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Posts Tagged ‘natural gas’

Obama lets Chinese own U.S. energy resources

January 22, 2013 Comments off

wnd.com

130121chinaoilNEW YORK – The Obama administration is quietly allowing China to acquire major ownership interests in oil and natural gas resources across the U.S.

The decision to allow China to compete for U.S. oil and natural gas resources appears to stem from a need to keep Beijing economically interested in lending to the U.S. The Obama administration has run $1-trillion-plus annual federal budget deficits since taking office that likely will continue in the second term.

Allowing China to have equity interests in U.S. energy production is a reversal of the Bush administration’s policy. In 2005, the Bush administration blocked China on grounds of national security from an $18.4 billion deal to purchase California-based Unocal Corp.

As WND reported Monday, Beijing has been developing a proposal in which real estate on American soil owned by China would be Read more…

Categories: China, United States Tags: , , , ,

Kim Jong-il visits Russia for talks with Dmitry Medvedev

August 24, 2011 Comments off

guardian.co.uk

Kim Jong-il's train in Ulan-Ude

Kim Jong-il’s train in Ulan-Ude. Photograph: Yonhap/EPA

Kim Jong-il has travelled by armoured train to eastern Siberia for a summit with the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev.

The North Korean leader arrived in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal, Russian news agencies reported. Kim’s motorcade left town in the direction of Turka, a picturesque village on the shores of Baikal.

The Yonhap news agency said the Medvedev-Kim summit was expected to take place on Wednesday.

The talks could focus on a deal for a pipeline that would stream Russian natural gas through the North’s territory to the South. South Korean media said the North could earn up to $100m a year.

There were signs that preparations were being made for Read more…

Categories: North Korea, Russia Tags: , , , , , ,

Europe’s Rejection of Nuclear Power a Gift for Russia

June 16, 2011 1 comment

thetrumpet

« The German E.ON nuclear power station in southern Germany is set to begin closing down in 2014.

Germany will phase out nuclear power by 2022, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced June 3. A week before, Switzerland made a similar decision. Italy followed suit on June 13, voting overwhelmingly to reject nuclear power in a national referendum.

These countries will almost certainly have to replace their nuclear power with natural gas, at least in the short term. It is readily available and less polluting than coal or oil. The International Energy Agency recently predicted a “golden age of gas.”

The only problem is where Europe gets most of its gas from Read more…

Categories: Europe, Russia Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Egypt and Israel Headed for Crisis

May 6, 2011 Comments off

palestinechronicle

Israeli officials have expressed alarm at a succession of moves by the interim Egyptian government that they fear signal an impending crisis in relations with Cairo.

The widening rift was underscored yesterday when leaders of the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation pact in the Egyptian capital. Egypt’s secret role in brokering the agreement last week caught both Israel and the United States by surprise.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the deal “a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism”.

Several other developments have added to Israeli concerns about its relations with Egypt, including signs that Cairo hopes to renew ties with Iran and renegotiate a long-standing contract to supply Israel with natural gas.

More worrying still to Israeli officials are reported plans by Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza, closed for the Read more…

Categories: Egypt, Israel Tags: , , , , , , ,

China-Russia relations and the United States: At a turning point?

April 14, 2011 Comments off

rian


Dmitry Medvedev and Hu JintaoBy Dr. Richard Weitz

Since the end of the Cold War, the improved political and economic relationship between Beijing and Moscow has affected a range of international security issues. China and Russia have expanded their bilateral economic and security cooperation. In addition, they have pursued distinct, yet parallel, policies regarding many global and regional issues.

Yet, Chinese and Russian approaches to a range of significant subjects are still largely uncoordinated and at times in conflict. Economic exchanges between China and Russia remain minimal compared to those found between most friendly countries, let alone allies.
Although stronger Chinese-Russian ties could present greater challenges to other countries (e.g., the establishment of a Moscow-Beijing condominium over Central Asia), several factors make it unlikely that the two countries will form such a bloc.

The relationship between the Chinese and Russian governments is perhaps the best it has ever been. The leaders of both countries engage in numerous high-level exchanges, make many mutually supportive statements, and manifest other displays of Russian-Chinese cooperation in what both governments refer to as their developing strategic partnership.

The current benign situation is due less to common values and shared interests than to the fact that Chinese and Russian security concerns are Read more…

Categories: China, Russia, United States Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

UN document would give ‘Mother Earth’ same rights as humans

April 13, 2011 Comments off

canada.com

Bolivia is planning to table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans.

Bolivia is planning to table a draft United Nations treaty giving “Mother Earth” the same rights as humans.

Photograph by: NASA

UNITED NATIONS — Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving “Mother Earth” the same rights as humans — having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.

The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to “dominate and exploit” — to the point that the “well-being and existence of Read more…

Categories: United Nations Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

U.S. Will Build Five New Nuclear Reactors by 2020, New Energy Finance Says

April 4, 2011 Comments off

bloomberg

 

The U.S. will build five new nuclear reactors by 2020 and ignore calls to scale back plans in the wake of Japan’s nuclear accident, said Chris Gadomski, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

“We’ll see a reassessment and reevaluation and then stay the course,” Gadomski said today at a conference in New York today. Plans to build the five reactors are already underway, he said, and “We don’t see that changing.”

No new nuclear plants have been built in the U.S. since the 1979 near-meltdown at Three Mile Island. Interest in atomic energy has gained as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, and the Obama administration has offered loan guarantees to developers of reactors, which account for a fifth of total U.S. electricity.

“We are looking first and foremost at keeping our current fleet operating safely,” said Andrea Sterdis, senior manager of nuclear expansion at Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal power supplier that operates four reactors in the U.S. South. She spoke at the conference hosted by New Energy Finance.

The biggest threat to new nuclear power plants may be the low cost of natural gas, which can be used to fuel power stations that are quicker and cheaper to build than atomic- fueled facilities, said said Edward Kee, vice president of NERA Economic Consulting.

“Everything in the U.S. is challenged by cheap natural gas,” Kee said at the conference.

Categories: nuclear technology Tags: , , , ,

Russia emerges as unlikely energy safe haven

March 14, 2011 Comments off

AFP – Turning the page on former disappointments, the world’s energy giants are flocking to Russia, whose vast resource riches look even more tempting at a time of turbulence in the Middle East.

In just a matter of weeks, the country has put the finishing touches on a clutch of joint exploration and share-swap agreements whose negotiation seemed impossible just a few years ago.

But with natural gas production stagnant and new oil wealth resting in hard-to-reach reserves, Russia is swinging the door open to Western companies, their presence now seen as essential to the country’s economic growth.

“Russia is today the go-to place for Read more…

Categories: Russia Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Turkmenistan to boost gas deliveries to China

March 4, 2011 Comments off

AP

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) — Energy-hungry China is set to sign an agreement with the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan later this year to boost its future annual natural gas purchases by 20 billion cubic meters, state newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reported Wednesday.

The deal means Turkmenistan’s annual gas sales to China will eventually reach 60 billion cubic meters — equivalent to more than half China’s entire natural gas consumption last year.

Turkmenistan began delivering gas to China through a newly completed pipeline in late 2009, but that route is only expected to reach full annual capacity of 40 billion cubic meters by 2015. As of mid-February, Turkmenistan had supplied 5.8 billion cubic meters of Read more…

Categories: China, Turkmenistan Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Largest earthquake in 35 years hits Arkansas

March 1, 2011 Comments off

news.yahoo.com

The central Arkansas town of Greenbrier has been plagued for months by hundreds of small earthquakes, and after being woken up by the largest quake to hit the state in 35 years, residents said Monday they’re unsettled by the increasing severity and lack of warning.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake at 11 p.m. Sunday, centered just northeast of Greenbrier, about 40 miles north of Little Rock. It was the largest of more than 800 quakes to strike the area since September in what is now being called the Guy-Greenbrier earthquake swarm.

The activity has garnered national attention and researchers are studying whether there’s a possible connection to the region’s natural gas drilling industry. The earthquake activity varies each week, though as many as nearly two dozen small quakes have Read more…

Categories: Arkansas, Earthquake Tags: , , , , , , ,