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Russia plans to send second aid convoy to Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has announced plans to send a second aid convoy to rebel-held eastern Ukraine, where months of fighting have left many residential buildings in ruins. Russia unilaterally sent about 200 tractor-trailers across the border on Friday, a move that Ukraine characterized as an invasion. By Saturday, all of the vehicles had returned to Russia after delivering the goods to the hard-hit rebel stronghold of Luhansk. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Russia had notified the Ukrainian government that it was preparing to send a second convoy along the same route in the coming days. Lavrov also said distribution in Luhansk of the food, water and other goods delivered by the first convoy began Monday with the participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Prices Edge Lower Amid Ample Supplies

Oil futures edged lower Friday in the absence of strong market forces to drive prices. Light, sweet crude for front-month October delivery fell 31 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $93.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 34 cents, or 0.3%, to $102.29 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange. The Nymex settlement was the lowest since Jan. 14. Crude prices have been on an extended slide of more than 12% over the last two months as fears of supply disruption stemming from geopolitical tensions have eased and oil has become more abundant. Brokers and analysts said there appeared to be little in the way of news or fundamental developments to drive trading Friday. The market generally looked past escalating geopolitical tensions in Ukraine. U.S. and Western military leaders condemned Russia for sending a convoy of trucks believed to be […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Oil Futures Cap Fifth Weekly Drop on Demand Outlook

West Texas Intermediate crude capped a fifth weekly decline, the longest losing streak in nine months, on concern refineries will reduce demand for crude as the end of summer driving season approaches. Brent slid. Gasoline demand slid to a two-month low last week, according to the Energy Information Administration. Retail gasoline prices are at the lowest seasonal level in four years, according to AAA. U.S. refineries typically schedule seasonal maintenance for September and October, when they move from maximizing gasoline output to producing winter fuels. “WTI is weakening because we are approaching refinery turnaround season,” said Tom Finlon, Jupiter, Florida-based director of Energy Analytics Group LLC. “Refinery runs aren’t going to go up much further.” WTI for October delivery dropped 31 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $93.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since Jan. 14. The volume of all futures traded was about […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Death Toll in Syria Estimated at 191,000

GENEVA — The number of dead in Syria’s civil war more than doubled in the past year to at least 191,000, the United Nations human rights office said Friday. The agency’s chief, Navi Pillay, bluntly criticized Western nations, saying their inaction in the face of the slaughter had “empowered and emboldened” the killers. In its third report on Syria commissioned by the United Nations, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group identified 191,369 deaths from the start of the conflict in March 2011 to April 2014, more than double the 92,901 deaths cited in the group’s last report, which covered the first two years of the conflict. “Tragically, it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict,” Ms. Pillay said in a statement that accompanied the report, which observed that many killings in Syria were undocumented. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Talks on Iraqi Government Suspended after Attack on Sunni Mosque

BAGHDAD—Militants killed 65 members of Iraq’s Sunni minority in two attacks on Friday, one of them on a mosque, further inflaming sectarian tensions and imperiling an already fragile effort to form a unity government. The attacks, which Sunni officials blamed on Shiite militia members, came as the governments in Baghdad and Washington are trying to forge a broad alliance against the militant forces of the Islamic State, the Sunni-led insurgency that has seized huge swaths of the country since June. Within hours of the separate attacks in the province of Diyala north of Baghdad, Iraq’s Sunni political parties pulled out of coalition talks to register their anger over what they characterized as state-backed retribution against the country’s main religious minority. Leaders of three of the largest Sunni electoral blocs announced they would suspend negotiations to form a new cabinet until the perpetrators of the attacks, which also injured 17 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shi'ite militia kill dozens of Iraqi Sunnis in mosque shooting

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Shi’ite militiamen machine gunned minority Sunni Muslims in a village mosque on Friday, killing dozens just as Baghdad was trying to build a cross-community government to fight Sunni militants whose rise has alarmed Western powers. A morgue official in Diyala province north of Baghdad said 68 people had been killed in the sectarian attack staged on the Muslim day of prayer. Ambulances took the bodies 60 km (40 miles) to the provincial capital of Baquba, where Iranian-trained Shi’ite militias are powerful and act with impunity. Attacks on mosques are acutely sensitive and have in the past unleashed a deadly series of revenge killings and counter attacks in Iraq, where violence has returned to the levels of 2006-2007, the peak of a sectarian civil war. Two influential Sunni politicians, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq and Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jibouri, quickly suspended participation in talks with the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shi’ite militia kill dozens of Iraqi Sunnis in mosque shooting

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Shi’ite militiamen machine gunned minority Sunni Muslims in a village mosque on Friday, killing dozens just as Baghdad was trying to build a cross-community government to fight Sunni militants whose rise has alarmed Western powers. A morgue official in Diyala province north of Baghdad said 68 people had been killed in the sectarian attack staged on the Muslim day of prayer. Ambulances took the bodies 60 km (40 miles) to the provincial capital of Baquba, where Iranian-trained Shi’ite militias are powerful and act with impunity. Attacks on mosques are acutely sensitive and have in the past unleashed a deadly series of revenge killings and counter attacks in Iraq, where violence has returned to the levels of 2006-2007, the peak of a sectarian civil war. Two influential Sunni politicians, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq and Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jibouri, quickly suspended participation in talks with the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurdish Oil Breakthrough Said to Enable Quadrupled Export

Iraq ’s Kurds, who have defied the central government by selling oil independently, are working to quadruple the capacity of their export pipeline within months, according to an official with knowledge of the situation. The Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, more than doubled daily capacity to 300,000 barrels on its pipeline to Turkey as of yesterday with installation of a new booster station at Fishkabur, the official said, asking not to be named because of policy. The region is considering a fourth booster to allow delivery of as much as 500,000 barrels a day to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan within as little as three months, he said. The KRG didn’t answer phone calls to its press office outside working hours today. The KRG’s efforts to export their own crude has provoked legal action by authorities in Baghdad and fanned speculation that the semi-autonomous region will pursue greater independence. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurd Claim to Stranded Oil Tanker Turns on Iraq Control

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) –- Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government must wait awhile longer for a U.S. judge to decide if he has authority to let federal agents seize $100 million worth of Kurdish crude waiting in a tanker off the Texas coast. Lawyers for the Iraqi Ministry of Oil convinced a magistrate judge last month to issue an arrest warrant for the 1 million-barrel cargo if the tanker enters U.S. territorial waters. That order would let U.S. marshals store the oil ashore at Iraqi expense until the dispute is resolved. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller, who now presides over the case, told lawyers at a hearing today in Houston federal court that he needs more time for his decision, which will turn in large part on where and when Iraq lost control of the oil. If control of the crude changed when it was loaded onto the tanker […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Turkey calls for patience in Iraqi energy sector

Turkish Energy Minister called for patience after a state-run energy company suspended drilling operations in Iraq as a security precaution. Eight workers from the state-run Turkish Petroleum Corp., known by its Turkish initials TPAO, were evacuated from Iraq in June, and the company said it’s now decided to suspend operations because of safety concerns. Yildiz said Turkey’s southern neighbor was an important partner in energy security . "We need patience," he said Thursday. "Iraq is an important market for Turkey and the TPAO should resume work once the tension eases." The Islamic State, a Sunni-led terrorist group known also as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has taken control of territory in parts of Iraq and Syria. Several energy companies have pulled non-essential staff out of northern Iraq in the face of increased violence in the region. The semiautonomous Kurdish government in northern Iraq has sent oil produced […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple