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Snam Says First Gas Flows Coming from Libya After Stoppage

By Liam Moloney ROME–Snam SpA (SRG.MI), Italy’s biggest natural gas grid operator by pipelines, Wednesday said it is registering the first gas imports from Libya arriving in Sicily after unrest in the North African country blocked flows last week. Libyan gas flows are registered in the Sicilian Gela entry point, said Snam in a message sent via Twitter. It expects 3.5 million cubic meters of gas Wednesday, it added. Eni SpA (E), Italy’s biggest energy company by market value, said Nov. 11 that protesters in Libya had stopped gas exports to Italy. The protesters had blocked the key gas terminal of Mellitah, which is jointly run by Eni and the Libyan National Oil Co. The terminal facilitates gas exports via the Greenstream pipeline that can supply more than 10% of gas demand in Italy. Write to Liam Moloney at [email protected]

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Syrian troops capture key town near Lebanon border

AP Photo DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government troops captured a key town near the Lebanese border from rebels on Tuesday, days after launching a broad offensive in the mountainous western region, state media, activists and the army said. The attack on Qara began Friday morning in what appeared to be an operation aimed at cutting off rebel supply lines to Lebanon. The Qara route is particularly important to rebels entrenched in suburbs around Damascus, and also lies on the main north-south highway linking the capital to government strongholds along the Mediterranean coast. State TV reported troops were “in full control,” while the army said in a statement it had captured the town Tuesday morning and that “large numbers of terrorists who took positions in the city were wiped out.” The Syrian government refers to all armed opposition fighters as terrorists. “This achievement aims to strengthen control of supply […]

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Car bomb attack kills 10 Egyptian soldiers in Sinai

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Ten Egyptian soldiers were killed and 35 wounded in a car bomb attack near the North Sinai city of El-Arish on Wednesday, a security official said. The attack was one of the deadliest in the Sinai Peninsula, which is near Israel and the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip, since al Qaeda-inspired militants began stepping up assaults following the army’s ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July. The soldiers were traveling in a convoy on the road to the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. A Sinai-based militant group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, said it assassinated a high-ranking security officer in Cairo on Sunday, according to a statement posted on a militant Islamist website. That group has also said it was behind a failed suicide attack on Egypt’s interior minister in September. In a separate incident on Wednesday, three people were wounded […]

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Venezuela's congress grants Maduro decree powers

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Venezuelan congress granted President Nicolas Maduro emergency decree powers Tuesday that will strengthen the embattled leader’s hand as he goes after businesses the government accuses of sabotaging Latin America’s biggest oil economy. With the National Assembly’s vote, widely expected since Maduro requested expanded powers a month ago, the president will be able to enact laws without consulting congress for up to a year. The same tactic was employed four times by Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, to promulgate dozens of laws that dramatically boosted state control over the economy. But unlike the charismatic Chavez, who had near-absolute command over his party, doubts about Maduro’s leadership have risen since he defeated opposition leader Henrique Capriles by a razor-thin margin in April’s presidential election and as worsening shortages of basic goods and galloping inflation have eroded popular support for his rule In what […]

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Venezuela’s congress grants Maduro decree powers

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Venezuelan congress granted President Nicolas Maduro emergency decree powers Tuesday that will strengthen the embattled leader’s hand as he goes after businesses the government accuses of sabotaging Latin America’s biggest oil economy. With the National Assembly’s vote, widely expected since Maduro requested expanded powers a month ago, the president will be able to enact laws without consulting congress for up to a year. The same tactic was employed four times by Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, to promulgate dozens of laws that dramatically boosted state control over the economy. But unlike the charismatic Chavez, who had near-absolute command over his party, doubts about Maduro’s leadership have risen since he defeated opposition leader Henrique Capriles by a razor-thin margin in April’s presidential election and as worsening shortages of basic goods and galloping inflation have eroded popular support for his rule In what […]

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Afren finds major oil deposit off Nigeria

LONDON, Nov. 19 (UPI) — Afren, an energy company focused on African reserves, said Tuesday it encountered more oil than it expected in a frontier area off the coast of Nigeria. Afren said it encountered oil at prospecting lease 310 off the coast of Nigeria. It said the results from the exploratory drilling operation were “significantly” better than it expected. The company said Tuesday it drilled its Ogo-1 well to a total depth of 10,518 feet and encountered an oil layer measuring 524 feet thick. Based on that data, the company said it expected the prospect holds at least 774 million barrels of oil equivalent. Afren, headquartered in London, said the Ogo prospect represented a wildcat opportunity, meaning it was located in an area not proven to hold oil reserves, in an underexplored area off the Nigerian coast. It said preliminary data show there may be “several prospects” in […]

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Bolivia says it's on track to develop nuclear power

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Nov. 19 (UPI) — Bolivia is on track to develop a national nuclear power program for peaceful civilian purposes that include building electricity export capacity in the country, official media reported. Ever since Bolivian President Evo Morales outlined plans in October for a long-delayed nuclear power generation program, officials in La Paz have been pursuing follow-up discussions with Argentina, a future partner and experienced nuclear power producer, Bolivian news reports said. Bolivia’s nuclear energy approach is evolving into a two-pronged policy that’s set to lead to a more vigorous government pursuit of a domestic nuclear power generation program and exploration, development and export of the country’s numerous deposits, reports in Los Tiempos and other local media said. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna notes on its website that not all data about Bolivia’s uranium deposits are readily available. Morales told an energy conference in […]

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Bolivia says it’s on track to develop nuclear power

LA PAZ, Bolivia, Nov. 19 (UPI) — Bolivia is on track to develop a national nuclear power program for peaceful civilian purposes that include building electricity export capacity in the country, official media reported. Ever since Bolivian President Evo Morales outlined plans in October for a long-delayed nuclear power generation program, officials in La Paz have been pursuing follow-up discussions with Argentina, a future partner and experienced nuclear power producer, Bolivian news reports said. Bolivia’s nuclear energy approach is evolving into a two-pronged policy that’s set to lead to a more vigorous government pursuit of a domestic nuclear power generation program and exploration, development and export of the country’s numerous deposits, reports in Los Tiempos and other local media said. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna notes on its website that not all data about Bolivia’s uranium deposits are readily available. Morales told an energy conference in […]

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Japan Trade Deficit Widens as Fossil Fuel Imports Surge: Economy

Oil Refinery Japan posted its biggest October trade deficit on record, as a revival in exports to the U.S. and China was overwhelmed by the nation’s soaring costs for imported fuel in the wake of the nuclear industry’s shutdown. The shortfall of 1.09 trillion yen ($10.9 billion) extended a record run of deficits to 16 months, and was larger than all 28 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey, a finance ministry report showed today in Tokyo . Imports (JNTBIMPY) climbed 26.1 percent from a year earlier, while exports gained 18.6 percent. The yen’s slide has helped boost profit forecasts and pushed up stock prices of exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp, while at the same time raising the cost of imports. The deficits are likely to continue and may drag on growth in the world’s third-largest economy, according to economist Norio Miyagawa . “Exports are rebounding on a pick-up […]

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In Oklahoma, water, fracking – and a swarm of quakes

NORMAN, Oklahoma (Reuters) – Seismologist Austin Holland wants to start an earthquake. From his office a few feet below the earth’s surface – a basement at the University of Oklahoma in Norman – Holland, who tracks quakes for the Oklahoma Geological Survey, is digging into a complex riddle: Is a dramatic rise in the size and number of quakes in his state related to oil and gas production activity? And, if so, what can be done to stop it? As part of his wide-ranging research, Holland is proposing to inject pressurized water into porous rock in an area already known to be earthquake-prone, to see whether injections of oil industry wastewater are contributing to a "swarm" of earthquakes rocking the state. "This is a dramatic new rate of seismicity," Holland said in an interview. "We can’t guarantee the earthquakes aren’t a coincidence (unrelated to oil and gas work)," he […]

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