Category:

Libyan oil crisis swells as militias refuse to end shutdown

Libya’s battered oil industry crisis appears to be escalating again, with armed separatist militants who have shut down vital facilities in the east since July now seeking to sell oil from rebel-controlled terminals, while the navy drove off with shellfire a Maltese-flagged tanker that tried to illegally load at one of the blockaded ports. The militias, who have set up their own "official government of Cyrenaica," named after the Roman province that covered eastern Libya, vowed in a letter sent to major international oil trading companies that they would "fully ensure the security and safety of any ship or tanker that will enter Libyan waters for oil lifting" at the major eastern port of es-Sider. That pledge rang a little hollow Sunday after the Libyan navy, controlled by the government in Tripoli in western Libya, fired warning shots at the tanker Baku and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya Vows to Stop Rebel Plan to Sell Oil

The Libyan government and a rebel group stepped up rhetoric Wednesday as Tripoli responded to a vow by dissidents to sell oil with a threat to sink their cargoes. The exchange, which comes after Libya shot at a tanker it said was illegally entering its waters, raises concerns about whether the chaos that has more than halved oil production in the North African nation and rattled oil markets could get worse. On Sunday, the Libyan Navy stopped a tanker it said was about to load at the blocked Es Sider terminal—though the shipper said it had already renounced entering the oil port. The government has banned shippers from lifting oil at several ports in eastern Libya, including Es Sider, after they fell under the control of a rebel militia seeking autonomy for its region, Cyrenaica. Sunday’s incident and the verbal escalation that followed came as the rebels are making […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libya Warns Oil Tankers Against Dealing With Militias

In a further escalation of tensions with the militias occupying Libya ’s oil facilities, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan on Wednesday threatened to sink any foreign tankers attempting to load oil supplies from seized port terminals. For nearly six months, most of Libya’s oil production and exports have been obstructed by militias in the eastern region of the country that are seeking to gain autonomy from the weak central government in Tripoli. Mr. Zeidan has repeatedly threatened to send the country’s nascent armed forces to dislodge the militias, but he opted to negotiate to retake control of three key export terminals with little to show for his efforts. But the war of words became more trenchant in recent days. Over the weekend, Libya’s navy apparently fired warning shots near a Malta-flagged tanker that government oil officials said was trying to load at the occupied eastern port of Es […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Lebanon Again Delays Offshore Energy Auction

Lebanon has again delayed its first auction of oil and natural gas licenses in its coastal waters after the government repeatedly failed to vote on decrees needed to start the bidding process, the country’s energy minister said Wednesday. The auction will now be held three months later than scheduled on April 10, instead of this Friday, Gebran Bassil said in a statement, but vowed that the bidding round will go ahead regardless of whether it has government backing. "It is sad for Lebanon to postpone this tender for the third time and this will certainly lead to a lack of trust and a lack of seriousness among the companies," Mr. Bassil said. Lebanon had twice deferred the licensing round—from Nov. 4 to Dec. 10, and then to Jan. 10—after the cabinet failed to approve two decrees. Mr. Bassil insisted that his ministry was willing to launch the bidding on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Ministry: China to Double Oil, Gas Production by 2030

More Ministry: China to Double Oil, Gas Production by 2030 BEIJING, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Top world energy consumer China is expected to double output of oil and gas to nearly 700 million tonnes of oil equivalent by 2030 as available resources rise, the Ministry of Land and Resources said on Wednesday. Decades of breakneck economic growth pushed China ahead of the United States to become the world’s top net oil importer in September, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has said, a position China is set to keep through 2014. With energy demand still increasing, Beijing is desperate to reduce the risk of growing import dependency by raising domestic production as quickly as it can. China’s oil and gas production in 2013 rose 4.6 percent from the previous year to 320 million tonnes of oil equivalent, the land ministry said on its website (www.mlr.gov.cn). Of the total, oil […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

China vows greater efforts to abate pollution

A Chinese official said on Thursday the government will continue to fight against air, soil and water pollution with great determination. "The government can never slack off on the task of reducing pollutant discharge," Minister for Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian said at a national meeting of environmental protection work held in Beijing. Targets for the reduction of key air pollutants have been set for 2014, with targets for annual emissions of sulfur dioxide, chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen down two percent from 2013, Zhou said. However, reduction of oxynitride emissions still faces great challenges, he said, adding that a 5 percent decrease target has been decided for 2014. The air pollution in Beijing, and neighboring Tianjin municipality and Hebei Province, will be the ministry’s top priority, and systems will be made to evaluate local governments’ progress in abating pollution, the official noted. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Exxon Mobil launches Singapore petrochemical processing

Exxon Mobil has inaugurated a petrochemical processing facility in Singapore on the island of Jurong. The facility is part of the expansion of an existing chemical plant that was built in 2002 and currently accounts for about a quarter of Exxon Mobil’s global chemical capacity. Exxon Mobil Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex W. Tillerson, speaking at the plant inauguration Wednesday, said global chemical demand would grow faster than gross domestic product expansion as living standards continue to rise and people purchase more household and packaged goods manufactured with chemical products. "Two-thirds of that growth in chemical demand will be here in the Asia-Pacific region," Tillerson said. "Exxon Mobil’s expanded Singapore chemical plant is uniquely positioned to serve these growth markets — from China to the Indian subcontinent and beyond." Exxon Mobil says the facility incorporates more than 40 new proprietary technologies and is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

China's auto sales rise 15.7 percent in 2013

China’s auto sales rose 15.7 percent last year to 17.9 million vehicles, boosted by strong demand in December, an industry group reported Thursday. Sales growth in China, the biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold, has slowed but still outstrips Western markets. Automakers including General Motors and Toyota reported record China sales in 2013 and BMW said this country became its biggest market. December was China’s busiest sales month yet at 2.1 million vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. It gave no growth rate, but that total would be a 17 percent increase over the figure reported earlier for December 2012. Competition is intensifying as automakers plow billions of dollars into developing models to suit Chinese tastes. Some have launched low-cost brands created for this country. Sales growth is likely to decline to 8 to 10 percent this year, said Jia Xinguang, an […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

China’s auto sales rise 15.7 percent in 2013

China’s auto sales rose 15.7 percent last year to 17.9 million vehicles, boosted by strong demand in December, an industry group reported Thursday. Sales growth in China, the biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold, has slowed but still outstrips Western markets. Automakers including General Motors and Toyota reported record China sales in 2013 and BMW said this country became its biggest market. December was China’s busiest sales month yet at 2.1 million vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. It gave no growth rate, but that total would be a 17 percent increase over the figure reported earlier for December 2012. Competition is intensifying as automakers plow billions of dollars into developing models to suit Chinese tastes. Some have launched low-cost brands created for this country. Sales growth is likely to decline to 8 to 10 percent this year, said Jia Xinguang, an […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple