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Word is that both Israel and Turkey are seriously entertaining the notion of constructing an undersea pipeline to deliver Israeli natural gas to Turkey and, perhaps, hence to Europe. The Turks reportedly have expressed willingness to foot part of the estimated $2 billion bill. Such pipelines exist elsewhere in the world, most notably from Russia and from Norway. It is becoming evident that a veiled agenda underpinned the recent Turkish willingness to consider a rapprochement with Israel. Turkey, it appears, hankers after Israeli gas. The perceived Turkish softening was fueled by Israel’s offshore gas discoveries, a fact which nevertheless did...

A new investigation released by Wall Street Daily just revealed a disturbing pattern of price manipulation in the energy markets. The six-month investigation, conducted by renowned energy analyst, Karim Rahemtulla, was triggered by the incredible disparity in gas prices between the United States and Europe. The price of natural gas in the United States is presently about $4/mcf. Yet the price in Europe is upwards of $15/mcf. “Such mispricing simply cannot occur in an efficient market,” says Rahemtulla. For the global economy to function properly, the energy markets must be priced efficiently. It can be no other way. Any malfeasance...

If Willy Sutton were alive today, he’d be eyeing the oil industry. Sutton, you’ll remember, was once asked why he robbed banks. “‘Cause that’s where the money is,” he replied. According to our sources, Evo Morales may be doing a Willy Sutton number. As candidate for President, he promised the Bolivian peasants a big pay increase. Then, when he got into office, the mean people at the national treasury had a little talk with him. “Where was the money going to come from?” they wanted to know. Evo looked around. He was losing popularity fast. What did the country have...

Sen. Amy Klobuchar has asked the U.S. Department of Energy to investigate the steep increase in Minnesota gas prices over the past few weeks. Gasoline industry officials say regional gas prices have jumped 80 cents in the past month and 30 cents in the past week because of both unexpected and planned shutdowns at gasoline refineries. But Klobuchar said the impact of temporary closures shouldn't have so much impact on the price consumers have to pay. In a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Democratic senator called on the Department of Energy to thoroughly examine the closures and timing...

The price of a gallon of gasoline hit a shocking level overnight. In the Twin Cities, several chain gas stations -- mostly in the outer ring -- raised their prices to between $4.09 and $4.19 a gallon. That's about 20 cents more overnight, 60 cents in the last two weeks, and $1.20 since January. At many stations, prices rose into the $4 range yesterday afternoon, then fell overnight into the $3.90 area. What's going on here?

A vast reservoir of clean-burning natural gas could be available at reasonable cost in the coming years, freeing us from some of our dependence on imported energy. Yet there are those who consider such a development a threat. A small group of billionaires (and mere multimillionaires), formed under the aegis of the Democracy Alliance, has amassed a great deal of political influence in America on behalf of the Democratic Party and Democratic politicians. Among the more important members of this "club" are George Soros and his liberal allies, Herbert and Marion Sandler. The latter two are billionaire beneficiaries of the...

A steeper-than-expected rise in US shale oil reserves is about to change the global balance of power between new and existing producers, a report says. Over the next five years, the US will account for a third of new oil supplies, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The US will change from the world's leading importer of oil to a net exporter. Demand for oil from Middle-East oil producers is set to slow as a result. "North America has set off a supply shock that is sending ripples throughout the world," said IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven....

For decades, it seemed that most countries of the Levant, east of the Mediterranean Sea, had little or no share of the Middle East's abundant energy resources. Israelis even had a joke about how Moses led his people through the desert for 40 years to reach the one place in the region with no oil. But in the past few years, there have been offshore discoveries of gas and possibly oil that look set to open up new economic possibilities. In future, they could also redefine strategic relationships. A 2010 US Geological Survey report estimated that there were 122 trillion...

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a critical U.S. ally in the Muslim world, is struggling with the crisis in Syria, which has strained his country’s fast-growing economy, swamped it with hundreds of thousands of refugees and created unusually public friction with Washington. The urgency of Erdogan’s concerns over Syria was underscored by Saturday’s car bombings that killed 46 people in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, where thousands of Syrian refugees have taken shelter. Erdogan’s government blamed the blasts on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — an allegation that Syrian officials quickly denied. snip

Turkey is closer to coming to an agreement over joint energy projects with Israel, according to a report on Friday in the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman. The recent natural gas discoveries off Israel’s coast led to a discussion over how to best transfer the gas to Europe. The paper quotes top Turkish officials as stating they are moving to be in favor of “extensive cooperation” with Israel and Cyprus. Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz were said to have discussed the issue on Friday at an energy conference in Istanbul. Gul said at the conference that Turkey...

Over the past five years, technology has improved the productivity of the typical oil or gas rig on America’s shale fields between 200 and 300 percent.

Secretary of State John Kerry called Friday for greater efforts to "unfreeze" decades of tense stalemate between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus, after meeting here with the foreign minister of the divided Mediterranean island. "The United States supports a bi-zonal, bicommunal federation. We would like to see us unfreeze this conflict and be able to move to a resolution," Kerry told reporters after meeting here with his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides. "We also look forward to working with the foreign minister, and with President (Nicos) Anastasiades and others to try to move Cyprus forward on one of the world's frozen...

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 9 (UPI) -- Israel's rapprochement with onetime strategic ally Turkey is a vital element in Ankara's drive to become the intercontinental east-west energy hub in the Mediterranean and many expect it to produce an energy alliance that will transform the region. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has, since taking power in 2002, transformed his country's economic prospects through a wide-ranging diplomatic drive aimed at restoring Turkish leadership in the region. He has long sought to transform Turkey, which has no energy resources of its own, into the unassailable central hub for transporting oil and gas...

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, several days after the alleged Israeli air raids on Syrian targets and as Washington steps up its Middle East peace efforts, AFP reported. The White House said in a short statement that Obama and Netanyahu, who is visiting China, spoke by telephone, and discussed "regional security issues and Middle East peace." U.S. officials have declined to comment in detail on air strikes allegedly carried out by Israel on targets near Damascus on Friday and Sunday, which reportedly destroyed Iranian missiles apparently destined for the Hizbullah terror group. But...

LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday that there was "a growing body of limited but persuasive information" showing that the Syrian government had used and was continuing to use chemical weapons such as sarin gas. "The room for doubt about this continues to diminish," Cameron told parliament. "There's an urgent need to start a proper negotiation to force a political transition and to bring this conflict to an end." Cameron said he would fly to Russia on Friday to discuss the matter with President Vladimir Putin. "In Syria the atrocities continue to mount," he said. snip

Only by combining their forces will Israel and Cyprus be able to make a significant dent in the global natural gas economy, the Cypriot energy minister stressed on Tuesday. “We feel that through a close collaboration with Israel we will be able to be a major player in the world energy market, something that for each country individually might be too hard to achieve,” said Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis. Lakkotrypis was addressing a group of Israeli and Cypriot business leaders and government officials at a seminar entitled “Cyprus: An International and Professional Center,” held in Tel...

At a meeting with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised that Israel would continue to maintain good ties with Cyprus, regardless of its newly-rekindled relationship with Turkey. Netanyahu met with the newly-elected Anastasiades on Sunday night, before he departed for China. At a press conference after the meeting, Anastasiades said that Israel and Cyprus had “embarked on a strategically important dialogue with a view at enhancing and further developing our bilateral ties, which are founded on common principles and values.” In an interview with Channel Two, the Cyprus president said that he and Netanyahu had agreed, among...

(Reuters) - U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday. The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

The upcoming visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to China is expected to further promote mutual political trust and cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and science. Netanyahu is due to leave for China Sunday night for a five-day official visit, the first of its kind since 2007 when then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited China. Chinese Ambassador to Israel Gao Yanping told Xinhua in an interview that China and Israel have maintained close high-level contact in recent years, creating a good atmosphere for the growth of bilateral ties. Recent years have also witnessed increasingly closer exchanges...

Turkey's prime minister on Sunday delivered his most virulent attack so far on Bashar al-Assad, calling the Syrian president a "butcher" and warning that he will be held to account for the deaths of tens of thousands of his citizens. "If God permits, we will see this butcher, this murderer receive his judgement in this world ... and we will praise (God) for it," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "You will pay a very, very heavy price for showing your courage to the babies in the cradle, the courage you cannot show others," he told a cheering crowd of lawmakers and...

Turkish and Israeli officials will meet on Monday in Israel for another round of talks over compensation for a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a diplomatic source told AFP. "The second round of negotiations will be held in Israel tomorrow," the source said on Sunday, without elaborating. An initial meeting was held in Ankara on April 22 to discuss the amount and the terms of the payment for the compensation by Israel, which Turkey has named as a precondition for normalisation of diplomatic ties. That meeting was the first stage of what Turkish officials have said would...

Israel needs to reach peace with the Palestinians to avoid becoming a binational state, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday. He stressed, however, that the core of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians was not territory, but rather a Palestinian unwillingness to recognize Israel’s legitimacy within any boundaries. Netanyahu’s comments at a meeting with top Foreign Ministry officials came amid signs of revived motion on the Palestinian track. He made similar comments during a meeting later in the day with five US congressmen, giving the impression that he was staking out a pre-negotiation position. “We’re engaged right now in an...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet on Sunday morning with new Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who said before the visit that strengthening ties with Israel is one of his government’s most important initiatives. Netanyahu will meet Anastasiades shortly before leaving for a five-day trip to China. The Cyprus Mail quoted Anastasiades as saying the aim of the visit was to begin a “to-the-point dialogue that can lead to collaboration between the two countries that will benefit both peoples in many areas, among them of course the exploitation of natural resources.” Anastasiades arrived on Thursday evening for a twoday...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will leave this afternoon for a five-day trip to China, where he will try to bring Israel’s perspectives on a slew of regional issues such as Iran, Syria and Egypt to the country’s new leadership. Netanyahu will be meeting with the new Chinese president, Xi Jinping, as well as with the country’s new prime minister, Li Keqiang, in an effort to shape their impressions of the Middle East as they begin what is expected to be a decade of rule. While two previous attempts to arrange a visit by Netanyahu failed to materialize, the trip is...

In a further indication of stirrings in the long-stagnant Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni met Thursday in Washington with US Secretary of State John Kerry, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said for the second time in a week that he supports a public referendum on any agreement with the Palestinians. Yitzhak Molcho, Netanyahu’s envoy on the Palestinian issue, accompanied Livni to her meeting with Kerry, where they discussed the peace process as well as regional developments, particularly Syria. The meeting came three days after an Arab League delegation met with Kerry and US Vice President Joe Biden. Kerry...

ROME, April 30 (UPI) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres met with Pope Francis in the Vatican Tuesday, inviting him to Israel and seeking help restarting the Palestinian peace process. Peres told Francis he has a unique and potentially very helpful role in restarting the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians, Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. "The citizens of Israel see in you a leader of peace and good will," Peres said. "The sooner you visit the better, as in these days a new opportunity is being created for peace and your arrival could contribute significantly to increasing the trust and belief...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister on Monday said that Iran is steadily edging closer to nuclear weapons capability but has not yet reached the "red line" he drew in a speech to the United Nations last fall. Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his assessment as Israel took delivery of the fifth of six advanced submarines it has ordered from Germany. The "Dolphin" class vessels are believed to be capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads and could play an important role in any future conflict between Israel and Iran. In Iran, an influential former president appeared to be trying to lower...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry met a group of senior Arab officials on Monday as he sought to build regional support for any fresh push for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Kerry has made no secret of his hope to revive peace talks, which broke down in 2010, but it remains unclear whether U.S. President Barack Obama will decide to back a major U.S. effort. In convening the group, Kerry is trying to ensure that a new peace process would have the backing of the Arab states, who, if they were to offer Israel a comprehensive peace, hold a powerful...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Senior aides to Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi made a rare visit to Tehran for talks with Iran on an Islamic initiative to seek a peaceful solution to Syria's civil war, the two sides said on Sunday. Tehran is Syria's closest ally and has provided money, weapons, intelligence and training for President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Egypt has given political support to the opposition Syrian National Coalition fighting to oust him. Mursi's foreign affairs adviser Essam Haddad and his chief-of-staff Rifaa El-Tahtawy met Iranian officials in a follow-up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's groundbreaking visit to Cairo in...

Is the use of chemical weapons that outrageous? Killing innocent people with chemical weapons is definitely a grave war crime, but causing the death of more than 80,000 is definitely a bigger war crime. Why then does the type of weapons used in massacring people determine when to intervene? US President Barack Obama has said potential use of chemical weapons is “going to be a game changer” in Syria, where repeated calls for intervention fell on deaf ears for more than two years. The US and major powers have so far weathered calls for intervention for several reasonable reasons. Except...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat after that nation’s president leaves power and could end up targeting Americans at home, lawmakers warned Sunday as they considered a U.S. response that stops short of sending military forces there.</p>

Islamist extremists who have flocked to Syria to fight with groups linked to al-Qaeda pose a direct threat to Britain because they will return to plot attacks at home, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary has said. Mr Hague said there was now “uncontested space” in Syria where Islamist groups were free to establish training camps that would equip and train foreign fighters, including British extremists. In a letter to MPs, Mr Hague said his officials had concluded some of those trained would threaten British national security on their return. “This is particularly concerning as we assess some of the individuals...

UN experts are to destroy four plastic containers filled with mustard gas registered by previous UN disarmament inspectors and recently found north of Baghdad. Spokesman Hiro Ueki said chemical experts had visited the Al-Muthanna military site today to prepare for the destruction of the containers. Ten 155 millimetre artillery shells will also be destroyed. "The destruction process will begin tomorrow and is expected to (take) four to five days to complete," he said.

Rats or Humans? Inside Saddam's Extermination Plant(August 29, 2002)This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/ He was introduced as director of research and development at Falluja, one of the remote factories where the United States claims Saddam Hussein could be making chemical and biological weapons. Asked if he had worked on any of Saddam's chemical weapons programs, Dr Mohammed Frah played a straight bat: "In the early 1980s I worked for five years on the chemical and biological programs at Al-Muthanna." This is the name of a critical centre in Saddam's weapons program - a huge pesticide complex that produced...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite President Barack Obama's pledge that Syria's use of chemical weapons is a "game changer" for the United States, he is unlikely to turn to military options quickly and would want allies joining him in any intervention. Possible military choices range from limited one-off missile strikes from ships - one of the less complicated scenarios - to bolder operations like carving out no-fly safe zones. One of the most politically unpalatable possibilities envisions sending tens of thousands of U.S. forces to help secure Syrian chemical weapons. Obama has so far opposed limited steps, like arming anti-government rebels,...

I was watching TV this evening and started to flip cable channels when I saw a streaming on MSNBC on our forces finding castor beans. The following is a part of what their website said about it. NBC News’ Jim Miklaszewski that within just the past week, U.S. investigators had found two shipping containers filled with millions of much more recent documents relating to chemical and biological weapons. One of the documents, from 2001, was titled “Document burial and U.N. activities in Iraq,” the sources said. It gave detailed instructions on how to hide materials and deceive U.N. weapons inspectors,...

NORMAN, Okla., April 26 (UPI) -- The lack of a vibrant oil sector in Syria is part of the reason there are so many refugees in the region, Syrian expert Joshua Landis said. "Oil is the only thing that Syria has going for it," Landis, a Syrian expert and professor at the University of Oklahoma, told Bloomberg News. "Farming has collapsed and that is why we are seeing this outflow of refugees. They are starving. They don't have the basics to sustain them." European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva said there are 1.3 million refugees due...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States should consider military action to curb Syrian chemical weapons after Washington went public with suspicions they have been used in the country's civil war, Israel's deputy foreign minister said on Friday. The challenge by Zev Elkin, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underscored tension this week over the allies' assessments on Syria, as well as longer-running disputes about how aggressively to confront Iran's nuclear program. The White House said on Thursday the Syrian government had probably employed chemical arms on a small scale against rebels. The disclosure created a bind for President Barack...

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would "take the crisis to another level", but remained cautious about any foreign military intervention in the conflict on its border. The White House said on Thursday Assad's government had probably used chemical arms on a small scale, but that President Barack Obama needed proof before he would act. "We have been hearing allegations of the use of chemical weapons for quite some time now and these new findings take things to another level. They are very alarming," Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Levent...

The chemical attack that killed Yasser Yunis’s family was a small, almost private affair. Had the 27-year-old car mechanic not managed to struggle out of the doorway of his home in Aleppo on to the street in the darkness of night, clutching his infant son to his chest, no one might have ever known what wiped out the family. They died twitching, hallucinating and choking on white froth that poured from their noses and mouths. Their doctors believe that they were killed by nerve gas. The Syrian regime prefers to gas its opponents in this small-scale way, testing the elasticity...

As the great research ship Chikyu left Shimizu in January to mine the explosive ice beneath the Philippine Sea, chances are good that not one of the scientists aboard realized they might be closing the door on Winston Churchill’s world. Their lack of knowledge is unsurprising; beyond the ranks of petroleum-industry historians, Churchill’s outsize role in the history of energy is insufficiently appreciated. Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911. With characteristic vigor and verve, he set about modernizing the Royal Navy, jewel of the empire. The revamped fleet, he proclaimed, should be fueled...

BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 24 (UPI) -- Syria's top rebel commander is reportedly seeking Western support for taking over oil fields held by Islamist factions but the real conflict over Syria's energy resources is likely to be vast natural gas fields under the eastern Mediterranean. Whatever is under the seabed in Syrian waters remains undiscovered but in the wake of major strikes by Israel and Cyprus, and Lebanon supposedly sitting on similar prizes, it's a pretty good bet Syria has significant gas holdings. There seems little doubt that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime will eventually be displaced as rebel forces, disunited...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — In a step toward restoring ties, former allies Turkey and Israel agreed Monday on the "methods and principles" of working out compensation payments for the victims of a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Turkey's deputy prime minister said. Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed and several other pro-Palestinian activists were wounded when Israeli commandos stormed the ship Mavi Marmara while stopping an international flotilla trying to breach a blockade of the Gaza Strip. The incident, which also wounded seven Israeli soldiers, increased tensions between the once close allies and led to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department is working out final details of $10 billion in sales of warplanes, transport aircraft and advanced missiles to Israel and two Arab nations amid concerns about the growing threat from Iran and its disputed nuclear weapons program, Pentagon and congressional officials said Friday. The U.S. has spent the past year negotiating with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on the deals, which come ahead of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit to the Middle East starting Sunday. The officials said the United States will sell to Israel an undisclosed number of KC-135 aerial...

Owning a car will cost the average American driver more than $9,100 this year, the AAA has revealed. The automotive club unveiled its annual study of driving costs on Tuesday and found that the average sedan owner will rack of $0.61 for every mile on the road. SUV drivers are in for even more pain in the wallet - $0.77 per mile or $11,600 a year. The AAA estimates include nearly all expenses of taking to the road - from the cost of the car itself to gasoline, tires, insurance and repairs. The data estimates that Americans drive 15,000 miles...

Signs that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack by hostage-taking Islamist militants on a remote gas plant in Algeria are of great concern to American authorities, U.S. intelligence officials said on Thursday. While Algerian authorities apparently have not yet provided Western governments with cast-iron proof, a senior U.S. intelligence official said: “We’re taking very seriously the reports of the two Canadians’ involvement.” ... Confirmation that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack on the In Amenas facility in the Algerian desert would raise concerns about a worrying nexus between North America and North African militants. At least 38 plant...

Houston, Texas' energy industry is flourishing, making the job market for today and tomorrow very robust, remarked Huw Rothwell, executive director of Michael Page International at the American Petroleum Institute's (API) Houston chapter luncheon Tuesday. Michael Page is a global publically traded professional and executive recruitment consultancy with more than 5,000 employees worldwide. "The oil and gas industry in Houston is in very good condition, adding about 102,000 jobs in the last three years," he said. The driving economic growth is attributed to: • high oil prices - levels that encourage investment • innovative technology - hydraulic fracturing, deep water...

Gasoline prices, which have been on a near-relentless surge since late 2012, may be showing tentative signs of easing, data from the AAA showed on Tuesday... prices are barely 40 cents below a record high set in July 2008.

Maryland's decision last month to raise its gasoline tax highlights a trend taking shape across the country: States are increasingly opting to raise gas taxes and other fees to fund road repairs and maintenance. Gasoline consumption is down nationwide, thanks to more fuel-efficient vehicles and the slow pace of the economic recovery. Gas taxes also have mostly stayed constant in nominal terms, even as the cost of road repairs and construction rises in line with inflation or faster. The combination means money for roads—usually drawn from gas taxes—is increasingly falling short of what is needed. The gas-tax increases come on...

Several countries have overlapping territorial claims to portions of the South China Sea, which stretches from Singapore in the southwest to Taiwan in the northeast. The Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands are two of the most contested areas (see dark blue islands on map above). However, unlike other parts of the South China Sea, these areas have not been assessed to hold large (conventional) resources of oil and natural gas. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ownership of habitable islands can extend the exclusive access of a country to surrounding energy resources. EIA's analysis shows...