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Ukrainian Soldiers’ Retreat From Eastern Town Raises Doubt for Truce

ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian soldiers were forced to fight their way out of the embattled town of Debaltseve in the early hours of Wednesday, casting further doubt on the credibility of a days-old cease-fire and eroding the promise of ending a war in Europe that has killed more than 5,000 people. It was unclear Wednesday how many of the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers trapped in the eastern Ukrainian town had survived the hellish retreat under enemy fire and avoided capture. President Petro O. Poroshenko put the figure at 80 percent, but since the Ukrainian military has never commented on its troop strength, the final accounting may never be known. By midday on Wednesday, as limping and exhausted soldiers began showing up in Ukraine -held territory, it became clear that the Ukrainian forces had suffered major losses, both in equipment and human life. “Many trucks left, and only a few […]

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Russia Economy Moves Further Toward Recession

ENLARGE A currency exchange office in Moscow last month. The ruble has lost almost half its value against the dollar over the past 12 months. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency MOSCOW—Economic data published Wednesday showed Russia’s economy moving further toward recession under the weight of Western sanctions and a sharp decline in the price for oil, its main source of hard currency. Although the rate of inflation is slowing, a sharp decline in retail sales and a drop in real wages indicated that consumers are bearing the brunt of the economic pressure. The government expects gross domestic product to shrink by 3% in 2015, the first drop since 2009; many private economists expect a deeper contraction. The Wednesday data from the Federal Statistics Service RosStat showed a decline in domestic demand, which had been one of the main drivers of the economy for years, but has been hit by a […]

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Earthquake Dangers in Dutch Gas Field Were Ignored for Years, Safety Board Says

LONDON — An independent Dutch safety panel has found that the operators of Europe’s largest natural gas field, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, as well as the Dutch government, for years ignored the dangers posed by earthquakes in the field. That finding could add to growing pressure to reduce production at the field, in the Dutch province of Groningen, which has long been a crucial source of fuel for northern Europe and generates billions of euros in revenue annually for the Dutch government. In a report published on Wednesday, the Dutch Safety Board, a government-financed but independent organization, concluded that “the parties concerned failed to act with due care for citizen safety in Groningen” related to the earthquakes caused by gas extraction. The government had already ordered a series of cutbacks at the field, which lies under about 350 square miles of farmland and cow pastures, after residents […]

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Another cut seen in Groningen gas output

HOUSTON, Feb. 18 02/18/2015 Production from giant Groningen natural gas field in the Netherlands might be further curtailed in response to public concern about earthquakes ( OGJ, Aug. 4, 2014, p. 32 ). On Feb. 18, Dutch Economy Minister Henk Kamp said he’ll set a new cap on Groningen output on July 1 and will act sooner “if we see good reasons,” Reuters reported. The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs said in January 2014 it would lower Groningen output because of seismic activity. In December it targeted a cut to 39.4 billion cu m this year from 42.5 billion cu m in 2014. The move followed a recommendation by the State Supervision of Mines, based on data about seismic activity, that gas production be trimmed by 3.1 billion cu m this year in the southern part of the field. Kamp didn’t specify how much further output might be trimmed. […]

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Fooling peak oil one more time: can we find new sources of liquid hydrocarbons?

The world peak of conventional oil production took place in 2005-2006, but the supply of combustible liquids did not decline, mainly because of the contribution of the newly developed “shale oil” (or “tight” oil) fields. With the impending worldwide peak of “all liquids” it is likely that the industry will try a new, all out effort to squeeze out the last drops of liquid oil from whatever sources are available, no matter how dirty and expensive. It is not certain that the attempt will be successful, but it is likely that some new monstrosity will be created in Sauron’s satanic mills.  Peak oil is something referred to as a “theory,” intended in a derogatory sense. But the concept is not just a theory; production peaks are historically observed facts, occurring not just for oil, but for any natural resource which is exploited beyond its capability to reform (e.g. for […]

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What happens if we run out of oil?

What happens if we run out of oil? thumbnail It took hundreds of millions of years to create the world’s oil reserves. It took less than a century before oil became the commodity on which world power turned. And it was little more than a century before fears were raised that we would run out of oil. Fifty years further on, it’s less clear than ever how much is left. That’s because technological advance has confounded those who feared there were tight constraints on what could be drilled. The rich rewards from oil have fuelled initiative and invention. As Professor Iain Stewart explains in his BBC series Planet Oil , this wasn’t just a passion for scientific and engineering endeavour. It was economic, political and strategic military calculation that drove the UK and the US to find ways of becoming less dependent on supplies from the Middle East. Having […]

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Oil falls below $62 as analysts doubt recent rally

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil dropped below $62 a barrel on Wednesday, failing to build on gains of more than 1 percent in the previous session as analysts said a recent rally in prices was overblown. "The lack of follow-through higher yesterday is a worry and there’s plenty of reason to be neutral here and observe carefully," PVM Oil Associates director and technical analyst Robin Bieber said. Oil prices have risen more than 35 percent since hitting an almost six-year low of $45.19 in January, in a rally fueled by lower industry spending and falling rig counts in the United States. Benchmark Brent crude futures were down 83 cents at $61.70 by 0855 GMT (3.55 a.m. EST), having fallen more than $1 to $61.47 earlier in the session. U.S. crude traded at $52.93 a barrel, down 60 cents. "The contracts will look very fragile and accident-prone if one or two […]

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Oil Prices Settle Higher

ENLARGE Smoke rises from the port of the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Saturday during clashes between forces loyal to the internationally recognized government and Islamist militias. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images NEW YORK—Oil prices gained Tuesday, reversing earlier losses, as traders weighed concerns about Iraqi and Libyan production against an oversupplied market. Light, sweet crude for March delivery settled up 75 cents, or 1.4%, at $53.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since Dec. 30. Brent, the global benchmark, rose $1.13, or 1.8%, to $62.53 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Oil prices have plunged since June as ample global supply growth outweighed tepid demand, and many analysts expect the market to stay oversupplied through the first half of the year. However, recent violence and bad weather has affected output from Libya and Iraq, two major oil producers. Egyptian airstrikes against Islamic State […]

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Volatility Has Natural-Gas Traders Scrambling

ENLARGE Marc Kerrest, a trader in San Francisco, checks natural-gas prices as he prepares to watch the Super Bowl with family on Feb. 1. Photo: Laura Morton for The Wall Street Journal The natural-gas market is costing Todd Gross a lot of sleep. Mr. Gross, chief investment officer at Qeri LLC, a small commodity hedge fund in New York, used to wake up at 5 a.m. to look at the latest market data. Now he increasingly rises in the middle of the night to check the latest weather models and adjust his wagers. He doesn’t want to miss what he calls an “oh my God” move of 5% or more. Mr. Gross, 48 years old, says it has become common for those moves to start as early as midnight when electronic-trading programs react to weather updates hours before most human traders are awake. Natural gas and Mother Nature are […]

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BP report predicts Opec comeback

Oil pump jacks The boom in US oil output that has sent prices tumbling and put America on course to self-sufficiency by the 2030s will slow sharply in coming years, leading to record demand for crude from Opec producers, according to BP . In its annual long-term energy outlook , BP forecasts rapid growth of so-called “tight” oil supplies, or shale, particularly in the US, until the end of the decade. More On this topic IN Global Economy However, the pace of output growth, which has contributed to a near 50 per cent fall in oil prices since last summer, will then slow, paving the way for a recovery in the global market share of Middle Eastern producers. The US is likely to become self-sufficient in oil by the 2030s, having imported about 60 per cent of its total demand as recently as 2005, BP says. North America is […]

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