Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures jumped to a new record above $97 a barrel Tuesday after bombings in Afghanistan and an attack on a Yemeni oil pipeline compounded the supply concerns that have driven crude prices higher in recent weeks. Those concerns were also fed by a government prediction on Tuesday that domestic oil inventories will fall further this year while consumption rises. At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices continued to rise, following oil's 39 percent price rally since August. The national average price of a gallon of gas jumped 2 cents overnight to $3.024 a gallon, according to...

SCRANTON, Pa. - A man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Tuesday for plotting to help a supposed al-Qaida operative blow up U.S. oil pipelines and refineries. Michael C. Reynolds claimed he had been trying to root out terrorists on the Internet, but was convicted in July of providing material support to terrorists and other charges. "Today's sentencing constitutes a triumph of the rule of law over those who would use terror against this nation," Acting U.S. Attorney Martin Carlson said in a statement. David P. Cherundolo, a defense attorney assigned to Reynolds in August, said Tuesday that...

Cameras tucked into orange barrels videotaped the license plates of thousands of drivers on Interstate 35 as part of a Texas Department of Transportation study of the busy highway, officials said. The 21 camera points scattered along the I-35 corridor between Dallas and Mexico included two in Central Texas, one north of Round Rock and the other in Kyle. The cameras caught both north- and southbound cars, agency spokeswoman Gaby Garcia said. Critics of last month's study questioned whether it invaded motorists' privacy. But Garcia said the study and others planned for the future are vital to transportation planning and...

Security force has been slashed, and the rebels are sophisticated MEXICO CITY — With the Mexican government finding it difficult to guard much of the country's petroleum pipeline network, preventing further attacks on it depends upon a national security apparatus that analysts warn may not be up to the task. Once a brutally efficient weapon of the one-party regime that ruled for most of the 20th century, Mexico's domestic intelligence service has been weakened over the past decade by budget cuts, personnel purges and the shifting priorities of a more democratic society, the analysts say. Some of the more experienced...

TEHRAN (PIN) -- The managing director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said the country would export gas to Armenia whenever Yerevan voiced its readiness. Seyyed Reza Kassaeizadeh told PIN pipelines and facilities for transmission of gas to Armenia had been installed in Iran and some three million cubic meters of commodity would be exported to Armenia per day. “There is no problem concerning the transfer of gas to Armenia,” said the official, reiterating that the country was waiting for the Armenian party’s preparedness. The National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) managing director had already announced Iran would launch its...

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia decided Thursday it will not allow a German-Russian consortium to conduct a survey of its exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea for a planned underwater gas pipeline. The survey was necessary for a possible rerouting of the 750-mile pipeline that will deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. "Each coastal country has full sovereignty and a right to make decision involving its own waters," Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said in a news conference. "Furthermore, we think the Baltic Sea is not a proper place for such a pipeline." Estonia's refusal...

VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) - A shadowy leftist guerrilla group took credit for a string of explosions that ripped apart at least six Mexican oil and gas pipelines Monday, rattling financial markets and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production. The six explosions could be seen miles away, and set off fires that sent flames and black smoke shooting high above the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. At least a dozen pipelines, most carrying natural gas, were affected, said Jesus Reyes Heroles, the head of Mexico's oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, without providing specifics. He said there would be hundreds...

VERACRUZ, Mexico - Mexican gas and oil pipelines were attacked in six places before dawn Monday, causing explosions, fires and gas leaks that forced the evacuation of thousands of people. The blasts reverberated for miles. No direct injuries were reported, although civil defense agencies said two women in their 70s who lived nearby died of heart attacks shortly afterward. A small, shadowy leftist group linked to similar attacks in July left a note claiming responsibility, a police official in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed...

Poland Bent North the Gas Pipeline of Russia Swiss Nord Stream AG that is the project operator for North European Gas Pipeline has announced the political adjustments in its route. Nord Stream owner – Gazprom – decided to lead the gas pipeline out of the challenged territorial water of Poland and Denmark in the south of the Island of Bornholm and lay it to the north of the island, in Sweden’s economic area. As of today, the first official concession to the EU will cost Gazprom another 8 kilometers of the pipe. Days earlier, Nord Stream was forced to make...

The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem. The Prime Minister's Office, which views the pipeline to Haifa as a "bonus" the U.S. could give to Israel in return for its unequivocal support for the American-led campaign in Iraq, had asked the Americans for the official telegram. The new pipeline would take oil from the Kirkuk area, where some 40 percent of Iraqi oil is produced,...

LAVRIKI, Russia (Reuters) -- A powerful explosion hit a gas pipeline in northwest Russia early on Thursday, but officials said it was not caused by terrorism and exports were unaffected. The huge blast hit a trunk pipeline outside Russia's second city of St Petersburg just minutes after midnight, shaking buildings as far as 5 km (3 miles) away from the epicenter and setting off a fierce fire.

A powerful explosion has hit a gas pipeline in north-west Russia, but officials say it was not caused by terrorism and exports were unaffected. The huge blast hit a trunk pipeline outside Russia's second city of St Petersburg just minutes after midnight, shaking buildings as far as five kilometres away from the epicentre and setting off a fierce fire. Officials say there have been no casualties, but the power of the blast was such that many locals jumped into cars and drove to safety, causing congestion on motorways. Emergency officials say they believe the explosion has been caused by the...

AN underground explosion has burst through a Manhattan street, panicking New Yorkers fearful of a September 11-style attack. People ran screaming from a volcanic geyser of steam that tore a huge crater in the footpath and topped the nearby 77-storey Chrysler Building. The eruption, near Grand Central station, blew out the doors and windows of a nearby school bus and spattered bystanders with mud, ash and soot. * Video: Explosion shakes New York * Pictures: Manhattan explosion * Audio report: Stephanie Balogh at the scene One person died of a heart attack and at least two were critically injured by...

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania man was convicted on Friday of plotting to blow up U.S. oil pipelines and energy installations and of attempting to enlist al Qaeda militants on the Internet to help carry out his plan. A federal jury of six women and six men took a little more than an hour to convict Michael Curtis Reynolds, 49, on those charges and of possessing a hand grenade. He faces a maximum 57 1/2 years in prison. The government accused Reynolds, from Wilkes-Barre, of scheming to attack the Alaska and Transcontinental pipelines and other energy installations to prompt...

Mexico said on Tuesday it would tighten security at strategic installations after a shadowy leftist rebel group claimed responsibility for a rash of fuel pipeline explosions. Presidential spokesman Maximiliano Cortazar said investigations were under way into an explosion at a natural gas pipeline in the early hours of Tuesday and three other pipeline blasts last Thursday. The four blasts shut down pipelines supplying natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, crude oil and gasoline to the domestic market. But none of the blasts affected oil exports and no injuries were reported, according to state oil monopoly Pemex.

Russia Exports Natural Gas Directly to South Korea JULY 11, 2007 03:13 Reportedly, Russia is planning to construct underwater gas pipes that will connect Siberia and the East Sea. Gazprom, the state-run energy corporation in Russia, has specified a plan to export natural gas from Sakhalin and Eastern Siberia to the East Sea via undersea gas pipes in its annual report released on June 29. In the report, an export channel stretching from East Siberia to China’s Dalian to Korea’s Pyeongtaek, considered to be the most feasible line, and the construction project for ground gas pipes in North Korea, were...

CNN has launched their free Internet video service today. The link is at http://www.cnn.com/video/ Then click on the "Live Video" link. It is working well here.

Hostler gives upbeat assessment of current status of trans-Alaska oil pipeline, Alyeska’s ability to deal with evolving challenges ---- It’s been 30 years since the first oil entered the trans-Alaska oil pipeline system on June 20, 1977. And, with 15 billion barrels of North Slope crude already under its belt, the pipeline is entering a new era. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. President and CEO Kevin Hostler talked to Petroleum News about how the pipeline is faring and how his company plans to address the challenges that the pipeline will face in the future. Alyeska operates the trans-Alaska oil pipeline on...

/begin my translation N. Korea: Oil Pipeline Explosion in Sunchon, 110 People Dead (source: Good Friends) Intelligence agency also got the information and is in the process of verifying it. (Seoul=Yonhap News) Han Seung-ho = Good Friends (director: Bub-ryun (Buddhist Monk)), an organization for N. Korean human right, reported on June 19th, "On June 9th, there was a pipeline fire and explosion at Sunchon, N. Pyongan Province, resulting in about 110 fatalities." (S. Korean) intelligence authorities also picked up the same intelligence and are now reportedly trying to verify it. The following is what the organization reported: The pipeline...

The historic roadway was discovered in the Brecon Beacons, on the path of the 190-mile (320km) National Grid pipe from Milford Haven to Gloucestershire. Neil Fairburn, archaeology project manager for National Grid, said the road was found as digging began, but the pipe would still have to cross it... Mr Fairburn said the road, which he estimated as dating from the 1st Century AD, was in "a better condition than we would normally find a Roman road", but a 3m section of it would be lost. "It was in an area where we thought there might be a Roman road,...