World Mining Exploration News

Crude oil for October delivery fell $ 1.91 to settle at $ 68.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. this led to the loss of a contract Monday $ 2.78 to settle at $ 69.96, which means that crude oil has fallen nearly 6 percent in the week.

But on Tuesday, energy prices seem to be improving after the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, analyzing the manufacturing index to rise to 52.9 in August.

Bounce Tuesday energy prices and short-lived both equity and energy markets just before noon reversed. Phil Flynn, analyst questioned whether PFGBest manufacturing report gives a distorted image of the economy.

Even though most energy experts believe the government will report the serial-down in gasoline and crude stocks Wednesday as part of a weekly report, the level remained very high and driving season comes to a close. (more…)

As energy markets shrink, the same tactics that Russia used to build Gazprom into a fearsome economic and political power that could restore the country’s standing in the world are now backfiring, sharply eroding the energy giant’s earnings and influence.

Throughout his eight years as president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin pursued the strategic goal of dominating natural gas supplies to Europe and the pipelines that deliver them. His success was underscored in January, when for the second time in three years a pricing dispute with Ukraine disrupted the flow of natural gas, leaving hundreds of thousands in Eastern Europe shivering in the deep winter cold.

But in his zeal to monopolize gas supplies, Mr. Putin, who is now the Russian prime minister, committed Gazprom to long-term contract with Central Asian countries for gas at a cost far in excess of current world prices. Now that the world economic crisis has sharply curtailed the demand for gas, Gazprom is saddled with a glut of expensive Central Asian supplies that it is forced to sell at a loss. (more…)

Mounting stocks of crude and petrol are weighing on the oil price, which tumbled yesterday to $65 a barrel in London. The cost of a barrel has now reached a 17-month low and a consensus is emerging among Opec that a significant cut in output will be necessary to prevent a price collapse.

The price of Brent crude, which hit a 16-month low of $65 a barrel in New York, is drifting lower to levels that will begin to cause pain among all but the most efficient exporters of crude. At this level, Russia’s revenues are below the $70 needed to balance its budget. It is already well below the $80-plus required by Iran and Venezuela to fund welfare payments in their ramshackle economies.

In Moscow, the tumbling price provoked signals of stronger co-operation between Russia and Opec and proposals that Russia create an oil reserve to act as a swing producer to balance supply and demand. Igor Sechin, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, said that the Ministry of Energy would seek to create a reserve “to work more efficiently with prices on the market”. (more…)

In the face of growing criticisms, the country’s oil companies are cutting anew their pump prices by P1.00 per liter between 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. today.

The major oil firms – Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Petron Corp. – are the first to roll back their prices across products like gasoline, diesel and kerosene.

The first to send advisory on the price cuts was Eastern Petroleum, but its rollback was effective at 6 a.m. today.

The other oil firms which announced rollbacks are Seaoil Philippines and PTT Philippines, also effective at 6 a.m. today. Chevron (formerly Caltex) indicated it will follow the lead of competitors.
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Gas suppliers in Germany may be able to cut prices for customers next year if oil prices continue to fall, due to a mechanism that links gas to oil with a time lag, industry association BDEW said on Wednesday.

“Gas prices follow those of oil with a time lag of around six months,” BDEW Deputy Managing Director Martin Weyand said in a statement.

“The oil price indexation of gas is not a one-way street for when the oil price goes up,” he added, citing price cuts in 2007 when oil fell over several months and gas followed.

The practice of cross-indexation in mainland Europe goes back to the 1970s when gas was first brought into the market by big oil companies that wanted to keep competition between the fuels under control. (more…)

Key benchmark indices opened higher on Wednesday, boosted by the US Federal Reserve’s bailout package for the beleaguered US insurer AIG. The BSE 30-share Sensex was down 147.94 points after a strong opening.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve kept its target for the federal funds rate at 2%.

The US Federal Reserve in a meeting on Tuesday announced an $85 billion rescue plan to help American International Group in exchange for a 79.9% stake. The deal would avoid the biggest corporate bankruptcy ever and follows a government bailout of mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae earlier this month.

IT pivotals were in demand. However Ranbaxy Laboratories slumped over 8% and ICICI Bank shed over 4%. The market breadth was positive. (more…)

State-controlled PTT PCL PTT.BK, Thailand’s largest energy firm, reported a better-than-expected 13.8 percent rise in quarterly earnings on Monday thanks to higher gas sales and profits from its refinery business.

Analysts have said Asia-Pacific’s third-largest integrated oil and gas firm by market value should see earnings growth this year, given the strength in oil prices and higher output from new gas fields, though second-half growth may be checked as crude oil has dropped more than 21 percent from its recent record high.

April-June net profit was 29.9 billion baht ($887 million) versus 26.27 billion baht a year earlier, slightly above an average forecast of 29 billion baht from seven analysts surveyed by Reuters. (more…)

Gastar Exploration Ltd. today reported financial and operational results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2008.

Second Quarter Results
Net income for the second quarter of 2008 was $546,000, or $0.00 per basic and diluted share, compared to net income of $4.4 million, or $0.02 per basic and diluted share, for the second quarter of 2007. The second quarter of 2008 included a $513,000 unrealized natural gas hedging loss. Net income for the second quarter of 2007 included a gain on the sale of unproved natural gas and oil properties of $38.9 million, which was partially offset by a non-cash full cost ceiling impairment of natural gas and oil properties of $28.5 million. Excluding the effect of these items in both years, Gastar would have had second quarter income of $1.1 million, or $0.01 per share, for 2008, compared to a loss of $6.0 million, or $0.03 per share, for the second quarter of 2007. (more…)