Although security forces insist they are now back in full control of the 320,000 b/d Baiji refinery in Iraq after protracted clashes with militants who held parts of the plant this week, the ongoing violence continues to impact oil markets.
SUPPLY/PRICE
* ICE Brent futures broke through $115/b on Thursday and remained close to that nine-month high on Friday at $114.90/b
* The Indian government has asked the country's refiners to prepare short- and medium-term contingency plans and to diversify crude import sources to minimize the impact of any supply disruption from Iraq
* The head of Russia's Bashneft said Friday that work was continuing at its exploration block in southern Iraq despite the ongoing violence in the country
* The ministry of energy of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq has issued a statement to deny a report by Bloomberg that the Kurdistan Regional Government was offering crude from the region at half market price and was conspiring with Turkey to initiate the break up of the Iraqi state
* A third cargo of Iraqi Kurdish crude has begun loading at the Turkish port of Ceyhan onto the Suezmax tanker, United Emblem, a Turkish port agent said Friday
* The average price of Venezuela's oil basket rose $2.18/barrel to $100.23/b for the week of June 16-20, the Oil and Mining Ministry said Friday, citing concerns about oil supplies due to the escalation of the crisis in Iraq
* A panel of experts in the US late Thursday said Iraq's oil sector faced a potentially grim future, not only with the recent violence, but also with political disarray and dissatisfaction among Western oil companies over contract terms POLITICS
* A top Iranian official said Friday that US President Barack Obama lacked "serious will" to combat terrorism after an Iraqi appeal for American air strikes went unanswered
* Clashes with Sunni Muslim militants have killed 34 Iraqi security forces in Al-Qaim, a town on the Syrian border, officials said Friday
* Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said Friday that Sunni jihadists who have overrun swathes of territory must be expelled from the country before it is too late
* Sunni radicals have taken control of one of Saddam Hussein's former chemical weapons factories, a US official said
