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Monday, December 19, 2011

Inside Oil - Tuesday December 20 2011

Thomson Reuters
Thomson 

Reuters - Inside Oil
 
 
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2011 

To download the full report (PDF document) please click here
 
SPECIAL PDF REPORT - THREAT OF IRAN SANCTIONS WORRIES OIL MARKET
Iran aims to sell its biggest Asian customers oil at higher prices and on tougher terms, even as it faces the prospect of fewer sales as Western nations mull sanctioning the economic lifeline of the world's fifth largest crude exporter. 
For Reuters reports on the meet, click here
 
 
COLUMN:
 
Commodity funds pick oil as safest option: John Kemp
--John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own--
LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - In a tough landscape for commodities, most hedge funds and other money managers have decided to stick with long positions in crude oil, boosting their investments even as prices slide. 
For commodity funds, who must basically be long of something to justify their continued existence, crude is the least-dangerous among a series of tricky alternatives.
 
 
MARKET NEWS:
Oil edges up on supply worry; EU, N. Korea eyed
NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday in choppy trading as protests in Kazakhstan raised fears of supply disruption even as concerns about Europe's debt crisis and uncertainty about North Korea after the death of leader Kim Jong-il kept investors cautious. 
"Today's mid-session selling appeared to emanate out of ECB statements from Europe regarding limited euro zone bond purchases," Jim Ritterbusch, president at Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a note.
 
NYMEX-Natural gas ends down on weather, front hits 27-mth low         
NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures on Monday ended lower for the third time in four sessions, with record high supplies and fairly mild December weather driving the front-month contract to a new low for a fourth straight day. 
"I'm not optimistic here. The weather's not cooperating - there's no (residential or commercial) demand, and there's plenty of gas in storage," a New York-based analyst said.
 
COMMODITIES-Markets edge higher; dry weather boosts crops
NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Corn prices gained their most in two months on Monday on dry South American weather, boosting agricultural markets sharply, while oil rose on supply concerns. 
"Most investors probably don't want to sell down here, but (see) no compelling reason to go long here either," said Mike Guido, associate director of hedge fund sales at Macquarie in New York.
   
GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks, euro steady after sell-off
TOKYO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Asian stocks and the euro steadied on Tuesday, but sentiment remained fragile on concerns that efforts to contain the euro zone debt crisis were faltering and tougher rules to strengthen banks' capital would further undermine their profits.
"We couldn't see much bargain-hunting yesterday even at current cheap levels," said Kenichi Hirano, operating officer at Tachibana Securities.
 
 
CNOOC says gas leak found in south China pipeline
Dec 20 (Reuters) - Chinese offshore oil and gas firm CNOOC Ltd  halted production at two platforms after discovering a leak in the subsea gas pipeline at the Zhuhai terminal in southern China near Hong Kong, the company said in a press statement. 
"Currently the terminal is under accelerated depressurization process," CNOOC said in the statement. "This incident neither caused any injuries nor environmental pollution, and the situation is under control."
 
Spill reported at Shell Gulf of Mexico drill site
HOUSTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard was investigating a 13,000-gallon spill from an oil rig leased to Shell , operating about 26 miles (41 km) southeast of last year's BP Plc   Macondo oil well disaster, a Coast Guard spokesman said on Monday. 
The spill of either drilling fluid or oil mixed with drilling fluid was reported Sunday by Transocean Ltd's   Deepwater Nautilus rig, which was drilling a well at Shell's Appomattox discovery.
 
Conoco Phillips OK'd to drill in petroleum reserve
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec 19 (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips  on Monday won a key permit that will allow construction of an oil field that is expected to provide the first-ever production from the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on the western North Slope. 
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it granted a modified wetlands-fill permit that will allow ConocoPhillips to build a road, bridge and above-ground pipeline connecting its CD-5 project with the Alpine oil field on state land just east of the petroleum reserve.
 
Valero reports DCU snag at Port Arthur
Dec 19 (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp  reported a delayed coker unit (DCU) upset at its 287,000 barrel-per-day, Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, according to a filing with state pollution regulators. 
The incident occurred on Sunday from 4:46 pm to 6:15 pm local time and on Monday from 06:04 am to 07:20 am local time, the filing with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said.
 
POLL-US crude stocks seen down on imports, seasonal draws
Dec 19 (Reuters) -  U.S. commercial crude stockpiles are expected to have fallen last week on lower imports and end-of-year drawdowns, a preliminary Reuters poll of analysts showed on Monday. 
The survey of seven analysts ahead of weekly inventory reports from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast on average that crude stocks would be down 2.4 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 16.
 
UK-Norway gas transport to resume after outage
LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The subsea Langeled gas pipeline linking the UK and Norway is expected to return to service quickly after an outage on Monday afternoon, a source familiar with the operations told Reuters. 
"Langeled went out at around 1500 GMT today, but we're expecting it back relatively quickly," said the source, who did not want to be named.
 
Gulf Keystone not talking to Exxon on $11 bln sale
LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum  said it was not in talks with U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp  about a 7 billion pounds ($11 billion) sale, scotching a newspaper report that sent the Kurdistan-focused group's shares 24 percent higher. 
The Independent on Sunday newspaper reported Exxon was considering making an estimated 800 pence per share bid -- five times Gulf Keystone's closing share price on Friday.
 
Kazakh oil workers renew protests after bloodshed
AKTAU, Kazakhstan, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Hundreds of oil workers held a third day of protests in the capital of Kazakhstan's western oil-producing region on Monday, after at least 15 people were killed in the Central Asian state's deadliest riots in decades. 
About 400 protesters confronted lines of police, some of whom were armed with automatic rifles, in the main square of Aktau, the capital of the Mangistau region where the clashes broke out.
 
 
BEYOND THE HEADLINES:
 
China halves Jan Iran oil imports in payment dispute
BEIJING, Dec 19 (Reuters) - China's top refiner Sinopec Corp  will in January buy less than half the crude it typically imports from Iran, trade sources said on Monday, as the two haggle over terms against a backdrop of rising international pressure on Tehran. 
Iran's largest crude buyer has cut its January purchases by about 285,000 barrels per day (bpd), sources said. That is over half of the close to 550,000 bpd that China has been buying on annual contract this year.
 
Clashes in oil region threaten Kazakh leader
ALMATY, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Riots by oil workers in western Kazakhstan suggest pressure is mounting for President Nursultan Nazarbayev to relax the rigid authoritarian system he has built in the vast Central Asian state, which is fast losing its veneer of stability. 
Officials say 14 people were killed in Friday's clashes following the dismissal of oil workers in Zhanaozen in western Kazakhstan and another person was killed when violence spread to a nearby village on Saturday. It was a local crisis that had long been simmering and local authorities had failed to master.
  
Drilling at major N.Sea field to resume in early 2012 -Statoil
OSLO, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Norwegian oil major Statoil  will resume production drilling at Gullfaks, a key North Sea field, early next year, a top company executive said on Monday. 
"We can start production drilling next year ... it will be early 2012," Oeystein Michelsen, Statoil's head of development and production in Norway, told Reuters.
 
Abu Dhabi's NPCC eyes ADNOC oil projects
ABU DHABI, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi-based oil and gas services contractor National Petroleum Construction Company hopes the launch of a number of big projects in the Emirates next year will boost revenue after a flat 2011. 
"At least four to five mega projects will be launched by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) with huge packages in billions of dollars and we see opportunities there", chief executive Aqeel Madhi told Reuters in an interview.
 
 
Thomson Reuters - Inside Oil

 
EVENTS TO WATCH TODAY (GMT)
 
GERMANY IFO BUSINESS CLIMATE DEC (0900)
 
GERMANY IFO CURRENT CONDITIONS DEC (0900)
 
GERMANY IFO EXPECTATIONS DEC (0900)
 
U.S. API WEEKLY CRUDE STOCKS WEEKLY (2130)
 
U.S. API WEEKLY DIST. STOCKS WEEKLY (2130)
 
U.S. API WEEKLY GASOLINE STK WEEKLY (2130)
 
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