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Shell Canada: Oil-Sands Mines May Not Meet Waste Targets

CALGARY—The head of Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Canadian unit Wednesday said the company may not be able to meet promised targets for reducing toxic wastes from oil sands and called for greater regulatory flexibility. Shell, which operates two major oil-sands surface mines in northern Alberta, had committed to cutting the amount of waste generated by its heavy-oil extraction projects in Canada. But the company and other producers have struggled to meet reduction targets mandated by the government and now face the prospect of penalties if those goals remain unmet. "It’s going to be very challenging" to achieve mandated reduction targets next year, said Lorraine Mitchelmore, president of Shell Canada Ltd. Growth in natural gas and oil sands is a core focus for the energy company, she said, adding the company is committed to its operations in Canada as a "multi-decade opportunity." Ms. Mitchelmore said Shell hopes to link inland […]

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Russian-backed separatists enter southeast Ukraine town

KIEV (Reuters) – Separatists backed by Russian soldiers have entered the town of Novoazovsk in southeastern Ukraine, a pro-government militia fighter said on Thursday. A military source said the separatist forces had also taken Savur-Mohyla, a hill east of Donetsk which gives strategic command over large areas of the territory. The sudden reverses for the Ukrainian military appeared to confirm the arrival of Russian forces to support the separatists, who have in recent weeks been under pressure from government forces in their strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, the east’s two main cities. "There is military equipment in Novoazovsk which came across the border two days ago from Russia," the fighter, from the so-called Azov battalion which supports the Ukrainian army, told Reuters by telephone. "The equipment is carrying the flags of the DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic) rebels but they are regular Russian forces," the fighter who did not wish […]

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Ukraine Reports Russian Invasion on a New Front

DONETSK, Ukraine — Determined to preserve the pro-Russian revolt in eastern Ukraine, Russia reinforced what Western and Ukrainian officials described as a stealth invasion on Wednesday, sending armored troops across the border as it expanded the conflict to a new section of Ukrainian territory. The latest incursion, which Ukraine’s military said included five armored personnel carriers, was at least the third movement of troops and weapons from Russia across the southeast part of the border this week, further blunting the momentum Ukrainian forces have made in weakening the insurgents in their redoubts of Donetsk and Luhansk farther north. Evidence of a possible turn was seen in the panicky retreat of Ukrainian soldiers on Tuesday from a force they said had come over the Russian border. Russia, which has denied it is helping the insurgents, did not acknowledge the military movements. But the Russians have signaled that they would not […]

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European refiner squeeze seen in W. African crude changes

HOUSTON, Aug. 27 08/27/2014 European refining is pivotal in “a second wave of structural changes” pummeling West African (WAF) crude oil prices in response to growing production of light oil in North America, notes a report from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, London. “In a way, WAF has become the swing barrel heading into North America,” write Bassam Fattouh, the institute’s director, and Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects. Attractiveness in North America of light WAF crudes depends strongly on price differentials between West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude, they point out. In the first wave of structural change for WAF, rising production of light crude from tight-oil plays backed out imports of WAF crude on the US Gulf Coast, which fell from a high above 1.3 million b/d in 2007 to zero at the end of last year, the analysts note. Meanwhile, growth of railroad […]

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WTI Gains on Positive U.S. Economy Data, Supply Outlook

West Texas Intermediate oil climbed as U.S. durable goods data and consumer confidence boosted economic optimism, while analysts forecast crude supplies fell. WTI gained 0.6 percent after orders for U.S. durable goods jumped in July by the most on record, while consumer confidence reached the highest level in almost seven years. A government report tomorrow will probably show U.S. crude supplies fell 2.5 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey. Russian President Vladimir Putin began talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, as tensions flared on the two nations’ border. “Things are getting better for the U.S. economy,” Bill O’Grady, chief market strategist at Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis, which oversees $2.6 billion, said by phone. “It’s absolutely undeniable that the U.S. is growing and that’s going to be good for fuel demand. We’ll now see if the U.S. is strong enough to be the locomotive […]

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WTI Trades Near Three-Day High Before Supply Data

West Texas Intermediate traded near a three-day high before a government report forecast to show crude stockpiles dropped for a second week in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Brent advanced in London. Futures rose 0.3 percent in New York. Crude inventories probably shrank by 2.5 million barrels to 360 million last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey before data from the Energy Information Administration today. The American Petroleum Institute was said to have reported that supplies fell by 1.3 million barrels. Iran is joining efforts to back Iraqi Kurds battling Islamic State militants who have captured swathes of northern Iraq. “That crude draw from last night did support WTI a little,” Andrey Kryuchenkov , an analyst at VTB Capital in London, said by e-mail. Prices will “hold well” if the Energy Department data is similar, he said. WTI for October delivery was at $94.12 a barrel […]

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Natural Gas Closes Lower on Uncertainty Over Warming Forecast

By Timothy Puko NEW YORK–Natural-gas prices closed lower Tuesday with traders unconvinced that a warming forecast would translate into a significant increase in demand. The front-month September contract settled down 2.6 cents, or 0.7%, to $3.911 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The more actively traded October contract settled down 3 cents, or 0.8%, to $3.949/mmBtu. September options expired at close and the contract expires Wednesday. Both contracts flip-flopped around unchanged on a lot of mixed signals, primarily from the weather, analysts said. Though most forecasts showed another spurt of summer heat coming in early September, that wasn’t a unanimous prediction. The warmer forecasts also included signs that cooler fronts could break up or limit the heat likely to hit the south and east. "Without the forecast (for heat) being extended into the first three weeks of September, we don’t really have enough momentum…to […]

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U.S. Mobilizes Allies to Widen Assault on ISIS

WASHINGTON — The United States has begun to mobilize a broad coalition of allies behind potential American military action in Syria and is moving toward expanded airstrikes in northern Iraq, administration officials said on Tuesday. President Obama, the officials said, was broadening his campaign against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and nearing a decision to authorize airstrikes and airdrops of food and water around the northern Iraqi town of Amerli, home to members of Iraq’s Turkmen minority. The town of 12,000 has been under siege for more than two months by the militants. “Rooting out a cancer like ISIL won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick,” Mr. Obama said in a speech on Tuesday to the American Legion in Charlotte, N.C., using an alternative name for ISIS. He said that the United States was building a coalition to “take the fight to these barbaric […]

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Iraq crisis worsens Jordan’s economic woes

Amman, Jordan – As violence escalates in Iraq, neighbouring Jordan is facing a dire economic situation. Trade between the two countries, once a pillar of the Jordanian economy, has dropped dramatically. "The situation is disastrous, as our exports have almost stopped," said Nabeel Rumman, president of the Association of Investors in the Free Zone. Jordanian and foreign investors are not taxed in Jordan’s free zones to encourage trade. Through the free zones, companies were exporting $120m worth of cars and other goods each month to Iraq, according to Rumman, who estimated that the group’s monthly losses total approximately $78m. "Only a few investors have shipped basic things like food and medicine [to Iraq] during the past couple of months," Rumman told Al Jazeera. Iraq previously imported 20 percent of Jordan’s total exports , and in 2013, exports from Jordan to Iraq totalled approximately $1.25bn, according to the Jordan Chamber of Industry […]

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Islamists in Iraq Rely on Mines, Booby Traps in Battlefield Strategy

Islamic State militants are using mines and IEDs to thwart Kurdish Peshmerga forces trying to dislodge them from positions in northern Iraq. WSJ’s Tamer El-Ghobashy reports from the scene. JALAWLA, Iraq—Islamic State insurgents have planted land mines and other explosives to stall a Kurdish push to retake this town, an unfolding battlefield strategy that foes describe as built on patience, the element of surprise and a willingness to take losses. The fighters borrowed the tactic from their predecessors, al Qaeda in Iraq, who used improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, to prevent U.S. forces from retaking ground during the decadelong war that ended in 2011. The strategy has proved effective. Last week, Iraqi troops were slowed by mines planted along highways into the city of Tikrit, causing a stalemate in a renewed counteroffensive against Islamic State fighters there. Repeated Iraqi military attempts to retake Tikrit, a city of about a […]

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