News


Syria: Exclusive: Iran's Support for Syria Tested by Oil Price Drop

Dec 19, 2014 | Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Reuters

Syrian businessmen and trade officials say they are worried the economic lifeline provided by Iran is under strain from plunging oil prices, despite public messages…


Liberia: Legislature Ratifies Block 16 Oil Agreement

Dec 19, 2014 | Obediah Johnson, Heritage

Monrovia — The 53rd Liberian Legislature has ratified the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) of Liberia offshore oil Block 16 between the Government of Liberia (GoL)…


Iraq/Syria: ISIS News: Turkey 'Seizes 80 Million Litres' of Oil Stolen by Jihadists in Syria, Iraq

Dec 19, 2014 | Gopi Chandra Kharel, International Business Times

Turkey says it has seized over 80 million litres of oil originating from the oil wells controlled by the ISIS group in Iraq and Syria.


Breaking the silence: Protecting civilians from toxic remnants of war

Dec 18, 2014 | Doug Weir

Toxic remnants of war and their legacy of civilian harm is seriously under-explored as an area of conflict. There is a growing consensus that the current…


Iraq/Kurdistan: KRG Receiving Second $500 Million Oil Payment

Dec 18, 2014 | Patrick Osgood, Iraq Oil Report

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is receiving a second payment from Baghdad, for oil supplied to Iraq’s federal oil marketing authority under a Nov. 13…


Iraq: Iraq Reviews Oil Revenue Sharing

Dec 18, 2014 | Anthony McAuley, The National

BASRA: Iraq is in talks with its oil-producing governorates, including Basra, about a fairer distribution of revenue, said the oil minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi. He made the…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Kurdistan Eyes Oil Export Jump in The Shadow of Global Price War

Dec 18, 2014 | Andrew Critchlow, The Telegraph

Falling oil prices and the threat of Islamic State militants have done little to dampen the interest of international oil companies in the autonomous northern…


South Sudan: South Sudan Hires Ex-Blackwater Chief to Restore War-Damaged Oil Facilities

Dec 18, 2014 | Ilya Gridneff, Bloomberg

The former head of U.S. security company Blackwater USA, Erik Prince, was hired by South Sudan to help repair damaged oil facilities and boost output…


Liberia: 'Nocal' - Financial Fallings Prompted Oil Block Bid Rounds

Dec 18, 2014 | Front Page Africa

Monrovia — Amid falling oil prices on the global market and Liberia's lingering delay in finalizing a number of oil blocks negotiations, the National Oil…


Bangladesh: Land Grabbing Attacks on Minorities By Bengali Settlers Continues

Dec 18, 2014 | Asian Tribune

On 16 December 2014, when whole country was celebrating the victory day of the country, indigenous houses and shops were burnt down by Bengali settlers…


Iraq/Kuwait: UPDATE 2-Iraq Wins One-Year Reprieve on Gulf War Reparations Due to Crisis

Dec 18, 2014 | Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters

A United Nations body agreed on Thursday to let Iraq postpone its final payment of reparations to Kuwait for the 1990-91 Gulf War, in an…


Sierra Leone: Jewelers Going Straight to Miners as Diamonds Wane: Commodities

Dec 18, 2014 | Thomas Biesheuvel, Bloomberg

Jewelers who fill up Christmas stockings with diamonds are increasingly doing so by investing in or securing supply deals directly from individual mines, avoiding the…


'Extreme Realities' Sheds Light on Links Between Global Climate Dynamics and National Security

Dec 17, 2014 | Sarah Meyerhoff

“We cannot ignore the new reality that climate change has become a major foreign policy issue in the 21st century,” a new film by Hal and…


Q & A: Bill Hayton on Growing Rivalries in the South China Sea

Dec 17, 2014 | Jane Perlez, The New York Times

Bill Hayton, a longtime journalist with the BBC, has spent much of his career chronicling events in Southeast Asia and observing the growing rivalries in…


How to cut militias off from gold and mineral mines in Congo

Dec 17, 2014 | The Los Angeles Times

Few parts of the world have been more ravaged by war and violence over the last two decades than the Democratic Republic of Congo. That's…


Congo-Kinshasa: Leveraging Mobile Tech to Combat Conflict and Corruption

Dec 17, 2014 | Eliot Pence, allAfrica

Rarely has so small a law stirred so much debate about so distant a conflict. Over the past several months, debate about legislation requiring companies…


Iraq: Iraq Could Review Oil-Supply Plans as Price Collapse Deepens

Dec 17, 2014 | Grant Smith, Businessweek

Iraq said a collapse in crude oil and the cost of fighting Islamic State militants could force the country to review its plans to boost…


Liberia: Quardougbondi Citizens Reject LCC Agreement

Dec 17, 2014 | The Inquirer

Lofa County Senator, George T. Tengbeh, has disclosed that citizens of QuardouGboni District have written the central government that they will not allow the management…


Liberia: Hasty Oil Sale - Liberia's Legislature Set to Ratify Block 16

Dec 17, 2014 | Henry Karmo, Front Page Africa

Monrovia: Like the scenario of oil Block 13, the National Legislature is set to ratify oil Block 16 despite the absence of the country's oil…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Kurdistan Regional Government Expects More Oil Investment, as Baghdad Relations Improve

Dec 17, 2014 | Hellenic Shipping News

Foreign oil companies are likely to show increased interest in investing in Iraqi Kurdistan given improving relations between the regional and federal governments, including an…


Iraq: Iraq Seeks One-Year Deferral on Gulf War Reparations

Dec 17, 2014 | Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters

Iraq has requested a one-year deferral of a $4.6 billion reparations payment for destroying Kuwait's oil facilities during its 1990-91 occupation, a U.N. official said…


Côte d’Ivoire: Belgium Lifts Ban On Ivory Coast Diamonds Trade

Dec 16, 2014 | Kathleen Caulderwood, International Business Times

Belgium has lifted a ban on diamonds from the Ivory Coast that’s been in place for more than a decade, after training local officials to…


Sudan: Sudan to Drill Hundreds of Wells to Boost Oil, Gas Reserves -State Media

Dec 16, 2014 | Reuters

Sudan's oil minister says the country will drill more than 250 wells in the coming year, aiming to boost its energy reserves by 65.4 million…


Iraq/Kurdistan: More Kurdish Oil Expected After Field Upgrades

Dec 16, 2014 | Daniel J. Graeber, United Press International

Oil companies working in the Kurdish north of Iraq said Tuesday they completed infrastructure that should increase total production by more than 60 percent.

Hungarian energy…


Conflict Causes: Plunging Oil to Spark More Global Tensions in 2015

Dec 16, 2014 | New Straits Times

LONDON: The oil market faces an uncertain outlook in 2015 as tumbling prices resulting from global oversupply stoke geopolitical tensions in key producers of crude,…


Nepal: From The Mountains to The Sea – Water in South Asia: In Pictures

Dec 16, 2014 | Paula Hanasz, Asia & the Pacific Policy Society

Paula Hanasz goes with the flow of Himalayan rivers as they pass through Nepal, India and on to Bangladesh before releasing into the Bay of…


Iraq/Kurdistan: Kurdistan Boom Turns Bleak on Refugee Flood, Oil Decline

Dec 15, 2014 | Hermione Gee, Channel NewsAsia

ERBIL, Iraq: The promise of the oil-rich autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq on the back of rapid economic growth has waned this year as civil…


Sudan: Russia to Get Access to Sudanese Oil Amid Debt Write-Off

Dec 14, 2014 | The Moscow Times

Russia has written off $17 million in debt owed by Sudan and won the promise of access to Sudanese oil and gas resources for Russian companies after an intergovernmental commission meeting in Moscow, news agency…


South Sudan: Conflict in South Sudan a Major Concern for China

Dec 14, 2014 | Itziar Aguirre, Global Risk Insights

On December 15, 2013, fierce fighting broke out in South Sudan’s capital, Juba. Rebel forces loyal to Machar targeted South Sudan’s oil fields, and what…


Iraq/Kuwait: Iraq Seeks Delay in $4.6 Bln Reparation to Kuwait Amid Oil Price Crash

Dec 13, 2014 | Sputnik

Ekaterina Blinova — Seriously affected by sliding oil prices and the war with the Islamic State, Iraq is asking Kuwait for a postponement in its $4.6 billion payment of reparations for the…