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Poles eye Norwegian gas The search for a diversified gas supply has again turned Poland towards Norway. Is its bargaining position better than five years ago? Slawek Szefs reports 12.05.06 There are increasing hopes for Norwegian natural gas deliveries finding their way through Sweden to Poland. This would mean a competitive source to dominating Russian supplies. This is not the first time Poland is viewing Norway as an alternate natural gas supplier in its long efforts to diversify delivery sources. Political strings attached to Russian supplies and Poland's dependence on them created still during the post war decades of communist...

A gas pipeline exploded in Nigeria as villagers collected fuel from the ruptured conduit, killing between 150 and 200 people and leaving charred bodies scattered around the blast site. Dozens of burned corpses could be seen lying on the ground at the waterside village of Ilado, about 45 kilometers east of Lagos, Nigeria's main city, and police said dozens had perished in the flames. "Between 150 and 200 people died," Lagos Police Commissioner Emmanuel Adebayo told reporters. Rescue workers dug a ditch near

The State of Alaska today released the draft Alaska Gas Pipeline Project fiscal contract between the State and the North Slope producers. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) is supportive of starting the public review process. The fiscal agreement will provide the essential elements for clarity and fiscal certainty necessary to advance the Alaska Gas Pipeline project. The terms of the agreement include state fiscal certainty, as well as the six principles mandated by the State of Alaska for the project. The fiscal contract outlines activities and plans between ConocoPhillips, the other major producers and the State of Alaska for equity ownership, state revenue,...

Energy: Dispute on price India will pay for gas in the $22-bn pact New Delhi, May 2: Iran today dangled the gas pipeline carrot to New Delhi after showing the LNG stick to restrain India from siding with the US on a Security Council resolution that would legally bind Tehran to halt all nuclear enrichment activity. At a hurriedly-scheduled ‘non-structured meeting’, Iranian deputy oil minister Nejad Hosseinian told New Delhi that the price agreed between them last June for five million tonnes of LNG was no longer valid. At the same time, he assured New Delhi that there would be...

Work starts on Russian pipeline   The pipeline will now bypass Lake Baikal Work has begun on the longest oil pipeline in Russia, two days after President Putin changed the proposed route to avoid approaching Lake Baikal.When completed, it will carry oil from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean for consumers across the Asia-Pacific region, including China. The completed pipeline will run for more than four thousand kilometres and will be finished in 2008. It will be the longest pipeline in the world's largest country. Work has started near the town of Taishet in Siberia. The pipeline is being...

Putin orders oil pipeline shifted Ecological campaigners have fought the Lake Baikal route Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the route of a controversial new oil pipeline should be altered to avoid the world's largest freshwater lake.Mr Putin said the route, which would have passed close to Lake Baikal, should move 40km (25 miles) north. Environmentalists who feared the eastern pipeline would pose a risk to Lake Baikal's unique biodiversity say the decision is a campaign victory. The pipeline will link the Siberian oil fields and the Pacific coast. Lake Baikal, designated a World heritage site by Unesco, is...

In the early weeks of 1968, after a decade-long search for oil in Alaska's frozen wilderness, gas burst up out of an exploratory well on the North Slope with such force the crew thought it was about to blow. Geologists soon calculated that as much as ten billion barrels of oil lay below the frozen tundra of Prudhoe Bay -- the largest oil find in North America. The pipeline built to bring that oil to market was one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th century. For more than three years, workers battled brutal Arctic weather to construct an...

China's plans concerning gas pipelines in Central Asia The projected gas pipelines from Central Asia to China are an opportunity for countries of the region, and pose a challenge to Russia China has recently been increasingly interested in importing gas from Central Asia. This interest has become apparent from studies being conducted on the route of a pipeline from Kazakhstan to China, and the initial Turkmen-Chinese agreement on co-operation in the gas sector signed on 3 April 2006, which among other things provides for the sale of Turkmen gas to China. The projects to build new gas pipelines are appealing...

Slovaks join Polish-Ukraine Caspian oil project 2006-04-20 16:50 BRATISLAVA, April 20 (Reuters) - Slovak officials said on Thursday they had agreed on a project to join two pipeline projects and bring up to three million tonnes of Caspian oil annually through Slovakia to Central Europe. Extending Ukraine's Odessa-Brody pipeline into Poland and sending Caspian oil into Slovakia became a hot topic after pro-Western Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko came to power in 2004. The project envisages reversing the flow of a Ukrainian pipeline that brings Russian crude to the Black Sea port of Odessa so that it brings Caspian oil instead...

JUNEAU--Resource Commissioner Mike Menge said permitting for a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to the Lower 48 will likely begin in 2008 with construction to start by 2011. Menge made the comment Monday during a meeting in Juneau with Northwest Territories Minister Brendan Bell, who was in town to talk with Gov. Frank Murkowski about the role of Arctic gas in supplying North American energy markets. Canada is pursuing its own gas pipeline project in the Mackenzie Valley, which has 7 trillion cubic feet of known reserves. The 700-mile Mackenzie line in the Northwest Territories is in the...

Berlin confirms report of Gazprom credit under Schroeder govt The German economy ministry has confirmed that the previous government of Gerhard Schroeder had guaranteed a credit of one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) for the Russian group Gazprom's Baltic pipeline project. An inter-ministerial commission rushed through a "decision in principle" on October 24 last year while waiting for a new coalition to be formed by now Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for the economy minister said, confirming reports published Saturday in the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). The report comes after Schroeder was voted in Thursday as head of the supervisory board...

Russia's response to the Nabucco pipeline project Russia strives to stop gas from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions reaching European markets In late February 2006, Russia came up with a proposal to build a new gas export route called the Southern Gas Pipeline. The new route would deliver Russian gas via Turkey to Southern and Central Europe. The Russian initiative will compete with the EU-promoted Nabucco gas pipeline project which is meant to diversify gas supplies to Europe. The Southern Gas Pipeline is also part of the broader strategy of Russia's energy policy, which aims to maintain the Russian...

KIRKUSH, Iraq, March 22, 2006 – Building a 16-kilometer pipeline in eastern Iraq recently took well over its originally scheduled month and cost much more than dollars. But the water it carries will improve the quality of life for Iraqi soldiers and workers here. One hundred kilometers from Baghdad and 20 kilometers west of the Iraq/Iran border, the terrain is so desolate at Iraq's Kirkush Military Training Base that an approaching friend or foe can be seen for miles. Where ripping winds send desert sand and rooftops flying, water is as vital as ammunition for troop survival. Even before the...

East Pacific Hurricane Rosa makes landfall on the west coast of Mexico on October 14, 1994 as a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds. Then it moves over the mountains and weakens. However, its moisture remains and heads towards Texas. A strong cold front over Texas and high pressure system over Canada cause the remnant of Hurricane Rosa to stall over Texas. Rain starts to fall on October 15th. Many areas got 1 to 2 inches of rain. Then it rains again on the 16th. Later that night and well into the early morning hours of the 17th, heavy...

Christopher Pala for The New York Times Workers for China National Petroleum who helped build a $700 million pipeline attended an opening ceremony in Atasu, Kazakhstan, in December. A company executive called the pipeline "the new Silk Road."  March 17, 2006 China Pays Dearly for Kazakhstan Oil By CHRISTOPHER PALA ALMATY, Kazakhstan ? China, which for more than a century turned its back on Central Asia, has reached out to Kazakhstan, Central Asia's biggest country, for one major reason: oil.In 2005, the China National Petroleum Corporation bought Petrokazakhstan, a Canadian-run company that was the former Soviet Union's largest independent...

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq (Army News Service, March 6, 2006) – An economic and environmental disaster was averted when Iraqi police and coalition forces joined forces to put out a pipeline fire March 2. Terrorists attacked the oil pipeline and breached a 20-meter section of pipe. A fire ensued, covering the space of two soccer fields. Firefighters, who arrived on the scene, came under small-arms fire until Iraqi police arrived and the terrorists fled. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, secured the outer cordon of the fire until it was put out. The combined...

Polish president rips German Baltic gas pipeline ahead of Berlin trip Berlin, March 4,IRNA Germany-Poland-Kaczynski Polish President Lech Kaczynski on Saturday harshly criticized the construction of a new gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany ahead of his first-ever visit to Germany next week. "There are no economic reasons for this pipeline. We are allies of Germany, joint members of NATO and the EU. So why is there a need for this pipeline bypassing Poland?" Kaczynski told Der Spiegel news magazine in an interview due to hit the newsstands on Sunday. Kaczynski who took office on December...

Bush U-turn on Iranian pipeline The US "beef" with Iran is nuclear arms, not gas, said Mr Bush President George W Bush has indicated the US has dropped its staunch opposition to a proposed gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan. Mr Bush said on his visit to Pakistan he understood the need for natural gas in the region and that the US argument with Iran was over nuclear weapons. The $6bn project for the 2,600km (1,625 mile) pipeline will bring Iran revenue, Pakistan transit fees and India energy. The nations hope to start construction in 2007, with key...

* Group advises disrupting oil supplies best way to hurt US economy and destabilise Saudi royal family DUBAI: Al Qaeda has advised followers to attack pipelines in Saudi Arabia and Iraq but to steer clear of oil wells because they are the lifeline of Muslim states, according to a two-year-old document recently posted on the web. The guidelines in Al Qaeda’s war against “crusaders” and US-allied governments were laid out in a manifesto written by Abdulaziz al-Enezi, arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2005 and described by the Saudis as a prominent ideologue of Al Qaeda. In the manifesto, which was...

Gov. Frank Murkowski said the state of Alaska reached final agreement with three North Slope gas producers on a $20 billion natural gas pipeline project. In a Feb. 21 press conference in Anchorage, Murkowski said the negotiating teams completed work the evening of Feb. 18, and that he met Feb. 20, with senior executives of BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp. in Anchorage on the gas contract as well as an agreement for the producers to support a new state net-profits oil tax Murkowski has submitted to the Legislature. Legislative leaders were also called from Juneau to Anchorage to meet...