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Saudi King undergoing medical tests in Riyadh hospital: state TV

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s elderly King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz was admitted to a hospital in the capital Riyadh on Wednesday for medical tests, state media reported on Wednesday, citing a royal court statement. King Abdullah was born in the court of his father, King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, in the early 1920s. The softly-spoken monarch, who took power in 2005 after the death of King Fahd, has undergone surgery in the past few years related to a herniated disc. "The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, may God keep him, entered today Wednesday … the King Abdulaziz Medical City of the National Guard in Riyadh to undergo some medical tests," the statement said, according to state news agency SPA. State media last week reported that King Abdullah had left Riyadh for his desert farm at Rawdat Khuraim northeast of the capital. (Writing by Yara Bayoumy; […]

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Gazprom Neft hails oil success in Iraq

Russian oil company Gazprom Neft said third oil well now in service in Badra field in Iraq. (Photo: Gazprom Neft) Gazprom Neft said a third well now in service at the Badra oil field in Iraq ensures a production level of at least 15,000 barrels per day. The Russian company said it brought its third well into production under the terms of a contract concluded previously with its Chinese counterparts at Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group. The company, the oil arm of Russian gas company Gazprom, brought Badra online in late 2013 and testing of new pipeline infrastructure to the export terminal at Basra began in May. The Russian company said the terms of its Iraqi contract call for the eventual production of 170,000 bpd. The Russian company said investors in November reached agreements with the Iraqi government that reinforces a share of production from the Badra oil […]

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Venezuela accuses US of starting oil war to ‘destroy’ Russia and Venezuela

Venezuela relies on oil revenue for 96 percent of its hard currency reserves, so  the plunging price of oil — which has dropped by half in the past six months to $48 a barrel — threatens to destabilize its economy. President Nicolas Maduro has a theory about what’s behind the sudden drop. "Did you know there’s an oil war?” Maduro asked the leaders of Venezuela’s state-run businesses in a speech Monday in which he accused the United States of trying to flood the market with shale oil. “And the war has an objective: to destroy Russia. It’s a strategically planned war … also aimed at Venezuela, to try and destroy our revolution and cause an economic collapse," Maduro added. The boom in U.S. shale oil production has pushed down oil prices worldwide, from $96 a barrel just six months ago, but Maduro’s comments say more about the pressure on his government […]

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Basra leaders pushing for regional autonomy

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (left) with Basra Gov. Majid al-Nasrawi (center) having tea on the street in Basra city on Dec. 29, 2014. Abadi is attempting to slow down the Basra campaign to create an autonomous region. (Source: Iraqi Prime Minister’s Media Office) Leaders in Basra are making a renewed push to form a region akin to the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) – a move that would reduce the central government’s power over the engine of Iraq’s economy.The campaign comes as Basrawis grow increasingly impatient with Baghdad, which has delayed implementing revenue sharing provisions for Basra while simultaneously making budget concessions to the KRG. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is taking the threat seriously enough that he met wi…

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Shi’ite militias expand influence, redraw map in central Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Behind black gates and high walls, Iraqi national security agents watch 200 women and children. Boys and girls play in the yard and then dart inside their trailers, located in a former U.S. military camp and onetime headquarters for Saddam Hussein’s officials in Babel province’s capital Hilla. The women and children are unwilling guests, rounded up as they fled with their male relatives in October from Jurf al-Sakhr, a bastion of Islamic State, during a Shi’ite militia and military operation to clear the farming community. Once they were arrested, security forces separated out the men, accusing them of being Islamic State fighters. They have not been heard from since. Security forces say the women and children are being investigated, but have not been brought to court. Their status shows how central Iraq’s mixed Shi’ite and Sunni regions are being altered. As Shi’ite forces push into territories […]

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Iran Seen Trying to Extend Its Sway Across Middle East in 2015

F or Iran, 2015 is shaping up to be a make-or-break year for two of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ’s biggest foreign-policy projects: achieving recognition for the country’s nuclear program and spreading his country’s sway across the Middle East. As the former goal has received most of the international attention, the latter has progressed steadily. “Iran’s biggest asset is staying power and strategic patience,” said Emile Hokayem, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “They’re deploying in the region the expertise and experience they’ve built up over decades.” Yet Iran’s successes have come with major costs that likely will become even more apparent in the coming year. Iranian support and guidance, as well as legions of allied Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, have been decisive in bolstering the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But while Tehran has been girding Mr. Assad against what once looked like […]

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Venezuela pledges to reform currency controls

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a press conference at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on December 30, 2014. Venezuela confirmed Tuesday that it has entered recession, while annual inflation topped 63 percent, exacerbating the outlook for an economy already hit by crippling shortages and crashing oil prices. AFP PHOTO/JUAN BARRETO Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s socialist president, pledged to reform tight currency controls as part of a package to revive an oil-dependent economy that is officially in recession trampled by policy paralysis and falling crude prices. “We are going to perfect the currency system,” said Mr Maduro, adding that the details would be revealed in the new year, after putting the blame of the fall in global crude prices on a US-led plan to destabilise Venezuela and, its ally, Russia. Political opponents counter that the anointed successor of the late Hugo Chávez, had stalled on the reforms the Opec country […]

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Indonesia Scraps Gasoline Subsidies

ENLARGE Indonesian motorists line up to fill up their tanks after the government announced an increase in fuel prices in November. Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia—Indonesia will scrap gasoline price subsidies starting Thursday as part of President Joko Widodo’s push to free up more funding for infrastructure spending to help boost the economy. At the same time, the price of gasoline will be cut to 7,600 rupiah, or about 61 U.S. cents, a liter from 8,500 rupiah a liter to reflect falling global oil prices, said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said on Wednesday. State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina is the sole seller of gasoline and diesel fuel in Indonesia and will decide on a monthly basis whether to make any changes to the fuel prices, Mr. Said added. The government will continue to subsidize diesel prices , but will fix the amount of the subsidy at […]

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China imposes record fines on corporate polluters

Environmental groups fighting pollution in China got a big boost when a court imposed the country’s biggest environmental fine from public interest litigation against a corporate polluter. On Tuesday Jiangsu provincial high court ordered six unnamed companies to pay a total of Rmb160m ($26m) for emitting waste chemicals into rivers, according to the state news agency. Xinhua reported that the Taizhou City Environmental Protection Association, a public interest group, had brought the suit against the chemical and pharmaceutical companies. The court ordered the polluters to pay the money into an environmental protection fund within 30 days. Several officials of the companies had been sentenced to prison in a criminal ruling in August. Ma Tianjie, Greenpeace East Asia’s programme director for mainland China, said: “This case sets important precedents for environmental governance in China.” “First, “polluters pay’ is no longer just a principle written on paper, and second, that NGOs […]

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US crude pipeline buildout pace to slow amid lower oil prices

New York (Platts)–30Dec2014/259 pm EST/1959 GMT It may be too soon to assess the total impact of falling global crude oil prices on the US oil patch, but the lower price will likely slow the recent fast pace of pipeline buildouts and focus attention on regions where the production plays are most economic. Many oil industry analysts expect to see a slowdown in new midstream projects as production begins to wane, which is expected by the middle of 2015 as drilling slows and many of the hedges producers put in place to manage price risk expire. "In the midstream, in general, there will be some slowdown," said John Hill, CEO of First Reserve, a global private equity investment firm exclusively focused on energy. Reductions in producer capital spending point to slowed drilling going forward, he said. But he notes there will be an "awful lot of Bakken" coming online […]

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