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Deadly rebel counteroffensive a setback for Ukraine forces

Pro-Russian rebels killed at least 19 Ukrainian troops Thursday, a setback for Kiev’s military forces after they  made significant headway  in recent weeks against a dogged insurgency in the country’s restive east. Separately, Ukrainian border guards began inspecting a Russian truck convoy carrying aid earmarked for humanitarian relief in eastern Ukraine. The convoy has been  stranded at the border between the two countries  for more than a week. Ukrainian government officials said the troops died in intense battles in the strategically important town of Llovaisk, near the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk, the BBC reported. Donetsk was the  site of heavy shelling that hit residential neighborhoods  on Wednesday. Rebel and government forces fought street battles there and in other towns across the east. The forces of the Western-backed government have been  steadily gaining the upper hand  over the separatists in eastern Ukraine and are tightening the noose around the main rebel bastions […]

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Russian aid trucks pass Ukraine border post, with rebel escort

MOSCOW (Reuters) – About twenty trucks from a Russian aid convoy have crossed the Russia-Ukraine border and are heading in the direction of the Ukrainian city of Luhansk, a Reuters witness said. He added that the trucks were accompanied by a small number of pro-Russian rebels. The trucks were previously in the no-man’s land between the Russian and Ukrainian border posts, but have now moved past the Ukrainian border post. (Writing by Katya Golubkova)

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Russia Said to Forgo $6.7 Billion of Oil Revenue for Investment

Russia may lose as much as 240 billion rubles ($6.7 billion) of oil revenue next year after the government chose a three-year tax plan favored by crude producers, according to two state officials. Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich picked the lower of two proposed oil output tax rates, leaving an additional 55 billion rubles in producers’ pockets, the officials said, asking not to be identified because discussions were confidential. Dvorkovich, who made his choice to encourage investment, met yesterday with government and business representatives to set the rates before the budget is sent to parliament. Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, is trying to balance the interests of producers and the budget with the $2 trillion economy on the brink of recession amid a standoff with the U.S. and Europe over Ukraine . Oil taxes provide about 45 percent of the country’s budget revenue. The oil companies got what […]

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Oil stock depletion 'felt by 2030'

Depleting oil and gas production will begin to be felt by 2030 and will have serious implications for the economy, jobs and balance of payments in an independent Scotland, according to Sir Ian Wood. Sir Ian, an authority on the sector, has warned that an independent Scotland without new hydrocarbon regions being discovered will have no more than 35 years of depleting offshore oil and gas production left, and this must be taken into account in the economics of independence. The industry, therefore, cannot figure significantly in Scotland’s medium-term economic calculations, he said. During an interview with EnergyVoice.com, Sir Ian contradicted the Scottish Government’s own figures for remaining North Sea resources and tax income. He said that even with further tax breaks and less complex regulation in the North Sea, only a further 15-16.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) are likely to be recovered. The Scottish Government has […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil stock depletion ‘felt by 2030’

Depleting oil and gas production will begin to be felt by 2030 and will have serious implications for the economy, jobs and balance of payments in an independent Scotland, according to Sir Ian Wood. Sir Ian, an authority on the sector, has warned that an independent Scotland without new hydrocarbon regions being discovered will have no more than 35 years of depleting offshore oil and gas production left, and this must be taken into account in the economics of independence. The industry, therefore, cannot figure significantly in Scotland’s medium-term economic calculations, he said. During an interview with EnergyVoice.com, Sir Ian contradicted the Scottish Government’s own figures for remaining North Sea resources and tax income. He said that even with further tax breaks and less complex regulation in the North Sea, only a further 15-16.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) are likely to be recovered. The Scottish Government has […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Eases on Libya Supply, Weak China Data

By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures eased slightly in Asian trade Thursday as markets continue to weigh global supply levels and weak economic data from China. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in October traded at $93.17 a barrel at 0533 GMT, down $0.28 in the Globex electronic session. October Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.35 to $101.93 a barrel. Chinese manufacturing activity weakened in August to a three-month low, with the preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index slipping to 50.3 compared with a final reading of 51.7 in July. Analysts said the soft numbers point to a fragile economic recovery and will likely be negative for oil demand. Libya said it has resumed oil exports from its largest terminal–Es Sider– after almost a year, with an initial cargo of 600,000 barrels of oil headed for Europe. "The Libyan recovery […]

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Brent Falls From 3-Day High on China Manufacturing; WTI Declines

Brent crude fell from the highest closing price in three days as a measure of China ’s manufacturing missed estimates and the U.S. pledged to continue operations to stop Islamic radicals in Iraq . West Texas Intermediate also dropped. Futures declined as much as 0.8 percent in London. A preliminary Purchasing Managers ’ Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics slid to 50.3 for August. A median 51.5 was projected in a Bloomberg News survey. President Barack Obama said the beheading of an American journalist by Islamic State militants won’t deter him from a bombing campaign aimed at halting their advances. “The softer China PMI might be one of the key news drivers today,” Torbjoern Kjus, an analyst at DNB ASA in Oslo, said by phone. “That’s more affecting the financial players.” Brent for October settlement decreased as much as 80 cents to $101.48 a barrel on the […]

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Oil ‘super spike’ is coming: Dan Dicker

Another bad day for traders bullish on energy as WTI crude oil slid 2% , hitting its lowest level since January. Across the pond Brent crude traded at its lowest level in almost 14th months . From the heady days of mid-2008 when it traded at nearly $150 a barrel, crude oil has had quite a rocky ride. After sliding down to the $30s and rallying back around $120, crude has settled in around the $90 to $110 range for the past two years. Commodity traders and analysts have wondered why oil hasn’t gone higher. Geopolitical tensions abound across the world; the Middle East seemingly hasn’t been this unstable in years. In fact, some believe the commodity could actually go lower. Blake Morrow posits that with North American production rising, vehicles becoming more efficient, and crude oil’s inability to rally with global equities, all signs point to a bearish […]

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Natural Gas Retreats as Weather Forecasts Cool

By Timothy Puko NEW YORK–Natural-gas prices closed lower Wednesday as weather forecasts pulled back hopes for a late-summer bump in demand. The front-month September contract settled down 5.4 cents, or 1.4%, at $3.823 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price held near the middle of a 29-cent trading range that gas has stayed in for the past month. Several weather models are showing unseasonably cool weather spreading from the North starting next week. Cool summer weather limits how much consumers use their air conditioners–and the gas-fired electricity that powers them. Temperatures that had been expected to reach as high as 8-degrees-Farenheit above normal in parts of the south are now getting pushed out as a cool front from Canada sweeps through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Traders are also expecting the storage update Thursday from the federal government to show producers maintained their […]

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Doomsday dam could bring Iraqis together

Water stole the show from oil in Iraq last week, as Kurdish peshmerga soldiers and forces loyal to the government in Baghdad routed Islamic State (IS) fighters from Mosul and a nearby strategic dam – the shoddy construction of which may in some ways be even more dangerous than IS, experts said on Wednesday. Since it was built 30 years ago, the Mosul Dam on the Tigris River has supplied water and electricity to Iraqis living in major population centers to the south. But it requires constant and intensive maintenance to continue holding back billions of gallons of water. Many fear that if it is neglected amid the current fighting it could rupture and flood villages, towns and Baghdad itself, potentially drowning or displacing hundreds of thousands of people. But experts say the dam – and the region’s water resources in general – also presents an enormous opportunity for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple