Archive for June, 2011

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HOUSTON, June 30 (Reuters) – Chevron Corp said a continuous catalytic reformer returned to production Thursday at its 330,000 barrel per day (bpd) Pascagoula, Mississippi, refinery after being shut by a malfunction on Wednesday.

‘A compressor in the CCR unit was shut down and is now back online,’ said Chevron spokesman Sean Comey. ‘No other refinery operations were affected.’

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by David Gregorio)

() Keywords: REFINERY OPERATIONS/CHEVRON PASCAGOULA

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By Jessica Bachman

MOSCOW, June 30 (Reuters) – Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom will keep gas deliveries to Europe steady even as Asian customers start taking significant volumes, Chief Executive Alexei Miller said on Thursday.

‘Future deliveries (to Europe) in absolute terms will remain, but the share of the European market in Gazprom’s external revenues will decline with the appearance of new clients and the growth in gas prices in Russia,’ Miller told Gazprom’s annual meeting for shareholders.

‘This is a conscious element of our strategy,’ he added.

Miller described an ambitious east-west expansion plan that included exploration and production at new fields as well as heavy investment in domestic and export infrastructure which, industry sources say, will leave Gazprom’s resources stretched.

For the time being, it will continue to pursue its strategy under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who replaced Dmitry Medvedev as chairman when the latter was elected president of Russia.

Medvedev has ordered senior government members to leave the boards of Russian companies, and Zubkov will leave by Medvedev’s autumn deadline, Miller said.

CHINA TALKS

Gazprom’s strategy — which hinges on rapid rises in Asian demand — appeared to stall when it failed earlier this month to close a deal to sell as much as 68 bcm per year to China via a pipeline starting as early as 2015.

That would make China a competitor to Europe for Russia’s gas resources, since the same fields on the Yamal peninsula which ship gas to Europe would supply 30 bcm to China.

It will return to talks in July to work on a price deal on gas deliveries to China, Miller told reporters after the annual meeting.

‘The latest round of negotiations with our Chinese partners will take place next month, in July, very soon,’ he said.

Gazprom was widely expected to finalise a deal before the middle of June, when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Gazprom’s headquarters and was guest of honour at the country’s main economic forum in St Petersburg.

Sources have said they remained as much as $100 apart on price. Russia has argued that Europe and China should yield equal netbacks on gas sales since the Yamal fields would be the source of supply in both directions.

For its gas riches in Russia’s east, it is also planning to build a new liquefaction plant on Russia’s Pacific coast to enable seaborne deliveries and has already agreed preliminary LNG deals with three Indian companies.

‘India, Korea and China, these are the countries where we are working intensively on concluding new long-term contracts, Miller said.

Gazprom, which faced rising competition from liquefied natural gas into its core European market, got a reprieve from pressure to renegotiate long term contracts and boosted sales when LNG cargoes were redirected to Japan after Fukushima.

Deliveries were up 26 percent in the first half of the year, Miller said.

With Germany due to phase out nuclear power, Gazprom, which has so far enjoyed little success acquiring major gas assets abroad, has expressed interest in buying German generation capacity.

‘We are very, very serious about electrical generation on the German market… We are ready to invest in new power generation, we are ready to buy shares in existing electricity stations…but as of now there are no offers from any German company,’ Miller said.

Gazprom said earlier this month there could be opportunities for growth in Germany following its government’s decision to phase out nuclear power.

(Additional reporting by Melissa Akin; editing by Alfred Kueppers and James Jukwey) Keywords: GAZPROM EUROPE

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By Jeremy Pelofsky

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 30 (Reuters) – Taylor, Bean Whitaker Mortgage Corp’s former chairman, convicted of masterminding a $2.9 billion fraud scheme before the company collapsed, was sentenced on Thursday to 30 years in prison.

Lee Farkas, 58, was convicted in April on 14 counts of conspiracy, bank, securities and wire fraud that brought down one of the largest private mortgage firms in 2009 as well as contributed to the implosion of one of the top U.S. banks, Colonial BancGroup Inc’s Colonial Bank.

He was the last to be sentenced in the fraud case, which represents a victory for the Obama administration because it has been criticized for prosecuting few senior executives over the housing market collapse and subsequent financial crisis.

Farkas was convicted for a scheme that ran from 2002 until 2009 in which he and others hid massive losses by shuffling money between Colonial Bank accounts, as well as by selling mortgages that either didn’t exist, had already been sold or worthless.

Before being sentenced, Farkas read a brief statement in which he said he ‘strived to be a good person’ and that he believed the employees of the mortgage firm and the bank were ‘acting together in good faith’ rather than greed.

While he said he was remorseful, Judge Leonie Brinkema said that she did not detect any remorse in his statement — rather ‘you regret getting caught.’ She imposed the 30-year sentence and also ordered him to forfeit more than $38.5 million.

‘This was a very serious series of crimes,’ Brinkema said.

Farkas and other executives at the mortgage company were also accused of misappropriating money from one of its multi-billion dollar funding mechanisms that had two big investors, Deutsche Bank AG and BNP Paribas SA .

After the 90-minute hearing, Justice Department officials called Farkas’ statement refusing to take the blame for masterminding the scheme ‘truly astounding.’

‘Lee Farkas perpetrated an absolutely staggering fraud,’ Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s criminal division, told reporters afterward. ‘This was a man who lived the life of a prince.’

Prosecutors sought an order that Farkas be required to forfeit at least 11 properties in Florida and Maine as well as 11 luxury and antique vehicles, including a 1929 Ford Model A Woody and a 1965 Shelby Cobra.

PROSECUTORS WANTED AT LEAST 50 YEARS

Prosecutors had sought at least 50 years in prison so that Farkas would be sure to spend the rest of his life there and serve as a deterrent. Farkas’ lawyer had requested that the sentence be limited to no more than 15 years.

‘I think 30 years is a very powerful deterrent message,’ Breuer said, adding that anyone who didn’t think so was ‘brain dead.’

Before the sentencing, Farkas’ lawyer Bruce Rogow tried to lay much of the blame on Colonial Bank, which was struggling on its own, and said those involved in the fraud scheme were ‘delusional’ because they thought ‘it will all work out.’

During much of the hearing Farkas, thinner than when he was first arrested a year ago, sat silently in a green prison jumpsuit looking straight ahead with his hands clasped together, occasionally rocking back and forth in his chair.

Farkas had also attempted to help Colonial Bank obtain a $553 million loan from the federal bank bailout program, but the money was never disbursed. The bank was shut down by regulators and most of its assets were sold to BBT Corp .

Colonial Bank’s collapse was the sixth-largest bank failure and the third largest during the financial crisis which began in 2007. Hundreds of workers lost their jobs from the collapse of both firms.

Half a dozen other executives from Taylor, Bean Whitaker and Colonial Bank pleaded guilty after cooperating with investigators. Prosecutors have said that the investigation into Taylor, Bean and Colonial Bank was continuing.

Farkas’ main contact at the bank, Catherine Kissick, was sentenced to eight years in prison while the former chief executive at Taylor, Bean, Paul Allen, was sentenced to 40 months. The shortest sentence handed out was three months in prison.

(Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Gerald E. McCormick)

() Keywords: MORTGAGE/FRAUD

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The New Zealand dollar touched the all-time high against the US dollar today after the reports showed that the building approval advanced last month and the business confidence improved in June.

The seasonally adjusted figure for the new building permits rose 2.2 percent in May, following the drop by 1.2 percent in April. The Business Confidence index of the National Bank of New Zealand was at 46.5 in June, up from 38.3 in May. The New Zealand dollar also strengthened with other higher-yielding currencies as the positive outcome of the Greek vote increased investors’ willingness to risk.

NZD/USD went up to 0.8276 from 0.8250 as of 10:27 GMT today after it earlier reached the record high of 0.8317.

If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the New Zealand Dollar,
feel free to post them using the commentary form below.

Earlier News About the New Zealand Dollar:

• Shrinking Trade Surplus Makes Kiwi Weaker (2011-06-27)
• Kiwi Fluctuates, Can Become Stronger on Current Account (2011-06-22)
• New Zealand Dollar Rallies on Positive US Data (2011-06-17)
• New Zealand Dollar Near Record (2011-06-10)
• RBNZ Holds Rates, Kiwi Rises (2011-06-09)

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Article source: http://www.topforexnews.com/2011/06/30/nz-dollar-reaches-record-vs-us-dollar-on-business-confidence/

The Chinese yuan posted the sixth straight quarterly gain on the speculation that China will allow the currency to appreciate faster in order to slow growth of consumer prices.

The People’s Bank of China increased the reference rate for the yuan to 6.4716 per dollar today, allowing the currency to fluctuate 0.5 percent in either side of the target. Li Daokui, the adviser to the central bank, explained the rise of prices in June by higher costs of agricultural products and pork. China Securities Journal said today, citing the State Information Center, the inflation is estimated to be 5.3 percent in the first half of 2011 and about 4.9 percent for the whole year.

USD/CNY traded at 6.4648 today as of 11:22 GMT, fluctuating near its opening rate of 6.4644, after rising as high as 6.4680 and falling as low as 6.4625.

If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Chinese Yuan,
feel free to post them using the commentary form below.

Earlier News About the Chinese Yuan:

• Yuan Appreciates Above 6.5 vs. USD for a Short Time (2011-04-29)
• Chinese Yuan Appreciates with Other Asian Currencies (2011-04-02)
• China Allows Yuan Appreciate, Can It Do So? (2011-01-12)
• Yuan Rises Beyond 6.6 per Dollar as China Battles Inflation (2010-12-31)
• Can Yuan’s Gains Be Limited by Demands for Slower Appreciation? (2010-12-29)

This entry was posted on TopForexNews
on Thursday, June 30th, 2011 at 11:22 am and is filed under Chinese Yuan.
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Article source: http://www.topforexnews.com/2011/06/30/six-quarter-of-gains-for-yuan/

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