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BG Group Declares Force Majeure in Egypt, Expects Flat Earnings For 2013

BG Group PLC (BG.LN) Monday provided guidance for 2013 earnings and said that it has issued force majeure notices under its LNG agreements in Egypt due to diversions of gas volumes to the domestic market in excess of the existing arrangements The natural gas company expects to report full year 2013 production volume of 633,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or kboed, in line with its previous guidance. The company said that 2013 business performance earnings, or earnings before disposals, impairments and certain other items, is expected to be flat at $4.4 billion, or 130 cents per share. Total results earnings, after impairments, is expected to be $2.2 billion, or 65 cents per share. The Berkshire, U.K., headquartered company expects to record total non-cash, post-tax impairments of $2.4 billion in 2013. BG Group also said that 2014 production volumes are expected in the range of 590 kboed and […]

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Militants Down Egyptian Helicopter, Killing 5 Soldiers

Islamist militants shot down an Egyptian military helicopter in the Sinai Peninsula with a surface-to-air missile over the weekend, raising new alarms about the terrorist insurgency that developed there in response to the military takeover last summer. The attack — described by witnesses, documented in a video released by the militants, and confirmed by three people briefed on the Egyptian government’s investigation — validated longstanding fears that such weapons would spill into Egypt and beyond after the Libyan civil war tore open Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s fearsome arsenals. Known as manpads, for man-portable air defense systems, the missiles can bring down commercial airliners if they are flying at low altitude, as during […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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After Bombings, Cairo Anxious 3 Years After Egyptian Uprising

After the first explosion in Cairo on Friday, supporters of Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi gathered outside Abdeen Palace. Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters CAIRO — The capital was empty and anxious Saturday morning on the third anniversary of the Egyptian uprising as the residents braced for rival demonstrations for and against the current military-backed government amid renewed fears of violence. Families stayed close to home and some public facilities closed, reeling in the aftermath of four bombings on Friday that killed six people and terrified the city. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a Sinai-based militant Islamist group that has raised the banner of armed insurgency against the new government, appeared to claim responsibility for the four bombings, including a powerful car bomb in front of a security headquarters and three smaller attacks on police. By 8 a.m. Saturday morning, another small bomb had exploded near a police training facility but officials said it […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Four more Egyptian embassy staff kidnapped in Libya: government

Four Egyptian embassy staff were kidnapped in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Saturday, a day after another Egyptian diplomat was seized there by gunmen, the Libyan government said. No group claimed responsibility for any of the abductions, but they came soon after a powerful Libyan militia reported its leader had been arrested in Cairo and threatened to retaliate. "Four more have been kidnapped. One of them is the cultural attache and the other three are staff," the Libyan Foreign Ministry spokesman said, without going into further details. Two years after Muammar Gaddafi’s fall, Libya is still in flux with the government struggling to control heavily-armed former rebels, militias and Islamist militants who fought in the uprising but often challenge Tripoli’s authority. One militia group, the Operations Room of Libya’s Revolutionaries, said on Friday its leader Shaban Hadia had been arrested in Egypt, where he had been travelling […]

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Suicide car bomber targets Cairo police HQ, kills at least four

A suicide car bomber blew himself up in the parking lot of a top security compound in central Cairo on Friday, killing at least four people in one of the most high-profile attacks on the state in months, security sources said. The early morning explosion damaged the Cairo Security Directorate, which includes police and state security, and sent smoke rising over the capital, raising concerns that an Islamist insurgency is gathering pace. Hours after the attack, a crude explosive device killed one policeman and wounded nine others in another Cairo neighborhood, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. Security sources said a person driving past security vehicles threw a hand grenade in their direction. The dead from the first blast included three policemen, security sources said. State television quoted the Cairo governor as saying 50 people were wounded. Reuters witnesses heard gunfire immediately after the blast, […]

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Cairo rocked by blasts on eve of anniversary of Egypt uprising

A large blast near police headquarters in central Cairo on Friday killed at least two people and wounded many others, security and medical sources said. Three security sources said a car bomb was the likely cause of the explosion, which damaged the building and sent smoke rising over the city centre Three explosions struck the Egyptian capital on Friday, killing at least five people and injuring almost 60, on the eve of the third anniversary of the country’s 2011 uprising against President Hosni Mubarak . At 6.30am a powerful car bomb exploded outside the Cairo police headquarters, killing at least four people and injuring 50. Several hours later, an explosion targeted police vehicles near an underground station in western Cairo, […]

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Algeria readies oil, gas auction

Algeria called on oil and natural gas companies to prepare for an August auction for exploration and exploitation of natural resources in the country. Sid Ali Betata, director of the National Agency for the Promotion of Hydrocarbon Resources, announced the call for tenders Tuesday, the official Algeria Press Service reported. The announcement comes one year after terrorists sympathetic with al-Qaida stormed the country’s In Amenas natural gas facility, leaving 38 civilians and 29 militants dead. Algeria has the 10th largest natural gas deposits in the world and is the third-largest gas supplier to Europe. Its exports have been in decline, however, because of lagging foreign investments. In Amenas has a production capacity of approximately 315 million cubic feet of natural gas per year, its operators Sonatrach, BP and Statoil said. In terms of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Algeria had 12.2 […]

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Mediterranean Oil Tanker Rates Near Six-Year High on Libya Cargo

The cost of shipping oil across the Mediterranean Sea surged to the highest in almost six years as traders accelerated bookings to load Libyan cargoes at a time when tankers are being delayed reaching the region. Aframax ships hauling 80,000 metric ton cargoes to southern European refineries from North African exporters are earning $137,687 a day, according to data today from Poten & Partners, a New York-based shipbroker. The figure is the most since March 2008, its data show. Nationwide protests shut Libyan oil fields and export terminals in July last year, curbing shipments from Europe ’s third-largest crude supplier. Some lost output is now returning and traders booked tankers to load 610,000 tons of Libyan oil in the week ended Jan. 26, the most since Sept. 1, according to charter lists compiled by Bloomberg. Fog is delaying ships at Turkey ’s shipping straits, meaning fewer in the Mediterranean, […]

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Libyan oil production up 2 percent

The Libyan Ministry of Oil said oil production has reached an average level of 581,657 barrels per day, a 2 percent increase from its previous estimate. The government said the 581,657 barrels per day average was achieved during the week ending Jan. 18. It beats the previous week’s average of 569,135 bpd, the Libya Herald reported Monday from Tripoli. Before the civil war in 2011, Libya produced on average 1.6 million bpd and was one of the premier oil producers in North Africa. The country has flirted with that level since widespread fighting ended in late 2011 but recent production levels have suffered because of internal conflict. Rebel groups in the east of the country, some of which helped topple the regime of Moammar Gadhafi , in November declared independence for the region known as Cyrenaica, which hosts some of Libya’s key oil […]

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Egyptian Refining advances refinery upgrade

Egyptian Refining Co. (ERC) is set to start construction on its long-delayed grassroots refining upgrade project to be built within the existing Mostorod Petroleum Complex (MPC), 20 km northeast of Cairo in Qalyoubia Governate, Egypt. Construction on the $3.7 billion project, which is designed to address Egypt’s demand for petroleum products and reduce the country’s dependence on imports, is scheduled to begin in late February or early March 2014, ERC’s Chief Executive Tom Thomason recently told OGJ. Unique undertaking A joint-development of both the private sector and Egypt’s government, the ERC project includes the construction of a hydrocracking and coking complex within the walls of government-owned Cairo Oil Refinery Co.’s (CORC) 145,000-b/d refinery, the nation’s largest. Once completed, the hydrocracking and coking plant—which will receive 67% of its feedstock from CORC in the form of fuel oil—will have the capacity to produce more than 4.1 million tonnes/year of refined […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple