Energy Intelligence Briefing articles from August 2003

Energy Intelligence Briefing archives from August 2003

Clouds over West African crude lift but linger.
August 1, 2003... After a seemingly interminable two-month stretch, clouds have begun to lift slightly over West African crude after deep discounting and gasoline scarcity spurred higher refining margins and slightly perked up demand. However, with 11 million...

Big profits do little to spur big oil shares in July.(Illustration)
August 1, 2003... Many leading worldwide oil and gas companies posted strong second-quarter earnings last month that were typically 50% higher or more, but investors clearly did not care. EIG's International Petroleum Finance Oil and Gas Index, which comprises...

Rising demand keeps oil market balance trim in July.
August 5, 2003... Global oil demand remains surprisingly resilient so far in the third quarter, checking, for the time being, the emergence of a supply surplus or a rapid build-up in inventories. Preliminary July data from Energy Intelligence's Oil Market...

Critics: Bush shields US firms through Iraqi oil trade. (Eye on Iraq).
August 7, 2003... NEW YORK -- Is the Bush Administration quietly trying to give full legal immunity to US companies working in Iraq or dealing with Iraqi oil? Or is the administration simply following United Nations rules--as it should be--that say that...

US reveals optimistic plan to rebuild Iraqi oil sector. (Eye on Iraq).
August 8, 2003... Intensive teamwork, an ambitious schedule, over 200 projects, and a price tag of some $1.3 billion and counting: These are the main characteristics of a US/Iraqi plan to restore Iraq's output capacity to prewar levels and rebuild the oil...

Struggle for power makes Iraq oil recovery harder. (Eye on Iraq).
August 11, 2003... Despite encouraging noises from the US administrators helping to boost Iraqi oil flows, sabotage, power shortages, and other technical hitches continue to hamper progress. A struggle for control of Iraq's strategic oil industry currently...

North Sea loadings have little impact on oil prices.(Illustration)
August 19, 2003... North Sea loading programs for September for the eight principal UK and Norwegian crude oil systems total 96.74 million barrels, a decline of 570,000 bbl, or 0.6%, against an August schedule of 97.31 million bbl. However, because the lower...

Iraqi lips sealed in effort to stop oil sector sabotage. (Eye on Iraq).(Illustration)
August 20, 2003... Iraqi officials are clamping down on the release of information about the country's main oil export pipeline in an attempt to thwart saboteurs, who have repeatedly disrupted attempts to get flows going again. The main pipeline from the northern...

Supply-demand factors show sharp change coming.
August 22, 2003... Opec may have a tough time balancing the market in the next year, even if the ten members of the producer group bound by quotas agree to keep output steady for rest of the year and Iraq's recovery continues to stumble. The latest data from...

US finally convinced to let Iraqis take oil reins.(Eye On Iraq)
August 26, 2003... WASHINGTON -- Months into the daunting task of rehabilitating Iraq's vital oil industry, US planners are coming to realize that Iraqi oil experts--who have spent a lifetime patching the system after decades of war and sanctions--are best placed...

Russian exports set to drop as Odessa fight heats up.
August 28, 2003... MOSCOW -- Russian crude exports look set to drop in September, particularly out of the Black Sea ports, according to the port loading schedules issued so far. This is due to a reduction of nearly 50,000 barrels per day out of the key port of...

Iraq car bomb kills Shiite leader, opens field to others.(Eye on Iraq)
August 29, 2003... LONDON -- The death of a leading Shiite cleric and political leader in a car bomb explosion Friday scatters more seeds of confusion onto Iraq's complex postwar political landscape. Speculation and accusations about the possible identity of the...