ANKARA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The first crude has started to flow through Iraqi Kurdistan’s new pipeline across Turkey and the first independent exports are expected to begin at the end of this month, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Wednesday.

The first parcel of 2 million barrels of oil will be sold via a tender, KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources said on the government’s web site. It invited bidders for the January tender.

The monthly export parcels will then increase to 4 million barrels and 6 million barrels in February and March respectively, it said. The monthly exports are estimated to reach 10-12 million barrels in December.

Iraqi Kurds and the central government in Baghdad have been at loggerheads over the share of oil revenues.

Baghdad, which claims the sole authority to manage Iraqi oil, was infuriated after Arbil signed a package of contracts with Turkey for oil and gas exports as well as for the construction of new pipelines.

The Baghdad government says Kurdish efforts towards oil independence could lead to the break-up of Iraq. Turkey’s courtship of the Iraqi Kurds has also raised concern in Washington.

But Turkey has repeatedly said it respects Iraq’s sensitivities over territorial integrity and that increasing oil revenues will help the whole of Iraq.

Ankara has been working to get Baghdad on board and proposed setting up an escrow account at a Turkish state bank for the oil revenues to be deposited. The Iraqi government has yet to agree on the Turkish proposals.

KRG’s new pipeline carries the Iraqi Kurdish oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean export hub of Ceyhan. It is initially carrying heavy oil from Tawke fields and links up with the 40-inch-wide existing Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to be exported to world markets.

“Crude oil from Taq Taq and other producing fields will soon be added to the export system, resulting in a blended medium crude oil..,” the KRG statement said.

Prospective buyers will be able to lift crude oil shipments in Ceyhan “under similar arrangements” as those used for Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) for oil exports from Kirkuk.

Details of each parcel will be announced by the Ministry of Natural Resources and independent observers as well as representatives from SOMO will be invited to monitor the process, KRG said.</s>Iraq on Sunday urged foreign countries to stop importing crude directly from its autonomous Kurdistan region and to restrict oil trading to the central government.

The call, published in statement from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office, came in retaliation for the Kurdistan Regional Government's plan to hold a referendum on independence on Monday.

The central government's statement seems to be directed primarily at Turkey, the transit country for all the crude produced in Kurdistan. The crude is taken by pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean coast for export.

Baghdad "asks the neighboring countries and the countries of the world to deal exclusively with the federal government of Iraq in regards to entry posts and oil," the statement said.

The Iraqi government has always opposed independent sales of crude by the KRG, and tried on many occasions to block Kurdish oil shipments.

Long-standing disputes over land and oil resources are among the main reasons cited by the KRG to ask for independence.

Iraqi Kurdistan produces around 650,000 barrels per day of crude from its fields, including around 150,000 from the disputed areas of Kirkuk.

The region's production volumes represent 15 percent of total Iraqi output and around 0.7 percent of global oil production. The KRG aspires to raise production to over 1 million barrels per day by the end of this decade.

Kurdish oil production has been dominated by mid-sized oil companies such as Genel, DNO, Gulf Keystone and Dana Gas. Major oil companies such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Rosneft also have projects in Kurdistan but they are mostly at an exploration stage.

However, Rosneft, Russia's state oil major, has lent over $1 billion to the KRG guaranteed by oil sales and committed a total of $4 billion to various projects in Kurdistan.</s>ANKARA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdistan is set to start exporting its first parcel of 2 million barrels of oil via a new pipeline through Turkey at the end of this month, the Kurdistan Regional Government said on Wednesday.

Exports will rise to 4 million barrels and 6 million barrels in February and March respectively, and eventually reach 10-12 million barrels in December, the semi-autonomous region said in a statement on its website.

Iraqi Kurds and the central government in Baghdad have been at loggerheads over the share of oil revenues. Baghdad, which claims the sole authority to manage Iraqi oil, was infuriated after Arbil signed a package of contracts with Turkey for oil and gas exports as well as the construction of new pipelines. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Mike Collett-White)</s>BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq on Sunday urged foreign countries to stop importing crude directly from its autonomous Kurdistan region and to restrict oil trading to the central government.

FILE PHOTO:Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi delivers remarks at the morning ministerial plenary for the Global Coalition working to Defeat ISIS at the State Department in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

The call, published in statement from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office, came in retaliation for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s plan to hold a referendum on independence on Monday.

The central government’s statement seems to be directed primarily at Turkey, the transit country for all the crude produced in Kurdistan. The crude is taken by pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean coast for export.

Baghdad “asks the neighboring countries and the countries of the world to deal exclusively with the federal government of Iraq in regards to entry posts and oil,” the statement said.

The Iraqi government has always opposed independent sales of crude by the KRG, and tried on many occasions to block Kurdish oil shipments.

Long-standing disputes over land and oil resources are among the main reasons cited by the KRG to ask for independence.

Iraqi Kurdistan produces around 650,000 barrels per day of crude from its fields, including around 150,000 from the disputed areas of Kirkuk.

The region’s production volumes represent 15 percent of total Iraqi output and around 0.7 percent of global oil production. The KRG aspires to raise production to over 1 million barrels per day by the end of this decade.

Kurdish oil production has been dominated by mid-sized oil companies such as Genel (GENL.L), DNO (DNO.OL), Gulf Keystone (GKP.L) and Dana Gas (DANA.AD). Major oil companies such as Chevron (CVX.N), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Rosneft (ROSN.MM) also have projects in Kurdistan but they are mostly at an exploration stage.

However, Rosneft, Russia’s state oil major, has lent over $1 billion to the KRG guaranteed by oil sales and committed a total of $4 billion to various projects in Kurdistan.</s>The United Nations has advertised new positions in Iraqi Kurdistan:
• Finance Specialist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)</s>Crude oil and the United States Oil Fund (USO) have continued their rally which began in late August. There are many reasons to like crude oil, including the improved supply and demand picture, and the current high spread between Brent crude and WTI crude. While we could see continuing strength, I am not convinced that the current rally will continue. As a result, I look to buy on a pull-back to the recent support line near $47.50/bbl or $9.80 in USO.

I follow five key indicators while swing trading crude oil, the current status of which is shown below. I cover these indicators on a daily and weekly basis in my Seeking Alpha Marketplace service. Below, I will focus on several charts and the OPEX magnet. If you are interested in learning more about my other indicators, you can read an introduction here.

USO’s Fibonnacci re-tracement which covers the 2017 highs and lows appear to be very relevant. For the second time this year, USO was rejected at the 50% retracement level. The RSI is nearing an over-bought level.

The value of USO is of course dependent upon the value of crude oil futures. If we look at the December 2017 futures contract specifically, we can see that December crude remains below its 200 day MA, while being above a prior down trend resistance line. Long-term bulls should want to see a pull-back so that they gain more ammunition for a continued price advance.

On a four hour chart, we can see that USO is decidedly in an uptrend channel and above key exponential moving averages. $10.33 might continue to provide stout resistance; if not, then price has a lot of room to move towards $10.70. To the downside, we have a key support level near $9.95. Based upon my indicators, I would like to be a buyer of USO near the uptrend line near $9.80.

On a daily basis, I calculate option expiration price magnets for gold and crude oil. This is the price at which the options market is optimized. The OPEX magnet for crude oil is becoming cautionary for the long-term, but may not affect prices in the short run. The OPEX magnets have more influence as we get closer to the options expirations date. I do expect crude to fall back at some point, maybe not yet this week.

If you would like to read an introduction to OPEX magnets, please read this article.

Here are my current biases for crude oil and several related and correlated ETFs:

If you enjoyed this article, you might consider Commodity Conquest. I provide daily value indicator updates on oil and gold as well as weekly reports and deep value picks. It's designed for those with a keen interest in gold, oil, and deep value. It is also priced so that it can be supplemental to other services. My first three deep value picks all returned over 20% in the first two months. Come and see!

All charts above were taken from Trading View unless otherwise indicated, and all tables were created by Viking Analytics unless otherwise indicated.

This article was written for information purposes, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. All my articles are subject to the disclaimer found here.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.</s>* Term crude made up about 53 pct of 2013 Iraqi crude imports

* Iraq since 2011 ranks as fourth-biggest crude supplier to S.Korea

SINGAPORE/SEOUL, Feb 28 (Reuters) - South Korean refiners are set to import about a quarter more Iraqi term crude this year, industry sources said, as oil from other Middle Eastern suppliers is squeezed out by higher pricing or limits on Iranian supply due to sanctions.

Despite concerns about security, Iraq is still aiming for its largest annual rise in oil exports in a decade this year, and Asia’s crude buyers including China and South Korea have been signing larger annual import contracts.

Iraq’s Basra light grade has also been a primary replacement for Iranian crude exports, which have been cut in half over the last two years by Western sanctions aimed at Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.

On top of the term crude, which made up just over half of South Korea’s Iraqi imports last year, Korean refiners say they will keep buying spot supplies from Iraq as long as prices remain competitive compared to other suppliers.

“Iraqi crude oil has good economics and ... it has been replacing Iranian crude demand as their qualities are similar. Crude oils from Qatar and Oman are too expensive,” a Seoul-based refining source said.

“By how much Iraq imports can increase in the future depends on the development of sanctions on Iran,” he added.

Iran’s exports to its top Asia buyers surpassed 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, a sign its oil shipments may creep up after the implementation of an interim deal that eases some of the U.S. and EU sanctions applied over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

China will increase its annual purchase of Iraqi crude by more than two-thirds next year to meet growing demand in the world’s largest net oil importer, trade sources said in November.

South Korea’s second-largest refiner, GS Caltex Corp , will account for most of the country’s rise in Iraqi term imports, increasing its Basra light contract purchases for 2014 to 133,000 bpd, up from 100,000 bpd, industry sources said.

The biggest refiner SK Energy Co Ltd has kept its term Iraqi volumes steady at 33,000 bpd, the sources said.

The term import contracts alone will rise 25 percent to 166,000 bpd from 133,000 bpd in 2014, they said.

SK Energy and GS Caltex spokesmen declined to comment on the term contracts.

South Korea’s Hyundai Oilbank Co Ltd buys Basra light in the spot market. A company source with direct knowledge of the matter said the refiner bought about 30,000 bpd on the spot market last year and will continue to do so as long as the prices remain competitive.

“Unless Iraq raises the official selling price of its crude, our purchases would continue,” said a source at GS Caltex.

Iraqi crude shipped to South Korea was about $2.20 a barrel cheaper than Omani oil on average last year, according to data from the country’s customs office.

State-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC), which manages the country’s strategic oil reserves, has also started replacing some Oman with Basra light in its tanks as more refiners are using the Iraqi grade, said sources familiar with the matter.

The country’s other refiner, S-Oil Corp, mainly buys crude from its major shareholder Saudi Aramco.

South Korea, the world’s fifth-largest crude importer, relied on the Middle East for around 85 percent of its crude supply in 2013, although it has sharply reduced imports from Iran and Oman in favour of Iraqi oil in recent years, according to industry data.

South Korea’s imports of Iraqi term and spot crude have grown to just more than 253,000 bpd last year, from about 116,800 bpd in 2008, according to South Korea customs data.

Iraq remained South Korea’s fourth-biggest supplier last year, after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.

Over the last three years, South Korea’s imports of crude from Iraq grew more than 50 percent in 2011 and 8 percent in 2012, followed by a slight dip last year, according to South Korea’s customs data.

In contrast, Iranian supply averaged around 132,000 bpd in 2013, down 14 percent from the previous year, as South Korea scaled back imports to avoid U.S. sanctions, KNOC data showed. KNOC data do not break down crude imports from Iraq.

Omani crude imports fell by 60 percent last year to just over 9,700 bpd, from 24,000 bpd a year ago, KNOC data showed. (Additional reporting by Jane Chung in SEOUL; Editing by Tom Hogue)</s>U.S. crude oil climbed 3% today to $52.22/bbl, posting its highest closing level in five months, while Brent crude jumped 3.8% to $59.02/bbl, touching its highest since July 2015.

WTI now has gained more than 20% from its June lows, meeting the definition of a bull market, as data shows major producers’ strong commitment to their supply cut agreement and as talk grows of a likely extension of the deal.

“It’s all driven by the idea is that the production cut is starting to work and the rebalance is underway,” says Gene McGillian, director of market research at Tradition Energy, even as concerns about U.S. production growth widened the discount of WTI to Brent crude to the highest since August 2015.

Another factor behind Brent's outperformance is the risk of a disruption to flows from Iraqi Kurdistan amid today's independence referendum by the Kurdistan Regional Government, which sparked a threat by Turkey's Pres. Erdogan to cut off the Ceyhan pipeline that carries the Kurdish region’s entire oil production - 500K-600 bbl/day - to the outside world.</s>The Federal Government has promised that by the end of this year, it will start conducting deoxyribonucleic acid fingerprinting of the country’s crude oil in order to identify theft and apprehend criminals.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, made this known during the inauguration of an ultra-modern Bio-Resources Laboratory and Feed Mill Complex in Odi, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

Onu assured Nigerians that with the facilities at the newly-opened laboratory, oil theft would soon become a thing of the past.

He said the fingerprinting of the Nigerian crude oil would enable the country to track its crude oil anywhere when stolen and solve the problem of economic sabotage.

The minister stated, “I feel very happy with this ultra-modern laboratory. For me, Nigeria is changing. With this capacity here now, we will be able to do many things. I just gave them instruction that by the end of this year, we should have fingerprinting of our crude oil.

“With this measure, if anybody steals our crude oil, the government will be able to identify it, because even crude oil can have fingerprints and with the equipment we have here, we can do it in Nigeria.

“One problem that we have is that we rely on other people from outside to solve our problems. We produce crude oil, we export it, but we now import refined petroleum products.

‘’We export our woods and we bring in toothpicks. We don’t want that anymore and for you to do all these things we rely on others. We have to look inwards and we need to build capacity and that is what this facility is doing for us.

‘’I just mentioned to you now that you can do genome mapping of our rare crops, plants, animals that are unique to us. We can even fingerprint our own crude oil.

“Normally, this is something we spent a lot of money on and ask other people to do it. Now, when we do it here, it is our people that will do it. That is how to create jobs, that is how to create wealth because that money you could have spent outside will now be here and be used here. Even though we are the largest economy in Africa, we want to be bigger than where we are now.

“We also need to fight poverty; if you create jobs, you will fight poverty, if you train people, you fight poverty and that’s what they are doing here and I think we are ready to fight poverty.”

During a courtesy visit to the Bayelsa State Government in Yenagoa, the minister indicated that the Federal Government had concluded plans to establish an Oil and Gas Institute in the state.

Onu said the siting of the institute in Bayelsa was due to the immense contributions of the state in the oil and gas sector.

He added that the institute, when completed, would reduce unemployment, not only in the region but in the country as a whole.

‘’The oil and gas institute will not only create employment opportunities but it will also develop skills in the oil and gas sector which will help to revamp the nation’s economy,’’ Onu stated.

Also speaking, the Director-General of the Bio-Resources Centre, Josiah Habu, said the target of the research centre was to bring reliability, quality, originality, innovation and novelty to research and development.

He said the inauguration of the facilities had officially opened the gateway to a higher level of bio-resources prospecting and processing of new products and services to support local content and bio-economy to diversify the sources of income for collective good.

Habu, who corroborated the minister’s standpoint, said, “For a start, the quest for the DNA of Nigeria’s crude oil will soon be answered in order to ensure tracking of Nigeria crude oil flow globally, hence solve the national problem of economic sabotage.”

Copyright PUNCH. 

 All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.</s>* U.S. keeps pressure on Iran, Ukraine tensions persist

NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Tuesday as traders refocused on geopolitical risks from an outbreak of violence in Libya to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

On Monday, oil posted its biggest daily decline in a month, when Libya lifted a force majeure from the eastern Zueitina oil port, raising prospects for rising shipments.

But on Tuesday, gunmen stormed Libya’s parliament, wounding several people, while a suicide bomber in a car killed at least two people and wounded two others at an army camp in the eastern city of Benghazi. The developments raised questions about how soon oil flows will resume.

“When you see an action like that, then you wonder if the port will in fact reopen,” said James L. Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics in London, Arkansas. “It just creates more uncertainty about it,” he said.

June Brent crude futures settled at $108.98 per barrel, up 86 cents, or 0.8 percent, after spending much of the day above $109 per barrel. The gain pared Monday’s 1.4 percent drop.

U.S. crude for June delivery added 44 cents to settle at $101.28 per barrel, up 0.44 percent. It had moved as high as $102.20 earlier in Tuesday’s trading.

U.S. equities closed higher, with the S&P 500 Index gaining 8.9 points or 0.48 percent, to end the day at 1,878.33.

Hopes for a relaxation of sanctions on Iran later this year, enabling the Islamic Republic to sell more oil, were dampened after the United States targeted companies from China and Dubai for allegedly helping Tehran evade weapons and oil sanctions. That sent a signal that Washington will keep pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme.

The stand-off between Russia and Western powers over Ukraine also showed no sign of abating, adding to concerns that the conflict will ultimately lead to the disruption of some oil supply due to tighter sanctions.

Hundreds of pro-Russian separatists stormed the regional government headquarters in Ukraine’s eastern city of Luhansk on Tuesday, gaining access by breaking windows and facing no resistance from police.

“The market is paranoid about Ukraine tensions in the short run,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, analyst at VTB Capital.

Financial markets largely shrugged off fresh U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian firms and government officials on Monday, with oil traders saying it was “business as usual”.

Williams, the energy economist from WTRG, said Western tensions with Russia over Ukraine were adding “a buck or two” to oil prices. But the effect was more psychological because Russia’s major oil export route - the Turkish Straits - is not endangered by the potential conflict.

“Real risk to oil supply is minimal,” he said.

Crude oil markets were largely unmoved after a report from the U.S. oil industry’s American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a larger-than-expected build in crude oil inventories.

Crude inventories rose by 3.0 million barrels in the week to April 25, API said, exceeding analysts’ expectations for an increase of 2.4 million barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 202,000 barrels.

U.S. crude futures turned slightly lower and seesawed in post-settlement trade after the API data’s release.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s inventory data is set to be released at 10:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) on Wednesday.

The volatile trading over the last two days left some analysts scratching their heads about which direction the market is likely to take.

“All in all, we continue to struggle in formulating an outright buy or sell recommendation since we look for choppy/sideways trends to remain intact into next month,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois, wrote in an afternoon research note. (Additional reporting by Simon Falush in London and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Jason Neely, Susan Fenton, David Gregorio and Peter Galloway)
The Iraqi government discourages foreign countries from importing crude oil directly from its Iraqi Kurdistan region.