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Aramco Said to Name New Asia Head Amid OPEC’s Share Fight

Aramco sold 53.8 percent of its crude to Asian customers, according to its 2013 annual review. Source: MyLoupe/UIG via Getty Images Saudi Arabia , the largest oil exporter, is seeking to build crude sales and expand in Asia as OPEC producers fight for market share in the U.S. Ibrahim al-Buainain, formerly in charge of Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s global energy investments, was appointed head of Saudi Aramco’s Asian operations, based in Beijing, according to three people who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak to the media. The company, known as Saudi Aramco, didn’t respond immediately to an e-mail seeking comment about the appointment. Aramco Asia will become a holding company and run all of Aramco’s ventures in the region, the people said. Global oil prices slid into a bear market last month on speculation that the biggest producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Flexing Met With Crickets by U.S. Shale Frackers

Saudi Arabia’s rivals in the shale fields from North Dakota to Texas aren’t flinching as the Persian Gulf kingdom wages a price war to reclaim market share and chill competition. The U.S. companies believe they have a lot more staying power than many of Saudi Arabia’s partners in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC. Several producers plan on increasing production. “Saudi Arabia is really taking a big gamble here,” Archie Dunham, chairman of shale producer Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) , said during a telephone interview. “If they take the price down to $60 or $70 a barrel, you will see a slowdown in the U.S. But you’re not going to see it stop. The consequences for other OPEC countries are far more dire.” The decline of global benchmark Brent crude, touching a four-year low yesterday, added to market jitters as Saudi Arabia prepares to meet with its […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Arabia Takes Action After Shiites Are Attacked

Saudi Arabian security officials moved aggressively on Tuesday to crush an outbreak of anti-Shiite violence, arresting 15 people in six cities and killing two others in connection with what the Interior Ministry called a terrorist ambush on mosque worshipers in a minority Shiite community. At least two security officers were killed and two wounded in the crackdown on the suspected mosque assailants, who were armed with pistols and machine guns, the Interior Ministry and government-run Saudi news media reported. The mosque ambush, which occurred Monday night and left at least five people dead, came as Shiites, who are a small minority in heavily Sunni Saudi Arabia , were celebrating the eve of Ashura, one of the most sacred holidays in the Shiite branch of Islam. The identities of the assailants and their affiliations were not disclosed. But the ambush raised speculation that Saudi-born Sunni jihadists who had joined Islamic […]

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Saudi Arabia Signals It Will Let Oil Slide Further, FACTS Says

Saudi Arabia , the world’s biggest oil exporter, is telling the market it won’t cut output to lift crude back to $100 a barrel and that prices must fall further before it does so, according to consultant FACTS Global Energy. Swelling supplies from non-OPEC producers drove Brent crude into a bear market on Oct. 8 amid waning demand from China , the world’s second-largest importer. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets Nov. 27 to consider changing its production target in the face of the highest U.S. crude output in almost 30 years. “Production of shale oil in the U.S. will not be hit as hard as the Saudis think” by the price decline, FGE Chairman Fereidun Fesharaki said at a conference today in Doha, Qatar. Producers in the U.S. “can withstand a lot of pressure” by reining in their operating costs before they curb investment in new wells […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudis Cut Crude Prices to U.S. in December Amid Shale Boom

Print Back to story Saudi Arabian Oil Co. lowered the cost of its crude to the U.S., where production is the highest in three decades, deepening a selloff that sent prices to the lowest in more two years. The state-owned producer, known as Saudi Aramco, lowered the premium for Arab Light relative to U.S. Gulf Coast benchmarks by 45 cents a barrel to the smallest since December. medium and heavy grades were also down 45 cents and extra light oil 50 cents. Aramco increased the cost to Asia and Europe. Swelling supplies from producers outside OPEC drove oil prices into a bear market last month as global demand growth slowed. Middle Eastern producers are increasingly competing with cargoes from Latin America, North Africa and Russia for buyers, as well as with U.S. production that has jumped 54 percent in the past three years. “The Saudi move speaks to them […]

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Saudi attack raises fears of Isis overspill

Gunmen killed five people in the restive eastern province of Saudi Arabia , prompting fears of a rise in sectarian violence as the Gulf kingdom grapples with the threat of domestic Sunni Islamist extremism. The state news agency reported that another nine people had been wounded in the attack late on Monday in al-Dalwah, a town in the al-Ahsa governorate, a major population centre for the Shia minority of the Sunni-ruled monarchy. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the aftermath of the attack, which apparently took place as worshippers left a Shia religious building. Shia are this week celebrating Ashura, commemorating the death of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson in a battle that led to the 1,300-year-old schism between Shia and Sunni Islam. The 10-day religious festival often attracts inter-communal violence. The attack comes as Saudi Arabia, a member of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in […]

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No Guarantee Saudis to Repeat Price Cut That Drove Oil Lower

Asian traders are split on whether Saudi Arabia will deepen the crude price cuts that propelled oil into a bear market this month. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will announce official selling prices for supplies to buyers in Asia for December next week after cutting prices to the lowest in almost six years for a month earlier. The world’s biggest oil exporter will further discount supplies, according to seven respondents in a Bloomberg survey of traders. Six people forecast prices to be unchanged and two predict an increase. Saudi Arabia’s decision may signal whether the biggest producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will offer bigger discounts to defend market share as the highest U.S. output in three decades boosts global supplies. After the most recent price cut on Oct. 1, Brent crude tumbled 9 percent and West Texas Intermediate slumped 11 percent amid speculation that OPEC won’t […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple