US crude oil supplies grew by 3.9 million barrels

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gZtskXtvnI3kMu59DP_nJjdegOgA?docId=a5a79cce412743c2b46bec070e9248e3

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's crude oil supplies increased last week, the government said Wednesday.

Crude supplies rose by 3.9 million barrels, or 1.2 percent, to 334.7 million barrels, which is 6.9 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected an increase of 1 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 25, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline supplies rose by 200,000 barrels, or 0.1 percent, to 209.8 million barrels. That's 0.1 percent below year-ago levels. Analysts expected gasoline supplies to increase by 1.5 million barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Nov. 25 was 2.9 percent below a year earlier, averaging 8.7 million barrels a day.

U.S. refineries ran at 84.6 percent of total capacity on average, 0.9 percentage point down from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to rise to 86 percent.

Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 5.5 million barrels to 138.5 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to decline by 1.5 million barrels.

In morning trading benchmark crude rose $1.40 to $101.18 a barrel in New York.

WOW! VTTI and Summa to build $1 billion oil terminal in Rotterdam

http://www.tankstoragemag.com/industry_news.php?item_id=4319

The Port of Rotterdam and Shtandart TT signed a long-term agreement for a new major crude and products oil terminal at an area exceeding 55 hectares at the Tank Terminal Europoort West (TEW).

Shtandart is owned by the Russian Summa Group (75%) and Dutch VTTI (25%).

Shtandart TT will build 3 million m3 of storage facilities allocated for Urals crude oil and oil products. Investments are expected to total $1 billion (€0.75 billion). The new terminal will operate as an open hub terminal creating a trading platform for Urals crude oil.

Construction is expected to begin in 2013 resulting in an operational start-up in 2015.
VTTI is a 50/50 joint venture owned by Vitol Holding B.V. in the Netherlands, and MISC Berhad of Malaysia.

It owns and operates 11 petroleum product terminals with a gross combined capacity of nearly 6 million m3.

T. Boone Pickens has a federal subsidy beef with the Koch brothers over natural gas, ethanol

http://green.autoblog.com/2011/11/25/t-boone-pickens-federal-subsidy-koch-brothers-cng-ethanol/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl28%7Csec1_lnk2%7C116315

By Sebastian BlancoRSS feed

Since the summer, natural gas supporter T. Boone Pickens (pictured) has been in an energy fight with the Koch brothers. Think of it as a battle of the conservative billionaires to see who can get more money from the federal government.

According to the Des Moines Register, Pickens has been working to encourage governmental support for natural gas vehicles. No surprise there, since Pickens believes it was given to us by God himself. The Koch brothers, on the other hand, have their hands out for a lot of ethanol subsidies even though they are often called Libertarian (or at the very least, deeply conservative). Pickens reportedly said recently that:

Koch Industries imports 61,000 barrels of OPEC oil a day to their Corpus Christi refinery. They're the third largest recipient of subsidies for ethanol, they're in the chemical business and the fertilizer business. So everything I do could affect them in some way. They're against me. I know Charles and David Koch. I asked them to talk to me about this subject; they would not do it. They would not return my phone calls. When I was one of their biggest customers in 2005, I heard from them and was entertained in their home in Wichita, but now (they) don't want to talk to me about it. They've gone and tried to peel off all the co-sponsors of the bill that they can. While they knocked out 14 I was getting 16. They spend a lot of money to do this. They're working for the Kochs, I'm working for America. I want an energy plan for America, they want an energy plan for the Koch's.
This past May, Charles Koch wrote an op-ed that claimed that Picken's call for natural gas to get subsidies "well-intentioned but misguided" even as it said that Kock didn't even want the ethanol subsidies he was collecting: "Because ethanol use is mandated, we were compelled to be in that business. We still oppose ethanol subsidies and mandates even though some of our businesses would benefit from them." A spokesman for the Koch brothers wrote to Congress in June that "We do not believe government should be picking 'winners and losers' in the marketplace." Well, of course you don't. Not once you're already winning.

News Source: Des Moines Register, Bloomberg, The Energy Fix

Libyan-U.S. Venture Waha Oil Co. Resumes Crude Output

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-28/libyan-u-s-venture-waha-oil-co-resumes-crude-output.html

By Ola Galal

(Bloomberg) -- Waha Oil Co., a U.S.-Libyan joint venture, resumed crude output at a rate of 16,000 barrels a day from two fields, representing 5 percent of its total production capacity, Libya’s National Oil Corp. said on its website today.

The Tripoli-based company plans to raise its output to the maximum level “as soon as possible” after pumping crude from the Dahra and Samah fields, Libyan state-run NOC said.

Waha Oil was producing 350,000 to 400,000 barrels of crude a day before protests erupted against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, roughly a quarter of the country’s pre-crisis output. The company is 59 percent owned by NOC, with the rest held by ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil Corp. and Hess Corp.

Libya, holder of Africa’s biggest crude reserves, is currently producing more than 750,000 barrels a day. The North African country pumped 1.6 million barrels a day before the rebellion broke out in February.

--Editors: John Buckley, Rob Verdonck

To contact the reporter on this story: Ola Galal at ogalal@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net.

UPDATE 2-OPEC supply hits 3-year high on Libya return

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7MT3IS20111129

* Angola, Libya lead increase in OPEC supplies

* Saudi Arabia, Kuwait also boost output

* For a table of output by country, see (Adds quotes, further details from paragraph 5)

By Alex Lawler

LONDON,  (Reuters) - OPEC oil output has risen in November to a three-year high due to increased supplies from Angola and a further recovery in Libya's production, a Reuters survey found on Tuesday.

Supply from all 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to average 30.27 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, up from a revised 29.81 million bpd in October, the survey of sources at oil companies, OPEC officials and analysts found.

The survey provides little evidence Gulf Arab OPEC producers are curbing output drastically to make way for Libya, a development consumer-country governments will welcome as oil prices remain well above $100 a barrel.

OPEC holds its next meeting on Dec. 14. With oil at $100 plus and Libya's output yet to reach the pre-war rate, analysts and OPEC officials are predicting a low-key gathering unlikely to make major changes to output policy.

"OPEC is on standby until they get a bit more clarity on what's happening in Libya and with Libyan exports," said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas in London.

"Generally speaking, the market is in balance," an official from one of OPEC's African members said. "Demand is not dropping that much and prices are likely to stay around current levels."

November's total is expected to be OPEC's highest since October 2008, shortly before the group agreed to a series of supply curbs to combat recession, based on Reuters surveys.

Brent crude pared an earlier gain after the survey was released and was trading up 95 cents at $109.95 at 1415 GMT.

The average price in 2011 is on course to beat 2008's record high of $103.40.

ANGOLA, LIBYA

The biggest increase in OPEC supply is coming from Angola, where Total's Pazflor field is expanding output.

Pazflor is one of several new projects expected to counter a 2011 decline in supplies from Africa's second-largest producer. Output in November also rose due to extra cargoes of crudes including Girassol and Cabinda.

In Libya, oil exports and refinery demand have amounted to 500,000 bpd in November, according to the survey, up 150,000 bpd from October but some way short of the production figures given by Libyan officials.

Supply in Africa's top producer Nigeria also increased as Royal Dutch Shell's Nigerian venture lifted a force majeure on exports of Forcados oil. But Shell's EA field was shut for maintenance, limiting the supply boost.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC allies raised production unilaterally after failing at the group's last meeting in June to convince Iran and other members to agree a coordinated increase to meet a shortfall in supplies from Libya.

After a reduction in October, Saudi Arabia has increased supplies slightly in November due to higher demand from some customers in Asia, sources in the survey said.

Kuwait has also expanded output from an upwardly-revised October total. Nonetheless, sources in the survey have lower estimates of supply than Kuwaiti industry officials, who say the country is pumping 3 million bpd or more.

Ahead of December's OPEC meeting, Iran has called for countries that boosted output in the wake of the Libyan war and oil cutoff - effectively the Gulf Arab OPEC members - to reduce output to pre-Libya crisis volumes.

Gulf OPEC delegates have said they do not see a need for supply curbs yet but that they will curb output to make way for a recovery in Libyan supplies when it happens, although this will probably be a gradual process extending into 2012.

The Gulf Arab OPEC members are typically its most moderate on prices because they do not want high energy costs to restrict economic growth and long-term demand for their main source of export revenue.

One Gulf Arab official told Reuters in September a price of $90 was still "high" and those producers were unlikely to reduce supplies to prop up oil prices unless crude fell below $90 for a sustained period. (Editing by James Jukwey)

Cushing Crude Oil Stockpiles Fall 2.3%, Satellite Survey Shows

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/cushing-crude-oil-stockpiles-fall-2-3-satellite-survey-shows.html
By Aaron Clark

Crude oil inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, fell 2.3 percent on Nov. 25 from Nov. 17, according to data compiled by DigitalGlobe Inc. (DGI)

Stockpiles held in floating-roof tanks at the hub dropped 646,000 barrels to 27.7 million, satellite images taken by the Longmont, Colorado-based company show. The Energy Department said last week that Cushing inventories, including floating and fixed tanks, totaled 32 million barrels as of Nov. 18.

Cushing is the physical delivery point for New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures contracts and the largest crude- trading and storage hub in the U.S.

The DigitalGlobe estimate is based on images of 236 operational floating-top tanks at Cushing, the satellite company said. The number of fixed-roof tanks at the hub is 81.

The hub has a total capacity of just over 70 million barrels and working storage capacity of about 58 million barrels, according to Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston.

Cushing’s floating-roof tanks are used mostly to store crude oil, according to Lipow, who estimates that over 95 percent of the storage volume in the hub is floating tanks. Fixed-roof tanks are for storing petroleum products with lower vapor pressures, such as jet fuel and distillate, he said.

Data Releases

Some fixed-roof tanks in Cushing may have been retrofitted with internal floating roofs and may be used to store crude oil, according to Lipow.

DigitalGlobe data is released twice each week at 10:30 a.m. New York time on Mondays and Fridays. For the Friday release, the information is collected from the previous Saturday through Wednesday. For the Monday release, it’s from the previous Thursday or Friday.

When clouds obscure the satellite view, data is used from the last day in which there was a full collection. The highest percent of collection data will be used when cloud cover obscures images during a collection period.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Clark in New York at aclark27@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/cushing-crude-oil-stockpiles-fall-2-3-satellite-survey-shows.html

Ministry Clarifies Oil Production Figures

http://www.modernghana.com/news/363645/1/ministry-clarifies-oil-production-figures.html

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has categorically refuted claims in the The New Statesman newspaper that sought to suggest that 4.5 million barrels of oil were missing.

A statement issued by the ministry denying the claim said it had followed the recent media publications on supposed

inconsistencies in the production figures it published in the 2012 Budget Statement and the figures published by Tullow Oil.

The ministry said it was not true that 4.58 million barrels of crude oil produced from the Jubilee Fields could not be accounted for as alleged by the newspaper.

It said the production figures of more than 22 million barrels of oil reported by Tullow in its press release of November 9, 2011 related to the period since the start of production at the end of 2010.

“On the other hand the production figure of 17.42 million as stated in paragraph 59 of the 2011 Budget relates to production from January-September 2011,” the statement added.

According to the statement, it was, therefore, clear that the production periods under reference in the 2011 budget statement and that reported by Tullow Oil in its November 9, 2011 press release were “not the same contrary to what The New Statesman alleged.”