Resent articles by the "APS Review Oil Market Trends" from The Free Libraryhttp://www.thefreelibrary.comen-usFarlex, Inc.Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:20:52 GMT360http://www.thefreelibrary.comhttp://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/static/TFLbyFarlex.gif17565Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Iraq+-+Shell%2fPetronas+JV+Signs+Majnoon+Development+Deal.-a0215406896
A consortium of Shell and Petronas of Malaysia on Dec. 20 signed an initial agreement to develop southern Iraq's super-giant Majnoon field, whose proven and potential oil reserves exceed 30bn barrels based on the technology and calculations of the early 1970s. Shell/Petronas won the rights to develop and re-explore this field under a 20-year service contract in an auction on Dec....]]>Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Saudi+Aramco+%26+ADNOC+Store+Crudes+In+The+Far+East+Ahead+Of+Russian...-a0215406895
Minister Na'imi on Dec. 22 said Saudi Aramco had signed an agreement to put "millions of barrels" of crude oil in commercial storage in Japan, with South Korea to receive a volume of Saudi crudes for storage as well. Saudi Aramco was offered the storage in the two countries for no charge. Na'imi noted: "Asia will be a huge market and this will be a big take-off". Half of Saudi...]]>Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Saudi+Aramco+Switches+To+Sour+Crude+Peg.-a0215406894
Saudi Aramco, trend-setter for Middle East oil exporters, will from Jan. 1, 2010, peg its US-bound crude oil sales to the Louisiana sour crude oil futures price, based on a new Argus Sour Crude Index. This will influence a change in the pattern of Middle Eastern, African and Latin American crude oil sales to the US, the largest oil market in the world. Futures exchanges in the...]]>Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+US+Market+-+Without+New+Policies%2c+Oil+Use+Will+Remain+Flat+To...-a0215406893
The US Energy Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Dec. 14 said that, if the federal government did not enact policies to mandate lower greenhouse gas emissions or higher energy efficiencies, American oil demand would remain flat through to 2035. The forecast came days before world leaders tried but failed to have a global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in...]]>Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/OPEC+Is+Set+For+A+%2470-80%2fB+Price+Range%2c+A+Year+After+The+Saudis...-a0215406892
*** Alarmed By Iraqi Announcements That Baghdad May Become The World's Largest Crude Oil Exporter, Iran's IRGC On Dec. 17 Sent A Force Into Meissan Province And Hoisted Its Country's Flag On One Of The Border Fields Contested By Tehran; But The Reaction From Iraq's Shi'ite Arabs Shocked The Theocracy - All It Had Invested There To Control the Arab Neighbour Had Become...]]>Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/KRG's+Argument+For+EPSAs.-a0215068328
In backing its argument that EPSAs better served Iraqi national interests than service contracts, the KRG in June 2008 published a report by renowned expert on petroleum fiscal regimes, Pedro van Meurs, which says the EPSA model is immensely better than MoO's EDP-RSC. In his report - "Comparative analysis of Ministry of Oil and Kurdistan fiscal terms as applied to the Kurdistan...]]>Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Iraq's+2nd+Auction+-+Asian+Firms+Get+Most+Of+The+Field+Development...-a0215068327
*** Leaders Attending The GCC Summit In Kuwait Dec. 14-15 Said They Were Not Worried By A Rapidly Expanding Iraqi Oil Export Capacity; They Were Far More Concerned By The Regional & Nuke Ambitions Of A Shi'ite Theocracy Militarised Since The June 12 Presidential Vote

*** As Israel Said Tehran Was Close To Producing Atomic Bombs On Dec. 15, The US House Of...]]>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Iran+May+Cease+Exporting+Crude+In+8+Years%3b+Iraq+May+Overtake+Saudis.-a0214471253
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani on Dec. 12 told international oil companies (IOCs) participating in Baghdad's second auction of undeveloped oil and gas fields that his country eventually will be producing 12m b/d, thus to overtake Saudi Arabia as the biggest crude oil exporter in the world (see OMT 25 of next week). In Iran, however, the situation is in the worse as...]]>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Manifa+Field+Development+Proceeding+Despite+Heavy+Cost.-a0214471252
Faleh says that, on a b/d basis, the cost of developing the offshore Manifa oilfield has risen to $17,500. He says the project, to cost about $16bn, will be completed in 2015. Attached to an article posted on the company's website, Saudi Aramco says Manifa will produce 900,000 b/d of Arabian Heavy crude oil, 900 MCF/day of associated gas and 65,000 b/d of condensate. It says 60% of the...]]>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Saudi+Aramco+Crude+Oil+Storage+In+Okinawa.-a0214471251
Saudi Aramco has begun talks with the Japanese government on joint use of crude oil storage facilities in Okinawa. With demand for crude oil soaring in China and elsewhere in Asia, Faleh says, "the goal is to have a commercially operated, administered operation that will make it more convenient for our customers in the region to utilise our supplies". The supplies will...]]>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Saudi+Aramco+Stops+Heavy%2fMedium+Supplies+To+The+West.-a0214471250
Saudi Aramco this month stopped sales of Arab Heavy and Medium crudes to the Western markets, where lower refining margins had left Asian consumers as the ultimate destination also for African, European and Latin American exports. These heavy/sour Saudi grades will not reach Europe throughout 2010.

Instead, Saudi Aramco is focusing on the Asian markets. Asian term clients...]]>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+US+Economic+Perspective.-a0214471249
The Federal Board chairman Ben Bernanke on Dec.7 said that, because the US economy remained in a fragile state, the Fed was is considering an extended period before it increased interest rates. With interest rates currently at record lows near zero as a result of low inflation and high unemployment, oil prices and the dollar's value have increasingly forged an inverse relationship....]]>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/OPEC+Won't+Change+Production+Quotas%3b+Saudis+Press+For+More+Compliance.-a0214471248
*** As Iraq Hints It May Outpace Saudi With 12M B/D, Eventually, Tehran's Majlis Research Centre Says Iran Could Stop All Crude Oil Exports In Eight Years *** A Local Daily On Dec. 7 Said The Parliament Might Have To Impeach President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad; But The Supremacist Leader Now Is Pre-Occupied With Documents Which Claim The US Has Prevented Al-Mahdi From Returning To...]]>Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuela+-+Chavez+Background.-a0214471221
Head of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chavez is known for his radical critique of neo-liberal globalisation and the US. In his college years, he associated with leftists and had exposure to populist Latin American leaders starting with Bolivar's followers and including Juan Velasco Alvarado and Omar Torrijos.

The second son of Hugo de los Reyes Chavez and Elena Frias de Chavez...]]>Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuela+-+Hugo+Chavez+Frias.-a0214471220
Aged 55, Chavez has direct control over decisions in the petroleum sector and PDVSA. He appoints those who execute them at the Energy and Petroleum Ministry and PDVSA. He claims to have engineered a worldwide rise in oil prices through OPEC's production cuts since late March 1999. One of the most frequently travelled rulers across the globe, having nationalised the petroleum industry in...]]>Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuela+-+Part+5+-+The+Decision+Makers.-a0214471219
Decision making for the petroleum sector in Venezuela has become far more simple than in the previous decades, but with complicated implications. It involves a military man turned civilian at the top, populist President Hugo Chavez who now rules by decree and controls this sector as well as all other matters of importance.

With Venezuela under Chavez moving from one crisis to...]]>Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuela+-+The+Iran+Alliance+-+Gasoline+Sales.-a0212699252
Venezuela and Iran are close allies and are considering a wide-ranging pact which will give Tehran a sanctions-busting option to import 20,000 b/d of PDVSA gasoline. The pact is to be finalised shortly during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad's visit to Caracas at the invitation of Chavez.

Ahmadi-Nejad put off a summer visit because of serious unrest after a June 12...]]>Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuela+-+Latin+American+Energy+Integration.-a0212699251
Spearheading energy integration with fellow Latin American nations, Caracas has led the creation of four politically-motivated regional vehicles for this: PetroAmerica, the mother vehicle Caracas describes as a "mechanism to liberate the peoples of the region" and which consists of three alliances: PetroSur, PetroAndina and PetroCaribe. Through them PDVSA supplies the...]]>Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuela+-+Venezuela's+Oil+Pricing+System.-a0212699250
PDVSA in early 2006 introduced a new pricing system for its four top export crudes in an effort to eliminate poor terms offered in some sales contracts. PDVSA used the system to price large export grades such as Santa Barbara, Mesa (30-28? API), Boscan (10? API) and Merey (16? API). The system is similar to the one used by Mexico which modifies its prices on a monthly basis....]]>Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuela+-+Pipelines.-a0212699249
Venezuela has an extensive domestic network of oil pipelines from production centres to refineries and coastal export terminals. There have been plans for a crude oil pipeline to be built to a terminal on the Pacific coast of Colombia to facilitate greater PDVSA crude exports to China and other Asian countries, bypassing the Panama Canal or the high costs of shipping around...]]>Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuela+-+Discounted+Oil+Exports.-a0212699248
In normal conditions, PDVSA should provide major volumes of crude and refined products to its neighbours at discounted prices and with favourable financing terms. Under the auspices of the San Jose Accord, Venezuela and Mexico should provide 11 Central American and Caribbean states (Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua,...]]>Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Venezuelan+Exports.-a0212699247
PDVSA's share of US crude oil imports has fallen from 50% in 1960 to 10% in 2006 and to a negligible volume last week. Most of Venezuela's current imports of 300,000 b/d of refined products in the past week came from PDVSA's US unit Sitgo (see omt22VenzTransNov30-09). The US Gulf Coast has been the largest market for Venezuela, with refineries there configured to handle heavy...]]>Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/OPEC+Moderates+Would+Keep+Quotas+Unchanged+But+Will+Insist+On+Greater...-a0212699246
A high-ranking Saudi official who declined to be named, on Nov. 21 told APS the kingdom would favour keeping OPEC's collective crude oil production ceiling and quotas unchanged for the first quarter of 2010, but will insist that "members comply with their quota limitations". He said the "compliance issue" will be "the main point" to be stressed at the Dec. 22 meeting in Luanda by Saudi...]]>