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Pakistan stands by Iranian gas pipeline

A Pakistani government minister said sanctions on Iran’s energy are curbing progress on a bilateral gas pipeline but Islamabad was committed nonetheless. Pakistani Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Iran pulled out of a $500 million finance commitment because of the sanctions constraints, the Pakistani newspaper the Express Tribune reported Friday. "The compressor equipment required [for the pipeline] would not be available due to sanctions against Iran," he was quoted as saying. "However, we are committed and will make the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline." The Pakistani government said the aging infrastructure in the country means it needs outside help to keep up with energy demand. Iran said construction on its end of the pipeline is making progress and had offered financial support to Pakistan to help build it on its side of the border. The U.S. government supports a rival […]

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Iranian workers killed in Iraq pipeline attack

The escape of 22 terror suspects in Baghdad led to heightened security on Friday Fifteen Iranian and three Iraqi gas pipeline workers have been shot dead by gunmen north-east of Baghdad. The attackers sped up in three cars before opening fire on the workers as they dug a trench to extend the pipeline near the city of Baquba. Another five Iranians and two Iraqis were wounded in the attack. At least 17 people were killed in separate attacks elsewhere in Iraq on Friday and 22 terrorism suspects escaped from detention. The gas pipeline workers were digging a trench to extend the line, intended to connect Iraq’s gas network to supplies from neighbouring Iran. A worker injured in the attack told Reuters that the gunmen approached them in three cars. "Three of them got out […]

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Oil from Kurdistan pipeline enters Turkey

Oil from Kurdistan pipeline enters Turkey Oil has begun to flow into Turkey through a new pipeline from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region – a significant step toward Kurdistan’s first independent pipeline exports.The oil flow is part of the final stage of pipeline testing, according to an industry official and a senior Turkish official. Contrary to other media reports, the crude is not yet being marketed or sold: technically, pipeline exports have not yet begun.Still, Kurdistan’s pumping of crude into Turkish-controlled pipel… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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25 Prisoners Flee Baghdad Jail

Twenty-five suspects held on terrorism charges, some facing the death penalty, escaped early Friday from a prison north of Baghdad, killing two guards and raising the question of whether they had received inside help, security officials said. The prison is where Saddam Hussein was hanged in 2006. In another sign of the escalating violence crippling the country, 16 Iranians working on a gas pipeline and three Iraqis were killed by gunmen in S.U.V.s who surrounded their bus on Friday and opened fire in Khanaqin in Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, according to the police and medical sources. Among the Iranians killed were engineers and construction workers; the bus driver and an escort were two of the Iraqis killed. Four Iranian workers survived and were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds. The pipeline runs between Iraq and Iran. The prison escape came a few weeks short of […]

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Bombings, shooting kill 6 people in Iraqi capital

Iraqi authorities say bombings and a shooting have killed six people around the capital. Police officials say the deadliest of Saturday’s attacks came when a bomb exploded at an outdoor market in Baghdad’s southeastern suburbs, killing three and wounding 11 others. Two people were killed and seven others were wounded in a bomb blast inside a restaurant in the capital’s northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, said police. Also in Baghdad, gunmen killed the owner of a grocery store as he was walking near his house in the neighborhood of Hurriyah. Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to talk to media. At least 190 people have died in attacks across the country so far this month, according to an Associated Press count © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

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Libya faces economc dangers over oil shutdown

The six-month shutdown of Libya’s oil industry by rogue militias and disgruntled tribesmen has forced the government to dip into the country’s foreign reserves, a move that will likely exacerbate the political turmoil that led to the shutdown if no settlement is soon found. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said he expects three Libyan oil ports on the Mediterranean to reopen Sunday, allowing vital exports to resume, restoring the flow of state revenues. This followed negotiations with tribal leaders in the east, the crucible of the unrest that followed the fall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in August 2011. But Ibrahim Jadran, the charismatic warlord in eastern Libya where 60 percent of the country’s oil is, said that won’t happen unless the government meets his demands for a larger share of oil revenue for the increasingly lawless region and more political power. Zeidan flatly […]

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Winter’s no wonderland for beleaguered Syrian refugees

The breathtaking beauty of the surrounding snow-covered mountains offers no consolation for the misery that winter has brought for thousands of Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley. In farmland repurposed as an unofficial refugee camp for those fleeing Syria’s war, snow dumped by Lebanon’s first storm of the season melts when the temperature rises a few degrees above freezing during the day, turning the narrow paths between tents into shin-deep patches of mud.  Thursday found children standing shivering by a puddle, their rubber sandals sinking into the mud and their pajama pants rolled up in a futile attempt to keep them clean. “These children have no clothes — how can they not get sick?” said a refugee who identified himself by a nickname, Abu Ali. Like many refugees in Lebanon, he was afraid to disclose his real name. At least 80,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon are living at winter’s […]

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Bakken Weakens Against WTI Crude on North Dakota Output

Bakken crude weakened against West Texas Intermediate for the first time in a week as North Dakota reported record output from its portion of the shale formation. Bakken oil priced in Clearbrook, Minnesota , weakened by 50 cents to a discount of $9.50 a barrel to WTI at 2:04 p.m., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Production from North Dakota increased by about 9,000 barrels a day to 941,637 in October, according to the state’s Industrial Commission. “In October, we again set a production record and a number of wells record,” said Lynn Helms, director of the state department of mineral Resources, on a call today. Production would have been higher in October except for heavy rains that shut roads in McKenzie County, home to one-third of the state’s drilling rigs, Helms said. November was a better month for weather, Helms said. This month will be ’’not so great’’ […]

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U.S. Rig Count Rises by 7 to 1,782, Baker Hughes Says

Rigs targeting oil and natural gas in the U.S. increased by seven this week to 1,782, according to Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) Oil rigs jumped 14 to 1,411, a six-month high, data posted on the company’s website show. The gas count dropped six to 369, the Houston-based field services company said. Miscellaneous rigs declined by one to two. The total count has risen six of the past seven weeks, adding 40 rigs since Nov. 1, as producers increasingly use a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to reach shale deposits of crude in Texas ’s Permian Basin. The technological improvements have helped drive domestic oil production to the highest level in a quarter-century. Rigs drilling horizontal targets in the Permian jumped 19 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier “as operators continue to shift toward unconventional drilling,” Vincent Piazza, a Bloomberg Industries oil analyst in Princeton, […]

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Global energy demand to increase 35 percent: ExxonMobil

Global energy demand is on course to be about 35 percent higher in 2040 than it was in 2010, ExxonMobil says in its annual long-term energy forecast. China and India together will account for half of the projected growth in global energy demand, the report released Thursday noted. "Understanding global energy trends is absolutely critical for effective energy policy," ExxonMobil chairman Rex W. Tillerson said in a statement. "The world depends on safe, reliable and affordable energy development to support economic growth and our modern way of life." ExxonMobil expects natural gas will become the world’s second most-used fuel on an energy-equivalent basis after oil around 2025 and expects natural gas consumption to rise 65 percent by 2040. Although some countries scaled back their nuclear expansion plans in the aftermath of Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, nuclear energy "will see solid growth," […]

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