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The U.S. military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters and is redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, shipping and security sources said on Wednesday. Washington has imposed a blockade on Iran's trade by sea while Iran has fired on ships to prevent them sailing through the Strait of Hormuz waterway at the entrance to the Middle East Gulf. Nearly two months after the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran, there is [Read more]

U.S. oilfield services firm Weatherford International said on Wednesday that oilfield activity in Mexico has normalized and it was starting to get paid after a new financial mechanism helped raise funds for state-run energy company Pemex to pay its suppliers after long delays. Oilfield service companies had significantly reduced activities amid Pemex's accumulation of billions of dollars in pending payments to contractors and providers in recent years. A payment mechanism approved by the [Read more]

A lockout at BP's 440,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Whiting, Indiana, enters its second month as the British oil major and hundreds of union workers remain at odds. BP locked out about 800 workers represented by the United Steelworkers union on March 19, after months of negotiations failed to produce a new labor contract. The Whiting facility is the largest refinery in the Midwest and a major supplier of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. It has continued to operate during the lockout after [Read more]

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says some opponents of fracking are drowning out voices who want to have a conversation and learn more about new fossil fuel production. Houston posted the comments on social media, along with a short video of a consultation session in Windsor, N.S., hosted by Dalhousie University on Monday evening. The provincial government kicked off the consultations more than a year after lifting a ban on fracking that was in place for over a decade. Houston [Read more]

Safe and sustainable passage through the Strait of Hormuz is what top shipping companies require before the world's sees much oil or cargo leave or enter the Gulf, two top sector executives said on Wednesday. "Two weeks ago when the ceasefire, said to be temporary, came into picture, we thought there was hope. But in reality, the agreement was not translated into the safety and passage (of the vessels)," Jotaro Tamura, chief executive of Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, told Reuters in an [Read more]

U.S. crude stocks rose while gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 1.9 million barrels to 465.7 million barrels in the week ended April 17, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2 million-barrel draw. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 806,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said. Refinery crude runs fell by 55,000 barrels per day [Read more]

Traders placed a series of bets worth $430 million on a drop in crude prices just 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump said he would extend a ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday. It is the third time this month, and the fourth in total, that large, well-timed directional bets on the oil price have been made shortly before major announcements on the Iran war. One combined wager in March was worth $500 million, while April's bets have together totalled some $2.1 billion. * Between 1954 [Read more]