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Iran-Iraq gas pipeline completed

Iranian natural gas is reaching an Iraqi power plant though a now-completed cross-border pipeline, an Iraqi official said. Alireza Gharibi, managing director of the Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Co., said last month water was sent through a 60-mile pipeline crossing the Iranian border into Iraq as part of an initial testing process. An Iraqi official told Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency on condition of anonymity the pipeline was now feeding gas across the border to a gas-fed power plant in Diyala province. "Iran’s gas will be fed into al-Mansurya power plant once the pre-startup tests on the pipeline (built to transport natural gas to Iraq) are complete," the source said Sunday. The pipeline is designed to export 176 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from Iran’s offshore South Pars field. Iraq, for its part, has struggled to ensure around-the-clock electricity despite its vast natural resource wealth. […]

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Oil companies bring staff back to Iraq

British energy company Genel Energy said Monday it started returning staff to the Kurdish north of Iraq following improvements in the security situation. "Genel’s primary consideration is the safety and wellbeing of our employees," the company said in a statement. "The decision to resume full operations has been made following a close monitoring of the situation, and in consultation with the Kurdistan Regional Government, Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government, and other well-placed authorities." As U.S. airstrikes targeting terrorists with the Islamic State got under way in August, the company said it was taking the "prudent and precautionary step" of pulling non-essential staff from the Kurdish north. The company said operations at the Taq Taq and Tawke oil fields in the Kurdish region of Iraq were safe and secure . Production from the two fields is unaffected by the violence and combined production is on a record […]

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Iraq files claim against Greek oil shipper

The Iraqi Oil Ministry said it started legal proceedings in a Greek court against Marine Management Services, which operates five vessels, including United Kalavrvta, en route to a port in Galveston, Texas. "Marine Management Services is liable for damages of at least $318 million, and possibly significantly more, as a result of its willing and active participation in the Kurdistan Regional Government’s illegal crude oil export scheme," the ministry said. The Iraqi and semiautonomous Kurdish governments have been involved in tit-for-tat legal proceedings in U.S. courts over the 1 million barrels of oil loaded onto United Kalavrvta. The U.S. government said the destination of crude oil is a commercial matter, but sided with Baghdad’s claims that it’s the sole entity in charge of oil exports. Both Iraqi governments make competing claims over the legality of exports . Baghdad accused Marine Management Services of turning off ship transponders to avoid […]

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Iraqi parliament approves new government headed by Haider al-Abadi

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The Iraqi parliament approved a new government headed by Haider Abadi as prime minister on Monday night. No interior or defense minister was named but Abadi pledged to do so within a week. Adel Abdel Mehdi from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq was named oil minister while Ibrahim Jafaari, a former premier, was named foreign minister. His deputy prime ministers were named as Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd and Iraq’s only post-Saddam Hussein foreign minister, and Saleh Mutlaq, a secular Sunni Muslim who served in the same position in the last government. The parliament approved for the ceremonial posts of vice presidents the last prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, former premier Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi’ite, and the last parliament speaker Usama al-Nujaifi. The three have been seen as political rivals. Abadi, like Maliki from the Shi’ite Islamist Dawa party, pledged to mend Baghdad’s relations with Iraqi […]

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EU official: gap with Iran over nuclear program can be narrowed

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Iran is far apart from the six world powers negotiating with it over scaling back its nuclear program, but that gap could be narrowed in talks next week, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Monday. Iran and the powers failed to meet a July 20 target date for an agreement and are due to hold their first negotiating round since then in New York on Sept. 18. The deadline for a deal has been extended to Nov. 24. "My hope is that we will make progress. … We believe although we are far apart, there is the possibility of being able to narrow the gap," Catherine Ashton told reporters in Ottawa when asked about her expectations for the New York round. "But we are determined in so doing to do it fully aware that the world is watching and expecting that any agreement must […]

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Anadarko’s Mozambique Project Shows Appetite for Natural Gas

Anadarko has cleared this portion of forest near Mocimboa da Praia, Mozambique, as part of preparations for a new onshore drilling site. Mustafah Abdulaziz for The Wall Street Journal Few roads lead to this fishing village on the eastern shores of Africa. Drinking water and electricity are in short supply. Hazards include venomous snakes, malaria-bearing mosquitoes and gun-toting antigovernment rebels. But this is where Anadarko Petroleum wants to build one of the biggest projects ever attempted by a Western energy company. It has pledged to install acres of air-conditioned housing, an airstrip and a port—and to relocate almost 3,000 villagers currently living in mud huts. The search for oil has drawn companies to remote locations throughout the petroleum industry’s history. But Anadarko isn’t here for black gold. The American company is after something more abundant, albeit less lucrative: natural gas located about 30 miles offshore. There is more than […]

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China saving billions on low oil prices

The Chinese government said Monday it could save as much as $5 billion per month on import bills in part because of falling crude oil prices. Global crude oil prices are shrugging off geopolitical concerns in the Middle East and Eastern Europe as few supply problems have been associated with the turmoil. The price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was down 1 percent to around $100.8 per barrel as of Monday morning. Lu Ting, a Chinese analyst of Bank of America Merril Lynch, told the official Xinhua News Agency there was a general sense of malaise across most sectors of a Chinese economy showing signs of a slowdown. "One of the rare positive effects of slowing investment growth is declining commodity prices," he said. With the Chinese economy still outpacing most others, Lu said China could save as much as $5 billion per month on its import […]

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The EIA’s Drilling Productivity Report

The Eia’s latest Drilling Productivity Report  is out. However they have only updated the PDF file. The spreadsheets have not been updated and still have last month’s data. But I will give you what the PDF file shows and perhaps add some charts tomorrow if they get around to updating the Excel spreadsheets. The EIA says Bakken new wells will produce 100,000 bpd in October but all the old wells will decline by 73,000 bpd and leave a net increase of 27,000 bpd. If these numbers are correct and September production was 1,152,000 bpd then that means the monthly decline rate is 6.33%. The EIA says Eagle Ford new wells will produce 154,000 bpd in October but all the old wells will decline by 123,000 bpd and leave a net increase of 31,000 bpd. If these numbers are correct and September production was 1,551,000 bpd then that means the […]

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Power Plants Heading Out to Sea in Post-Fukushima Japan

One of the biggest hurdles to building new power plants in Japan is finding a place that’s safe from earthquakes and tsunamis. That place may turn out to be 30 miles at sea. Sevan Marine ASA (SEVAN) , a Norwegian builder of offshore oil-drilling vessels, is proposing a $1.5 billion natural gas-fired power plant that will float on a cylindrical platform bigger than a football field moored off the Japanese coast. It’s one of several innovative efforts Japan is considering for generating electricity after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 prompted widespread public concern over how the country will produce electricity — and where. Already, plans are being made to dot the coast off Fukushima with some of the largest floating wind turbines in the world. “We are now focusing on mainly floating offshore wind, but we want to push various types of technical development and research” for floating […]

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CO2 levels in atmosphere rising at dramatically faster rate, U.N. report warns

Greenhouse gases reached historic highs in 2013, a U.N. report says, in part because of rising emissions from automobiles and smokestacks. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose at a record-shattering pace last year, a new report shows, a surge that surprised scientists and spurred fears of an accelerated warming of the planet in decades to come. Concentrations of nearly all the major greenhouse gases reached historic highs in 2013, reflecting ever-rising emissions from automobiles and smokestacks but also, scientists believe, a diminishing ability of the world’s oceans and plant life to soak up the excess carbon put into the atmosphere by humans, according to data released early Tuesday by the United Nations’ meteorological advisory body. The latest figures from the World Meteorological Organization’s monitoring network are considered particularly significant because they reflect not only the amount of carbon pumped into the air by […]

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