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Nigeria: NNPC Account Has Not Been Audited for Eight Years – Sanusi

The suspended CBN governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had said that it was ironical for the federal government to accuse him of ‘financial recklessness’ while the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has not been audited since 2005, spanning eight years. Sanusi spoke yesterday on Channel Television which was monitored by our reporter while reacting to his suspension by President Goodluck Jonathan. The estranged CBN governor further said he would seek legal redress over his suspension as a way of making future CBN governors independent and free from fear of being suspended in the face of discharging their duties. Speaking further, Malam Sanusi said the president does not have the constitutional backing to remove CBN governors without the approval of the senate. He said: "You cannot go round that section (of the constitution) and say, I am not removing you but I am suspending […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank Is Fired After Warning of Missing Oil Revenue

Lamido Sanusi was dismissed on Thursday after charging the national oil company with failing to turn over billions of dollars. Stefan Wermuth/Reuters DAKAR, Senegal — President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria removed the governor of the country’s central bank from his post on Thursday, after the bank governor repeatedly charged that billions of dollars in oil revenue owed to the treasury was missing. The dismissal of the bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, was seen as further evidence of the Nigerian government’s weakening resolve in tackling widespread corruption, a problem that has plagued the country since independence, analysts said. Mr. Sanusi’s removal was greeted with dismay in financial markets. The country’s stock market fell sharply, bond trading was halted and the value of the Nigerian currency, the naira, plunged to a record low against the dollar before the bank intervened to prop it up. Outside investors had generally seen Mr. Sanusi as […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela protests escalate as students, security forces clash

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan security forces and demonstrators faced off in streets blocked by burning barricades in several provincial cities on Thursday as protests escalated against President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government. At least five people have died since the unrest turned violent last week, with scores of injuries and arrests. The demonstrators, mostly students, blame the government for violent crime, high inflation, product shortages and alleged repression of opponents. They want Maduro to resign. In middle-class areas of Caracas overnight, security forces fired teargas and bullets, chasing youths who threw Molotov cocktails and blocked streets with burning trash. It was one of the worst bouts of violence the capital has seen in nearly three weeks of unrest across Venezuela, and trouble also flared in other urban centers. Many Caracas residents banged pots at windows in a traditional form of protest, and knots of demonstrators were out again early on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela protesters, troops clash, death toll at six

Security forces and protesters fought around Venezuela on Thursday in streets blocked by burning barricades and a supporter of socialist President Nicolas Maduro was shot dead, the sixth fatality from more than a week of violence. Maduro said a "fascist bullet" killed Alexis Martinez, a brother of a ruling Socialist Party legislator, in the central city of Barquisimeto. A local journalist said Martinez was shot in the chest while passing an opposition protest. There have also been scores of injuries and arrests since the violence broke out eight days ago, the most serious unrest since Maduro was narrowly elected in April 2013. The protesters, mostly students, want Maduro to resign, and blame his government for violent crime, high inflation, shortages of goods and alleged repression of opponents. The most sustained clashes on Thursday were in the western Andean states of Tachira and Merida, which have been […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Protests Swell in Venezuela as Places to Rally Disappear

The only television station that regularly broadcast voices critical of the government was sold last year, and the new owners have softened its news coverage. Last week, President Nicolás Maduro banned a foreign cable news channel after it showed images of a young protester shot to death here. Opposition legislators have been barred from debates and stripped of committee posts in the National Assembly. And when an opposition leader called for a protest this week, Mr. Maduro scheduled his own march to start at the same spot and dispatched the National Guard to try to block protesters from rallying elsewhere. Venezuela is being convulsed by the biggest protests since the country’s longtime president, the charismatic Hugo Chávez, died nearly a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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142 Cities In Brazil Are Now Rationing Water As Drought Goes Critical

Did you know that the drought in Brazil is so bad that some neighborhoods are only being allowed to get water once every three days?  At this point, 142 Brazilian cities are rationing water and there does not appear to be much hope that this crippling drought is going to end any time soon.  Unfortunately, most Americans seem to be absolutely clueless about all of this. In response to the recent article about how the unprecedented drought that is plaguing California right now could affect our food supply, one individual left a comment stating “if Califirnia can’t supply South America will. We got NAFTA.”  Apart from the fact that this person could not even spell “California” correctly, we also see a complete ignorance of what is going on in the rest of the planet.  The truth is that the largest country in South […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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India moves ahead in forming coal regulator

India has given the go-ahead for the creation of a regulator for the country’s coal sector. "The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given [the] nod to the proposal to set up [a] coal regulator through an executive order," Press Trust of India quoted a senior minister as saying Thursday. Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had informed Parliament last week the regulator would be set up by executive order "as enactment of legislation would take some time," Press Trust reports. The bill is pending but the current session of Parliament is the last before a general election likely to take place in April and May. Nearly 70 percent of India’s electricity is generated by coal. "India’s coal-centered energy landscape will not change dramatically over the next 30 years," the International Energy Agency stated in a 2012 report. India’s Ministry of Power estimates 62 gigawatts […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shell Sells Australian Refinery, Gas Stations for $2.6 Billion

Royal Dutch Shell PLC has agreed to sell its Australian refinery and gas stations to energy trader Vitol Holding BV for 2.9 billion Australian dollars (US$2.6 billion), as the company offloads assets around the globe to protect falling profits. The sale includes Shell’s Geelong refinery in Victoria state and 870 gas stations and comes just a month after it agreed to sell its minority stake in an Australian natural-gas project for US$1.14 billion. "Australia remains important to Shell, but we are making tough portfolio choices to improve the company’s overall competitiveness," Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said in a statement Friday. The news follows the disclosure Thursday that Shell has sold its downstream business in Italy to Kuwait Petroleum International. Mr. van Beurden, who took the reins at Shell on Jan. 1, is mapping out a more conservative path for the Anglo-Dutch company after a decade of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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How to Save Water on Fracking

Among the environmental worries posed by hydraulic fracturing, including the release of methane into the air and contamination of groundwater, one has recently escalated: the concern that the enormous quantities of water used in fracking will leave parts of the country parched. In 2012, fracking consumed some 50 billion gallons of water — water that many communities can ill afford to spare. New practices can make fracking somewhat less thirsty, however. States should see that drilling companies are encouraged to use them. Each fracking site needs 2 to 4 million gallons of water, to create sufficient pressure to fracture oil- and gas-containing rocks deep underground. When fresh water is used, it may be diverted from other users, including farms, manufacturing plants and households. There’s not always enough to go around; 55 percent of the wells fracked since 2011 are in drought areas. One way to minimize fracking’s drain on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Fuel Demand Highest for January Since 2008, API Says

U.S. fuel consumption increased in January to the highest level for the month in six years as cold weather bolstered demand, the American Petroleum Institute said. Total deliveries of petroleum products, a measure of demand, rose 3 percent from a year earlier to 19.2 million barrels a day, the industry-funded group said today. It was the highest level for January since 2008. Consumption of distillate fuel, the category that includes diesel and heating oil, gained 0.5 percent to 4.07 million barrels a day last month, the report showed. Heating oil demand surged 12 percent to 553,000 barrels a day in January “Last month’s cold weather created high demand for propane and heating oil,” John Felmy , chief economist at the API in Washington , said in the report. “Domestic crude production remains strong, and both gasoline and distillate production reached record highs for the month of January.” Increased demand […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple