William Hardy News

Libyan Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) commander Ibrahim Jathran said on Monday he was ready to end a blockade at key oil terminals, but the U.N.-backed government still needs to sign an agreement for exports to resume. The PFG has been demanding payment of workers' wages as part of any deal to end the blockade of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina. Details of the negotiations have not been made public. A deal was thrown into doubt when the head of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli, Mustafa Sanalla, wrote to the U.N. Libya envoy on Friday saying that it would set a "terrible precedent" to make payments to Jathran, who he blamed for the loss of some $100 billion in export revenue. The NOC has expressed concerns that Jathran's demands have exceeded salary needs.

India's Iran oil imports rose about 39 percent in June year on year, preliminary data obtained by Reuters shows. In the first half of 2016 India's Iran oil imports surged by about 58 percent to about 342,000 bpd, the data showed, in comparison with 216,500 bpd in the same period last year. HPCL-Mittal Energy, majority owned by state refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp, halted oil imports from Iran in November 2012 under pressure from Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear ambitions. HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL), partly owned by steel tycoon Lakshmi N. Mittal, took a cargo from Tehran after a three-and-a-half year break. Last month HMEL took a million barrels of Iranian oil…

Oil investors are finally buying into the notion that the biggest risk to the price now is likely to be supply falling short of demand, rather than from any stubborn overhang of unwanted crude, the options market shows. The price of Brent crude has hit $52 a barrel, virtually double January's near-13-year lows, driven primarily by a decline in global production that has been speedy enough to bring supply and demand into line faster than many had anticipated. "In the end, you will see global oversupply, at some point diminish, and in effect even earlier than speculators realise," ABN Amro chief energy strategist Hans van Cleef said. In the last year, nearly a million barrels per day (bpd) have vanished from higher-cost U.S.

Preliminary work got underway on Monday to restart three of Total's French oil refineries stopped as part of nationwide strikes against planned changes to employment laws, but workers were still on strike at the country's two main oil ports. Workers voted to end a strike at Grandpuits near Paris and preliminary work on resuming operations was underway there and at the Normandy refinery, as well as at the Feyzin refinery in the southern Rhone region, a Total spokesman said. Total operates five of the country's eight refineries. The Donges refinery on France's western coast was still blocked by about 30 members of the hardline CGT union, which is leading the campaign of stoppages and protests in the rail and energy sectors against the government's labour reforms.

Tankers laden with diesel heading from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Europe are turning around in mid-ocean as European storage is nearly filled to the brim. At least three 37,000 tonne tankers - Vendome Street, Atlantic Star and Atlantic Titan - have made U-turns in the Atlantic ocean in recent days and are now heading back west, according to Reuters ship tracking. It is unclear if the tankers will discharge their diesel cargoes in the Gulf Coast or will await new orders, according to traders and shipping brokers. "European prices are so soft," one trader said. The Vendome Street was more than three quarters of the way to Europe, turning around just 800 miles off the coast of Portugal. Ship brokers said a turnaround so late in the journey would come at a cost to the charterer.

Oil traders are profiting handsomely from a crude price crash to near an 11-year low, even as it forces energy companies around the globe to slash costs and postpone projects. From listed giant Glencore through unlisted Swiss privately-held Trafigura, to the trading desks of majors BP and Shell, traders have often done well in times of oil price downturns, and markedly so this time around. On Monday, Trafigura, which trades roughly 3 percent of global oil, reported record earnings just days after Glencore said it was sticking to its trading earning guidance even though it cut production at some mines and reduced inventories. BP and Shell…

Oil is unlikely to return to $80 a barrel before the end of the decade, despite unprecedented declines in investment, as yearly demand growth struggles to top 1 million barrels per day, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. In its World Energy Outlook, the IEA said it anticipates demand growth under its central scenario will rise annually by some 900,000 barrels per day to 2020, gradually reaching demand of 103.5 million bpd by 2040. The drop in oil to around $50 a barrel this year has triggered steep cutbacks in production of U.S. shale oil, one of the major contributors to the oversupply that has stripped 50 percent off the price in the last 12 months.

Kurdistan reasserted its right to export oil independently to the United States and other countries on Tuesday despite a court ruling in favour of the Iraqi federal government, which has sought to block crude sales from the autonomous region. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans on Monday dismissed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)'s bid to overturn an earlier ruling against a planned sale of oil to an unidentified buyer in the U.S. Iraq's federal government filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court last year to thwart the sale of the one million barrel cargo from the Kurdistan region in an ongoing dispute over the right to export oil. The tanker was stuck off U.S.

OPEC on Monday predicted higher demand for its crude oil next year, sticking to its view that a strategy of letting prices fall will tame the U.S. shale boom and cut a global surplus. The monthly report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also said a weaker outlook for China would contribute to slower global oil demand growth next year. "U.S. oil production has shown signs of slowing," OPEC said in the report. OPEC said it expected demand for its crude next year to average 30.31 million barrels per day (bpd), up 190,000 bpd from last month, despite the slower demand growth overall due to a weaker outlook for Latin America and China. Oil is trading below $50 a barrel, less than half its level of June 2014.

Maersk Oil said on Wednesday it would seek regulatory permission to shut its Janice installation, which produces around 7,000 barrels per day (bpd) from three UK North Sea oilfields, as the Danish firm reviews its operations due to falling oil prices. It is one of the first North Sea oil fields to be threatened with closure due to the drop in prices, with Brent crude futures having plunged to around $43 a barrel from over $100 a barrel last June. North Sea producers have been under increasing pressure to cut costs and improve production efficiency…

U.S. crude oil prices on Friday dove below $40 a barrel for the first time since the 2009 financial crisis, notching their longest weekly losing streak in 29 years after a further rise in U.S. drilling and a drop in Chinese manufacturing. Oil prices pushed briefly below the $40-pivot mark following weekly data that showed U.S. energy firms added two oil drilling rigs last week, the fifth increase in a row. The rise in rigs, which is emerging now after a second quarter lull in prices, is adding to concerns U.S. shale production is proving slow to respond to falling prices, prolonging a global glut. "Everyone is still looking at it saying 'Wow, you still don't have production coming down,'" said Tariq Zahir, founder at Tyche Capital in Laurel Hollow, New York.

Russian Urals crude weakened further on Monday in the Mediterranean and the Baltic under pressure from abundant supplies and as oil firms began to tender fresh September supplies. In the Platts window, Tenergy sold a cross-month Urals cargo in the Mediterranean to Eni at dated Brent minus $1 per barrel, some 20 cents weaker than previous price estimates, traders said. In the Baltic, Glencore offered a cross-month cargo at dated Brent minus $1.60, some 10 cents weaker than previous price estimates, but found no buyers, traders said. Azeri was also under pressure as a cargo was heard having changed hands at levels weaker than dated Brent plus $2 per barrel. "Supplies are plentiful.

Igor Sechin, the head of Russia's top oil producer Rosneft, said on Wednesday the United States is calling the shots on global oil markets, while the influence of OPEC has shrunk. The United States emerged with renewed vigour as a top producer thanks to its shale boom. By refusing to curb its  output to prop up oil prices, OPEC has tried to maintain its share in the global market, shrugging off lower prices which damage U.S. producers. "In essence, the sole market, which has all the sets of financial and technological tools, is the U.S. market, which has became the key regulator," Sechin told reporters, adding that oil prices in the United States set the tone of the global industry.

Oil explorer Cairn Energy  has dropped plans to drill near Spanish holiday island Ibiza, the company said, as it wants to focus on developing potentially huge reserves offshore Senegal. Cairn was set to carry out seismic testing on four offshore blocks in the Gulf of Valencia but has now decided its money will be better spent in Senegal where it said its oilfields could hold more than a billion barrels of oil. "Cairn has informed the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce that it intends to withdraw from four exploration permits in the Gulf of Valencia," a spokesman said. The company will maintain other projects in Spain, including applications for new licences offshore the Gulf of Lion and the Bay of Biscay, he added.

The United Nations shipping agency on Friday adopted stricter safety and environmental provisions for vessels operating in Arctic and Antarctic waters after years of negotiations. As ice melts, shipping traffic through the regions is set to increase. Under the Polar Code, which was adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), ships trading in the Polar regions will have to comply with strict safety and environmental provisions. These include prohibitions on oil or…

With Middle East giants Saudi Arabia and Iran squaring up on opposing sides in the Yemen war, the dangers to vital oil tanker and goods voyages are growing daily. Millions of barrels of oil pass through the Bab el-Mandeb and Strait of Hormuz everyday to Europe, the United States and Asia - waterways which pass along the coasts of Yemen and Iran respectively. Insurance costs for shippers are likely to jump. Last week Iran released Marshall-Islands container ship Maersk Tigris and its crew which were seized in the Strait of  Hormuz. This prompted the United States to send vessels to temporarily accompany U.S. flagged ships through the strait. Iranian patrol boats had shadowed a separate container ship earlier last month.

Small and mid-sized independent oil producers in the British North Sea could face a financing squeeze this year as banks cut lending linked to the value of oil reserves, following last year's oil price sell off. Unlike the oil majors, which can slash headcount and delay projects, smaller firms tend to be reliant on few fields, and those that are mid-project have little choice but to continue with their capital expenditure. "Where companies have committed to projects when the oil price was $100-plus and their capital budget was set in advance…

A fall in oil prices may help long-term exploitation of fossil fuels in the Arctic by averting a short-lived "gold rush" into the vulnerable icy region, Norway's Foreign Minister Boerge Brende said on Thursday. Exploitation of oil and gas required long planning to safeguard the fragile environment, which is heating up faster than the world average because of global warming, he said. "It is safe to assume that Arctic gas will have its day," he said in a speech at an Arctic conference, saying that burning natural gas emitted half the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide as coal.

The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk commodities, slipped further on Thursday on extended weaker demand for bigger vessels. The index, which factors in the average daily earnings of capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize dry bulk transport vessels, fell 5 points, or 0.88 percent, to 560 points. The capesize index fell 37 points, or 8.58 percent, to 394 points. Average daily earnings for capesizes, which typically transport 150,000-tonne cargoes such as iron ore and coal, fell $264 to $4,093. The panamax index slipped 2 points, or 0.34 percent, to 586 points. Average daily earnings for panamaxes…

Vopak workers are planning strike action at all 11 of the company's oil, gas and chemical terminals in the Netherlands on April 22, union officials said on Wednesday. Union official Albert van Damme said the strike action would effectively halt operations at the terminals during the morning shift, which runs from 7 am to 3 pm, leaving only enough workers to ensure safety. He said there were no further talks scheduled between Vopak and the CNV Vakmensen and FNV Havens unions that represent the company's 800 staff in the Netherlands. Efforts to reach an agreement between unions and the company broke down on Tuesday evening, and limited strike action began on Wednesday at the company's oil and gas storage terminal at the Dutch port of Vlissingen.

Ship container line Hapag-Lloyd has placed an order for five vessels as it looks to bolster trade in Latin America ahead of next year's planned expansion of the Panama Canal, the world's fourth biggest player said on Monday. Workers are installing 22-storey lock gates to accommodate larger container ships through the canal, one of the world's busiest maritime routes, which plans to open on April 1 2016. Hamburg-headquartered Hapag-Lloyd, which completed a merger with Chile's Compania Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) in December, said it had placed an order for five 10,500 TEU ships, scheduled for delivery between October 2016 and May 2017. "They will be deployed primarily on South American routes.

Russian Urals crude price differentials strengthened in the Baltic in a spot tender on Tuesday after loading schedules confirmed scarce export volumes for May. There was no deals in the Platts window, traders said while adding that trader Talmay won spot tenders by oil firm Surgut to lift two cargoes of Urals loading at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga. The price for cargoes loading on May 15-16 and 21-22 was pegged at around dated Brent minus 85-90 cents a barrel, when adding freight to the original FOB-basis price, some 20-25 cents stronger than previous price estimates. Talmay was believed to have resold barrels to China's Unipec, traders added. On Monday, a loading schedule for Russian Baltic Sea ports showed the total number of cargoes dropping to 53 in May from 62 in April.

By focusing on operational improvements, shipping companies are reducing fuel consumption, saving money and cutting greenhouse emissions, while continuing to increase the amount of freight transported. Maersk Line, the world's largest container carrier, cut fuel consumption by more than 13 percent between 2012 and 2014, while increasing the number of boxes carried by 11 percent, according to company records. Maersk's fuel savings amount to 1.35 million tonnes of fuel per year - and 1.5 million tonnes per year if the increase in freight volumes is taken into account.