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Iraq’s Biggest Dam at Risk as Islamists Fight Kurds for Control

Kurdish security forces clashed with a breakaway al-Qaeda group that’s trying to extend its control in northern Iraq by seizing the country’s largest dam. Fighting is raging near the Mosul dam, and it is a “no man’s land,” Sheikh Ahmed Al-Simmari, a resident of the nearby city of Rabia’ah, said in a phone interview. The Kurds retook the Rabia’ah border post with Syria and the nearby town of Sinjar from the militants after fierce fighting late yesterday, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the groups that governs the largely autonomous region of Kurdish northern Iraq, said on its website. Islamic State, which was previously known as Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, has seized territory throughout Iraq and Syria and declared its own self-styled caliphate, highlighting the central government’s inability to ensure security under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The group this week seized two oil fields and predominantly Kurdish […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Kurdistan Oil Explorers Fall as Militants Seize Oilfields

Oil explorers in Iraq ’s Kurdistan region slumped in Oslo and London after Islamic militants seized two oilfields in Northern Iraq. DNO International ASA (DNO) , which gets most of its output from the Kurdish region, fell as much as 11 percent, the biggest drop in more than six months. Genel Energy Plc (GENL) sank as much as 6.6 percent and Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. (GKP) as much as 3.1 percent. The Ain Zala and Batma oilfields, which together produce about 30,000 barrels a day, are under the control of the Islamic State, a breakaway al-Qaeda group, according to the state-run Northern Oil Co. The Sunni Islamist militants last month occupied the Qayyara oilfield north of Baghdad . Islamic State, previously known as Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, has seized territory in northern and western Iraq, taking over oil wells and fighting for control of refineries. Fighters continued […]

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Iraqi oil exports up in July

Though exports from a northern pipeline are idled, the Iraqi government said Monday its oil exports for July were higher than the previous month. Assim Jihad, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, said southern ports exported 75.7 million barrels of oil in July and brought in close to $8 billion for the Iraqi economy. Iraq exported 72.8 million barrels of oil from southern ports in June. The pipeline from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the Turkish port city of Ceyhan has been closed because of terrorist threats since May. Iraqi oil exports so far this year peaked at 80 million barrels in May. A Sunni-led insurgency emerged shortly afterward, putting pressure on the central government in Baghdad. The U.S. State Department said it was monitoring a new push by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the northwestern Iraqi border town of Sinjar. "The […]

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China to ban all coal use in Beijing by 2020

BEIJING (AP) — China’s smog-plagued capital has announced plans to ban the use of coal by the end of 2020 as the country fights deadly levels of pollution, especially in major cities. Beijing’s Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau posted the plan on its website Monday, saying the city would instead prioritize electricity and natural gas for heating. The official Xinhua News Agency said coal accounted for a quarter of Beijing’s energy consumption in 2012 and 22 percent of the fine particles floating in the city’s air. Motor vehicles, industrial production and general dust also contributed to pollution in the 21 million-person city. Even with the Beijing ban, coal use is expected to soar in China. Coal-fired power and heating is a major generator of greenhouse gases and has helped turn China into the world’s largest emitter of carbon and other heat-trapping gases. Pressure is growing on China’s central government to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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In Libya, Parliament Convenes Amid Battles

Libyan leaders, struggling to keep their country from spinning further out of control, convened a newly elected Parliament for its first session on Monday. But raging militia battles in Tripoli, the capital, and in Benghazi, the second-largest city, forced them to hold the meeting in Tobruk, a relatively stable port in the east. And a senior Egyptian political figure suggested on Monday that his country might intervene in Libya militarily if calm cannot be restored. The newly elected lawmakers vowed to prevent the collapse of their state. “We will prove to the world that Libya is not a failed country,” Abu Bakr  Bueira, the lawmaker presiding over the session, declared, according to news reports. Although the street fighting in Tripoli and Benghazi is driven mainly by local militia rivalries, it is converging into the same national conflict. Islamists and their tribal or regional allies are on one […]

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PetroChina to Seal Takeover of Athabasca Oil Sands Project by End-Sept

State oil giant PetroChina plans to pay the more than $1 billion it needs to complete a takeover of the Dover oil sands project from Canadian firm Athabasca Oil Corp by the end of September, a person with knowledge of the deal told Reuters. PetroChina was supposed to complete the acquisition of Athabasca Oil’s 40 percent stake in the project in June, but delayed the payment while it reassessed the deal amid a government-led corruption probe into the Chinese national oil company, the person said. The internal review showed the geological structure of the project is more complicated than previous estimates, which would increase development costs, but the acquisition will go ahead, the person added. "The next step is to complete the transaction," said the source, who declined to be named as […]

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Energy companies looking deeper offshore

Energy companies are drilling in waters deeper than ever before, though the industry still could tap even deeper, a Danish drilling engineer said. Frederik Smidth, chief technology officer for Danish energy company Maerks Drilling, told Fuel Fix — the energy arm of the Houston Chronicle — that energy companies were looking to the future of offshore energy development. "We’re drilling wells that we couldn’t have drilled 20 years ago," he said in statements published Sunday. "But there’s a lot more we haven’t seen yet." Maersk said it’s trying to breathe new life into an industry working with a fleet of offshore rigs in need of replacement. The company this year established a goal of reaching further into ultra-deep waters and ultra-harsh drilling environments with new rig technologies. The Macondo well, which failed and led to the BP oil disaster in 2010, was drilling to a total depth of more […]

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Bakken Shale Rig Count Increases by Two to 184

SM Energy Grabs 61,000 Bakken Net Acres – $330 Million SM Energy Bakken Map SM Energy Bakken Map | Click to Enlarge The  Bakken-Three Forks rig count  increased by two to 184 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week. The NDIC notes 193 rigs are active in North Dakota, but around 21 of those are in the process of moving in and rigging up. In recent Bakken news, SM Energy recently announced it will acquire approximately 61,000 net acres in Divide and Williams Counties for $330-million from Baytex Energy. The acreage is directly adjacent to the company’s Gooseneck focus area. Upon closing, the company will have ~97,000 acres in the area. Read more :  SM Energy Grabs 61,000 Bakken Net Acres – $330 Million The U.S. rig count increased by six to 1,889 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 313 rigs were targeting natural gas […]

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Colorado Fracking Opponents Losing Local Control Fight

Colorado ’s compromise with drilling opponents has dealt a blow to environmentalists’ expanding battle to give local communities more control to limit fracking. Governor John Hickenlooper and Representative Jared Polis agreed to a deal that weakened the prospects for two proposed ballot initiatives aimed at restricting oil and gas activity, the two men said at a news conference in Denver yesterday. Polis, who was expected to help finance the campaign for the measures, agreed to withdraw his support after Hickenlooper promised to create a task force to study the industry’s impact on local communities. “Responsible oil and gas development in Colorado is critical to our economy, our environment, our health and our future,” said Hickenlooper. The Democrat, who told a Senate committee last year that he drank fracking fluid to prove its safety, has been a strong proponent of drilling. Colorado crude output grew faster than in any other […]

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Colorado Deal Would Keep Fracking Off Ballot

A last-minute agreement on Monday between two of Colorado’s top Democrats would keep off the November ballot a pair of anti-fracking measures that some in the party feared would weaken its candidates on Election Day. Under the deal, Democratic Rep. Jared Polis will drop his support for two ballot initiatives that would limit fracking, even though the congressman has spent millions of dollars of his own money on the effort. The lawmaker instead will support a new plan from Gov. John Hickenlooper to have a commission advise the state legislature on the best ways to address residents’ concerns about oil and natural-gas drilling. Groups aligned with Mr. Polis and critical of fracking have been pushing for ballot questions to limit the drilling practice, which prompted pro-industry groups to push a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple