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Gunbattles Erupt as Libyan Forces Try to Seize Oil Tanker from Militias

Gunbattles erupted late Monday when Libyan government forces attempted to seize back an oil tanker that rebellious militiamen were trying to use to independently sell crude, a Libyan official said. Culture Minister Habib al-Amin said government forces had taken control of the tanker after the clashes. However, the militia controlling the As Sidra oil port denied it had lost control of the vessel. The clashes were the most serious confrontation yet between militias that have paralyzed the country’s oil industry by blocking major ports and a government too weak to confront them. The minister said at a late-night news conference that the Libyan forces took over the North Korean-flagged Morning Glory at around 9 p.m. local time after two skirmishes—one in the morning and one in the evening—with militiamen on speedboats around the tanker. He said there was a third exchange of gunfire after government forces seized the ship, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya says halts tanker outside rebel port, plans military offensive

Libya on Monday stopped a North Korean-flagged tanker that had loaded oil from a rebel-held port, after naval forces briefly exchanged fire with the rebels, officials said. They also said the government will assemble forces to "liberate" all occupied ports, raising the stakes over a blockage that has cut off vital oil revenue. The conflict over oil wealth is increasing fears that the OPEC producer may slide deeper into chaos or even splinter as the fragile government fails to rein in dozens of militias that helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now defy state authority. The rebels, who have seized three ports and partly control a fourth in the North African country, said they had dispatched forces to central Libya to deal with any government attack. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan told Reuters naval forces had seized the North Korean-flagged tanker outside the eastern Es Sider […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Israeli partners mull $750 million deal for Tamar gas

Partners operating the Tamar gas field off the Israeli coast said Monday a deal is in the works to sell gas to a company building an Israeli power plant. Israeli energy company Delek Group said its board of directors authorized managers to sign a take-or-pay deal with its partners at the Tamar field with subsidiary Delek Soreq, which is building the plant, "in the coming days." Delek Group said Monday the $750 million deal is for 116 billion cubic feet of natural gas. "The supply of natural gas is expected to commence in the beginning of the first quarter of 2016 for the period of more than 15 years or up until the contracted quantity has been utilized," Delek Group said in a statement Monday. Noble Energy, which has headquarters in Texas, holds a 36 percent stake in the Tamar field. Delek […]

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East Africa: Oil and Gas Boom in East Africa Promises Riches, but Experts Fear Only Elites Will Benefit

The oil and gas bonanza in East Africa is changing the power dynamics of one of the poorest regions in the world, promising to free governments from long dependence on foreign aid once the billions of dollars in natural resource revenues start to flow. Civil activists from the region, diplomats and corporate officials alike at briefings in Washington over the last few weeks have warned that Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique are running out of time to agree on national policies to develop their newfound wealth in ways that will benefit the lives of their citizens. The pressure to turn on the oil and gas taps and earn quick cash is so immense that activists and officials said they fear politics will trump good governance, and the money could end up lining the pockets of entrenched political and business interests rather than benefitting citizens where millions live on less […]

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Nigeria: Abuja Residents Groan As Petrol Scarcity Bites Harder

The persistent fuel scarcity in the country is taking its toll on the residents of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, as transport fare has increased by between 50 and 100 per cent. A correspondent the News Agency of Nigeria who went round some parts of the territory in Abuja on Monday, reports that worst hit are civil servants and traders who waited endlessly at their various bus stops without much hope of getting vehicles. Motorists, who managed to get the product after several hours of queuing at fuel stations, transferred the burden on passengers by charging almost double the normal fare. Yusuf Yahaya, a civil servant, who lives in Lugbe on the Airport Road, said he suffered a lot of hardship at the bus stop while coming to work on Monday morning. Mr. Yahaya said that he spent several hours before getting a vehicle and the driver charged him N150 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Energy Exports as Foreign-Policy

For a sagging president and a discredited Congress, the Ukraine crisis actually could be a blessing in disguise. It gives them a chance to do something big: Start a historically significant drive to transform’s America’s energy picture. Russia’s biggest leverage in its attempt to keep Ukraine in its orbit and annex the Crimean peninsula is that Ukraine and its potential allies elsewhere in Europe still depend on Russian natural gas. But Russia’s long-term edge may well decline if the U.S. and other Western powers play their cards right. The U.S. is on its way to becoming a net exporter of natural gas, and potentially a net exporter of crude oil as well. So the energy weapon that has been used so effectively against the U.S. in the last half century could easily change hands with the right kinds of American action. Moreover, the psychological effects could kick in immediately, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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In Fracking, the Energy Business Gets Neighborly

It isn’t just a radical fringe of Americans who worry about the environment—and energy executives finally seem to have noticed. A couple of years ago at the energy industry’s massive annual gathering, IHS CERAWeek in Houston, the people who pull oil and natural gas out of the ground were largely dismissive of the public’s concerns about hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, said Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. But this year, industry officials are more willing to talk about problems with the technique for getting oil and gas from shale-rock formations, and to discuss how they intend to fix them. The change reflects, in part, a shift in where energy companies are doing their work: Fracking has made thousands of new wells possible, many of them close to population centers instead of the remote oil fields of the past. Listening to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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ANR Pipeline joins other operators with plans to flow gas away from Marcellus, Utica

ANR Pipeline is taking bids through Friday on another binding open season to modify its Southeast Mainline System, this time specifically reversing flows on the line for up to 600,000 Dt/d of firm transportation capacity. In a open season notice issued March 7, ANR said it is seeking commitments for a more specific project: the reversal of 600,000 Dt/d from Zone ML3 to the ANR Southeast area Headstation Central Delivery Point, located in ML1 Tariff Rate Zone near Eunice, Louisiana. For the reversal, ANR expects to modify existing mainline facilities at compressor stations, including valves and yard piping, to enable bi-directional flow on ANR’s Southeast Mainline. The reversal project has an in-service date of March 1, 2015, earlier than the November 2015 service date for the pipeline’s prior binding open season, which was issued in late February. Article continues below… Request a free trial […]

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ATDynamics projects 200,000 semi-trailers to be equipped with fuel-saving rear-drag aerodynamics technology by end of 2017

ATDynamics projects 200,000 semi-trailers to be equipped with fuel-saving rear-drag aerodynamics technology by end of 2017 The patented TrailerTail design lowers vehicle fuel consumption by reducing low-pressure suction drag directly behind a trailer. Source: ATDynamics. Click to enlarge. ATDynamics , a supplier of semi-trailer aerodynamics technology, projects that, based on current trucking fleet adoption trends, 200,000 semi-trailers will be equipped with fuel saving TrailerTail technology by the end of 2017. TrailerTail technology, which reduces aerodynamic drag at the back of tractor-trailers and improves vehicle fuel efficiency by approximately 5%, has been incorporated into three of the Department of Energy’s SuperTruck Projects. ATDynamics launched the patented thermoplastic composite TrailerTail design in 2010. At present, 350 US trucking companies, including top 100 US fleets such as Mesilla Valley Transportation; Prime Inc.; Roehl Transport; and C.R. England operate approximately 20,000 semi-trailers with TrailerTails. Department of Energy SuperTruck with TrailerTail Technology. Credit: Sarah […]

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APTA reports record public transportation usage in US in 2013; growth outpacing population and VMT growth

APTA reports record public transportation usage in US in 2013; growth outpacing population and VMT growth Growth in public transit ridership since 1995 has outpaced population and VMT growth. Data: APTA. Click to enlarge. In 2013, Americans took 10.7 billion trips on public transportation—the highest annual public transit ridership number in 57 years— according to a report released by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). This was the eighth year in a row that more than 10 billion trips were taken on public transportation systems nationwide. While vehicle miles traveled on roads (VMT) went up 0.3%, public transportation use in 2013 increased by 1.1%. Since 1995 public transit ridership is up 37.2%, outpacing population growth, which is up 20.3%, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT), which is up 22.7%. Some of the public transit agencies reporting record ridership system-wide or on specific lines were located in the following cities: Ann […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple