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Oil workers continue protest for shift changes

The Rumaila oilfield on Sept. 4, 2014, operated by BP and CNPC. (ESSAM AL-SUDANI/Reuters) Recommend 13 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Workers at Rumaila as well as other southern oil fields are pressing foreign oil companies and Iraqi oil officials to reverse their stance and adopt a non-industry standard work rotation. This is not the only demand from oil workers, who have for years put forward a series of union-backed demands to improve working conditions and receive bonus pay. Following a March protest at South Oil Company headquarters, the issue of shift scheduling now appears to be at the top of the agenda through… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Arabia Sanctions Two Hezbollah Commanders, Alleging Terrorist Activities

Saudi Arabia sanctioned two top Hezbollah commanders allegedly involved in regional terrorist operations, in a sign of the kingdom’s growing coordination with the U.S. Treasury Department. Riyadh on Wednesday blacklisted Khalil Yusif Harb and Muhammad Qabalan for activities the Saudis alleged were designed to destabilize the kingdom’s close strategic allies in Yemen, Egypt and Lebanon. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the same Lebanese men in August 2013. Hezbollah is a militia and political party based in Lebanon. “The Saudi government will continue to combat Hezbollah’s terrorist activities with all available tools and will continue to work with partners around the world to make it clear that Hezbollah’s militant and extremist activities should not be tolerated by any nation,” Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of the Interior said in a statement. The Treasury Department’s top counterterrorism official praised the action as a sign of increased cooperation between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in […]

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Libyan Prime Minister Escapes Assassination Attempt

Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni on a visit to Tunis in March. ENLARGE Photo: mohamed messara/European Pressphoto Agency Libya’s internationally recognized prime minister escaped an assassination attempt, the latest sign of a widening security vacuum that is complicating European Union efforts to stem the flow of illegal migrants from the country. Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni was targeted Tuesday night when several unidentified gunmen shot at his motorcade as he left a parliamentary session in the eastern city of Tobruk, according to a member of parliament and security officials. Libya’s internationally recognized government is based in Tobruk while a rival administration opposed to Mr. Thinni is based in the capital Tripoli and controls the country’s west. Human smugglers have exploited Libya’s deep political crisis and insecurity to use the country as a launching ground for thousands of migrants —mostly African and Middle Eastern—making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. […]

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Venezuela, Russia’s Rosneft agree on $14 billion oil, gas investment

CARACAS Venezuela and Russia’s top oil producer, Rosneft, have agreed on around $14 billion in investment in the South American OPEC country’s oil and gas sector, President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday evening. Maduro said he met with the chief executive of state-owned Rosneft, Igor Sechin, earlier on Wednesday, in the company of PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] President Eulogio del Pino and National Assembly boss and Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello. "We had a great meeting and agreed on investment of over $14 billion," said Maduro during a televised broadcast, adding the funds would go toward doubling Venezuela’s oil production. PDVSA has formal ambitious targets to double national production to 6 million barrels a day by 2019, with 4 million of that projected to come from the Orinoco Belt, but few industry experts or foreign investors expect those goals to be met. Speaking at a Socialist Party event broadcast on […]

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Total reaches production milestone in Angola

French energy company Total announces production milestone at offshore reserve area in Angola. Photo by James Jones Jr./Shutterstock PARIS, May 27 (UPI) — With 2 billion barrels of cumulative production from an offshore block in Angola, French energy company Total said Wednesday it set the global gold standard. Total announced it reached the milestone at its offshore Block 17 reserve area, located about 90 miles off the coast of Angola in deep waters. "Block 17 is a global benchmark in the deep offshore and represents a unique industrial adventure, with 15 discoveries and a very high level of production," Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s president of exploration and production," said in a statement. With more than 700,000 barrels of oil equivalent in production at the start of 2015, the French energy company said it’s the lead operator in Angola. Apart from Block 17, the company holds a 30 percent stake in […]

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China May official factory PMI seen lackluster despite stimulus moves

BEIJING China’s factories struggled to expand in May despite recent interest rate cuts and other policy stimulus, a Reuters poll showed, suggesting the government may have to do more to halt a protracted slowdown in the economy. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, is forecast to inch up to 50.2 from April’s 50.1, according to the median forecast of 14 economists in the poll. A reading above 50 points indicates an expansion in activity while one below that shows a contraction on a monthly basis. "Although the government has unveiled a series of policy stimulus measures, the effect has yet to show up," said Nie Wen, an economist at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai. The flash HSBC/Markit PMI released last week showed factory activity contracted for a third month in May and output shrank at the fastest rate in just over a year, indicating persistent weakness in the […]

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Plains defends California pipeline infrastructure

1 of 6 Workers continue the cleanup along Refugio Beach as efforts continue to remove the oil that has spilled an estimated 100,000 gallons off the Santa Barbara County coast in Goleta, California on May 22, 2015. A unified command center established for the spill said the worst-case estimate is that 2,500 barrels of oil was released from a pipeline operated by Plains All American. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo SANTA BARBARA, Calif., May 27 (UPI) — Plains All American defended pipeline infrastructure in California after last week’s spill, saying automatic shutoff valves were not the best safety option. Plains is working with state, local and federal regulators to remove part of its Line 901 from a region near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara. A unified command center established for the spill said the worst-case estimate is that 2,500 barrels of oil was released from the […]

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Bill is wrong way to speed gas pipeline approvals, House panel told

WASHINGTON, DC, May 27 A bill that would give the US Department of the Interior authority to approve natural gas pipelines crossing National Parks Service land is unnecessary and unwanted, a US Bureau of Land Management official told a House Natural Resources subcommittee. “Most of the authorizations of HR 2295 are already within the scope of existing [Interior] authorities, and consistent with current priorities and activities,” Timothy Spisak, BLM’s senior advisor for energy, minerals, and realty management, said during the Energy and Minerals Subcommittee’s May 20 hearing. “Additionally, the department strongly opposes the bill’s provisions that would authorize the secretary to issue natural gas pipeline rights of way on NPS lands,” Tpisak said. The bill’s sponsors, Reps. Tom McArthur (R-NJ) and Cedric Richmond (D-La.), said their measure, the National Energy Security Corridors Act, is necessary to reduce federal bureaucratic roadblocks. “All along the East Coast, families are paying higher […]

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EU officials dismiss Greek statement on aid agreement being drafted

ATHENS Greece’s government on Wednesday said it is starting to draft an agreement with creditors that would pave the way for aid, but European officials quickly dismissed that as wishful thinking. Greece and its European and International Monetary Fund lenders have been locked in tortuous negotiations on a reforms agreement for four months without a breakthrough in sight. Without a deal, Athens risks default or bankruptcy in weeks. A new round of talks begin on Wednesday in Brussels, and a Greek government official said the two sides would start drafting a technical-level agreement there, along the lines of Athens’ longtime demands for no wage or pension cuts and a lower target for a primary budget surplus. But European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the two sides still had some way to go before any agreement could be drawn up. "We are working very intensively to ensure a staff-level […]

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How Russia was warned against oil output cut as prices dived

MOSCOW/LONDON As Russia prepares to meet OPEC next week, a briefing paper from a Moscow think tank has shed light on how the government was warned against cutting oil output late last year even though global prices were plummeting. Speculation was rife that Russia and the oil exporters’ cartel might strike a production deal to arrest the slide when Energy Minister Alexander Novak met his Saudi Arabian counterpart last November. However, the think tank had already advised Novak that OPEC would not cooperate and unilateral action would be costly at a time when Russian state finances were in a dire state. "If Russia cuts output, OPEC will take our market share in Europe," a team led by energy expert Grigory Vygon said in the previously unpublished paper, commissioned by the Energy Ministry before the Nov. 25 meeting in Vienna. The paper was prepared by the Skolkovo Institute’s energy team, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple