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Saudi Nuclear Deal Raises Stakes for Iran Talks

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman greeted South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Riyadh last week. ENLARGE Photo: Saudi Press Agency/Reuters WASHINGTON—As U.S. and Iranian diplomats inched toward progress on Tehran’s nuclear program last week, Saudi Arabia quietly signed its own nuclear-cooperation agreement with South Korea. That agreement, along with recent comments from Saudi officials and royals, is raising concerns on Capitol Hill and among U.S. allies that a deal with Iran, rather than stanching the spread of nuclear technologies, risks fueling it. Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal, a member of the royal family, has publicly warned in recent months that Riyadh will seek to match the nuclear capabilities Iran is allowed to maintain as part of any final agreement reached with world powers. This could include the ability to enrich uranium and to harvest the weapons-grade plutonium discharged in a nuclear reactor’s spent fuel. Several U.S. and […]

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Turkey Seeks to Replace Ukraine as Energy Hub

Russia says it will stop sending natural gas to Europe through Ukraine and will start sending it through Turkey. Turkey welcomes the decision. For ten years the country has aimed to be a major energy hub, or distribution center. But some critics say Turkey is not prepared to play such a role. Atilla Yesilada is a senior partner at Global Source Partners, a research group in Turkey. He says Russia’s decision is a major opportunity for his country. “Turkey simply becomes the next Ukraine and Turkey could become a major energy hub that supplies Europe.” But Mr. Yesilada says Turkey has a lot of work to do before that can happen. He says Turkey will need to understand the gas market, know the buyers, predict prices and build places to store natural gas. He says being an energy hub will require a big investment but it may also bring […]

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Plan to Verify Delhi Pollution Data Raises Suspicions

Photo A thick blanket of smoke at a garbage dump in New Delhi. The government says it will authenticate pollution levels before releasing the information to the public, a plan that critics say will deprive residents of the opportunity to protect themselves against bad air. Credit Altaf Qadri/Associated Press NEW DELHI — This megacity’s modest effort to warn residents about unhealthy spikes in air pollution levels in real time may soon end, after a decision to first send the data to be authenticated by the central government. Some experts and activists immediately questioned the need for such checks, accusing the government of trying to hide — or worse, alter — data that shows Delhi’s air to be the world’s most toxic at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing for greater industrialization. Recent high readings, which consistently exceed Beijing’s pollution readings, have alarmed the city’s Indian elites […]

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Jamaica Seeks Agreement to Pay Off Venezuelan Oil Debt

Peter Phillips, Jamaica’s finance minister. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Jamaica is in talks with financial institutions on a plan to pay off debt it owes Venezuela for oil it received through the Petrocaribe energy program, Finance Minister Peter Phillips said. The talks come less than two months after the Dominican Republic struck a deal to pay $1.9 billion for nearly all of the $4.1 billion it owed Petroleos de Venezuela SA, which administers Petrocaribe. Phillips said a similar deal makes sense for Jamaica, but he declined to provide details on how the deal would be structured or how soon an agreement could be reached. “We certainly have valued and continue to value the Petrocaribe arrangement,” Phillips said Wednesday in an interview at the Jamaica Investment Forum in Montego Bay. “We are mindful of the particular needs of our Venezuelan counterparts and in that space there is some prospect […]

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The Dirty Truth About Asia’s Cruise-Ship Emissions

ENLARGE Sulfur caps for cruise ships are the subject of an election debate in Sydney. Australia restricts ships’ emissions of sulfur to 3.5% of fuel volume—a level that is 35 times the U.S. and European limit. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images SYDNEY—Operators of some of the world’s biggest cruise ships are facing calls to bring their fuel emissions while at Asia-Pacific ports into line with stricter air-quality standards in the U.S. and Europe. Many popular destinations, including Singapore, Australia and several of the Pacific Islands, apply international maritime guidelines restricting ships’ emissions of sulfur—a pollutant associated with acid rain—to 3.5% of fuel volume. But that is 35 times the U.S. and European limit. Responsibility for regulating sulfur emissions—found by a number of air-quality studies conducted by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cause conditions ranging from breathing difficulties to premature death—rests with local authorities. Activists […]

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US crude stocks grow, likely to continue building

U.S. commercial crude oil stocks rose 4.5 million barrels during the week ended March 6, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by Platts on Monday had expected crude oil stocks to increase 4.2 million barrels week over week. At 448.9 million barrels, inventories pushed further into record-high territory. Crude oil imports dropped sharply the week ended March 6, though stocks still built as production was estimated to have risen 42,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 9.366 million b/d. Daily crude oil output exceeded the year-ago level by 14.5%. Stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, increased 2.3 million barrels, marking a return to large, weekly builds at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) futures contract delivery point. In 2015, Cushing stocks averaged an increase of 2 million barrels each week through February. For the week ended February 27, however, Cushing inventory rose only 536,000 barrels, sparking debate as […]

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Husky reports start of production from Sunrise oil sands project

Husky Energy Inc., Calgary, reported the start of production at the first of two 30,000-b/d plants at the in situ Sunrise Oil Sands Project in northeastern Alberta. Husky said it expects the project’s total production to ramp up its full 60,000 b/d capacity (gross) by yearend 2016. Steam operations for the project began in December 2014 ( OGJ Online, Dec. 12, 2014 ). Husky is the operator of Sunrise, which lies 60 km northeast of Fort McMurray, with equal working interest with BP PLC , which operates the jointly-owned BP-Husky Toledo refinery. Bitumen from Sunrise can be processed at that refinery. Sunrise contains estimated reserves of 3.7 billion bbl (440 million proved, 2.4 billion probable, and 860 million possible) as of Dec. 31, 2013. Husky has a 50% working interest in these reserves. 03/11/2015 Abu Dhabi Co. for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO), through a subcontractor, has let a contract […]

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Chevron shrugs off low oil prices

Chevron said market fundamentals still supportive of the oil industry even if spending and staff reductions are necessary. (UPI/Shutterstock/num_skyman) Fourth quarter earnings of $3.5 billion represented a 30 percent decline year-on-year for Chevron. Full year 2014 earnings were $19.2 billion, compared with $21.4 billion the previous year. Oil prices are down more than half from June 2014 peaks and up only 9 percent since the start of the year. John Watson , Chevron’s chairman and chief executive officer, said at the company’s annual security analyst meeting in New York the market situation was not overly detrimental . "The fundamentals of the oil and gas business remain attractive for our company and investors, as our products are vital to a growing world economy," he said during Tuesday’s conference. A research note published Monday by CME Group said oil prices may be depressed for several years, though the industry itself will […]

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Western Canadian oil and gas output declines

Historic oil and natural gas production in Northwest Territories in Canada on the decline, federal data show. Photo by Calin Tatu/Shutterstock Oil and natural gas production from frontier prospects in the Northwest Territories is on a steady decline, federal Canadian data show Wednesday. The National Energy Board published data on production from the Norman and Ikhil fields in the Northwest Territories. The regional government estimates the western area may hold as much as 37 percent of the marketable light crude oil in Canada and as much as 35 percent of its gas. NEB said it estimates the region produced 3.9 million barrels of oil and around 2.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas last year. That’s down around 25 percent for oil and 17 percent for natural gas when compared with production figures from 2010. David Ramsay, the regional minister of industry, told members of the Canadian Parliament last […]

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Time ripe for Atlantic wind, advocates say

Ocean advocacy group says offshore wind could provide effective balance to U.S. energy economy with the right policies in place. (UPI/Shutterstock/Teun van den Dries) One of the main barriers to a diverse energy economy in the United States is an investment scenario that benefits oil and gas, an ocean advocacy group said. "It’s time for the U.S. to join many other parts of the world and invest in our clean energy future," Nancy Sopko, a campaigner with Oceana, told UPI in response to email questions. The European Commission this week announced some member states had already met their 2020 goals for renewable energy development . While solar power in the United States is gaining momentum, sectors like offshore wind have yet to reach commercial capacity. With high bids totaling $448,000, the Interior Department in January doubled the total acreage available for wind energy development off the coast of Massachusetts […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple