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Prominent Libyans Vow Support for General

A Libyan general who has led a violent campaign against Islamist militias and lawmakers drew prominent new supporters to his cause on Wednesday, including the country’s air force commander and its ambassador to the United Nations. Libya’s largest non-Islamist political alliance also said in a statement that it was supporting the general, Khalifa Hifter, who began his campaign on Friday by leading an assault on Islamist militias in Benghazi. What began as a fairly isolated attack against Islamist bases in one corner of the country appears to be growing into a national political movement. General Hifter has won support from a disparate band of allies, including some Libyans angered by the outsize influence of militias, which have been accused of assassinations and other political violence. The fledgling government has been powerless to exert its authority over the militias or other influential figures, including regional leaders and […]

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Haftar Vows to Crush Libyan Islamists, Seeks GNC Shutdown

Libyan ex-general Khalifa Haftar vowed to pursue his campaign against Islamist militias, emboldened by growing support for the offensive, and said the country’s parliament should be suspended until new elections. In a statement broadcast on national television late yesterday, Haftar promised to “to eradicate terrorism and extremist groups,” which he blames for the growing chaos in the oil-rich North African country three years after the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi . The ex-general’s military initiative against Islamist forces, which he launched without approval from Libya’s chain of command, is broadening its support. Air Force chief Colonel Gomaa al-Abbani has pledged to back Haftar’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, and it also won the loyalty of at least one other senior military official, some soldiers and militias in cities including Zintan in the west, and others who have controlled eastern ports and blocked oil exports since July. Haftar’s forces have mostly attacked […]

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Algeria authorizes shale gas exploitation

Algeria’s Cabinet has announced it will move forward with the exploitation of the country’s large shale gas reserves. The statement carried by the state news agency Wednesday night gave the green light to finding foreign partners to exploit the reserves. According to a 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Algeria is third globally after China and Argentina in technically recoverable shale gas reserves with 707 trillion cubic feet (20 trillion cubic meters) of reserves. It has yet to be determined if the reserves are commercially viable. The state said 11 wells will be drilled over the next seven to 13 years. Algeria’s once rich oil and natural gas reserves have been declining in recent years.

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China and Russia Sign Natural Gas Deal

Beijing and Moscow said they signed a much-anticipated contract to supply China with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian natural gas following a decade of difficult talks. Neither side released details about the price, long the major sticking point of a deal. The two sides but said a final price would be negotiated later. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told Russian media that the two sides had signed a contract worth a total of $400 billion over its 30-year life. "This is Gazprom’s biggest contract. We don’t have a contract like this with any other company," Mr. Miller told reporters in Shanghai, the Interfax news agency reported. Russian news agencies said the contract called for supplies of 38 billion cubic meters of gas a year, which would imply a price of about $350 per thousand cubic meters, at the low end of what Gazprom currently charges export clients. […]

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Vietnam Lashes Out at China, Tries to Coax Firms to Stay

Vietnam’s prime minister charged that China "seriously threatened peace" by parking its oil rig in disputed waters, as Hanoi tried to coax foreign businesses to stay in the country after a destructive spate of anti-Chinese riots. Taiwan rejected a compensation plan sketched out by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for factories burned and looted in the unrest last week, and a Taiwanese steel company threatened not to resume building what would be Southeast Asia’s largest steel mill, underscoring the challenge for Vietnam in restoring its allure as a manufacturing center. "The Vietnamese government must give us a firm and clear assurance that our staff, including our contractors, and our assets will be fully protected in the future," said Lin Hsin-I, chairman of Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, whose site was one of the worst hit. "Otherwise we won’t continue to build the plant." Formosa Ha Tinh Steel is a […]

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Japan Court Blocks Reactor Restarts

A court ruled Wednesday that Kansai Electric Power Co. can’t restart two of its reactors due to safety concerns, dealing a setback to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to jump-start Japan’s idled nuclear power plants. The ruling marks the first time since the Fukushima nuclear crisis erupted in March 2011 that a court has ordered a power supplier not to bring a nuclear plant online. The Fukui District Court prohibited a restart of the Oi Nos. 3-4 reactors in western Japan. Judge Hideaki Higuchi cited uncertainty surrounding the plant’s ability to withstand earthquakes, local media reported. "If there is any real risk, it is natural to ban operations," Mr. Higuchi was quoted as saying. Kansai Electric, Japan’s second-largest utility after Tokyo Electric Power Co. , will appeal to the region’s high court, a spokesman said, although the decision probably won’t come this year. "It is deplorable that we couldn’t […]

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China and Russia Reach 30-Year Gas Deal

China and Russia signed a $400 billion gas deal on Wednesday, giving Moscow a megamarket for its leading export and linking two major powers that, despite a rocky history of alliances and rivalries, have drawn closer to counter the clout of the United States and Europe. The impetus to complete the gas deal, which has been talked about as a game-changing accord for more than a decade, finally came together after the Ukrainian crisis forced Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, to urgently seek an alternative to Europe, Moscow’s main energy market. Europe has slapped sanctions on Russia and sought ways to reduce its dependence on Russian energy. Mr. Putin, on a two-day visit to Shanghai, and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, oversaw the signing of the contract between Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation, the biggest natural gas deal Russia has sealed since the collapse of […]

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China’s Global Search for Energy

Whether by diplomacy, investment or in extreme cases, force, China is going to great lengths to satisfy its growing hunger for energy to fuel its expanding car fleet and electrify its swelling cities. The Chinese government showed that desire on Wednesday when it reached a 30-year natural gas deal with Russia , even as China was locked in a tense standoff with Vietnam over a Chinese oil rig drilling in the contested South China Sea. The two events involve different political dynamics. The agreement with Russia reflects closer economic ties between the two nations, while the other underscores the growing tension of two on-again, off-again Cold War allies. But both developments demonstrate China’s expansive approach to energy, a political and economic strategy with significant implications for the rest of the world. As its economy has rapidly expanded over the last decade, China’s energy efforts have come to dominate the […]

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China to boost water conservation

BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) — China will accelerate the construction of water conservation projects, according to an executive meeting of the State Council chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday. The meeting urged faster construction of water transfer, reservoir and irrigation schemes, especially in central and western regions suffering water shortages. The move is to improve water use and attract investment, to guarantee water security, help agriculture and alleviate poverty. The meeting decided that 172 water conservation projects will be launched before 2020, increasing water supply by 80 billion cubic meters every year. The projects will also save 26 billion cubic meters of water in agricultural production annually and expand irrigation areas of over 78 million mu (5.2 million hectares).

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U.S. officials cut estimate of recoverable Monterey Shale oil by 96%

Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California’s vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national "black gold mine" of petroleum. Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology, far below the 13.7 billion barrels once thought recoverable from the jumbled layers of subterranean rock spread across much of Central California, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. The new estimate, expected to be released publicly next month, is a blow to the nation’s oil future and to projections that an oil boom would bring as many as 2.8 million new jobs to California and boost tax revenue by $24.6 billion annually. The Monterey Shale formation contains about two-thirds of the nation’s shale oil reserves. It had been seen as an enormous bonanza, reducing the nation’s need for foreign oil imports through the use of the […]

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