| Kuwait to supply Iraq with oil products for winter - Daily Times - Pakistan
Oil-rich Kuwait has agreed in principle to supply Iraq with oil products to meet winter shortages as well as allow Baghdad to use its terminals to export oil, an official said Thursday.
The emirate also gave a provisional nod to buy natural gas from its former occupier in return for billions of dollars of debt and agreed to assist in rebuilding the Iraqi oil sector, said Issam Jehad, an advisor to Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum.
The agreements were the result of three days of talks here between Ulum and his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah.
“Talks have been very successful. Kuwait said it is prepared to provide all forms of assistance to help in the recovery of the Iraqi oil sector,” Mr Jehad told AFP.
The two sides agreed to form a high-level cooperation committee headed by the two ministers. A number of sub-committees have also been formed.
A technical committee will meet immediately after Eid Al-Fitr, the Muslim feast that follows the fasting month of Ramadan, which falls in the last week of November, to study details of all the issues taken up during the ministers’ talks, he said.
Kuwait will supply Iraq with kerosene, petrol and gasoline to meet winter shortages, but the exact quantities will be determined by the technical committee, Mr Jehad said.
“We have an almost 40 percent shortage in oil products and Kuwait agreed to provide whatever supplies it can,” he said.
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| Iraq seeks to export oil through Kuwaiti ports - Middle East Online
Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum discussed overnight with his Kuwaiti counterpart the possibility of exporting oil through the emirate's terminals, a senior official said Wednesday.
"They discussed the possibility of Iraq exporting its oil through Kuwaiti ports on the Gulf," said Assem Jehad, an advisor to the Iraqi minister.
"Kuwaiti oil terminals will have the largest share of Iraqi oil exports. Iraq at this stage looks to expand its options of oil export terminals," especially after attacks on its northern pipeline, Jehad said.
Ulum arrived in Kuwait late Tuesday on his first official visit to the emirate for talks with Kuwait Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah.
"The minister informed his Kuwaiti counterpart that Iraq is interested in expanding its oil cooperation with Kuwait and is certain the emirate will back Iraqi efforts in shaping the future of its oil sector," Jehad added.
Ulum also said that "Iraq is prepared to supply Kuwait with natural gas in exchange for debts owed to Kuwaiti," estimated at billions of dollars, he added.
The two ministers also discussed "the possibility of Kuwaiti companies investing in the Iraqi oil sector and participating in infrastructure rehabilitation projects," Jehad said.
Ulum has already visited OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Qatar and is due to travel to Iran. He was also expected to visit the United Arab Emirates and Oman at a later stage.
The minister revealed a long-term plan to boost Iraqi oil production to five million barrels per day (bpd) by 2010 which requires assistance from neighbours and foreign oil majors.
But the short term plan, to be carried out by Iraqi expertise, is to return to pre-1990 production level of more than three million barrels daily.
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| Kremlin urges state oil control - BBC
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has waded into the row over oil giant Yukos by calling for more state control over Russia's energy reserves.
In an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, Mr Ivanov said oil companies including Yukos were under-investing in exploring for new oil.
Mr Ivanov is one of the closest allies of President Vladimir Putin. Yukos has been in the spotlight ever since ex-boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested for fraud last month.
Mr Ivanov's intervention is significant because as defence minister, he tends to keep his pronouncements to military matters.
But as one of the closest allies of the President, Vladimir Putin, when he ventures off this subject there can be little doubt that he is expressing an official, not merely a personal, opinion.
So his blunt statement that strategic reserves, and notably oil, should come under tighter state control will be seen as a warning of possibly greater state interference in the hitherto independent oil companies.
In the past few months, the Yukos oil company has been subjected to raids on its premises by the tax police, and two of its leading figures, Platon Lebedev and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, have been
arrested. As the interview was published, news came through that the department of the Interior Ministry responsible for
combating organised crime is considering pressing criminal charges against two other oil companies, Sibneft and Rosneft.
Sibneft is joining with Yukos to create Russia's largest oil company. Mr Ivanov claims that the oil companies are not investing enough in exploring for new reserves, and says that the oil currently being produced is thanks to work carried out in the Soviet era.
Many in the oil community would dispute this.
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| US Dependence on Foreign Oil Threatens Peace, say Environmentalists - Voice of America
(...) Earlier this year, the Evangelical Environmental Network launched a campaign, calling on Christians to consider what sort of vehicle Jesus would drive. The campaign pointed to America's dependence on foreign oil as a threat to peace. And shortly after September 11, political columnist Arianna Huffington, who would later run for governor of California, helped to produce a series of television and newspaper ads that accused owners of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles of unwittingly helping to fund terrorism. The ads had very little effect on SUV sales, but according Brendan Bell, a spokesperson for the environmental group, the Sierra Club, the tactic has proved to be effective in the past. Mr. Bell says one of the first pieces of legislation ever to address America's excessive oil consumption was passed not so much because Congress was concerned about the environment, but because it believed America's dependence on foreign oil made the country economically vulnerable.
"Congress in 1975 passed requirements for cars and trucks to get a certain miles per gallon," said Mr. Bell. "This was in 1975, in response to the OPEC oil embargo as a way to ease the United States' dependence on foreign oil."
One year earlier, Congress also set the national speed limit at 88 kilometers per hour, since this was thought to be the most fuel-efficient rate at which a vehicle could travel. That limit was ultimately repealed in 1995 to the delight of impatient motorists, and the fuel efficiency requirements on passenger cars first set in 1975 haven't actually been updated since 1986. Brendan Bell says this may be because Americans in the '80s and '90s just weren't forced to see oil consumption as a national security issue. But he insists this doesn't mean that arguments about clean air and water aren't legitimate.
"I think both arguments are strong, so I don't think that one argument overshadows the other," commented Mr. Bell. "Clearly, at certain times, our dependence on foreign oil is particularly acute. It's difficult for lawmakers to ignore the fact that we're sending our troops into the Persian Gulf every ten years over something that has something to do with our dependence on oil."
Nevertheless, Brendan Bell says most environmentalists believe that neither the national security argument nor the environmental argument is going to have much of an impact on America's oil consumption, so long as the political influence of the U.S. petroleum industry remains as strong as it is today.
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Row over Prestige Oil Spill Continues - Deutsche Welle
A year after the Prestige disaster, controversy and anger still surround the break-up of the tanker, as environmental pressure groups and politicians continue to call for action and compensation.
Thousands of beaches were polluted. At the heart of the controversy is an on-going row between France and Spain. The argument over who’s to blame erupted while the stricken tanker was still lurching precariously in the sea but gathered momentum when the ship sank and its slick reached southern France.
The dispute has now escalated further due to a recently published judicial report commissioned by French parliamentarian Philippe de Villiers the Vendee region which was affected by the spill.
Highly critical of the Spanish government, the report claims that Madrid’s actions made matters worse by preventing emergency crews from boarding the tanker until they had agreed to tow it out to sea. "Good sense should have told them to bring it into the port of La
Coruña" to prevent the oil spreading so far, according to the report.
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| China to cut oil consumption through automobiles - Asia Times
Experiencing a mounting reliance on imported oil, China is exploring the possibility of cutting its oil consumption by promoting energy-efficient automobiles.
"To squeeze automobile oil consumption will be one of the government's top priorities in the years to come," said Liu Shijin, a researcher for China's cabinet's think-tank, the Development Research Center of the State Council, at a seminar held from November 15-17 in Beijing.
According to Liu, the imbalance between the country's limited oil supply and fast-rising auto consumption has become more obvious in recent years.
While the number of autos in China is set to rise from around 20 million in 2002 to 30 million in 2005, China's reliance on imported oil could also grow further.
Experts attending the seminar pointed out that auto consumption will be a major force driving up the country's oil demand.
According to researchers' estimates, the country's auto transportation sector consumed 42.93-71.56 million tons of oil in 1998, accounting for 21.7-36.1 percent of the country's total oil consumption.
The country's relatively backward auto technologies and the fact that old autos account for 25 percent of the country's automobiles are the two major factors to blame for the over-demand for oil, experts said.
So enhancing the oil efficiency of autos, encouraging the development, purchase and use of energy-efficient autos and attracting car makers strong at oil-efficient auto production to the market is quite urgent for China, many attendees of the seminar said.
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