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French aircraft carrier deploys against IS fighters in Iraq

PARIS (AP) — France has deployed an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to strengthen its military operation against Islamic State extremists in Iraq. President Francois Hollande announced days after deadly attacks by Islamic radicals in Paris last month that France would dispatch the Charles de Gaulle carrier to the Middle East, to work more closely with the U.S.-led coalition. A French military official said warplanes are starting operations from the Charles de Gaulle on Monday, and French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was visiting the carrier. France has been among the most active participants in the coalition, carrying out regular airstrikes in Iraq. French media reported that some 2,000 military personnel are aboard the carrier, accompanied by a submarine, an air defense frigate and a British anti-submarine frigate.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Amid a Slump, a Crackdown for Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela — For a glimpse into Venezuela ’s economic disarray, slip into a travel agency here and book a round-trip flight to Maracaibo, on the other side of the country, for just $16. Need a book to read on the plane? For those with hard currency, a new copy of “50 Shades of Grey” goes for $2.50. Forget your toothpaste? A tube of Colgate costs 7 cents. Quite the bargain, right? But for the majority of Venezuelans who lack easy access to dollars, such surreal prices reflect a tremendous currency devaluation and a crumbling economy expected to contract 7 percent this year as oil income plunges and price controls produce acute shortages of items including milk, detergent and condoms . “I’ve seen people die on the operating table because we didn’t have the basic tools for surgeries,” said Valentina Herrera, 35, a pediatrician at a public hospital in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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New Fukushima Leak Sees 70x Increase In Radiation

It has been a disturbing week for Japan, not due to any recent economic calamity resulting from Abenomics, but because for the first time since the catastrophic 2011 earthquake, the nation has been rocked with a series of ever stronger tremors, with two 6.0+ stronger quakes recorded in just the past 2 days: The quakes come at an awkward time, just a few short months before Japan’s government aims to restart its first nuclear reactor by around June, following the Fukushima devastation. While it is unclear if it is directly related to the recent surge in tectonic activity, overnight another radioactive water leak in the sea was detected at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, the facility’s operator TEPCO announced. Contamination levels in the gutter reportedly spiked up 70 times over regular readings. The levels of contamination were between 50 and 70 times higher than Fukushima’s already elevated radioactive status, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. refinery strike affects one-fifth of national capacity

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The largest U.S. refinery strike in 35 years entered its fourth week on Sunday as workers at 12 refineries accounting for one-fifth of national production capacity were walking picket lines. Sources familiar with the negotiations said talks may resume by mid-week to end the walkout by 6,550 members of the United Steelworkers union (USW) at 15 plants, including the 12 refineries. Representatives of both sides said no date has been set to restart negotiations, however. The strike comes as U.S. workers seek more pay in a strengthening economy. Wal-Mart Stores Inc has said its U.S. workers will get a raise to at least $9 an hour, while West Coast port workers have reached a tentative deal for a new contract after a months-long dispute. The refinery work stoppage began on Feb. 1 when talks for a new three-year contract between the USW and lead oil company […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. shale oil’s crash diet likely to bring forward output dip

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Shale oil producers are throttling back so quickly on drilling that U.S. crude output could fall sooner than expected, within months, executives say as they slash costs to cope with tumbling crude prices and compete with Persian Gulf rivals. About a dozen chief executives who talked to Reuters or who spoke publicly, acknowledged they were taken aback by the scale and speed of the cutbacks, noting how this oil price downturn was different from several previous episodes in their careers. For one, companies are cutting costs deeper and faster than before as Wall Street investors increasingly place a premium on capital discipline rather than just production growth. Some also say the nature of shale makes it easier for companies to defer work and wait for prices to recover. The wells that drove the U.S. energy boom of the last decade rapidly deplete, so overall output will […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Texas RRC Oil & Gas Production Report

Texas has released Oil & Gas Production Data Query  with its (incomplete) production numbers for December 2014. The numbers were quite surprising. The last data for all Texas data is December 2014 . The EIA data is through November. The Oil data is in barrels per day. Texas C+C Though the data is incomplete, we can still get some idea what oil production was in Texas in December. Total, C+C incomplete, production numbers for December was up over 133,000 barrels per day over the November incomplete data. Of course this number will change but it is very significant. Why would Texas production numbers jump to over 2.5 times their usual number in December? Texas Crude Only Texas crude only was up 109.4 thousand barrels per day according to the Texas RRC. Texas Condensate And the rest of the C+C increase came from condensate, up 23.9 thousand barrels per day. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Prominent climate change denier funded by Koch brothers, energy companies: reports

Harvard-Smithsonian researcher Willie Soon, who has denied that climate change is caused by human activity, took more than $1 million in funding from the energy industry, newly released documents show. (Screenshot) A prominent climate change denier and researcher quietly took more than $1.2 million in payouts from the energy industry, including the Koch brothers and other oil lobbyists, for the past 14 years, newly released documents have  shown . Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, accumulated a total of $1.25 million from Exxon Mobile, the American Petroleum Institute, Southern Company, and a Koch brothers foundation, according to documents obtained by Greenpeace through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filings. For years, Soon’s work has been a go-to source for politicians angling to block climate change legislation, such as Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who has called climate change a hoax. Soon has also testified before the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada’s Oilsands Face ‘Death Spiral’ If They Don’t Cut Costs

As the world’s oil glut continues to build, wiping out hopes of a price recovery, the head of one of Canada’s largest oilsands operators is warning the industry faces a “death spiral” if it doesn’t figure out how to cut costs. Speaking before the Chamber of Commerce in Fort McMurray, Steve Laut, president of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL), said oilsands companies can still return to health, but only if they aggressively begin to cut costs. Costs have risen so far, so fast that oil producers were making three times as much profit in 2004, when oil was at $40 a barrel, than they were a few years ago when oil was at $100 a barrel, Laut said, as quoted at the Globe and Mail . Laut’s call for cost cutting may be seen by some as a prelude to layoffs and project cancellations, but so far North America’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Don’t abandon the North Sea

The next few months will be a critical period in the history of the North Sea. After 50 years which have seen 42 billion barrels of oil and gas produced, the province could now see a significant proportion of activity brought to a premature end. Fields which are uneconomic at current prices could be closed down and then decommissioned. Much of of the oil and gas which remains ( between 12 and 24 bn barrels ) could be left behind, undeveloped and valueless. For some fields, such as Brent, the exhaustion of reserves makes decommissioning inevitable. For others, however, we should be finding a way to maintain operations and to ensure that the resources in place can be developed when prices rise again. A 50 per cent fall in prices would be a nasty shock for any business anywhere in the world but the fall in oil prices is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukraine military says cannot withdraw heavy weapons as attacks persist

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s military said on Monday it could not start withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline in the east as pro-Russian separatists had not stopped attacking government positions despite a ceasefire deal. Over the weekend, rebels and the Ukrainian military said they had reached an agreement to begin the process of withdrawing weapons, as required by the ceasefire deal that came into effect on Feb. 15. Violence has lessened significantly in recent days, but rebels twice shelled government troops overnight, spokesman Anatoly Stelmakh said. "Given that the positions of Ukrainian servicemen continue to be shelled, there can not yet be any talk of pulling back weapons," spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said in a televised briefing. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Alessandra Prentice)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple