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India's PFC inks pact with Exim Bank
Published: May 16, 2008 at 12:31 PM
NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- India's Power Finance Corp. has signed an agreement with U.S. Exim Bank to receive an $800 million loan. -
India Oil to shelve refinery proposal
Published: May 16, 2008 at 12:09 PM
NEW DELHI, May 16 (UPI) -- State-run Indian Oil Corp. is contemplating shelving its 15 million-ton greenfield refinery in southern Tamil Nadu state. -
India won't cut duty on oil imports
Published: May 15, 2008 at 9:40 PM
NEW DELHI, May 15 (UPI) -- Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said there will be no reduction in the duty charged on imported oil, despite soaring energy prices.
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Fall River fights five-year battle against LNG facility
Published: May 16, 2008 at 10:18 AM
By JOHN C.K. DALY
UPI International Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- A five-year struggle continues between Fall River, Mass., residents and Weaver's Cove Energy LLC over a proposed LNG facility. While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the project, the Coast Guard opposes it as an unacceptable safety risk. -
UPI Energy Watch
Published: May 15, 2008 at 12:19 PM
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Nigerian militants attack oil vessel
Published: May 15, 2008 at 11:10 AM
By CARMEN GENTILE
UPI Energy Correspondent
Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama have called for a resolution to the conflict between rebels intent on crippling Nigeria's petroleum industry and government officials. -
Mongolia, coal and inflation
Published: May 14, 2008 at 7:56 PM
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UPI International Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- Rising fuel and food costs are hitting Mongolia hard, with foreign investors exploiting the situation to pressure the country to open up its economy. Given the country's political isolation, sandwiched between China and Russia, its two major trading partners, Ulaanbaatar is being held over the proverbial barrel in negotiations with its giant neighbors, leaving its population of 2.9 million nervously awaiting further aftershocks from rising inflation. -
Congress blocks administration from stockpiling oil
Published: May 14, 2008 at 7:28 PM
By ROSALIE WESTENSKOW
UPI Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- Faced with growing pressure to decrease gas prices, U.S. senators voted to stop stockpiling oil in the national reserve yesterday, but they rejected a plan to increase domestic production. -
UPI Energy Watch
Published: May 14, 2008 at 3:47 PM
IEA: Developing nations cause high oil prices; New oil, gas fields will add to Indonesia supply; Australia says oil, gas tax breaks to go
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State Dept.: Iraq not ready for oil deals
Published: Oct. 26, 2007 at 6:03 PM
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A top U.S. State Department official said he’s telling oil companies to stay out of Iraq until there’s a national oil law, and urges Baghdad to move quicker on it.
“We continue to advise companies from outside of Iraq that they incur significant political and legal risk in signing any contracts with any party inside of Iraq before a national (oil) law package is passed by the Iraq parliament,” said Lawrence Butler, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
A handful of companies have signed deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government, which has passed its own regional oil law, moves that has bolstered the wedge between it and the central government. Hunt Oil Corp. was the first U.S. firm to sign a deal, which created additional tension in Washington.
“These contracts have needlessly elevated tensions between the KRG and the central government who share a common interest in passage of a national hydrocarbons framework and revenue sharing laws,” Butler, who oversees U.S. policy in Iraq, told an annual conference of U.S. and Arab policymakers.
A national law governing Iraq’s vast oil and gas sector is before the Parliament’s energy committee. It has been in there since the summer, and spent a year prior to that being negotiated.
It’s stuck on disagreements between the Kurds, the central government and other parties and factions over the role of the national vs. regional/provincial governments in setting and executing oil policy, as well as the extent the oil sector should be privatized.
The oil framework law is accompanied by a revenue sharing law and laws reorganizing the role of the Ministry of Oil and reconstituting the Iraqi National Oil Company as part of the “package” Butler mentioned. Those three laws are further behind in the legislative process than the oil law.
The Bush administration insists the law will lead to national reconciliation, and is using legislative progress as a measure of the government’s success.
The oil and natural gas reserves have international oil companies ready to jump at contracts.
“There are frustrations amongst many companies I deal with,” Butler said, “with the pace of deliberations of the framework law and are concerned that the Kurdish regional government passed its own regional law in August and has signed a number of contracts before coming to an agreement with the central government on the framework of the national oil law.”
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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor
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(e-mail: blando@upi.com)
“We continue to advise companies from outside of Iraq that they incur significant political and legal risk in signing any contracts with any party inside of Iraq before a national (oil) law package is passed by the Iraq parliament,” said Lawrence Butler, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
A handful of companies have signed deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government, which has passed its own regional oil law, moves that has bolstered the wedge between it and the central government. Hunt Oil Corp. was the first U.S. firm to sign a deal, which created additional tension in Washington.
“These contracts have needlessly elevated tensions between the KRG and the central government who share a common interest in passage of a national hydrocarbons framework and revenue sharing laws,” Butler, who oversees U.S. policy in Iraq, told an annual conference of U.S. and Arab policymakers.
A national law governing Iraq’s vast oil and gas sector is before the Parliament’s energy committee. It has been in there since the summer, and spent a year prior to that being negotiated.
It’s stuck on disagreements between the Kurds, the central government and other parties and factions over the role of the national vs. regional/provincial governments in setting and executing oil policy, as well as the extent the oil sector should be privatized.
The oil framework law is accompanied by a revenue sharing law and laws reorganizing the role of the Ministry of Oil and reconstituting the Iraqi National Oil Company as part of the “package” Butler mentioned. Those three laws are further behind in the legislative process than the oil law.
The Bush administration insists the law will lead to national reconciliation, and is using legislative progress as a measure of the government’s success.
The oil and natural gas reserves have international oil companies ready to jump at contracts.
“There are frustrations amongst many companies I deal with,” Butler said, “with the pace of deliberations of the framework law and are concerned that the Kurdish regional government passed its own regional law in August and has signed a number of contracts before coming to an agreement with the central government on the framework of the national oil law.”
--
Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor
--
(e-mail: blando@upi.com)
© 2007 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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U.S. 'dissapointed' with Iraq oil law