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POPS India's Reliance Halts Petrol Sales to Iran After reaching full capacity, the new refinery and the existing plant will make the Jamnagar complex the world's single-biggest supplier of fuels to the global market, pumping out 1.24 million bpd Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, but lacks the refining capacity to meet domestic demand and relies heavily on imports to guarantee fuel at the pumps. http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/
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POPSIn the land of the blind....whose in bed with who? Libyan oil exports to the US were resumed and in 2005, US energy companies invested in the country for the first time in more than two decades. In May 2006, Washington announced the full resumption of diplomatic ties with Libya. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has signed an agreement to pay Libya $5bn as part of a deal to resolve colonial-era disputes. Rome and Tripoli have spent years arguing over compensation for the colonial period. Mr Berlusconi's investment company controls Italy's three biggest private television stations. And, when he is in office, his appointees also run three public ones. Opponents complain that an Italian voter cannot escape blanket coverage favourable to Mr Berlusconi. They also say his control of the media extends beyond the news agenda, and that comedians who lampooned him when he was last prime minister never appeared on TV again.
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POPSOil price plunge hurting mullahs: Ahmadinejad suspends tax hike Iranian merchants are revolting. Very funny. I don't mean their offensive odor. I mean they are protesting the harsh economic times with oil prices slashed by 50% and hurting the economy which is geared to producing nukes. Now how about a full blockade on their ports? No more an act of war than Iran providing explosively formed penetrators to their Iraqi stooges that have been killing our boys in harm's way.
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POPSPalin's Blown Opportunity on Energy Independence "According to Senator Ron Wyden, the Alaskan gas slated for Asia between 2009 and 2011 could meet the annual consumption of 1.4 million American families. The Oregon Democrat has accused Palin of a "major contradiction" between her support for gas exports and campaign emphasis on more drilling to slake US energy needs. "It's pretty outrageous to scare Americans about energy shortages while she has been approving export of billions of cubic feet of natural gas that could be providing energy to homes in Alaska and the lower 48 states," he said. "
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POPS Oil Outlook Clouds Russia’s Economic Future That could trigger a vicious circle of falling income and investment, as production gets more expensive in Russia's aging fields. The era of record profits from oil and gas is over - that's according to Russia's Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin. 2008 is likely to be the year of peak oil and gas production in the country. The big oil companies are cutting investment in new projects. Russia has received up to $1 Billion a day in oil revenues in recent years, and the country's budget and economy remain highly dependent on hydrocarbon earnings. The world financial crisis and recession has triggered big falls in the world's oil price. That will significantly affect the Russian budget, according to Mikhail Kroutikhin, partner at Rusenergy.
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POPSVenezuela signs oil deal with China The US government says it is not concerned by the developments, but equally it cannot be happy about the encroachment by Russia, or China, into a region Washington has long considered its backyard.
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POPSWhy cheaper oil signals trouble Deflation will win over inflation. But the "good news" will go on until just after the USA election. Then reality will begin to intrude its ugly head, again.
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POPSBaku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Back to Normal Operations, BP Says continued...... backing out of the BTC pipeline and diverting its oil through Russia amid the military conflict in Georgia. Now, Erlan Idrissov, Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the U.S., has written in to say that his country plans to continue with the pipeline project. The crux of his letter: I would like to make clear that the allegations made in the article with reference to the Turkish “Referans” newspaper that Kazakhstan is pulling out of the BTC project are very far from likelihood. The article questions Kazakhstan’s commitment to the existing resource transportation agreements saying that “some countries seem to be bailing out of the existing ”. I would like to address here the core of the issue. First of all, Kazakhstan has declared and more than once proved its unwavering commitment to the principle of diversification of the routes of hydrocarbons transportation to the world markets.
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POPSObama's Depressing Tax Plan He has opposed the Columbian Free Trade Agreement, even though it primarily removes tariffs on American exports to that country, with barriers to Columbian exports to America already almost all removed under the Andean Trade Preferences Act. In sharp contrast, McCain has promised tax cuts to promote economic growth and strengthen the U.S. dollar. The federal corporate tax rate today is 35 percent, and McCain suggests cutting it to 25 percent. This would mirror rates elsewhere: The average corporate tax rate in the European Union was slashed from 38 percent in 1996 to 24 percent by 2007. The rates in India and China are lower as well. American companies are not going to produce more jobs and higher wages with this crippling competitive disadvantage.
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POPSHow To Stop Putin What we can do is alter Putin's cost-benefit calculations. We are not without resources. There are a range of measures to be deployed if Russia does not live up to its cease-fire commitments: 1. Suspend the NATO-Russia Council established in 2002 2. Bar Russian entry to the World Trade Organization. 3. Dissolve the G-8. Putin's dictatorship long made Russia's presence in this group of industrial democracies a farce, but no one wanted to upset the bear by expelling it. No need to. The seven democracies simply withdraw. (And if Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who has been sympathetic to Putin's Georgia adventure, wants to stay, he can have an annual G-2 dinner with Putin.) Then immediately announce the reconstitution of the original G-7. 4. Announce a U.S.-European boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi. The most crucial and unconditional measure, however, is this: Reaffirm support for the Saakashvili government:
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POPSUS Oil Companies Shamelessly Increase Exports Their exports to other countries are surging while they complain about drilling access. How about some honesty now from republicans (instead of circling the wagons as if Big Oil are pure saints), let's hear them criticize this policy of the oil companies while they complain of insufficient supply (e.g. "its OPECs fault")! Would be glad to hear any attempts at defending this export policy, which can only contribute to an increase in the price of gas here. Forgive us for complaining now about excessive profits when they are the ones limiting our domestic gas supply! (I have no objection to increase drilling either, but weary of the mantra that is blind to the truth).