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BEIJING (AFX) - Construction of the second phase of a 3,000 km crude oil pipeline linking Kazakhstan and China starts today, the China Business Times reported, citing Bai Lingjie, a senior diplomat at the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan. The 1,200 km section of the pipeline from Atasu in Kazakhstan to the Xinjiang region in western China will connect with the existing 450 km pipeline from Atyrau on the coast of the Caspian Sea to Kenkiyak in 2006 after completion. China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and its Kazakhstan counterpart will each hold a 50 pct stake in the joint venture company...

NEW CANEY - In what appears to be a case of criminal mischief, a punctured pipeline exploded before dawn Sunday, causing the evacuation of 250 people but no injuries or significant damage to nearby homes. Residents near the pipeline said they were awakened around 4:45 a.m. by two explosions — a small one, then a large one — that sounded like thunder or a train or tornado. The sky turned bright orange, they said. "My windows shook and there was a whooshing sound like a train, so I thought a tornado might be coming," Joe Pachuca said of the explosion,...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND7115 South Boundary BoulevardMacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 September 25, 2004Release Number: 04-09-76 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SECURITY TEAM FINDS IED ALONG MAJOR OIL PIPELINE TIKRIT, Iraq — A private security company responsible for pipeline security discovered an improvised explosive device along a major oil pipeline west of Balad Sept. 24. The security patrol contacted the 1st Infantry Division, and an explosive ordnance disposal team was sent to the site. The EOD team was able to remove the device and destroy it without harming the oil pipeline. The flow...

Focus: Iraq Iraq's Oil Sector One Year After Liberation Terror's Big Prize The coordinated suicide attack on oil terminals off the coast of the southern Iraqi city of Basra is another sign that terrorists have singled out oil as their biggest prize. A crude threat An average of one to two sabotage attacks a week against Iraq's oil pipelines has crippled the country's oil industry, hindering its ability to export crude. Minding Its Business Saudi Arabia, which has demonstrated its willingness to use its vast oil reserves as a foreign policy tool, has not acted to aid U.S. efforts to...

Man killed while trying to blow up Iraqi gas pipeline Associated Press KIRKUK, Iraq - A saboteur attempting to plant a bomb Saturday under a natural gas pipeline set off the explosion early and killed himself, authorities said. The explosion that occurred early Saturday in Riayd, about 45 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Baghdad, did not damage the line, said Col. Sarhat Qader of the Iraqi police in Kirkuk. "He was blown to pieces while trying to place it into the hole in the ground," Qader said. Insurgents frequently target Iraq's oil infrastructure and repeated bombings on pipelines have disrupted...

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Saboteurs have attacked an oil pipeline in southern Iraq, Sky News said, citing a report by the Reuters news agency. The attacks have left raging fires, Reuters reported, citing unidentified local officials, according to Sky News. Iraq, the Middle East's fifth-largest oil producer in May, has lost about $1 billion in oil income during the last year as a result of sabotage to its oil infrastructure, the country's Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said.

LONDON -- Russia's efforts to boost oil flows via Baltic seaports have created a glut in north European markets, making its Urals crude increasingly reliant on exports to Asia and the United States. Urals crude deltas plunged to near record lows in northern Europe this month after OPEC's output hike threatened to flood world markets with sour crude and shut the U.S. and Asian arbitrage outlets necessary to absorb surging Baltic supplies. Urals' discount to the Dated BFO benchmark fell over $1.50 this month to almost $4.50, the weakest in four years and just cents away from an all-time low....

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Saboteurs blasted a key southern pipeline for the second time in as many days Wednesday, shutting down Iraq's oil exports, and gunmen killed a security chief for the state-run Northern Oil Co. Later Wednesday, a rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near the city of Balad, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding 26 people, the military said. Balad is 50 miles north of Baghdad. The military statement did not specify whether the injured were U.S. soldiers or included civilians or others on the sprawling compound. The latest attacks at Iraq's oil sector have slowed the...

June 14, 2004 Russia Favors Iran Route For Crude Exports An Interview With Russian Ambassador To Tehran Alexander Maryasov. Q: Iranian deputy foreign minister suggested Caspian-Persian Gulf route in Kazakh capital in 2000 and it was recently launched. Under the CROS project inaugurated in the Caspian port of Neka, Iran will take crude from Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and pump it to its refineries in the cities of Teheran and Tabriz. In return, Iran will sell its own oil from Persian Gulf ports on behalf of the Caspian producers. CROS already has a capacity to handle 170,000 bpd, which will...

Hold your breath. Gas prices could take another quick jump later this week -- but maybe not. The pipelines that deliver the Portland area's fuel, including gasoline, were shut down Sunday because of a fire at a pumping station in the Seattle suburb of Renton. If the problem can't be fixed soon, gasoline would have to be trucked to Portland. That would be more expensive for local distributors -- and for you. Bill Kidd of Olympic Pipe Line Co. told The Argus late Monday the company hopes to re-open the pipeline within a day or two. But before making that...

Beijing, 18 May: The construction of the eastern section of the Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline, the Atasu-Alataw Pass oil pipeline, is expected to begin within this year, said visiting Kazakh President Nursultan Abish-uly Nazarbayev here Tuesday [18 May]. Nazarbayev made the remark at a press conference held in the Kazakh embassy to China, saying the Atasu-Alataw Pass oil pipeline, running over 1,000 km, is to be completed by the end of 2005. China and Kazakhstan signed an agreement in 1997 to build a 3,000- km-long oil pipeline. The western section of the pipeline, running 448 km, is now operational. Nazarbayev said...

Posted on Tue, May. 18, 2004 China to invest in crude oil pipeline in Kazakhstan By Tim Johnson Knight Ridder Newspapers BEIJING - China has agreed to invest in a major crude oil pipeline in neighboring Kazakhstan in the latest sign that Beijing is pushing for a foothold in the Caspian Sea oil basin to satisfy its deepening thirst for energy. China earlier this year surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest oil consumer, and some experts say it may outstrip the United States in energy consumption in a decade and a half. During a visit by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev,...

(Tucson-AP) _ There have been at least 29 acts of sabotage of natural gas pipelines and other gas facilities in Pima and Pinal counties over the past three years. The Arizona Daily Star says according to a search warrant, the acts have endangered the lives of thousands of residents. There have been no injuries, however. One of the acts, could have caused an explosion in SaddleBrooke _ a retirement community north of Tucson. No one has been charged in that act, which the F-B-I considers an act of terrorism. However, the F- 1/8B-I has searched the home of a former...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The most advanced of three proposals to build a pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 states will be withdrawn, with MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. blaming the state for a breakdown in negotiations. "We are very disappointed," Susan Flaim, director of administration for Des Moines, Iowa-based MidAmerican, said Thursday. "We still believe the pipeline is a very important project." Gov. Frank Murkowski left open the possibility that negotiations could resume, saying the state made an offer to MidAmerican on Monday, the same day the company pulled out. "It is my hope that...

Moscow and Tokyo are to build a giant oil pipeline between eastern Siberia and Russia's Pacific coast, Reuters has reported. The pipeline - expected to cost between $5bn-8bn - will both enable Japan to reduce its reliance upon Middle East supplies, and boost Russian exports. It will run to Russia's Pacific port of Nakhodka, near Vladivostok. The Japanese-backed route has been chosen ahead of a rival plan that was put forward by the Chinese. But Reuters said a branch pipeline would be built to China's largest oilfield in Daqing. Strategic interests "The final destination is fixed," the Japanese official told...

<p>Kinder Morgan Energy Partners has completed replacing a 12-mile section of its aging Tucson-to-Phoenix gasoline pipeline and is moving forward with plans to replace an additional 72 miles within two years.</p> <p>When completed, the $180 million expansion and upgrade of the pipeline from El Paso to Phoenix will bring an additional 44,000 barrels, or 1.68 million gallons, of gasoline per day into metropolitan Phoenix.</p>

US approves opening of Iraqi oil pipeline with ''terrorist-linked'' Iran Despite tense relations between the US and Iran, the occupying Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has backed plans for Iraq to connect its oil supply to Iran with a new pipeline. CPA officials in Baghdad have confirmed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been agreed between former foes Iran and Iraq, reported Financial Times. The two nations fought a bitter decade-long war in the 1980’s. "We have agreed in principle to an offer from Iran to build a 10 kilometer pipeline across the Shatt Al-Arab to the Iranian port...

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Turkish authorities are restricting traffic through the Bosporus and delaying Russian oil exports to promote their plans to build pipelines across the country, acting Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny said Thursday. "A special alarm is being sounded consistently for political reasons to promote multiple oil pipelines," Kalyuzhny said at an oil and gas conference in Istanbul. "The straits are only at half their transit capacity. Inadequate traffic control is the only problem." The Bosporus and Dardanelles straits are among the world's busiest waterways and the main route through which Russia and other former Soviet states send exports,...

MOSCOW - It seems that the Chechen leader was impressed by the success of the Belarusian President in his fight with Russia’s Gazprom for free gas, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports. On Thursday, the Chechen state-run gas company Chechengazprom threatened Gazprom that it would stop the transit of Russian gas to Transcaucasian republics of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. In their opinion, Gazprom must pay them for the transit of gas across Chechnya. “You have not yet signed a contract for the transit of the gas you supply to the Transcaucasian countries. As you ignore the legal demands of Chechengazprom, we warn...

President Vladimir Putin's surprise move to dismiss his prime minister and cabinet this week has overshadowed the announcement, four days earlier, that the Russian government is leaning towards acceptance of a Japanese-financed plan to build a new oil pipeline and tanker hub at the Pacific port of Nakhodka. The Energy Minister, Igor Yusufov, has now been dismissed. Although Yusufov himself had been named four years ago to reduce the government's dependence on Russia's oil lobby, his successor may be obliged by the Kremlin to demonstrate an even stronger loyalty shift. The appointments also of a new Natural Resources Minister and...