Oil Embargo News

Russian ports are operating during more severe storms and easing restrictions for non ice-class vessels during winter, traders said and regulations showed, in an attempt to boost exports following disruptions from Western sanctions and harsh weather.Following the European Union oil embargo, Russia has to rely mostly on seaborne loadings, rather than westbound pipeline supplies via the Druzhba pipeline.Traders and analysts said the easing of restrictions carried technical and ecological risks, but could help Russia's revenues that are heavily reliant on oil.Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft,

The Israel-Hamas war has raised the spectre of a wider regional conflict which could embroil Iran and other regional factions.Analysts and market observers say the conflict could prompt the United States to tighten sanctions on Iran, which may spur Tehran to take retaliatory action against ships in the Strait in Hormuz.The Marshall Islands registry, one of the world's top shipping flags, last week flagged that vessels with links to Israel or the United States may face a heightened threat of attack within Israeli territorial waters…

The Port of Corpus Christi on Wednesday named Chief Financial Officer Kent Britton as its new chief executive officer to head the largest U.S. oil-export port by volume.The appointment comes nearly four months after Sean Strawbridge, the previous chief executive, abruptly resigned after he was questioned about his business expenses.Strawbridge has said all his expenses were in compliance with port policies and state statutes, and have all cleared the internal review process and…

Albania has seized an oil tanker carrying 22,500 tonnes of oil suspected of coming from Russia and arrested the crew for breaching a Western embargo, Albanian police said on Monday. The Liberian-registered oil and chemical tanker was seized in the coastal town of Durres. "From the first steps of investigation it is suspected that this oil shipment is coming from countries under an oil embargo, especially from Russia," police said in the statement. "The tanker departed from Azerbaijan and was allegedly loaded with oil at Greece's Kalamata port…

European Union leaders have agreed an embargo on Russian oil imports that will start kicking in towards the end of the year and which exempts, for now, pipeline imports that Hungary and two other landlocked Central European states rely on.The toughest sanction yet on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, agreed overnight after weeks of wrangling, aims to remove 90% of Russia's crude imports into the 27-nation bloc by year-end, senior officials said."The purpose is to stop Russia's aggressive war…

Russian and Kazakhstan oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) from the Black Sea may fall by up to 1 million barrels per day (bpd), or 1% of global oil production, due to storm-damaged berths, a Russian official said on Tuesday.Pavel Sorokin, a deputy energy minister, said the second berth could also turn out to be damaged after initial information about one of the three being damaged by a storm.Sorokin said the maintenance could take up to two months, which could…

The European Union's foreign ministers disagreed on Monday on whether and how to slap sanctions on Russia's lucrative energy sector over its invasion of Ukraine, with Germany saying the bloc was too dependent on Russian oil to decide an embargo.The EU and allies have already imposed hefty measures against Russia, including freezing its central bank's assets.Russia's siege and bombardment of Mariupol port, which EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called "a massive war crime"…

South Korean authorities have seized a Panama-flagged vessel suspected of transferring oil products to North Korea in violation of international sanctions, a customs official said on Sunday. The seizure was the second to be revealed by South Korea within a few days, as the United Nations steps up efforts to squeeze essential oil supplies to the reclusive North following its nuclear or ballistic missile tests. The ship, KOTI, was seized at Pyeongtaek-Dangjin port, the official told Reuters, without elaborating, due to the sensitivity of the issue.

One of the U.S. Senate's top advocates for lifting the ban on domestic crude exports urged the Commerce Department on Thursday to disclose whether any oil swaps with Mexico have actually been finalized after the agency approved the transactions in August. Administration officials told Reuters in August that the Commerce Department was "acting favorably on a number of applications" to export U.S. crude in exchange for imported oil from Mexico, in a step seen as loosening the ban on most crude oil exports.

The head of U.S. The comments come amid intensifying debate in Washington on whether to reverse the 40-year-old ban, imposed after the Arab oil embargo. A Republican-sponsored bill to repeal it passed the House of Representatives last week, but faces an uncertain future after a veto threat by President Barack Obama. "Allowing exports would ... help save existing jobs and create new jobs," Conoco's CEO, Ryan Lance, told an audience at the Boston College Chief Executives Club Luncheon in Boston, adding he believed the move would also help the economy and produce increased tax revenue.

A bill to repeal the U.S. oil export ban was expected to pass the House of Representatives on Friday, but faces an uncertain future after a veto threat by President Barack Obama. U.S. representatives on Friday morning debated the bill, sponsored by Joe Barton a Republican of Texas, and were slated to vote on it later in the day. Oil policy analyst Kevin Book of ClearView Energy Partners expected the bill to pass the Republican-led House, but said it was unlikely to win the 290 votes necessary to override a White House veto. Congress passed the ban in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo caused snaking lines at gas stations and fears of global oil shortages. "Much has changed since the ban on crude was put in place," Representative Fred Upton, a Republican of Michigan, said before the vote.

Lawmakers who want to ditch the 40-year-old U.S. ban on exporting oil will likely enjoy a victory on Thursday in the Senate banking committee - but they are struggling to garner enough Democratic support to pass the bill in the full chamber. The legislation is expected to get only one vote in the committee from a Democrat, Senator Heidi Heitkamp of the oil-producing state of North Dakota, a sponsor of the bill. "Tomorrow you may not see any other Democrats other than me voting for it, but what you will hear is a willingness to have a discussion and address this issue broadly," Heitkamp said in an interview on Wednesday. If all 54 Senate Republicans vote for the bill, supporters will need six Democrats to reach the 60 votes needed for approval.

The price of U.S. gasoline could fall if Washington were to allow crude oil exports, an independent government report on Tuesday concluded, adding political firepower for those who want to change the law to expand such trade. Exports would put more crude on global markets and push down prices for international Brent oil "which in turn results in lower petroleum product prices for U.S. consumers," according to the report by the Energy Information Administration, entitled "Effects of Removing Restrictions on U.S. Crude Oil Exports. The United States has severely limited oil exports since the early 1970s in the wake of the Arab oil embargo. The Obama administration has taken steps to increase exports of minimally-processed light oil called condensate and allow crude swaps with Mexico.

Lifting the U.S. ban on oil exports would bolster energy security in Europe by allowing countries to find alternative sources, the Czech Republic ambassador to the United States told lawmakers considering a bill to do away with the trade restriction. "The larger the number of stable democracies among the world's exporters, the more robust the energy security of the Czech Republic and the European Union will be," Petr Gandalovic, the ambassador told the panel the House subcommittee on Energy and Power on Thursday. The country has worked to reduce its dependence on oil and gas from Russia, the top energy supplier to many Eastern European countries. A recently built oil pipeline connects the Czech Republic to the Italian port of Trieste via Germany.

The maritime industry was front and center yesterday in Washington, D.C., as “getting more oil on the water” was touted as one piece of the puzzle in ensuring future U.S. energy security, said U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. Sec. Moniz spoke yesterday at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2015 EIA Energy Conference at the Renaissance Downtown Hotel in Washington, DC. Building U.S. energy security via a strategic evaluation of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve  (SPR) was central to his comments…

U.S. Representative Fred Upton, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives' energy panel, on Tuesday said he favors lifting the 40-year-old U.S. oil export ban.   "Oil exports can be a win for the American people and a win for our allies," Upton said. His backing could boost support for a bill in the House to overturn the trade restriction Congress enacted in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo. The measure currently has 40 co-sponsors.     (Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Emily Stephenson)

The chairman of the U.S. Senate's Energy Committee and 20 colleagues on Wednesday urged the Commerce Department to allow crude oil exports to Mexico, saying it would benefit the economies of both countries. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, the committee's chairman, and Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, urged Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzkerto to approve a pending application from Mexico's state oil company Pemex to swap heavy Mexican crude oil for light U.S. crude. Existing U.S. laws "clearly authorize swaps and exchanges" of oil to Mexico that "should be authorized without delay," said a letter signed by Murkowski, Heitkamp and 19 other Senators, most of them Republicans. The United States has allowed some oil exports to Canada since 1985 for use or refining within the country.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives who are trying to end the decades-old ban on U.S. crude oil exports said on Thursday they were gaining support after a Democrat joined the Republican-led effort. Representative Henry Cuellar became the first Democrat to sign on to a bill launched in February by Representative Joe Barton, a Republican and fellow Texan. "If we are able to lift the crude oil ban this is going to open up new markets where Texas businesses can create more jobs at home," said Cuellar, whose district includes the oilfields of Eagle Ford, where much of the U.S. boom in light sweet crude has been taking place over the last half decade.

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Thursday she will unveil a bill next week to reverse the U.S. oil export ban in an effort to build support for killing the 1970s-era restriction that drillers say threatens to choke the domestic energy boom. Murkowski, the Republican chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said she will unveil the bill on Tuesday, although it was uncertain when the measure would get a vote in her committee. "I am going to be looking for every opportunity we might have to advance it," Murkowski said in a press conference.

Companies eager to export U.S. oil face fines and other risks if they stray from government-approved practices, trade lawyers said this week, but the challenge is figuring out what the government allows because its rulings have so far been private. As the drilling boom floods the Gulf Coast with light oil that local refineries cannot easily process, energy companies are under pressure to sell the petroleum to global markets, despite a 40-year ban on crude exports. A 20 percent drop in oil prices this fall has also made them anxious to find new buyers. The Obama administration this summer put a hold on more than 20 new applications for exports of minimally processed light oil called condensate after issuing two approvals for the fuel.

U.S. Representative Joe Barton will introduce a bill on Tuesday to lift the 40-year ban on exports of crude oil, but the measure has almost no chance of passing due to lawmaker concerns about fuel prices and costs to refiners. Barton, a Republican from Texas, will introduce a bill to lift the export ban Congress passed in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo led to fears of fuel shortages, an aide said. The lawmaker will introduce the measure ahead of a hearing later this week…

U.S. lawmakers gave a preview on Thursday of a looming fight next year on lifting the ban on crude exports with supporters saying it would sustain the drilling boom and others questioning its impacts on industry and fuel prices. In a House of Representatives hearing on the ban, Texas Republican Joe Barton said exporting oil would boost the economy, lower gas prices, and help give allies alternative oil supplies to Russia. By some measures the United States is the world's top oil producer and Barton said the country should use that power. "When you're number one, you use that status," said Barton, who introduced a short, 1.5 page bill this week to lift the ban Congress passed in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo. The U.S.

A U.S. agency is considering how the country could export crude oil and natural gas from deepwater ports as the domestic drilling boom adds pressure for Washington to relax trade restrictions and approve shipments of fuel. The U.S. Maritime Administration, or MARAD, is seeking comment on a proposed policy to evaluate applications for building and operating offshore deepwater ports for exporting U.S. oil and natural gas. The agency, part of the U.S. Transportation Department, quietly issued a notice in the Federal Register in October about the rule that received little attention. Congress has banned most U.S. crude exports since the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s led to fears of petroleum shortages.