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DNO Targets Kurdish Oil Exports in Market Opened by U.S. Ruling

DNO ASA (DNO) , the oil producer focused on northern Iraq , said a U.S. court ruling has opened a market for Kurdish crude and it could make its first independent export sales by the end of the year at international prices. A U.S. district judge in Houston yesterday ruled that the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government can take 1 million barrels of crude ashore in Texas even though Iraq’s central government claims ownership of it. That’s “good news” for DNO, which has been cleared by the KRG to export oil independently, Executive Chairman Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani said. “That opens up a market, and we’ll walk into that market as well,” he said today in Stavanger, on Norway ’s west coast. “It’s not just a legal matter or political matter, it’s also a matter of having refineries take this oil, run it through their refineries and see how it works.” DNO, […]

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Sanctions hurt South Pars, Iran says

Sanctions targeting the Iranian energy sector have curtailed development of the South Pars natural gas field, the Iranian energy minister said Tuesday. Iranian Energy Minister Bijan Zangeneh said sanctions imposed in response to Iran’s controversial nuclear research program means the Iranian economy is using more fuel oil than it would if South Pars were fully developed. "Unfair sanctions against Iran have delayed the implementation of projects for gas production from the giant South Pars field," he said in a statement. Iran in mid August said natural gas production during the first four months of the Iranian year, which begins March 21, was up 30 percent year-on-year. South Pars accounts for about 35 percent of the total volume of gas produced from Iran. In the past, the government has held out the field’s output as an option for Europe. Zanganeh said in May his government was "always willing" to play […]

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Shell-led group close to selling Nigeria oilfields for $5bn

(FILES) This file photo taken on May 18, 2005 shows Shell’s major oil and gas terminal on Bonny Island in southern Nigeria’s Niger Delta. Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as the continent’s largest economy with a GDP of $453 billion in 2012, officials said on April 6, 2014. The figure is based on a long-overdue rebasing of Nigeria’s gross domestic product to reflect changes in the structure of production and consumption, and compares with South Africa’s 2012 result of $384 billion. AFP PHOTO / PIUS UTOMI EKPEI A Royal Dutch Shell -led consortium is close to selling several Nigerian oilfields for about $5bn to domestic buyers, as foreign companies retreat from sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest oil industry. The price tag for the four oilfields and a key pipeline co-owned by Shell, France’s Total and Eni of Italy has doubled since initial estimates towards the end of last year, highlighting the […]

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Brazil’s Petrobras gets help with pre-salt basin

Oil services company Wood Group Kenny said Tuesday it secured more than $2 million in contracts for work off the coast of Brazil from Petrobras. Program director Hugues Corrignan said the company has a strong relationship with Brazilian energy company Petrobras, a relationship strengthened by new contracts. "We are particularly pleased to be selected to support Petrobras in these challenging projects and have the opportunity to positively contribute to the introduction of innovative technologies in the Brazilian environment," he said in a statement. Wood Group Kenny said it would help Petrobras and its partners develop heated pipeline technology for oil deposits trapped beneath a thick layer of submarine salt, dubbed pre-salt. The oil services company said the technology would be the first ever in a pre-salt environment. The technology targets the Lapa field, located about 170 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Petrobras in December said the […]

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India court’s coal ruling fuels confusion

Day laborers load coal onto a truck at the Goladi coal depot, operated by Coal India Ltd. subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. (BCCL), in Jharia, Jharkhand, India, on Saturday, April 5, 2014. Coal India, the world’s largest producer, estimates on its website that the nation faces a supply deficit of 350 million tons by 2016-2017, thereby overtaking import demand from China, the world’s biggest coal consumer and producer. Photographer: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg “Coal is king and paramount lord of industry,” wrote India’s Supreme Court this week. Few in the country’s fuel-starved industrial economy would disagree – hence the dismay that followed when the court ruled as illegal every coal licence given to private sector companies for the past two decades. Since 2012, the threat of sanction has hung over many prominent businesses in sectors such as power and steelmaking, which had been handed exclusive use of so-called “captive” coal mines […]

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China Probes China Resources Power President Wang Yujun, Company Says

China Resources Power Holdings said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it has suspended Mr. Wang. Here, the China Resources Building in Hong Kong, China. Jerome Favre/Bloomberg BEIJING—Prosecutors in China are investigating Wang Yujun, president of state-owned China Resources Power Holdings Co. , the second major official probe to hit the group this year, the company said. The energy investment and production company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late Tuesday that it has suspended Mr. Wang from his duties as company president, temporarily replacing him with company chairwoman Zhou Junqing, who also retains her current role. Mr. Wang couldn’t be reached for comment. Mr. Wang will remain an executive director of the company, pending the investigation’s outcome, China Resources Power said. The Communist Party in April ousted Song Lin , chairman of China Resources Holdings Co., the parent company of […]

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Obama Pursuing Climate Accord in Lieu of Treaty

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress. In preparation for this agreement, to be signed at a United Nations summit meeting in 2015 in Paris, the negotiators are meeting with diplomats from other countries to broker a deal to commit some of the world’s largest economies to enact laws to reduce their carbon pollution. But under the Constitution, a president may enter into a legally binding treaty only if it is approved by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. To sidestep that requirement, President Obama’s climate negotiators are devising what they call a “politically binding” deal that would “name and shame” countries into cutting their emissions. The deal is likely to face strong objections from Republicans on Capitol Hill and from poor countries around the world, […]

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Investment in electricity transmission infrastructure shows steady increase

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Financial Reports, as accessed by Ventyx Velocity Suite There has been a five-fold increase in new electricity transmission investment in the United States by major investors and privately owned companies during the 15 years from 1997 to 2012. The investment increased from $2.7 billion in 1997 to $14.1 billion in 2012—reversing a three-decade decline . The first major wave of electricity transmission investment ended in the late 1960s. It began with electrification in the early 1900s and was driven by increased use of new transmission technology, the growing use of large central station generating plants to serve large areas, and growing electricity demand following World War II. From then until the mid-1990s, investment in transmission infrastructure declined. It has increased since then for several reasons: Improving reliability. In mid-August 2003, an electric power blackout lasted up to four […]

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US coal fundamentals weak, natural gas demand to increase in 2015: Barclays

Investment bank Barclays Tuesday said most market participants believe it will be another year before any improvement is seen in the seaborne metallurgical coal market, while the bank expects US natural gas demand to pick up "significantly" in 2015 as a number of coal-fired power plants are shuttered. Barclays detailed its near-term outlook for the US coal and natural gas markets in its Global Energy Outlook for August. Fixed income analyst Matthew Vittorioso said US coal companies are a challenging place to find value due in part to weak met and thermal coal prices. "The spot price for top quality metallurgical (met) coal has been stuck down at $110-115/[mt] for a couple of quarters now and most market participants think it will be another year before things start to improve," Vittorioso said. Article continues below… Platts Coal Trader provides the latest prices for key benchmark coals, as well as: […]

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