’s oil fields is at about 4 million barrels a day, he said. “Saudi Arabia is a very reliable supplier. We cooperate with OPEC and non-OPEC countries to stabilize the market,” al-Naimi said at a conference in Manama, Bahrain. “We need billions of dollars to continue exploration and producing oil and to invest in spare capacity to stabilize the market.” Threatened by surging production mainly from North America and Russia, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudis Planning For A War Of Attrition In Europe With Russia’s Oil Industry

« Quanergy Systems to introduce solid-state LiDAR in 2016 | Main | BioAg Alliance targeting 250-500 million acres globally by 2025 for microbial tech » by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com Russia’s central bank recently warned about the growing financial risks to the Russian economy from Saudi Arabia encroaching upon its traditional export market for crude oil. Russia sends 70 percent of its oil to Europe, but Saudi Arabia has been making inroads in the European market amid the oil price downturn. The result is a heavier discount for Russia’s crude oil, the so-called Urals blend. Bloomberg reported that the Urals typically lands in Rotterdam, a major European destination, at a discount to Brent of around $2 or less. But the discount has widened to $3.50 lately due to increased competition from Saudi Arabia. “Oil supplies to Europe from Saudi Arabia are probably adversely affecting Urals prices,” the Russian central […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

U.S. Approves Sale of Smart Bombs to Saudi Arabia

The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of $1.29 billion in smart bombs to Saudi Arabia to help replenish supplies used in its battle against insurgents in Yemen and air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, the Pentagon said on Monday. The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which facilitates foreign arms sales, notified lawmakers on Friday that the sales had been approved, it said in a statement. The lawmakers now have 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare since deals are carefully vetted before any formal notification. The sales reflect President Barack Obama’s pledge to bolster U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia and other Sunni allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council after his administration brokered a nuclear deal with their Shiite rival Iran. The agency said the sale would help the Royal Saudi Air Force’s (RSAF) replenish weapons supplies that are becoming depleted […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

The Looming Bankruptcy Of Saudi Arabia

There’s two interesting little stories in this idea that Saudi Arabia is going to go bust in a couple of years as a result of the sagging oil price. Both are more general economic ideas than just the story of that oil price. The first is that mono-anything in economics is something we don’t really like. We certainly don’t like either monopolies or monopsonies, but we should also be very careful of an economy that relies on any one product or even supplier. The perils of resting an entire economy on the production of just the one commodity should be obvious here. But the same could and should be said about reliance upon any one supplier in an economy as well. We want diversity, always, of producers and suppliers. The second is that this is an object lesson in why most economists don’t really believe in the idea of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Yemen is turning into Saudi Arabia’s Vietnam

Fighters loyal to Yemen’s government celebrate after receiving three armored personnel carriers from the United Arab Emirates in the southwestern city of Taiz. (Reuters) BEIRUT — Eight months after launching a war in Yemen, Saudi Arabia appears trapped in a protracted and devastating conflict that is straining relations with its allies, intensifying internal power struggles and emboldening its regional rival, Iran, analysts say. Since March, the key U.S. ally has led a coalition of mostly Gulf Arab countries and Yemeni fighters in a military campaign to drive out Iranian-aligned rebels who seized the capital, Sanaa, and swaths of the Arabian Peninsula country. But the coalition appears increasingly hobbled by divisions and unable to find a face-saving way to end the costly conflict. The rebels, known as Houthis, still control much of Yemen’s north. And in southern areas where the coalition has driven them out, lawlessness has spread as attacks […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Saudi Arabia’s manifesto for change in the face of rumours of coup plots

In rare public statement, advisers to all-powerful Prince Mohammed bin Salman tell Telegraph of plans for opening up country’s economy and society Saudi Arabia has issued a manifesto for change in the face of rumours of coup plots and international pressure, ranging from economic reform to the role of women and allowing human rights groups into the country. At a time when the country’s internal politics are under more scrutiny than at any time for decades, close advisers to the new King Salman and his powerful son have taken the unprecedented step of outlining a detailed programme of its future government to The Telegraph. It amounts to a Thatcherite programme of budget cuts, increasing the role of the private sector, and reforms to the way the kingdom is governed. It obliquely acknowledges that radical changes in the royal family since the king acceded to the throne in January, including […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple