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By Julie Cruz

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle warned against a further escalation in a nuclear dispute with Iran.

“We will jointly examine with our partners in substance the Iranian offer of dialogue, which was sent in writing,” he said today in a statement. “Should there be a serious, substantial willingness to talk, we want to identify it.”

While Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian energy and medical research, the U.S. and European governments say they suspect it is seeking an atomic weapons capability.

Iran hasn’t negotiated with the so-called P5+1 — the UN Security Council’s permanent members China Replica Watches, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S., plus Germany — since talks broke down in January 2011.

–Editors: Digby Lidstone, Rob Verdonck.

To contact the reporters on this story: Julie Cruz in Frankfurt at jcruz6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sara Marley at smarley1@bloomberg.net

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UN nuclear inspectors are in Tehran Monday to attempt to meet with Iranian nuclear scientists and visit a key military facility as they investigate allegations that Iran is building an atomic weapon.

The trip is the second in about a month by an International Atomic Energy Agency team as international pressure steps up over nuclear weapons concerns. Iran has denied it is building atomic weapons and is refusing to discuss the matter.

Herman Nackaerts, a senior UN nuclear official, said his team hopes for progress in the talks, but did not speak optimistically about that possibility.

Iran started air defence wargames dubbed “Sarollah,” or “God’s Revenge,” in the south of the country Monday to practice defending nuclear and military facilities.

The West has viewed the wargames as the latest attempt by Iran to demonstrate it will defend itself and retaliate against any armed strike.

The U.S. and Israel have not ruled out strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.

The UN visit comes as Iran announced it would stop shipping oil to the United Kingdom and France.

The strategy being used by Tehran is to not let the “enemy” get the upper hand, a Middle East expert says.

“I think this gives Britain and France and other western powers something to think about because the original idea was that by July 1 crippling sanctions would be in place,” Toronto-based Kamran Bokhari told CTV’s Canada AM Monday.

The European Union agreed to stop buying Iranian crude July 1 under a round of new sanctions, but Bokhari said that was preempted by Tehran Sunday when its Oil Ministry announced shipments to the U.K. and France would end.

That caused oil prices to spike Monday to a nine-month high of US$105 a barrel. Oil prices were also affected by China’s decision to boost its money supply to spur lending and economic growth.

About 18 to 20 per cent of Iranian crude is purchased by countries in the EU.

Bokhari isn’t sure if the Iranians are bluffing, but what the move does say is the country’s leadership isn’t ready to “throw in the towel just yet.”

It’s also possible Iran is counting on the ban to bump world crude prices, Bokhari said.

“Everybody has an incentive to negotiate. The question is who is going to negotiate from a position of relative strength . . . both sides want that and obviously both sides can’t have that to the detriment of the other,” Bokhari said.

While Iran may be counting on oil prices to rise and force a compromise, it’s also suffering economically from lower crude sales, Rasool Nafisi told Canada AM Monday.

An expert on Iran at Strayner University in Washington, D.C., Nafisi said the oil-dependent country is already trying to find a market for about 25 per cent of its crude.

With the EU not buying its oil, coupled with China dropping half of its orders, Iran needs new customers, possibly in South America, he said.

“I find it hard to believe that under the strict sanctions by western countries they can really find a new range of new customers,” Nafisi said.

But there is a current shortage of crude on the market and perhaps the Iranians are counting on that to work in their favour, he added.

Both Nafisi and Bokhari believe a military strike on Iran is unlikely because both sides want to negotiate and it’s in the interest of the Americans to reach a peaceful solution.

Bokhari said there’s more at stake for the U.S. than just Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.

It’s really about the balance of power in the Persian Gulf, as well as stability in Iraq, the outcome of the Syrian uprising and American attempts to reach a compromise with the Taliban in Afghanistan, he said.

He also believes Israel won’t go it alone with a military strike. It will work with the international community to find a resolution, Bokhari said.

“Nobody’s in the mood to go down that military road because of the repercussions and the cost of that would be much higher than the perceived benefit,” he said.

Meanwhile, France is shrugging off Iran’s ban on crude exports to the country.

The Foreign Ministry said French oil companies have already stopped buying Iran’s oil under EU sanctions adopted last month.

With files from CTVNews.ca’s John Size

Comments are now closed for this story

Abbe

said
0 0

If a nation said MANY times that it would wipe the USA off the map kill all Americans, would the USA listen to Israel, when Israel says to the United States, "Don’t do anything about it, we’ll use sanctions against them."

Israel has nuclear bombs since 1954 and never even once said it would use them and NEVER threatened anyone. Yet, Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map and that Israel will soon receive a nuclear holocaust before Iran even has one bomb. Imagine how they will threaten anyone they want as soon as they REALLY have the bomb.

James in Calgary

said
0 0

The same brilliant crew that was in Syria? “Okay, they are telling us that all is well here,and nothing is being hidden…time to go home”.

Wilson

said
0 0

The real crime here: The commodities broakers will now use this “paper threat” as leverage to raise the price of oil and gas.When in reality, this should no effect on the price of oil as Iran sells more of its oil to other ono-EU countries and the EU countries snubbed by Iran buy their oil from other suppliers; overall nil net effect in the sale/transfer of the world’s oil. This is just a shifting of allegiances, nothing more.

Sal

said
0 0

Let’s go solar and wind and screw them! No leverage against warmth allowed Replica Watches!!!

MikeInBC

said
0 0

Maybe Canada should build a pipeline to the East Coast and ship oil to Europe…That is providing the Euro’s don’t ban tar sands oil.

Old Ted

said
0 0

The way oil is shuffled around, Europe will get oil, not Iranian perhaps but they will get oil. Now, if Iran completely quits exporting oil, then there would be an effect on the world market.

frank

said
0 0

Americans want to reach a peaceful resolution? RIGHT!! Since when to Americans want to reach peaceful resolutions when it comes to oil?

No, I see this conflict escalating pretty quickly and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the start of WW3.

We are due another big war with everything going on in the world.

joel thomas

said
0 0

no shortage just greedy people on wall street and in washington dc and big oil,how much is enough for you gazillionairs in washington and wall street and big oil.

CMQ

said
0 0

All this really means is another lame excuse will be made to drive up the price at the pump. This report differs from another report I saw about the amount of oil available. According to a popular US news sight the US is so flush with oil and the demand is lower allowing the US to sell off its excess oil for profit and keeping oil prices higher. This whole issue is such BS when it comes to gas prices. Quite frankly we are paying the same for gas per litre now as it was when oil was selling at $130-$140 per barrel. The oil companies have just gotten everyone used to paying $1.25 or more per litre. That now is the new psychological barrier we are tolerating.

Peace dude

said
0 0

In the end the ones that will suffer are all the ordinary citizens of the world . I wonder if big oil will have sympathy on us and put people before profits?

Hyderabad, Jan 6 (IANS) The US Export Import Bank (Exim Bank) has only received a proposal for and not granted any loan for Amerind Petroleum Private Ltd’s proposed petroleum refinery project in Andhra Pradesh, its chairman and president Fed P. Hochberg clarified here Friday.

He told reporters that Exim Bank had only received a proposal. ‘We have not yet reviewed the proposal,’ he said when asked to comment on the Rs.120 billion petroleum refinery that Amerind proposes to set up near Vishakhapatnam, in joint technical collaboration with US-based American Industrial Corporation (AIC).

Hochberg said only a Letter of Interest was issued for the project.

‘We told them if they make a business case we will review it,’ he said.

He was responding to a query about the project for which the Andhra Pradesh government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Amerind after the latter reportedly informed the state government that Exim Bank had approved the loan.

Under the MoU signed in November last year Replica watches, Amerind will establish a refinery complex in the petroleum, chemicals and petrochemical investment region (PCPIR) near Viskhapatnam by relocating an existing US refinery.

It was announced that the first phase of the project would be set up on turn key basis at an estimated cost of $505 million by AIC by relocating an existing and running refinery acquired by it in the US.

In the second phase, the project would be expanded to a total refining capacity of 15 million tons per annum along with a petro chemical complex, at an additional cost of Rs.86.11 billion.

Amerind had informed the state government that Exim Bank will provide a loan funding of $375 million for US costs of the project and up to 30 percent of this for local costs in India.

By Catherine Dodge

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) — Mitt Romney fares better than Republican rival Newt Gingrich in a matchup against President Barack Obama among registered voters in the swing state of Florida, a Quinnipiac University poll shows.

Romney and Obama are tied in the Florida survey, each with 45 percent, while the president leads Gingrich, 50 percent to 39 percent.

The poll, released today, bolsters Romney’s argument that he is the most electable candidate among the Republican presidential contenders as Florida’s Jan. 31 primary approaches.

Independent voters are the key to Romney’s stronger showing against Obama in the poll. Romney is backed by 42 percent of Florida’s non-aligned voters to 41 percent for Obama, while the president leads Gingrich among this bloc, 50 percent to 33 percent, according to the survey.

“At least in Florida and at least at this point in the campaign Baroque oil paintings, the data indicates that Governor Mitt Romney is clearly the stronger Republican candidate against President Barack Obama,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut, said in a statement.

The survey was conducted Jan. 19-23, ending the day before Obama’s State of the Union address.

Poll for Primary

A Quinnipiac poll of likely primary voters taken over the same period showed a virtual dead heat between the two top Republicans: Romney had 36 percent support, Gingrich 34 percent.

The survey showed Gingrich benefiting from momentum following his 12-point win over Romney in South Carolina’s Jan. 21 primary. Gingrich led Romney by 6 points among voters polled after the South Carolina contest, while Romney led by 11 points among voters surveyed before.

Former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Rick Santorum ran third in the primary poll with 13 percent, followed by U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas with 10 percent.

In the survey focused on the general election, both Santorum and Paul run slightly better against Obama than Gingrich. Obama leads Santorum, 49 percent to 40 percent. Against Paul, the president is backed by 47 percent, to 39 percent for the Texan.

Florida, with 29 electoral votes, is viewed by both parties as a central battleground in November’s general election. In the last four presidential elections, each party has carried it twice.

Obama won the state by 3 percentage points in 2008. Then- Texas Governor George W. Bush’s 537-vote victory in the state after a prolonged recount in 2000 won him the White House over Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

The poll of 1,518 registered voters gauging general election matchups has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. The error margin for the survey focused on the primary is plus or minus 4 points.

–Editors: Don Frederick Neoclassicism oil paintings, Jim Rubin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Dodge in Washington at cdodge1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net

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New York: A New York man arrested for attacking an Islamic centre and a Hindu place of worship with firebombs has confessed to his role in the incidents that caused outrage over the weekend, citing personal grudges with people at the targeted locations.

The 40-year old, whose identity has not been released yet, was arrested yesterday after the police tracked down his car that was seen at the site of the attacks through surveillance cameras as well as identified by few witnesses, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Charges are pending against the man who confessed during questioning that he hurled molotov cocktails using Starbucks bottles at the five locations in Queens, including a convenience store and two other residences on New Year’s day.

“The individual is implicating himself in each of the five firebombing cases, citing personal grievances with each location,” police spokesman Paul Browne said.

Kelly said the man in custody had been kicked out of the convenience store on December 22 for trying to steal a glass Starbucks bottle and milk and had made threats as he was escorted out of the store.

“When they were pushing him out of the store, he said words to the effect that ‘We’re going to get even. We’re going to get back at you,’” Kelly said, adding the man was motivated by personal grievances with people at each of the locations.

The attacks, being investigated as possible hate crimes, caused outrage among city officials and inter-faith leaders who said such incidents should not be tolerated and the guilty be brought to justice.

In a show of support, city Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Kelly joined several Muslim, Jewish and Christian representatives at the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation centre, which was one of the targets, for a news briefing yesterday.

“As I said before, we don’t know what the motive was,” Bloomberg told reporters.

“But in New York City, as you know, we have no tolerance for violence, and certainly no tolerance for discrimination”.

Bloomberg said whether it was a “senseless violence or a hate crime… In either case, we’re just not going to tolerate it in this city”.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said the person responsible for the attacks “must be punished to fullest extent of the law. This is terrible. And to just throw bombs when you don’t even know who’s inside, that’s wrong. That’s wrong and it’s not right for Queens”.

While no one was injured in any of the attacks, property was damaged. About 80 people were inside the Islamic centre at the time of the attack.

“We were a little bit anxious and a bit nervous in the beginning because we weren’t sure. But now after having seen all the support that we have been receiving it is very reassuring,” said Al-Khoei Foundation Representative Meesam Razvi.

The Imam at the Al-Khoei centre Maan Al-Sahlani said, “We are one family. If one gets hurt, all the family gets hurt. So, we have to be shoulder to shoulder”.

The police had earlier released a sketch of the suspect and surveillance video that showed a man hurling the cocktail at a house that was used for Hindu worship services.

The suspect had been described as a black man , 25-30 years old, 5′8″ who drove away in a light coloured sedan.

A USD 12000 reward was also offered for information on the man.

By Barbara Powell

Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) — Heating oil jumped to a seven-week high on speculation that Europe will import more diesel from the U.S. after three regional refineries close this month and on the prospect of a European ban on Iranian oil.

Futures rose as Petroplus Holdings AG, Europe’s largest independent refiner by capacity, will temporarily shut three of its five plants. Heating oil increased gains when Brent crude surged on reports that European governments will ban imports of Iranian oil.

“Refiner shutdowns could create a diesel shortage in Europe and should increase demand for imports,” said Phil Flynn, vice president of research at PFGBest in Chicago. “There’s also a concern that Iran will lash out at the ban and that this also reduces the supply of oil.”

February-delivery heating oil rose 5.17 cents Replica Watches, or 1.7 percent, to settle at $3.0899 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange Replica Watches, the highest settlement since Nov. 16. Prices have gained 6.8 percent in four days.

Heating oil’s premium over gasoline widened 1.51 cents to 30.47 cents, the largest difference since Dec. 16. The heating oil crack spread increased to $26.56 a barrel, a five-week high, from $24.64 yesterday

The three Petroplus refineries that are shutting in France, Belgium and Switzerland have a combined capacity of 337,300 barrels a day.

The U.S. exported a record 1.07 million barrels a day of heating oil and diesel in October, the Energy Department reported Dec. 29. About 18 percent, or 196,000 barrels a day, went to the Netherlands, the top destination for U.S. distillate cargoes, department data show.

Prices widened gains after Brent crude for February settlement rose as much as 1.6 percent on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

EU Sanctions

European Union governments are working to sanction Iran’s oil exports and banks, with final decisions due on Jan. 30, EU spokesman Michael Mann said.

Prices also rose after the Institute for Supply Management’s U.S. factory index climbed to 53.9 last month from 52.7 in November, the Tempe, Arizona-based group’s data showed yesterday. Fifty is the dividing line between growth and contraction.

“Heating oil gained more than WTI and gasoline because it’s winter and there’s better manufacturing news out of Europe, China and the U.S.,” said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute in New York.

German Manufacturing

Euro-area services and manufacturing output contracted less than initially estimated in December, led by Germany, the region’s largest economy, where output reached a four-month high. A composite index based on a survey of purchasing managers in both industries rose to 48.3 from 47 in November, London- based Markit Economics said today.

“We’re in the middle of winter here and some of the manufacturing news yesterday is pretty bullish for heating oil as an industrial fuel,” said Fred Rigolini, vice president of Paramount Options Inc. in New York.

Orders to American factories rose in November by the most in four months. Bookings for factory goods rose 1.8 percent after a revised 0.2 percent drop the prior month, data from the Commerce Department showed today.

U.S. heating oil and diesel inventories probably rose 1 million barrels last week, according to the median estimate of 13 analysts in a survey by Bloomberg News. Supplies were 13 percent below year-earlier levels in the week ended Dec. 23, according to Energy Department data.

The department is scheduled to report last week’s inventories tomorrow. Gasoline stockpiles probably increased 1 million barrels, according to the survey.

Gasoline Demand

U.S. gasoline demand at the pump sank 14 percent from the prior week to the lowest level in more than seven years of records, according to MasterCard Inc.

Drivers bought 8.16 million barrels a day of gasoline in the week ended Dec. 30, down from 9.46 million the week before, according to MasterCard’s SpendingPulse report. MasterCard’s data goes back to July 2004.

Gasoline for February delivery rose 3.66 cents, or 1.3 percent, to settle at $2.7852 a gallon on the exchange, the highest settlement since Oct. 14.

Regular gasoline at the pump, averaged nationwide, climbed 0.9 cent to $3.288 a gallon yesterday, according to AAA data. Prices were 7 percent above a year earlier.

–With assistance from James Neuger in Brussels, Bob Willis in Washington and Scott Hamilton in London. Editors: David Marino, Margot Habiby

To contact the reporter on this story: Barbara J Powell in Dallas at bpowell4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net

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By Randy Woods and Eliana Raszewski

(Updates with markets in 14th paragraph.)

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) — Argentine Vice President Amado Boudou, who for years antagonized investors in South America’s second-biggest economy, may now become their guarantor of political and economic stability in a nation reeling from its leader’s surprise diagnosis with cancer.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will take a 20-day medical leave after she undergoes surgery Jan. 4 for thyroid cancer, leaving her former economy minister as caretaker. While investors derided Boudou’s 2008 seizure of $24 billion in pension funds, they prefer him to a power vacuum or constitutional crisis that could have arisen if someone less loyal to Fernandez were standing in, said Mark Jones Replica Watches, a political science professor at Rice University.

“With Boudou there, Fernandez can rest comfortably and focus 100 percent on getting better,” Jones, who has taught at universities in Argentina, said in a telephone interview from Houston. “People are now looking back very favorably on their decision to go with a loyal vice president.”

Fernandez, 58, chose Boudou to join her successful re- election bid this year after feuding with her previous Vice President, Julio Cobos, during her first, four-year term. In 2008, Cobos cast the deciding vote in the Senate that defeated a government plan to raise taxes on agricultural exports and was an outspoken critic of the government’s alleged manipulation of inflation data.

No ‘High Jinks’

A trained economist and bureaucrat, the 49-year-old Boudou also lacks the same weight inside the ruling Peronist Party as another vice president, Daniel Scioli, who served under Fernandez’s husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner and now is governor of Buenos Aires province. Kirchner died last year of a heart attack.

“Were Cobos still vice president, there would be much more consternation,” said Jones. “Even with someone like Scioli there would be greater concern about maneuvering or high jinks.”

The long-haired, motorcycling Boudou never held elected office before. He energized Fernandez’s campaign this year by playing rock guitar to supporters during rallies. Like his boss, he’s also known to lash out at government critics, including the media. In 2010 he compared journalists from Buenos Aires’ two biggest newspapers, Clarin and La Nacion, to Nazis “who clean up the gas chambers.”

Fernandez, looking in good spirits, praised Boudou while talking about her illness yesterday. During a public appearance at the presidential palace she jokingly warned him “to watch your step” during her convalescence.

Pension Grab

Boudou impressed Fernandez when as chief social security regulator in 2008 he pushed through Congress a plan to nationalize the pension industry to fund public spending during the global financial crisis. The law gave the government control of about a quarter of shares available for public trading and seats on the boards of companies including steelmaker Siderar SAIC and real-estate developer Consultatio SA.

“He was rewarded for that,” Orlando Ferreres, who was deputy economy minister in 1989, said in a telephone interview from Buenos Aires. “He has never thought of doing anything different from what Cristina does.”

Promoted to economy minister in 2009, he was in charge of last year’s restructuring of $12.9 billion in debt left unsettled following the country’s 2001 default on $95 billion in bonds. He also led a failed effort to restructure more than $8 billion in defaulted debt with the Paris Club group of creditor nations, which includes Germany and Japan.

In an April 2010 interview Boudou blamed criticisms of the government’s price monitoring on holders of inflation-linked debt who wanted better returns and said price increases were low for the poorest sector of the population. “It’s understandable that other sectors of the population, especially the middle and upper class, have a perception that prices” are high, he said.

Boudou’s spokesman didn’t return phone calls seeking comment.

Markets Calm

Investors have taken Fernandez’s health problems in their stride. The yield on government dollar bonds due 2017 was little changed today at 10.31 percent as of 10:08 a.m. New York time. Since her landslide re-election Oct. 23, yields are down 68 basis points while the peso has slid 1.6 percent against the U.S. dollar, a smaller decline than every major Latin American currency except Peru’s sol.

One reason for the calm is because Fernandez’s prognosis looks good. Tests show the tumor, which was caught in a regular checkup, is contained and has shown no signs of spreading, government spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro told reporters Dec. 27. Thyroid cancer is highly survivable, with more than 95 percent of patients living at least 10 years after detection, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Resilient Economy

Similarly, Argentina’s economy is weathering the global economic slump. While sudden policy shifts and inflation that economists estimate at 25 percent have led foreign investors to shun Argentina in recent years, a strong trade surplus and consumer spending boom fueled 8.3 percent economic growth this year, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Growth next year is expected to slow to 2.8 percent.

Still, concern about Argentina’s stability may increase if the president’s condition grows worse or if she is sidelined longer than expected, Daniel Kerner, a Buenos Aires-based analyst at the Eurasia Group, wrote in a research note.

Fernandez’s health came into question this year after she canceled trips abroad and activities three times following bouts of low blood pressure. A prolonged absence may kick off an early succession struggle within the Peronist party Replica Watches, though Boudou wouldn’t be the strongest aspirant, said Kerner. Fernandez is banned by the constitution from seeking a third term.

“There is speculation over whether she will seek to reform the constitution, or push for a yet unknown successor,” Kerner wrote. “At this point we think she will try to push a successor, but this is an evolving story.”

–With assistance from Camila Russo in Buenos Aires and James Attwood in Santiago. Editors: Joshua Goodman, Richard Jarvie

To contact the reporter on this story: Randall Woods in Santiago at rwoods13@bloomberg.net; Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires at eraszewski@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

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