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Libya’s oil output falls amid uncertainty

Libya’s oil production is currently around 220,000 barrels a day as several western oilfields remain closed due to protests, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Tuesday. The El Sharara, El Feel fields and oil condensates production at the Wafa field were still shut down, NOC spokesman Mohammed El Harari said. Libya’s oil production was 1.4 million bpd until July when a wave of protests at oilfields and ports started across the North African country. There were indications that a protest at the 340,000 bpd-El Sharara field might end but there were still issues with the pipeline where a separate protest had taken place in the past, El Harari said. A decision has also yet to be made on when the eastern Zueitina port might reopen, he said. The government reached an agreement with rebels in the east to reopen the 70,000 bpd-Zueitina and three […]

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Militant group in Egypt says it killed officer

An Islamic militant group in Egypt has claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed a senior police officer the day before. It says the attack was in retaliation for the killings and arrests by government forces of supporters of the country’s ousted Islamist president. Thursday’s statement by Ajnad Misr, or "Egypt’s Soldiers," a group which first appeared in January, was posted on its Facebook page. It carried photographs of the slain officer, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Zaki, a commander in the riot police, showing him riding in a blue pick-up truck. The group claimed Zaki used a truck with no police insignia as a "disguise" for fear of being targeted. Attacks against Egyptian forces have escalated since the military last summer removed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

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China Lifts Ban on New Refining Projects — Update

China’s environmental watchdog lifted ban on new projects at its two largest refining companies after determining they met pollution targets last year. The ban, in effect for nearly eight months, had been imposed as concerns about air pollution in China rose and Beijing came under increasingly public pressure to address the problem. China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said in an online statement posted Wednesday but dated April 18 that it was lifting the ban, which had applied to China National Petroleum Corp. and China Petrochemical Corp., known as Sinopec. Between them the two make up more than three quarters of China’s refining capacity. The ministry said both companies boosted spending, fixed problems and accelerated the construction of key projects that helped reduce emissions of four major pollutants in 2013 when compared with 2012. The ministry didn’t provide further details. CNPC’s listed PetroChina Co. unit referred questions […]

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Japan Protests Planned Limits on Panama Canal Ships

Japan has protested to Panama about planned limits on the size of ships in the Panama Canal, saying they could prevent some U.S. natural gas from reaching customers in Asia. The issue has cast a pall over hopes for expanded trade in natural gas after the widening of the canal, scheduled for completion in early 2016. The U.S., enjoying a newfound abundance of natural gas thanks to technological advances, has opened the door to exports, and Japanese companies have eagerly signed up for U.S. supplies to make up for idled nuclear power after the March 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co. ‘s Fukushima Daiichi complex. The widening of the canal will open the way for the first time to liquefied-natural-gas carriers. Currently the LNG carriers must take a more circuitous route from eastern North America to Asia. But Panama has set a width limit of 49 meters for […]

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China's legislature adopts revised Environmental Protection Law

The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature, on Thursday voted to adopt revisions to the Environmental Protection Law. With 70 articles compared with 47 in the original law, the revised Environmental Protection Law, the first change to the legislation in 25 years, sets environmental protection as the country’s basic policy. The new law says that economic and social development should be coordinated with environmental protection and encourages studies on the impact environmental quality causes on public health, urging prevention and control of pollution-related diseases. It says that the country should establish and improve an environment and health monitoring, survey and risk assessment mechanism. The law gives harsher punishments to environmental wrongdoing, and has specific articles and provisions on tackling smog, making citizen’s more aware of environmental protection and protecting whistleblowers. It says citizens should adopt a low-carbon and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s legislature adopts revised Environmental Protection Law

The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature, on Thursday voted to adopt revisions to the Environmental Protection Law. With 70 articles compared with 47 in the original law, the revised Environmental Protection Law, the first change to the legislation in 25 years, sets environmental protection as the country’s basic policy. The new law says that economic and social development should be coordinated with environmental protection and encourages studies on the impact environmental quality causes on public health, urging prevention and control of pollution-related diseases. It says that the country should establish and improve an environment and health monitoring, survey and risk assessment mechanism. The law gives harsher punishments to environmental wrongdoing, and has specific articles and provisions on tackling smog, making citizen’s more aware of environmental protection and protecting whistleblowers. It says citizens should adopt a low-carbon and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russia China natural gas contract looks likely

Pricing remains an issue, but negotiations expected to be completed soon Russia and China are highly likely to nail down a natural gas deal during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing in May after years of negotiations, experts from both sides said on Tuesday. Sergey Pikin, director of Russia’s Energy Development Fund, was optimistic about the deal, saying during a video interview that it’s “100 percent” possible that a bilateral agreement will be signed next month. However, Alexy Belogoriev, deputy director-general of the Institute of Energy Strategy in Russia, put the possibility at 50 percent. He said that even if the deal doesn’t happen during Putin’s visit, it might be finished by this autumn. Putin has urged Russian companies to expand their exposure to Asia. Since Russia’s actions in Ukraine have strained relations with the West, the country needs to be less dependent on energy sales to Europe, […]

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Price of Gas in U.S. Rises as Refiners Export More to Other Countries

Drivers in the U.S. are facing rising gasoline prices ahead of summer-vacation season, just as refiners here are shipping more gas to other countries. A new pipeline, built to release a glut of crude oil that was stuck in the middle of the country, is now feeding oil to refineries on the Gulf Coast that churn out gasoline and diesel. While these fuels still make their way to the Southeast and the East Coast, growing amounts are being sold to Mexico, the Netherlands, Brazil and other countries. The push into these markets has been spurred by the U.S. oil boom. Rising oil output had been flooding the nation’s oil market in recent years, keeping U.S. crude prices low relative to world prices. Facing tepid fuel demand in the U.S., refiners have been ramping up exports, creating more global competition for U.S.-produced fuel. While the construction of pipelines and other […]

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Canada to Phase Out Rail Cars Tied to Deadly Quebec Fire

Canada will require that older rail cars used for carrying crude oil be phased out by May 2017, the government said on Wednesday, moving ahead of the United States to eliminate the cars in light of growing oil-by-rail traffic and a deadly accident last year. The move is a response to recommendations made by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada after a fiery derailment last July in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, which killed 47 people. The ban was among a series of measures outlined by the government to improve the safety of transporting crude oil by rail, an increasingly common practice in North America, where a shortage of pipeline capacity has forced shippers to find alternatives. Canada’s faster time frame raises the possibility that the older cars will be diverted for use in the United States.

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Small Wyoming Town Evacuated After Gas Blast

Officials at the site of an explosion and fire at a natural-gas-processing facility and major pipeline hub in Opal, Wyo., on Wednesday. OPAL, Wyo.—A small town in southwest Wyoming was evacuated Wednesday after an explosion and fire at a natural-gas-processing facility and major national pipeline hub. There were no reports of injuries. The gas has been shut off, but people who were in Opal, about 100 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, went to an area about 3 miles outside of town as a precaution, said Lincoln County spokesman Stephen Malik. The town has about 95 residents. "They were downwind from the plant," said Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson. "The fire was still very active, and because of the nature of the processing that goes on there, that was the call that was made for safety reasons." Mr. Johnson said he didn’t know when people would be allowed back […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple