Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Natural Gas Stocks Are Poised to Explode - 03/10/14
http://www.thestreet.com/story/1551291/1/natural-gas-stocks-are-poised-to-explode.html
Natural Gas Stocks Are Poised to Explode - 03/10/14
http://www.thestreet.com/story/1551291/1/natural-gas-stocks-are-poised-to-explode.html
GOP Rep. Poe introduces bill to expedite natural gas exports amid Ukraine crisis
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/03/05/gop-rep-poe-introduces-bill-to-expedite-natural-gas-exports-amid-ukraine-crisis/
GOP Rep. Poe introduces bill to expedite natural gas exports amid Ukraine crisis
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/03/05/gop-rep-poe-introduces-bill-to-expedite-natural-gas-exports-amid-ukraine-crisis/
This is a big deal to all NG stocks.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-04/ukraine-seen-building-support-for-u-s-natural-gas-export.html
This is a big deal to all NG stocks.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-04/ukraine-seen-building-support-for-u-s-natural-gas-export.html
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/26/these-stocks-have-massive-upside-to-natural-gas.aspx
Load up on the pennies in this sector.....................
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/26/these-stocks-have-massive-upside-to-natural-gas.aspx
Load up on the pennies in this sector.....................
Hold tight for April.................
This explains the strange action in natural gas
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101445386
Hold tight for April.................
This explains the strange action in natural gas
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101445386
Natural Gas Stocks Unshaken by Debate Over Policy
U.S. natural gas has been a hot topic in discussions lately, especially in the wake of President Obama's State of the Union address. Politicians, news reporters, and practically everyone with whom I've come in contact seem to hold quite strong opinions on the matter. And that's fine. But, even amid all the clamor and noise, natural gas-related companies are still moving full steam ahead—and seemingly in the right direction.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/24/natural-gas-stocks-unshaken-by-policy-debate.aspx
Natural Gas Stocks Unshaken by Debate Over Policy
U.S. natural gas has been a hot topic in discussions lately, especially in the wake of President Obama's State of the Union address. Politicians, news reporters, and practically everyone with whom I've come in contact seem to hold quite strong opinions on the matter. And that's fine. But, even amid all the clamor and noise, natural gas-related companies are still moving full steam ahead—and seemingly in the right direction.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/24/natural-gas-stocks-unshaken-by-policy-debate.aspx
Starting to move. My guess is it will not be at .02 for long.
A $400 gas bill? It’s on its way.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/24/a-400-gas-bill-its-on-its-way/
A $400 gas bill? It’s on its way.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/24/a-400-gas-bill-its-on-its-way/
Hedge Fund Natural Gas Wagers Jump on Tumbling Supplies: Energy
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-23/hedge-fund-natural-gas-wagers-jump-on-tumbling-supplies-energy
Polar Vortex to Make Encore Performance Midwest, East
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/frigid-air-to-clutch-midwest-east/23498242
Polar Vortex to Make Encore Performance Midwest, East
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/frigid-air-to-clutch-midwest-east/23498242
Gulf Coast set for Bakken-like boom with liquefied natural gas
http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2013120095&recNum=256&tab=Drawings&maxRec=117390&office=&prevFilter=&sortOption=&queryString=vibration
Gulf Coast set for Bakken-like boom with liquefied natural gas
http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2013120095&recNum=256&tab=Drawings&maxRec=117390&office=&prevFilter=&sortOption=&queryString=vibration
Oil, gas lease sales soar through roof
11:22 AM MDT Thursday
Not only did the State Land Office's 2006 fiscal year oil and gas leases sales exceed 2005's $41 million, it set an all time record, $57.5 million. The previous record of $57.3 million was set a quarter of a century ago, in 1981.
"The Land Office has had a tremendous year and we expect to exceed all revenue estimates across the board," stated Patrick H. Lyons, the state commissioner of public lands, in a prepared statement from his office.
At the June 20 lease session, sales totaled $5,829,151 for 50 tracts encompassing 13,896 acres of state trust lands. The state's entire monthly inventory was sold.
Chalfant Properties Inc. of Midland, Texas turned in the highest sealed bid of $378,151 for 319 acres in Lea County north of Tatum, New Mexico. The highest oral bid was from Continental Land Resources LLC of Roswell. It paid $710,000 for 320 acres of state trust lands in Eddy County southwest of Artesia.
Sales take place the third Tuesday of each month in the State Land Office in Santa Fe. The monthly sale, managed by the agency, is conducted like an auction. Potential buyers submit sealed bids for specific plots prior to the sale date, or oral bids during the auction. Land put up for bid at the event is first nominated for lease by industry or state officials and then approved for the lease sale by the land office. The State Land Office manages all of New Mexico's state trust lands.
The Oil, Gas and Minerals Division of the state agency manages 9,800 oil and gas leases covering 3.1 million acres of mineral estate held in trust for public education, state universities, hospitals, the penitentiary and water projects. The State Land Office manages 13 million mineral acres and nine million surface acres of state trust lands.
Doji One Kenobi
Oil Prices Climb on Gasoline Jitters
By MADLEN READ , 06.22.2006, 01:34 PM
Oil prices rose for the second straight day on Thursday as fuel demand appeared to remain strong and U.S. refineries encountered some minor obstacles.
The ongoing tension between the West and Iran has also lent support to the energy markets, which rose a day earlier after the U.S. government reported a smaller-than-expected build in gasoline supplies at a time when refineries are boosting production for the summer driving season.
"We could be peaking in inventories of gasoline," said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York. "Combine that with any kind of refinery glitches or any kind of weather outages or strike, or you name it - the market is going to be extra sensitive."
He noted that small refinery issues - notably Exxon's Baytown refinery having problems restarting earlier this week, and an oil spill in a Louisiana channel affecting some refinery operations - also encouraged traders to buy.
Those problems, coupled with geopolitical tension and the possibility that imports could slow as other parts of the world see strong fuel demand, have inflated prices to current levels.
"It's a lot of ifs, but the stage is set for the inventories to peak, demand to kick in for the summer driving season, and the correction we had in prices could be over," Bentz said.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose 22 cents to $70.55 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gasoline futures for July rose 2.4 cents to $2.009 per gallon.
July heating oil futures rose more than a cent to $1.9510 a gallon, while natural gas futures slipped 10.8 cents to $6.48 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The build in U.S. gasoline inventories was 300,000 barrels, significantly lower than the 1.12 million barrel increase expected by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. Gasoline inventories are now at 213.4 million barrels, about 1 percent below year-ago levels.
But crude inventories rose 1.4 million barrels to 347.1 million barrels in the week ended June 16, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, at their highest level since May 1998.
Inventories of distillate fuels, which includes heating oil, jet fuel, diesel fuel and kerosene, rose by 1.7 million barrels to 124.5 million barrels, more than 8 percent above year-ago levels.
Refineries are trying to boost gasoline output in preparation for the U.S. July Fourth holiday, when demand rises as Americans travel. But analysts have noted that plant capacity has been reduced due to the damage from last year's hurricanes to Gulf of Mexico coast refineries.
The average U.S. retail price of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline is $2.849, down less than a cent from a day earlier, the AAA reported Thursday.
The mood in the energy markets has seesawed in recent weeks as traders try to gauge from the verbal sparring between Iran and the West the possibility of Iran - the world's fourth-largest oil producer and exporter - halting exports.
On Wednesday, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said his country will take until mid-August to respond to incentives to roll back its nuclear program, prompting U.S. President George W. Bush to accuse Tehran of dragging its feet. A mid-August response would come more than two months after the presentation of the package of incentives, the cornerstone of attempts to resume deadlocked negotiations over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said after meeting with Iran's foreign minister that he believes Tehran is taking the incentives package "very seriously," and that Iran's response will not come before mid-July, at least two weeks past the date sought by the U.S. and its partners.
Traders are also jittery about volatility in oil-producing countries.
In Nigeria - the world's 12th-largest oil producer and eighth-largest oil exporter - unidentified gunmen on Tuesday kidnapped two Filipino oil-industry employees of Petroleum Geo-Services, an Oslo, Norway-based oil-field services company.
In Norway - the world's seventh-largest oil producer and third-largest oil exporter - an oil service strike that began Wednesday threatens production.
Doji One Kenobi
Strike could lift oil price
A strike by oilfield service workers could halt a large part of drilling operations off Norway in the next week or two and drive up already high oil prices.
Oil service strike - 21.06.2006
The industry said it could affect output if it dragged on. The Norwegian Shipowners' Association, which represents the rig owners, said in a statement three rigs had already been taken out of operation and added that 10-12 drilling projects could be stopped in the course of the next week or two.
"This will also affect oil and gas production on the Norwegian continental shelf because the drilling includes production wells," the association said.
"This can have an influence on already high oil prices and on the Norwegian shelf's reputation as a stable supplier and interesting area for investment," it said.
Eighty-seven members of the NOPEF oil workers' union began a strike on Wednesday after pay talks failed. The union has said the action would affect "to a greater or lesser extent" well completion work on close to 30 rigs and installations.
Norway's biggest oil and gas producer Statoil said earlier that completion of an injection well at its Snøhvit gas project in the Barents Sea was halted and the strike could delay further Arctic exploration planned for this summer and autumn.
Norway's second biggest petroleum producer Norsk Hydro said that the strike could stop production drilling on several floating units and fixed installations from next week, but it had not yet seen any impact.
In recent years the Norwegian government has several times ended strikes in the offshore oil industry when it has deemed them potentially damaging to the economy or Norway's reputation as a reliable energy supplier.
Doji One Kenobi
Bush: Iran too slow to respond to nuclear plan
Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:08 AM EDT
By Steve Holland
VIENNA (Reuters) - President Bush said Iran on Wednesday was taking too long to say whether it will suspend nuclear work that could lead to the development of atomic weapons and warned North Korea not to test-fire a long-range missile.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said earlier on Wednesday that Tehran would respond by August 22 to a proposal by major powers for incentives in return for Iran abandoning its uranium enrichment program.
Bush said that looked like "an awful long time" for Iran to respond to the offer which was presented on June 6.
"It should not take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal," Bush told a news conference after talks in Vienna with European Union leaders.
Bush has previously said Iran should have weeks, not months, to come up with an answer.
Six powers -- the United States, Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia -- have set an informal deadline of mid-July, when a Group of Eight industrialized nations summit is planned.
Bush also warned North Korea on Wednesday against test-firing its long-range Taepodong-2 missile, saying it must abide by international agreements.
"North Koreans have made agreements with us in the past and we expect them to keep their agreements," Bush said.
Washington says there is evidence North Korea might test-fire the Taepodong-2 and has activated its ground-based interceptor missile-defense system in case Pyongyang goes ahead with a launch.
Doji One Kenobi
NIGERIA: Attackers abduct more oil workers in volatile delta
21 Jun 2006 12:17:05 GMT
Nigeria violence
More PORT HARCOURT, 21 June (IRIN) - Gunmen in a speed boat seized two Filipino oil workers in the latest in a spate of attacks targeting oil installations and workers in Nigeria's oil rich but impoverished Niger delta.
Norway-based oil services company Petroleum Geo-Sciences said the two contract workers hired by the firm were abducted around noon on Tuesday while in a small boat near a jetty used by the company.
"They drove (them) off in a boat and we've had no contact with them," said company spokesman Ola Bosterud.
The security forces have mounted a search to trace the missing oil workers and their abductors, said Navy Captain Obiora Medani, spokesman for the Nigerian navy.
"I can confirm that the incident took place and we're searching for them," he said, declining to give any further details.
It is the latest incident in a rash of kidnappings and attacks in the oil-rich Niger Delta that have cut Nigeria's substantial oil exports by 20 percent. Despite producing nearly all the oil that is the mainstay of Nigeria's economy, the delta is one of the most impoverished regions in Africa's most populous country.
The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has claimed most of the attacks since the beginning of the year, said it was not responsible for the latest attack.
Several other armed groups are also active in the Niger Delta, with some of them linked to criminal gangs that kidnap oil workers for ransom. Hostages are usually released unharmed.
Doji One Kenobi
Saudi Official Says Oil Price Could Triple in Event of Military Conflict Over Iran
By Barry Wood
Washington
20 June 2006
Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Washington said Tuesday that a military conflict with Iran would double or triple the price of oil.
Saudi Ambassador Turki Al-Faisal said military conflict with Iran would be counterproductive and would turn the Persian Gulf into an inferno. Faisal spoke to reporters in Washington.
"Definitely you would see, if you're talking about $70 a barrel oil now, you would see that perhaps double or triple as a result of the conflict," he said.
Faisal said he supports a diplomatic solution to defuse the conflict between Iran's desire to develop nuclear technology and the unified opposition of the United Nations Security Council.
Oil prices for a second day held steady below $70 a barrel. Crude closed in New York Tuesday at just under $69 a barrel. Oil reached a record high of over $75 in April. Prices have more than doubled in the past two years.
Meanwhile, a U.S. energy department report predicts that global energy consumption will climb two percent a year over the next 25 years. That represents a 71 percent increase from 2003. Demand in the rich industrial countries is projected to rise by one percent annually while energy consumption in China and India will rise by nearly four percent per year. Oil's share in global energy consumption is projected to drop from its current 39 percent to 33 percent in 2030. Oil consumption is predicted to grow by 23 percent by 2015.
Doji One Kenobi
Militants set on fire US base-bound oil tanker in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2006-06-12 18:32:54
KABUL, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Unknown militants set on fire a U.S. base-bound oil tanker in the southern Ghazni province on Monday, a senior police official said.
"The incident occurred in Andar district leaving the tanker's driver dead and injured its conductor," Asil Khan told Xinhua.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility so far.
Taliban militants in the past attacked on oil tankers headed for the U.S. base in Kandahar airport.
Over 700 people have lost their lives in Taliban-linked insurgency over the past six months. Enditem
Doji One Kenobi
US fears imminent N Korea missile test
By Demetri Sevastopulo and Stephen Fidler in Washington and Anna Fifield in Seoul
Published: June 11 2006 21:54 | Last updated: June 11 2006 21:54
North Korea is preparing for a possible test of an intercontinental ballistic missile with the potential to hit the US, according to Washington officials.
A senior official said there were “enough indications” to suggest that Pyongyang was getting ready to fire a Taepodong-2 missile from a launch pad in eastern North Korea. It would be the Stalinist state’s first test of a longer-range missile since 1998 when Pyongyang generated an international crisis by unexpectedly firing an intermediate-range Taepodong-1 over Japan.
Test preparations are far more advanced than on previous occasions when North Korea appeared to be gearing up for a launch. The Taepodong-2 is a two, or three, stage “integrated” missile. The three-stage version consists of a solid-fuel booster rocket strapped atop a Scud missile attached in turn to a short-range Nodong missile.
The US is monitoring the launch site to see if North Korea starts final assembly of the missile. If North Korea fuelled an assembled Taepodong-2, it would increase the probability of a test, since the move is difficult and dangerous to reverse.
Pyongyang – which is keenly aware that the US can monitor its preparations by satellite – could be bluffing. Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader, has a history of performing eye-catching stunts when he feels he is being ignored, which has happened recently as Washington focuses on resolving nuclear tensions with Iran. Another US official said he might be “playing games” to get attention.
While the preparations could be for a satellite launch, the US is positioning military assets to track any launch. In 1998, North Korea claimed that its Taepodong-1 flight was a satellite launch. The senior official said there was no “definitive evidence” that Pyongyang would go ahead with the test.
“We are still not sure that it is ready to launch,” the official said. “This could be a lot of training. It could be political manoeuvring . . . we are not on the edge of our seat yet.”
He added that South Korea was “vigorously” urging China to lobby North Korea to abandon the test. Ban Ki-moon, South Korea’s foreign minister, last week said the preparations were of “great concern” – comments that underscored South Korean anxiety given that Seoul has traditionally played down the chances of any inflammatory actions by the North. The official said the US wanted to avoid creating a crisis because “ that is what North Korea wants”.
Doji One Kenobi
China's thirst for oil rattles old order
By PETER ENAV AND ELAINE KURTENBACH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS
ZHENHAI, China -- China's surging appetite for energy is engraved in the landscape of this gritty port city: waterfront piles of coal, gas pipes snaking along grimy roads, and tankers anchored amid islands where pirates once lurked.
Zhenhai is at the heart of a global energy revolution.
As China's leading oil receiving center, the city provides this nation of 1.3 billion people with hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude per day to feed its galloping economy.
The shifting pattern of energy consumption is rattling Washington and aggravating an already intense rivalry with neighboring Japan over access to oil and gas supplies, adding to tensions in an already volatile region.
"The global demand for oil has been rising faster than supply because there's new economies that are beginning to gin up, new economies growing, like China and India," President Bush said recently.
"Oil - the dependence upon oil is a national security problem, and an economic security problem," Bush said.
China is acutely aware of the security implications of its growing dependence on imported oil. For more than a decade, its three large state-owned companies have been scouring the globe, from Iran to Angola, to secure supplies.
In the past six months alone, China has signed deals totaling more than $7 billion for stakes in oil and gas fields in Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Syria. A state-controlled company is reportedly considering a $2 billion bid for yet another Kazakh property.
The worldwide buying spree helped net at least 3.5 million barrels per day of imported oil last year - enough to make China the world's third-leading consumer of foreign oil.
Chinese demand is forecast to more than double by 2025, to 14.2 million barrels a day from the current 7 million a day, according to the U.S. government's Energy Information Agency.
Although China's imports still only constitute about one-sixth of total world oil trade - compared to 30 percent for the United States - it is already the world's second largest oil consumer. China's increasingly pivotal role as global manufacturer of practically everything has ensured demand will continue to grow.
The worry in Washington, Tokyo and other major oil importing centers is that competition is helping push prices to potentially destabilizing levels, and raising the risks of conflict over dwindling resources.
China has sought to diversify its energy sources, clinching exploration and production deals in Africa and Latin America to limit its dependence on Middle Eastern oil. It too recognizes the huge economic stakes for all sides.
However, those deals also have raised worries.
Earlier this year, the Bush administration published a revised National Security Strategy that accused Chinese leaders of "acting as if they can somehow 'lock up' energy supplies around the world or seek to direct markets rather than opening them up."
U.S. and other Western oil companies discovered during the oil crises of the 1970s show how vulnerable such deals can be, but "There is considerable rhetoric in some high places that China's trying to monopolize or control world energy resources," says William Overholt, director of the Center for Asia Pacific Policy at RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif.
A more broadly shared concern, he says, is that just as U.S. oil needs have helped keep dictatorships in power in the past, "China is buying into oil in places where those purchases support abusive regimes" such as Sudan and Iran, undermining U.S. diplomacy in other areas such as nuclear nonproliferation.
While many agree with Overholt's characterizations of China's oil allies, critics point out that Saudi Arabia - whose oil fields were developed by U.S. companies and which has been the anchor of Washington's foreign oil strategy for more than three decades - is also not a democratic society.
For China, ensuring future supplies is top priority as it fuels annual economic growth rates of about 10 percent.
China still gets more than two-thirds of its energy from coal, and roughly half of its oil supply is from domestic sources - 3.4 million barrels a day in 2005. But veteran fields are beginning to falter and motor vehicle use is surging.
"Oil imports are bound to play a very important role in China's future development," said Dong Xiucheng, a professor at the China University of Petroleum.
Much of that oil will arrive through Zhenhai, a port city about 100 miles south of Shanghai and home to the country's first national petroleum reserve - as well as the country's biggest refinery.
Tankers from the Middle East and Africa berth at busy oil terminals secreted in the nearby Zhoushan archipelago, a pirate hideout in centuries past. A pipeline under construction will connect offshore terminals to factories in the Shanghai region, the country's biggest commercial hub.
Surging oil consumption by China, India and other emerging economies - on top of what is already being consumed by wealthy nations like the United States - has added urgency to the debate over future supplies.
Some experts believe production will soon peak, and that looming shortages require a fast shift to alternatives.
Others say the peak is at least several decades ahead: the U.S. Geological Survey reckons that only about one-third of the world's estimated 3 trillion barrels of recoverable oil has been consumed.
China relies most heavily on the Middle East, which provides about 45 percent of its total oil imports, with Saudi Arabia accounting for about 17 percent.
In late April, Chinese President Hu Jintao flew to the kingdom for talks with Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil producer - the latest episode in a continuing Chinese effort to ensure access to Saudi Arabia's 9.5 million barrels per day of oil production.
That visit, coming just after meetings between Hu and Bush in the United States, was closely monitored in Washington.
China takes American concerns seriously and has worries of its own over its vulnerability to upheavals in global hotspots and to U.S. naval pressure in the Malacca Straits, the narrow Southeast Asian passage through which virtually all Middle Eastern and African oil moves on its way to East Asia.
Though Beijing is building up its own navy, analysts say it would take decades - if ever - to match America's.
With the naval option of limited value, China has tried to do the next best thing - reduce the amount of oil that reaches it via the Straits.
"Gaining access to new routes is a very important strategy for China to ensure the security of its oil imports, aside from diversifying the countries supplying oil," said Dong, the Chinese Petroleum University professor.
China is studying alternative routes for African and Middle Eastern oil, including a pipeline through Myanmar, a port project in Pakistan and possibly even building a shipping channel through Thailand.
It is also laying pipelines to former Soviet countries.
China recently opened a 625-mile link carrying 190,000 barrels a day of Kazakh oil, providing its first direct access to potentially rich central Asian fields.
Construction has begun on an even bigger pipeline project that when completed in 2010 will move up to 1.6 million barrels per day of crude from Russia's Irkutsk region to its Pacific coast, with a branch line running into northeastern China.
Japan prevailed in persuading Moscow to route the main pipeline to the Pacific, rather than into China, providing low-interest loans to pay much of the more than $10 billion cost.
China and Japan are also facing off over potentially rich gas resources in the East China Sea, with no signs of an early resolution.
The high stakes of energy rivalry are highlighted in a Chinese online book, "The Battle in Protecting Key Oil Routes."
The anonymously authored book is set in a future where oil costs $100 a barrel. It begins with U.S.-Japan naval exercises focused on the Malacca Straits that trigger a real battle between China and the United States when a U.S.-fired missile goes astray.
The still incomplete book has drawn little attention, but it does reflect growing awareness of the potential for energy competition to get out of hand.
Given the risks, Washington should step up energy cooperation with China, says Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut - a Democrat regarded as a close security ally of President Bush.
"These are two nations following similar international oil acquisition policies," he said. "If we let it go, this could end up in real military conflict, not just economic conflict."
Doji One Kenobi
Oil prices rise on Iranian comments, Iraq kidnapping
AP , NEW YORK
Sunday, Jun 11, 2006
Oil prices rose by more than US$1 a barrel on Friday, reversing a three-day decline. Brokers attributed the rise to tough talk from an Iranian cleric and the kidnapping of a senior Iraqi petroleum industry official -- proof that the killing of al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq did not mark the end of instability in that country.
Also, a Nigerian government official said more than 800,000 barrels a day of the country's oil production was shut -- about 60 percent more than previously reported -- because of violence in the Niger Delta, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Meantime, Valero Energy Corp experienced a "total power failure" at its 240,000-barrel-per-day Aruba refinery on Wednesday night, a spokeswoman said on Friday, adding that it would be at least two weeks before the plant would be operating at "reduced rates."
Fimat USA oil broker Mike Fitzpatrick said the oil market is staring at a "wall of worry" that includes strong global demand, geopolitical unrest and the Atlantic hurricane season.
Light sweet crude for delivery next month climbed US$1.28 to US$71.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude gained US$1.43 to settle at US$70.48 on the ICE Futures exchange.
Nymex gasoline futures settled US$0.056 higher at US$2.1528 a gallon, while heating oil prices rose almost US$0.03 to US$2.0130 a gallon. Natural gas prices increased by US$0.10 to US$6.294 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The cost of crude is roughly 30 percent more than a year ago, and US gasoline pump prices average US$0.76 a liter. Gasoline demand keeps rising, albeit at a slower pace than normal, according to government statistics.
Oil prices jumped on Friday amid news that gunmen kidnap-ped Muthanna al-Badri, a senior Iraqi oil official in Baghdad, as he was returning home from work.
Analysts had cautioned on Thursday against reading too much into the US airstrike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant who led a campaign of suicide bombings and other violence across Iraq. Attacks on the country's oil infrastructure, including pipelines, were not directly linked to his movement.
"We're not out of the woods in regard to the insurgency in Iraq, and the market needs a couple of weeks, maybe a month, to gauge the situation before prices will ease," said Mark Pervan, commodities analyst at Daiwa Securities in Melbourne, Australia.
Vienna's PVM Oil Associates said that despite al-Zarqawi's death, "the general level of political instability and violence as well as the absence of a new legal framework" will continue to keep oil-related investments -- and crude exports -- down in Iraq.
Additionally, the outlook regarding Iran's nuclear program, which the West wants shut down, remains cloudy.
A top hard-line Iranian cleric on Friday came out against a Western incentive package aimed at persuading Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Doji One Kenobi
Low pressure in the Northwest Caribbean Might Become an Organized Tropical System Late in the Weekend or by Early Next Week
Posted: 9-JUN-2006 07:35am EDT
http://hurricane.accuweather.com/hurricane/regions.asp
Begin the season does.
Sellers impatient they are.
Double up again I will.
ALSO:
Iran confirms stepping up nuclear activities
Jun 09 8:14 AM US/Eastern
An Iranian official has confirmed that the country has stepped up its nuclear activities, following a report from the UN atomic agency that said Iran has accelerated uranium enrichment.
"Iran has started another stage of injecting hexafluoride gas into centrifuge machines," the student news agency ISNA quoted an unnamed official as saying on Friday.
"Iran is also pursuing a plan to have a 3,000-centrifuge cascade by the end of the current year (March 2007)," he noted, adding that all the material used in uranium enrichment facilities has been produced domestically.
A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency obtained by AFP on Thursday said that Iran had accelerated uranium enrichment on June 6, the same day world powers asked it to halt the work and open talks to guarantee it will not make nuclear weapons.
On that Tuesday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Tehran to present a package of benefits aimed at enticing Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Enriched uranium makes nuclear reactor fuel, and in a highly refined form can produce atom bomb material.
"Iran is continuing its installation work on other 164-machine cascades," said the report from the IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei.
Iran built the cascade as a pilot plant for what it hopes will eventually be an industrial plant of more than 50,000 centrifuges, used to refine the uranium 235 isotope.
Iran started last August to make feedstock uranium hexafluoride gas, which it then fed into centrifuges in February this year. It produced enriched uranium beginning in April.
The quality of enriched uranium being produced in April was appropriate for nuclear reactor fuel and was not the highly-enriched variety needed to make weapons.
Powerful forces at work for Domestic Oil.
Doji One Kenobi
Nigeria's oil delta faces escalation of violence
05 Jun 2006 15:13:34 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Estelle Shirbon
ABUJA, June 5 (Reuters) - Gunmen storm an oil rig 40 miles offshore in the dead of night and capture eight foreign workers. Hostages are held in remote creeks for 38 days. Militants use mobile phones to blow up a car bomb at an army barracks.
Before this year, none of this had happened in the troubled history of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, home to Africa's biggest oil industry. And analysts say the violence will get worse -- not least because of the government's response.
Already, the toll is heavy. An unknown number of people have been killed in militant attacks on oil facilities and in retaliatory army raids on riverine villages. And a quarter of Nigerian oil output has been shut down since February, threatening economic growth in Africa's most populous country.
The past five months have not been the bloodiest the region has known, nor the most devastating in terms of cuts in oil production. But security analysts worry about the increasingly ruthless and sophisticated tactics of local armed groups.
They say no Niger Delta group had previously staged an attack as far out to sea as a kidnapping raid on a deepwater rig on June 2. Hostage takings have lasted longer this year than ever before, and car bombings are new to the region.
"Nobody is safe, either onshore or offshore," said a security source.
"It's extremely worrying because the next step up could be an attack on a large offshore facility like Bonga," said the source, referring to a Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> oilfield that produces over 200,000 barrels per day of crude.
"APPEASEMENT"
Violence in the delta has complex causes. Most of the region's inhabitants are dirt poor and they have seen few benefits from decades of oil extraction which has polluted their air and water, threatening livelihoods in fishing villages.
There are no roads, teachers or doctors in most parts of the delta, which is not connected to the national electricity grid.
This makes the region a fertile recruiting ground for armed groups, although most of these are better at kidnapping oil workers for ransom or stealing crude oil from pipelines than they are at fighting for the rights of their people.
Groups fight for control of the lucrative trade in stolen oil, while lawlessness and a web of corrupt relationships between politicians, the military and local militias ensures that anyone with enough guns or money makes a good profit.
The situation is further complicated by political struggles ahead of next year's elections, when powerful state governors' jobs will be up for grabs and patronage networks at stake.
Activists in the delta complain that the government applies quick-fixes but fails to address underlying problems.
Many were dismayed by the decision on May 19 to award an oil exploration license to Niger Delta United Oil, a vehicle for militants whose names have not been disclosed.
"It's temporary appeasement that plants the seeds for future disaster," said Miabiye Kuromiema, a leader of the Ijaw Youth Council which seeks to represent the delta's biggest tribe.
"No one knows who got the license so rightly or wrongly people are assuming it was given to those who have been agitating against the oil industry ... There is nothing to stop other groups from contending for benefits through violence."
RESOURCE CONTROL
The government said the award of the license would foster development because the company would reinvest in power and education for the community. However, this will be hard to monitor given the lack of transparency.
Furthermore, analysts say the militants do not have the capability to drill for oil and they are likely to hold the asset until the time is right to sell it for a profit.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, pressured into action by this year's unrest, invited politicians, activists and traditional rulers from the delta to a series of meetings that resulted in pledges of investments in infrastructure for the region.
But these fell well short of the popular demand for "resource control" or greater local power over oil wealth.
"Resource control is a genuine cause for many in the delta, and if you created a mechanism where it could work and where people felt they had a stake, you could create a more stable environment," said Antony Goldman, an independent risk analyst.
"Unfortunately Nigeria has perfected crisis management but nobody is thinking long-term," he said.
Doubled down again today I have. Messages very powerful from Iran, Iraq and Somalia, to be overlooked at ones own peril.
Domestic Oil production, safer and more secure in the short term it will be.
Trust your feelings.
Doji One Kenobi
Now under Islamo-facist control is Somalia's vast oil and Uranium.
Trust your feelings.
Islamic militia claims it has captured Somali capital
The Associated Press
MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2006
MOGADISHU, Somalia An Islamic militia that wants to establish a fundamentalist government in Somalia said Monday it has seized control of the capital, after weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting in 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation.
The militia, whose growing power is raising fears that Somalia could follow the path of Taliban Afghanistan into the hands of al-Qaida, appeared in control of Mogadishu.
"We want to restore peace and stability to Mogadishu. We are ready to meet and talk anybody and any group for the interest of the people," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, said on a radio broadcast.
The militia has been battling a secular alliance of warlords for control of the country, and their fighting has grown increasingly violent since February. More than 300 people have been killed and 1,700 wounded, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.
The United States is widely believed to be backing the alliance in an attempt to root out members of al-Qaida who might be operating in the Horn of Africa, but American officials have refused to confirm or deny that. The U.S. has carried out no direct action in Somalia since the deaths of 18 servicemen in a 1993 battle made famous by the film "Black Hawk Down."
The Islamic militants are the first group to consolidate control over all of Mogadishu's clan-divided neighborhoods since the collapse of the last government in 1991, giving them enormous political and economic power in Somalia.
Attempts to reach leaders of the secular alliance were not immediately successful. Most of them appeared to have fled the city by Monday afternoon. The fundamentalists accuse the alliance of working for the CIA, while the alliance says the militias have links to al-Qaida.
The two sides began competing for influence after a U.N.-backed interim government slowly began to gain international recognition. But the interim government has failed to assert control outside its base in Baidoa, 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Mogadishu. The government has not even been able to enter the capital because of the violence.
Still, interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi recently fired four powerful warlords who were serving as ministers, leaving the alliance without any support in the government.
In the past, Islamic leaders have denounced the interim government, insisting that any new law be based on Islamic scripture. How the government will react to Monday's development was not immediately clear, but both the president and prime minister have rejected suggestions of forming an Islamic republic.
Somalia, an impoverished country of 8 million, has been divided into rival fiefdoms since 1991, when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
MOGADISHU, Somalia An Islamic militia that wants to establish a fundamentalist government in Somalia said Monday it has seized control of the capital, after weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting in 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation.
The militia, whose growing power is raising fears that Somalia could follow the path of Taliban Afghanistan into the hands of al-Qaida, appeared in control of Mogadishu.
"We want to restore peace and stability to Mogadishu. We are ready to meet and talk anybody and any group for the interest of the people," Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, said on a radio broadcast.
The militia has been battling a secular alliance of warlords for control of the country, and their fighting has grown increasingly violent since February. More than 300 people have been killed and 1,700 wounded, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.
The United States is widely believed to be backing the alliance in an attempt to root out members of al-Qaida who might be operating in the Horn of Africa, but American officials have refused to confirm or deny that. The U.S. has carried out no direct action in Somalia since the deaths of 18 servicemen in a 1993 battle made famous by the film "Black Hawk Down."
The Islamic militants are the first group to consolidate control over all of Mogadishu's clan-divided neighborhoods since the collapse of the last government in 1991, giving them enormous political and economic power in Somalia.
Attempts to reach leaders of the secular alliance were not immediately successful. Most of them appeared to have fled the city by Monday afternoon. The fundamentalists accuse the alliance of working for the CIA, while the alliance says the militias have links to al-Qaida.
The two sides began competing for influence after a U.N.-backed interim government slowly began to gain international recognition. But the interim government has failed to assert control outside its base in Baidoa, 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Mogadishu. The government has not even been able to enter the capital because of the violence.
Still, interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi recently fired four powerful warlords who were serving as ministers, leaving the alliance without any support in the government.
In the past, Islamic leaders have denounced the interim government, insisting that any new law be based on Islamic scripture. How the government will react to Monday's development was not immediately clear, but both the president and prime minister have rejected suggestions of forming an Islamic republic.
Somalia, an impoverished country of 8 million, has been divided into rival fiefdoms since 1991, when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Doji One Kenobi
Last chance I believe IDCN at currnt price.
Stopped Iran must be; on this all depends.
Only America has the strength and political will, with Great Britan as a fully-trained ally.
Only through unimaginable military force will this happen, not diplomacy.
Let Iran become another North Korea, America will not.
Cheap Oil, a casualty it will be.
Trust your feelings.
Doji One Kenobi
Oil Rises After Iran Threatens to Disrupt Persian Gulf Supply
June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose in New York to the highest in more than three weeks after Iran threatened to disrupt energy supplies from the Persian Gulf region in a confrontation over its nuclear program.
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday the U.S. could ``seriously endanger energy flow in the region,'' supplier of about a quarter of the world's oil, by acting against Iran. Oil has risen 20 percent this year amid disruptions of supply from Nigeria and concern Iran's exports may be cut.
``There's a large amount of oil flowing through the Straits of Hormuz, and with the market as tight as it is, we just can't afford to do without those flows,'' said David Thurtell, a commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. ``They're not just threatening to withhold their own oil, they're threatening to disrupt energy flows through the Gulf.''
Crude oil for July delivery rose as much as $1.12, or 1.6 percent, to $73.45 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $73.25 at 7:48 a.m. Singapore time.
On June 2, oil climbed $1.99, or 2.8 percent, to $72.33 a barrel, the highest close since May 11, after an attack on a Nigerian oil rig. Oil touched $75.35 on April 21 and 24, the highest since trading began in 1983. Prices gained 1.3 percent last week.
Iran, which pumps 3.85 million barrels a day of crude, is strategically located to shut off exports of about 17 million barrels a day from the Gulf region through the Straits of Hormuz.
Oil Revenue
Khameini, in the address carried by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, said Iran is in a stronger position than the U.S. because President George W. Bush is the most unpopular leader in the world.
Bush ``faces protests and public wrath wherever he steps on earth,'' IRNA cited Khamenei as saying.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed the threats, saying the Persian Gulf country needs the oil sales.
``We shouldn't put too much emphasis on a threat of this kind,'' Rice said yesterday on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program. ``After all, Iran is also very dependent on oil revenue.''
The U.S., China, Russia and three European nations are offering Iran, holder of the world's second-largest oil and natural gas reserves, a package of incentives to re-engage in negotiations on its nuclear program if the government in Tehran abandons efforts to enrich uranium. The U.S. contends Iran is heading toward development of nuclear weapons, while Iran says it is seeking to develop nuclear plants to produce electricity.
``Iran seems to be sticking to the line that they are going to have nuclear enrichment no matter what,'' Thurtell said. ``If Iran is forced to rely on anyone for their nuclear fuel processing it compromises their long-term energy security, and I don't think they're going to be prepared to do that.''
In Nigeria, kidnappers yesterday released eight foreign oil workers they took hostage two days earlier in the Niger River delta. The incident was the fourth kidnapping of foreign oil workers this year in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer.
Doji One Kenobi
Make us wealthy indeed, this lunatic will.
Iran warns U.S. over 'wrong move'
Sunday, June 4, 2006; Posted: 6:02 a.m. EDT (10:02 GMT)
Khamenei said energy flow in the region could be "seriously endangered."
Iran takes a stand (2:03)
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the world's fourth largest oil exporter, said on Sunday that if the United States makes a "wrong move" towards Iran, energy flows in the region would be endangered.
Iranian officials have in the past ruled out using oil as a weapon in Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, but Khamenei's comments suggested Iran could disrupt supplies if pushed.
His remarks, which are likely to unsettle wary oil markets, come days before EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is due to deliver a package of incentives agreed by six world powers and designed to persuade Iran to abandon plans to make nuclear fuel.
"If you (the United States) make a wrong move regarding Iran, definitely the energy flow in this region will be seriously endangered," Khamenei, who has the last word in all matters of state, said in a speech which discussed the dispute.
Washington accuses Tehran of seeking to develop atomic weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear power program, a charge Tehran denies.
The United States says it wants a diplomatic solution but has refused to rule out military action.
Washington has offered to join European countries in talks with Iran about the nuclear program, but says Iran must first suspend uranium enrichment. Iran has so far rejected the demand, saying enrichment is a national right.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday Iran would consider the proposals from the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain but also insisted that the crux of the package was unacceptable.
The incentives being offered have not been publicly announced, but diplomats have been working on themes ranging from offering nuclear reactors to giving security guarantees.
A date for Solana's visit to Iran to deliver the package has yet to be announced. Iranian officials said the visit was expected in the next few days.
Khamenei did not explicitly refer to enrichment in his speech that marked the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
But he said: "We are committed to our national interests and whoever threatens it will experience the sharpness of this nation's anger."
He also praised the efforts of the country's nuclear scientists in developing home-grown nuclear technology as a "brave move" and dismissed what he said was the West's campaign against the country's atomic program.
"Today our nation has taken a step forward and has bravely resisted," he said. "There is no international consensus against Iran's nuclear program except by some ... monopolist countries and this consensus has no value."
Khamenei spoke from a podium emblazoned with Khomeini's words "America cannot do a damn thing." His speech listed what he said were U.S. failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the area.
"You (the United States) are not capable of securing energy flows in this region," he said, addressing the crowd who were packed into Khomeini's mausoleum, south of Tehran.
Those gathered chanted back "Death to America" and "Nuclear energy is our obvious right."
International oil prices have stayed near record highs, above $70 a barrel, partly because of fears Iranian exports could be disrupted if the nuclear dispute escalates. Iran produces about 3.85 million barrels of oil a day.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of six Gulf Arab states including oil giant Saudi Arabia, said on Saturday they were "deeply worried about the developments in Iran's nuclear program," after a meeting in Riyadh.
Two months ago, Iran staged naval war games in the Gulf, a shipping route that accounts for roughly two-fifths of all globally traded oil.
Analysts interpreted the military maneuvers, which included test firing missiles, as a message that Iran could disrupt vital oil supply lines if it came under international pressure.
Doji One Kenobi
Patients I would suggest.
Double down I have earlier this week.
Banked substantial Money two weeks ago I did.
Iran President and Chavez, continue to stir the pot they will.
Domestic oil production, a powerful ally it is.
Trust your instincts.
Doji One kenobi