Japanese and South Korean refiners have increased oil purchases from Russia, eroding the dominance of Middle Eastern suppliers and electing for a more competitive crude source that is three weeks closer by ship. While Russian exports have surged over the last 6 months, the Middle East remains dominant, with total Middle East output in June around 19.9 million barrels, while Russia’s output was 10.3 million barrels, peaking at 330,000 barrels a day in June.
A plunge in Japanese crude imports last month and weekly refining rates just over 70 percent show that demand in the world’s third-leading oil consumer is still weak and any pick-up promises to be slight.
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Japan’s Nippon Oil Corp declared that it had filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, asking for a rejection of the National Tax Tribunal’s findings in January that imposed extra taxes on the refiner on gains from energy derivatives trading.
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Japan Energy Corp, the nation’s sixth-biggest oil refiner, declared that it plans to cut its crude oil processing volumes for July-September by 9 percent from a year earlier due to slow domestic demand.
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Japan Energy Corp, the nation’s sixth-biggest oil refiner, declared that it plans to cut its crude oil processing volumes for July-September by 9 percent from a year earlier due to slow domestic demand.
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Kuwait News Agency declared that Kuwait’s crude oil exports to Japan plunged 28.2% in April from a year earlier to 10.59 million barrels or 353,000 barrels per day. Japan is Kuwait’s leading oil buyer with accounting for 20% of its total crude exports.
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Japan may be forced to shut more than a fifth of its refining capacity, at least 1 million barrels per day, in the next five years as oil demand slipped faster than expected.
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Japan’s leading refiner, Nippon Oil Corp. declared plans to refine 4 percent less crude in June from a year ago, a company executive declared on Friday, as domestic demand for oil products remains sluggish.
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Oil prices vaulted 9 per cent in NY Thursday, in tandem with a powerful stocks rally, as investors cheered G20 agreements to combat the global downturn and an easing of US accounting rules. On Friday, oil prices settled above $52 a barrel, slightly lower on the day after a report that US unemployment in March soared to a 25-year high. But optimism that the economy will soon turn around curtailed losses.
It was a stock that people loved to hate. During the first half of 2008, investors cringed when they saw rallies in the price of oil. As crude surged to $150 a barrel last year, equity investors bemoaned the hit, and worried and gossiped about the outlook for consumer-oriented firms which would need to spend more on gas. Then the tide turned.
Thursday, July 8, 2010