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U.S.-led coalition, Iraqis pound Islamic State in Tikrit

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S.-led coalition warplanes launched their first airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Tikrit on Wednesday, officials said, coming off the sidelines to aid Iraqi forces fighting alongside Iran-backed Shi’ite militia on the ground. The decision to give air support to the Tikrit campaign pulls the United States into a messy battle that puts the U.S.-led coalition, however reluctantly, on the same side of a fight as Iranian-backed militia in a bid to support Iraqi forces and opens a new chapter in the war. It also appeared to represent at least a tacit acknowledgement by Baghdad that such airpower was necessary to wrest control of the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from Islamic State fighters, after its attempts to go it alone stalled. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqi forces would prevail with the support of "friendly" countries and the international coalition, including arms, […]

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Iran storing 30 million barrels of oil at sea

LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Iran is storing at least 30 million barrels of oil on its fleet of supertankers as Western sanctions continue to keep a lid on sales, tanker market sources say. World powers are trying to reach a framework deal with Tehran by the end of the month that would restrict the most sensitive aspects of Iran’s disputed atomic program in return for an easing of international sanctions. Sanctions have halved Iran’s oil exports to just over 1 million barrels per day since 2012 and hammered its economy. Higher Iranian oil exports are likely to put more pressure on weak global oil prices. Iran has parked unsold crude oil stocks off its coast, mainly onboard tankers belonging to its national carrier NITC. One shipping industry source said 15 of NITC’s Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC), each capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil, were deployed for floating […]

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US, Iran nuke talks enter critical round ahead of deadline

AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski Buy AP Photo Reprints Interactives Latest News LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran entered a critical phase on Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meeting his Iranian counterpart less than a week away from an end-of-month deadline to secure the outline of a deal. With the clock ticking, Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and their teams huddled Thursday in the Swiss resort town of Lausanne on Lake Geneva trying to overcome still significant gaps after nearly two years of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. The top diplomats from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia are expected to join the talks if the U.S. and Iran are close to an agreement. U.S. officials say the March 31 deadline is achievable but remains uncertain. En route to […]

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Iran Stalls U.N. Probe Into Its Atomic Past

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowed in Mashhad, eastern Iran, Saturday. ENLARGE Photo: European Pressphoto Agency LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Talks over Iran’s nuclear program have hit a stumbling block a week before a key deadline because Tehran has failed to cooperate with a United Nations probe into whether it tried to build atomic weapons in the past, say people close to the negotiations. In response, these people say, the U.S. and its diplomatic partners are revising their demands on Iran to address these concerns before they agree to finalize a nuclear deal, which would repeal U.N. sanctions against the country. “Progress has been very limited,” Yukiya Amano, who heads the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Wall Street Journal this week. “No more new issues” have been addressed. Secretary of State John Kerry is resuming talks on Thursday in Lausanne with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, […]

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Kuwait Seen Missing 2020 Oil-Production Target

Stymied by political opposition to foreign oil companies, Kuwait oil officials have privately acknowledged the country won’t meet a goal of boosting oil-production capacity 25% by 2020, people familiar with the matter said. The delay throws a spotlight on the fractious politics of a rare Middle Eastern country where an elected parliament holds real power, and the constitution bans foreign ownership of natural resources. It also could affect Kuwait’s effort to expand into Asian markets during the current period of relatively low oil prices—as well as its ability to profit should the price of crude rise again. Oil exports from aging fields make up 60% of the country’s gross domestic product. Kuwait has made it a national priority to ramp up production capacity to 4 million barrels a day—from the current 3.2 million—to help it reach new markets. That would bring it on par with regional rivals like Iran, […]

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Budget payment buoys Baghdad-KRG oil deal

Iraqi Oil Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi (L) meets with Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in Erbil on Nov. 13, 2014. (STRINGER/Reuters) Recommend 462 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has received its second federal budget payment for 2015, keeping a fragile oil export and revenue sharing deal on track for now.The region received the 490 billion Iraqi dinar ($408.3 million) payment on Monday, according to the spokesman of the KRG Ministry of Finance, Ahmed Abdulrahman. He said the money would be used to pay overdue salaries of government employees.The payment follows the first transfer made on Feb. 26 of $208.3 million. Both a…

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Shell takes further steps away from Nigeria

Royal Dutch Shell unloads more assets in the Niger Delta region to national energy companies in Nigeria. File Photo UPI/Maryam Rahmanian. The Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell said it made further progress in its divestment strategy by selling Niger Delta assets from $1.7 billion. Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria said it completed the sale of oil mining lease 29 and the 62-mile long Nembe Creek pipeline to Aiteo Eastern E&P Co., a Nigerian company. "This divestment is part of the strategic review of SPDC’s onshore portfolio and is in line with the federal government of Nigeria’s aim of developing Nigerian companies in the country’s upstream oil and gas business," the Dutch supermajor said in a Wednesday statement. Shell last week sold its stake in oil mining lease 30 to a separate rival for $737 million. Divested fields produced around 43,000 barrels of oil per day for Shell […]

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Shell completes $1.7 billion lease, trunk line sale in Nigeria

Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria Ltd. (SPDC) has completed its assignment of interest in oil mining lease 29 (OML 29) and the Nembe Creek trunk line (NCTL) and related facilities in the Eastern Niger Delta to Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. Ltd. for $1.7 billion. OML 29 covers 983 sq km and includes Nembe, Santa Barbara, and Okoroba fields and related facilities. NCTL, which was commissioned in 2010, is a 100-km, 600,000-b/d system that transports oil to the Bonny crude oil terminal (BCOT). BCOT is not part of the transaction and will remain owned and operated by the SPDC joint venture. Among the divested assets are flow stations, associated gas systems, and oil and gas pipelines within the OML. The divested fields produced 43,000 boe/d during 2014. Total E&P Nigeria Ltd. and Nigerian Agip Oil Co. Ltd. also have assigned their respective 10% and 5% interests in the lease, […]

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New Zealand breaks renewable energy record

New Zealand says it’s on pace to use renewable resources for nearly all of its electricity. File Photo by UPI/Stephen Shaver. The share of renewable energy on the grid in New Zealand is the highest it’s been in close to 20 years, the country’s energy minister said Thursday. The share of electricity generated from renewable resources last year was 79.9 percent, a 5 percent increase from the previous year. "New Zealand’s share of renewable electricity generation is the fourth largest in the world," Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges said in a statement. The government attributed the rise to the growth in geothermal generation, which more than doubled in the last decade. New Zealand last held an auction for oil and gas exploration in December, which Bridges said was the most successful to date . Around 149 million barrels of oil reserves remain in fields already in production and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple