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Sudan Offers to Help Protect South Sudan Oil Regions

South Sudan, on the brink of civil war less than three years after winning its independence from Sudan, received a visit Monday from its former ruler as fighting spread to the oil regions that both countries depend on for survival. Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir met with his counterpart, Salva Kiir, in the South Sudan capital of Juba. Although the two were on opposite ends of a civil war less than a decade ago, they now depend on each other to produce crude and export it to the outside world. The two presidents discussed the possibility of forming a joint force to protect South Sudan’s oil fields from rebels, according to Rabie Abdelaty, the spokesman for Sudan’s information ministry. "We need to put in place a force to protect our shared interests in the oil sector," he said. South Sudan’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on whether Mr. Kiir […]

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South Sudan Peace Talks Start as Two Sides Say Deal Possible

South Sudan’s government and rebels said they were optimistic they could negotiate an end to a three-week-old conflict that the United Nations says has killed thousands of people and forced 200,000 to flee their homes. Talks resume today in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to end the violence that has shaken the world’s newest nation. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said yesterday he was “ready to directly engage” the warring parties to end fighting between President Salva Kiir’s government and insurgents loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar . “We believe we can achieve full reconciliation,” the rebels’ chief negotiator, Taban Deng Gai, said at a press conference in Addis Ababa. South Sudanese Information Minister Michael Makuei said: “We have come for peace and we will go back to our people with peace.” Conflict broke out on Dec. 15 after Kiir accused Machar of trying to stage a coup, […]

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Oil prices bolstered by severe US cold snap

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The price of oil rose Tuesday, with unusually cold weather in the U.S. expected to fuel demand. Benchmark U.S. oil for February delivery was up 27 cents to $93.70 a barrel at mid-afternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 53 cents to settle at $93.43 a barrel on Monday. Brent crude, used to set prices for international varieties of crude, rose 66 cents to $107.39 in London. Crude prices were bolstered by the cold wave in the U.S., the world’s top oil consumer, as consumption of heating oil is expected to surge. Dangerously cold polar air snapped decades-old records, spreading Tuesday from the Midwest to southern and eastern parts of the U.S. and eastern Canada. Many cities came to a virtual standstill, with flights cancelled and schools and businesses shuttered due to the severe cold. […]

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EIA: U.S. Retail Gasoline Price Holds at 11-Week High

he national average retail price of regular gasoline inched up 0.1 cent to $3.332 a gallon in the week ended Monday, the Energy Information Administration said. The slight increase kept prices at their highest level since Oct. 21 for a second straight week. Prices have gained 9.3 cents, or 2.9%, in the past three weeks. The current price is 3.3 cents, or 1%, above the year earlier level, maintaining for a second week the biggest year-on-year price premium since July 29. In early October, when prices were at the lowest level since January 2013, they lagged the year-earlier level by 48.3 cents a gallon. The slim uptick comes as front-month reformulated gasoline blendstock futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange have dropped for six straight sessions and stand at a three week low. Nationwide gasoline inventories stand at the highest level since early August, the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Icy Weather Threatens Oil Output From Texas To North Dakota

The severe cold weather sweeping across the central United States is threatening to curtail some oil production, if only briefly, as it disrupts traffic, strands wells and interrupts drilling and fracking operations. Weather stations recorded some of the coldest temperatures in two decades in the Midwest, threatening lives, closing businesses and schools and causing thousands of flights to be canceled. Arctic cold air was also spreading across Texas on Monday with temperatures in the oil country near Midland approaching a record low that was set more than 40 years ago. But forecasts from weather site AccuWeather say temperatures will swing back to normal levels in Texas and North Dakota by Wednesday, limiting the cold front’s impact on oil and gas production. "We’re going to see a turnaround and temperatures will recover across the upper […]

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US Senator Urges Plan To Increase Crude Oil Railcar Safety

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer on Monday will renew a call on federal authorities for a plan to retrofit or phase out certain older models of tank cars involved in a series of hazardous material spills during derailments. The New York Democrat will say that incidents involving the older DOT-111 tank cars require a corresponding increase in safety measures, according to a release from his office. Schumer will call on the U.S. Department of Transportation to finish a rulemaking process that will impose requirements on freight rail carriers to phase out or retrofit the cars to avoid potential explosions, oil spills or other dangerous occurrences. Schumer made similar demands last summer after the deadly derailment and explosion of a tanker train in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, which killed 47 people. In the latest incident involving DOT-111 cars, a 106-car BNSF crude train crashed into a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China's economy projected to grow steadily, dynamically: economists

China would maintain steady and dynamic economic growth in 2014 on the back of its ongoing reforms, economists said at a forum here Monday. The forum was co-organized by the New York-based National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and China Center for Economic Research (CCER) with Peking University (PKU). CCEr economist Lu Feng said China was likely to maintain steady growth of 7.5 percent to 8 percent in real terms in 2014. He said three factors would affect China’s macro-economic performance during the year: the impacts of the external environment, its fight against pollution and its prudent macro-economic policy. "China’s exports are estimated to pick up modestly in 2014 from the preceding year, possibly reaching double-digit growth," Lu told Xinhua at a press conference, citing an expected improvement in the global economy, which would benefit Chinese export sectors. Lu also highlighted China’s macro-economic policy, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s economy projected to grow steadily, dynamically: economists

China would maintain steady and dynamic economic growth in 2014 on the back of its ongoing reforms, economists said at a forum here Monday. The forum was co-organized by the New York-based National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and China Center for Economic Research (CCER) with Peking University (PKU). CCEr economist Lu Feng said China was likely to maintain steady growth of 7.5 percent to 8 percent in real terms in 2014. He said three factors would affect China’s macro-economic performance during the year: the impacts of the external environment, its fight against pollution and its prudent macro-economic policy. "China’s exports are estimated to pick up modestly in 2014 from the preceding year, possibly reaching double-digit growth," Lu told Xinhua at a press conference, citing an expected improvement in the global economy, which would benefit Chinese export sectors. Lu also highlighted China’s macro-economic policy, […]

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Study: Dead sea creatures cover 98 percent of ocean floor off California coast; up from 1 percent before Fukushima

The Pacific Ocean appears to be dying, according to a new study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California recently discovered that the number of dead sea creatures blanketing the floor of the Pacific is higher than it has ever been in the 24 years that monitoring has taken place, a phenomenon that the data suggests is a direct consequence of nuclear fallout from Fukushima. Though the researchers involved with the work have been reluctant to pin Fukushima as a potential cause — National Geographic , which covered the study recently, did not even mention Fukushima — the timing of the discovery suggests that Fukushima is, perhaps, the cause. According to the data, this sudden explosion in so-called "sea snot," which is the name given to the masses […]

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Fresh Signs of a Cooling Economy in China

Growth in China’s services industries slowed in December, separate surveys have found, echoing a slowdown in manufacturing and confirming views that the economy lost steam at the end of last year. HSBC on Monday released its purchasing managers’ index for services, compiled by Markit Economics, showing a drop to 50.9 in December, its lowest level since August 2011, from 52.5 in November. But the figure remained above the 50-point level that indicates expansion in activity. New business growth was the slowest in six months. A similar survey by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, released Friday, also showed a slowdown in service sector growth in December, to a four-month low of 54.6, from the previous month’s 56. Indexes from the government and HSBC last week showed that China’s factory activity slowed in December, suggesting the moderation in the country’s growth in the final quarter of 2013 was broad-based. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple