Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
Here are some more selected news articles for the week ending 10 April 2021. Go here for Part 1.
This is a feature at Global Economic Intersection every Monday evening or Tueday morning.
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side, for social media buttons.
Bakken crude to be rerouted in every direction if DAPL shuts | S&P Global Platts – Bakken Shale crude oil volumes would ship to the west, east and even up north into Canada and back into the US again as producers and pipeline operators target alternative routes if the Dakota Access Pipeline is shuttered, even temporarily, according to industry sources. A federal court could decide as soon as April 9 whether the Bakken Shale’s main crude artery is forced to close, dispersing the volumes from the four-year-old, 570,000 b/d pipeline to other existing pipelines, lightly used crude-by-rail networks, and trucking routes, and widening Bakken crude price discounts. If the Energy Transfer-operated pipeline is ordered shut, energy analysts believe drastic measures will not become necessary so long as the closure is temporary only through the back half of the year. The US Army Corps of Engineers’ court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement study could put DAPL back into good legal standing by the end of 2021 or early 2022, although an unprecedented permanent closure would have much bigger long-term impacts. With Bakken crude production and activity already diminished from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and, to a lesser extent, DAPL uncertainty, a temporary closure would keep projected Bakken production growth from occurring, but it would not trigger substantial reductions in volumes, analysts said. “The industry had a lot of time to consider alternate routes,” said Colton Bean, midstream analyst for Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. “Is it going to be a disaster scenario? No. It’s more of a cap on growth than a big impact on existing production.” With the potential loss of DAPL capacity, analyst consensus mostly expects at least 200,000 b/d to move to existing pipeline alternatives, about 200,000 b/d more to crude-by-rail, and up to another 100,000 b/d or so in increased trucking volumes. Some analysts predict crude-by-rail volumes could even grow by at least 300,000 b/d with some modest optimization and expansion work. Some of the big volume gainers would include the True Companies’ Butte and Belle Fourche pipelines system from the Bakken to Guernsey, Wyoming; Kinder Morgan’s Double H Pipeline to Guernsey; Enbridge’s Bakken pipeline system to Illinois and Cushing, Oklahoma; Enbridge’s Platte Pipeline from Casper, Wyoming, and Guernsey to Illinois; and Tallgrass Energy’s Pony Express Pipeline from Guernsey to Cushing. The major rail networks from the Bakken to the US Gulf Coast’s refining and export hubs are BNSF and the joint Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern networks, which are merging as part of a $25 billion acquisition. Crestwood Equity Partners’ prime COLT rail and trucking hub in the Bakken also stands to benefit. Even pipeline systems from North Dakota to Canada, such as Enbridge Line 26 and Plains All American Bakken North, could be utilized to move crude north and then back into the US through Enbridge’s Mainline network and others. “In a normal world, you probably wouldn’t be shipping crude north into Canada to bring it back into the US,”
Hoeven believes key priorities for oil and gas can still be won despite Biden administration –Among top priorities for Sen. John Hoeven right now is working behind the scenes to assure uninterrupted operation of the Dakota Access pipeline while a court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared. Hoeven told a group of energy industry leaders on Wednesday that he worked with Chairman Mark Fox on getting a tribal consultation on the Dakota Access pipeline, and that he has also been talking with the Corps about the situation, as well as colleagues on the Energy Committee, such as Senator Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from Virginia. “The key is that we can keep the Corps – they want oil to continue to flow while they do their EIS. And if we can just keep them on track and operating the pipeline, and then completing that EIS within something less than a year now, that’s a huge step,” Hoeven said. Hoeven said the Three Affiliated Tribes have a strong case with the federal government when it comes to Dakota Access, with around 230,000 barrels of oil coming off their reservation and traveling in that pipeline. “(The federal government) has a fiduciary duty to protect trust assets,” Hoeven said. “And they have a trust relationship with the tribe, so I’m hoping that’s helpful.” Hoeven said the Corps and Energy Transfer are taking additional safety precautions for the pipeline to try to accommodate concerns from the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota, as well as tribes in South Dakota. “This is something where we gotta work together, so it doesn’t get to be just looked at in a partisan way,” Hoeven said. “That’s what we want to stay on. The Corps is on track to continue to have it operate and complete the EIS. That’s the key. And that’s why we’re trying to keep i tin this framework, so neither the administration nor the courts, can come in and get it into more of a partisan fight.”
Canada’s Enerplus to buy some of Hess’ North Dakota assets (Reuters) – Canada’s Enerplus Corp said it would buy some assets in North Dakota’s Williston Basin from Hess Corp for $312 million, as improved oil price expectations have buoyed mergers and acquisitions in North America. Canada’s oil and gas sector had a record start to 2021 in terms of mergers and acquisitions as the energy sector benefits from a rebound in oil prices from the pandemic-led crash last year, and as smaller companies bet on economies of scale. Enerplus said it will buy 78,700 net acres in North Dakota, adjacent to its current core Bakken acreage, with about 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) of working interest production from Hess. The acquisition of largely undeveloped land has expanded Enerplus’ drilling inventory in the play by two to three years, Scotiabank analysts wrote in a note, adding its five-year plan to grow production modestly and emphasize free cash flow will likely be well received by investors. The deal, expected to close in May, will add to Enerplus’ adjusted free cash flow per share and net asset value in the first year, Enerplus said. The company raised its output guidance for the year to between 111,000 and 115,000 boepd, from 103,500 to 108,500 boepd, due to the acquisition as well as strong operating performance in North Dakota and higher-than-expected production in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus region. It also raised its 2021 spending plans to $360 million to $400 million from $335 million to $385 million. For Hess, the sale of the acreage, which it was not planning to drill before 2026, strengthens its cash and liquidity position. Last month, the company agreed to sell stakes in the two Danish oilfields to chemicals and energy group INEOS for $150 million.
M&A in U.S. oil and gas to hit $3.4 billion in Q1 2021 -Mergers and acquisitions in the upstream segment of the U.S. oil and gas industry hit $3.4 billion in the first quarter of the year, Reuters has reported, citing data from Enverus, the energy consultancy.The value of the deals in the first quarter compares with $600 million for the first quarter of 2020 but is less than the $27.8 billion in deals recorded for the fourth quarter of 2020.The five biggest deals last quarter involved a private company, Enverus noted in its report. These included Pioneer Natural Resources’ $6.4-billion acquisition of privately owned DoublePoint and Energy Transfer’s takeover of Enable Midstream Partners for $7.2 billion. Norway’s Equinor also made a deal with a private company last quarter – it sold oil-producing assets in the Bakken play to Grayson Mill Energy, a firm backed by private equity money. In February alone, mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. oil and gas upstream space totaled 35, up 12.9 percent on January but down 25.53 percent on the 12-month average, figures from GlobalData showed.According to a senior Enverus analyst, the uptrend will continue. Andrew Dittmar added that private companies are becoming more willing to buy now that oil companies’ stock prices are rising and they are looking to offload non-core assets.The pandemic that shook the oil and gas industry last year unleashed a wave of consolidation deals as companies grappled with the new reality of demand destruction and a gloomy long-term outlook. This led to some notable deals in the shale patch, including Chevron’s acquisition of Noble Energy and ConocoPhillips’ takeover of Concho Resources, both completed last year. According to analysts, these two deals marked the beginning of the M&A wave that is now expected to accelerate, with exploration and production companies with manageable debts and strong acreage positions tying up to benefit from each other’s strengths to emerge stronger from the current crisis with a higher appeal to disgruntled shareholders.
Railroad agrees to pay $140k for oil spill near Guernsey – The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company has agreed to pay a fine of $140,000 in connection with a 2019 oil spill. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that the organization settled with BNSF to pay for alleged Clean Water Act violations associated with an oil spill into the North Platte River near Guernsey. In February 2019, a derailment of three locomotives and three rail cars owned by BNSF caused a spill of 5,900 gallons of diesel fuel and 800 gallons of lubricating oil into the river in Wendover Canyon, northwest of Guernsey. Two of the derailed locomotives were the sources of the diesel and oil. BNSF reported the spill and an EPA coordinator was dispatched to the site. The railway company worked with the EPA and the state of Wyoming to clean up the spill. The Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of oil or hazardous substances to waters of the United States or its adjoining shorelines in quantities that may be harmful to public health.
Everett manufacturer settles oil spill fines for $222,000 – An Everett manufacturer is paying $222,200 to settle fines for two oil spills that polluted a stormwater pond and tainted local wildlife near Narbeck Creek. In July 2018, an Achilles USA employee dropped a moving tote with lubricating oil at the company’s south Everett facility, causing the container to rupture and spill into the building’s stormwater system. From there, the oil was flushed into a retention pond outside, where animals are known to hang out. While cleaning up that spill, responders found that an overflowing collection pit inside the facility was also draining into the retention pond. In all, 340 gallons of oil were dumped into the pond. It took three weeks to clean. Responders caught and cleaned six geese and a snake that were covered in oil. They also saw blue herons that were covered in oil, but couldn’t catch them. The state Department of Ecology initially cited Achilles USA, a plastic film manufacturer, last year for a $327,200 liability, negligence and failing to notify authorities of the incident. The settlement, approved by the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board, resolves the penalty. The money will go toward environmental restoration managed by public agencies and nonprofits. Achilles also has paid nearly $12,000 to cover the state’s expenses in responding to the spill, and nearly $4,000 for a separate natural resources damage assessment. .
California Is Greenlighting Oil Wells Linked to Groundwater Pollution — Throughout 2020 and early 2021, California issued more than 300 permits to oil and gas companies for new underground injection wells – an intensive form of oil production and wastewater disposal. But the actual number of new injection wells is likely higher, owing to the state’s opaque approval process that has drawn scrutiny from auditors and environmentalists. Some of these undercounted wells may be polluting groundwater used for public drinking and agricultural purposes, according to regulatory filings reviewed by Capital & Main. The impact of injection wells on groundwater in California is understudied, regulators say. The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM), which issues the permits and regulates the industry, is currently the subject of a lawsuit alleging the division issued permits for wells without required environmental reviews. Environmentalists say it’s another contradiction in the state’s energy policy, which seeks to position California as a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time issuing hundreds of permits for injection wells – an energy-intensive and pollution-heavy form of hydrocarbon production – and prolonging society’s dependence on fossil fuels. At least two assessments, one in Ventura County and another in Kern County, showed petroleum-related gases or fluids migrating into important aquifers. Most of the injection well permits issued by CalGEM were for oil production through cyclic steam, waterflooding or steamflooding, all of which involve pushing pressurized water into a layer of diatomite – a fossilized slice of earth containing hardened oil – and allowing the water to loosen the oil until it can be pumped out. Injection wells can be as deep as 5,000 feet and account for 60% of all produced oil in California, where much of the remaining supply is difficult to access by more conventional means. A related kind of well involves injecting water produced while extracting oil back into an underground aquifer to dispose of it. To do this, an aquifer must be exempted from federal protections by the EPA – a trend that accelerated under former President Trump’s administration. Injected water is also used to increase overall oil production in more than 95% of the state’s injection wells. It’s often mixed with toxic chemicals.
Pipeline leaks more than 1,600 gallons of oil at Inglewood Oil Field — A pipeline leaked more than 1,600 gallons of oil this week in the Inglewood Oil Field near Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area when a valve was left open. Human error caused the spill, which occurred at 8:10 a.m. Tuesday, according to a report from the state’s Office of Emergency Services. The report indicated that the spill had been contained and that E&B Natural Resources, the company that operates the pipeline, was handling the cleanup. In a statement, E&B spokesman Ted Cordova said that no injuries were reported and that the release of oil had remained contained due to an additional built-in safety measure to catch accidental spills. Mario Tresierras, chief of the L.A. County Fire Department’s Health Hazardous Materials Division, said that his team observed the cleanup and that the spill hadn’t warranted an evacuation or notification to residents. “We would have taken action” if there had been a safety risk, he said. But environmental groups Wednesday expressed alarm about residents who may have been exposed to toxins released into the air and renewed their concern about the Inglewood Oil Field, the largest urban oil field in the country. It spans about 1,000 acres around Culver City, Baldwin Hills and neighboring communities. “Any spill that occurs in close proximity to neighborhoods puts people at risk, especially vulnerable populations like kids and elderly and folks with respiratory illnesses,” said Hollin Kretzmann, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Pipeline Spills Over 1,600 Gallons of Oil Near Los Angeles Communities **More than 1,600 gallons of oil have spilled in the Inglewood Oil Field – the largest urban oil field in the country, where more than a million people live within five miles of its boundaries, the Sierra Club wrote in a statement on Wednesday.The spill was caused by a human error when a valve was left open, the Los Angeles Times reported. It was also not the field’s first spill. Past spills at the Inglewood Oil Field, located in Culver City and Los Angeles County, have occurred in 2019, 2018, 2010, 2006 and 2005, exposing residents in the area to toxins and carcinogens, the Sierra Club added.After a history of community organizing, Tuesday’s spill arms activists with further momentum to fight against this major public health and environmental crisis in California’s largest county.”Yesterday’s oil spill is a deadly reminder that the environmental racism that’s shaped and harmed Black, Indigenous, and people of color continues to put our health at risk,” Martha Dina Arguello, of the STAND-LA Coalition, an environmental justice coalition, and Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, said in a Sierra Club statement. Of the people living in the area, 52 percent are Black, which is a much higher percentage than the countywide eight percent, the Sierra Club reported. The oil field is also located alongside homes and schools, putting families at risk for health outcomes from air pollution like lung disease, leukemia, lymphoma, lung cancer and asthma. In Baldwin Hills, asthma related ER visits are 4.4 times higher than the Los Angeles County average.”A pattern of oil spills and the daily and ‘authorized’ toxic emissions both demonstrate that oil extraction is [an] inherently dangerous practice that has no place in our region. We look forward to working with Los Angeles County to take immediate steps to phase out oil and gas production,” Arguello added, according to the Sierra Club.
Hilcorp shuts down two offshore platforms in Cook Inlet after natural gas leaks from fuel line — Hilcorp Alaska shut down two offshore production platforms in Cook Inlet after a helicopter pilot spotted bubbling water on the surface last week. Natural gas was leaking from a line that provides fuel for the platforms’ operations, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation reported in a statement on Monday. Hilcorp stopped the leak on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., activating block valves, the agency said. The pilot discovered the leak on Thursday at about 4:30 p.m. Hilcorp reported the leak to the federal National Response Center and the state agency about an hour after the pilot discovered the bubbles, DEC said. Hilcorp notified appropriate federal and state agencies after the leak was discovered and immediately began shutting down the impacted facilities at Platforms A and C, Hilcorp spokesman Luke Miller said in a statement on Monday. “No sheen has been observed,” Miller said. “An assessment of the source of the leak is ongoing. No personnel or wildlife have been impacted.”
Shell Warns Oil-Price Gains Partly Offset by Hit From Texas Freeze – WSJ – Royal Dutch Shell PLC said gains it made from higher oil prices in the first quarter would be partly offset by disruption related to the winter storm in Texas, knocking the energy giant’s recovery from the pandemic.The company said Wednesday that the cold snap had hurt its production, refining and chemicals operations in the state, and would reduce earnings by around $200 million.The unusually cold weather left millions of Texans without power and resulted in outages at refineries and chemical plants, disrupted pipeline flows, and froze oil and natural-gas wells.Despite the disruption, Shell and other big oil companies are looking to mount a recovery this year after reporting some of their worst results on record for 2020. Covid-19 lockdowns sapped demand for oil, sending prices lower, prompting Shell and its peers to reduce costs, shrink workforces and cut dividends.”In actual results the turning point will more likely be the second quarter,” said Jason Kenney, an analyst at Spanish bank Santander, adding that energy companies’ profitability should continue to improve in the second half of the year given cost cutting and the higher oil prices.
The Oil Industry Receives An Unexpected Boost From Biden — The election of President Joe Biden has been the cause of much hand-wringing in the United States oil and gas sector. The current U.S. president has made clean energy and climate change a central part of his platform, at what many fear will be the expense of shale, one of the nation’s key economic sectors. This rather alarmist missive came on the heels of the then very new president’s decision to pull the plug on the massive Keystone XL pipeline project on his very first day in office. Babin’s sentiments have been echoed by plenty of oilfield insiders and pro-oil pundits who have not been shy about decrying the new administration’s less than cozy relationship with the shale sector. That sentiment is understandable, with Biden’s Energy Secretary pick Jennifer Granholm issuing an ultimatum to the oil industry to adapt or die. Despite this rhetoric, it seems that the Biden administration is now throwing the oil industry a bone. The president’s much-touted infrastructure initiative is going to call for asphalt – lots and lots of asphalt – in an unexpected boon for the domestic oil sector. Last week Biden presented his $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal that will provide a number of economic opportunities for oil, including $115 billion allocated to roads and bridges, and an additional $16 billion to get out of work oilfield laborers back into paid positions plugging abandoned wells across the United States. The biggest opportunity, however, lies in the sky-high asphalt demand embedded in the infrastructure spending bill. The biggest winners may not be in the domestic market though. Since asphalt is derived from “the heaviest and most-dense material in a barrel of crude” this development could stand to benefit Canada’sstruggling oil sands the most, which will be ecstatic for any new market for their heavy crude bitumen. In fact, while the Biden administration is charging full steam ahead on the clean energy transition, with massive investments into electric vehicles and renewables, it’s clear that they have been listening to the oil sector and have been making a concerted effort not to leave oilfield workers behind. “Since taking office two months ago, Biden’s been more boon than bane for a fossil-fuel industry that was wary of the ascendance of a politician bent on accelerating the energy transition,”Bloomberg reported last week, citing Goldman Sachs’ assertion that Biden has been bullish for oil overall.
Enbridge sticks to North American oil, gas, renewables strategy – Canada’s Enbridge expects future spending on growth projects to be more heavily weighted to natural gas and renewables than oil, as it works to meet its carbon reduction goals, CEO Al Monaco said April 7. While the North American midstream operator is betting on fossil fuels, including crude, being an integral part of the global fuel mix for decades to come, it is mindful of the challenge in building new cross-border oil pipelines due to regulatory hurdles and fierce opposition from environmental groups. It also believes it can leverage growth from certain existing infrastructure with a less intensive amount of new spending. During a discussion at the webcast Scotiabank CAPP Energy Symposium, Monaco said Enbridge wants to maintain its current approach and address the energy transition at the same time. Enbridge is holding to a fourth-quarter in-service target for its project to replace Line 3 — a 1,097-mile crude oil pipeline extending from Edmonton, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin, Monaco said. “The liquid systems are going to be generating cash for a long time from here,” Monaco said. “Maybe, we are not going to convince every investor of that, but that’s how we see it.” Enbridge’s goal in recent years has been to run a pure-play utility pipeline business that focuses on generating predictable long-term fixed fees. The company has sold billions of dollars in non-core assets to overhaul its portfolio around that mission, and it has retooled its corporate structure following the 2017 acquisition of US midstream operator Spectra Energy. Amid the current push by countries around the world to reduce their carbon footprint and use cleaner-burning fuels, Enbridge has also invested more in renewables, including wind and hydrogen. It views natural gas, because of its reliability, as a critical piece in building a bridge to a future with greater use of intermittent renewable energy.
Canadian pipeline companies sees natgas opportunities in shift to green energy (Reuters) -Canada’s largest pipeline companies TC Energy and Enbridge Inc see opportunities in their extensive natural gas businesses as a transition to cleaner energy evolves, their chief executives said on Wednesday. The two Calgary-based companies are among North America’s largest energy infrastructure firms, and the majority of their business is focused on storing and transporting fossil fuels. TC Energy has the biggest natural gas pipeline system in North America, and CEO Francois Poirier said the company sees plenty of opportunities to allocate capital to that business in the form of organic bolt-on projects. Storage and transportation assets will be key as the energy transition moves forward and new technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions like carbon capture and storage and hydrogen are developed, Poirier said at the online Scotiabank CAPP Energy Symposium. “Transition can’t come fast enough from our perspective but we have to pace it appropriately. I believe natural gas and liquids will continue to play a prominent role in the energy economy for decades to come,” he said. “I believe our existing assets will continue to be used and be useful for quite a long time and generate a tremendous amount of cash flow that we will be able to deploy into the energy transition.” Enbridge CEO Al Monaco, speaking at the same conference, said he saw gas as the “great enabler” for the energy transition because it is a reliable source of power that can backstop renewables. “It’s low-cost, abundant, it’s important in reducing utilization of coal, but it’s equally important in fostering renewables. You’ve got to be able to create baseload capability and it addresses the enormous intermittency challenges,” he said.
Pemex aims to keep financial debt steady, increase crude refining (Reuters) – Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos expects to maintain financial debt of $105 billion between 2021 and 2025 and increase crude refining, the state oil company said on Tuesday. Pemex, as the company is known, said one of its priorities will be to free up funds and gradually pay back some of its debt without necessarily taking on new obligations. “It is clear that high indebtedness represents a structural problem, attention to which should not be delayed,” Pemex said in its latest business plan. “In the medium term, we do not rule out restructuring.” Ratings agencies stripped Pemex of its coveted investment grade rating last year because of its high debt and other concerns. Pemex also said it expects crude refining to be 1.1 million barrels per day this year and rise to 1.6 million barrels per day in 2025.
Heritage Petroleum cleans oil spill near Vessigny – AN OPEN VALVE on a Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd crude oil tank led to approximately 318 liters of oil spilling into nearby watercourses, a release to the media said. Heritage said they are now in the process of cleaning the watercourse. The release said it was alerted to the leak by a video circulating on social media, showing oil in a watercourse near its AV106 well site in Vessigny, La Brea. Heritage said it took immediate action to determine the source of the leak which was traced to a crude oil tank at the well site. “Cleaning up the area is proceeding in accordance with established industry standards and protocols. Continuous assessment and monitoring of the site is also ongoing. All regulatory bodies were notified of the incident,” Heritage said. Heritage added that it is using booms – floating physical barriers which contain oil in watercourses during spills – in strategic locations. The release said this was not the first time that such an incident happened. “The previous incident was the result of the deliberate tampering of a valve on the tank. Subsequently, Heritage implemented an engineered solution with a view to curtailing similar incidents.” Heritage said tampering with its equipment could lead to serious injury of people and damage to the environment.
Argentina’s Illegal Oil and Gas Waste Dumps Show ‘Dark Side’ of Vaca Muerta Drilling, Says Criminal Complaint – On December 21, 2020, environmental crimes investigators in the western Argentine province of Neuquen carried out a raid against a company that handles fracking waste in the heart of the Vaca Muerta shale basin, a booming oil and gas field in northern Patagonia. They seized a cache of documents, and opened an investigation into the potential illegal handling of massive volumes of fracking waste.The raid on the Argentine waste company Comarsa by the office of Environmental Crimes and Special Laws, a unit under Neuquen’s chief prosecutor, was prompted by a lengthy criminal complaint filed to the office just a few days earlier by a group of environmental lawyers. Within the complaint, the lawyers document what they describe as a decade-long illegal accumulation of toxic fracking waste at multiple sites in the city of Neuquen, the largest city in Patagonia with a population over 300,000. The sites are located within the city and also on the outskirts of Anelo, a small desert town of 8,000 about an hour and a half drive northwest of Neuquen and the unofficial drilling capital of the Vaca Muerta.But the criminal complaint didn’t just target Comarsa, one of the leading handlers of fracking waste in the Vaca Muerta. It also pointed fingers at the municipalities of Neuquen and Anelo, the Secretariat of Territorial Development and Environment (environmental regulators for the province of Neuquen), and the region’s top oil producers, including ExxonMobil and Chevron. “The Vaca Muerta oil dumps are the result of a series of maneuvers that are part of a collusion between companies and state authorities,” Rafael Colombo, a lawyer for the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers, or AAAA,said in a press release when he filed the criminal complaint in December. According to AAAA, Comarsa earns huge sums “for the treatment of waste that they never treat,” Colombo said, “then they get the State to give them public lands to end up disposing of hazardous waste illegally.”The illegal fracking waste sites are the “dark side” of Vaca Muerta, he said.Fracking for oil and gas produces enormous quantities of liquid and solid waste. After a well is drilled, a slurry of water, drilling fluids, and other chemicals is injected into the well at extreme pressures to fracture the rock. Much of the resulting toxic cocktail, which can contain heavy metals and naturally occurring radioactive contamination, is returned to the surface for disposal.Drill cuttings, the pulverized rock from the drilling process, can also be radioactive.Disposing of this waste presents problems for drillers. Sometimes they reinject it deep underground, a process that can contribute to increased seismic activity. Drillers may also store waste in tanks or lined pits, or “recycle” and repurpose it for other industrial uses, each of which carries its own set of environmental and safety hazards.
Colombia oil workers join anti-fracking campaign (Reuters) – Colombia’s largest oil union has joined anti-fracking activists to oppose the development of non-conventional energy deposits and demand a quicker transition to renewable energy, campaigners said on Tuesday. The Petroleum Industry Workers Union (USO) and the Colombia Free from Fracking Alliance said in a joint statement they are joining forces to protect the Magdalena Medio region and the country as a whole from non-conventional exploration. Colombians are divided over the development of non-conventional deposits, including fracking for shale gas and coal bed methane. Commercial development of the deposits is currently not permitted, but the country’s highest administrative court is holding hearings ahead of a final ruling and has allowed pilot projects to go ahead in the meantime. “(USO) is joining forces with different social and political organizations in the country to oppose this type of exploitation and advocates an accelerated just energy transition,” union president Edwin Palma said in a post on Twitter. Some 120 other organizations form part of the anti-fracking alliance. USO has around 30,000 members.
Dutch cargo ship adrift off Norway after dramatic rescue (Reuters) – The crew of a Dutch cargo ship was evacuated in stormy weather off the coast of Norway late on Monday, leaving the abandoned vessel adrift and in danger of sinking and causing an oil spill, local authorities said on Tuesday. Footage released by the Norwegian Rescue Coordination Centre showed some of the 12 crew members jumping into the ocean from the badly listing Eemslift Hendrika before being rescued by helicopter. Others were hoisted directly from the deck. All were brought to safety, but the vessel – currently some 130 km (80 miles) off the coast in the North Sea – is at risk of sinking, Norwegian officials said. “The ship lost power on the main engine during the night and is drifting towards land,” Hans Petter Mortensholm of the Norwegian Coastal Administration, told public broadcaster NRK. “There is a risk it may capsize and sink,” Mortensholm said, adding that this could cause a spill. The Hendrika has around 350 tonnes of heavy oil and 50 tonnes of diesel in its tanks, the Coastal Administration said in a statement. Smit Salvage, a subsidiary of the Dutch marine services company Boskalis, told Reuters it had been contracted to try saving the ship and was mobilising a team to send to Norway later on Tuesday. Safety permitting, Smit would seek to get its own crew on board the Hendrika and link the vessel to a so-called anchor handling tug, a powerful ship built to move rigs for the oil industry. “Getting her onto a tow line and to a calmer location, that is the goal,” Smit Salvage spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer said. .
Norway fears cargo ship will run aground, spill oil within hours (Reuters) – A Dutch cargo ship that was abandoned at sea during a storm this week is on course to run aground in Norway early on Thursday and could cause an oil spill unless a last-ditch effort to save the vessel prevails, local officials said on Wednesday. The Eemslift Hendrika, badly listing after parts of its cargo shifted in the rough weather, is adrift just 18 kilometres (11 miles) from shore and could make landfall at around 0230 GMT, the Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA) said. While the NCA earlier said the Hendrika was drifting parallel to the coast, and that rescue efforts could wait for another day while two large tugs remain on standby, it will now accelerate the effort. “We’ve succeeded in lowering a salvage crew onto the Eemslift Hendrika. They are working to establish tow lines,” the NCA said in a statement. The Hendrika has around 350 tonnes of heavy oil and 50 tonnes of diesel in its tanks, it added. Footage released by the Norwegian Rescue Coordination Centre on Tuesday showed some of the original crew members jumping into the sea before being rescued by helicopter. Others were hoisted directly from the deck.
An Italian oil tanker suffered a technical failure in the Suez Canal. — According to local media reports in Egypt, on April 6 local time, the Italian oil tanker Rumford stopped at 133 kilometers of the Suez Canal due to “technical failure” when sailing from Hungary to the Suez Canal. Sources indicate that the ship’s failure in the middle of the Suez Canal “did not affect its navigation”, and tugboats will transport it to Great Bitter Lake for troubleshooting.
Russian region hit by oil spill at Bashneft field – A major oil spill from an infield pipeline has reportedly left a spring in central Russia heavily polluted. Bashneft, a regional subsidiary of oil giant Rosneft, has acknowledged the spill from a pipeline running near the village of Pavlovka in the Bizhbulyaksky district in the Bashkiria region.The acknowledgement came after local residents and the region’s Emergency Situations Ministry posted photographs of the accident online on 1 April, showing a local spring running across a field that has been heavily polluted by a dark substance.According to the Emergency Situations Ministry, about 300 cubic metres of “an oil and water mixture” has been spilled from a pipeline, running from the nearby Skhapovskoye field that is being developed by Bashneft. About 350 square metres of ground have been polluted with oil, with spill response teams continuing to remove polluted soil from the site of the incident and transport it to a processing site in the Ishimbaysky district.Bashneft said in a short statement that “an insignificant volume” of liquid containing oil was spilled and has been surrounded by booms.”There is no threat of oil-containing liquid entering water reservoirs,” it said. At least two major oil spills were reported in March at oilfields in West Siberia operated by Rosneft subsidiaries Yuganskneftegaz and Nyaganneftegaz. An oil spill accident on the Malo-Balykskoye field, developed by Yuganskneftegaz, was initially spotted by passengers of a local train who then reported it to authorities.As representatives of the regional Emergency Situations Ministry arrived to the site, they reportedly discovered that the operator had already taken most of polluted soil from the accident site after failing to promptly report the incident to authorities.According to an official estimate, up to 1500 cubic metres (about 9434 barrels) of the oil and water mixture was leaked from a ruptured field pipeline to the ground and nearby lakes.The true scope o f oil pollution at the Malo-Balykskoye field will be gauged once all snow melts in the area, according to the ministry.Another incident was registered on the Talinsky block that is licenced to Nyaganneftegaz, with an estimated 50 cubic metres (about 314 barrels) of oil escaping from a faulty pipeline.An earlier incident on the Ob river near the West Siberian city of Nizhnevartovsk went viral in Russian social networks in early March as witnesses filmed a fire on the river surface. According to authorities, light hydrocarbons were leaked from a ruptured pipeline on the riverbed and then ignited.
Russia slashes 2021-2022 oil production forecasts -Russia is slashing its estimates for domestic crude oil, gas, and coal production for 2021 and 2022, according to the latest amendments in the government’s program for energy development.As per the latest forecasts from the Russian government, oil production this year is set to stand at 517 million tons, down from a previous estimate of 560 million tons. The projection for Russia’s oil output in 2022 was also reduced, to 548 million tons, down from earlier estimates of production of 558 million tons, TASS news agency reports.The estimates for the oil production for 2023 and 2024 remain unchanged, according to the document approved by the government.Natural gas production is also estimated lower than previous projections, as is coal output. Yet, the Russian government kept its projection for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production the same as in earlier forecasts, expecting LNG production at 30.1 million tons in 2021. Last month, Russia’s government approved a long-term development program for LNG, expecting production capacity to rise threefold from current levels to 140 million tons per year by 2035.Russia is also targeting increased LNG exports, considering the expectations of sustained growth in LNG demand and trade globally, Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in March. Still, the reduced forecasts for oil production for this year and next likely reflect, in part, the ongoing OPEC+ agreement.
Shell confirms oil spill in Bayelsa community – The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has confirmed oil spill from its facility at Agbura-Otuokpoti area of Yenagoa, the state capital. The comapny’s Media Relations Manager, Bamidele Odugbesan, confirmed the incident in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa on Friday. Odugbesan said the company got a report of the spill on March 31. “At about 8.30am on March 31, a community surveillance vendor reported a leak on the company’s Joint Venture pipeline at Nun River in Bayelsa. “Following the development, the facility was shut down and full isolation established at 09.45am. “The SPDC Oil Spill Response Team was mobilised to the spill site and was able to contain the spill to prevent further spread. “The Joint Investigation Visit team led by government regulator will determine the cause and impact of the spill,” Odugbesan said. He, however, said that there was an anonymous note found at the spill site, suggesting sabotage. Residents, who said the oil workers had yet to come to the site as at Friday, have resorted to scooping oil from water surface into drums. Daniel Ebitimi, who claimed that crude oil has curative effect on burns and skin diseases, said he collected some kegs, which he hoped to sell. The predominantly fishing and farming settlements regretted that the leakage discharged large volumes of crude oil into the River, resulting in pollution of the waters.
NGO tackles Chevron over oil spill in Gbaramatu — The Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice on Monday said the failure of Chevron Nigeria Limited to accept responsibility for the Gbaramatu oil spill was to undermine the wellbeing and environment of people living in the affected communities. CEPEJ said the oil spill had continued to ravage the affected areas for almost two months, as it faulted the denial by Chevron with respect to the spill. The Chief Executive Officer, CEPEJ, Chief Sheriff Mulade, said in a statement that Chevron’s claim that its facilities were not responsible for the oil spill because the pressure in its control room did not indicate that there was a leakage or a drop somewhere was not tenable. He argued that Chevron should re-examine its claim as there could be system failure that had made it difficult for it to detect the leakage from its facilities in the affected communities. Although he admitted that Chevron shared facilities with the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company field Jones Creek flow-station in the affected location, Chevron’s 16″ crude line runs from Makaraba through Otunana to Abiteye and the leakage was between Otunana and Abiteye. Mulade stated that from the detailed investigations carried out by CEPEJ on the oil spill, the leakage was at the centre of Nana River, located between Kokodiag-bane and Benikrukru. “The two communities are adjacent and opposite each other, while in-between them is the Nana River that is a ship line route where all vessels pass through to Sapele, Koko and Lagos ports,” he said. He insisted that Chevron’s facilities in the affected areas might not be exonerated from the spill. Mulade said, “If you do an over flight like I hear Chevron did, you may not be able to see the point of leakage because the spill is deep under the river and you may not see it when you move around but only when the tide slows down. “And because the spill is gas pressured, you stand a chance of being suffocated in the area if you stay there for more than five to 10 minutes. That is the extent to which the spill is dangerous.” CEPEJ said it had earlier called on Chevron to immediately address the spill, but noted that the response from the company had not been impressive. Reacting to the position of the NGO, Chevron insisted that the oil spill was not from its assets. A statement sent to our correspondent on Monday by the oil firm read in part, “CNL (Chevron Nigeria Limited) has investigated and continues to survey its assets in the Abiteye and Utonana fields including the 16” Makaraba-Utonana-Abiteye right-of-way. “And CNL confirms that there has not been any indication that the oil sheen on water is from its assets in Abiteye, Makaraba and Utonana fields or from any other CNL facilities as alleged.”
Coast Guard collects 2K-liter oil residue from sunken ship – The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and local community were able to collect at least 2,000 liters of oil residue from an old cargo ship that sank in the coastal Barangay Lower Jasaan, Jasaan town, Misamis Oriental on Sunday. Sabas Tagarda Jr., Lower Jasaan village chairman, said the oil residue was caused by the sinking of MV Racal IV, a cargo boat that had been docked at a local shipyard in Lower Jasaan five years ago. Using sawdust and mosquito net, PCG was able to collect the oil that was already mixed with saltwater. He said to capture the oil, sawdust is spread out to the sea. Oil is absorbed by the sawdust which is then gathered using the mosquito net. “It is simple yet effective. So far, we were able to collect almost half of the oil in my area of responsibility,” Tagarda said, adding that it is his hope that other village leaders will follow this method. However, residents in the said barangay have also expressed concern that oil spill caused by the sunken old cargo ship could affect the livelihood of the village’s fisherfolk. Petty Officer 2nd Class Ronald Moncayo, acting chief of the PCG’s Marine Environment Protection Force based in Misamis Oriental, said the sinking occurred early Saturday morning, Prior to that, it was already reported there was a hull breach that is causing the seawater to seep into the vessel. He added that a salvage company has asked permission to “pump out” any remaining fluids such as oil inside the boat before scrapping it, adding that the ship was no longer operational and was sold to a new owner when it sank. “I told them (salvage company) to put spill booms around the vessel as requirement before we could allow them to conduct a ‘pump out,’ but it sank before the salvaging company could comply with the requirement,” Moncayo said.
Fire, oil spill at Chinas Penglai platform- Update — An offshore crude production platform in China’s Bohai bay has caught fire and spilt oil, forcing output to be halted, market participants said.The accident happened on 5 April at the Penglai 19-3 field, which is operated by state-owned CNOOC in a 51:49 venture with US independent ConocoPhillips. The third wellhead production platform at Penglai’s phase 3 caught fire and has been largely destroyed, leaving some workers missing, according to industry participants in China.The incident was confirmed by an employee at one of the companies involved, although the details are unclear. ConocoPhillips referred questions to CNOOC. CNOOC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The platform is still on fire and at risk of collapse if the blaze is not extinguished soon, a market participant said.Penglai 19-3 was one of China’s largest oil fields when it was discovered more than 20 years ago. ConocoPhillips also has a 49pc non-operating share in Penglai’s 19-9 and 25-6 blocks, which together with the 19-3 field produced a combined 30,000 b/d in 2020. The phase 3 project comprises mainly three new wellhead platforms and a central processing facility.The Penglai fields produce heavy-sweet crude that is sold to CNOOC’s own refineries and to independent refiners in Shandong province.An oil spill at the Penglai fields in 2011 resulted in CNOOC and ConocoPhillips paying several hundred million dollars in compensation.
CNOOC sees minimal output hit from China oil field fire — China’s state-controlled CNOOC expects a fire at one of its offshore platforms earlier this week to reduce crude production by around 600,000 bl this year.A production platform at the company’s Penglai fields in northeast China’s Bohai bay was hit by a fire on 5 April after shallow gas overflowed during drilling operations, CNOOC said today in its first comment on the incident.Argus reported the fire yesterday.The fire was extinguished on 6 April and there has been no oil spill or environmental pollution so far, CNOOC said. The company evacuated 99 of the 102 people on the platform at the time of the incident, and search operations are underway for the three missing workers.The incident is likely to affect up to around 600,000 bl of production this year, which CNOOC estimated at 0.1pc of its total output. CNOOC has set aproduction target of 1.49mn-1.52mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) this year. It produced 1.44mn boe/d in 2020, including 1.12mn b/d of liquids.The fire hit the third wellhead platform at the Penglai 19-3 field’s phase 3 operations, market participants s aid. CNOOC operates the field in a 51:49 joint venture with US independent ConocoPhillips.
Qatar Petroleum and Shell Partner in Namibia – Qatar Petroleum announced on Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement with Shell to become a partner in two exploration blocks offshore the Republic of Namibia. Under the terms of the deal, which is said to be subject to customary approvals, Qatar Petroleum will hold a 45 percent participating interest in the PEL 39 exploration license in Block 2913A and Block 2914B. Shell will hold a 45 percent operated interest in the asset and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) will hold the remaining 10 percent stake. The PEL 39 blocks are located in ultra-deep-water depths of about 8,200 feet, covering an area of approximately 4,750 square miles, Qatar Petroleum highlighted. This is the company’s second exploration license in Namibia. In August 2019, the business entered into agreements for participating in blocks 2913B and 2912 offshore Namibia. “With this second exploration and production sharing agreement in Namibia, we are pleased to expand our exploration footprint in the country, and to further strengthen our presence in the southern Africa region,” Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the minister of state for energy affairs, and the president and chief executive officer of Qatar Petroleum, said in a company statement. According to Shell’s website, Shell Namibia Upstream BV currently has a 45 percent controlling interest in PEL 39, with Kosmos Energy holding a 45 percent stake and NAMCOR holding the remaining 10 percent interest. Shell completed three seismic surveys of PEL 39 between 2014 and 2019, the company notes on its website, adding that the purpose of the surveys was to identify geological structures below the seabed which might contain oil or gas.
Eni Makes New Light Oil Find – Eni has announced that it has made a new light oil discovery in Block 15/06 in Angola’s deep offshore. The Cuica-1 NFW well, which was drilled on the Cuica exploration prospect located inside the Cabaca Development Area, resulted in an oil find estimated to be between 200 million and 250 million barrels of oil in place, Eni revealed. Cuica-1 NFW was drilled as a deviated well by the Libongos drillship in a water depth of 1,640 feet, and reached a total vertical depth of 13,451 feet, encountering a 262-foot total column of reservoir of light oil in sandstones of Miocene age with good petrophysical properties, Eni noted. The company added that the discovery well is going to be sidetracked “updip” to be placed in an “optimal position” as a producer well. Eni said the result of “intensive” data collection indicates an expected production capacity of around 10,000 barrels of oil per day. The well-head location, intentionally placed close to East Hub’s subsea network, will allow a fast-track tie-in of the well and relevant production, Eni stated. The company expects that production will start within six months after the discovery. Cuica is the second significant oil discovery inside the existing Cabaca Development Area, Eni highlighted. Block 15/06 is operated by Eni with a 36.8421 percent interest, Sonangol P&P, which also has a 36.8421 percent stake, and SSI Fifteen Limited, which holds the remaining 26.3158 interest. Last month, Eni, through Var Energi, which is jointly owned by Eni (69.85 percent) and by HitecVision (30.15 percent) announced a “significant” oil discovery in production license 090/090I in the northern North Sea. During the same month, and again through Var Energi, Eni announced an oil discovery in production license PL532 in the Barents Sea. Back in December, Eni announced a new oil discovery in the Meleiha Concession in the Western Desert of Egypt.
Oman oil exports stage strong rebound in March – Oman’s oil exports rebounded from a 19-month low in February to average 776,000 b/d in March, according to energy ministry data. A reduction in crude intake at the country’s refineries left more available for export last month, according to a ministry source. The near 10pc jump from February’s 709,000 b/d marks the biggest month-on-month increase in shipments of Oman Export Blend since June 2020. Oman’s export grade is a blend of crude and condensate. Data for Oman’s refined product output and consumption last month is not yet available. But an emergency shutdown of a residual fluid catalytic cracker at Oman’s 198,000 b/d Sohar refinery in the middle of the month boosted the amount of crude that was available for export, according to the ministry source. The shutdown lasted for around 20 days and ended yesterday. A nationwide night-time curfew imposed at the start of the month will also have weighed on demand for transport fuels, which had recovered somewhat in February, when Covid-19 measures were more relaxed. According to the latest data from Oman’s National Centre for Statistics and Information, domestic gasoil demand rose by 6pc on the month to 36,000 b/d in February, while gasoline demand edged up by 1pc to 60,500 b/d over the same period. Jet fuel demand, however, fell by 12pc to 3,600 b/d in February, in large part due to a ban on flights from 10 countries that came into effect in February. Official data for March will likely be released in the last week of this month. Increased condensate production since the middle of last year has helped Oman keep its overall liquids production at relatively elevated levels, despite its participation in the Opec+ output restraint deal. Condensate production has been excluded from the agreement since December 2019. Oman’s condensate output edged up to 222,000 b/d in March, from 220,000 b/d in February, just shy of January’s record high of 228,000 b/d. The sultanate’s crude production was also marginally up on the month at 730,000 b/d, from 729,000 b/d in February, but still below its current Opec+ crude output ceiling of 732,000 b/d. This puts Oman’s total liquids output at 952,000 b/d in March, up marginally from 949,000 b/d in February.
Indian refiners limit cuts to May Saudi crude imports – State-controlled Indian refiners have asked to buy around 9.5mn bl (305,000 b/d) of term crude from Saudi Arabia for May loading, lower than typical levels in line with a government directive to reduce the country’s dependence on Mideast Gulf crude, a senior official involved in the import talks said. The planned cuts to India’s May nominations come as souring relations between Delhi and Riyadh have prompted a renewed import diversification drive. But the extent of the proposed May cuts is relatively mild – equivalent to only around a 5pc decline on pre-Covid import levels, according to Argus’ analysis of state-controlled importers’ internal purchase data – and in line with a potential fall in fuel demand as India fights a resurgent Covid-19 outbreak. State-run IOC, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum imported a combined 17mn t/yr (10mn bl/month or 340,000 b/d) of crude from Saudi Arabia in the April 2019-March 2020 financial year, before the pandemic disrupted trade flows. Saudi arrivals fell to an average of around 8.8mn bl/month, or 290,000 b/d, in the 10 months between April 2020 and January 2021, in line with a drop in India’s total imports, the company data show. State-controlled Saudi Aramco has typically cut its allocations to Asia-Pacific buyers over the past year to comply with Opec+ production curbs, which may have sent actual deliveries below contractual volumes. Smaller refiners MRPL and HMEL buy some Saudi crude under term deals, and private-sector Reliance Industries (RIL) and Nayara take a significant amount of Saudi crude. Privately operated companies are not covered by the government directives. India’s crude imports from Saudi Arabia fell to 753,000 b/d in 2020 from 855,000 b/d a year earlier, as the Covid-19 pandemic hit demand. Imports were 640,000 b/d in the first quarter of this year, according to Vortexa. The relationship between India and Saudi Arabia has come under pressure since Opec+ cuts helped send Ice Brent crude futures prices to around $70/bl last month. Delhi has complained about Opec+ policies, leading Saudi Arabia to suggest that India withdraws some of the lower-priced crude stocks it built up when markets crashed last year. High fuel taxes in India have helped send pump prices to record levels, making oil prices a sensitive political issue. Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, under pressure to reduce prices, has resent instructions to state-run refiners to diversify their crude supplies, officials at the refiners said.
Libya’s largest oilfield could see exports interrupted – The largest oilfield in Libya, the 300,000-bpd Sharara field, could see crude oil exports from it disrupted if members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) follow through with their threat to shut down exports if their demands for pay are not met. Earlier this week, the PFG issued an ultimatum demanding they be paid field allowance compensation, Argus reported on Thursday.The Sharara oilfield was pumping crude oil near its capacity, at a rate of 280,000 bpd as of the middle of March, according to internal memos of the Akakus Oil joint venture operating the oilfield seen by Argus. The threats of guards disrupting exports over unpaid wages or other allowances are nothing new in Libya’s oil industry, which has been suffering for ten years now from fighting since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011.In February this year, a tanker had to leave Libya’s Hariga export terminal without oil after members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard stopped the vessel from loading crude amid a strike over delayed salary payments.In March, a new cabinet was sworn in, the first unity government of the war-torn country since 2014, reviving hopes that Libya could see more stability in oil production going forward. Libya – exempted from the OPEC+ cuts – surprised many oil market observers, and probably the OPEC+ group itself, after managing in just a few months to restore its oil production back to 1.25 million bpd from less than 100,000 in September 2020, when an eight-month-long blockade on its oil ports ended.Libya may be able to maintain its current level of oil production of around 1.2 million bpd until the end of this year as the oil sector is finally receiving enough funding for field maintenance and development, Libya’s Oil Minister Mohamed Oun told Bloomberg in an interview last month. In March, Oun was sworn in as the first oil minister of the country since 2014.
OPEC is betting big on robust oil demand recovery -Last week’s surprise decision from OPEC+ to ease the production cuts by a cumulative 2 million barrels per day (bpd) by July relies on expectations of robust oil demand recovery in the second quarter. Yet, recent demand concerns suggest the alliance’s supply management policies could once again be more in the realm of guestimates.The easing of the collective cuts by over 1 million bpd over the next three months, plus Saudi Arabia reversing gradually its extra 1 million bpd cut signal that OPEC+ expects demand to rebound strongly and justify supply increases, Reuters columnist Clyde Russell writes. However, the unpredictability of the COVID resurgence in major economies lagging behind in vaccination programs could spoil the OPEC+ forecasts and supply management policies once again. Last week, OPEC+ decided to gradually increase collective oil production by 350,000 bpd in each of May and June and by more than 400,000 bpd in July. Additionally, Saudi Arabia will also gradually ease its extra unilateral cut of 1 million bpd over the course of the next few months, beginning with monthly production increases of 250,000 bpd in each of May and June.Although the initial knee-jerk reaction to the outcome of the OPEC+ meeting on Thursday was heavy selling in oil because additional supply is coming, prices finished strong that day with more than 3-percent gains as the market realized that OPEC+ expects strengthening of oil demand with its decision to put more crude on the market. Asia’s demand for crude looks strong as gasoline demand looks robust, but demand for diesel and jet fuel is still soft, according to Reuters’ Russell. India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, added another scare to oil demand forecasts this week, with a record-high number of new COVID cases and a lockdown in the biggest city, MumbaiMost analysts continue to believe that the market will be able to absorb the new barrels from OPEC+ with strengthening demand going into the summer months. Goldman Sachs, for example, is still bullish on oil and anticipates strong demand that would require OPEC+ putting another 2 million bpd on the market in the third quarter, after the around 2 million bpd that the alliance and Saudi Arabia decided to return between May and July.
Oil prices hang in the balance ahead of Iran nuclear talks, but experts don’t expect a breakthrough — The U.S. and Iran are ramping up efforts to resolve a nuclear standoff that has global oil markets on edge and experts skeptical of success. “It’s crunch time for these negotiations,” Helima Croft, global head of commodities strategy at RBC Capital Markets told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Tuesday, as representatives gathered in Vienna, Austria for “indirect talks” aimed at bringing both countries back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. “We’re going into election season in Iran in a couple of weeks, and if we don’t get a significant breakthrough in these negotiations, everything is likely to freeze,” she said. While the talks are the most significant step forward yet in efforts to revive the deal, neither side expects a major breakthrough. Iranian officials want the U.S. to end Trump-era economic sanctions before returning to compliance – a concession Washington seems unwilling to accept. “I don’t think we can expect very much,” Albert Wolf, an associate fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told CNBC on Tuesday. Skepticism over the talks was compounded by reports that European officials would act as intermediaries between the U.S. and Iran, rather than both sides meeting face-to-face to discuss the issues. “There hadn’t even been any formal or informal talks between the U.S. and Iranian sides, so it looks as if at present time, these talks are going to be a bust,” Wolf said. U.S. officials themselves appear to be equally sober about the talks. “We don’t underestimate the scale of the challenges ahead. These are early days,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said during a press call Monday. “We don’t anticipate an early or immediate breakthrough, as these discussions we fully expect will be difficult. But we do believe that these discussions with our partners and, in turn, our partners with Iran is a healthy step forward.” Price added: “We don’t anticipate at present that there will be direct talks with Iran, though, of course, we remain open to them. And so we’ll have to see how things go starting early this week.” One of OPEC’s largest oil producers, Iran’s exports were slashed in the years following the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. A return to the deal and the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iranian crude could significantly impact oil market dynamics. Croft said “significant movement” in the talks would raise the prospect of large quantities of Iran oil returning to the global market. “If they get a breakthrough in the next couple of weeks, I think we could be looking at significant quantities hitting the market in the second half of the year,” she said.
EIA Raises Oil Price Forecasts Again –The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has again raised its Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price forecasts for both 2021 and 2022. As its April short term energy outlook (STEO) shows, the organization now sees Brent spot prices averaging $62.28 per barrel this year and $60.49 per barrel in 2022. WTI spot prices are now expected to average $58.89 per barrel in 2021 and $56.74 per barrel in 2022. The EIA’s March STEO saw Brent spot prices averaging $60.67 per barrel in 2021 and $58.51 per barrel next year. WTI spot prices were expected to average $57.24 per barrel in 2021 and $54.75 per barrel in 2022, back in March. In February, the EIA projected that Brent spot prices would average $53.20 per barrel in 2021 and $55.19 per barrel in 2022. WTI spot prices were expected to average $50.21 per barrel this year and $51.56 per barrel next year, in February. Back in January, the EIA saw Brent spot prices averaging $52.70 per barrel in 2021 and $53.44 per barrel in 2022. WTI spot prices were expected to average $49.70 per barrel in 2021 and $49.81 per barrel in 2022, in January. In its April STEO, the EIA forecasted that global consumption of petroleum and liquid fuels will average 97.7 million barrels per day for all of 2021, which it highlighted was up by 5.5 million barrels per day from 2020. The EIA now expects global oil inventories to fall by 1.8 million barrels per day in the first half of 2021 and said forecast increases in global oil supply will contribute to a mostly balanced market during the second half of 2021. The organization warned, however, that this depends heavily on future production decisions by OPEC+, the responsiveness of U.S. tight oil production to oil prices, and the pace of oil demand growth, among other factors. The EIA noted that its April STEO remains subject to heightened levels of uncertainty because responses to Covid-19 continue to evolve.
Oil falls more than 4% as coming OPEC+ production ramp weighs – Oil fell more than 4% on Monday as rising supply from OPEC+ and higher Iranian output countered signs of a strong economic rebound in the United States. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, agreed on Thursday to monthly production hikes from May to July. OPEC member Iran, exempt from making voluntary cuts, is also boosting supply. “The timing was not good,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities. “It seemed like OPEC+ was going to roll the deal, but they didn’t and now it looks like they’re going to have to pay at least in the short term.” Brent crude for June fell $3.08, or 4.8%, to $61.78 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for May settled $2.80, or 4.56%, lower at $58.65 per barrel. In another development that could eventually boost supply, investors are focused on indirect talks between Iran and the United States as part of negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. “There is an assumption that we’re going to see this flood of Irianian oil in the market,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. “I think this is overstated a little bit.” Eurasia analyst Henry Rome said he expected U.S. sanctions, including restrictions on Iranian oil sales, to be lifted only after these talks are completed and Iran returns to compliance. Iran has already boosted exports to China despite the sanctions. Oil has recovered from historic lows last year with the support of record OPEC+ cuts, most of which will remain after July. Demand is expected to recover further in the second half. While a slow vaccine rollout and return to lockdown in parts of Europe have weighed, figures on Friday showed the U.S. economy created the most jobs in seven months in March. Still, tightening lockdowns in France and a spike of cases in India have darkened the outlook for a global economic rebound to boost oil demand.
U.S. oil prices drop nearly 5% on expectations for a rise in supplies – Oil futures settled sharply lower on Monday, with U.S. prices down almost 5%. The decline follows a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies last week to incrementally increase production from May through July. There’s also a “reduced demand outlook with COVID cases rising dramatically in India and several other countries,” said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors. Meanwhile, upcoming talks, with the U.S. possibly easing sanctions on Iran and potentially getting back into the nuclear deal, may lead to higher global supplies of oil, said Zahir. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery fell $2.80, or 4.6%, to settle at $58.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the lowest front-month contract finish since March 25, FactSet data show.
Oil climbs on weaker dollar, outweighing OPEC+ supply worries – Oil prices rose early on Tuesday as a drop in the U.S. dollar made crude a more attractive buy, paring losses of more than 4% incurred overnight on the prospect of producers returning more than 2 million barrels per day of supply to the market by July. Brent crude futures jumped 83 cents, or 1.3%, to $62.98 a barrel at 0012 GMT, after falling 4.2% on Monday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 80 cents, or 1.4%, to $59.45 barrel, after sliding 4.6% on Monday. “The weaker U.S. dollar is a contributor, and increasing (U.S.) growth confidence helps,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets and Stockbroking. The dollar fell 0.4% against a basket of currencies <=USD> on Monday and dipped a bit further on Tuesday. Oil prices typically rise against a falling dollar, as a weaker greenback makes dollar-priced oil cheaper for those holding other currencies. Adding to positive sentiment, England is set to ease coronavirus pandemic restrictions on April 12, with the opening of businesses including all shops, gyms, hair salons and outdoor hospitality areas. That helped offset worries about the agreement last week by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, known as OPEC+, to bring back 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) of supply in May, another 350,000 bpd in June and a further 400,000 bpd or so in July. Saudi Arabia is also set to phase out its extra voluntary cut of 1 million bpd over those three months. At the same time OPEC member Iran, exempt from making voluntary cuts, is boosting supply. The push by OPEC+ to add supply came despite concerns about a rise in COVID-19 cases. “Rising virus cases in countries such as India and the European Union are keeping traders cautious, with any renewed restrictions likely to weigh on demand,” ANZ Research said in a note.
Oil gains 1% on strong U.S., China economic data – (Reuters) -Strong economic data from China and the United States helped lift oil prices by 1% on Tuesday, recouping some of the previous session’s steep losses. Brent rose 59 cents, or 1%, to settle at $62.74 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 68 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $59.33 a barrel. Prices were buoyed as data showed U.S. services activity touched a record high in March. China’s service sector also gathered steam with the sharpest increase in sales in three months. England was set to ease more coronavirus restrictions on April 12, allowing businesses including all shops, gyms, hair salons and outdoor hospitality venues to reopen. On Monday, both oil benchmarks fell by about $3 because of increasing OPEC+ oil supply and rising COVID-19 infections in India and parts of Europe. Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, known as OPEC+, agreed to return 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) of supply in May, another 350,000 bpd in June and a further 400,000 bpd or so in July. “Although OPEC+ went against what most market participants and its own research team thought, raising its oil output significantly over the next three months, the market is now signalling that it is OK with it and is ready to benefit from the lack of uncertainty that a month-to-month update would have brought,” . Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the global resurgence of infections challenges vaccination efforts around the globe. New restrictions in Europe also weighed on prices. “This will likely raise concerns over demand, given that, at the moment, a large part of the constructive outlook for the oil market is based on the assumption that we see a strong demand recovery over the second half of this year,” . In the United States, oil production is expected to fall by 270,000 bpd in 2021 to 11.04 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said, a steeper decline than its previous monthly forecast for a drop of 160,000 bpd. U.S. crude stockpiles were down by 2.6 million barrels in the week ended April 2, according to three market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures. Forecasters had predicted a drop of just 1.4 million barrels. Official government data is due on Wednesday. U.S. and Iranian officials were due to begin indirect talks in Vienna on Tuesday to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, which could lead to Washington lifting sanctions on Iran’s energy sector. Goldman Sachs said any potential recovery in Iranian oil exports would not be a shock to the market, and full recovery would not occur until summer 2022. Meanwhile, tensions between Saudi Arabia and India simmered. Indian state refiners plan to buy 36% less oil from Saudi Arabia in May than normal, three sources said.
WTI Drops After Big Surprise Product Inventory Builds -Oil prices ended higher today, but closed back below $60 after a big roundtrip as overnight hopes limped away as a sense that Biden’s infrastructure plan may not be as big as the bulls had hoped, raising further doubts around energy demand.Investors read the decision by OPEC+ to gradually increase market supply as a statement of confidence in demand late last week, although fresh lockdown measures in Europe and rising Covid-19 cases elsewhere have served to quickly drain that optimism.“The current situation is fragile, therefore revisiting the recent highs (of oil prices) … is not imminent”commented PVM analyst Tamas Varga, before adding that “until there are palpable signs of falling infection rates the oil market is likely to remain violent and hectic”.For now, the algos are focused on one number only…API
- Crude -2.618mm
- Cushing -84k
- Gasoline +4.553mm
- Distillates +2.81mm
Crude stocks drew down for the second week in a row, but the big surge in product inventories is a surprise…Graphics Source: Bloomberg. WTI hovered around $59.50 ahead of the API data and slipped lower after… We suspect the next mnove will be triggered by headlines surrounding the fact that Western and Iranian officials kicked off talks to revive the embattled 2015 nuclear accord, amid the challenge of bitter relations between Washington and Tehran, punishing U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic, and moves by Iran to accelerate its nuclear activity.
OPEC daily basket price stood at $60.68 a barrel Wednesday — The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at US$60.68 a barrel on Wednesday, 7th April 2021, compared with $61.33 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations. The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Girassol (Angola), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).
Oil up on global economic recovery, but hefty U.S. fuel stocks weigh –(Reuters) -Oil futures inched higher on Wednesday on an improving global economic outlook, but gains were capped by rising gasoline inventories and fears that new coronavirus outbreaks will weaken a global recovery in fuel demand. Brent crude futures settled at $63.16 a barrel, up 42 cents, or 0.7%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $59.77 a barrel, gaining 44 cents, or 0.7%. U.S. crude stocks fell 3.5 million barrels last week, but gasoline inventories jumped 4 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 221,000-barrel gasoline drop. [EIA/S] “If you don’t need to make gasoline, then you don’t need to use more crude oil,” Prices drew support when the Federal Reserve released minutes from last month’s meeting that reinforced the U.S. central bank’s position that it will refrain from raising rates anytime soon, boosting the fuel demand outlook. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said unprecedented public spending to fight COVID-19 would push global growth to 6% this year, a rate not achieved since the 1970s, which also helped the fuel demand outlook and supported prices. However, rising COVID-19 cases in the Americas, which accounted for more than half of all coronavirus-related deaths last week, capped gains. “There’s concern globally with the rise in COVID-19 cases again and now Canada staring down a third wave, the market continues to be haunted by these demand issues from the outbreaks,” Also, global crude supplies could increase as Iran and major world powers took steps toward reviving an agreement that froze Iran’s nuclear weapons development. The parties agreed to form working groups to discuss the possibility of reviving the 2015 deal that could lead to Washington lifting sanctions on Iran’s energy sector. “Iran is the single largest upside supply risk for the oil market,” Oil prices dropped earlier this week after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, a group known as OPEC+, agreed to gradually ease oil output cuts from May.
Oil flat as weaker dollar offsets coronavirus demand worries (Reuters) -Oil prices were little changed on Thursday as a falling dollar and rising stock markets offset earlier declines caused by a big increase in U.S. gasoline stockpiles and subdued demand compared with pre-pandemic levels. Brent futures rose 4 cents, or 0.1%, to settle at $63.20 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude ended 17 cents, or 0.3%, lower at $59.60. “Crude prices are struggling for direction as short-term COVID pressures are countered by a much weaker U.S. dollar,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA in New York. The U.S. dollar fell to a two-week low against a basket of currencies, tracking Treasury yields lower, after data showed a surprise rise in U.S. weekly jobless claims. U.S. gasoline inventories rose sharply by 4 million barrels to a little more than 230 million barrels as refiners ramped up output before the summer driving season, the U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday. “A huge build in road fuel stocks is not what the market was expecting and concerns over the speed of the oil demand recovery resurfaced, leaving traders wondering how stable road fuel usage actually is,”.
Oil edges lower on mixed supply and demand outlook – Oil prices edged lower in rangebound trade on Friday on rising supplies from major producers and concerns over a mixed picture on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on fuel demand. Brent crude futures for June fell 16 cents, or 0.3%, to $63.04 a barrel by 1:38 p.m. EDT (1738 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May was at $59.38, down 22 cents. Both contracts are on track for a 2%-3% drop this week but still far from a low of $60.47 hit two weeks ago. Downward pressure has been exerted by the decision of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, to increase supplies by 2 million barrels per day between May and July. “Favorable oil demand prospects are being largely offset by the expected increase in OPEC + production that could be approximating 2 million barrels per day by the end of July,” Meanwhile U.S. drillers kept the number of oil rigs unchanged this week, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said on Friday, with analysts forecasting more rigs were needed to keep production steady. Renewed lockdowns in some parts of the world and problems with vaccination programs could threaten the oil demand picture. Oil prices are expected to trade in a range between $60 and $70 as investors weigh these factors. “There’s real push-pull in the market based on vaccination acceleration, increased production and new lockdowns, which is why we are moving sideways,”
Oil Futures Show Biggest Loss in Weeks – — Oil posted its worst week in three amid concerns that rising global coronavirus cases are slowing the economic recovery. West Texas Intermediate futures ended the week down 3.5%, the biggest weekly loss since mid-March. With the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies planning to start raising output, markets are now focused on whether the demand recovery will be enough to absorb growing supplies. While consumption is climbing in India and the U.S., rising virus cases and the possibility of stricter travel limits in Europe are muddying the forecast and putting pressure on crude. Oil plunged Monday after the U.K. said it may delay global travel beyond May 17. “The Covid situation has really not had a strong recovery in Europe and across many emerging markets, and that’s really weighed down the demand outlook for oil,” A stronger dollar also weighed on oil Friday, reducing the appeal of commodities priced in the currency. A higher-than-expected rise in U.S. March producer prices stoked inflation concerns. “If we get some hotter inflation readings, that could send Treasury yields higher again,” negatively impacting oil, according to Moya. Saudi Arabia said it remains confident that OPEC+ made the right decision to increase production over the next three months, and there are signs of better days ahead for demand that could soak up the additional barrels. India’s oil-products demand in March rose to the strongest since late 2019, while Germany reiterated support for a short, strict lockdown in the country. In the U.S., traffic is roaring back in some cities, an indication of stronger demand this summer. Making the calculation even more complex are ongoing talks between Iran and world powers to resuscitate a 2015 nuclear deal, which would set the stage for the Persian Gulf to increase supply. Negotiations are set to continue next week, though no direct contacts between Iranian and U.S. envoys have yet been made. WTI for May delivery fell 28 cents to settle at $59.32 a barrel. Brent for June declined 25 cents to end the session at $62.95 a barrel. The contract fell 2.9% over the week. Crude in New York has around $60 a barrel since mid-March, with market volatility slumping to the lowest in a month. Prices haven’t broken out of a $5 trading range over recent weeks, and have oscillated in smaller and smaller bands with each passing day — creating a technical pattern some see as indicative of a breakout higher.
Israel escalates attacks on Iran, targeting vessel in Red Sea – In a deliberate and provocative escalation of its offensive against Iran, Israel mined the cargo ship MV Saviz, owned by the state-linked Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, in the Red Sea on Tuesday morning. It signals Israel’s determination to continue its naval offensive against Iran, despite potential reprisals from Tehran and the danger of an escalation into all-out war, as the major powers meet with Iran in Vienna to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), unilaterally abandoned by former President Trump. The New York Times cited an unnamed American official as saying that Israel had informed the US that its navy had attacked the vessel near the Djibouti coast, claiming the attack was in retaliation for earlier Iranian strikes on Israeli vessels. According to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, Tuesday’s explosion, caused by “limpet mines attached to the hull of the ship, resulted in only minor damage.” He added that the Saviz was a “non-military ship” helping to “provide security along shipping lines and combat pirates” in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a crucial chokepoint in international shipping. US and Saudi analysts claim the vessel, present in the Red Sea since late 2016, is a “mothership” for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ flotilla of ships in the Red Sea and that uniformed men and a class of small boats used by the Guards have been photographed on board the ship’s deck. It is believed to play a crucial role in Tehran’s efforts to evade sanctions by transferring oil shipments midsea to non-Iranian flagged vessels. The Israeli attack is part of its long-running, covert offensive by its naval, air, security and intelligence forces against Iran. A report in Ha’aretz puts the number of Iranian tankers sabotaged at around 20, with an estimated loss to Al Quds, Hezbollah and the Shi’ite militias of $500,000 over two and a half years. These attacks, which damaged but deliberately avoided sinking the vessels, were for the dual purpose of disrupting Iran’s supply of oil to Syria and choking off the revenue stream that paid the Shi’ite militias and Hezbollah supporting the Syrian regime forces. The newspaper also confirmed earlier Syrian and Iranian claims about an explosion on an Iranian tanker in the Red Sea in late 2019. Such military attacks on civilian vessels in international waters are flagrant breaches of international law, potentially exposing Israel to international court actions. By escalating the dangers to shipping, they could also lead to an increase in insurance premiums for maritime commerce in the region.
Pentagon Publishes Photos Of Syrian Kurds Training To Call In Airstrikes – Last month, US Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) trained members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during live-fire attack helicopter exercises. JTACs direct military aircraft during combat and pictures published on a Pentagon website show the JTACs training SDF members to call in airstrikes, which appears the first time the US is giving non-state actors such training, at least publicly. According to a report from Air Force Times, the pictures might be the first time JTAC training with the SDF is publicized, but the training is nothing new. SDF fighters have had the ability to call in US airstrikes for years now.The report said the SDF fighters were not trained to be JTACs themselves but relayed coordinates to US JTACs who would then order the airstrikes. During the campaign against ISIS in the Syrian city of Raqqa, which was decimated by US bombs in 2017, some SDF members were given an app for their tablets that they could put GPS coordinates into, which they would share with JTACs through encrypted messaging. The Biden administration has made it clear it will continue occupying northeast Syria and supporting the SDF. While this support is framed as part of the fight against ISIS, it is more about keeping the oil resources in the region out of the hands of the Syrian government in Damascus.On top of the occupation of the oil fields, the US maintains crippling economic sanctions on Syria that specifically target reconstruction, preventing Syria from rebuilding after a decade of war.Meanwhile, Syria’s army recently published combat training footage of its own:The sanctions have had a devastating impact on the civilian population. According to the UN, 12.4 million Syrians are facing starvation.
Washington brings Syria’s Al Qaeda in from the cold – Ten years after Washington launched a bloody war for regime change in Syria that has left some half a million dead and the country in ruins, the US media has begun an unmistakable propaganda campaign to rehabilitate the principal American proxy ground force in this war, Al Qaeda. This is the significance of an extraordinary interview conducted by the Public Broadcasting Service’s (PBS) Frontline program. Its subject is Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the founder of the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda. The US State Department has declared Jolani a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” with a $10 million bounty on his head. The interview, to be aired soon on PBS, was conducted in February in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, the last redoubt of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militias that formed the backbone of the war to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad. This war was justified in the name of “democracy” and “human rights,” and supported by layers of the pseudo left internationally, who went so far as to proclaim it a “revolution.” In reality, it was orchestrated, armed and funded by the US, together with its regional allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel. It grew to become one of the largest operations in the history of the CIA, with a reported annual budget of nearly $1 billion. Washington kept up the pretense that its arms and money were flowing to “vetted” and “moderate” Syrian “rebels.” In reality, it was the militias linked to Al Qaeda, which included Islamist fighters from Turkey, Iraq, Libya and as far away as Chechnya and China’s Xinjiang region, that dominated the anti-Assad forces and became the biggest beneficiaries of US largesse. Jolani led the largest of these forces, the Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate. In April 2013, he released a recorded message stating, “The sons of Al Nusra Front pledge allegiance to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri,” successor to Osama bin Laden as leader of Al Qaeda, following the latter’s death in 2011. At the time, Jolani was working in close collaboration with ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He severed Al Nusra’s formal connection to Al Qaeda in 2016. The interview conducted by Frontline’s Martin Smith is essentially a “media show” – Smith’s own words – staged to whitewash the bloody history of the Al Nusra Front’s terrorism in Syria and provide Jolani with a forum for proclaiming the front’s current iteration, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a legitimate political force and natural ally of Washington. The terrorist designation attached to himself and his organization was “unfair” and “political,” Jolani said. Smith asked Jolani to take a pledge: “Will you say here and now then, very clearly, that you as a former Al Qaeda leader … will not support … any attacks against the United States?” The Al Qaeda veteran readily accepted.
Jordan prince told to stop “destabilising activities” after more than a dozen arrests -In an unprecedented move, Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi has accused Prince Hamza, the former crown prince and half-brother of King Abdullah, of plotting with foreign and local parties to destabilise the country.The details are far from clear as the Jordanian authorities have released little information. Hamza is believed to be under house arrest, although officials deny this, while 14 to 16 former insiders have been arrested. According to the government-controlled Petra News Agency, all who were “arrested, among others, for security reasons” were unnamed except for Sharif Hassan bin Zaid and Bassem Awadallah.Hamza, the 40-year-old son of the late King Hussein and his fourth wife Noor, attended an elite school in Britain before going on for military training at Sandhurst. Designated Abdullah’s successor until 2004, and then largely sidelined, Hamza has caused tensions within the palace by forging links with disaffected members of Jordan’s powerful tribes, the East Bankers, who form the bedrock of support for the monarchy and feel marginalised by the presence of the West Bankers, the Palestinians displaced by Israel in the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948-49 and 1967.On Saturday afternoon, after the Jordanian Armed Forces chief of staff visited Hamza at his home to give him an official warning to stop his “destabilising activities,” the BBC published a video of Hamza, passed on by his lawyer, in which he denied being part of any “conspiracy or nefarious organisation or foreign-backed group.”In the video, Hamza claimed he had been placed under house arrest, with his telephone and internet connections cut, as part of a crackdown on critics. He lambasted the ruling elite in very general terms for its rampant corruption and nepotism, the outlawing of opposition and dissent, including any criticism of the king, and the all-pervasive security and intelligence services, all of which is common currency. On Monday evening, Hamza signed a letter of loyalty to Abdullah, following a meeting with Prince Hassan, the king’s uncle, and other princes, just hours after saying he would disobey orders by the army not communicate with the outside world after he was put under house arrest.
Former Jordanian crown prince under house arrest for alleged attempted coup – Former Jordanian Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein was put under house arrest early Saturday after allegedly plotting a coup against his half brother King Abdullah, sources familiar with the situation tell Axios.Jordanian security forces arrested more than 20 former Jordanian officials, including former chief of the royal court Bassem Awadallah, Prince Hamza’s chief of staff Yasser Majali and former Jordanian envoy to Saudi Arabia Hassan Bin Zayed.A security official told the official Jordanian news agency Petra that all suspects other than the crown prince had been under surveillance for some time and were arrested on security charges. Petra denied that Hamza was under house arrest or arrested. The Washington Post first reported about the former crown prince arrest. In a video published by the BBC, Prince Hamza said the chief of the general staff of the Jordanian Army arrived at his house Saturday morning and informed him he was not permitted to leave or communicate with others because in meetings he was present for and social media posts he was mentioned in there was criticism of the king and the government.”I asked him if I was the one criticizing and he said ‘no,'” Hamza said. “He said this was a warning from him, from the chief of police and from the head of intelligence that I should not leave my house, that I could not tweet or meet my family.” He added that several of his friends had been arrested, his security removed and his phone lines cut. He said his internet connection is going to be disabled and he might not be able to communicate further. “I am not the person in charge of the corruption and incompetence in our government,” Hamza said in the video. “I am not responsible for the lack of faith of people in the government.” Hamza denied he was behind any conspiracy or that he was backed by any foreign element. He said the government was lying and stressed he was suffering retaliation by the government because of his criticism.
US Special Forces sent into Mozambique amid growing civil war – Amid an escalating armed conflict in Mozambique, the Pentagon has sent US Special Operations troops into the southern African nation. The deployment of these troops, described as “trainers” and “advisers,” and justified in the name of the endless “war on terrorism,” provides fresh confirmation of the Biden administration’s global escalation of US militarism, including on the continent of Africa.Announced in the middle of last month, the US deployment has come amid a sharp escalation in the civil war being fought in Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado, where the Mozambican government is confronting an insurgency among that region’s predominantly Muslim population.The latest fighting has centered in the town of Palma, a hub for the exploitation of the country’s natural gas fields, which was seized by the rebels at the end of last month, sending an estimated 11,000 people fleeing to the port city of Pemba on the Indian Ocean. According to the United Nations, some 670,000 have been displaced since fighting began in the region in 2017.Commander Chongo Vidigal, the chief of the government forces sent to retake Palma from the rebels told the media Sunday that the area was now “safe.” An earlier attempt to bring reporters to the scene, however, was aborted after the helicopter flying them to the town came under fire. The main objective of the military operation was to secure the site of a $60 billion liquefied natural gas project initiated by the French energy giant Total, which has demanded a 15-mile secure perimeter as a condition for its continued presence. Having resumed operations only on March 24 after shutting down its facilities following an earlier rebel offensive at the beginning of the year, Total has shut down again, pulling all of its employees out of the region. In addition to the French-based energy transnational, Italy’s ENI and the US-based ExxonMobil also have interests in Mozambique’s natural gas reserves, believed to be among the largest on the planet.
UN condemns French airstrike on wedding in Mali that slaughtered 22 — In a report made public last week, the United Nations has revealed that the French military launched an airstrike on a wedding ceremony in Mali at the beginning of the year, slaughtering at least 22 people. The airstrike took place at 3:00 p.m. on January 3, near the town of Bounty in the center of the country. According to the report by the United Nations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the religious ceremony for the marriage had taken place the evening before in Gana, approximately seven kilometers away. The following morning, approximately 100 people came from their homes in Bounty and smaller surrounding settlements to celebrate the marriage. As is normal in the local custom, the men were gathered in a separate area from the women and children. The French airstrike hit the gathering of men, killing 22. Little has been publicly reported about the victims, except that they were aged between 23 and 71. The report states that 19 of the victims were civilians, and three were members of an armed Islamist group named Katiba Serma. However, it makes clear that there is no evidence that any of them were involved in any ongoing military operations against French armed forces and were therefore also protected under international law. The MINUSMA report is the product of a weeks long investigation on the ground by a team of 19 UN staff, including two police science investigators. From January 4 to February 20, they traveled to the towns of Bamako, Sevare, Douentza and Bounty. They conducted interviews with more than 115 people individually and another 200 people in groups, including family members of the victims, witnesses, and representatives of local community associations and medical responders. Their report exposes the lies of the French army and the Macron government following the attack. Immediately after the airstrike, the Macron government insisted that it had hit a gathering of 30 members of an “armed terrorist group.” On January 20, Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly was questioned about the attack during a hearing before the Senate Commission for Foreign Affairs. Parly called reports of an attack on civilians as an example of “information warfare” and “rumours” being used to discredit the French occupation of the Sahel.
.
include(“/home/aleta/public_html/files/ad_openx.htm”); ?>