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Keiron Henderson News

17 Nov 2014

Low Green Power Supply, Cold Boost Spot, Curve

Low solar and wind power supply expectations on Monday boosted European prompt power prices with demand supported by a gradual turn towards colder weather. Point Carbon forecasts showed German solar supply on Tuesday likely to come in at 0.9 gigawatt (GW), down from 1.9 GW on Monday. Wind output was seen rising by 2.3 GW between Monday and Tuesday but only to a relatively low 5.3 GW. German baseload (24 hours) for delivery on Tuesday was 2.6 euros up from the price paid for Monday at 45 euros ($56) a megawatt hour. The equivalent French contract was up three euros at 48 euros/MWh. Average daily 24-hour temperatures will fall by 0.3 and 0.5 degrees Celsius respectively in Germany and France in the period between Monday and Tuesday, likely boosting French consumption by nearly 2 GW.

18 Sep 2014

Shell: Nigeria Oil Union Strike Not Affecting Exports

A strike by Nigeria's oil unions is not having any immediate impact on crude oil exports from Africa's top exporter, despite moving into a third day, spokesmen for leading operator Shell and Nigeria LNG said. Nigerian oil unions say the strike could affect exports if no agreement is reached with the government. The spokesman for NLNG, the gas exporter which is run jointly by Shell and the government, said he did not foresee any impact from the strike, which began on Tuesday. The dispute is over pensions and a lack of crude supplied to refineries. Also indicating that the strike has yet to have any impact, the Qua Iboe <BFO-QUA> grade of crude oil for November export came to market on Thursday, on schedule.

08 Sep 2014

Finding Wheat Buyers Proving a Challenge for Britain

Britain's wheat crop is on track to be its highest in at least six years, ensuring the country's return as a net exporter after a two-season hiatus, but selling its surplus could prove challenging given an expected global glut of feed grain. Britain predominantly exports feed quality wheat with the bulk of its sales made to customers within the European Union, particularly Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal. Traders and analysts said this year's wheat crop was likely to be between 16 million and 17 million tonnes and could even come close to the record 17.23 million harvested in 2008, up by more than one-third from last year's 11.92 million. "We don't seem to be getting the level of export business that we need relative to the size of the crop we've got.

02 Sep 2014

Algeria in Talks to Export Crude to Venezuela

Algeria is in talks to export crude oil to fellow OPEC member Venezuela, Algerian Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said on Tuesday, confirming a Reuters report. Last week, a document from Venezuela's state-run energy company PDVSA seen by Reuters showed Venezuela was considering importing crude oil for the first time and could use Algerian light crude as blending stock to boost sales of its own extra-heavy oil. "Yes, we are in talks," Yousfi told Reuters when asked whether Algeria was planning to export crude oil to Venezuela. He declined to provide details. (Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; editing by Keiron Henderson)

21 Aug 2014

Mozambique: $30b Invested for 2018 LNG Export

More than $30 billion will be invested initially in Mozambique's natural gas sector to build capacity to produce 20 million tonnes per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with the first exports due to start in 2018, the national oil company said. The investments will be made to develop the northern ports of Pemba and Palma, where a giant logistics base and LNG production plants are planned that will use gas produced from offshore fields in the Rovuma Basin being developed by U.S. oil major Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Italy's Eni. Mozambique, which still bears the scars of a 1975-1992 civil war, is hoping revenues from its large gas deposits and its fledgling coal mining industry will help it emerge from years of poverty and dependence on foreign donors.

15 Jul 2014

India May Appeal Parts of WTO Steel Ruling

India said on Tuesday it may appeal against parts of a World Trade Organization ruling against countervailing U.S. duties on some of its steel exports, despite being partly vindicated in a trade dispute. States impose countervailing duties, or punitively high import tariffs, when they suspect another country of gaining an unfair trade advantage through subsidies. The WTO, ruling on the April 2012 case, said on Monday that the United States had acted wrongly in claiming some Indian subsidy programmes had given steelmakers such as Tata Steel an unfair advantage. "Important issues have been in our favour but there are still some issues on which we are not happy," India Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher told reporters. "There are several procedural issues which are in U.S.

23 Jun 2014

Ivory Coast Rains Threaten Cocoa Crops

Cocoa Pod

Heavy rains last week in the coastal and southern regions of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing zone threatened the last stage of the April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said on Monday, though conditions remained good elsewhere. The marketing season for the mid-crop in the world's top cocoa grower opened on April 1 and harvesting is expected to decline from mid-July. Farmers said the focus of growers' concern over the weather was switching to the main crop. "There is too much rain. There's water everywhere in the camps.

23 Jun 2014

Crude Falls Below $114 as Iraq Supply Fears Ease

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerrylanded in Baghdad on Monday. (Photo: http://www.state.gov)

U.S. Brent crude dipped below $114 a barrel on Monday as worries about disruptions to Iraqi crude supplies began to look overdone given that exports have so far been unaffected by a Sunni Islamist insurgency. Brent was down 90 cents at $113.91 by 1336 GMT, off an intraday high of $115.66. U.S. crude for August delivery was down 54 cents at $106.29, after touching $107.45 earlier in the session. The July contract expired on Friday. Traders and analysts said that the rally had faltered as the market was becoming desensitised to the news out of Iraq.

20 Jun 2014

Angola: Tender for 12 Offshore Oil Blocks

Angolan state oil company Sonangol plans to launch a tender for licences to explore 12 new offshore oil blocks in 2015, state news agency Angop cited Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos as saying on Friday. Seven of the new blocks will be located in the Namibe Basin and the remaining five in the Lower Congo Basin, a Sonangol spokesman told Reuters. Angola is Africa's biggest oil producer after Nigeria, with international majors such as France's Total, Italy's ENI, Britain's BP, and U.S. firms Chevron and Exxon Mobil among the main operators in the country. Angop cited Vasconcelos, who was speaking at an oil conference in Moscow, as reiterating Angola's goal of ramping up production to 2 million barrels per day (mbpd) by 2015, from an average of 1.73 mbpd last year.

20 Jun 2014

Shell Offers $51M to Settle Nigeria Oil Spills

Royal Dutch Shell is ready to pay up to 30 million pounds ($51 million) in compensation for two oil spills in Nigeria in 2008 after a London court rejected a larger claim, sources involved in the case said on Friday. Around 11,000 residents of the Bodo community in the Niger Delta represented by law firm Leigh Day appealed in 2011 to a London court for more than 300 million pounds in compensation for the spilling of 500,000 barrels of oil. The sources said a Shell offer from September 2013 to settle the case for 30 million pounds remained on the table. The lawyer representing the claimants on Friday rejected the sum. "Shell have consistently sought to underestimate the damage whilst paying only lip service to an apology.

17 Jun 2014

Nigeria Losing $35m a Day from Oil Theft - Report

Nigeria is losing an estimated $35 million a day from oil theft and needs to put a "full, final stop" to the growing black market for crude exports, according to a national conference report seen by Reuters on Tuesday. Africa's largest economy and top oil producer has been struggling with oil theft for years, with much of the stolen crude leaving the country in tankers. The energy committee of Nigeria's national conference said in a report submitted this week the losses were "equivalent to $35 million each day," or roughly a quarter of Nigeria's annual revenue. It called on Abuja to "bring this racket to a full, final stop". "The potential gains should clearly outweigh the cost of any intense security operation to stamp out this economic sabotage…

17 Jun 2014

Maersk Line to Raise Freight Rates from Asia to Europe

Maersk Triple E ship in port (Photo courtesy of Maersk Line)

Container shipping company Maersk Line, a unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk, plans to raise freight rates sharply on main routes from ports in Asia to ports in northern Europe, with effect from July 1. Rates for twenty foot equivalent unit containers (TEU) will rise by $575, the shipping company wrote in a letter to clients on Tuesday. According to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, twenty foot rates from Asia to Europe stood at $1,202 last week. (Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen; editing by Keiron Henderson)

13 May 2014

Med Crude-Urals Weakens to Cheapest in over a Year

Russian Urals prices in the Mediterranean fell to their weakest in over a year on Tuesday, reflecting poor refining margins and an abundance of cheap alternative grades, although traders still expect a recovery if Russian exports fall in June. "Urals margins have been weak for a long time and now they have just gone negative. Everyone was expecting some strength in May but the market has gone in the opposite direction. I have some, but not much, hope of a big strengthening in June," a Urals dealer with a trading house said. "There is a May Urals cargo overhang. Some alternative grades such as Azeri and CPC have been trading weakly recently," said a trader with a major. "As soon as the backlog clears and June dates begin to emerge, I expect some strengthening".

23 Apr 2014

UK Subsidises 8 Renewable Energy Contracts

The British government on Wednesday awarded investment contracts under a new subsidy regime to eight renewable energy projects, including five offshore wind farms and three biomass plants. The projects together are worth 12 billion pounds ($20 billion) and will support 8,500 jobs in Britain's energy sector, adding up to 4.5 gigawatts (GW) in new electricity generation capacity, the government said. The contracts were awarded on Wednesday under Britain's new contracts-for-difference scheme which gives renewable power generators certainty of a minimum electricity price over 15 years. The projects include the Dudgeon offshore wind farm…

08 Apr 2014

Libya's NOC Keeps Force Majeure in Place at Eastern Oil Ports

Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) has yet to lift force majeure at the eastern ports of Zueitina and Hariga following a deal with federalist rebels to reopen them after a nine-month blockade, an oil ministry official said on Tuesday. "Force majeure is still in place, it has not been lifted. NOC has not instructed the ports to export oil yet," Ibrahim al-Awami said. Al Awami said staff at Arabian Gulf Oil Co (AGOCO), which runs the Hariga terminal, had joined a general strike in Benghazi that began on Sunday. It was unclear whether this would affect the port's ability to resume exports. Workers at Zueitina were carrying out maintenance and checking facilities before the resumption of exports, Al Awami said.

04 Apr 2014

Moroccan Wheat Trade Pushes for Longer Import Window

Millers and wheat importers in Morocco have asked the government to establish a longer annual window for imports after scrambling to secure shipments this season, trade sources said. Morocco, like other North African countries, depends on imports of staple cereals. It is expected to buy around 2.5 million tonnes of foreign wheat in the 2013/14 marketing year. The country's import campaign typically runs from October to May when the local harvest starts. But this season, shipments did not get under way until January, condensing the shipment period and leading to a glut of cargoes at Moroccan ports. To give greater visibility, Moroccan wheat trade federation FIAC and flour millers group FNM have proposed to the authorities that the import campaign start in September, trade sources said.

03 Apr 2014

Baltic Freight Index Down, Capesize, Panamax Rates Fall

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, fell for an eighth consecutive session on Thursday as rates for capesize and panamax vessels continued lower. The overall index, which factors in the average daily earnings of capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, fell 38 points or 2.99 percent to 1,235. The Baltic's capesize index fell 75 points, or 3.1 percent, to 2,343 points. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000 tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, were down $691 to $16,984. The panamax index fell 31 points, or 3.58 percent, to 836 points.

24 Feb 2014

Asia-Pacific Crude-Weaker; ONGC sells Sokol

The Asia-Pacific crude market weakened on Monday with differentials for Russian Sokol depressed by slow demand during peak maintenance season, but a recovery in the naphtha market offset some of the losses. India's ONGC sold 700,000 barrels of light sweet Sokol crude for May 1-4 loading to Glencore at $7.50 per barrel above Oman/Dubai quotes on a cost and freight (CFR) basis, traders said. The company last sold Sokol for April loading at a premium of $8.50 per barrel. Sentiment in the crude market has weakened with many regional refiners undergoing maintenance, however, slight gains in the naphtha and middle distillate markets were supportive. Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) <DUB-EFS-1M>, or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, widened 11 cents to $4.01 per barrel.