Category Archives: Oil

Petrol pumps run dry across Malawi as fuel import problems deepen

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Motorists forced to pay premium for smuggled black market fuel or drive to service stations at border with neighbouring Mozambique

Motorists in Malawi are having to rely on fuel smuggled in from neighbouring Mozambique as pumps across the country run dry, while some drivers told the Guardian they had to cross the border to get petrol as the country grapples with severe shortages.

“We have been depending on smuggled fuel from Mozambique,” said Allick Pondani, a motorist from the southern Malawi district of Phalombe. “Some entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the situation and are smuggling the scarce commodity, which they are selling at 50% over the normal pump price.”

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Canada invokes treaty with US in push to keep cross-border pipeline open

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Canada warns of ‘significant’ economic damage in the event of a shutdown of Line 5, which travels through Michigan

Canada has once again invoked a longstanding treaty with the US as it seeks to keep a controversial cross-border pipeline open, warning of “significant” economic damage to both countries in the event of a shutdown.

Canada’s foreign minister said Line 5, a pipeline operated by Calgary-based Enbridge, was a critical source of energy security.

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European gas shortages likely to last several winters, says Shell chief

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Warning raises prospect of continued rationing, as Total boss says Europe has to plan for future without Russian supplies

Gas shortages across Europe are likely to last for several winters to come, the chief executive of Shell has said, raising the prospect of continued energy rationing as governments across the continent push to develop alternative supplies.

Cuts to the supply of Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine have plunged European countries into a devastating energy crisis, driving up wholesale prices to leave consumers facing huge bills and the highest rates of inflation since the 1980s.

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Anglo-French oil firm threatens Amazon reserve for isolated Indigenous people

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Perenco sues Peru government for repeal of law that offers recognition to proposed Napo-Tigre reserve

Isolated Peruvian tribes face a threat to their existence from a push to scrap a planned Indigenous reserve led by an Anglo-French oil company, Indigenous groups say.

The firm, Perenco, whose slogan is “Oil remains an adventure”, filed an injunction in May for the repeal of a law offering preliminary government recognition to a proposed Napo-Tigre reserve. The first hearing is scheduled on 7 September.

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Just Stop Oil activists stage protests at Essex and Midlands oil terminals

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Essex police arrest 18 people at three locations as protesters try to disrupt distribution of fuel

Dozens of environmental protesters have blocked critical oil infrastructure in Essex and the Midlands as they revived a campaign to “just stop oil”.

At daybreak on Tuesday, about 50 people took part in protests targeting three oil terminals, from where fuel is distributed to petrol stations, the activist group Just Stop Oil said.

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Conflict in South China Sea would threaten 90% of Australia’s fuel imports

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The country would run out within two months of a major disruption. Here are five ways to reduce vulnerability

China’s sabre-rattling about Taiwan underlines the need for Australia to be prepared for conflict in the South China Sea.

With its growing navy and air force, and the bases it has built throughout the area, China is increasingly capable of disrupting shipping lanes crucial to Australia’s exports and imports.

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Oil prices hit lowest level since Ukraine invasion on China growth fears

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Chinese recovery from lockdowns shows signs of fizzling out as central bank cuts interest rates

Global oil prices have dropped amid concerns over weaker growth in the Chinese economy caused by repeated Covid lockdowns and a downturn in the property sector.

A barrel of Brent crude fell by about 5% to below $94 (£78) on Monday, hitting the joint lowest levels since the Russian invasion of Ukraine as traders reacted to weaker figures from the world’s second-largest economy.

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Saudi Aramco profits soar by 90% as energy prices rise

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The $48bn figure from world’s biggest oil firm is thought to be one of largest quarterly profits in history

Saudi Arabia’s largely state-owned energy firm has highlighted the colossal profits made by gas and oil-rich nations during the energy crisis by revealing profits in the three months to the end of June up 90% to $48bn (£40bn).

Saudi Aramco recorded what is believed to be one of the largest quarterly profits in history to easily beat the near $26bn it made a year earlier.

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Revealed: BP’s ‘greenwashing’ social media ads as anger over fuel costs rose

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Oil company spent £800,000 on social media influence ads after Labour proposed windfall tax

BP has spent more than £800,000 on social media influence ads in the UK this year that champion the company’s investments in green energy, it can be revealed.

On Tuesday, BP announced a 14-year high profit of £7bn for the second quarter of this year. In the previous eight days, the company paid about £570,000 to Facebook and Instagram for influence ads that reached tens of millions of viewers in the UK.

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African nations expected to make case for big rise in fossil fuel output

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Exclusive: leaders expected to say at Cop27 they need accesss to their oil and gas reserves despite effect on global heating

Leaders of African countries are likely to use the next UN climate summit in November to push for massive new investment in fossil fuels in Africa, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

New exploration for gas, and the exploitation of Africa’s vast reserves of oil, would make it close to impossible for the world to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

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EU urges member states to slash gas use by 15% to counter ‘Russian blackmail’

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Call for voluntary cut until March 2023 with binding reduction targets possible when Moscow ‘likely’ halts supplies

The European Union’s executive body has urged member states to slash their gas consumption by 15%, as it warned that a complete shutdown of Russian supplies was “likely”.

The EU has been scrambling to wean itself off Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine, but is alarmed about a potential energy crisis this winter.

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Fist bumps as Joe Biden arrives to reset ties with ‘pariah’ Saudi Arabia

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Oil markets top of the agenda for US president who receives subdued welcome three years after Jamal Khashoggi comments

Three years after Joe Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah state over the assassination of a prominent dissident, the US president greeted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump as his administration attempts to reset relations and stabilise global oil markets.

Donald Trump was personally welcomed to the conservative Gulf kingdom on his first presidential visit by King Salman. Biden, however, was met on the tarmac on Friday evening by the governor of Mecca and the Saudi ambassador to the US in a subdued ceremony. He then travelled to the city’s al-Salam palace, where he held talks with the 86-year-old king and his powerful heir, Prince Mohammed, before a working meeting.

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Europe could face energy rationing as ‘really tough winter’ looms, Shell boss warns

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Ben van Beurden says Ukraine war fallout means big rise in bills and possible need to ration supplies

European consumers could face the prospect of energy rationing this winter as costs continue to soar amid the risk of Russia cutting off gas supplies, Shell’s chief executive has said.

“It will be a really tough winter in Europe,” said Ben van Beurden, speaking at the Aurora spring conference in Oxford on Thursday. “We will all face very significant escalation in energy prices. In the worst case, Europe will need to ration its energy consumption.”

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Norway halts strike that threatened gas supplies to Britain

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Norwegian government intervenes in pay row because of ‘great social consequences for whole of Europe’

The Norwegian government has stepped in to end a strike that had threatened supplies of gas to Britain.

The labour dispute had shut down oil and gasfields and was expected to cut Norway’s gas supplies by almost 60% by the weekend.

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Environmentalists condemn Biden administration’s offshore drilling plan

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Policy would ban new ocean drilling but allow up to 11 lease sales in Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s south coast

Joe Biden’s administration on Friday unveiled a five-year offshore oil and gas drilling development plan that blocks all new drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans within US territorial waters while allowing some lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s south coast.

The plan, which has not been finalized, could allow up to 11 lease sales but gives the interior department the right to make none. It comes two days after the US supreme court curbed the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to respond to the climate crisis.

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Sri Lanka suspends fuel sales for two weeks as economic crisis worsens

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Ban on sales to everything except essential services comes as nation tries to conserve fuel supplies that are barely enough to last a single day

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka has announced a two-week halt to all fuel sales except for essential services and called for a partial shutdown as its unprecedented economic crisis deepened.

The south Asian nation is facing its worst economic meltdown since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, and has been unable to finance even the imports of essentials since late last year.

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Concerns that India is ‘back door’ into Europe for Russian oil

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Volume of Russian crude bought and then exported by India suggests some of it may end up in European petrol stations

The huge blue and red hull of the SCF Primorye came into port at Vadinar, western Gujarat, India, earlier this month. The 84,000-tonne oil tanker, built in 2009 and sailing under the Liberian flag, had arrived from the port at Ust-Luga, a settlement in Russia near the border with Estonia.

Until 2017, the Vadinar oil refinery was controlled by Essar – the Indian owner of the Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port. Since then a consortium including the sanctioned Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft and the commodities trader Trafigura, which holds a 24.5% stake, have owned Nayara Energy, which runs the refinery.

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Biden’s proposed federal tax cut on gas could cost dearly in the future

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Experts warn cutting the 18 cents will take a toll on highway upkeep and cause prices to rise further when the holiday ends

America’s hard-pressed drivers may be about to receive a holiday. On Wednesday Joe Biden called on Congress to suspend the federal tax on gas and diesel until September as the country struggles with soaraway costs at the pump. But experts warned the tax holiday is unlikely to have a major impact on prices and will probably further harm the US’s already battered roads and bridges. If the tax cut even gets passed.

Blaming Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the surge in gas prices Biden proposed cutting the 18-cents-a-gallon federal taxes on fuel until September and called on states to cut their gas taxes too. “Together, these actions could help drop the price at the pump by up to $1 a gallon or more. It doesn’t reduce all the pain, but it will be a big help,” said Biden.

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Russia becomes China’s top oil supplier amid Ukraine war sanctions

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Chinese refiners cash in on heavily discounted Russian oil supplies, boosting imports by 55%

China’s crude oil imports from Russia soared by 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Imports of Russian oil, including supplies pumped via the east Siberia Pacific pipeline and seaborne shipments, totalled nearly 8.42m tonnes, according to data on Monday from the Chinese general administration of customs.

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Declassified files reveal British interest in Falkland Islands oil

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Ministers keen to claim UK right to potential deposits before and after 1982 war with Argentina

British ministers were keen to exploit oil around the Falkland Islands before and after the 1982 conflict, declassified British government documents show.

In a previously unpublished letter, the former chancellor Norman Lamont said the revenues from Falklands oil should go to the British government, not the Falkland islanders.

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