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Iraqi PM says defense of refinery town crucial to IS defeat

In this Monday, Aug. 24, 2015 photo, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, second from right, meets with his military commanders at an Iraqi Army base near the oil refinery town of Beiji north of Baghdad, Iraq. Al-Abadi said that winning the ongoing battle over control of an oil refinery town north of Baghdad is the key to defeating the Islamic State group in Iraq during his visit to the town of Beiji. Photo: Uncredited, AP / AP In this Monday, Aug. 24, 2015 photo, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, second from right, meets with his military commanders at an Iraqi Army base near the oil refinery town of Beiji north of Baghdad, Iraq. Al-Abadi said that winning the ongoing battle over control of an oil refinery town north of Baghdad is the key to defeating the Islamic State group in Iraq during his visit to the town of Beiji. […]

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Pipeline outages threaten Kurdistan oil autonomy

Twin oil pipelines run north to a processing facility at the Avana Dome oil formation in the Sargaran sub-district, Aug. 25, 2015. (PATRICK OSGOOD/Iraq Oil Report) Iraqi oil exports to Turkey’s Ceyhan port are stopped again after going offline Monday morning – the latest in an intensifying pattern of outages that have blocked Kurdistan’s oil sector from reaching the international market for one-third of August.The combined effect of a slump in oil prices and incessant outages along the pipeline could jeopardize the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) policy of becoming self-reliant through independent oil exports. The August shutoffs alone have pre… 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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Water Is Called Casualty of Syrian War

Water availability in Syria has been halved since the conflict there began nearly four and a half years ago, and millions of people around the country endure “long and sometimes deliberate interruptions to their water supplies,” the United Nations said Tuesday. In a report about the scarcity of water in Syria, Unicef said it had recorded 18 deliberate cuts to the public water supply in the northern city of Aleppo this year. “Taps in some communities were left dry for up to 17 days in a row — and for over a month in some areas of the city,” the report asserted, accusing antagonists in the conflict of “using water to achieve military and political gains.” Unicef estimated that 2.3 million people in Aleppo, 2.5 million in Damascus and 250,000 in the southern city of Dara’a are suffering water shortages, and that children sent by families to fetch water […]

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Opinion: Saudis Could Face An Open Revolt At Next OPEC Meeting

« Warm-forged aluminum alloy differential case reduces weight by about 40% | Main | Proportion of biomethane is Swedish natural gas vehicle fuel sales hits high of 73% » by Dalan McEndree for Oilprice.com OPEC next gathers December 4 in Vienna, just over a year since Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi announced at the previous OPEC winter meeting the Saudi decision to let the oil market determine oil prices rather than to continue Saudi Arabia’s role of guarantor of $100+/bbl oil. Despite the intense financial and economic pain this decision has inflicted on Saudi Arabia, its fellow OPEC members, and other oil producers, the Saudis have given no indication they plan to alter course. In fact, Saudis have downplayed the impact of lower prices on their country, asserting that the kingdom has the financial wherewithal to withstand lower oil prices. Presumably swayed by Saudi equanimity, financial markets do not […]

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Hezbollah throws weight behind protests, deepening crisis

AP Photo/Hassan Ammar BEIRUT (AP) — The powerful Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah threw its weight Tuesday behind mass protests calling for the government’s resignation, deepening a crisis that started over piles of uncollected garbage in the streets of the capital but has tapped into a much deeper malaise. The explosion of anger targets the endemic corruption, hapless government and sectarian divisions of a brittle country once torn by civil war and now struggling with a wave of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. A grassroots youth movement calling itself "You Stink" mobilized thousands of people in two rallies over the weekend, and has called for another large protest on Saturday. The Hezbollah announcement of support for the protests is likely to fuel concerns the Iranian-backed group and its allies will try to hijack a rare, non-political movement for its own political gain. Hezbollah ministers and their allies walked out […]

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Nigerian Second-Quarter Economic Growth Slows on Oil Plunge

An oil pipeline in Nigeria. Growth in the Nigerian economy, Africa’s largest, slowed in the second quarter due to the slump in oil prices, the country’s statistics office said. Gross domestic product expanded 2.35 percent on an annual basis, compared with 3.96 percent a quarter earlier, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics, Yemi Kale, said on his Twitter account on Tuesday. The oil industry contracted 6.8 percent, Kale said. “This is not a good result for Nigeria,” Alan Cameron, a London-based economist at Exotix Partners LLP, said in e-mailed comments. “Moreover, with policy rates stuck at high levels, and fiscal policy being tightened automatically through lower statutory oil disbursements, it is hard to see any catalyst for improvement.” The central bank raised its key interest rate to a record high of 13 percent in November, since when inflation has accelerated beyond the bank’s target band of 6 […]

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Nigeria: ‘Age-Old Rot’ Shuts Down Warri Refinery

Warri and Port Harcourt — Barely two weeks after it resumed operation, the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) has been shut down. The development is coming on the heels of public excitement that followed news of the nation’s moribund refineries kicking back to life. The Guardian learnt that the refinery was shut down few days ago, as crude oil stored in its receptors ran out. "It goes to show the rot that has been embedded in the system over the years. Now that you have a Buhari government in place, everybody is running helter-skelter to do the needful and in the process they have forgotten to do proper planning. And as they say, when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. "Right now, you have a situation where everybody is in a hurry to do the right thing and they forget that you have to follow a […]

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Oil at $77? It Is in This Country That Plays by Its Own Rules

South America’s second-largest and most enigmatic economy, Argentina is marching to its own beat. (Bloomberg) — Oil at $77? It is in Argentina. Oil has plummeted below $39 a barrel in the U.S. But despite the price bloodbath in global energy markets, it fetches nearly twice that amount in Argentina — home to some of the most expensive crude in the world. Even as prices plunged anew Monday, sending world benchmarks close to the lowest levels they briefly hit in the Great Recession, oil is still flying high in Argentina for the simple reason the government wants it that way. There is some method behind the apparent madness. Argentina is home to the second-largest reserves of shale gas and fourth- largest of shale oil in the world. Faced with a $6-billion energy trade deficit in 2014, the government has been using its made-in-Argentina price to try to turbocharge domestic […]

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Moody’s Puts Mexico’s Pemex on Review for Downgrade

MEXICO CITY— Moody’s Investors Service MCO -0.53 % on Tuesday placed Mexican national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos on review for a possible downgrade in its credit rating, citing falling earnings at the company because of lower crude oil prices and a likely increase in financing needs. The review was prompted by the company’s weak cash generation and financial profile so far in 2015. “Cash generation has weakened due to lower oil prices and will result in large borrowing needs in the near future,” Moody’s said in a release. Pemex is rated A3 by Moody’s, which is the same as Mexico’s sovereign rating. The Mexican government’s outlook is stable. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s rate Pemex triple-B-plus, the equivalent of one notch below Moody’s. The state company, which pays much of its earnings to the federal government in royalties and taxes, has been steadily increasing investment budgets over the […]

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China cuts rates, reserve ratio to aid economy as stocks sink

A Chinese national flag flutters outside the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, the Chinese central bank, in Beijing, April 3, 2014. China’s central bank cut interest rates and lowered the amount of reserves banks must hold for the second time in two months on Tuesday, ratcheting up support for a stuttering economy and a plunging stock market that has sent shockwaves around the globe. The move came as Chinese stock indexes nosedived more than 7 percent on Tuesday to hit troughs not seen since December, and after shares had plunged over 8 percent on Monday. The latest policy easing also followed a shock devaluation in the yuan CNY=CFXS two weeks ago, a move that authorities billed as aiding financial reforms, but that some saw as the start of a gradual slide in the currency to help stumbling exporters. "Frankly this shows a bit of panic in my […]

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