Oil

Petrol cheaper by 58 paise, diesel 25 paise

December 1, 2015 by Nasheman

New Delhi: The price of petrol was today cut by 58 paise per litre and that of diesel by 25 paise, reversing the trend of increasing rates, on global cues.

Petrol will cost Rs 60.48 per litre from mid-night tonight in Delhi as against Rs 60.70 a litre currently.

A litre of diesel will cost Rs 46.55 from tomorrow compared with the Rs 46.80 now, said Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation’s biggest fuel retailer.

The price cut more than reverses the hike of 36 paise a litre in petrol rates effected on November 16, the first increase in five months. Similarly, in the case of diesel, it reverses the three rounds of hikes since October — the last being 87 paise a litre on November 16.

“The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and rupee-dollar exchange rate warrants a decrease in prices, the impact of which is being passed on to consumers with this price revision,” IOC said in a statement here.

Prior to the November 16 hike, petrol price had been slashed on four occasions — by Rs 2.43 on August 1, Rs 1.27 on August 16, Rs 2 on September 1 and 50 paise on November 1.

Diesel rates were not changed on November 1, but hiked by 95 paise on October 16 and 50 paise on October 1. Rates of diesel were last cut by 50 paise on September 1.

State-owned fuel retailers — IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) — revise petrol and diesel prices on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rate in the previous fortnight.

“The movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes,” the IOC statement added.

(PTI)

The role of land, oil and ports in the Yemeni crisis

July 23, 2015 by Nasheman

by Shoks Mnisi Mzolo, Cii Broadcasting

On the surface, the roots of the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Yemen as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to rain bombs on its southern neighbouring are hard to determine. The kingdom, whose military and their personnel are turning Yemen to a wreck, defends its involvement, in the violence and political strife gripping its neighbour, to its determination to stop an illegitimate government from taking over in Sana’a. Many have scoffed at not only the theory but also lamented Riyadh’s brutality that, in the name of pursuing rebels, has claimed thousands of civilian lives and displaced scores more while destroying infrastructure such as water tanks, schools and hospitals.

Without explaining the rationale behind the deaths directed at civilians, with the death toll now approaching 4,000, Riyadh claims its violence is meant to stop Houthi rebels, who staged a coup d’état earlier this year – that brought down then-President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government.

Scratching the surface, Prof Najib Ali Abdullah Alsoudi, an academic at the University of Ta’if, insists that it all boils down to money. In an interview with Cii, he dismissed the much-recycled pretext about ethnic or creed chasm or threat to the region’s security. Central to the political turmoil manifesting itself today is the rich kingdom’s thirst to economically subjugate the Middle East’s southern-most part, the professor said, going as far back as the 1960s.

King Faisal, a successor to deposed King Saud, was in charge of the oil-rich monarchy for the greater part of that decade. Imam Yahya, a king of Yemen, was succeeded by Imam Muhammad, also known as Sayf al-Islam al-Badr, in 1962. Their descendants’ struggle for control, by their countrymen or scions, revolved around Yemeni land and resources. Decades later, according to Alsoudi, Saudi Arabia is not keen to let go and is seizing Yemeni lands now.

The problem started when Imam Yahya’s impoverished then-monarch conceded to his neighbours, the professor said. “Imam Yayha was in a bad situation so he agreed to sign agreements, between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, that Najran and Aseer will be under Saudi as rental land for 20 years. When the 20 years finished, Ali Abdullah Saleh (then-president) he also re-signed the agreement between Yemen and Saudi,” Alsoudi added. That term came to an end last year, during Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s presidency. The then-incumbent turned down Saudi Arabia’s request to extend the land rental tenure. In a matter of months he was ousted and Yemen has been in the throes of the regional superpower’s bombs since then.

“After the revolution Yemeni people started talking about our land and the Saudi. So, the Saudi didn’t want the Yemeni people talking about that land. And, they want also, the Yemeni people to make Aden an international port. If Aden [were to become an] international port, that means Dubai and Jeddah will close already because all the ships will be coming to Aden because Aden is in the middle. So, if the ship is going to South Africa, it will stop in Aden,” the professor of in Arabic linguistics and Quranic studies pointed out.

The same goes for Australasia-bound ship and those headed for Asia, as far as Japan, among other destinations, Alsoudi explained. The UAE, which makes a fortune from the Dubai jackpot, would be one of the biggest losers if such a move passed and the kingdom the biggest winner given its landlord position. The two regional players, he added, have been at loggerhead over this with the impoverished Yemen finding itself in the middle.

With all of this in the background, Saleh, the former president, struck a relationship with Houthi. The latter was part of the 2011 revolution, among others. So, because of its role, Houthi is obviously no ally’s of the powerful kingdom. That said, its rise to power, not least after Hadi refused to extend the lease agreement, was bound to be solicit anger from Riyadh. Sadly, the Saudi military has since turned around and targeted civilians.

“[Saudi Arabia] don’t want to bring [our land] back,” as the academic summarised it, looking at some of the factors in the background. “They don’t want Yemeni people to take their oil from their land. We have a lot of oil… Saudi doesn’t want Yemeni people to take their oil and sell it to the world. They want us just to be poor people, a poor country. You know, in this [country] people eat leaves. Saudi has closed all the borders. We cannot receive any food [or aid]. I don’t know what’s wrong with that. I mean, we are Muslims, we are brothers. Why did the Saudi do that?”

California oil spill clean-up could take months

May 22, 2015 by Nasheman

Workers clean up an oil slick along the coast of Refugio State Beach in Goleta, California, United States, May 21, 2015. | Photo: Reuters

by teleSUR

The spill, which some estimate to be the largest in 46 years to hit the Santa Barbara shoreline, created a nine-mile slick along Refugio State Beach.

Cleaning up oil from a burst pipeline leaked onto iconic California beaches and the surrounding ocean could take months, a U.S. Coast Guard captain said Thursday.

“It’s a long process,” said Coast Guard Captain Jennifer Williams, federal on-scene coordinator of the spill response. “These types of things continue on, perhaps for months, to make sure the environment is restored to its original condition.”

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Wednesday after almost 2,500 barrels of crude petroleum spilled onto two state beaches and into the Pacific the previous day when the Plains All American Pipeline was damaged.

The spill, which some estimate to be the largest in 46 years to hit the Santa Barbara shoreline, created a nine-mile slick along Refugio State Beach stretching 50 yards out into the water, leading environmentalists to fear for the damage to marine life.

The Environmental Defense Center condemned the spill and pointed the finger at Plains for failings that allowed it to occur.

“There continues to be a number of questions … including why there was no automatic shut-off on this relatively new pipeline, and why the early response was not more successful in halting the flow,” the group’s head Owen Bailey said.

“This region is home to an incredible diversity of wildlife, including numerous species of endangered whales and iconic coastlands that bring people from across the world to visit.”

Ruptured pipeline along California Coast dumps 21,000 gallons of Crude Oil into Pacific Ocean

May 20, 2015 by Nasheman

‘To see this level of spill into such a sensitive and treasured environment is devastating to watch. These waters are known as the Galapagos of North America with numerous species of endangered whales migrating through marine protected areas and off the iconic and beloved Gaviota Coast.’

Campers try to rescue an oil-covered bird on Refugio beach. It later swam back into the ocean. (Photo: Noozhawk/Lara Ann Cooper)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

An oil pipeline that runs along the coast of central California broke on Tuesday, according to officials, dumping tens of thousands of gallons of crude onto local beaches and creating a 4-mile slick in the Pacific Ocean.

Initial estimates put the spill at about 21,000 gallons Tuesday, but the Associated Press cited a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson on Wednesday who said that figure is likely to change after a Wednesday morning flyover gave a better sense of the spill’s scope.

The pipeline, which runs parallel to Highway 101 near Santa Barbara, left a slick extending about four miles (6.4 km) along Refugio State Beach, extending about 50 yards into the water, explained Petty Officer Andrea Anderson of the USGC.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

The rupture, located along an 11-mile long underground pipe that’s part of a larger oil transport network bound for Kern County, was first reported about noon after a woman at Refugio State Beach in Goleta smelled the crude’s noxious fumes. Coast Guard crews stopped the leak by 3 p.m., said Coast Guard Petty Officer Andrea Anderson.

It’s unclear what caused the break in the pipeline.

After flowing from the pipeline, crude pooled in a culvert before spilling into the Pacific, where it created a four-mile-long sheen extending about 50 yards into the water. Officials said winds could send the oil another four miles south toward Isla Vista.

The pipeline, built in 1991 and designed to carry about 150,000 barrels of oil per day, is owned by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline, which said in a statement that it shut down the pipe. The culvert was also blocked to prevent more oil from flowing into the ocean, the company said.

By late Tuesday, a thick layer of crude had begun to wash ashore, with black tar smearing the rocks as the brackish tides arrived.

“It is horrible,” said Brett Connors, 35, a producer from Santa Monica who said he spotted sea lions swimming in the oil slick. “You want to jump in there and save them.”

Local affiliate 23 ABC KERO News offered this raw footage of the coastal areas impacted by the spill:

The location of Tuesday’s disaster is not far from the infamous Santa Barbara spill in 1969, the worst of its kind in U.S. history up to that point, which is widely credited with jump-starting the nation’s modern environmental movement which took off in the 1970s.

In response to Tuesday’s spill, Owen Bailey, executive director of the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center, said his group was closely monitoring the situation both onshore and off, but expressed little surprise that an accident occured with the pipeline.

“Unfortunately with accidents and oil development, it is not a question of if, but of when,” Bailey said. “To see this level of spill into such a sensitive and treasured environment is devastating to watch. These waters are known as the Galapagos of North America with numerous species of endangered whales migrating through marine protected areas and off the iconic and beloved Gaviota Coast.”

Looking both backward and into the future, Bailey decried the fossil fuel industry as he praised the work of locals groups who have long demanded an energy shift away from oil and gas. “In the wake of the terrible 1969 Santa Barbra oil spill, our communities have fought for many years to protect this as one of the most important environments in all of California,” he said. “Looking forward at new, risky coastal drilling applications from Venoco to drill off Ellwood and Sunset/Exxon to drill from Vandenberg Air Force Base, this is an important reminder that we must redouble our efforts to make safer, cleaner and forward-looking decisions on energy production.”

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Petrol price hiked by Rs 3.13, diesel by Rs 2.71 per litre

May 16, 2015 by Nasheman

New Delhi: Transport fuel prices were hiked effective Friday midnight by Rs.3.13 per litre for petrol and by Rs.2.71 a litre for diesel, including state levies, state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) said on Friday.

The rates were last increased on May 1 by Rs.3.96 per litre for petrol and by Rs.2.37 a litre for diesel.

“Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has decided to effect the price changes midnight of 15th-16th May,” IOC said in statement.

According to IOC, it had to hike prices due to volatility in the rupee value and hardening of international motor spirit (MS) and diesel prices in the international market.

“Since the last price change, there has been a steep increase in international prices of both petrol and diesel. Rupee-dollar exchange rate has also depreciated quite significantly during this period,” the statement said.

The three state-run OMCs review prices of diesel and petrol every fortnight depending on global oil prices and currency movements.

Petrol price has been market-linked since June 2010, while diesel prices were fully deregulated from Oct 18 2014. Both the fuel prices are revised periodically depending on the international crude oil price.

Currently, the government fully subsidises sensitive products like LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinders and kerosene.

Allowing for local taxes, the prices per litre of petrol will be Rs.66.29 in Delhi, Rs.73.76 in Kolkata, Rs.74.12 in Mumbai and Rs.69.45 in Chennai.

After adjusting the upward revision, diesel will cost be Rs.52.28 in Delhi, Rs.56.85 in Kolkata, Rs.59.86 in Mumbai and Rs.55.74 in Chennai.

(IANS)

Petrol price cut by 80 paise/litre, diesel by Rs 1.30/litre

April 15, 2015 by Nasheman

New Delhi: Petrol price was today cut by 80 paise a litre and diesel by Rs 1.30 per litre, the second reduction in rates this month.

The reduction will be effective from midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said.

After the cut, petrol will cost Rs 59.20 a litre in Delhi and diesel will be available Rs 47.20/litre.

Prices of petrol and diesel were last revised downwards with effect from April 2 by Rs 0.49/litre and Rs 1.21/litre respectively.

Since last price change, the trend of international prices of petrol & diesel and INR-USD exchange rate warrant a further downward revision in prices, the impact of which is being passed on to consumers with this price decrease, IOC said.

(PTI)

‘Tell us who pays you’: Tony Blair pressured over alleged paymasters

January 20, 2015 by Nasheman

Tony Blair pictured at the Munich Security Conference 2014. (Photo: Marc Müller/cc)

by RT

Conservative MPs will launch a campaign on Monday to force Tony Blair to reveal how much he earns and who pays him.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen is tabling an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the House of Commons, demanding that former prime ministers be bound by the same rules of transparency and oversight as serving politicians.

While the EDM is unlikely to be passed by parliament, it follows growing concern over Blair’s work for authoritarian governments and controversial corporations.

Blair’s business transactions have been linked to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan – all three of which are widely known for their human rights abuses.

“Tony Blair has embarked on a career of personal enrichment and has blurred the lines between his public and private interests,” Bridgen told The Sunday Times.

“No other former prime minister has gone to work for other sovereign states. Mr Blair is still in public life, but is not bound by its principles, and that needs to be changed,” he added.

Blair, who was last year awarded GQ’s Philanthropy Award, has come under intense scrutiny as he has been linked to a string of authoritarian regimes and less-than-ethical companies.

A consortium of energy companies, including BP, hired him last year to work on a new gas pipeline which will go from Azerbaijan to Italy via Turkey.

The project has come under fierce criticism for the environment destruction it may cause and for the wealth it will give Azerjaijan’s controversial leader, Ilham Aliyev.

Aliyev, whose government has imprisoned bloggers and journalists, was compared to a mafia don from The Godfather by US diplomats in a Wikileaks cable published in 2010.

The former prime minister’s consultancy, Tony Blair Associates, reportedly earns £7 million a year for advising Kazakhstan’s strongman president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Nazarbayev’s government has been accused of human rights abuses after its courts forcibly closed much of the country’s independent media and his troops massacred dozens of striking oil workers at a peaceful protest in Zhanaozen, in western Kazakhstan, in December 2011.

As if the list of unscrupulous customers wasn’t long enough already, Tony Blair Associates has also been linked to a Saudi Arabian oil company founded by the son of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.

A leaked contract, which emerged last November, showed that Blair had been hired by PetroSaudi to help facilitate a deal between the oil firm and Chinese state officials.

Blair, who also serves as a Special Envoy for the Middle East Quartet, was reportedly paid £41,000 a month to carry out these duties, and took a 2 percent cut from each successfully orchestrated deal.

Since leaving office in 2007, Blair has amassed millions of pounds in fees collected through his consultancy firm.

Some have speculated that the former prime minister’s personal fortune could amount to £100 million, but he has implied it is closer to £20 million.

This figure will raise eyebrows, however, as it is reported his personal expenses run into the millions.

Blair’s private jet alone is worth £30 million and reportedly costs £7,000 for every hour it is in the air.

Since leaving government Blair has also claimed a taxpayer-funded allowance for ex-prime ministers, in addition to other state subsidies.

A Freedom of Information request in 2012 revealed Blair was costing the taxpayer £400,000 a year in pensions, public duties allowances and security costs.

Petrol price cut by Rs 2.42/litre, diesel by Rs 2.25

January 17, 2015 by Nasheman

New Delhi: Petrol price was on Friday cut by Rs 2.42 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.25 a litre after an excise duty hike limited the benefit of global crude prices slumping to six-year low.

The reduction would have been almost double but for the government also raising excise duty by Rs 2 per litre on both petrol and diesel on Friday.

This is the ninth straight reduction in petrol prices since August, and fifth in diesel since October.

New rates will be effective midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, announced here.

In Delhi, petrol will cost Rs 58.91 a litre, the lowest in 44 months, as compared to Rs 61.33 a litre now. Similarly, diesel will cost Rs 48.26 a litre in Delhi, the lowest since April 2013, as against Rs 50.51 currently.

This is the fourth hike in excise duty since November and cumulatively customers have been denied the benefit of Rs 7.75 per litre reduction in petrol and Rs 6.50 a litre cut in diesel rates that was warranted due to the slump in oil price to USD 46 per barrel.

A Finance Ministry notification said the excise duty on unbranded petrol is being hiked to Rs 8.95 per litre and that on unbranded diesel to Rs 7.96 per litre.

The four excise duty hikes will result in about Rs 20,000 crore in additional revenue this fiscal and will help the government meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent of the GDP.

Petrol and diesel prices were last cut on December 16 by Rs 2 per litre each.

Including Friday’s reduction, petrol price have been cut by Rs 14.69 per litre on a cumulative basis since August, while diesel rates in five downward revisions have been slashed by a total of Rs 10.71 a litre.

Crude oil price in June was at USD 115 per barrel.

Saudi Arabia braces for $39bn deficit, to cut wages due to low oil prices

December 27, 2014 by Nasheman

by RT

The number one crude oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, has projected a $39 billion deficit in 2015. The impact of lower oil prices, along with the decision not to cut production, is putting pressure on the country’s finances.

The figure was part of the endorsed 2015 budget, which was made public in a statement read out on state-run television on Thursday.

The estimated trade deficit will be Saudi Arabia’s largest on record.

The Finance Ministry said the government will try to save some money by cutting salaries, wages, and allowances that represent around “50 percent of total budgeted expenditures.” But the move could anger Saudi youth, who are already struggling to cover the costs of living in the country.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), about two-thirds of the population works for the government.

The 2015 budget includes 860 billion riyals (US$229.3 billion) in spending and 715 billion riyals ($190.7 billion) in revenue. Saudi Arabia promised to cover the difference by digging into its reserves.

At the latest OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, the Gulf country opted not to cut the production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day, despite oil prices plunging nearly 50 percent since summer.

Saudi Arabia has also made clear that it is unwilling to cut down production, even if oil prices continue to fall further. Last week, the country’s oil minister, Ali Al-Naimi, said that output would not be reduced, even if prices fall to $20 a barrel.

The decision has been interpreted by some experts as trying to weed out new players from North America, who can competitively produce shale oil only at higher crude prices. However, lower oil prices also directly hurt the economies of countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.

Some economists fear that the deficit in 2015 might be even larger than projected, since Saudi Arabians have underestimated the figure in the past.

“I believe we are headed for a difficult year in 2015. I think the actual deficit will be around 200 billion riyals [$53 billion] because actual revenues are expected to be lower than estimates,” Saudi economist Abdulwahab Abu-Dahesh told AFP. “Spending in the budget is not in line with the sharp decline in oil prices,” he said.

According to the country’s Finance Ministry, the 2014 fiscal year budget is set to post a deficit of 54 billion riyals ($14.4 billion) – the first budget shortfall since 2009.

Last year, the world pumped out more carbon pollution than ever before

December 19, 2014 by Nasheman

by Brian Merchant, Motherboard

Precisely at the moment that the climate depends on carbon pollution declining, worldwide emissions continue to boom. Case in point: 2013 saw yet another record carbon high, with 35.3 billion tons of CO2 entering the atmosphere.

That’s the finding of the European Union’s Joint Research Center, which released its annual report on global emissions today. The document tallies the emissions of fossil fuel power production—coal, oil, and gas—and emissions from industry, especially cement and metal manufacturing.

The record high was reached primarily thanks to developing, coal-hungry giants: “Sharp risers include Brazil (+ 6.2 percent), India (+ 4.4 percent), China (+ 4.2 percent) and Indonesia (+2.3 percent),” the report notes.

The US—the world’s largest historic greenhouse gas emitter—grew again after a brief pause, thanks to a return to coal.

“The emissions increase in the United States in 2013 (+2.5 percent) was mainly due to a shift in power production from gas back to coal together with an increase in gas consumption due to a higher demand for space heating.”

The silver lining is that the rate of emissions growth is at least slowing: “emissions increased at a notably slower rate (2 percent) than on average in the last ten years (3.8 percent per year since 2003, excluding the credit crunch years),” the report adds. China’s emissions are plateauing, after its economy’s mega-boom that began in the early 2000s has begun to level off. The EU’s emissions have continue to decline, slowly.

The report also notes that there’s a ‘decoupling’ underway, wherein GDP is growing even when carbon emissions slow (the two have historically been intrinsically linked). That’s because the globe is shifting to embrace a bigger service economy, and relying a bit less on industrial production.

Sadly, that’s not happening nearly fast enough. According to scientists who have estimated our global carbon budget, we have approximately 1,200 gigatons of carbon left to burn before we see levels of warning that may be altogether destabilizing to human civilization—2˚C or 3.7˚F worth of temperature rise. Last year, we ate through 37 gigatons of said budget.

The fact that we’re still shattering carbon production records in the face of global calamity—after 2˚C of warming, scientists worry about ’runaway’ effects like methane feedback loops—is disquieting. The fact that our international treaty process is woefully toothless and has taken decades to make the tiniest baby step, is further cause for worry.

Unless the international community can quell its thirst for coal and oil, and help developing economies grow with clean power sources, we’re heading for more sea level rise, more drought, and melting poles.

It’s one record we need to stop breaking.