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World Bank: Stop flaring gas

World Bank notes capturing gas normally burned off at the wellhead could provide more energy than some world regions consume. Photo by James Jones Jr./Shutterstock WASHINGTON, May 8 (UPI) — Natural gas is a bridge fuel to a low-carbon economy so it’s unfortunate companies are burning it off at the wellhead, a World Bank spokesman said Friday. Lawmakers in Washington this week called on Interior Secretary Sally Jewel to review federal policies on so-called flared gas, pointing to a report from the Government Accountability Office finding federal standards are behind the curve . U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki -moon, the World Bank Group and European energy leaders, from Royal Dutch Shell to Norwegian company Statoil, endorsed a plan to eliminate routine flaring no later than 2030. Some energy companies burn off, or flare, natural gas associated with other deposits because of the lack of infrastructure needed to utilize the resource. […]

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Natural Gas Bounces Off a One-Week Low

By Nicole Friedman Natural-gas prices jumped Friday in a rally that analysts attributed to technical trading after a bearish inventory report had sent prices to one-week lows the day before. Futures for June delivery settled up 14.6 cents, or 5.3%, at $2.880 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since March 18. Prices rose 3.7% this week. Prices had fallen to the lowest level since April 29 on Thursday after weekly stockpile data showed a larger-than-expected injection of gas into storage, suggesting that either production was more robust or demand was weaker than expected. Traders reversed those losses Friday. "The market seems keen to embrace a bullish turn when given the opportunity," said Breanne Dougherty, analyst at Societe Generale SA, in a note. "With so little interest in the [natural gas] contract these days, even small levels of engagement can move the […]

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Report: 2.2 million Iraqis displaced by ISIS

FILE – In this Sunday, April 19, 2015, file photo, a woman displaced from Ramadi settles in a mosque with children, in the al-Shurta neighborhood in west Baghdad, Iraq. A Norwegian humanitarian group report says a record 38 million people have been internally displaced in their countries worldwide, with 2.2 million Iraqis alone fleeing in 2014 after the Islamic State group seized their areas. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim, File) The Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Conflicts and violence worldwide displaced a record 38 million people in 2014, with 2.2 million Iraqis alone forced to flee the Islamic State group, a Norwegian humanitarian group report released Wednesday revealed. The findings of the study carried out by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Center are endorsed by the United Nations refugee agency. In a joint statement, they said 11 million were newly displaced last year — mostly because of conflicts in […]

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Shia militias skirmish with presidential guards

Shia militiamen brandish their weapons in the town of Tuz Khurmatu on Aug. 31, 2014. (STRINGER/Reuters) Recommend 115 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Shia militiamen clashed with a detachment of Iraqi President Fuad Masum’s bodyguards Thursday in Salahaddin province, denying them passage and confiscating their weapons and vehicles.The conflict threatens to further aggravate long-standing tensions between Shia militias and Kurdish security forces in the disputed territories of northern Iraq, which are subject to competing claims by Kurds, Arabs, Turkomen, and others. Armed Kurdish protesters have subsequently blocked roads and scuffled wit…

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U.S. Accuses Syria of New Uses of Chemical Arms

ENLARGE Children react after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Wednesday. A U.S. diplomat termed chemical weapons use allegations against Syria ‘credible.’ Photo: Bassam Khabieh /Reuters Three U.S. diplomats stepped up pressure against the Syrian government on Friday by accusing it of continuing to use chemical arms against its opponents in the country’s four-year civil war. The American ambassador to The Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Robert Mikulak, cited a “steady stream” of accounts that the government is using chlorine as a chemical weapon, as recently as this month. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that accounts by people in Syria over such chemical attacks are “strong and credible.” And Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said evidence makes clear that Syria is killing people by dropping chlorine-filled barrels from helicopters […]

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Power Outages Mar South Africa’s Economic Expansion

ENLARGE DRDGOLD sends 60,000 tons of sludge through its machinery every day to extract traces of gold at its processing plant in Brakpan, South Africa. Photo: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg News BRAKPAN, South Africa—It takes a lot of power to extract traces of gold from the 60,000 tons of sludge DRDGOLD Ltd. DRD -4.05 % sends through its machinery here each day. That is something that the Johannesburg-based company hasn’t been able to count on recently. “It’s a worrying thing that you’ve got to watch all the time,” said Niël Pretorius, DRDGOLD’s chief executive. South Africa used to be one of the few countries on the continent where most people had reliable access to electricity. But a lack of maintenance and investment has pushed state-run power provider Eskom Holdings Ltd. into a daily crisis as it struggles to meet demand. Blackouts are threatening to drive Africa’s second-largest economy off a cliff, […]

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Saudis Splurge in Asia to Win Loyal Oil Customers for Decades

Saudia Arabi’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi led a meeting with Aramco officials and South Korean refinery executives in Seoul last month and visited S-Oil Corp.’s Ulsan refinery, in which the Middle East producer holds about 63 percent. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is spending generously now on Asian refiners to lock in its position as the region’s biggest supplier of oil for decades to come. The Saudi national oil company is part of a group that’s building a processing plant in China and it teamed with Asia’s biggest refiner on another in Fujian province. Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi traveled to Beijing last month, highlighting the importance of the world’s second-biggest crude consumer to his country’s future. He also visited a South Korean refinery in which his country has a majority interest. Pressure is rising on Saudi Arabia to hold on to market share in Asia as competitors including Iraq, […]

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Saudi-led forces conduct airstrikes in Yemen’s Saada

CAIRO Saudi-led forces conducted several airstrikes on Thursday against the Yemeni province of Saada, a stronghold of the Iranian-allied Houthi movement, the state news agency SPA said on Friday. The strikes targeted two Houthi control centers in Bani Maaz, destroyed a mine factory in the old quarter of the city of Saada and a communications center in the Mothalath area, the agency said. Two Houthi command centers in the province were also destroyed. Residents of Saada said the strikes had damaged the tomb of the founder of the Houthi movement, Hussein al-Houthi. There was also heavy shelling in the west of the province, on the border area between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and 13 villagers were killed in strikes on Hajja province, also near the border, locals said. The figures could not be independently verified. A Saudi-led coalition began strikes against the Houthis on March 26, aimed at pushing […]

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Nigeria subsidy fears threaten worse fuel shortage

* Queues for petrol worsen across the country * Importers hold back over subsidy fears * Buhari government faces backlog of payments By Libby George and Julia Payne LONDON/ABUJA, May 8 (Reuters) – Fuel shortages are set to worsen in Nigeria as international traders and local marketers back away from imports over fears that the cash-strapped new government will halt costly subsidy payments. Already, lines at petrol stations in the major cities are blocking traffic as Africa’s largest crude oil exporter runs out of domestic fuels. The shortage in some rural areas is even more acute due to a payment battle between independent retailers and the government. "We have exhausted our stocks," said Stanley Yakubu, a worker at the Forte Filling Station in the Maitama neighborhood of Abuja. "We thought government and marketers have resolved their issues but supply is very slow in coming." Traders said new bookings for […]

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China’s crude oil imports hit record, coal shipments slump

BEIJING China’s crude oil imports hit a record high in April as falling prices encouraged stockpiling, but coal imports plunged and shipments of other commodities generally eased on a year earlier amid a sluggish economy. China’s exports unexpectedly fell 6.4 percent for the month, while imports tumbled by a deeper-than-forecast 16.2 percent, fueling expectations that Beijing will quickly roll out more stimulus to avert a sharper economic slowdown. China, the world’s second-largest crude oil buyer, imported a higher-than-expected 7.4 million barrels per day in April, up 8.6 percent on a year ago, as oil firms built up stocks despite tepid underlying refined fuel demand, especially for diesel. With oil prices down 40 percent from last June’s highs, China has been adding to its strategic reserves, although some analysts say imports may now pull back as the country starts to run out of storage space. Coal imports by the world’s […]

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