Petroplus victim of euro credit crunch-Campbell
-- Robert Campbell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own. --
NEW YORK, Jan 3 (Reuters) - News reports about the woes at independent oil refiner Petroplus Holdings have honed in on its heavy debt load, but the real culprit is a liquidity crisis triggered by a festering European credit crunch.
To be sure, Switzerland-based Petroplus is a troubled company. Battered by poor refining margins and structural changes in the Atlantic basin oil market that have depressed gasoline and naphtha prices, it has been losing money and closing refineries as it bleeds cash.
MARKET NEWS:
Brent oil stays near $112 on Iran, upbeat data
SINGAPORE, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Brent crude held steady around $112 a barrel, supported by fears of possible supply disruptions from Iran and upbeat economic data from the United States and China.
"The market typically starts the year bullish," said Jeremy Friesen, commodity strategist at Societe Generale.
U.S. stock index futures signal mixed open
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.1 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.3 percent at 0900 GMT. European stocks were down 0.5 percent in morning trade, with euro zone banking stocks dropping 3 percent on renewed fears over the euro zone's massive debt refinancing in the first quarter.
FOREX-Euro slips vs dollar, German debt auction eyed
LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The euro dipped against the dollar as a short-squeeze rally from the previous day petered out, with some market players cautious of buying the single currency ahead of a German government bond auction later in the session.
"We would expect the auction to run well, that means it will not have any positive impact on the euro," said Lutz Karpowitz, currency analyst at Commerzbank.
GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks, euro pressured ahead of German auction
LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Nerves ahead of a German debt auction helped put European stock markets in negative territory early and halted a surge for the euro after its biggest one-day gain in nearly two months.
"I think demand for Bunds generally remains pretty strong. We're hopeful the full amount will get away quite easily," said Commerzbank economist Peter Dixon.
TOP NEWS:
Turkey says Tupras continues to import Iran oil
ANKARA, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Wednesday Turkish oil importer Tupras continues to buy oil from Iran despite tough new U.S. sanctions on institutions that deal with Iran's central bank.
"Iran is one of the countries Tupras imports oil from. We have not received information on the new sanctions. Tupras continues to buy oil today," Yildiz told reporters. "This trade will continue until there is a new development."
Maersk says strikes oil in Angola deepwater well
COPENHAGEN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Maersk Oil, a unit of Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk , has found oil in a deepwater exploration well in the Kwanza Basin off Angola, the company said on Wednesday.
A preliminary interpretation of the data from the Azul-1 well in Block 23 indicated a potential flow capacity greater than 3,000 barrels of oil per day, Maersk Oil said in a statement.
India regulator approves Reliance's D6 satellites plan
Jan 4 (Reuters) - India's upstream regulator has cleared Reliance Industries' $1.53 billion plan to develop four satellite fields to boost output at its D6 block and sent it for final government approval, an official source said on Wednesday.
"The management committee has approved the investment plan of Reliance Industries for its D6 gas block," the source at the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons told Reuters.
Statoil makes oil discovery in North Sea
OSLO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Norwegian oil firm Statoil has discovered oil near the Gullfaks South field in the North Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 0.3 and 1.1 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable oil equivalents. The plan is to tie-in the discovery to existing infrastructure in the Gullfaks area," the NPD added.
Ecuador court upholds $18 bln ruling against Chevron
LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador, Jan 3 (Reuters) - An Ecuadorean appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that Chevron Corp should pay $18 billion in damages to plaintiffs who accused the U.S. oil giant of polluting the Amazon jungle and damaging their health.
A local judge ordered Chevron to pay $8.6 billion in environmental damages last February, but the amount was more than doubled to about $18 billion because Chevron failed to make a public apology as required by the original ruling.
China's CNPC says natgas output at 75.5 bcm in 2011
BEIJING, Jan 4 (Reuters) - China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) produced 75.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas in 2011, 3 bcm more than a year earlier, the largest Chinese oil and gas producer said on Monday.
CNPC said in a company newspaper that the share of gas output in its total oil equivalent production had risen to 35.9 percent from 12.4 percent 10 years earlier.
Brazil national oil output nudges up to new high
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Brazil's steadily-rising oil production hit yet another record in November, reaching an average of 2.19 million barrels per day, the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) said on Tuesday, a 4.8 percent increase from November of 2010.
The fields which saw output rise most were those operated by state-controlled oil company Petrobras , which alone accounted for 90 percent of crude oil production in that month.
Libya's Waha oil output to hit pre-war level in Jan
TRIPOLI, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Libya's Waha Oil Co will reach pre-war oil production levels of 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of January, the company's manager said, a day after the firm sent its first shipment of 600,000 barrels to Italy.
Al-Sedr oil port, managed by Waha Oil, resumed operations this week, enabling the company to restart exports months after the terminal stopped running during a civil war that ended Muammar Gaddafi's rule.
Pennsylvania gas drillers unaffected by Ohio well closure
NEW YORK, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Gas drilling operations in Pennsylvania's vast Marcellus Shale were largely unaffected by Ohio's suspension of operations at five wells used to dispose of oil and gas drilling fluid, companies and industry officials said on Tuesday.
Of five wells operated by Northstar Disposal Services LLC that were suspended at the weekend following the latest in a series
of earthquakes, only one was in operation, said Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.
REFINERY NEWS:
Japan's Seibu Oil plans 2012 CDU turnaround
TOKYO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Japan's Seibu Oil Co Ltd, a Showa Shell Sekiyu KK group refiner, plans to shut the 120,000 barrels-per-day crude distillation unit (CDU) at its sole Yamaguchi refinery for turnaround in 2012, an industry source said on Wednesday.
The oil firm, which normally closes the unit once every four years for scheduled maintenance, will conduct a major turnaround for about a month from late August, the source said.
Marathon reports units shutdown at Texas City refinery
Jan 4 (Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum Corp reported on Wednesday the shutdown of the platformer and udex units for routine maintenance at its 76,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Texas City refinery, according to a filing with state pollution regulators.
The filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the event would last from 4-7 Jan.
Valero reports unit restart at Port Arthur refinery
Jan 3 (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp on Tuesday reported a restart of the waste water treating unit (WWTU-8742) regenerative thermal oxidizer following a trip at its 287,000 barrel-per-day Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, according to a filing with state pollution regulators.
The unit tripped due to high temperature the filing said, adding that investigation determined mechanical problems.
Venezuela's PDVSA halts El Palito cat cracker
CARACAS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA said on Tuesday it has started a five-day shutdown of the catalytic cracker at its 146,000 barrel per day (bpd) El Palito refinery for repairs following a problem in the unit's valve system.
PDVSA said it had sufficient inventories to meet local fuel demand in the region. It said its docks continued to function normally.
BEYOND THE HEADLINES:
Exxon to sell Tonen stake in retreat from Japan-sources
TOKYO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil plans to sell most of its 50 percent stake in Japanese refiner TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK and unload other assets in Japan in a roughly $5 billion deal, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
The deal will mark a retreat from the world's third-largest economy by the U.S. oil giant, which is focusing its resources globally on exploration and production and shifting away from so-called downstream assets, such as its sales network in Japan.
Sinopec, Total pour $4.5 bln into U.S. shale
Jan 3 (Reuters) - China's Sinopec and France's Total SA made major purchases into the U.S. energy sector on Tuesday, pouring $4.5 billion into deals to buy into booming production from shale rock formations.
The ventures showed that the global appetite for U.S. energy assets remained strong, with foreign oil and gas producers eager to invest in several of the mostly undeveloped fields that are believed to hold billions of cubic feet of natural gas and liquids.
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