NYMEX-Natural gas hits 27-mth low, ends down 4 pct
NEW YORK, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Record high supplies and a slow start to the heating season drove front-month U.S. natural gas futures to their lowest close in more than two years on Wednesday.
"Storage is still at record highs for this time, and I don't see any (cold) weather ahead. It's going to be tough to get rid of all the storage gas," a Houston trader said.
Euro Coal-Prices dip again with oil, euro
LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Physical prompt coal prices slipped again by around 50-75 cents on Wednesday in line with weaker oil, the euro and equities and in the absence of fresh spot trade.
"The euro's down, oil and equities are down and there doesn't seem to be any real need to do business," one European trader said.
COMMODITIES-Markets crash amid technical selling, Europe worry
NEW YORK, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Commodities plunged across the board on Wednesday, with gold all but losing its safe-haven appeal, as technical selling pressure added to investors' wearing patience over the European debt crisis.
"It's almost like panic atmosphere that we were dealing with," said Bill O'Neill, partner at commodities investment firm LOGIC Advisors and a regular commentator on gold.
GLOBAL MARKETS-European debt woes prompt year-end flight from risk
SINGAPORE, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Asian shares retreated and the euro and commodities nursed stinging losses on Thursday after fears that Europe's debt crisis is still worsening prompted investors to dump riskier assets and huddle in the safety of the dollar and Treasuries.
The market view that a European Union summit last week had failed to produce a solution to the crisis was reinforced when Italy was forced to pay an eye-watering 6.47 percent on 5-year bonds on Wednesday, a record borrowing cost for the euro era.
Japan burns 200,000 bpd more crude for power in Oct
TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Japan's utilities burned 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) more crude and 136,000 bpd more low-sulphur fuel oil in October than a year earlier to compensate for the loss of nuclear power capacity after the March quake, industry data showed on Monday.
Only 11 of the country's 54 nuclear reactors are operating, forcing the world's third-largest importer of oil and top importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to use even more of those fuels to generate power to plug the nuclear shortfall.
S.Korea's November LNG imports drop 34.5 pct yr/yr
SEOUL, Dec 15 (Reuters) - South Korea's imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) dropped 34.5 percent in November from a year earlier, as the world's second-largest LNG buyer after Japan slowed imports after building winter inventory, customs data showed on Thursday.
South Korea imported 2.32 million tonnes in November, down from 3.54 million tonnes a year earlier, Korea Customs Service data showed.
Ecuador will clean up areas in $18 bln Chevron case
CUYABENO, Ecuador , Dec 14 (Reuters) - Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador said on Monday it will clean up areas in the Amazon jungle at the heart of a lengthy legal battle in which Chevron was ordered to pay $18 billion damages.
Locals accuse Texaco, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, of dumping oil-drilling waste in unlined pits, polluting the forest and causing illness and deaths among indigenous people in the 1970s and 1980s.
OPEC oil deal puts Saudi back in charge
VIENNA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - OPEC oil producers on Wednesday sealed their first new output agreement in three years in a deal that settles a 6-month-old argument over supply policy firmly in Saudi Arabia's favour.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed a target of 30 million barrels daily, ratifying current production near 3-year highs. It did not discuss individual national quotas.
Brazil's OGX says to delay 1st oil output to January
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 14 (Reuters) - OGX Petroleo e Gas , Brazil's second-largest oil company by market value, said on Wednesday it will delay its first-ever oil output to January.
Rio de Janeiro-based OGX made the announcement in a statement on the Web site of Brazil's CVM, the country's security and exchange regulator.
Aramco, Sinopec, CNOOC seek Frac Tech stake - sources
HONG KONG, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and No. 2 consumer China may buy into a U.S. company that makes and operates technology used in hydraulic fracturing, the oil and natural gas drilling technique that has sharply boosted North America's energy output and is now spreading abroad.
Saudi Aramco and two huge Chinese oil companies, Sinopec and CNOOC Ltd , are each in talks to buy a stake in Frac Tech International, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
US Offshore drillers need new safety approach-panel
WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - U.S. offshore oil and gas drillers need to take a more systematic approach to safety in all aspects of their operations to prevent another catastrophe like last year's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a scientific panel said on Wednesday.
The National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council said in a report that it was a lack of comprehensive safety management that led to the 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers.
US seeks oil supply cushion as Iran sanctions loom
WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The United States is building ties with a range of oil producing countries in an effort to ensure a steady supply of crude to global markets as the West ratchets up the threat of increased sanctions against Iranian exports.
According to a State Department official, the groundwork is being laid with exporters including Ghana, Angola, and Iraq, where the oil industry is recovering from war and years of neglect, to boost global spare oil capacity in case of outages that can lead to price spikes that threaten the fragile economy.
