Oil price 'may have bottomed out'

There is evidence that oil prices are stabilising and could even begin to rise again, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.

It said lower oil output in the US and other countries was helping to curb the glut in the supply of oil.
The increase in supply from Iran has also been less dramatic than first feared, the IEA said.
Oil prices have plummeted 70% since June 2014, falling as low as $27 per barrel earlier this year.
The IEA, which coordinates energy policies of industrialised nations, said it now believed non-Opec output would fall by 750,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2016, compared with its previous estimate of 600,000 bpd.
US production is forecast to decline by 530,000 bpd this year, it said.
"There are clear signs that market forces... are working their magic and higher-cost producers are cutting output," the IEA said.

Supply and demand

There has been an oversupply of oil from booming US output in recent years, thanks to the spread of fracking.
Meanwhile, members of the oil-producing cartel Opec have been reluctant to cut supply in order to "put a floor" under the the oil price, for fear of losing market share against higher-cost producers.
These two factors sent oil prices tumbling at the end of 2014 and throughout 2015.
Lower demand for oil from China, the world's second-largest consumer of commodities, has also hurt oil prices and prompted fears of a global economic slowdown.
Many of the major oil firms have reported dramatic falls in profits and cut back billions of pounds in investments in exploration, while at least 5,000 jobs have been lost in the North Sea oil industry over the last 18 months.
Prices hit a 12-year low in January, but have since recovered to about $40 per barrel after leading Opec nation Saudi Arabia and top non-Opec producer Russia said they could freeze output.
Brent crude on Friday was 1.9% higher at $40.79, while US West Texas Intermediate oil was 2.5% higher at $38.77 per barrel.
The IEA said Opec output fell by 90,000 bpd in February because of production outages in Nigeria, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, which lost a combined 350,000 bpd.
"Meanwhile, Iran's return to the market has been less dramatic than the Iranians said it would be; in February we believe that production increased by 220,000 bpd and provisionally, it appears that Iran's return will be gradual," the IEA said.
Iran has promised to add as much as one million bpd to global supply after securing a deal with the West in January that has seen the easing of international sanctions, imposed on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme.

Seeking 'balance'

The IEA said inventories in industrialised member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had declined in February for the first time in a year, although crude in floating storage increased.
"For prices, there may be light at the end of what has been a long, dark tunnel, but we cannot be precisely sure when in 2017 the oil market will achieve the much-desired balance. It is clear that the current direction of travel is the correct one, although with a long way to go," the IEA added.
While demand for oil reached a near five-year high in the middle of 2015, prompted by lower prices and countries such as China and India building up stockpiles, it has slowed significantly since the start of the year.
And the IEA warned: "The risks to global oil demand growth are almost certainly on the downside."
It said it expected demand to be flat in the US, the world's largest consumer of oil, this year.
And it said demand could weaken "if prices maintain their recent upward momentum".
Demand in China was forecast to grow by 330,000 bpd this year, well below the 10-year average of 440,000 bpd.
"We expect India and other smaller non-OECD Asian economies and the Middle East to provide most of the 2016 growth. The foundations for global demand growth are sound, but not rock-solid," the IEA said.

Syria conflict: Government sets conditions for new peace talks

The Syrian government says it will send a delegation to fresh peace talks due to start in Geneva on Monday, but has put limits on the agenda.

Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, speaking in Damascus, ruled out any debate of presidential elections.
An opposition spokesman said the government's pre-conditions could halt the talks before they had even started.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to meet his German, French, and British counterparts on Sunday.
Earlier, the US said violence had fallen dramatically since a cessation of hostilities began two weeks ago.
The main Syrian opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said on Friday it would push for an interim government with full executive powers in which President Bashar al-Assad and the current leadership would have no role.
The fate of President Assad has been one of the main stumbling blocks in previous rounds of tentative talks.

UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura has said he wants to see presidential elections in the next 18 months, but on Saturday Mr Muallem dismissed the idea.

"Neither he nor anyone else has the right to talk about presidential elections. This is an exclusive right of the Syrian people,'' he said.
He described the opposition's demands for an interim government with full executive powers as a "red line".
"If this is what they [the opposition] think, I advise them not to come to the negotiations so that they don't make us tired and we don't make them tired," Mr Muallem said.
He said the Syrian government delegation would return to Damascus within 24 hours if the opposition did not turn up.
HNC spokesman Monzer Makhous accused Mr Muallem of "putting the nails in the coffin of Geneva".
"Muallem is stopping Geneva before it starts," he told Al Arabiya Al Hadath TV.

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A fragile process - Lyse Doucet, BBC chief international correspondent

Syria's warring sides are under significant pressure from their respective backers to go to Geneva. No one wants to be blamed for any breakdown. So they are likely to keep their pledge to show up.
But there is an unwavering red line for Damascus - no discussion of President Assad's role, not even of presidential elections. Never mind that UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said elections would be discussed. Mr Muallem - and presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban in a BBC interview - say Mr de Mistura could not "dictate" the agenda.
The Syrian government has been emboldened by Russia's immense military support, as well its diplomatic weight which is shaping this new process. It is still not clear what Russia expects in Geneva. And the opposition, and its backers, have their own red line on President Assad's future.
Despite a truce that, unexpectedly, has largely held for two weeks, the gaps remain dangerously wide in these very early stages of a very fragile process.

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The HNC has already said it will attend the UN-sponsored indirect talks in Geneva. The last round collapsed in February without agreement.
A temporary cessation of hostilities agreed by most participants in the conflict began at the end of last month. It excludes so-called Islamic State (IS) and al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's branch in Syria.








US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that US and Russian officials were meeting to discuss alleged breaches of the temporary truce by government forces.
But he said "perceived" violations of the cessation of hostilities should not derail the Geneva talks.
"The level of violence by all accounts has been reduced by 80-90%, which is very, very significant," he said.
"We believe that the start of talks this next week in Geneva presents a critical moment for bringing the political solution to the table that we've all been waiting for, even as we extend the humanitarian assistance and continue to try to reduce the violence."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said air raids by the Syrian government had killed seven civilians in Aleppo on Friday. The claim cannot be independently verified.
More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and millions more have been forced from their homes in five years of Syria's civil war that began with an uprising against Mr Assad.

Occupy Wall Street Movement Goes Worldwide

South Korean protesters stage an "Occupy Seoul" rally in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. (Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

By DAN KLOEFFLER

Oct. 15, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street movement that has been spreading across America is going worldwide this morning.
Protests are planned in solidarity from Europe to Australia in what is being called an "International Day of Action" this weekend.
In Tokyo, protesters are fighting inequality and about 300 Australians chanted the cry that started on Wall Street, "We are the 99%!"
In the Philippines, protesters marched in Manila, where they announced their support for the movement and denounced "U.S.-led wars and aggression," the Associated Press reported.
While the worldwide protests get underway, protesters at the movement's home base in Lower Manhattan said they're not done spreading the message of the so-called "99 percent."
There are two major events planned for today -- a march to Times Square and a rally at JP Morgan Chase Bank where protesters say they'll be pulling the money from their accounts and closing them all together.
Elsewhere in the country, protesters like Larry Coleman in Flint, Mich., say they're in solidarity with similar protests against corporate greed and economic injustice.

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"There's a lot of things wrong in our county that need to be corrected and the only way to get them corrected is to start with a grassroots movement," Coleman said.
Protesters Holds Its Headquarters in New York
On Friday, protesters camping out at New York City's Zuccotti Park will be able to stay put a few more days after the company that owns the park postponed a planned cleaning.
Real estate company Brookfield Properties along with the backing of police told protesters the rules against camping – the protesters saw it as an eviction order.
Protesters vowed to stay in the park and would try to stop cleaning crews from coming in.
Brookfield Properties said in a statement that they postponed the cleaning "at the request of a number of local political leaders."
The company said hoped "to reach a resolution regarding the manner in which Zuccotti Park is being used by the protesters.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on WOR radio Friday that if no agreement is reached, the company will likely attempt the same cleaning next week.
He warned that "it would be a little harder at that point in time to provide police protection."
At least 14 people were arrested Friday for blocking access to the park, authorities said.
It was one of several incidents between protesters and police around the country.
In Denver, police in riot gear moved Wall Street protesters away from the Colorado state Capitol grounds.
In San Diego, scuffles erupted between protesters and police over a tent encampment.
Pepper spray was used to disburse a human chain that was formed around the tents, San Diego ABC News affiliate KGTV reported.
ABC News' Greg Krieg, Richard Esposito, Aaron Katersky, Ben Forer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.