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Dana Gas wins exploration rights in Egypt

Emirati energy company Dana Gas taps deeper in Egypt’s Nile Delta region. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Emirati energy company Dana Gas said Monday it was the successful bidder for two onshore license areas in the Nile Delta region onshore Egypt. Regional subsidiary Dana Gas Egypt was awarded the rights to operate in the North el-Salhiya and el-Matariya onshore areas in the Nile Delta . "We are extremely pleased to have been awarded these two new blocks," Dana Gas Chief Executive Officer Patrick Allman-Ward said in a Monday statement. "The area is particularly well known to Dana Gas, given its long-term commitment to the Nile Delta." Dana is the sixth largest energy company working in Egypt . Overall, its share of production has reached 39,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Dana will hold 100 percent of the interest in the North el Salhiya […]

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Egypt militants claim blast near foreign ministry

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian militant group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bomb blast in a busy downtown Cairo street near the Foreign Ministry that killed two senior police officers and wounded several other policemen. Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, which has claimed previous attacks on police, said in a statement posted late Sunday on its Twitter account and on a militant website that it had used an explosive device on "officers of the criminal apparatus" as part of its campaign against security forces. It said a group of its members carried out "a new penetration operation to reach the foreign ministry’s perimeter and plant the explosive device." It did not say how they detonated the explosives. It said the attacks will not stop until "the ruling tyrants fall and God’s Shariah is established … and that when a hero dies he will be replaced by several heroes who […]

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OPEC Supply Risks Mount as Biggest Libyan Field Is Halted

A reduction in OPEC crude output deepened as Libya’s biggest producing oilfield stopped pumping amid supply cuts from Saudi Arabia and potential disruptions to Nigerian exports. Libya halted the Sharara oilfield as a precaution after a rocket attack on the connected Zawiya refinery three days ago, closing down about 30 percent of national output. In Africa ’s largest oil producer, state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. was in talks yesterday to prevent a strike that threatened to disrupt exports. Saudi Arabia told the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that in August it made the deepest production cut in 18 months. Brent crude futures declined 14 percent in the past three months, falling to a two-year low of $96.21 a barrel on Sept. 15. Global oil demand growth is the slowest since 2011, while the U.S. shale boom means oil production outside OPEC is rising by the most since the 1980s, […]

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Production at Libyan’s Largest Oil Field Cut Due to Unrest

LONDON—Production at Libya’s largest field has been cut slightly after rockets fell near the refinery it supplies, a spokesman for state-owned National Oil Co. said Tuesday. The news underscores how a fast oil-recovery operation could be hindered by continuous chaos in the country. The NOC spokesman said staff had been reduced after rockets fell near the Zawiya refinery on Monday, forcing Sharara, the field that supplies the plant, to pare back its output. "People are afraid to go there," he said. Libyan oil production has been ramping up in recent months after agreements with protesters led to the reopening of ports and fields. The country’s output stood above 800,000 barrels a day, as of the most recent count on Monday. But the NOC spokesman said he had no update for Tuesday. Yet analysts have warned that fighting between militias—which are supported by two rival parliaments—could jeopardize progress in the […]

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ISIS’ Next Target: The Suez Canal

ISIS’ Next Target: The Suez Canal Following ISIS blitzkrieg in which it took over nearly half of Iraq and a third of Syria in the blink of an eye, at which point it created its own Islamic State Caliphate resulting in Obama’s own personal war against the jihadists, some have wondered what is ISIS’ next step: surely its leadership will not merely stagnatte as one after another US predator drone bomb away the capital Reqqa until ISIS figurehead leader al-Baghdadi is killed or gravely wounded. To be sure, the one thing ISIS, which stunned the world with the speed of its ascent, can not afford is to stand still. So what is next on the strategic timeline for the Islamic State? According to one source, Al Arabiya, which cites Egyptian experts, the answer is none other than the Suez Canal , and the country it is located in: Egypt. […]

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Libya’s embattled premier seeks support from UAE

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Libyan prime minister has met with leaders of the United Arab Emirates to shore up support for his efforts to form a government after the elected parliament that chose him was forced to flee the capital by Islamist-allied militias over the summer. The UAE state news agency said that Abdullah al-Thinni was in the country Wednesday to discuss the importance of strengthening bilateral relations in a way that serves the joint interests of both countries. The UAE has cracked down hard on Islamist groups domestically and backed regional efforts to crush the Muslim Brotherhood. U.S. officials had suggested that the UAE and Egypt were behind air strikes on Islamist militias in Libya, but al-Thinni told reporters in Abu Dhabi that there was no evidence to support that claim.

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More Libyan crude available, OPEC says

VIENNA, Sept. 10 (UPI) — More barrels of oil on the global market in part because of Libya are keeping oil prices lower, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said. OPEC said in its monthly market report for September crude oil production from the 12 members of the cartel increased by 231,000 barrels per day last month to average 30.35 million bpd. Iraq and Saudi Arabia were the only two member states to post a decline in oil production since the last monthly market report. Libya, meanwhile, posted in the highest gains in terms of percent . Libya in August produced an average 538,000 bpd, a 26.5 percent increase from July and more than twice what it produced in June. "An agreement to open some Libyan ports and resume exports of crude made additional barrels available on the global market and applied downward pressure on light sweet crude oil […]

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Libyan Refugees Stream to Tunisia for Care, and Tell of a Home That Is Torn Apart

SFAX, Tunisia — Libyans seeking medical care and a refuge from war are filling the private clinics in this coastal Tunisian city for the second time in three years, bringing with them fresh accounts of the violence racking their country. Since the revolution three years ago that overthrew Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, about 1.8 million Libyans — nearly a third of the country’s population — have fled to Tunisia. A new wave of refugees has arrived in recent months as fighting has engulfed the Libyan capital , Tripoli, driven away by random shelling and shooting, as well as shortages of cash, electricity and fuel. “The country has plunged into the sea,” said Jomaa Abdullah, 68, a farm laborer from near Tripoli who had brought his son for treatment for gunshot wounds. “It’s gone. It’s going to be hard for it to come back.” The refugees’ accounts of the most recent […]

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Egypt’s power outages continue to intensify

A huge power outage caused black-outs across Cairo on Thursday causing major disruption across the city of some 20 million people at the height of the morning rush hour. Services were completely suspended on one of the city’s three metro lines and heavily disrupted on a second, the state MENA news agency reported. The electricity outage brought subway services in Cairo to a complete halt, inconveniencing the roughly 3.5 million Egyptians who use it every day. Water supplies to households and businesses were also disrupted, while the power outage also affected numerous state institutions including state television channels and radio stations which could not air without electricity to run their facilities. Energy ministry spokesman Mohamed al-Yamani said that "power is gradually being restored" after a fault cut supply to "some Cairo neighbourhoods". But two hours later, the whole of the city centre and several outlying districts were still without […]

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Former Libya Rebels Keep Oil Flowing Amid Islamist Surge

The group that controls Libya ’s largest oil port pledged to work with the government to keep crude flowing to international markets and defend oilfields against any advance by Islamist militias that seized Tripoli, the country’s capital. “We are in agreement with the government of Prime Minister Abdulla al-Theni to work together and defeat Islamist terror,” said Ali Al-Hasy, a spokesman of the Executive Office for the Barqa region, which seeks self-rule for eastern Libya. “The oil fields and oil ports in the region between Benghazi and Sirte are well under our control. Our role is to make sure oil is flowing and production is rising, to ensure that the government has the means to provide for the needs of the people and to successfully confront these terrorists.” While Islamist militias seeking to expand their political power seized control of Tripoli last month, forcing the government to move its […]

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