S.Korea to take 1st Iran LPG cargoes in 7 months

South Korea will receive a shipment of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for the first time since imports were halted last October due to European sanctions that made it difficult to get shipping insurance.

South Korean LPG importer E1 Corp bought 33,000 tonnes of propane and 11,000 tonnes of butane that were loaded at an Iranian port.

One of the sources said there had been no Iranian LPG shipments since last October, although customs data has shown tonnage that the company has moved out from bonded areas.

U.S. and European Union sanctions aimed at choking the flow of oil money into Iran and forcing Tehran to negotiate on curbing its controversial nuclear programme halved Iran's crude exports in 2012, costing it as much as $5 billion a month. The EU broadened those sanctions to importing and transporting Iranian gas last October, also bringing the LPG exports to a halt.

Earthquake hits Iran oil

A small earthquake struck the Iranian port town of Assaluyeh, a centre for the petrochemical and oil industries and near the South Pars gas field, but did not appear to have caused any damage.

The 3.4-magnitude earthquake struck near Assaluyeh and surrounding villages. Many residents left their homes for fear of aftershocks. There were no casualties or major damage in Assaluyeh.
Iran is prone to earthquakes, sometimes with heavy casualties and serious damage to infrastructure.

OPEC does not see increased US oil output as a threat

OPEC does not see increased U.S. oil output as a threat to its interests but is skeptical about current forecasts on the boom of American shale oil production.

OPEC Secretary General Abdullah Al-Badri also said that figures supplied by Iran show it producing around 3.7 million barrels a day. That is the same amount as Tehran pumped before international embargos on its crude that took effect this year and is estimated to have cost it hundreds of thousands of barrels a day in sales.

Al-Badri spoke to reporters a day after OPEC ministers agreed to keep their daily crude production target unchanged at 30 million barrels. They also extended his term for a year after failing to agree on a successor for the post because of rivalries among Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, which nominated candidates.

OPEC, which accounts for about a third of the world's oil production, is projecting a slight fall in demand for its crude next year, and world inventories are well stocked, in part because of resurgent production by the United State, which is tapping into oil extraction from shale.

U.S. extends waivers on Iran sanctions to China and India

The United States has granted 180-day waivers on Iran sanctions to China, India and a number of other countries in exchange for their cutting purchases of oil from the Islamic Republic.
President Barack Obama's administration has now renewed waivers for all 20 of Iran's major oil buyers, after granting them to Japan and 10 European Union countries in September. The action was the second renewal for all 20 after Obama signed the sanctions into law a year ago.
The sanctions aim to choke funding to Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is enriching uranium to levels that could be used in weapons. Tehran says the program is for civilian purposes.
"The United States and the international community remain committed to maintaining pressure on the Iranian regime until it fully addresses concerns about its nuclear program," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement. Clinton also granted waivers, known as "exceptions," on to South Korea, South Africa, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
Under the sanctions law, banks in countries that buy oil from Iran can be cut off from the U.S. financial system unless their purchases decline.
Iran's oil exports have fallen 50 percent this year in the face of U.S. sanctions and a EU embargo that began on July 1. That has cost Iran up to $5 billion a month and led to a plunge in Iran's currency, the rial.
Critics of the U.S. sanctions say they will not rein in Iran's nuclear program unless they are accompanied by adequate diplomacy.

OPEC set for easy oil deal, secretary-general dispute

OPEC's oil exporters look set this week to avoid a quarrel about how much crude they produce and argue instead about who should be the group's next secretary-general.

Oil prices are roughly where OPEC wants them - comfortably above $100 a barrel - but there is deadlock over who should replace Libyan Abdullah El-Badri as the public face of the organization.

The 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is widely expected to retain its 30 million barrel a day (bpd) output target for the first six months of 2013. OPEC's own maths suggest that, despite oil prices at a lofty $107 a barrel, it is pumping more than world markets need - pointing to a potential stockbuild and the possibility of a fall in prices at the start of next year.

While agreement on output policy looks straightforward, a decision on who to appoint secretary-general does not. Candidates from Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are competing to replace the 72-year old Libyan Abdullah El-Badri, who has been in the job 5 years. Election requires a unanimous vote but rivalry between Saudi on the one hand and Iran and Iraq on the other reflects political divisions between those countries. That is likely, said OPEC delegates, to leave El-Badri in the job for another 6 months.

Indian oil firms focus on production

Faced with soaring demand, stagnant output at home and a need to diversify from Iranian crude imports lost to Western sanctions, Indian oil companies are hungry for deals like ONGC's Kashagan buy that promise supplies sooner rather than later.
State-run ONGC Videsh has agreed to pay about $5 billion for 8.4 percent of the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan, the world's largest oilfield discovery in four decades - which could boost its output by about 16 percent within a year.
The deal adds to a stable of assets that span some of the trickiest territories in the world - Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya among them - accumulated as parent Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) (ONGC.NS) struggled with domestic output.
But it's a drop in the ocean for the world's fourth-biggest crude importer - it buys in 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) - where the energy gap triggers constant power cuts. Asia's third-largest economy plans to hit 8 percent growth in 2014/15 and by 2030 that could lift it to be third-largest in the world and also the No. 3 energy consumer, according to BP.
Oil supplies have become more urgent as Western sanctions over nuclear projects squeeze Iran, once India's second-biggest supplier. India's imports from Tehran slipped by nearly a fifth to 257,000 bpd in April-September.