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U.S. Sending Aircraft Carrier to Help Monitor Iranian Ships

ENLARGE The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, shown in a U.S. Navy handout photo in the Gulf of Oman on April 13, is heading to the Gulf of Aden as a deterrent to any Iranian attempts to funnel weapons and supplies to Houthi rebels. Photo: Reuters WASHINGTON—The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the Yemeni coast to join a growing fleet of ships keeping watch on an Iranian flotilla American defense officials suspect may be carrying arms for Houthi fighters in Yemen. The USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading to the Gulf of Aden as a deterrent to any Iranian attempts to funnel weapons and supplies to Houthi rebels in Yemen who have been the focus of Saudi Arabia airstrikes for the past three weeks, American defense officials said Monday. U.S. military officials said they are keeping an eye on as many as nine Iranian ships suspected of […]

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Kurdish forces repel IS attack in Kirkuk, clashes continue in Salahudin province

BAGHDAD, April 20 (Xinhua) — Kurdish security forces on Monday fought back the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq’s oil-rich province of Kirkuk, while the Iraqi forces continued their battles against the extremist militants in the country’s central province of Salahudin, security source said. In Iraq’s northern province of Kirkuk, the Kurdish security forces, known as Peshmerga, repelled an attack by the IS militants on two villages near the town Daqouq, some 40 km south of the provincial capital city of Kirkuk, leaving at least five Peshmerga members killed and 16 others wounded, a Kurdish security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The extremist militants started their attack with suicide bombers and mortar barrage on the Peshmerga positions in the two villages and were followed with dozens of IS militants armed with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades, the source said without giving further details about the IS […]

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Iraq oil exports slip so far in April, still near record

LONDON (Reuters) – Iraq’s oil exports have slipped so far in April to 2.92 million barrels per day (bpd), according to loading data and industry sources, although shipments from OPEC’s second-largest producer remain close to a record high. If sustained, Iraq’s exports this month will be just short of the record of 2.98 million bpd set in March. Another strong month from Iraq adds to signs of continued high output from major members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Exports from Iraq’s southern terminals have averaged 2.50 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first 19 days of April, according to shipping data seen by Reuters and an industry source, down from 2.71 million bpd in March. But exports from Iraq’s north via Ceyhan in Turkey, comprising Iraq’s Kirkuk crude and Kurdish oil, have averaged 420,000 bpd so far in the month, according to loading data and […]

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Eni brags of oil production in Egypt

With investment confidence rising, Italian energy company Eni said its oil production in Egypt has doubled in just three years. Photo courtesy of Egyptian Presidency Office MILAN, Italy, April 20 (UPI) — Italian energy company Eni said Monday its oil production in the Western Desert of Egypt has reached a record level, doubling its rate in just three years. Eni said it’s producing around 70,000 barrels of oil per day in the region. The company said that’s twice the rate from three years ago and comes in large part from the Melehia development west of Alexandria, which is producing about 54,000 bpd. "In January this year, Eni signed a new concession agreement to operate in the Melehia southwest block, where exploration activities on the same deep plays will start within the year," the company said in a statement. "Eni deems this concession a key element for the sustainability of […]

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Algerian gas discovery made near Libya

Spanish energy company Repsol announces natural gas discovery in area along the border of war-torn Libya. Map courtesy of Repsol. MADRID, April 20 (UPI) — Spanish energy company Repsol announced Monday it’s made a natural gas discovery in Algeria, its third in an area bordering war-torn Libya. The company is the operator in a consortium that includes French energy company GDF Suez and Algeria’s state-owned Sonatrach. The company said gas flowed from a discovery at the so-called TESO exploration well in the Sud-Est Illizi block, where it’s already had a "very successful exploration campaign." The discovery is the third in the same region. The Spanish energy company said gas flowed at a test rate of 6.1 million cubic feet per day. "Repsol aims to drill at least four more additional wells in order to appraise the previous discoveries within the Sud-Est Illizi block," it said in its statement on […]

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Abu Dhabi to invest over $25 billion in offshore oilfields -ADNOC official

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Abu Dhabi plans to invest over $25 billion in the next five years on boosting its oil production capacity from offshore fields, a senior official of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co said on Tuesday. The plan is part of the United Arab Emirates’ strategy of increasing its crude oil output potential to 3.5 million barrels per day by 2017-18. "We want to build ‎capacity from production and from number of wells and infrastructure. Our current plan as ADNOC (is to reach) 3.5 million bpd and to sustain it," Qasem al-Kayoumi, manager of ADNOC’s offshore division of the exploration and production directorate, told reporters. He also said the investment plan for offshore drilling activities was $2.5 billion per year. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Writing by Andrew Torchia )

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Exclusive: Naimi says Saudi oil production near record high in April

SEOUL (Reuters) – Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi says Saudi Arabia is producing near record levels of crude in April, underscoring the kingdom’s willingness to defend market share at a time when oil markets have staged a fragile recovery. There are worries that growing production from Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could snuff out a recent rebound in oil prices, particularly with economic growth in key oil consumer China the slowest in six years in the first quarter. OPEC had said its overall output surged to 30.79 million barrels per day in March, up 810,000 bpd from the previous month, with demand higher than expected due to lower prices. Naimi said that oil production in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, was "around 10 million" bpd in April. "I have said many times we will always be happy to supply […]

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New Geological Studies Seen Giving Clearer Picture of Mexico’s Oil Potential

MEXICO CITY—An expected wave of international geological firms set to scan Mexico’s oil patch for oil and gas reserves will give the country a clearer picture of its riches, the nation’s top energy regulator said Monday in an interview. In the wake of Mexico opening its energy sector to foreign companies, the National Hydrocarbons Commission has about two dozen companies requesting permission to conduct surface exploration , such as seismic studies that can reveal oil and gas deposits below the ocean floor or in onshore areas. Those companies can use newer technologies and provide a greater number of scans that Mexico has used in the past, giving a clearer picture of the potential reserves. Some of those firms are expected to be cleared for exploration in coming weeks, in addition to four Norwegian companies that were cleared last week to cover nearly one-million square kilometers in the Gulf of […]

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New Zealand boasts of geothermal energy capacity

New Zealand Energy Minister Simon Bridges delivers keynote address at World Geothermal Congress, telling delegates his country is ready to lead an international movement. Photo courtesy of Government of New Zealand. MELBOURNE, April 20 (UPI) — New Zealand is ready to help lead an international movement toward including more geothermal energy in its renewable portfolio, the energy minister said Monday. New Zealand Energy Minister Simon Bridges delivered the keynote address to delegates gathered in Melbourne, Australia, for the World Geothermal Congress. New Zealand, Bridges said, has contributed roughly 25 percent of the growth in geothermal energy capacity over the past five years. "We are now the fifth largest geothermal power generator in the world," he said. The share of electricity generated from renewable resources in New Zealand last year was 79.9 percent, a 5 percent increase from the previous year. The government attributed the rise to the growth in […]

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China Has Even More Megacities Than You Thought

How many megacities does China have? The United Nations  puts it at six. Try 15. China is urbanizing at a staggering rate—in 35 years, it has added more than 500 million people to its cities. As a result, it looks like the world has vastly underestimated the size and scope of growth in China’s megacities, defined as those with more than 10 million people, according to a new report by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. The research used analysis based on functional urban areas, rather than cities defined by administrative borders. Besides such better-known places as Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing, the new list includes Harbin, a northeast city with a renowned annual ice and snow sculpture festival , and Nanjing, a former capital city that sits on the Yangtze River.  China’s rapid economic growth, relative to the rest of the world, is one reason for the pace of urbanization, which has raised the living standards of millions of Chinese. And the bigger the city, the more each person produces […]

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