Tanker with Disputed Kurdish Oil Reappears off Malta
The Neverland tanker has reappeared off the coast of Malta after going off radar near Canada on June 30, when it was chartered by oil trader Vitol carrying Iraqi Kurdish crude oil, Reuters ship-tracking showed on Friday. The tanker had been heading to eastern Canada to discharge the cargo at the end of June when the Federal Court of Canada issued a seizure order for the cargo at the request of Iraq's oil ministry. Iraq alleges the cargo was unlawfully misappropriated by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and sold to Vitol. Along with the seizure request made to Canada, the ministry filed a separate claim against Vitol and two subsidiaries for $32.5 million.
Rosneft Takes First Shipment of Kurdish Oil
Russian state oil giant Rosneft will buy its first shipment of oil from Iraq's Kurdistan in early April, becoming the first oil major to take Kurdish crude directly into its refining system, trading sources said on Friday. The shipments aboard tanker Minerva Sophia will sail from the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan to Italy's Triest, from where the oil can be taken by pipeline to Rosneft's refineries in Germany. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov)
Glencore Raises Money for Kurdish Oil Deal, Likely Short of Target
Glencore will likely fall short of its target of raising $550 million to pre-finance the purchase of Kurdish oil, with investors exercising caution despite the offer of a 12 percent bond yield, industry sources told Reuters. Two sources familiar with the plans said that commodities giant Glencore will price the bond at 12 percent on Tuesday, having received investor commitments for between $200 million and $400 million. Glencore would have to cover the rest itself, though there is obligation to hit the full $550 million. European traders contending with…
Iraq Blacklists Tankers Lifting Kurdish Crude
Iraqi state oil firm SOMO has blacklisted three tankers involved in shipping crude from Kurdistan, stepping up pressure on the semi-autonomous region amid tense talks on sharing oil revenue. Kurdistan has been exporting crude independently via Turkey since mid-2015 after saying Baghdad had failed to respect an oil revenue-sharing deal and transfer enough money to Erbil. Baghdad, which exports most of its oil from the Gulf, has said Erbil was not exporting enough crude under the deal. Last week SOMO sent market participants a letter - seen by Reuters - saying it would no longer allow the ships Maran Centaurus…
Kurdish Oil Loadings at Turkey's Ceyhan Delayed
Loadings of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan at the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, which were halted on Feb. 17, remained suspended on Monday due to bad weather, shipping agents told Reuters. Pumping via the pipeline which feeds the port had resumed on Friday and were back to normal, with a pumping rate of close to 600,000 barrels per day, shipping agents said. The storage in the port was being filled during the weekend and was around 1.4 million barrels as of Monday, they added. Bad weather conditions in the port of Ceyhan were due to continue until the end of the day, so traders said they did not expect loadings to start earlier than Tuesday morning.
Glencore Deal Taps into Iraqi Kurdistan
Glencore has paid Iraqi Kurdistan $300 million as an advance for oil as it seeks to compete with trading houses Vitol and Petraco for profitable business despite disruptions and political instability, industry sources said. Glencore, which declined to comment, has made a prepayment in recent days to the government of Iraq's semi-autonomous region which will start allocating it crude from mid-year, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Kurdistan began direct oil sales to world markets in mid-2015 as it said the central government in Baghdad had failed to respect a budget deal…
TonenGeneral Imports Japan's First Kurdish Oil Cargo
TonenGeneral imported Japan's first cargo of Kurdish crude from northern Iraq in January, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday. Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region began selling oil directly to world markets in 2015 to get money for its survival and to fight Islamic State. Typically, Kurdish oil, exported via Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, has gone to Europe. TonenGeneral imported about 1 million barrels of Kurdish oil last month, classified as "export blend of Iraqi origin" in data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's (METI).
Turkey Repairing Iraqi Kurdish Oil Pipeline as Violence Flares
Turkey has begun work to repair a pipeline taking crude oil from northern Iraq to the Mediterranean through its restive southeast and aims to restore flows soon, the Turkish energy ministry said on Saturday. The pipeline, which has been repeatedly sabotaged in recent months, normally carries some 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and the disputed Kirkuk oil fields to the port of Ceyhan for export. Rising security threats in Turkey's southeast mean Iraqi Kurdish exports to world markets through the pipeline could remain halted for another two weeks, Turkish shipping and industry sources said on Friday.
Kurdish Oil Flows Shut as Pipeline Sabotaged in Turkey
Kurdistan's oil exports to world markets are set to be suspended for a second week running, a shipping source said, a move that will deprive Iraq's semi-autonomous region of its main revenue stream as the security situation in southeast Turkey worsens. The pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan from fields in Iraq's north, which carries around 600,000 barrels per day of crude, has been halted since Feb. 17 and was unlikely to resume pumping until Feb. 29, the source said. The outage would be one of the longest in the past two years and a major blow to Kurdistan…
Kurdish Oil Reaches Baltic, Targets Russian Markets
Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan has begun targeting Baltic crude markets in north-western Europe, rivalling traditional Russian supplies and increasing an oil glut in the region, trading sources said and shipping data showed. At least three vessels with Kurdish oil arrived in the Baltic ports of Gdansk in Poland and Butinge in Lithuania in October-November, traders told Reuters. "These are the first Kurdish barrels going to Europe's north," a source with a trading house told Reuters. Kurdistan this week for the first time detailed its oil exports operations, explaining how it bypassed Baghdad since 2014.
ex-Soviet Producers: No Cooperation with OPEC
Russia to defend its market share from Saudi oil; Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan face falling output. Ex-Soviet oil producers, led by Russia, are not bowing to pressure to reduce output in order to lift global prices, leaving little chance of a deal when OPEC experts meet with producers outside the group on Wednesday. The ex-Soviet oil nations have the financial cushion to weather low prices and some of them, too, find it difficult to cut output amid a battle for market share. "I think they will not cooperate. They (Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan) are typical non-OPEC countries who simply produce at a maximum they can," said Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman at Washington-based IHS think-tank.
Iraq-Turkey Pipeline Attacked; Flow Halted
Oil flow on an Iraqi pipeline carrying Kirkuk and Kurdish oil to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan has been halted after saboteours attacked it, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Wednesday. "The pipeline has been damaged and the flow is halted due to sabotage by terrorists," Yildiz said in a statement, but added that there was no impact so far on the country's oil supply. Reporting by Orhan Coskun
Iraq Exports Hold Close to Record High in May
Iraq's oil exports have held above 3 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in May, according to loading data and an industry source, keeping shipments from OPEC's second-largest producer close to a record high. Another strong month from Iraq adds to signs of high output from major members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries focused on keeping market share, weighing on global oil prices. "There is little doubt that record crude exports out of Iraq are adding further length to an already extremely well-supplied market, thereby adding downside pressure," said Eugene Lindell, oil analyst at JBC Energy in Vienna.
Norway's DNO Expects Kurdish Oil Export Payment Soon
Norwegian oil firm DNO expects export payments from the Kurdish Regional Government to come soon as a deal with Iraq's government could strengthen KRG's ability to pay oil firms in the region what they are owed, it said on Thursday. "We expect a large reconciliation from the KRG soon, if it will be paid in one or several parts we will have to wait and see," Chief Financial Officer Haakon Sandborg told Reuters at the sidelines of an energy conference. Iraq's government will make a budget payment to Kurdish authorities "within days", the finance minister said on Wednesday, playing down concerns that an oil export deal that helped thaw bilateral relations could collapse..
Kurdish Oil Deal with Baghdad Unravels
A four-month-old oil deal between Iraq and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region is close to unravelling after payments from Baghdad dried up, prompting Arbil to threaten to sue buyers and ramp up independent oil exports. The dispute highlights fundamental differences between the two sides over who controls oil resources and revenues and will reinforce the views of many Iraqi watchers that Kurdistan would seek bigger if not full independence from Baghdad one day. Baghdad cut budget payments to the Kurds in January 2014 as punishment for their attempts to export oil independently, plunging the semi-autonomous region into economic crisis and forcing it to seek loans at home and abroad.
How Islamic State Uses Syria's Oil to Fuel Its Advances
In an oil field in northeastern Syria, a queue of trucks lines up daily to load crude sold cheaply by Islamic State militants who have hijacked parts of the country's energy industry in their bid to build a caliphate. Sales at Shadada field, described by an oil trader, are just one example of how the group, which has seized land in war-torn Syria and neighbouring Iraq, is creating its own economy through a series of pragmatic trades. It is cutting deals with local traders and buyers, even businessmen who support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and some of its oil has made its way back to government buyers through a series of middlemen.
Iraq's Oil Output at Stake for Want of Water
Project designed to raise oil extraction rates but red tape, cost disputes slow it down. Some mature fields already suffering from lack of water. A lack of water threatens Iraq's plans to raise its oil output, boost its stumbling economy and become a leading producer in the region after Saudi Arabia. A multi-billion dollar common seawater injection scheme designed to boost production from the giant export oilfields in Iraq's south is snarled up in red tape and acrimony. The seawater injection project is core to the development of the southern fields…
Iraq Sues Greek Shippers for Transporting Kurdish Oil
Iraq said it filed a lawsuit against Greek shipping company Marine Management Services (MMS) for its role in the export of crude from the Kurdistan region, which Baghdad says is illegal. The case is the latest move by Baghdad to deter customers and thwart independent exports of crude from the autonomous Kurdistan region. The federal government claims sole authority to manage sales of all the oil in Iraq. The Iraqi oil ministry said on Thursday that MMS operated five vessels that had transported oil on behalf of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from a Turkish port.
Disputed Kurdish Oil Tanker Moving for 1st Time Since End-July
The tanker carrying $100 million worth of disputed Kurdish crude oil is moving for the first time since July 27, AIS ship tracking data showed on Wednesday. The status of the tanker, called United Kalavrvta, changed to "underway using engine" from "at anchor", but it was still 95 percent full, the data used by the U.S. Coast Guard and Reuters showed. The ship was still in the Galveston Offshore Lightering Area, with Galveston still listed as its destination, according to satellite tracking. The ship has been in limbo for weeks after its would-be buyer balked at taking delivery of the cargo. Baghdad has filed a lawsuit in a U.S.
Iraq to Appeal US Court Decision on Kurdish Oil
The Iraqi oil ministry said on Thursday it would challenge a U.S. court decision that stopped U.S. Marshals from seizing some one million barrels of disputed Kurdish oil docked near Texas. On Monday, a U.S. district court ruled in favour of a request by Iraq's Kurdish region that a demand by the Iraqi government for U.S. authorities to seize the Kurdish oil shipment be scrapped. However, the court gave Baghdad 10 days to resubmit its case. "The ministry of oil is emphasising that it is preparing the amended request and will forward it in the required period," the oil ministry said in a statement. "The decision of the court is only to lift the seizure of the shipment while at sea.
