NEW DELHI, April 24 (Reuters) – Iron ore production by
privately owned miners in India’s Karnataka state will likely
resume in July, the country’s mines minister said on Tuesday,
after what will have been a year’s hiatus due to a government
and judicial crackdown on illegal operations.

Dinsha Patel said initial production from the southern state
would go to local steel mills, but a resumption of mining means
the world’s third-biggest supplier of iron ore could hope to
regain its $6 billion, 100 million tonnes average annual
exports, mainly to China, in 2012/13.

NEW DELHI, April 23 (Reuters) – Top sugar consumer India is
expected to produce enough of the sweetener in the coming
2012-2013 productions season to allow exports for the third
consecutive year, the head of its sugar mill body said on
Monday.

India, the world’s second-largest producer of sugar after
Brazil, was hit by a severe drought in 2009 and had to import
about 2.5 million tonnes, sending global prices on a rally.
India returned to exports in 2010/11.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian refiners look set to be big winners as Brazil boosts sweet crude production from its bountiful deepwater pre-salt region in the second half of the decade.

Exports from Brazil, home to four of the world’s largest oil finds in the past 10 years, will have to look for buyers in fast-growing Asia as the United States will use more of its own shale oil output toward the end of the decade, pushing West African imports back to Europe.

BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian refineries are confident Saudi Arabia will ensure no shortage of oil supply to meet rapidly rising demand this year despite OPEC’s failure to agree an output increase this week.

But demand in the region could suffer in the long term if the failure of the producer group to send a clear signal to markets keeps oil above $100 a barrel.

BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian refineries are confident Saudi Arabia will ensure no shortage of oil supply to meet rapidly rising demand this year despite OPEC’s failure to agree an output increase this week.

But demand in the region could suffer in the long term if the failure of the producer group to send a clear signal to markets keeps oil above $100 a barrel.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – OPEC is considering raising crude supply next week for the first time since 2007 in a move that could weaken $100 oil prices and lessen the drag of high energy costs on global economic growth.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps more than a third of the world’s oil, may raise supply targets by as much as 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) when ministers meet on June 8, a delegate said on Thursday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to expand its physical trading activity in China’s oil market, Indonesia’s coal sector and across Asian metals to cash in on what it sees as a long-term bull market, the head of the bank’s Asian commodities unit said.

Despite a sharp fall in commodities prices in the first-half of May, JPMorgan is bullish on the sector’s future prospects as developing economies consume more raw materials, said Ray Eyles, chief executive of the bank’s Asian commodities business.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – High oil prices are straining the coffers of Asian governments, forcing them to contemplate rolling back fuel subsidies despite the political cost amid rampant food inflation, and even though the move risks hurting demand.

International benchmark oil prices have rallied to 2-1/2 year highs above $100 a barrel as revolt cut output from OPEC-member Libya and protests across the Middle East and North Africa threaten to disrupt more of the flow from the world’s top oil-producing region.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – High oil prices are straining the coffers of Asian governments, forcing them to contemplate rolling back fuel subsidies despite the political cost amid rampant food inflation, and even though the move risks hurting demand.

International benchmark oil prices have rallied to 2-1/2 year highs above $100 a barrel as revolt cut output from OPEC-member Libya and protests across the Middle East and North Africa threaten to disrupt more of the flow from the world’s top oil-producing region.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia on Monday shifted upwards from a price it has backed for around two years, saying oil at between $70 and $90 a barrel was comfortable for consumers.

Until now, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi had said the ideal range for producers and consumers was $70-$80 a barrel, either side of the $75 identified by the kingdom in November 2008.