Oil Output Agreement? - Oil agreement could support stocks,providing a floor

An agreement by oil producing nations to cut output by a record amount may sustain a recent bounce in stocks, though stay-at-home restrictions and closures tied to the coronavirus pandemic continue to weigh on the global economy.

Read more at:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-stocks/oil-agreement-could-support-stocks-providing-a-floor-idUKKCN21U0U2

USA: Trump and Palin: Is America Becoming an Oil Kleptocracy? - by Alexei Bayer

Oil-producing nations are a mess. Go down their full list – from A for Algeria, Argentina and Azerbaijan via I for Iraq and S for Saudi Arabia all the way down to V for Venezuela – and you’ll see economic and political basket cases.

Many of these oil-producing countries don’t need, or like, democracy. They are ruled by narcissistic authoritarians who distribute goodies, talk of national greatness and stuff their own pockets.

Muammar Gaddafi, Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez come to mind. Eccentric, quirky, self-indulgent and totally devoid of self-doubt, they like to hear themselves talk and are very entertaining. They’re performers, not policy wonks.

They are, in short, wizards of Oz, selling snake oil to their grateful populace. Eventually, they turn nasty, making mischief in the rest of the world and oppressing and robbing their own people.

Now, what does that have to do with the United States, an industrial giant and the world’s leader in technological innovation? Well, in recent years the United States did become the world’s largest producer of oil. Last year, it even started to export some of the stuff.

Of course, the United States has a huge diversified economy and its oil industry accounts only for a small portion of its GDP. It is still a major importer of oil.

Besides, oil is currently quite cheap. At least for now, you can’t live high on the hog by exporting it. All those oil kleptocracies that were rich and self-important are suddenly starting to pawn their family silver (if they have any).

And yet, the U.S. economy and U.S. society as a whole are sending forth dangerous signals. The United States has long been on a road to de-industrialization, sending manufacturing jobs to China, Mexico and other places.

The number of U.S. manufacturing jobs is down 15% from 2006 and it didn’t grow at all during 2015, which was otherwise a bumper year for jobs. Since 1985, the number of manufacturing jobs has dropped by 35%.

 Read more: Trump and Palin: Is America Becoming an Oil Kleptocracy? - The Globalist

Oil Industry Off-shore drilling - BP: Flawed drilling gear still in use after BP oil spill, board says - by Neela Banerjee

Design problems with a blowout prevention system contributed to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, and the same equipment is still commonly used in drilling four years after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a report issued by the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

The board concluded that the "blowout preventer" — a five-story-tall series of seals and valves that was supposed to shear the drill pipe and short-circuit the explosion — failed for reasons the oil industry did not anticipate and has not fully corrected.

Despite improved regulation of deep-water drilling since the disaster, the board found that problems persist in oil and gas companies' offshore safety systems.

"This results in potential safety gaps in U.S. offshore operations and leaves open the possibility of another similar catastrophic accident," said Cheryl MacKenzie, lead investigator of the safety board inquiry.

The blowout of BP's Macondo well in April 2010 killed 11 men and spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the worst offshore oil disaster in United States history. Several federal commissions have investigated the missteps that occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the days and hours leading up to the explosion, which investigators said had its roots in corporate mismanagement and inadequate government oversight of the oil industry.

Read more: Flawed drilling gear still in use after BP oil spill, board says - Los Angeles Times

Oil Industry: China buys extra leverage in (ARA) the heart of northwest Europe

Sinopec’s purchase in October of half of oil tank firm Vesta Terminals takes China one step closer towards creating its own super majors as the state uses its $3.3tn cash pile to increase its influence over the world market.

The deal with Swiss trading house Mercuria helps state-owned Sinopec increase the profitability of its oil products and gives it extra leverage in the vital Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) trading hub at the heart of northwest Europe. Sinopec and its powerful trading unit, Unipec, will use the tanks to optimise trade in gasoil (heating oil and diesel) and gasoline and position itself for future oil flows.

The Vesta purchase is one small piece of a giant jigsaw slowly being fitted together to allow Sinopec and fellow Chinese state oil company CNOOC to compete against Western traders and majors such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell. “Chinese companies (are) seeking to build access to European trade as part of their attempt to replicate the global reach of IOCs (international oil companies),” said Robert Turner, a director specializing in refining at consultancy PwC.

Read more: Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper - Finance & Business

Oil Industry Fraud: Royal Dutch Shell and other Oil giants face South Africa price-fixing charges

Subsidiaries of global oil giants Chevron, Shell, Total and BP were referred to South Africa's top anti-trust body Wednesday over accusations they have been colluding to rig consumer prices since the 1980s, with a recommendation that the companies face massive fines.

Following "wide-ranging investigations" since 2009, the Competition Commission said it had uncovered "collusive conduct" that stretched back decades, and had referred the case to the Competition Tribunal for judgement.

The commission recommended that each company be fined 10 percent of total turnover from their South African business for the last financial year. "The investigation revealed collusive conduct through extensive exchanges of commercially sensitive information by the respondent oil companies," it said.

The information was said to include detailed monthly sales figures and collusion to influence the regulatory environment.

Read more: more: Oil giants face South Africa price-fixing charges | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Washington Wired for War: Why Syria Could Spell World Catastrophe - by Finian Cunningham

When Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip fatally shot the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, the assassination is seen as the event that ushered in the First World War. Within a month, the Great Powers of Europe would become embroiled in a four-year war owing to a web of alliances and treaties: Russia, France, Britain on the one hand; Germany, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires on the other. The US would eventually enter the maelstrom in April 1917 on the side of Britain and the Entente allies against the Central Powers.

The eventual death toll was between 10 and 16 million, making it one of the biggest cataclysms in human history. The war was, of course, not the consequence of a mere single act on that fateful day in Sarajevo. It was the culmination over many years of diplomatic and political skirmishing stemming from economic rivalry between the European capitalist powers. Although some later historians dispute the role of economics as the determinant, it is hard not to conclude as many others have done that the First World War was the classic outcome of imperialist rivalry.

The political and economic slide towards the headlong collision of the First World War is proof of that dynamic. By way of further proof, only 20 years after “the war to end all wars”, following even deeper economic turmoil between nations, the world was plunged into the even greater conflagration of the Second World War, which involved for the first time the deployment of nuclear weapons and a death toll exceeding 50 million.

One constant factor in the source of rivalry between nations is the control of oil, the lifeblood of the capitalist system. Indeed, the control of oil has become an even greater determinant today for international hegemony. This was well understood by US planners in the aftermath of the Second World War. With less that five per cent of the world’s population, but consuming more than 25 per cent of the world’s oil production, US planners have long been aware of the crucial importance of controlling global oil production for the preservation of America’s economic power. This vital national interest far outweighs any much-vaunted American ideals of democratic values.

With more than 60 per cent of the world’s proven oil and gas reserves located in the Middle East, this region is the ultimate key to continuing US global power. It was for this reason that the former US secretary of state James Baker candidly revealed in an interview on America’s PBS Frontline programme in mid-October 2001 that Washington would always be ready and willing, as a matter of national security, to go to war in order to protect its ally Saudi Arabia and the other oil-rich Arab allies. The despotic, dictatorial nature of these regimes is a virtue, not a vice, for guaranteed American oil supply and the continued dominance of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

Under the process of globalization, nation state capitalism has expanded over recent decades to take on, increasingly, a transnational character and function. This has resulted in networks of global capital in the form of multinational banks and corporations. In that way, nation states can appear to be cooperating seamlessly in the function of global capital.

Note EU-Digest: The emphasis by the writer on just Western Nations being the culprit of these dangerous developments which eventually could lead to war is not totally correct. The argument should also include major international players like China and Russia, where the economic motivations of special interest groups have also overpowered political doctrines and ideals of the past.

In today's world the true ideals of Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, Democracy - whatever someone's preference would be - have basically all been replaced by greedy self interest economic interest groups. 

In fact wars today are just a basic "shootout" between members of this modern Cosa Nostra, better know under the pseudonym World Economic Order. Unfortunately all the members of this "group" also possess the nuclear capabilities to destroy each other and the world as we know it. 

Washington Wired for War: Why Syria Could Spell World Catastrophy | Scoop News

Oil firms are manipulating the price of petrol/gasoline, report from G20 group claims

Drivers have been paying over the odds for petrol after traders manipulated oil prices in a Libor-style fix, it is claimed.

An official report for the G20 group of world leaders casts doubt on the reliability of oil prices and warns that the market is wide open to manipulation.

The oil market relies on firms to submit accurate figures on a daily basis – just like the Libor interest rate which Barclays bank were found to have rigged.

The report says market players like banks, oil companies and hedge funds have an incentive to distort the market with false prices to boost their trade.

SNP transport spokesman Angus MacNeil MP said: “Fuel prices impact on everyone and it would be unforgivable if motorists had been victim to price-rigging. “We need an urgent investigation into these allegations and action to regulate fuel prices so that people know that they are not being ripped off.”  This means motorists may have been ripped off by artificially high prices at the forecourt.

US regulators have also warned that the banking rate-rigging scandals  could also  spread to the oil market.

Note EU-Digest: Its not a question of spreading its been going on for a long time.

Read more: Oil firms are manipulating the price of petrol, report claims - The Daily Record

Angry Spain threatens Argentina with retaliation after oil company YPF nationalization

An angry Spain threatened swift economic retaliation against Argentina on Tuesday after it unveiled plans to seize YPF, the South American nation's biggest  oil company which is controlled by Spanish energy group Reps.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged Argentina to uphold international agreements on business protection with Spain. "I am seriously disappointed about yesterday's announcement," he said in Brussels.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague added to the chorus of condemnation, saying: "This goes against all the commitments Argentina has made in the G20 to promote transparency and reduce protectionism."

Argentina and Britain have also been locked in a diplomaticbattle over oil exploration in the Falkland Islands for months.

Spanish media slammed the expropriation, believed to be biggest nationalization in the natural resources field since the seizure of Russia's Yukos oil company a decade ago.

EU-Digest

OIL Industry: US Taxpayers Subsidize Big Oil, World’s Most Profitable Industry - Rinaldo Brutoco and Madeleine Austin

The US Senate couldn’t muster the votes to end $2 billion a year in taxpayer subsidies for the five biggest US oil companies. The House had already voted to block efforts to repeal tax breaks for Big Oil, in sharp contrast to its vote to strip tax credits for small business health insurance.

The Congressional votes create a strong contrast between the US and other countries, including Germany, China, the Scandinavian countries, and most recently, Japan, who are leading the way to a new planetary fuel system that will replace oil and nuclear energy with renewable energy. In response to its nuclear disaster, Japan has renounced its plans to build new nuclear plants and announced it will redo its energy system “from scratch.” Germany is using the Fukushima disaster as an opportunity to curtail nuclear power and boost its strong clean technology export sector. Other countries have curtailed or suspended their nuclear plans. But the United States, once a leader in science and technology that beat other countries to the moon, remains controlled by money politics, Big Oil, and climate deniers.

The oil industry is the most profitable industry in the world. US oil companies earn about $3 billion in profits every week, yet get $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies every year. In the first quarter of 2011, Big Oil’s profits were up 38% from the first quarter of 2010.

For more: Taxpayers Subsidize Big Oil, World’s Most Profitable Industry - Bulatlat

The End Of The Oil Age - by Michael T. Klare

In a testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke optimistically of the economy and dismissed the impact of soaring oil prices, spurred by turmoil in the Middle East. “The most likely outcome,” he said, “is that the recent rise in commodity prices will lead to, at most, a temporary and relatively modest increase in U.S. consumer price inflation.”

Of course, let’s take it for granted that no one inside Washington DC's Beltway has to fill his or her own car with gas. For them, pain at the pump may indeed feel “temporary and relatively modest.” Tell that, however, to the official 9% of unemployed Americans who still have to drive a car in what Bernanke and everyone else who isn’t suffering seems to agree is not a recession. In 1940, the last year of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate in the US was at 14.6% -- and in those days they still hadn’t stopped counting people too discouraged to look for work.

Whatever the outcome of the protests, uprisings, and rebellions now sweeping the Middle East, one thing is guaranteed: the world of oil will be permanently transformed. Consider everything that’s now happening as just the first tremor of an oilquake that will shake our world to its core.

For a century stretching back to the discovery of oil in southwestern Persia before World War I, Western powers have repeatedly intervened in the Middle East to ensure the survival of authoritarian governments devoted to producing petroleum. Without such interventions, the expansion of Western economies after World War II and the current affluence of industrialized societies would be inconceivable.
Here, however, is the news that should be on the front pages of newspapers everywhere: That old oil order is dying, and with its demise we will see the end of cheap and readily accessible petroleum -- forever.

For more: TomDispatch

Petroleum Industry: Venezuela risks shooting itself in the foot causing more problems for the oil industry

There are more problems on the horizon for the oil industry and its coming of all places from Venezuela.

One of Venezuela’s major problems has been that Mr Chávez’s has been pillaging the state oil firm PDVSA. It is now run loyal supporters of the regime, starved of investment and income used for social spending of the Government, cutting its output from 3.3m barrels per day (b/d) in 1998 to around 2.25m b/d today, according to industry estimates. Of that, some 1m b/d is sold at subsidized prices at home or to regional allies, like Cuba, Suriname and others, leaving just 1.25m b/d for full-price exports.

If this keeps going on Venezuela will not be able to pay his countries debts and causing the bond markets to fear for the solvency of the world’s eighth-largest oil producer.

EU-Digest

Oil above $101 on Egypt port disruptions, dollar

Oil hovered around $101 per barrel on Tuesday after a rally on Monday supported by port disruptions in Egypt, a weakening dollar and concerns about growing social unrest in north Africa.

"Geo-politics is at the forefront of the sentiment at the moment. And while we don't expect (oil) transit to be impacted, the news of the port disruptions brings up the what-if?," said Amrita Sen, oil analyst at Barclays.

Brent crude futures were up 6 cents at $101.09 a barrel as of 1617 GMT. U.S. crude oil futures were down 74 cents at $91.46 per barrel after falling by over $1 during the day.

For more: Oil above $101 on Egypt port disruptions, dollar - The Economic Times

OIL Industry: BP and Halliburton knew of Gulf oil well cement flaws

BP and Halliburton were aware of flaws in the cement used to seal the doomed well in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the lead investigator for the presidential commission on the oil spill.

In a letter to the commission, the investigator, Fred Bartlit, said the cement mixture used on the well did not meet industry standards, and failed three out of four laboratory tests before the Deepwater Horizon explosion on 20 April.

Halliburton, which was hired by BP to cement the well, learned of those failures in February, and informed BP on 8 March. But both firms chose to go ahead with the nitrogen foam cement mixture, which was supposed to secure the bottom of the well.

For More: BP and Halliburton knew of Gulf oil well cement flaws | Environment | guardian.co.uk

It's worth the fight against oil interests - by Thomas L.Friedman

Two Texas oil companies with two refineries each in California are financing a campaign to roll back California's landmark laws to slow global warming and promote clean-energy innovation, because it would require the refiners to install new emission-control tools.

At a time when President Barack Obama and Congress have failed to pass a clean-energy bill, California's laws are the best thing we have going to stimulate clean-tech in America. We don't want them gutted. C'mon in. This is a fight worth having.

"If the people of California see through the misrepresentations of the oil industry, it throws climate denialism off the tracks and opens the door for a return to a science-based approach to the climate. It would be a triumph for the National Academy of Sciences over the National Academy of Fraud."

For more: Thomas L. Friedman: It's worth the fight against oil interests - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

OIL SPILL USA: Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher | al.com

A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

"The following is not public," reads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Emergency Response document dated April 28. "Two additional release points were found today in the tangled riser. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought."

Asked Friday to comment on the document, NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen said that the additional leaks described were reported to the public late Wednesday night. Regarding the possibility of the spill becoming an order of magnitude larger, Smullen said, "I'm letting the document you have speak for itself."

In scientific circles, an order of magnitude means something is 10 times larger. In this case, an order of magnitude higher would mean the volume of oil coming from the well could be 10 times higher than the 5,000 barrels a day coming out now. That would mean 50,000 barrels a day, or 2.1 million gallons a day. It appears the new leaks mentioned in the Wednesday release are the leaks reported to the public late Wednesday night.

Note EU-Digest: the total lack of results in getting this spill in the Gulf quickly under control, either on a national or international level, shows Public and Private organizations are unprepared and have no contingency plans in solving disasters of this scale. It is high time the Oil Industry becomes more seriously regulated.

For more: Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher | al.com

US oil industry hit by cyberattacks: Was China involved?

The oil and gas industry breaches, the mere existence of which has been a closely guarded secret of oil companies and federal authorities, were focused on one of the crown jewels of the industry: valuable “bid data” detailing the quantity, value, and location of oil discoveries worldwide, sources familiar with the attacks say and documents obtained by the Monitor show.

The companies – Marathon Oil, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips – didn’t realize the full extent of the attacks, which occurred in 2008, until the FBI alerted them that year and in early 2009. Federal officials told the companies proprietary information had been flowing out, including to computers overseas, a source familiar with the attacks says and documents show.

The data included e-mail passwords, messages, and other information tied to executives with access to proprietary exploration and discovery information, the source says. While China’s involvement in the attacks is far from certain, at least some data was detected flowing from one oil company computer to a computer in China, a document indicates. Another oil company’s security personnel privately referred to the breaches in one of the documents as the “China virus.”

For more: US oil industry hit by cyberattacks: Was China involved? / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Alternative Energy is here to stay: China is planning to set up seven wind power bases

EU-Digest

Alternative Energy is here to stay: China is planning to set up seven wind power bases

The vice-president of the Chinese Wind Energy Association announced recently that China is planning to set up seven wind power bases - with a minimum capacity of 10 GW each - by 2020. That means each wind power base will generate more than double the power that's expected to be generated at T. Boone Pickens' wind farm in Texas. Certainly for those who invest in turbine manufacturers, this kind of continued support for wind energy in China could prove to be quite lucrative. But this opportunity is not limited to only China. Whether you believe it's the right thing or not, governments around the world are facilitating the wind energy industry's early growth, not only by offering direct support for research, testing and development. . .but also by building electric infrastructures to enable the transmission of new wind power generation. The fossil fuel economy is being phased out.

guardian.co.uk: Iran overtakes Saudi as China's No.1 crude supplier

For the complete report from the guardian.co.uk click on this link

Iran overtakes Saudi as China's No.1 crude supplier

Iran overtook Saudi Arabia in May as China's top crude supplier, Chinese customs data showed on Monday, but traders said it was partly due to a supply cut from the Saudis. Beijing-based trading officials cautioned against reading too much into one month's figures, which they said may have been skewed due to technical problems such as port congestion that pushed back or forth imported cargoes for customs clearance. Iran, the world's fifth-largest crude exporter, shipped into China 3.088 million tonnes of crude, or 727,000 barrels per day last month, a rise of 88 percent from a year ago.

canada.com: Record profits for big oil companies - by John Harding

For the complete report from the Canada.com click on this link

Record profits for big oil companies - by John Harding

Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest publicly listed company in the world, reported the highest quarterly earnings for an American company in history Thursday.Exxon, which owns about 78 per cent of Canada's oldest oil company, Imperial Oil Ltd., said profit in the second quarter climbed 14 per cent to $11.68 billion US. Exxon's net income was $2.22 US per share compared to $10.26 billion US, or $1.83 US per share last year. Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million US related to an Exxon Valdez legal settlement, Exxon's second quarter earnings were a whopping $11.97 billion, or $2.27 a share.

The results from the Irving-Tex.,-based company mirrored those of other integrated players as upstream profits surged but downstream earnings plummeted, driven by lower worldwide refining margins. Exxon's upstream earnings in the quarter were a company record $10 billion, up from about $6 billion in the same quarter last year while downstream earnings of $1.55 billion fell by $1.9 billion compared to last year. Exxon rival Royal Dutch Shell also released earnings Thursday, saying net income rose to $11.56 billion US, or $1.87 a share, from $8.67 billion, or $1.38, a year earlier. Earnings from both global super majors fell short of analyst expectations, a result of falling production.

Asia Times Online : Big Oil's 'secret' out of Iraq's closet - by Pepe Escobar

For the complete report from the Asia Times Online click on this link

Big Oil's 'secret' out of Iraq's closet - by Pepe Escobar

It is not about the "war on terror". It is not about weapons of mass destruction. It is not about "freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people", or to the "Afghan people". It is not about "Islamofascism". It is not about a Pentagon-coined "arc of instability" from the Middle East to Central Asia. New evidence shows once again both George W Bush administration wars - in Afghanistan and Iraq - above all are about oil and gas. But now the US and European Big Oil majors that controlled the Iraqi oil industry up to the 1972 nationalization - today represented by Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron - seem to be back with a vengeance. Thus the New York Times, for instance, can redeem itself from printing Ahmad Chalabi-fed weapons-of-mass-destruction nonsense on its front page for months and actually engage in news that's fit to print. This past Monday, the paper reported that "a group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq".

It ain't over till the fat (oil) lady sings. But if the Bush administration "vision" of a perpetual Iraqi puppet regime, with its oil wealth confiscated and under the imperial boot, takes hold, alongside the Taliban having a long pipeline to play with in Afghanistan, the least one can expect is a lot more blood on the tracks.