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Deaths and arrests in southern power protests

Protestors outside the Majnoon oil field in Basra province on July 16 demand electricity from Royal Dutch Shell. (ALI ABU IRAQ/Iraq Oil Report) At least one protestor was killed in a series of armed clashes with police over persistent power outages in Basra, as demonstrations across Iraq’s sweltering southern provinces continued for a second day, and threatened to halt an oil project in the province’s supergiant Majnoon field.A young man was killed by police during protests in Basra’s al-Madayna district, just south of the West Qurna 2 oil field in the north of the province, said a senior Basra Operations Command official. Fou… 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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King Salman of Saudi Arabia Meets With Hamas Leaders

CAIRO — King Salman of Saudi Arabia met Friday with top political leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas , in the most striking example yet of the new king’s willingness to work with Islamist organizations long considered foes. Analysts with close ties to the Saudi royal family said the meeting appeared to reflect King Salman’s determination to rally as much of the Arab world as possible against Iran, the kingdom’s chief rival, at a time when the Saudis fear that Iran will emerge empowered by its deal with Western powers to lift economic sanctions in exchange for limits on its nuclear program . The meeting was held in Mecca and included Khaled Meshal, Hamas ’s political leader who lives in Qatar. It was a startling reversal from the approach of the previous king, Abdullah, who had led a campaign to roll back or eradicate the Muslim Brotherhood and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China Unleashes $483 Billion to Stem the Market Rout

China has created what amounts to a state-run margin trader with $483 billion of firepower, its latest effort to end a stock-market rout that threatens to drag down economic growth and erode confidence in President Xi Jinping’s government. China Securities Finance Corp. can access as much as 3 trillion yuan of borrowed funds from sources including the central bank and commercial lenders, according to people familiar with the matter. The money may be used to buy shares and provide liquidity to brokerages, the people said, asking not to be named because the information wasn’t public. While it’s unclear how much CSF will ultimately deploy into China’s $6.6 trillion equity market, the financing is up to 25 times bigger than the support fund started by Chinese brokerages earlier this month. That’s probably enough to restore confidence among China’s 90 million individual investors, says Bocom International Holdings Co. The Shanghai Composite […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Drilling Retreat Resumes in U.S. After Two-Week Reprieve

Drillers sidelined rigs in U.S. oil fields for the first time in three weeks, resuming the steepest and most protracted decline in drilling on record. Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. decreased by 7 to 638, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. They rose by five last week. Natural gas rigs rose by 1 to 218 and miscellaneous rigs were unchanged at 1, bringing the total down by 6 to 857. America’s oil drillers have sidelined more than half the country’s rigs since October as U.S. crude collapsed from its mid-2014 peak to less than $45 a barrel in March. After rebounding somewhat and staying near $60 for much of the second quarter, West Texas Intermediate has dropped 17 percent from June 23. The latest rig-count decline was more of a “normal churn” when operators look to get more bang for their buck by letting go of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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A timeline recent oil train crashes in the US and Canada

The derailment of an oil train in rural northeastern Montana follows a string of accidents as shipments of crude by rail have increased dramatically in recent years, driven by a surge in domestic production: – July 5, 2013: A runaway Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train that had been left unattended derailed, spilling oil and catching fire inside the town of Lac-Megantic in Quebec. Forty-seven people were killed and 30 buildings burned in the town’s center. About 1.6 million gallons of oil was spilled. The oil was being transported from the Bakken region of North Dakota, the heart of an oil fracking boom, to a refinery in Canada. – Nov. 8, 2013: An oil train from North Dakota derailed and exploded near Aliceville, Alabama. There were no deaths, but an estimated 749,000 gallons of oil spilled from 26 tanker cars. – Dec. 30, 2013: A fire engulfed tank cars […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Worst may be over for oil market, Schlumberger says

Oil services company Schlumberger said it’s still struggling, but the worst of the downturn in the crude oil market may be over. File Photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI HOUSTON, July 17 (UPI) — Oil services company Schlumberger said it would be spending less on exploration and production in North America, but the sector may be recovering. Lower crude oil prices means energy companies are forced to cut spending on exploration and production to endure. Weatherford, the No. 4 oil field services company in the world, in April followed its peers Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger in trimming its payroll during a weak crude oil market. Schlumberger Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paal Kibsgaard said second quarter revenues dropped 12 percent because of what he described as a "dramatic" decline in North American exploration and production . "Exploration and production investment in North America is now expected to fall by […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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API sees strong U.S. energy sector

American Petroleum Institute said its data show a recovery emerging in the domestic energy market despite a depressed crude oil market. File Photo by UPI/Shutterstock/ekina WASHINGTON, July 17 (UPI) — Data published by the American Petroleum Institute show the U.S. energy sector is thriving, with consumption and production on the rise. API reported gasoline demand in particular was on the rise, with deliveries from refineries increasing 2.6 percent during the second quarter compared to last year for the highest level for any month since August 2007. "Demand for and production of oil and refined products grew almost across the board over the last year," API Chief Economist John Felmy said in a statement. "Notably, gasoline demand last month reached the highest level since the summer of 2007." Motor club AAA said U.S. consumers are reaping the economic impacts of lower gasoline prices during an era when crude oil markets […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Coal Miners Pressed on Cleanup Costs

State and federal regulators are pressing U.S. coal companies to prove that they can pay for the cost of cleaning up after they are finished mining, putting new financial pressure on an industry already facing historic strains. Regulators even in energy-friendly states such as Wyoming and West Virginia are stepping up oversight on coal companies amid concerns that taxpayers could be left on the hook for expensive and environmentally complicated cleanups if the companies go bankrupt. That has created a political challenge for governors of coal states, who don’t want to be viewed as pushing vital industries into further financial trouble. “It is tough times in the coal fields right now,” said Harold Ward, acting director of the mining and reclamation division at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. “You hope for them to be successful, but you anticipate the worst.” Coal producers have been rocked by competition […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple