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Iran Seeks Chinese Oil Firms to Get Projects Going

Iran hopes to resolve differences with Chinese energy companies on oil and gas projects in the Islamic republic, as Tehran wants to be ready to raise output quickly after a potential lifting of sanctions this year, Iranian oil officials said on Wednesday. The officials are in China this week to discuss Chinese investments in oil and gas developments in Iran, as well as oil sales, just days after world powers and the OPEC member reached a framework nuclear deal. The talks come ahead of a visit to Beijing by Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, his first since assuming his post two years ago. Iran, the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, hopes to nearly double its exports from just over 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in two months once sanctions are lifted, although analysts say it will take longer. Some of the production is expected to come from projects state […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Islamic State attacks Iraqi provincial capital

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Islamic State militants attacked the capital of Iraq’s vast Anbar province on multiple fronts on Friday, seizing two areas on the city outskirts in a setback for a government campaign to retake the desert terrain. The jihadists deployed vehicle and suicide bombs to tear through Iraqi government lines north of the city of Ramadi overnight before attacking on foot, said security officials and a hospital source. The head of Anbar’s provincial council, Sabah Karhout, called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send urgent military reinforcements and supplies to fighters, saying they were running low on ammunition. Abadi visited Anbar on Tuesday and declared the start of the operation to liberate the Sunni Muslim heartland, seeking to build on a victory over the extremist Islamic State last week in the city of Tikrit. But a police source in Ramadi said early on Friday the insurgents had taken […]

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ISIS Kills 25 Police Officers and Soldiers in Iraqi Province of Anbar

Photo The site of a car bombing that killed five civilians on Friday in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad. Credit Karim Kadim/Associated Press BAGHDAD — Islamic State fighters launched a heavy attack on government-held territory in Anbar Province late on Thursday and on Friday, killing 25 Iraqi police officers and soldiers, and then executing 15 family members of local police officers, according to Iraqi officials. The attackers overran large parts of the town of Albu Faraj, just north of the provincial capital, Ramadi, less than two days after officials in the province declared that they had begun an offensive against the extremists to the east of the capital, police officials in Ramadi said. A convoy of police reinforcements sent to Albu Faraj was attacked by a suicide bomber, wounding Maj. Gen. Kadhim al-Duleimi, the Anbar Province police commander, the police sources said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity […]

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Ramadi battles foreshadow bloody campaign for Anbar

An Iraqi soldier shoots his weapon during clashes with Islamic State militants in the Karma district of Anbar province, March 22, 2015. (STRINGER/Reuters) Recommend 2 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. The Islamic State (IS) militant group has launched a sustained offensive against pro-government forces in Ramadi, even as Iraqi leaders plan a major operation to reassert control over Anbar province.The five-pronged attack began Thursday evening, with IS fighters using a combination of suicide bombings, mortars, and small arms. Security forces repelled that first wave, but then on Friday morning, in the Albu Faraj area of northern Ramadi, they were overrun – and as of Friday evening, mili…

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Saudi Arabia Maneuvers to Retain Oil Crown

ENLARGE Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi. The kingdom’s oil exports declined 5.7% in 2014 compared with 2013. Photo: HEINZ-PETER BADER/REUTERS Saudi Arabia is struggling to maintain its share of the global oil market in a contest that pits the world’s largest crude exporter against traditional allies in the U.S. and Persian Gulf. The Saudi kingdom’s oil exports declined 5.7% in 2014 compared with 2013. Oil shipments to its fastest-expanding customer, China, reached their lowest levels since 2011 in the first two months of 2015, according to the China General Customs Administration. And its U.S. sales nearly halved in January compared with a year earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. China and the U.S. are Saudi Arabia’s biggest importers, with 10% and 8%, respectively, of the kingdom’s production. In China, Saudi Arabia is suffering from depressed demand and better deals being offered by its rivals in Russia, Kuwait […]

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Argentina Summons U.K. Ambassador Over Falkland Islands Dispute

ENLARGE A view of the memorial in Buenos Aires to Argentine soldiers who died in the Falklands War. An online magazine contended in a published report that the U.K. spied on Argentina over the long-running Falkland Islands dispute. Photo: Zuma Press The U.K. government on Friday confirmed its ambassador in Buenos Aires had been summoned to a meeting at Argentina’s foreign ministry, in the latest flare-up of the long-running diplomatic row over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands that has engulfed oil and gas exploration companies. The Argentine Deputy Foreign Minister Eduardo Zuain summoned the U.K. ambassador on Thursday to explain a report published by online magazine The Intercept that contended the U.K. had spied on Argentina over the Falklands dispute, the Argentine embassy in London said in a statement. The meeting Thursday came a day after the U.K. had summoned the Argentine ambassador in London. Argentina continues to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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This is *really* nuts. When’s the crash?

The China stock bubble is getting more and more bonkers. This from Deutsche Bank: Bubble watchers point out median earnings multiples for Chinese technology stocks are twice US peer valuations at their dot.com peak. More worrying perhaps is a health-goods-from-deer-antlers producer on 70 times, the seamless underwear manufacturer on 90 times or those school uniform and ketchup makers on 330 times! It seems everyone in the country is racing to open a brokerage account – 1.67m new accounts in the latest week, according to the China Securities Depository and Clearing Co. That sounds a lot, although it is growth of only about 1 per cent a week in the total of new accounts: China, remember is big. But a quick bit of Excel work shows just how silly the bubble in Chinese domestic stocks, known as A shares, has become. Start with the good news: overall valuations in Shanghai […]

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We Traveled Across China and Returned Terrified for the Economy

China’s steel and metals markets, a barometer of the world’s second-biggest economy, are “a lot worse than you think,” according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst who just completed a tour of the country. What he saw: idle cranes, empty construction sites and half-finished, abandoned buildings in several cities. Conversations with executives reinforced the “gloomy” outlook. “China’s metals demand is plummeting,” wrote Kenneth Hoffman, the metals analyst who spent a week traveling across the country, meeting with executives, traders, industry groups and analysts. “Demand is rapidly deteriorating as the government slows its infrastructure building and transforms into a consumer economy.” The China Steel Profitability Index compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence barely rose in March, a time after the annual Lunar New Year when demand would usually surge, and so far this month has resumed its decline. Steel use this year is down 3.4 percent, after slumping as much as 4 percent […]

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China Antitrust Regime Faces Test in Massive Shell-BG Oil Deal

A female staff works at a gas station in Huaibei, Anhui province, China on 27th March 2015. Foreign Photo Service/Zuma Press For Royal Dutch Shell and Britain’s BG Group , a $70 billion marriage may partly depend on winning the blessing of bureaucrats in Beijing. Shell’s bid to acquire BG marks one of the biggest deals the energy sector has seen in years, and could present a major test for China’s young yet increasingly assertive antitrust regime, say energy and antitrust lawyers. Potential challenges include convincing China’s Ministry of Commerce that the deal won’t spur higher costs for China to import resources such as liquefied natural gas. Officials may also worry that the combination could bring new price volatility, which could harm China’s economy. Advertisement Tao Lan, a partner at law firm Sidley Austin LLP in Beijing, said the companies may face worries from Beijing about the scale of […]

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Environmental Order in China to Prevent Building of Contested Dam

Photo Construction of a suspension bridge over the Yangtze River in Chongqing, China, in 2012. The Xiaonanhai Dam project, which has been blocked, would have been Chongqing’s largest infrastructure project. Credit Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIJING — The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has issued an order preventing dam-building on a stretch of the upper Yangtze River, which will result in the scrapping of a proposed hydroelectric dam near the western metropolis of Chongqing that had been opposed for years by environmentalists. The Xiaonanhai Dam would have cost billions of dollars to build and operate, and it was supported by Bo Xilai , the former Chongqing party chief who was sentenced to life in prison in 2013 for corruption. The dam would have been Chongqing’s largest infrastructure project. Environmentalists said the dam would have destroyed a protected area of the river that had been established by officials […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple