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Libya Oil Disruption Worsens Amid Anti-Government Protest

The disruption of Libyan crude exports worsened as rebels shut down a recently re-opened oil port after protesting over the appointment of the country’s new prime minister. Petroleum Facilities Guards members aligned with federalist rebels stopped loadings at the Hariga oil port in eastern Libya , Oil Ministry Director of Measurement Ibrahim Al Awami said by telephone from Tripoli. The guard has also banned flights operated by state-run National Oil Corp. to Zueitina, another oil port in the east, he said. The eastern rebels’ leader Ibrahim Al-Jedran “seems to have given instructions for this protest to happen because he’s unhappy with the new government,” Awami said. The loss of Libyan oil production, down about 90 percent from its pre-conflict level, has boosted the price of Brent, the benchmark for half the world’s traded crude. On May 21, Citigroup raised its 2014 Brent price forecast to $109 a barrel, from […]

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Libyan Oil May Suffer More Disruption, General Says

Libyan crude exports may be disrupted further by a dispute over the appointment of a new prime minister or attacks against oil infrastructure by Islamists, a retired general leading the fight against militant groups said. Separatist rebels objecting to Ahmed Maiteg’s appointment as prime minister may reoccupy Zueitina and Hariga, two oil export terminals returned to government control last month, Colonel Mohammad Hijazi, a spokesman for General Khalifa Haftar’s self-proclaimed National Army, said today. Haftar respects the rebels’ demand for more autonomy for ’s regions, Hijazi said. “The crisis is worsening and it’s a possibility that the two oil ports that have re-opened close again,” Hijazi said by phone from Tripoli. Extremist groups Haftar is fighting in the east “could attack anything, including the oil facilities,” he said. The loss of Libyan oil production, down about 90 percent from its pre-conflict level, has boosted the price of Brent, the […]

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Egypt Scrambles to Raise Turnout in Presidential Vote

After Egypt’s revolution three years ago, so many voters eager for democracy turned out for elections that officials had to scramble to accommodate the throngs. On Tuesday, the military-backed government confronted the opposite problem. Officials extended a scheduled two-day vote for a third day not because of long lines, but because so few people had shown up. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former army field marshal who deposed Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s first freely elected president, is still universally expected to win by a landslide. Yet the disappointing turnout has upended his supporters’ hopes that the vote would grant him new legitimacy after the ouster. When polling places around the nation remained largely empty on the second day of voting, signs of panic swept the government. Officials initially extended voting hours on Tuesday by an hour, to 10 p.m. Then, a holiday was declared for […]

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India Brings Three Energy-Related Ministries Under One Minister

India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought three often-quarreling, energy-related ministries under one minister, hoping to crank up the supply of power the country needs to generate more economic growth. The new Bharatiya Janata Party government said Tuesday that Piyush Goyal will head the power, coal and renewable energy ministries. "The idea is clear. We need more electricity, more power," Mr. Goyal, told reporters as he became the first person to simultaneously head all three ministries. "The intention is to debottleneck the system." He said he plans to visit and study the power network of the western state of Gujarat, which is one of the few states in India with a power surplus. It was until recently led by Mr. Modi. "Narendra Modi was able to turn around the energy sector in Gujarat during his tenure as the chief minister of the state from […]

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Hungary's MOL finds oil, gas onshore Kazakhstan

Hungarian energy company MOL said it discovered oil and natural gas while drilling into the Rozhkovskoye field onshore Kazakhstan. MOL said it posted a test flow rate of 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent and 6 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the field’s Federovsky block. MOL has a 27.5 percent stake in a consortium controlled by the country’s state-owned KazMunaiGas. The Hungarian company said qualitative analysis was underway to get a better understanding of the full reserve potential in the Federovsky block. The company offered no reserve estimate for the entire Rozhkovskoye field in its Monday announcement. Kazakhstan has the second largest oil reserves and is the second largest oil producer among former Soviet republics. Onshore fields like Rozhkovskoye account for roughly half of the country’s proven oil reserves, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports . © 2014 United Press […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hungary’s MOL finds oil, gas onshore Kazakhstan

Hungarian energy company MOL said it discovered oil and natural gas while drilling into the Rozhkovskoye field onshore Kazakhstan. MOL said it posted a test flow rate of 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent and 6 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the field’s Federovsky block. MOL has a 27.5 percent stake in a consortium controlled by the country’s state-owned KazMunaiGas. The Hungarian company said qualitative analysis was underway to get a better understanding of the full reserve potential in the Federovsky block. The company offered no reserve estimate for the entire Rozhkovskoye field in its Monday announcement. Kazakhstan has the second largest oil reserves and is the second largest oil producer among former Soviet republics. Onshore fields like Rozhkovskoye account for roughly half of the country’s proven oil reserves, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports . © 2014 United Press […]

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South Sudan: Government Admits Conflict Has Hampered Oil Production

Juba — South Sudan government admitted on Sunday that the ongoing conflict has affected the country’s oil production, with production now at just 165,000 barrels per day. Petroleum minister, Stephen Dhieu Dau, told Sudan Tribune that the country continues receiving revenues from oil produced in Upper Nile state, where production rate is reportedly on the decline since no additional explorations takes place in the area. "The oil production is continuing in Upper Nile. The current output is not bad, but there is a drop. At the moment the level of output stands at 165,000 barrel per day from 245,000 barrels per day before the current crisis erupted last year", said Dau. "This [oil] is produced in Paloch", added the petroleum minister. He commended government troops for providing protection and defense to the only remaining oil wells in the country, despite several attempts by rebels to control it. "There is […]

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Kenya: Oil Exploitation Contradicts Kenya's Climate Goals, Legislator Warns

Kenya is in the final stage of enacting a new climate change law, expected to be approved in the coming months. At the same time, the private sector is preparing to tap significant oil reserves in the north. Will the hunt for fossil fuels thwart Kenya’s efforts to go green and curb its carbon emissions? After a 2007 study forecast how climate change would impact Kenya, a National Climate Change Response Strategy was launched at the 2009 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen. The government then developed a Climate Change Action Plan to implement the strategy, which was completed in March 2013. The action plan spells out how to tackle climate change at local, county and national levels. The next step is to enshrine that in law. "We realised we had collected enough information to start preparing climate change legislation, because it cuts across all sectors – hence the need […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kenya: Oil Exploitation Contradicts Kenya’s Climate Goals, Legislator Warns

Kenya is in the final stage of enacting a new climate change law, expected to be approved in the coming months. At the same time, the private sector is preparing to tap significant oil reserves in the north. Will the hunt for fossil fuels thwart Kenya’s efforts to go green and curb its carbon emissions? After a 2007 study forecast how climate change would impact Kenya, a National Climate Change Response Strategy was launched at the 2009 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen. The government then developed a Climate Change Action Plan to implement the strategy, which was completed in March 2013. The action plan spells out how to tackle climate change at local, county and national levels. The next step is to enshrine that in law. "We realised we had collected enough information to start preparing climate change legislation, because it cuts across all sectors – hence the need […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China Strips Senior Energy Official of His Posts

China has stripped a senior energy official of his government and Communist Party posts less than a week after announcing he was under investigation for suspected bribe-taking. Xu Yongsheng, one of seven deputy directors of the National Energy Administration, which drafts energy policy, has been removed from his positions, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday, citing the Organization Department of the Communist Party. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate said in a statement last week that the top investigative body had started a criminal probe into Mr. Xu and Wang Junli, director of the National Energy Administration’s new energy department. Both were said to be suspected of taking of bribes. The National Energy Administration had no immediate comment, but Mr. Xu’s name has already been removed from the list of senior officials on the administration’s website. China’s Communist Party leaders have been pushing ahead with a prolonged campaign against official […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple