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IAEA: Iran Provides Sizable Amount of Info for Nuclear Probe

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Yukiya Amano of Japan addresses the media during a news conference after a meeting of the IAEA board of governors at the International Center in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak) Iran has provided a "substantive volume" of information to the U.N. atomic agency on allegations that it worked on nuclear arms, the agency’s chief said Tuesday, but declined to characterize the value of the documents. Yukiya Amano said it would be premature to say how useful the information given by Iran last week would be in the investigation being conducted by his International Atomic Energy Agency . "We need to see the whole picture to have an assessment," he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board, convened to seek approval — and funds — for the agency’s assigned task of […]

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Iraqi Kurds wage anti-IS offensive near oil hub

AP Photo BAGHDAD (AP) — The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq says its peshmerga forces have killed 25 Islamic State militants and cleared nine villages south of the northern oil city of Kirkuk in a new offensive. A statement by the Kurdistan Regional Security Council says Wednesday’s offensive began at dawn, involved 2,000 soldiers and enjoyed air support from a U.S.-led coalition. The Kurdish region in northern Iraq has enjoyed self-rule since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. The regional government’s peshmerga forces have been battling IS militants since the extremist group swept across much of the area as well as western Iraq in the summer of 2014. The statement did not say whether there were peshmerga casualties.

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Gulf Keystone Keeps Production Target for Main Kurdistan Field

Gulf Keystone Petroleum Ltd. reiterated its production forecast for its main oil field in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and expressed optimism about the resumption of export payments from local authorities. “We are confident that our host government will be able to deliver on their recent pledge to establish a regular payment cycle for our crude from next month,” Chief Executive Officer Jon Ferrier said Thursday in a statement. “This will provide us with the necessary means to recommence investment into the field.” Full-year production for its flagship Shaikan field will be 30,000 to 34,000 barrels a day, the company said. Gulf Keystone loss after tax widened to $77.7 million in the first half, from $29.8 million a year earlier. The slump in crude prices over the past year has squeezed the budgets of Iraq’s federal and regional governments, preventing regular payments to Gulf Keystone and other exporters including […]

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Algeria Targets Hidden $40 Billion as Oil-Price Pleas Ignored

Day and night, trucks trundle the 10 miles from Algiers port to the suburb of Semmar, where workers unload and stack goods that will feed into a vast black market. Merchants pack narrow streets to buy canned and dry fruit, grains and vegetables for cash, with the biggest crowds gathering after dark. Bazaars like this drive a $40 billion untaxed parallel economy, one the government says it can no longer tolerate as the oil slump slashes revenue and fellow OPEC members rebuff Algeria’s pleas for steps to prop up prices. Under the terms of an amnesty, Algerians have a year to deposit income from undeclared businesses with banks and pay a 7 percent fee, or face punishment. For President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s administration, alternative measures — such as cutting a soaring bill for subsidies that helped ward off the strife which has swept the region since 2011 — aren’t attractive. […]

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Mexico Sweetens Oil Auction to Draw Firms Hit by Low Oil Prices

MEXICO CITY—Mexico’s hydrocarbons regulator has improved the terms for its September oil auction to drum up more interest among cash-strapped international oil firms reeling from falling prices, with industry analysts applauding the move Wednesday as a step in the right direction. The National Hydrocarbons Commission approved a series of changes in both auction procedures and contract terms that reduce the risk to oil companies seeking to begin operations in Mexico following the nation’s energy opening to private and foreign firms. The first oil block auction under the energy overhaul, held in July, was considered a failure because only two of 14 exploratory offshore blocks were awarded. Mexican officials promised to find ways to improve the terms for the second auction, which are for five groups of already discovered offshore fields. Some analysts said the government has at least partially delivered on its promise. “This is the kind of response […]

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Venezuela’s Food Shortages Trigger Long Lines, Hunger and Looting

LA SIBUCARA, Venezuela—Hours after they looted and set fire to a National Guard command post in this sun-baked corner of Venezuela earlier this month, a mob infuriated by worsening food shortages rammed trucks into the smoldering edifice, reducing it mostly to rubble. The incident was just one of numerous violent clashes that have flared in pockets around the country in recent weeks as Venezuelans wait for hours in long supermarket lines for basics like milk and rice. Shortages have made hunger a palpable concern for many Wayuu Indians who live here at the northern tip of Venezuela’s 1,300-mile border with Colombia. The soldiers had been deployed to stem rampant food smuggling and price speculation, which President Nicolás Maduro blames for triple-digit inflation and scarcity. But after they seize contraband goods, the troops themselves often become targets of increasingly desperate people. “What’s certain is that we are going very hungry […]

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China stocks surge in last hour of trading

Sign up for quick access to a wealth of global business news, including: China stocks surge in last hour of trading Newspaper + Premium online Newspaper + Premium online Premium Full FT.com subscription Premium Full FT.com subscription Standard Full news & archive Standard Full news & archive Trial Try Premium online Trial Try Premium online Price Monthly Annual $66.30 $11.77 per week $53.00 $9.25 per week $36.00 $6.45 per week $1.00 for 4 weeks $1.00 for 4 weeks FT Alphaville plus selected FT blogs yes yes yes yes Unlimited FT.com article access yes yes yes yes Unlimited mobile and tablet access yes yes yes yes Unlimited fast FT yes yes yes yes 5 year company financials archive yes yes yes yes The LEX column yes yes no yes ePaper access yes yes no yes Three exclusive weekly emails yes yes no yes Daily newspaper delivery yes no no For […]

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China Economic Upheaval Mints Winners and Losers

BEIJING—The China economic slowdown that has rattled global markets is also shaking the fortunes of multinationals that do business here . Those that fed China’s traditional boom industries of infrastructure, energy and steel—like Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton Ltd. BHP 3.52 % and French energy-equipment maker Schneider Electric SU 2.22 % SE—are suffering precipitous falls in revenue there after years when their profits were boosted by the country’s 10%-plus economic growth. Many also face heavy write-downs as investment plans predicated on surging China demand look increasingly unrealistic as the country’s growth slows. “We’re spending as much as we always do,” said Zhen Lin, a 27-year-old magazine editor on maternity leave, emerging from a Beijing supermarket with a cart half full of groceries. Ms. Lin said she eats out several times a week and isn’t holding back on her spending. Among the purchases she is planning: a new computer this year […]

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Sun-Drenched Miners Look to the Skies to Cut Fuel Costs in Half

The DeGrussa copper and gold mine in Australia’s sun-scorched outback is getting a solar farm, the latest example of the industry embracing clean energy. The plant will replace about 5 million liters (1.3 million gallons) of diesel a year, a fifth of the mine’s energy needs. Energy generated by the system may eventually cost about half that of diesel-generated power, according to Sandfire Resources NL, the deposit’s owner. Miners including Rio Tinto Group are installing new solar plants from Chile to South Africa, betting they’ll deliver long-term savings even as tumbling oil prices cut power costs. The global solar-power market for mining companies may grow to about $2 billion a year by 2022 from about $42 million in 2013, according to Navigant Consulting Inc. “Solar-power providers are specifically targeting mines right now and it’s about replacing diesel,” Dexter Gauntlett, a senior research analyst at Navigant said by phone from […]

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PetroChina’s First-Half Profit Drops 63% on Oil Market Rout

PetroChina Co., the nation’s biggest oil and gas producer, posted a 63 percent decline in first-half profit as oil prices slumped, lagging analyst estimates. Net income dropped to 25.4 billion yuan ($4 billion), or 0.14 yuan a share, in the six months ended June 30, from 68.1 billion yuan, or 0.37 yuan, a year earlier, the Beijing-based company said Thursday in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. The average of three analysts estimates compiled by Bloomberg was a profit of 30.3 billion yuan. PetroChina is suffering amid the collapse in oil prices as it depends on exploration and production for most of its revenue. Crude has tumbled as producers sustain output to protect market share, worsening a global oversupply. Brent, the benchmark for about half the world’s crude, averaged about $59 a barrel in the first half of the year, down 45 percent from the same period […]

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