Middle East Oil & Gas Shipping Routes are at Risk
Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was suspending oil shipments through the Red Sea after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked two crude tankers, underscoring risks caused by the conflict in the world's top oil exporting region.Iran, in its row with the United States over sanctions, has also threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, the other major strategic shipping route for oil from the region and the main route for Iranian…
Iraq Lures Investors to Boost its Oil Output as OPEC Debates Cuts
As OPEC gathers in Vienna next month to consider cutting its oil output, a lower profile event in Baghdad on the same day will signal Iraq's longer term ambition to do precisely the opposite. Nov. 30 is both the date when OPEC ministers meet in the Austrian capital and the deadline set by Iraqi oil minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi for international firms to submit bids to help it develop 12 "small and medium-sized" oil fields.
Iran Deal Welcomed by Iraq and Syria but Won't Change Course of Conflict
Iran's historic nuclear deal may ease hostility with the West that has fuelled Middle East tensions for decades, but it is unlikely to change the course of conflicts where Tehran and Washington are both awkward allies and enemies. In Syria, Iran has stood by President Bashar al-Assad, providing military and financial support during four years of civil war, throughout which the United States has said Assad must go. In neighbouring Iraq…
Militants Attack Government Forces near Iraq's Baiji Refinery
Islamic State militants attacked government forces and their Shi'ite militia allies on Saturday, killing 11 near the city of Baiji as part of the battle for control of Iraq's biggest refinery, army and police sources said. Four suicide bombers in vehicles packed with explosives hit security forces and the local headquarters of the Shi'ite militias in the area of al-Hijjaj, 10 km (6 miles) to the south of Baiji town, near the refinery, sources at the nearby Tikrit security operations command said.
Islamic State Torches Tikrit Oil Field
Oil field produced 25,000 bpd before Islamic State seizure. Islamic State militants have set fire to oil wells northeast of the city of Tikrit, a witness said, to obstruct an assault by Shi'ite militia fighters and Iraqi soldiers trying to drive them from the Sunni Muslim city and surrounding towns. The witness and a military source said Islamic State fighters ignited the fire at the Ajil oil field to shield themselves from attack by Iraqi military helicopters.
Kurds Retake Oil Facility in North Iraq
Kurdish peshmerga forces retook a small crude oil station near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk which Islamic State insurgents seized earlier on Saturday, but the fate of 15 employees remained unclear. Two officials from the state-run North Oil Co told Reuters the militants had seized a crude oil separation unit in Khabbaz on Saturday morning and said 15 oil workers were missing after the company lost contact with them.
Islamic State Keeps Up Syrian Oil Flow Despite U.S-led Strikes
Islamic State is still extracting and selling oil in Syria and has adapted its trading techniques despite a month of strikes by U.S.-led forces aimed at cutting off this major source of income for the group, residents, oil executives and traders say. While the raids by U.S. and Arab forces have targeted some small makeshift oil refineries run by locals in eastern areas controlled by Islamic State, they have avoided the wells the group controls.
Oil Continues to Show Gains in Corrective Move
Global crude oil continued to show modest gains on Friday, bouncing from near four-year lows as investors bought back into a market they said was oversold, and as fighting in Iraq increased political risk. Oil has lost more than a fifth of its value since June on heavy oversupply, signs of weak demand growth and indications that key oil producers, particularly Saudi Arabia, have a limited appetite to intervene on prices. "It's corrective," said Andy Lebow at Jefferies LLC.
Islamic State Takes Control of Oil Field & Dam in Iraq
Fighters of the Islamic State militia took control Sunday of the largest dam in Iraq, a reservoir of oil and three cities after breaking the biggest defeat the Kurdish forces since they began operations in the region in June. Capturing the Mosul dam after just 24 hours' offense could give the Sunni militiamen ability to flood the big cities, as part of its campaign to topple the Shiite government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Kurds Seize Iraq Oilfields, Ministers Pull out of Govt.
Kurdish forces seized two oilfields in northern Iraq and took over operations from a state-run oil company on Friday, while Kurdish politicians formally suspended their participation in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government. The moves escalated a feud between the Shi'ite-led central government and the autonomous Kurdish region driven by a Sunni insurgency which threatens to fragment Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines three years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Iraqi Kurdish Oil in Hand, Plans to Increase exports
Iraqi Kurdish control of the northern part of the main oilfields after Wednesday drew up plans to rapidly increase oil exports, a move likely to sustain damage after the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq unified agreement. Kurdish Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami told Reuters that Kurdish plans by the end of 2015 will raise its oil exports seven times, which will include the Kurdish oil fields occupied by the army two weeks ago.
Iraq Battles to Hold Biggest Refinery
Iraqi government forces battled Sunni militants for control of the country's biggest refinery on Thursday as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki waited for a U.S. response to an appeal for air strikes to beat back the threat to Baghdad. The sprawling Baiji refinery, 200 km (130 miles) north of the capital near Tikrit, was a battlefield as troops loyal to the Shi'ite-led government held off insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its allies who had stormed the perimeter a day earlier…
Sunni Insurgents Close in on Iraq's Biggest Refinery
Sunni insurgents from an al Qaeda splinter group extended their control from the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday to an area further south that includes Iraq's biggest oil refinery in a devastating show of strength against the Shi'ite-led government. Security sources said militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - Sunni militants waging sectarian war on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian frontier - drove into the town of Baiji late on Tuesday in armed vehicles…
Saudis, OPEC Would Cover Ukraine-Related Oil Shortage
Saudi oil minister Naimi says $100/bbl is fair price for everybody. Naimi: OPEC should keep its 30-mln-bpd output cap unchanged at June meet. Top global oil exporter Saudi Arabia will step in to cover any potential shortage arising from the Ukraine crisis, its oil minister said on Monday. Saudi Arabia, the only oil producer which can significantly alter output in response to changing demand, has in the past two years played the leading role in cushioning against supply disruptions from Libya, Nigeria, Iraq and South Sudan.
At Donkey Springs, Bombers Choke off Iraq Oil Exports
Militants whose bombs have shut Iraq's main northern oil export pipeline for 40 days are preventing repairs, threatening to extend an outage that is already the longest since the days of sanctions in the 1990s. Targeting the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline where it crosses a stretch of desert known as Ain al-Jahash, or Donkey Springs, the saboteurs - described as Islamists by Iraqi officials - have set several more bombs since a first blast halted oil on March 2.
