Energy Prospectus

From Bloomberg:

Crude extended gains from the highest close in two weeks as speculation mounted over potential output disruptions in Kirkuk. Futures in London rose as much as 1.7% after gaining 2.8% last week.

Iraqi forces advanced toward the disputed city of Kirkuk, as the government sharply intensified its efforts to stall moves toward a Kurdish state by seizing the oil fields that would underpin its economy. Crude exports from the disputed area were flowing normally today. State-run Iraqiya television said the military had also captured a refinery, a gas plant and a main road in Kirkuk.

About 120,000 b/d are at immediate risk from the current Iraq-Kurd tensions, according to Bloomberg oil strategist Julian Lee. Any move by neighboring Turkey to close a Kurdish pipeline would create bigger disruption, he said. Iraq pumps most of its 4.47 million b/d from fields in the south, shipping it from the Persian Gulf port of Basrah. Its Kurdish region, meanwhile, relies on a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan to get most of its crude to market.
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The Middle East and North Africa are both powder kegs. Most differences between the "tribes" are resolved with guns. About a third of the world's oil supply comes from these areas. As the oil markets tighten, conflicts will have a bigger impact on the oil price.

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union banned the sale of oil and oil products to North Korea on Monday, in a largely symbolic move aimed at encouraging countries that have more significant levels of trade with the country to follow suit.

EU foreign ministers also imposed a blanket ban on doing business with North Korea in sanctions that go beyond the latest U.N. measures. The EU does not sell oil to Pyongyang.

Following North Korea's most powerful nuclear test, the U.N. Security Council capped North Korean imports of crude oil, but China and Russia resisted an outright ban.

EU ministers cited "the persistent threat to international peace and stability" posed by Pyongyang.

As part of the measures, North Korean workers in the EU - estimated to be about 400, mainly in Poland - now face a lower limit on the amount for money they can send home and their work visas will not be renewed once they expire.

The sanctions add three more top North Korean officials and six businesses to a blacklist banning them from travel to the EU and freezing their assets.

That will take the total of those sanctioned by the EU to 41 individuals and 10 companies, a senior EU official said. U.N. sanctions target 63 people and 53 companies and institutions.