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New fighting for Libyan oil ports as UN tries to revive talks

New fighting for Libyan oil ports as UN tries to revive talks thumbnail New clashes erupted on Tuesday between rival factions fighting for control of Libya’s biggest oil ports Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, killing at least 10 people, the two sides said. The fighting came a day after the United Nations said it was seeking a ceasefire to pave the way for a new round of peace talks between factions operating two opposing governments, nearly four years after Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow. Libya’s internationally-recognised government under Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and the elected House of Representatives have been based in the east since a group called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli last summer, set up its own administration and reinstated the old parliament. Troops loyal to the Tripoli government launched an offensive in December to try to take the eastern Es Sider and Ras Lanuf oil ports, which have had […]

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Fighting Resumes Near Libya’s Largest Oil Port

Fighting between rival militias resumed close to Libya’s largest oil port on Tuesday, while Islamic State claimed another attack in Tripoli, as the country further descends into lawlessness. Islamic State’s Tripoli faction had already said it was behind an attack on the upmarket Corinthia hotel in the capital last week that killed nine people, including an American. Clashes erupted at the Sidra oil terminal between Dawn, an Islamist militia that controls the capital Tripoli, and forces loyal to the internationally recognized government based in the east of the country, according to the Facebook pages of both factions and Libyan oil officials. Dawn said it was making military progress and inflicted heavy casualties on the troops of Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who supports the legitimate government. It also said one of its fighters had died and nine had been wounded. The First Brigade of the Libyan National Armyled by Gen. Hifteronly […]

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Gunmen Storm Libyan Oil Field, Says Oil Company Officials

ENLARGE Black smoke billows from a fire at an oil depot struck in crossfire between militias battling in Tripoli, Libya, last July. Fighting for control of the country’s oil facilities continues, with gunmen storming an oil field in central Libya on Wednesday, according to oil officials. Photo: Associated Press Gunmen have stormed an oil field in central Libya, oil officials said on Wednesday, just one day after fighting resumed near the country’s largest oil port. The attack underscores the chaos that is gripping Libya as rival factions vie for the control of its vital oil industry . A spokesman for state oil company National Oil Co. said unknown gunmen had entered the Mabruk oil field, which is operated by its joint-venture with France’s Total SA . Staff were able to leave the premises and are now safe, he said, but the status of the facility isn’t known. A manager […]

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Petrobras chief executive set to step down

Maria das Graças Foster Maria das Graças Foster , the embattled head of Petrobras , is set to step down to help resolve a crippling corruption scandal at the Brazilian state-owned oil company, sources at the presidential palace in Brasília said.  The sources said they were unable to provide an exact timetable for her departure but indicated it could be as early as the end of this month. President Dilma Rousseff was reported to have met Ms Graças Foster on Tuesday.  A person familiar with the matter said Ms Graças Foster’s position had become “untenable” at Petrobras, which is at the centre of allegations that executives collaborated with politicians, contractors and black market money dealers to cream billions of dollars from the company’s projects in bribes and kickbacks.  A spokesperson for the presidential palace refused to comment on Tuesday.   A close friend of Ms Rousseff, Ms Graças Foster […]

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Venezuela Goes After Private Companies as Shortages Mount

(Bloomberg) — Venezuelan officials arrested a second retail executive in two days, accusing their companies of hoarding goods and fixing prices, as President Nicolas Maduro responds to mounting shortages and the lowest support in two decades. Officials detained the owner of Dia a Dia supermarket chain and took over the company’s stores, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello told state television last night from one of the 35 occupied shops. On Feb. 1, police detained the chief executive officer of Farmatodo C.A., which runs almost 200 drug stores across Venezuela and Colombia. The collapse of oil revenue has deepened shortages of everything from diapers to sugar in the country that imports almost everything it consumes. Rather than relaxing price controls to boost supply, Maduro has blamed private industry for “waging economic war” against his government. His approval rating fell to 22 percent in December, according to the latest poll made […]

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Shell to dismantle Brent platform

Shell recommends decommissioning of oil rig, not pictured, in the North Sea. Photo by James Jones Jr./Shutterstock THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Feb. 3 (UPI) — Taking down a legacy platform in the North Sea is part of the natural stage of maturation in the Brent oil and gas field, Royal Dutch Shell said Tuesday. Shell said the process for decommissioning the Delta platform — one of four installations at the field — begins with a 30-day public consultation period beginning Feb. 16. The Brent basin in the North Sea is one of the most mature in the world and its crude oil blends make up the global benchmark price for oil. The Dutch oil major said the Brent field accounted for about 10 percent of the oil and gas produced in the British waters of the North Sea since operations began in 1976. Alistair Hope, decommissioning director for Shell, said […]

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China’s Energy Companies Tighten Their Belts as Oil Prices Plunge

ENLARGE China’s energy companies are cutting back on spending as oil prices plunge. Shown, workers lay cables on a new oil rig under construction for Cnooc Ltd. in Qingdao, eastern China in September 2014. Photo: Associated Press BEIJING—When oil prices surged near record highs in recent years, China’s state-owned energy companies bet prices could climb even higher, paying top dollar for assets around the world and pushing aggressively to develop new resources at home. Now, as oil prices have lost around half their value in less than a year, China’s biggest energy companies are in the midst of a rare pull back. Cnooc Ltd. —the listed arm of China’s main state-owned offshore oil-and-gas producer—said Tuesday it planned to cut capital spending by 26% to 35% in 2015 compared with a year earlier, its first such drop since 2010. The company could be facing write-downs of more than $5 billion […]

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U.S. factory orders fall sharply, order books shrinking

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S. factory goods fell for a fifth straight month in December, but a smaller-than-previously reported drop in business spending plans supported views of a rebound in the months ahead. Other data on Tuesday showing fairly brisk sales in January by the country’s leading automobile manufactures also offered a silver lining for a sector that has taken a hit from weak global demand and falling crude oil prices. "It suggests that activity will pick up in coming months," said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. The Commerce Department said new orders for manufactured goods declined 3.4 percent as demand fell across a broad sector of industries. That followed a 1.7 percent decrease in November and exceeded economists expectations for a 2.2 percent drop. The department also said orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft – seen as a measure […]

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EPA Keystone Review Links Oil Sands to Carbon Emission Jump

Oil sands mining operation near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said developing Canadian oil sands would significantly increase greenhouse gases, a conclusion environmental groups said gives President Barack Obama reason to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. “Until ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of oil sands are more successful and widespread,” developing the crude “represents a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions,” the EPA said Tuesday in a letter to the State Department, which is reviewing the project. The proposed pipeline has pitted Obama’s allies in the environmental movement against the U.S. energy industry. Obama has said he’ll reject TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone if it would lead to a significant increase in carbon pollution. Proposed in 2008, Keystone would deliver Alberta oil sands to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. The Republican-led House next week probably will pass a Senate […]

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Tesoro’s California Dominance Targeted in Union Strikes

(Bloomberg) — In the biggest strike at U.S. oil refineries in 35 years, Tesoro Corp. has been hit the hardest, with workers walking out of three of its plants across the western U.S. That’s not just bad luck. Tesoro, the biggest refiner in the western U.S. by capacity, won a reputation in the last round of negotiations three years ago for being an especially hard bargainer with local United Steelworkers members. That’s put a bullseye on the company during the current negotiations. Changes pushed by the company in 2012 to cut profit-sharing and pension benefits “severely impacted the employees,” said Dave Campbell, secretary-treasurer of the USW local that represents Tesoro’s Carson and Wilmington refineries in Southern California. “Everyone was very, very angry.” The United Steelworkers, a union representing employees at more than 200 U.S. refineries, terminals, pipelines and chemical plants, stopped work at nine sites Feb. 1. after negotiations […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple