Category:

Egypt: Smartcard Plan to Attack Egypt’s Fuel Crisis

; Fuel subsidies in Egypt account for 22 percent of the state’s annual budget, taking funds away from other sectors like health and education. The government believes an ambitious five-year scheme, starting with a fuel smartcard roll-out, will reduce and rationalize fuel consumption, circumvent widespread corruption and phase out fuel subsidies. Estimates for fuel subsidies for this year amount to the equivalent of US$20.1 billion. "We pay for fuel subsidies about seven times more than what we spend on health and three times more than on education," said Haithem Trabeek, a senior strategic and business planning manager with E-Finance, a company owned by the Ministry of Finance and selected by the government to run a new smartcard system that is part of a plan to reform fuel subsidy payments. The cards are initially being used to monitor the distribution of subsidised fuel to help identify fraud and corruption […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Iraqi army battles militants in deadly Anbar siege

An Iraqi special forces patrol moves on foot past ruined homes on the outskirts of Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad where al-Qaida-inspired militants have held off the military for three months. As they head down an alleyway, shots from snipers ring out, followed by grenade blasts. The troops take shelter behind walls and Humvees and return fire. No one is wounded and the operation continues. A short while later the unit is clearing a house. They blow open the outer gate with a charge and a bomb expert goes inside. He pronounces the building safe to enter and calls on the rest of the soldiers to search it. Moments later a huge explosion collapses the building, shakes the ground and sends dust billowing in the air. "God curse Daesh," one junior officer swore, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil Tanker Evades Gunfire Along Most Important Crude Route

Armed men on a skiff fired shots at an oil tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz , the world’s most important trade route for crude shipments. Unidentified attackers fired twice with an assault rifle at the Aframax tanker Album at about 2:15 p.m. local time yesterday, said Abdul Shahid Khashan, acting security officer at the vessel’s owner Arab Marine Petroleum Transport Co. The attackers, who appeared to be fishermen, probably weren’t seeking to hijack the Album, which evaded the attack, he said. A second tanker, the Stena Supreme, was approached by two skiffs in a separate incident yesterday, Lt. Commander David Benham, a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Allied Maritime Command, said today. U.S. and European military authorities are investigating, he said. The Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf , is a transit channel for about 17 million barrels of crude daily, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russia's Lukoil says Iraqi oil production shows mettle

Starting production at Iraq’s West Qurna-2 oil field shows Russia’s Lukoil views Iraq as one of its most valued assets. Lukoil President Vagit Alexperov said his company positioned itself as a strategic player with the launch of operations at the West Qurna-2 field. "The start of production at West Qurna-2 is strategically important for LUKOIL," he said in a statement Saturday. West Qurna-2 is estimated to hold up to 14 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, making it among the largest undeveloped fields in the world. Lukoil said West Qurna, located near the Iraqi port city of Basra, will begin in phases, with an initial start up volume of around 400,000 barrels of oil per day. A production plateau of 1.2 million bpd is expected to last for nearly 20 years. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its March market report Iraq was one […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russia’s Lukoil says Iraqi oil production shows mettle

Starting production at Iraq’s West Qurna-2 oil field shows Russia’s Lukoil views Iraq as one of its most valued assets. Lukoil President Vagit Alexperov said his company positioned itself as a strategic player with the launch of operations at the West Qurna-2 field. "The start of production at West Qurna-2 is strategically important for LUKOIL," he said in a statement Saturday. West Qurna-2 is estimated to hold up to 14 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, making it among the largest undeveloped fields in the world. Lukoil said West Qurna, located near the Iraqi port city of Basra, will begin in phases, with an initial start up volume of around 400,000 barrels of oil per day. A production plateau of 1.2 million bpd is expected to last for nearly 20 years. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its March market report Iraq was one […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Libyan Rebels May Reach Agreement on Oil Ports in One Month

Rebels seeking self-rule in eastern Libya may reach an agreement with the government to restore the nation’s crude exports to full capacity in a month, according to their spokesman. A deal hinges on the central government dropping a threat to attack oil ports under rebel control, said Ali Al-Hasy, spokesman for the self-declared Executive Office for Barqa, or Cyrenaica region. The Barqa group is seeking a share of oil revenue for its region. “The mood is positive, we can see a settlement in a month’s time,” Al-Hasy said in a phone interview from eastern Libya. “If the government withdraws its threat, all will become easy; the oil facilities are in very good shape.” The Barqa rebels, led by former Petroleum Facilities Guards commander Ibrahim Al-Jedran, took control of four of Libya’s nine oil ports in July. Exports halted from the Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Zueitina and Hariga facilities. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Berkeley Lab study finds hybrids more fuel efficient in India, China than in US

In a pair of studies using real-world driving conditions, scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found that hybrid cars are significantly more fuel-efficient in India and China than they are in the United States due to traffic and driving conditions in those countries. They found that driving a hybrid would achieve fuel savings of about 47 to 48% over a conventional car in India and about 53 to 55% in China. In the United States, hybrids are rated to produce a fuel savings of about 40% over their conventional counterparts. Currently hybrid and electric vehicles have a tiny share of the market in India and China and are seen as a higher-end product. Their results were reported in two papers, “Understanding the fuel savings […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Nigeria: Litigating Gas Flaring in the U.S

THE history of crude oil production in Nigeria informs us that the Shell Oil Company was the first to discover oil in commercial quantity in Nigeria. The location was Oloibriri (now in Bayelsa State), and the year was 1956. Two years later, Nigeria’s first consignment of crude oil was exported from the Oloibiri oil fields. But what is not well advertised is the fact that gas flaring has been taking place in Nigeria since 1958. The ecological disaster and associated consequences of gas flaring in Nigeria have been well-documented, and do not constitute the main objective in this dispatch from America. As a Vanguard newspaper reporter, I once joined the Nigerian Navy on an exercise in Escravos. As we flew in their helicopter above the off-shore oil rigs at night, we could see what looked like a festival of a million tongues of fire in the ocean. Our Navy […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Nigeria: Fuel Scarcity – Marketers Threaten Nationwide Strike Over Shut Down of NIPCO

Some oil marketers on Monday threatened to embark on industrial strike following the shutdown of Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) by National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). The News Agency reports that NUPENG shutdown the NIPCO facilities on March 24. Mr Abidemi Agunbiade, Chairman, a concerned group of IPMAN, expressed worries over the looming fuel scarcity in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. Agunbiade said that the shutdown of the NIPCO had affected over 1,000 marketers who had paid money to load petrol. According to him, over 450 million litres of fuel imported to discharge into NIPCO depot are still on the high seas due to the shutdown of the company. "About four vessels are on the high seas including those of the NNPC. "The stranded vessels are paying demurrage of 15,000 dollars to 20,000 dollars on daily basis due to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

South Sudan Ethnic Hatred Drives Rebel Leader’s White Army

Members of the White Army, which is a Nuer militia, as they prepare to travel from… Members of the White Army, which is a Nuer militia, as they prepare to travel from Nasir to fight at Malakal and Paloch, on March 26, 2014. Close Close Open Photographer: William Davison/Bloomberg Members of the White Army, which is a Nuer militia, as they prepare to travel from Nasir to fight at Malakal and Paloch, on March 26, 2014. Dozens of South Sudanese men chanted war songs, blew whistles and brandished AK-47 rifles with a longing for ethnic revenge. All members of the Nuer ethnic group, the troops of the so-called White Army who gathered by the Sobat River in eastern South Sudan are the strike force in rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar’s campaign against the government in Juba, the capital. They’re planning to march on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple