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Energy Resources

View Archive Iran says U.S. oil reps headed to Tehran 3 hours ago TEHRAN, May 4 (UPI) — Delegates from the U.S. oil industry are expected in Tehran to explore the possibility of conducting business there, Iran’s deputy oil minister said Monday. Iran says U.S. oil reps headed to Tehran Chinese stock gains lift oil prices 3 hours ago NEW YORK, May 4 (UPI) — A running of the bulls in the Chinese stock market pushed oil prices into positive territory Monday, with major indices up nearly a full percent. Chinese stock gains lift oil prices IEA: Holistic effort needed in renewables 4 hours ago PARIS, May 4 (UPI) — More than just U.N. intervention is needed to advance the low-carbon economy needed to meet climate goals, the International Energy Agency said Monday. IEA: Holistic effort needed in renewables EU energy strategy extends beyond Europe 5 hours ago BRUSSELS, […]

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Syrian Forces Kill Attackers in Damascus

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Security forces battled armed men in Damascus on Monday, killing the attackers as one blew himself up, state news outlets reported, in a type of clash that remains rare in the capital even after more than four years of war in Syria . Websites that are for and against the government displayed photographs of a column of smoke towering above six-story apartment houses in Rukineddine, a northern district of central Damascus. A pro-government radio station reported that opposition fighters had crossed an agricultural area from insurgent-held suburbs, perhaps to carry out an attack on Berniah Street, a major thoroughfare near the scene of the clash. A Twitter account associated with the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, said that three members of the group had carried out the attack, which was on a military supplies and logistics headquarters. The Nusra Front has in the past […]

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Protesters close eastern Libyan oil port of Zueitina: port engineer

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Protesters demanding state jobs have shut down the eastern Libyan oil export port of Zueitina, a port engineer said on Monday. No more information was immediately available. Libyan oil ports and oilfields regularly have to shut down due to protesters seizing them or armed groups fighting for control of the facilities. The protesters were complaining they had not been hired by the state as promised by a previous oil minister, said the engineer, asking not to be named. "They closed a pipeline leading to the port," he said. Zueitina is one of the few Libyan ports still exporting oil as the largest have closed due to fighting or blocked oilfields connected to them, part of turmoil gripping the North African country four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. Zueitina port, located near the main eastern city of Benghazi, has closed several times since 2011 due […]

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The Devastation of Energy Poverty

The McKinsey Company has recently issued a report, Powering Africa.  The first sentence makes a statement that is obvious—“There is a direct correlation between economic growth and electricity supply”.  It goes on to state that “if sub-Saharan Africa is to fulfill its promise, it needs power—and lots of it”.  The sub-Saharan region is starved for electricity, as are many other emerging economies.  According to McKinsey, no matter what criterion is used—energy access, installed capacity, or consumption, the region’s power sector is seriously underdeveloped. Without access to commercial energy, countries cannot achieve, much less sustain economic growth.  Although the region’s potential capacity is great, electric power access is severely limited.  McKinsey notes that Countries with electrification rates of less than 80 percent of the population consistently suffer from reduced GDP per capita.  Even countries like Angola and Gabon that have significant natural resources, still have electrification rates under 80 percent.  […]

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China Oil Industry, Experts Resist Proposal to Merge Companies

ENLARGE Sinopec is one of several big oil companies being considered as potential merger candidates. Photo: Billy H.C. Kwok/Bloomberg News BEIJING—A proposal that would combine China’s already massive energy companies into even larger entities is facing resistance from officials in the oil industry and government advisers who say such a move would stymie competition and undermine Beijing’s effort to remake the economy. In preliminary discussions, oil-industry executives have argued Chinese consumers would be better served by more market-driven overhauls instead of government-driven consolidations , people familiar with the talks said. “There is big pushback from the industry,” said one of those people, who is familiar with the deliberations at the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which oversees large state companies, including the oil giants. Government advisers are also expressing skepticism. “Merging big oil companies would only lead to greater state monopoly and less inefficiency, and would be bad […]

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This is how China is trying to save its economy

China has had 35 years of hypergrowth, but now it’s over. It’s going to have to settle for really, really good growth instead. But that’s still going to be hard now that fewer Chinese are working-age, fewer people are moving to the cities and, most of all, now that China has a debt bubble it’s trying to deflate without bursting its economy as a whole. That’s left the country’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), in the awkward position of trying to help the parts of the economy that need help without helping the rest too much. Specifically, the PBOC will let banks loan out more of their money and  give them cheap loans in return for local government debt. This sure looks like China is stepping on the monetary gas to try to keep economic growth, which has already slowed to a six-year low of 7 percent ( if […]

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Fukushima Report Delayed as Tepco Gets New Chance to Explain

A building covering the Unit 1 reactor, left, is removed by a crane at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan on Nov. 12, 2014. Photographer: Shizuo Kambayashi/AFP Photo/Pool/Getty Images The reactor building of Unit 3 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (Tepco) Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan. Source: Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Bloomberg The International Atomic Energy Agency delayed a report about meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to give Japanese officials another chance to explain radiation leaking into the Pacific Ocean. The IAEA’s report about mid- to long-term plans to decommission the stricken reactors will be published in “mid-May,” agency spokesman Serge Gas said in an e-mailed reply to questions. The report had initially been scheduled for release by the end of March on the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. “The Japanese government invited IAEA […]

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Shell’s Arctic return faces hurdle at Seattle port

(Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s quest to return to Arctic drilling for the first time in three years could face delays after Seattle ruled that the city’s port must apply for a permit for the company to use it as a hub for drilling rigs. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a Democrat who has fought against new projects by coal and oil companies, applauded the requirement by the city’s planning department. "This is an opportunity for the port and all of us to make a bold statement about how oil companies contribute to climate change, oil spills and other environmental disasters – and reject this short-term lease," Seattle’s Mayor Ed Murray said on his website. The Puget Sound region has a decades-long history as a hub for equipment used in energy drilling in Alaska. But some environmental groups and politicians have pushed for the region’s economy to move beyond oil, […]

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U.S. Banks Expect Rise in Energy-Sector Loan Defaults

ENLARGE A pumpjack stands near storage containers on the site of an oil well outside Williston, N.D., in February. Photo: Bloomberg News Banks in the U.S. are cutting credit lines to energy companies and forcing firms to cough up more collateral to guard against fallout from the past year’s plunge in oil prices , a Federal Reserve survey found. Banks expect more delinquencies and charge-offs from the sector over the course of this year, “but they indicated that their exposures were small, and that they were undertaking a number of actions to mitigate the risk of loan losses,” senior loan officers at commercial banks told the Fed in a survey tracking changes in loan terms and standards in the first quarter of the year. U.S. oil and gas companies went deep into debt during the energy boom as they looked to cash in on new technologies that allowed sizable […]

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Fallout of Energy-Price Crash Spreads to Towns Far From the Oil Fields

ENLARGE The former fishing town of Burgeo, shown here, is one of a number of Newfoundland towns feeling the slump as many of its workers can no longer find work in Canada’s oil fields thousands of miles away. Photo: ALISTAIR MACDONALD FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BURGEO, Newfoundland—Glen Hann and his wife traveled from Newfoundland to western Canada’s oil fields eight winters in a row, returning to this former fishing town in the spring with income they could never hope to earn closer to home. Then, this past December, Mr. Hann’s employers told him to stay home. Mr. Hann is among the thousands of Newfoundlanders who have traveled west over the past decade to work in Canada’s booming oil sands, a trek that has become one of North America’s longest commutes and has supported communities in some of Canada’s poorest eastern provinces. Now, falling oil prices are putting an […]

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