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Killings in Iraq, at 799, Reach a Monthly High

Violence claimed the lives of 799 Iraqis in May, the highest monthly death toll so far this year, the United Nations said Sunday, underlining the daunting challenges the Iraqi government faces as it struggles to contain a surge in sectarian violence. The figures issued by the United Nations mission to Iraq put last month’s civilian death toll at 603, with 196 members of security forces killed. The mission added that 1,409 Iraqis, including 1,108 civilians, were wounded. The previous month’s death toll stood at 750, making April the second deadliest month of the year. Despite the constant militant attacks that have left a vital oil pipeline idle, Iraq’s crude oil exports increased slightly in May, the Oil Ministry said Sunday. […]

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Army must do more to protect pipeline, says Iraq deputy PM

Iraq’s army must do more to protect a northern oil pipeline and should pay as much attention to it as it does to fighting militants, Iraq’s top energy official told AFP Sunday. The rare criticism of the security forces comes with the pipeline, which connects the northern province of Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, having been disabled for three months as a result of militant attacks as the army grapples with a year-long nationwide surge in violence. "I have pointed out repeatedly that this — protection of the export pipeline — should be a national priority, no less than confronting the terrorists in Fallujah or elsewhere," Hussein al-Shahristani, deputy prime minister responsible for energy affairs, said in an interview. He was referring to battles between security forces and anti-government fighters who have held sway over Fallujah, a […]

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Rogue Libyan general's troops clash with militias

Libyan security officials say heavy fighting has broken out in the eastern city of Benghazi between forces loyal to a rogue general and Islamic militias. The officials say gunbattles started early Monday when a group of militants attacked Benghazi’s security headquarters where some of Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s forces are based. The officials are also saying that helicopter gunships flown by pilots loyal to the general have been bombing the base of the February 17 militia, as well as positions of another militia, the militant Ansar al-Shariah group, on the city’s western outskirts. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. The Benghazi-based Hifter is leading a military campaign against Islamists dominating Libya’s political scene. He has vowed to crush them.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Rogue Libyan general’s troops clash with militias

Libyan security officials say heavy fighting has broken out in the eastern city of Benghazi between forces loyal to a rogue general and Islamic militias. The officials say gunbattles started early Monday when a group of militants attacked Benghazi’s security headquarters where some of Gen. Khalifa Hifter’s forces are based. The officials are also saying that helicopter gunships flown by pilots loyal to the general have been bombing the base of the February 17 militia, as well as positions of another militia, the militant Ansar al-Shariah group, on the city’s western outskirts. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. The Benghazi-based Hifter is leading a military campaign against Islamists dominating Libya’s political scene. He has vowed to crush them.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Heavy fighting reported in Libya's Benghazi

Heavy fighting is ongoing in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, apparently between the armed group Ansar al-Shariah and irregular forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a former army general. Witnesses said on Monday that gunfire, which began the day before, could be heard across the city, particularly coming from a special forces army base in a western suburb of Benghazi. News agencies reported that at least seven people have died and about a dozen have been wounded in the fighting. Haftar is campaigning  to rid Libya of fighters that he says the government has failed to control. Suleiman El Dressi, a Benghazi resident in the area of the clashes, told Al Jazeera that two people had been killed as a result of explosions there. "Residents are at home and they are very scared, waiting for the clashes to be over," he said. "Central government cannot control anything happening here, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Heavy fighting reported in Libya’s Benghazi

Heavy fighting is ongoing in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, apparently between the armed group Ansar al-Shariah and irregular forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar, a former army general. Witnesses said on Monday that gunfire, which began the day before, could be heard across the city, particularly coming from a special forces army base in a western suburb of Benghazi. News agencies reported that at least seven people have died and about a dozen have been wounded in the fighting. Haftar is campaigning  to rid Libya of fighters that he says the government has failed to control. Suleiman El Dressi, a Benghazi resident in the area of the clashes, told Al Jazeera that two people had been killed as a result of explosions there. "Residents are at home and they are very scared, waiting for the clashes to be over," he said. "Central government cannot control anything happening here, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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South Sudan receives $3.5 bil from oil sales over June 2013-May 2014: oil minister

South Sudan has received over $3.5 billion from the sale of crude oil between June 2013 and May 2014, the country’s oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said in a statement made available to Platts in the capital Juba on Sunday. "As from June 2013 to May 2014, South Sudan sold a total of 35.5 million barrels (97,260 b/d) from both Nile and Dar Blends," Dau said in the statement released on Friday but distributed to journalists later. Of the total sales, South Sudan paid Sudan $857 million for both tariffs and Transitional Financial Arrangements, or TFA, Dau said. South Sudan’s crude oil passes through the two cross-border pipelines in Sudan to facilities near Port Sudan on the Red Sea for export. Dau said the net amount realized by South Sudan — determined after all payments were made to Sudan, and $788 million made for payments or settlement of loans […]

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Egypt opens tender to import fuel in July-Sept 2014 -official

* Government hoping to avoid summer blackouts * Tender to supplement energy products donated by SaudiArabia * Raising energy prices could cause unrest CAIRO, May 31 (Reuters) – Egypt has launched a tender toimport hundreds of thousands of tonnes of petroleum products inthe third quarter of 2014, an energy official said on Saturday,as the country tries to stave off a summer energy crisis. Egypt’s government wants to avoid major power blackoutsduring the months of increased consumption in the summer, whenoutages are worsened by a dilapidated grid and a wastefulsubsidies system. The tender comes in addition to supplies from Saudi Arabia,which will deliver energy products to Egypt in July and Augustas part of an aid package announced after the Egyptian armyoverthrew Egypt’s first freely elected president, the IslamistMohamed Mursi. An official from the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC)told Reuters that Egypt launched a tender on Thursday to import90,000 tonnes of […]

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China’s Solar Panel Production Comes at a Dirty Cost

Although China may be cheaper than Europe at producing solar panels, it comes at a higher cost to the environment, a new study says. Weaker environmental standards and more highly polluting sources of energy used by Chinese manufacturers are the reasons for the discrepancy, according to research by Northwestern University and the United States Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. Researchers from the Illinois-based institutions looked at the carbon footprint and energy usage of making solar panels. Their analysis tallied the costs at every step of production, including mining raw materials, transportation and the factory’s power supply. The environmental cost of Chinese-made solar panels is about twice that of those made in Europe, said Fengqi You, a corresponding author of the paper, which will be published in next month’s issue of the journal Solar Energy. “While it might be an economically attractive option to move solar panel manufacturing from […]

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Tusk Taps Tough-Talking Miner to Wean Poland From Russia Energy

Polish Premier Donald Tusk’s drive to break the ex-communist nation’s links to Russia ’s energy chain by modernizing the domestic coal industry is giving Miroslaw Taras sleepless nights. Tusk tapped Taras, a 59-year-old ex-miner whose leadership of publicly-traded Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA made it profitable before he left in 2012, to do the same for state-owned rival, Kompania Weglowa SA. Kompania, Europe’s largest coalminer, is buried in debt and teeters on bankruptcy at a time when the dispute between Russia and Ukraine risks disrupting the 89 billion cubic meters of gas shipped annually from OAO Gazprom (GAZP) through Ukraine, or 55 percent of its total exports to Europe. Tusk is betting Taras’s ability to fix Kompania and streamline its bloated workforce without slashing jobs will cushion energy shocks from the east. “I feel damn responsible for all these people and each one individually,” Taras said in an interview on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple