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Ambassador From Jordan Freed by Captors in Libya

he Jordanian ambassador to Libya, who was taken hostage by gunmen in the Libyan capital last month, was freed and returned to Jordan on Tuesday after his government agreed to release a Libyan citizen serving a life sentence on terrorism charges, officials in both countries said. The ambassador, Fawaz al-Itan, arrived at a military airport in Jordan on Tuesday and said he had been treated well in captivity. Nasser Judeh, the Jordanian foreign minister, said Mr. Itan’s captors had ties to the Libyan citizen, Mohamed el-Dressi, who was convicted in 2007 of plotting to blow up Jordan’s main international airport. He did not specify what those ties were. Mr. Dressi flew to Libya on Monday. The apparent exchange of Mr. Dressi for Mr. Itan immediately raised concerns that it would embolden militant groups in Libya, which have turned to kidnapping to win concessions at home and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Factories torched in anti-China protest in Vietnam

Mobs of rioters in Vietnam torched at least 15 foreign-owned factories and trashed or looted many more following a large protest by workers against China’s recent placement of an oil rig in disputed Southeast Asian waters, officials said Wednesday. The unrest at industrial parks close to Ho Chi Minh City built to attract foreign investors is the most serious outbreak of public disorder in the tightly controlled country in years. It points to the dangers for the government as it manages public anger at China while also protesting itself against the Chinese actions in an area of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam. The unrest late Tuesday at a Singapore-run industrial park and others nearby in Binh Duong province followed protests by up to 20,000 workers. Smaller groups attacked factories they believed were Chinese-run, but many were Taiwanese or South Korean, the provincial government […]

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Coal Missing Boom as Climate Foes Clean Asia’s Backyard

Bowie Resource Partners LLC wanted to export coal from the port of Oakland, California , promising thousands of construction jobs and a $3 million-a-year payroll in a city whose unemployment rate was almost double the national average. Oakland’s response: No, thanks. “We weren’t going to sell our souls here,” Jack Fleck, a retired engineer and Oakland resident who spoke out against Bowie’s plan, said by phone on May 12. “Whatever the economic benefit would’ve been, it wasn’t worth destroying the planet over.” Oakland’s rejection marks a sea change in the fight against coal exports from the U.S. and underscores an emerging challenge for energy projects. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have scuttled three of six coal terminals proposed in the U.S. Pacific Northwest that would have shipped as much as 146 million metric tons annually to booming markets in Asia . Where coal projects were once fought […]

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China promotes both fuel efficiency and alternative-fuel vehicles to curb growing oil use

Unprecedented motorization in China has led to significant increases in oil demand and oil imports. In response to growing oil imports, the Chinese government is adopting a broad range of policies, including improvements in the fuel economy of new vehicles and the promotion of alternative-fuel vehicles. Consumption of gasoline in China grew from 0.9 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2003 to more than 2 million bbl/d in 2013. This continues a trend of significant growth in China’s transportation sector since the 1990s. Increasing oil demand requires China to import more petroleum from other countries, and since 2009, China has been importing more than half of its petroleum needs. Under the Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicle Plan for 2012 to 2020 released in 2012, average passenger car fuel economy is targeted to increase to 34 miles per gallon by 2015 and 47 miles […]

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China could become net oil-product exporter to Middle East: CNPC

China is on a long-term track to become a net exporter of petroleum products to the Middle East, a senior official of state-controlled China National Petroleum Corp said Tuesday. "China could at some point become a net exporter of fuel products to Arab countries," CNPC Director of Research Ding Shaoheng said during a question and answer session at the Abu Dhabi International Downstream Exhibition and Conference. China was likely to remain a major importer of Middle East crude for the foreseeable future, Ding said. During a conference presentation on the long-term outlook for oil product supply and demand in the Chinese domestic market, Ding forecast that Chinese annual oil-product consumption would rise from 286 million mt in 2013 to 360 million mt in 2020 and 440 million mt in 2030. Meanwhile, annual fuel production capacity at Chinese oil refineries was forecast to expand from 296 million mt in 2013 […]

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South Korean Kogas' LNG imports inch up on year to 12.61 mil mt LNG in Q1

South Korea’s state-owned Korea Gas Corp imported 12.61 million mt of LNG in the first quarter, up 0.5% from 12.55 million mt a year earlier, the company said in a statement Wednesday. All of the volumes were imported under long-term contracts. Kogas has term contracts for 10.02 million-11.02 million mt/year from Qatar, 4 million mt/year from Malaysia, 4 million mt/year from Oman, 3 million mt/year from Indonesia, 1.5 million mt/year from Russia’s Sakhalin, 1.3 million mt/year from Egypt, 0.7 million mt/year from Brunei and 0.5 million mt/year from Australia, according to the company. The company plans to import an additional 7.1 million mt/year from Australia from 2015 and another 2 million mt/year from 2018, as well as 3.5 million mt/year from the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana from 2017. Kogas’ domestic natural gas sales totaled 11.57 million mt in Q1, down 5.5% from 12.24 million mt in the same […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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South Korean Kogas’ LNG imports inch up on year to 12.61 mil mt LNG in Q1

South Korea’s state-owned Korea Gas Corp imported 12.61 million mt of LNG in the first quarter, up 0.5% from 12.55 million mt a year earlier, the company said in a statement Wednesday. All of the volumes were imported under long-term contracts. Kogas has term contracts for 10.02 million-11.02 million mt/year from Qatar, 4 million mt/year from Malaysia, 4 million mt/year from Oman, 3 million mt/year from Indonesia, 1.5 million mt/year from Russia’s Sakhalin, 1.3 million mt/year from Egypt, 0.7 million mt/year from Brunei and 0.5 million mt/year from Australia, according to the company. The company plans to import an additional 7.1 million mt/year from Australia from 2015 and another 2 million mt/year from 2018, as well as 3.5 million mt/year from the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana from 2017. Kogas’ domestic natural gas sales totaled 11.57 million mt in Q1, down 5.5% from 12.24 million mt in the same […]

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U.S. Oil-Export Ban Is Under Review

Top administration officials are considering relaxing federal laws banning crude-oil exports, a move that would upend decades-old policy, cause a political stir in Washington and sway the global oil market. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Tuesday that some of the fast-growing supply of domestically produced oil isn’t suitable for refining locally, which could warrant re-examining a nearly 40-year-old law that bans exports of most crude. "The nature of the oil we’re producing may not be well-matched to our current refinery capacity," Mr. Moniz said Tuesday after an energy conference in Seoul. The administration is studying the issue, though government officials declined to comment on its scope or timing. The statements, paired with similar comments by senior Obama counselor John Podesta last week, mark a notable policy shift inside the administration over the past six months. At an energy conference in December sponsored by Platts, Mr. Moniz responded only […]

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Energy Bill’s Failure Shows Congress Can’t Agree to Agree

The sponsors of a bill to promote U.S. energy conservation built it to pass in a Congress where almost nothing passes. After businesses complained, the authors deleted mandates for tougher building-efficiency standards. Then they cut provisions that would have increased the U.S. deficit. And they softened requirements that federal buildings phase out use of fossil fuels. With the changes, Senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Rob Portman , an Ohio Republican , built a coalition that included seven Republicans and seven Democrats as co-sponsors, and both the Natural Resources Defense Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And it still wasn’t enough. Deep divisions on issues unrelated to the bill — such as the Keystone XL pipeline and regulations on the coal industry — doomed it yesterday. The result underscores that even legislation with broad support faces an uphill fight as both parties eye midterm elections that […]

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Texas still leads in oil production

Oil production from the Eagle Ford shale play in Texas is expected to increase by 27,000 barrels per day next month, a U.S. government report said. The Energy Information Administration published its drilling productivity report Monday showing anticipated production levels across the six regions — Bakken, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Marcellus, Niobrara and Permian — that combine to account for 90 percent of domestic oil production growth and nearly all of the gas production growth between 2011 and 2012. For Eagle Ford, EIA said it expects oil production to increase by 27,000 bpd to reach 1.41 million bpd by June. Texas is the nation’s No. 1 oil producer, with a January output of 89 million barrels, more than twice the level of the No. 2 producer, North Dakota. For North Dakota’s Bakken formation , EIA expects production levels to increase by 22,000 bpd in June to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple