Pelosi: President Should Push OPEC for Increased Production, Abandon His 'Drill and Veto' Policies

13 May 2008 17:45 Africa/Lagos


Pelosi: President Should Push OPEC for Increased Production, Abandon His 'Drill and Veto' Policies

WASHINGTON, May 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement prior to President Bush departing today on a five-day trip to the Middle East, including a stop in Saudi Arabia on Friday:


"The White House has indicated that President Bush will push Saudi officials for OPEC to increase production in an effort to bring down prices for American consumers. As the largest oil producer and exporter, Saudi Arabia is uniquely positioned to influence the price at the pump and the President must use his close ties to help consumers who are in desperate need of relief.


"While I hope the President will return with concrete assurances that OPEC will take swift action to bring down prices, in the past the Administration's calls have been ineffective, making it all the more necessary for Congress to step in to help American consumers.


"Today, the House and Senate will take action to temporarily suspend filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, directing the Administration to take action that the President has refused to do. By Memorial Day, the House will act on a new bill that will crack down on possible price fixing by OPEC-controlled entities.


"Two years ago, the President declared in his State of the Union that the United States was 'addicted to oil.' In his seven years in office, the President's energy policies have left us more dependent on foreign sources of oil, and, as costs skyrocket, the President continues to call for increased domestic drilling while threatening to veto any legislation that would provide relief to consumers.


"The President and Congressional Republicans have spent the last seven years doling out billions of dollars in subsidies to the Big Oil companies, instead of working toward energy independence. As gas prices have hit new records all spring, the President has repeatedly rejected Democratic proposals to invest in renewable energy sources, hold OPEC accountable for its cartel-pricing activities, investigate and punish price gougers, temporarily halt filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and repeal the unnecessary subsidies to Big Oil in a time of record profits.


"The President should reverse his 'drill and veto' policies and return from his Middle East trip with firm guarantees from OPEC for increased production levels that will decrease the price at the pump for American consumers."


Source: Office of the Speaker of the House

CONTACT: Brendan Daly or Drew Hammill, +1-202-226-7616, both of the
Office of the Speaker of the House


Web Site: http://www.speaker.gov/

Platts Survey: OPEC Pumps 31.87 Million Barrels per Day of Crude Oil in April, Down 350,000 b/d

9 May 2008 21:57 Africa/Lagos


Platts Survey: OPEC Pumps 31.87 Million Barrels per Day of Crude Oil in April, Down 350,000 b/d

LONDON, May 9/PRNewswire/ --


The 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 31.87 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in April, a 350,000 b/d decrease from March, according to a Platts (http://www.platts.com/) survey of OPEC and oil industry officials released Friday. The sharp drop was largely the result of steep output losses in Nigeria.


Excluding Iraq, the 12 members which participate in output agreements pumped an average 29.49 million b/d, 360,000 b/d down from an estimated 29.85 million b/d in March.


"OPEC production has been relatively steady in recent months, but the sharp fall in Nigerian output shows how vulnerable overall supply from the group can be to developments in one country," said John Kingston, Platts global director of oil. "Given that spare capacity is also relatively tight, any disruption has a bigger impact on markets."


Ongoing losses in Nigerian supply as a result of continuing strife in the Niger Delta were exacerbated by a week-long pay strike at ExxonMobil, which shut down most of the company's 800,000 b/d of production and forced it to declare force majeure on exports from the 400,000 b/d Qua Iboe terminal.


Other smaller decreases came from Angola, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.


Iraqi volumes were a shade higher at 2.38 million b/d, with a slight dip in exports offset by slightly higher internal supply. Libyan output also edged up, to 1.75 million b/d from 1.74 million b/d in March.


The latest estimates show the OPEC-12 missing their 29.673 million b/d output target by 183,000 b/d.



Platts OPEC Survey 2008
Country April March February January Target
Algeria 1.390 1.390 1.390 1.390 1.357
Angola 1.850 1.900 1.900 1.850 1.900
Ecuador 0.500 0.500 0.490 0.500 0.520
Indonesia 0.860 0.860 0.860 0.830 0.865
Iran 3.940 3.960 3.930 3.980 3.817
Kuwait 2.550 2.550 2.550 2.550 2.531
Libya 1.750 1.740 1.740 1.740 1.712
Nigeria 1.800 2.020 2.100 2.100 2.163
Qatar 0.830 0.840 0.830 0.830 0.828
Saudi Arabia 9.100 9.150 9.150 9.200 8.943
UAE 2.590 2.590 2.590 2.590 2.567
Venezuela 2.330 2.350 2.400 2.400 2.470
OPEC-12 29.490 29.850 29.930 29.960 29.673
Iraq 2.380 2.370 2.400 2.290 N/A
Total 31.870 32.220 32.330 32.250




For more information on OPEC, go to the "Platts Guide to OPEC" at http://www.opec.platts.com.


About Platts:


Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is a leading global provider of energy and commodities information. With nearly a century of business experience, Platts serves customers across more than 150 countries. From 17 offices worldwide, Platts serves the oil, natural gas, electricity, nuclear power, coal, emissions, petrochemical, shipping and metals markets. Platts' real time news, pricing, analytical services, and conferences help markets operate with transparency and efficiency. Traders, risk managers, analysts, and industry leaders depend upon Platts to help them make better trading and investment decisions. Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com.


About The McGraw-Hill Companies:


Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2007 were US$6.8 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com.



Web site: http://www.platts.com
The McGraw-Hill Companies
Platts OPEC Survey




Source: Platts

Kathleen Tanzy, +1-212-904-2860, Kathleen_tanzy@platts.com; or Europe: Shiona Ramage, +44-207-1766153; or Asia: Casey Yew, +65-653-06552

Global Oil Supply Challenges Will Drive Crude Prices to US$150: CIBC World Markets

I have decided to remind the stakeholders in all the oil producing countries and consumers of the following important report, because most of them missed it.

10 Jan 2008 15:26 Africa/Lagos


Global Oil Supply Challenges Will Drive Crude Prices to US$150: CIBC World Markets
LONDON, January 10/PRNewswire/ --
- Modest Russian Production Growth to be Gobbled up by Domestic Demand
CIBC (CM: TSX; NYSE) - Consumers should brace for a 50 per cent jump in oil prices in the near future as global oil supply will increasingly have trouble keeping pace with demand, forecasts a new energy report from CIBC World Markets.

The report predicts that surging demand in developing economies combined with accelerated depletion of existing supply and widespread delays in getting new oil fields up and running will see the global supply of oil fall as much as eight million barrels a day below International Energy Agency estimates by 2012.
"Those projections ignore two fundamental forces that have, in recent years, brought global production to a virtual standstill," says Jeff Rubin, Chief Strategist and Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets. "The first is depletion. You have to run faster to stand still. Depletion from existing fields has accelerated to over four per cent, a rate that currently cuts nearly four million barrels per day out of each year's production.

"The second fundamental force blowing up supply forecasts is the huge project delays and massive cost overruns associated with many of the world's largest new oil mega-projects. From Kazakhstan to Nigeria's Delta region, protracted delays in some of the world's largest energy mega-projects will have huge impacts on actual supply growth over the next five years."
As part of its research, CIBC World Markets reviewed nearly 200 new oil projects slated to start oil production over the next five years and found that scheduled production timelines are far too optimistic, with project delays the norm, not the exception, among the group.

It found that heavy reliance on increasingly high cost and technically challenging fields like the Kashagan project in Kazakhstan, Russia's Sakhalin II and Canadian and Venezuelan oil sands have left world supply growth vulnerable to a seemingly never-ending series of project delays.
Mr. Rubin notes that delays in the latter two countries will shave over 700,000 barrels a day from earlier 2012 production forecasts. In some nations, soaring development costs have resulted in complex and often tense re- negotiations of royalty agreements with host countries. Some have even led to either a temporary or indefinite suspension of operating licenses.
"Of course, stagnant conventional world oil production underlies the recent problems associated with harvesting unconventional supply. Virtually all of the increases in global oil production have occurred from deepwater fields or oil sands, with conventional production seemingly stuck at 2005 levels of 67 million barrels per day."

These project delays are also happening at a time of accelerated global depletion in existing fields. The rate has climbed to over four per cent, which cuts nearly four million barrels per day out of each year's production. The recent increases are in part, related to the growing importance of offshore, and, in particular, deepwater fields, which have depletion rates twice that of conventional fields.
"Cliff-like depletion rates have already been in evidence in the North Sea and now the huge Cantarell field in Mexico," adds Mr. Rubin. "Since 2000, offshore fields have been the single-largest source of new supply growth. As their weight in total production increases, future depletion rates will continue to rise. Even holding the current depletion rate constant over the next five years, we must produce nearly 20 million barrels per day of new oil just to offset what will be lost through depletion during this period."

Mr. Rubin notes that these major project delays and increasingly rapid depletion will result in a supply increase of only about three million barrels a day by 2012 - far below the 10 million barrels projected by the International Energy Agency. With oil demand soaring in places like China, India, Russia and in the world's largest oil-producing countries themselves, a widening demand-supply gap will push crude oil prices to as high as US$150 a barrel by 2012.
"Soaring rates of car ownership in countries like Russia and China have boosted fuel demand in both countries," says Mr. Rubin. "For example, gasoline, a key driver of rising oil use, is growing at over six per cent in both countries. But an even more important factor has been massive price subsidization in OPEC countries which has spurred extraordinary near-double- digit growth in oil demand.
"Not only is there virtually no price elasticity between OPEC's own oil consumption and world oil prices but paradoxically, domestic consumption of oil in those countries may actually increase with rising world oil prices because higher crude prices boost incomes, which in turn, further boosts demand for massively subsidized domestic gasoline."

The result of this unchecked soaring demand in most oil-producing nations means they will not be able to add any additional exports to meet the surging demand in developing countries. While Russian production is expected to grow very modestly over the next five years, all of those production gains will be gobbled up by domestic demand growth. Since crude demand in countries like China and India is far more income-elastic than price-elastic, these countries are likely to outbid OECD markets for increasingly scarce global supply.

The OECD, the largest global oil market today, is much more price sensitive and oil consumption, which has already fallen over the last two years, will decline by nearly 10 per cent or almost four million barrels per day over the next five years in response to steadily rising prices.

The complete CIBC World Markets report is available at: http://research.cibcwm.com/economic_public/download/occtrept65pdf.

CIBC World Markets is the wholesale and corporate banking arm of CIBC, providing a range of integrated credit and capital markets products, investment banking, and merchant banking to clients in key financial markets in North America and around the world. We provide innovative capital solutions and advisory expertise across a wide range of industries as well as top-ranked research for our corporate, government and institutional clients.

Source: CIBC World Markets; CIBC; Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
For further information: Jeff Rubin, Chief Strategist and Chief Economist, CIBC World Markets at +1-416-594-7357, jeff.rubin@cibc.ca; or Kevin Dove, Communications and Public Affairs at +1-416-980-8835, kevin.dove@cibc.ca


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OPEC's Total Crude Oil Output Rose to 32 Million Barrels Per Day in December, a Platts Survey Shows

15 Jan 2008 19:09 Africa/Lagos


OPEC's Total Crude Oil Output Rose to 32 Million Barrels Per Day in December, a Platts Survey Shows

LONDON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ --

The members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) produced an average 32.03 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in December, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials January 14. This is up from November's rate of 31.65 million b/d.


Production from OPEC's ten members bound by crude output agreements averaged 27.43 million b/d in December, the survey showed. This is 460,000 b/d more than in November and 177,000 b/d higher than the group's 27.253 million b/d target which came into effect at the beginning of November.


"The increase in supply is certainly welcome to this market," said John Kingston, Platts Global Director of Oil. "It appears the group's on track to meet its January target, which is nearly 29.7 million barrels per day for 11 of the members, excluding Iraq."


The bulk of the December output increase was due to higher production from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as key maintenance programs were brought to a close. UAE production was estimated at 2.5 million b/d, 350,000 b/d higher than November's 2.15 million b/d. Smaller increases of between 10,000 b/d and 40,000 b/d came from Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Libya and Saudi Arabia. The OPEC 10 excludes Iraq and new members Angola and Ecuador.


Iraqi production was estimated at 2.3 million b/d, some 100,000 b/d lower than in November. (Earlier this month, Iraqi oil ministry data obtained by Platts showed total Iraqi output at 2.475 million b/d in December, despite a sharp fall in exports from November levels. But Platts' methodology for calculating output differs from that of the Iraqi government). Angolan production edged up from 1.78 million b/d to 1.8 million b/d. Ecuador, which left OPEC in the early 1990s but resumed its membership in mid-November, produced an estimated 500,000 b/d.


When OPEC met in Abu Dhabi in December it left the OPEC-10 target of 27.253 million b/d unchanged but allocated targets of 1.9 million b/d and 520,000 b/d to Angola and Ecuador from the beginning of January. OPEC's production target rose to 29.673 million b/d on January 1, 2008. Iraq does not participate in OPEC output agreements because it is in process of rebuilding its oil industry after years of United Nations sanctions followed by a US-led war.


OPEC ministers will meet in Vienna on February 1. The beginning of this year saw US light crude prices climb above $100/barrel, but several top OPEC officials have said the high prices have less to do with any shortage of crude than to do with non-fundamental factors such as geopolitics and speculative activity in futures markets.


Country December November October September Nov 1 target
Algeria 1.390 1.390 1.380 1.360 1.357
Indonesia 0.840 0.830 0.830 0.830 0.865
Iran 3.970 3.950 3.900 3.880 3.817
Kuwait 2.540 2.500 2.450 2.420 2.531
Libya 1.740 1.720 1.710 1.700 1.712
Nigeria 2.200 2.200 2.190 2.180 2.163
Qatar 0.830 0.830 0.820 0.810 0.828
Saudi Arabia 9.020 9.000 8.800 8.700 8.943
UAE 2.500 2.150 2.600 2.590 2.567
Venezuela 2.400 2.400 2.400 2.400 2.470
OPEC-10 27.430 26.970 27.080 26.870 27.253
Angola* 1.800 1.780 1.750 1.720 N/A
Iraq 2.300 2.400 2.280 2.170 N/A
OPEC-10+
Angola, Iraq 31.530 31.150 31.110 30.760 N/A
Ecuador** 0.500 .500 N/A N/A N/A
Total 32.03 31.650 N/A N/A N/A


* Angola joined OPEC on January 1, 2007. An output allocation of 1.9 million b/d assigned at OPEC's December 5 meeting in Abu Dhabi came into effect on January 1.


** Ecuador resumed its OPEC membership in November. An output allocation of 520,000 b/d came into effect on January 1.


For more information on OPEC, go to the "Platts Guide to OPEC" at www.opec.platts.com.


About Platts:


Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP) , is a leading global provider of energy and commodities information. With nearly a century of business experience, Platts serves customers across more than 150 countries. From 14 offices worldwide, Platts serves the oil, natural gas, electricity, emissions, nuclear power, coal, petrochemical and metals markets. Platts' real time news, pricing, analytical services, and conferences help markets operate with transparency and efficiency. Traders, risk managers, analysts, and industry leaders depend upon Platts to help them make better trading and investment decisions. Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com/.


About The McGraw-Hill Companies:


Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP) is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2006 were $6.3 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.


Source: Platts

CONTACT: Kathleen Tanzy
+1-212-904-2860
Kathleen_tanzy@platts.com
or
Europe: Shiona Ramage
+44207-1766153
or
Asia: Casey Yew
+65-653-06552


Web site: http://www.platts.com/
http://www.opec.platts.com/
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/

Congressional Hearing to Examine Why Many of the World's Poorest Countries Are the Richest in Natural Resources

Congressional Hearing to Examine Why Many of the World's Poorest Countries Are the Richest in Natural Resources

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

The following is being issued by Publish What You Pay United States:


WHAT: Public Hearing -- House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Hearing entitled "Transparency of Extractive Industries: High Stakes for Resource-Rich Countries, Citizens and International Business"


WHERE: 2128 Rayburn House Office Building

WHEN: Thursday, October 25th, 10 a.m.

BACKGROUND:


Natural resource-dependent countries almost always develop more slowly than non-resource-dependent countries, are more susceptible to the outbreak of civil war (i.e., blood diamonds) and experience a high incidence of corruption. This is often known as the "resource curse." The natural resource sector, including diamonds, oil, gas and other minerals, is one of the most secretive sectors, with citizens of many countries (typically the legal "owners" of a nation's natural resources) routinely left to wonder how much money is being generated and where the money flows while public officials accumulate vast fortunes.


SPEAKERS:


The House Financial Services Committee will examine this issue of how better financial disclosure and transparency in the extractive industry sector may be able to help reverse this "resource curse" and to discuss potential avenues for Congressional involvement. Speakers include Ian Gary, Senior Policy Advisor for Extractive Industries at Oxfam America; Father Patrick Lafon of the Bishops' Conference in Cameroon; Terry Lynn Karl from Stanford University, David A. Baker, Vice President, Environment and Social Responsibility, Newmont Mining Corporation and Paul Mitchell, President, International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM).


Publish What You Pay U.S. is a coalition of U.S. human rights, development and environmental organizations seeking to ensure that extractive industry companies, international financial institutions and governments publish all natural resource payments, revenues, and contracts.


For more information, visit http://www.pwypusa.org/


Source: Publish What You Pay United States

CONTACT: Sarah Pray of Publish What You Pay United States,
+1-202-721-5623