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Turkey says it helped Iraq with oil exports

Turkey is doing its neighbors in Iraq a favor by hosting the first shipment of oil from the semiautonomous Kurdish north, the Turkish energy minister said. The semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in May announced its first delivery of more than 1 million barrels of oil from the Turkish sea port at Ceyhan. Iraq said the shipment violates the nation’s constitution and blames Ankara for making internal rows over oil worse. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said he opposed to Baghdad’s objections as income from the oil sales would be distributed among the Iraqis themselves. "Would it be better for Iraq if Turkey wasn’t letting Iraqi oil to flow through it? It wouldn’t," he said Monday. "We are a neighbor, friend and fraternal country that is laying the basis for the transmission of Iraqi oil to world markets." The central Iraqi government in Baghdad said it’s the […]

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Militias in Libya Hard to Tame as Renegade General Steps In

Against the backdrop of a rising sun and an imposing lion, renegade Libyan general Khalifa Haftar strides over rugged terrain in combat fatigues and black boots. The propaganda imagery on Haftar’s Facebook page is part of his bid to rally the nation against Islamist militias in Libya’s east and their political allies in the capital, Tripoli. It borrows from that employed by Egypt ’s soldier-turned-president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who overthrew an elected Islamist leader before securing power at the ballot box. If Haftar harbors similar ambitions, his will be a far harder task. Three of his guards were killed in an assassination attempt in the eastern town of Abiyar, SkyNews Arabia TV channel reported today, giving no further details. Successive Libyan governments have failed to unify the forces that removed Muammar Qaddafi from power three years ago, with the chaos halting the recovery of crude output in the North […]

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Saudi Arabia announces 92 more MERS deaths, sacks deputy health minister

Saudi Arabia has sacked its deputy health minister and hiked the country’s death toll from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) after uncovering more than 90 additional fatalities. The number of victims from the virus was raised to 282 from 190 following a review of health data. In all, an additional 113 confirmed cases of MERS had been found, bringing the total to 688. The uptick in the death toll and confirmed cases came as Saudi Arabia sacked Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish, who has been criticized by some international scientists over his handling of the deadly MERS virus. Memish was a key figure in Saudi Arabia’s efforts to contain the spread of MERS, a virus that causes coughing, fever and can lead to fatal pneumonia. The virus was identified two years ago and cases have been found in other countries in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the United […]

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Nigeria: Confab – Delegates in Heated Debate Over Fuel Subsidy

Delegates at the on-going National Conference yesterday debated the desirability and otherwise of the much-touted Fuel Subsidy as they spoke either in support or against the complete removal of the subsidy as recommended by the Standing Committee on Public Finance and Revenue. The debate on the committee’s report kicked off after delegates had resumed for the week following the death of the wife of the conference chairman, Justice Idris Kutigi, on Wednesday last week. A total number of 147 delegates indicated interest to comment on the report and as at close of session yesterday evening only about 50 had spoken prompting adjournment and continuation of the debate today. Each delegate spoke with passion on why the Federal Government should either keep subsidising petroleum products for the public or why it should be removed. According to the report, as presented by the committee chairman Senator Adamu Aliero, subsidy on petroleum […]

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Pemex Reducing Repsol Stake as Mexico Prepares Oil Open

Petroleos Mexicanos is looking to strengthen its balance sheet with the sale of a stake in Repsol SA for about $3 billion as Mexico ’s state-owned producer prepares to form partnerships with foreign oil companies. Pemex, as the Mexico City-based company is known, is selling a 7.9 percent stake in Repsol, according to a Citigroup Inc. filing to the Spanish stock exchange yesterday. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) are conducting the sale. The Mexican company is raising cash from the sale as lawmakers prepare regulations to open the oil industry to foreign investment for the first time since 1938. Pemex was “very disappointed” in Repsol’s performance, Chief Executive Officer Emilio Lozoya said in an Oct. 31 interview. “If Pemex is going to be restructured as a new company, it needs a nest egg of capital in its balance sheet,” George Baker, an energy consultant […]

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China's smog clear-up faces challenges: vice minister

China still faces major challenges in improving its air quality nationwide, said Li Ganjie, vice minister of environmental protection, at a press conference on Wednesday. Only three cities, or 4.1 percent, of the 74 major Chinese cities subject to air quality monitoring met the national standard for good air in 2013, Li said. The 10 most polluted cities in 2013 included seven in north China’s Hebei Province, Jinan of east China’s Shandong Province, Xi’an of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province and Zhengzhou of central Henan Province. Most of these are located near Beijing. Li urged addressing the key areas of industrial structure, energy efficiency, vehicle emissions and dust from construction sites in improving air quality. Accumulation of air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide also led to acid rain which mostly affected areas along the Yangtze River and southern side of its middle […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s smog clear-up faces challenges: vice minister

China still faces major challenges in improving its air quality nationwide, said Li Ganjie, vice minister of environmental protection, at a press conference on Wednesday. Only three cities, or 4.1 percent, of the 74 major Chinese cities subject to air quality monitoring met the national standard for good air in 2013, Li said. The 10 most polluted cities in 2013 included seven in north China’s Hebei Province, Jinan of east China’s Shandong Province, Xi’an of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province and Zhengzhou of central Henan Province. Most of these are located near Beijing. Li urged addressing the key areas of industrial structure, energy efficiency, vehicle emissions and dust from construction sites in improving air quality. Accumulation of air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide also led to acid rain which mostly affected areas along the Yangtze River and southern side of its middle […]

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China signals intention to cap carbon, a day after US pledges cuts

China said Tuesday it will set an absolute cap on its  CO2 emissions starting in 2016 — a potentially landmark move that, coupled with an earlier U.S. announcement on power plant emission curbs , could boost sluggish United Nations efforts to produce a new global climate accord. The exact extent of the cuts was not announced, but officials said renewable energy would account for up to 25 percent of the country’s energy production and nuclear power would be ramped up by the end of the next decade. “The Chinese announcement marks potentially the most important turning point in the global scene on climate change for a decade,” said Michael Grubb, a professor of international energy and climate policy at University College London. The international community hopes to conclude a global climate treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2015, when the United Nations will host a  climate conference  in […]

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Obama Emission Rules Discount Gas Leaks, Scientists Say

President Barack Obama ’s plan to fight global warming underestimates pollution from natural gas, according to scientists studying how leaks affect the climate. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week proposed requiring power plants to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 30 percent from their 2005 levels by 2030, largely by burning natural gas instead of coal. Researchers from Cornell University , Stanford University and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agree with the EPA that natural gas emits about half as much carbon dioxide as coal when burned to produce electricity. The issue is that methane leaks while natural gas is being extracted, processed and transported, and methane causes more warming than equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide, they said. “Converting to natural gas plants, which is what this latest rule is likely to do, will actually aggravate climate change , not make things better,” said Robert Howarth, a professor of […]

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China agrees to Doha amendment of Kyoto Protocol

The Chinese government announced it deposited its acceptance of an amendment to the Kyoto climate measure with the U.N. secretary-general. Wang Min, China’s deputy U.N. envoy, deposited Beijing’s acceptance of the Doha amendment. A statement published Monday by the official Xinhua News Agency says Beijing hopes other major economies follow suit. "It also attaches great importance to addressing climate change, regarding this as an important part of its efforts to promote ecological progress and to build a beautiful country," the statement said. China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, followed by the United States, India and Russia. The Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol extends the commitment period to curb greenhouse gas emissions to 2020, after the first commitment period ended in 2012. Beijing said it would curb its emissions by 40 percent from a 2005 baseline by 2020. The Chinese announcement […]

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