industryterm:oil pipeline

The Giant Soviet Pipeline System That’s Full of Tainted Crude - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-26/the-giant-soviet-pipeline-system-that-s-full-of-tainted-crude

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i8zLMU.ZW8W0/v1/1200x767.jpg

Russia’s giant Soviet-era oil pipeline is a vital piece of Europe’s energy infrastructure, carrying crude to refineries across the region. This week it’s been hit by probably the biggest crisis in its 55-year history: both branches of the #Druzhba pipeline have been closed due to the presence of contaminated crude oil that can cause serious damage to refineries.

What is the Druzhba pipeline?
The Druzhba, or Friendship, pipeline system is a Soviet-era behemoth, originally designed to carry crude from the USSR to allied countries in eastern Europe. The line starts at Almetyevsk in the Republic of Tatarstan, a town that was founded in 1953 as an oil-processing center for the giant Romashkino oil field, then the mainstay of the Soviet oil industry. It’s now also a major pipeline junction, where conduits from the Volga-Urals region, West Siberia and the Caspian Sea meet.

The Druzhba pipeline carries oil westwards to Mozyr in Belarus, where it splits into two branches. One continues westwards across Poland and into Germany. It delivers crude to refineries at Plock and Gdansk in Poland and Schwedt and Leuna in Germany. A southern branch crosses Ukraine to Uzhgorod on the border with the Slovak Republic, where it again splits. One leg delivers crude to the Szazhalombatta refinery near Budapest in Hungary. The other supplies refineries in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The total length of the line, including all its branches, is around 5,500 kilometers (3,420 miles).

Construction of the system began in 1960 and the line was put into operation in October 1964.

A spur line from Unecha in Russia that crossed Belarus to an export terminal on the Baltic Sea at Ventspils in Latvia was completed in 1968, but was closed in 2002 after Russia halted crude exports through Latvia, following the construction of its own Baltic export terminal at Primorsk. A new spur line from Unecha, bypassing Belarus to a second Russian Baltic export terminal at Ust-Luga, came into operation in March 2012.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/o7fkea4dbuz8y64/20190427_Drujba.png

The importance of Druzhba
Druzhba can carry between 1.2 million and 1.4 million barrels of crude a day, according to the International Association of Oil Transporters, with the possibility of boosting that to around 2 million barrels. It forms a vital source of supply for the refineries along its route in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

During 2018, the Druzhba network was used to deliver about 1 million barrels a day of Russian crude to those five countries, with a further 500,000 barrels a day pumped to Ust-Luga for export by sea.

While most of the refineries along its length can source at least some of their crude requirements via other routes, Druzhba has provided most of their feedstock and most were designed specifically to process the Russian Urals crude delivered through the pipeline.

The #contamination
Europe’s oil refineries stopped accepting piped deliveries of Urals crude from Russia this week after flows were found to be contaminated with abnormally high levels of organic chlorides that, when refined, become hydrochloric acid that can damage the plants.

The issue was first raised by Belarus and has also affected supplies from the Russian port of Ust-Luga, according to a person familiar with the matter.

There are no signs that shipments from Novorossiysk or Primorsk, two other Russian tanker-loading facilities, have been disrupted.

Russia’s government has blamed a private storage terminal in the center of the country for the problem. It will now take two weeks to ensure uncontaminated crude is flowing along the entire length of the pipeline.

The millions of barrels tainted crude will need to blended with larger quantities of unblemished oil to get the impurities down to safe levels, a task that might some weeks or months.

Organic chlorides are generally not present in crude oils, but are used to dissolve wax and during cleaning operations at production sites, pipelines or tanks.

#drujba #pipelines #oléoducs

Kushner’s peace plan ’includes land swaps with Saudi Arabia,’ book claims - Middle East - Jerusalem Post
▻https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Kushners-peace-plan-includes-land-swaps-with-Saudi-Arabia-book-claims-583932
▻https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/t_Article2016_ControlFaceDetect/429057

“What Kushner wanted... was for the Saudis and Emiratis to provide economic assistance to the Palestinians,” Ward wrote. “There were plans for an oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Gaza, where refineries and a shipping terminal could be built. The profits would create desalination plants, where Palestinians could find work, addressing the high unemployment rate.”

Ward said that the plan also included land swaps, where Jordan would give land to the Palestinian territories, and “in return, Jordan would get land from Saudi Arabia, and that country would get back two Red Sea islands it gave Egypt to administer in 1950.”

Jason Greenblatt, the White House’s Mideast envoy, tweeted late Wednesday that the book’s claims about Kushner’s peace plan are false.

Fausses affirmations par conséquent, et données au passé... #deal_du_siècle

U.S. Coast Guard to Tackle MC20 Oil Spill Containment Fourteen Years After the Leak Likely Began – gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/u-s-coast-guard-to-tackle-mc20-oil-spill-containment-fourteen-years-after-

https://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/oilonwatertaylorenergy2.jpg

The U.S. Coast Guard has partially assumed federal control over the operation to contain an oil dishcarge from the site of MC20 platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico that has likely been leaking since the platform toppled back in 2004.

The platform, owned by Taylor Energy, LLC, was located in Mississippi Canyon Block 20, approximately 11 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It toppled in September 2004 during Hurricane Ivan after storm surge triggered an underwater mudslide. The incident left the platform well conductor pipes buried in more than 100 feet of mud and sediment, impacting 25 of 28 connected wells. The spill went unnoticed for years until 2008 when it was identified as the source of daily sheen reports.

Now more fourteen years after the hurricane, crude oil continues to discharge from the site and surface on the Gulf waters.

IN 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement estimated that oil continues to leak at a rate of approximately 1 to 55 barrels of oil per day. Satellite imagery and overflights have shown oil slicks on the surface varying in size, sometimes ranging up to 30 miles in length.

Even still, the specific source, or sources of the discharge at the MC20 site are not fully known.

Federal officials have directed Taylor Energy, as the Responsible Party, to remove the platform deck, remove sub-sea debris, decommission the oil pipeline, attempt to contain the leaking oil, and plug nine of the 25 impacted wells that were deemed highest risk.

Following several scientific studies conducted over several years by federal and industrial experts, the Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) issued Taylor Energy an administrative order back in October requiring it to propose a final viable plan to install a containment system. Last month, however, the FOSC ultimately issued Taylor Energy a Notice of Federal Assumption, and assumed authority for containing the oil.
[…]
As the Responsible Party, Taylor Energy, which is now defunct, is required to pay for oil spill recovery and response costs under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). It also has a continuing legal obligation to respond to the ongoing oil discharge and also must comply with the Coast Guard Administrative Orders.

Shell Starts Production at Kaikias at $30 Break-Even Price – gCaptain
▻http://gcaptain.com/shell-starts-production-at-kaikias-at-30-break-even-price

▻https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Shell-confirms-Kaikias.jpeg
carte de novembre 2015
source : ▻https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/shell-confirms-gulf-of-mexico-discovery

Royal Dutch Shell has kicked off production at its deepwater Kaikias development in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico at a break-even price of less than $30 per barrel.

Shell Offshore, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, announced Thursday the early start of production at the first phase of Kaikias, which has an estimated peak production of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), around one-year ahead of schedule.

Shell says it has reduced costs by around 30% at this deep-water project since taking the investment decision in early 2017, lowering the forward-looking, break-even price to less than $30 per barrel of oil.
[…]
Kaikias is located in the prolific Mars-Ursa basin around 130 miles (210 kilometres) from the Louisiana coast and is owned by Shell (80% working interest), as operator, and MOEX North America LLC (20% working interest), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Ltd.

The Kaikias development, located in around 4,500 feet (1,372 metres) of water, sends production from its four wells to the Shell-operated (45%) Ursa hub, which is co-owned by BP (23%), Exxon Mobil (16%), and ConocoPhillips (16%). From the Ursa hub, volumes ultimately flow into the Mars oil pipeline.

In the first quarter of 2018, Shell deep water produced around 731,000 boe/d, globally.

État d’urgence à #Balikpapan - Déversement de mazout dans la baie | lepetitjournal.com (4/04/18)
▻https://lepetitjournal.com/jakarta/etat-durgence-balikpapan-deversement-de-mazout-dans-la-baie-227326

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*Suite à un déversement de pétrole dans la baie de Balikpapan ce samedi, l’administration de la ville située à Kalimantan a déclaré l’état d’urgence.

Deux personnes ont trouvé la mort dans un incendie alors qu’elles étaient entrain d’effectuer des travaux pour nettoyer la nappe de pétrole. Une autre est grièvement blessée et une portée disparue.

« Le feu était assez grand, environ deux kilomètres de haut, on pouvait le voir de Balikpapan et l’odeur était partout » explique Octavianto responsable de l’agence de recherche et sauvetage de l’est de #Bornéo.

La municipalité exhorte la population qui mène des activités autour de la baie à faire de la sécurité une priorité. Il est recommandé aux fumeurs de s’abstenir de fumer. « La baie est comme une station service » explique un responsable de la ville.

Des masques ont été distribués à la population car l’odeur est écrasante.

Le déversement s’est propagé jusqu’au détroit de Makassar dans le sud de la Sulawesi. Les zones résidentielles sur la côte ont été touchées.

L’autorité portuaire de Semayang coordonne avec la compagnie privée PT Chevron Indonésie et la compagnie nationale #Pertamina le nettoyage de la baie.

UPDATE 1-Russian oil product exports from Black Sea port ’collapse’ - Transneft
▻https://uk.reuters.com/article/russia-oil-port/update-1-russian-oil-product-exports-from-black-sea-port-collapse-transn

Shipments of oil products from a Russian Black Sea port, hit by a managerial conflict, have “collapsed”, Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Wednesday.

A Transneft spokesman said as many as six tankers have been held up at the port of #Novorossiisk and 2,400 railcars have been waiting for reloading.

Four industry sources told Reuters earlier that shipments from the IPP terminal at Novorossiisk have been disrupted since early February due to a row over control of the port.

Transneft blames the port’s captain for “unlawful” interference in its commercial operations.

It added that it was experiencing a shortage of railcars for loadings at Tikhoretsk, a railway junction and pipeline hub in the region, and had asked Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov to intervene.

Joshua Landis on Twitter: “In some respects, Syria’s move to USSR was driven by the Arab/Israeli conflict.”
▻https://twitter.com/joshua_landis/status/884387103718735873

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1. In some respects, Syria’s move to USSR was driven by the Arab/Israeli conflict.
2. US was planning to rebuild Syrian military in 1947, with training mission and arms sales.
3. The start of fighting in Palestine in 1947 caused Sec State Marshall to cancel the agreement & training mission.

He knew that congress could not support helping Syria military w war looming in Palestine. Also Tripartite Arms Embargo imposed by US/FR/GB
5. Once Syria’s Pres. Quwatli was told of US retraction, his men began counseling him to seek arms from USSR. Quwatli refused for fear of GB
6. But the refusal of all Western Powers 2 help Syrian military, caused it to turn 2 USSR w friendship agreement & follow Nasser’s arms deal
7. These BBC interviews w Syrian statesmen & PM, underline that they did not associate Friendship Agreement w becoming Communist, as US did
8. By organizing failed coups against Khalid al-Azm and Sabri al-Asali’s government, the US undermined the pro-Western politicians of Syria.

The Baath Party leaders and their military officer sympathizers used the West’s interventions and plotting to go to Nasser & form the UAR.
10. Politicians, such as Azm & Quwatli, who knew making Nasser was a bad idea & who had fought for Syrian independence, had to go along.
11. They feared being called Western stooges. They also were confused by the West’s stupidity and aggression against them.
12. This is the context of these BBC interviews, which were carried out during the lead up to the UAR and the time of the Suez Crisis.
13. Between 1955 and 1958, Syria received about $294 million from the Soviet Union for military and economic assistance.
14. In a meeting of Ambassadors at end of WWII, US decided best postwar strategy was to align w KSA & Syria. The KSA because of oil & Aramco
15. Syria, because pipelines would run from KSA thru Syr. Also Syria had no exclusive agreement with FR or GB. It was free & turned to US
16. Khalid al-Azm who was PM at end 1948, negotiated military agreement w US & base rights w GB, which wanted 2 est MEDO - Mid East Def Org
17. But the US broke off these agreements to support Jewish State in Palestine & then supported Chief of Staff Husni Zaim to overthrow Azm.
18. US supported Azm/Quwatli overthrow, even though they were democratically elected gov, because Zaim offered to sign armistice w Israel.
19. Zaim also offered to build Tapline, oil pipeline that Syr parliament put on hold, and to arrest communists, etc.

The US was not a driving force behind Zaim coup. Zaim was determined 2 take power, b/c Quwatli gov was going to accuse him of corruption.
21. Pres Quwatli was going to use Zaim as the scapegoat for loss of 1948 war. Major corruption trials were leading to top officers.

#Syrie

America urged Saddam Hussein to attack Assad in Syria | Daily Mail Online
By Thomas Burrows for MailOnline
Published: 20 January 2017
▻http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4140190/America-urged-Saddam-attack-Assad-Syria.html

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/01/20/12/3C51E58800000578-0-image-a-32_1484916846122.jpg

America urged Saddam Hussein to attack Hafez al-Assad’s Syria because of the closure of Iraq’s oil pipeline, a secret 1983 intelligence report has revealed.

A report, by former senior CIA official Graham Fuller, said the US should consider ’urging Iraq to take the war to Syria’, noting that Saddam was ’fighting for his life’ in the Iran-Iraq campaign.

Through the closure of the pipeline, Mr Fuller said Syria had a ’hammerlock’ on US interests in both Lebanon and in the Gulf.(...)

#Pipelinistan

Police Violence Against Native Americans Goes Far Beyond Standing Rock | FiveThirtyEight
▻http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/police-violence-against-native-americans-goes-far-beyond-standing-rock/?ex_cid=story-twitter
▻http://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/img_8181_01.jpg?w=1200

On Nov. 28, a legal collective representing Native Americans opposing the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline filed a lawsuit against two North Dakota counties and their sheriffs, and the city of Mandan, North Dakota, and its police chief. Eight days before, the suit alleges, law enforcement officers from those places had used excessive force against a group of peaceful protesters, injuring more than 200.

The allegations in the case are striking — the lawsuit describes officers using water cannons on protesters despite freezing temperatures, shooting people in the head with non-lethal plastic rounds, and shooting a woman in the genitals with a flash-bang grenade. But this single event is part of a bigger history — one in which Native Americans interact frequently with outside law enforcement and where those interactions are often deadly.

#violences_policières #peuples_autochtones #Dakota #pipeline #pétrole

Standing Rock is the civil rights issue of our time – let’s act accordingly | Bill McKibben | Opinion | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2016/nov/29/standing-rock-civil-rights-act-accordingly

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When John Doar died in 2014, Barack Obama, who’d already awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, called him “one of America’s bravest lawyers”. Without his courage and perseverance, the president said, “Michelle and I might not be where we are today”.
The Standing Rock protests are a symbolic moment
Neil Young and Daryl Hannah
Read more

Doar was the federal lawyer sent south by the Kennedy and Johnson justice departments to keep an eye on the explosive centers of the civil rights movement. Those White Houses didn’t do enough – but at least they kept watch on things. Doar escorted James Meredith to classes at the University of Mississippi, and helped calm crowds at the murder of Medgar Evers; he rescued activists from mobs during the Freedom Rides. A figure of history, in other words.

The Link Between Oil Pipelines And Sexual Assault
▻https://bitchmedia.org/article/link-between-oil-pipelines-and-sexual-assault

Survivor-led art and activism group FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture put together this infographic showing how the construction of oil pipelines—like the one proposed near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation—could contribute to an increased risk of sexual assault for Native women.

https://bitchmedia.org/sites/default/files/pipeline.R4.jpg

#viols

A million people ’check in’ at Standing Rock on Facebook to support Dakota pipeline protesters
▻https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/31/north-dakota-access-pipeline-protest-mass-facebook-check-in

People answer call on Facebook to ‘overwhelm and confuse’ law enforcement officials, though police deny tracking activists on social media More than 1 million people have checked in on Facebook to the Standing Rock Indian reservation in response to a viral post claiming that doing so would help protect activists in North Dakota protesting against an oil pipeline from police (...)

#Facebook #Geofeedia #géolocalisation #activisme #surveillance

Documentary film-makers face decades in prison for taping oil pipeline protests | US news | The Guardian

▻https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/20/north-dakota-oil-pipeline-protest-film-makers-face-prison?CMP=fb_gu

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Two documentary film-makers are facing decades in prison for recording US oil pipeline protests, with serious felony charges that first amendment advocates say are part of a growing number of attacks on freedom of the press.

The controversial prosecutions of Deia Schlosberg and Lindsey Grayzel are moving forward after a judge in North Dakota rejected “riot” charges filed against Democracy Now! host #Amy_Goodman for her high-profile reporting at the Dakota Access pipeline protests.

#pipe_lines #tubes #résister

One belt, one road, by Jack Farchy, James Kynge, Chris Campbell and David Blood — FT.com
▻https://ig.ft.com/sites/special-reports/one-belt-one-road

https://ig.ft.com/sites/special-reports/one-belt-one-road/img/khorgos-gateway.jpg

China’s “One Belt, One Road” project aims to make central Asia more connected to the world, yet even before the initiative was formally announced China had helped to redraw the energy map of the region. It had built an oil pipeline from Kazakhstan, a gas pipeline that allowed Turkmenistan to break its dependence on dealings with Russia and another pipeline that has increased the flow of Russian oil to China.

#silkroad #chine #asie_centrale #commerce #narration_cartographique #cartographie

How You Can Support Standing Rock
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/how-you-can-support-standing-rock

I am a settler on this land but have spent the past couple of years supporting indigenous battles against new oil pipelines. These are the front lines of the struggle to end the desecration of...

Negotiations and protests ongoing in wake of oil spills in Peruvian Amazon
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2016/09/negotiations-and-protests-ongoing-in-wake-of-oil-spills-in-peruvian-a

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Negotiations on Aug. 31 between national government officials and leaders and residents of Nueva Alianza, an indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon, ended an impasse over cleanup of about 4,000 barrels of oil that spilled from two pipeline breaks 10 days earlier. But the talks left many questions unanswered and local residents dissatisfied.

While the meeting was under way in Nueva Alianza, at the confluence of the Urituyacu and Marañón rivers in Peru’s northeastern Loreto region, a protest over oil operations was brewing downstream in San José de Saramuro, where the troubled northern Peruvian oil pipeline begins.

That protest erupted on Sept. 1, with demonstrators blocking the Marañón River, a crucial waterway connecting the key Amazonian city of Iquitos with highways to the coast. The protesters’ demands include replacement of the deteriorated pipeline, remediation of 40 years’ worth of oil pollution in the Amazon, compensation for damages, and an environmental monitoring law.

The recent events underscore growing discontent among indigenous communities living in a region where decades of poorly regulated oil production have left hundreds of contaminated sites, and where residents who depend on rivers for drinking water and fish for protein worry about long-term health effects.

#Pérou #pétrole #pollution #peuples_autochtones #eau #forêt #pêche

Oil-Pipeline Protest Turns Violent in North Dakota - WSJ
▻http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-pipeline-protest-turns-violent-in-north-dakota-1472961238

A protest of a four-state, $3.8 billion oil pipeline turned violent Saturday after tribal officials said construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota.

La suite sous #paywall

North American summit dominated by Brexit fallout and geopolitical rivalries - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/06/30/nasu-j30.html

President Barack Obama, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met in Ottawa yesterday for the long-delayed North American Leaders’ Summit.

The meeting of the heads of government of the three North American countries, which through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) form an economic bloc, was originally slated for February 2015. But former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper put it off due to ongoing tensions with the US, principally related to the Keystone XL oil pipeline and frictions with Mexico over Canadian visa restrictions on Mexican citizens. Initiated in 2005, the North American Leaders’ Summit is supposed to be an annual event, but yesterday’s was the first to be hosted by Canada in almost a decade.

#états-unis #géopolitique #géostratégie

Israel has nationalized its controversial oil pipeline company, says chairman - Diplomacy and Defense - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.653504

Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC) chairman Yossi Peled has confirmed that Israel has nationalized the company, which operates the trans-Israel oil pipeline that used to operate in partnership with Iran. Also, Peled said he was in favor of disclosing information about the company, contrary to the current policy of oversight by the military censor.

Until now, EAPC has been exempt from environmental regulations, planning and building laws, and from government and public scrutiny.

In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth last week, Peled said, “I’m very uncomfortable with the immunity, but it’s out of my hands. Forty years ago, it was decided that it was secret and it stayed that way. As far as I’m concerned, everything can be released. But Israel is the shareholder, not I.”

EAPC was established in 1968 as a partnership between Israel and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), to build and operate an oil pipeline from Eilat to Ashkelon, plus ports for tankers and storage facilities.

The Shah of Iran wanted to keep the deal secret, and Israel issued an immunity order that subjected the company, its funding sources and fuel sources to the military censor.

The partnership stopped functioning after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, but the immunity was upheld. NIOC is currently in the process of three arbitration actions against Israel or Israeli-owned companies, in a suit demanding billions of dollars’ worth of compensation. The Israel Defense Forces’ censorship is enforcing the immunity order and forbids releasing financial or administrative details about the company’s activity, claiming this strengthens Israel’s position in the financial arbitration.

The company’s former directors abused the immunity granted it and used it to conceal State Comptroller’s Reports that found serious financial and administrative irregularities in the company’s activities. Until now, the company has operated under a shroud of secrecy and no one in it has been brought to trial for negligence, despite last December’s massive oil leak in the Evrona Nature Reserve in southern Israel and the grave comptroller reports.

Despite the state’s official position, Peled told Yedioth that the company is controlled by the government. Speaking about the end of the firm’s franchise, Peled said, “The franchise is about to expire in two-three years and I realized there’s an intention to privatize the company. I suggest against that. Such a body must remain in government ownership.”

Peled’s statement confirmed that Israel had in fact nationalized the part of the company previously owned by the Iranians, despite the military censor’s instructions banning the media from publishing details about the way the company is controlled and managed.

NIOC said in its arbitration suit that Israel has taken over EAPC and ousted its Iranian partners.

Adam Teva V’Din – the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) – petitioned the High Court of Justice to remove EAPC’s immunity after the massive oil spill at the end of last year. The state at first delayed its response to the petition. Later, the response was delayed due to an ongoing attorneys’ strike.

Some 10 days ago, IUED asked the court to hear its petition without waiting for the state’s response, in view of the public interest in sorting out the issue without further delay.

Former IDF chief censor Col. (res.) Rachel Dolev said in an interview with Army Radio last week that, back in 2002, she asked then-Finance Minister Silvan Shalom to cancel the immunity order on EAPC and other censorship on oil tankers, foreign credit and immigration from needy countries. Her request went unanswered, but her statement implies that she saw no point in continuing to grant the company immunity.

Last week, Channel 2 News reported that IDF chief censor Brig. Gen. Sima Vaknin-Gil demanded that the attorney general hold an investigation to discover who gave Haaretz information about EAPC, following a series of articles on the ongoing arbitration proceedings with Iran.

Turkish villages smuggle IS oil through makeshift pipelines
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/09/turkey-syria-iraq-illegal-oil-pipeline.html

▻http://www.al-monitor.com/files/live/sites/almonitor/files/images/almpics/2014/09/ft1s.JPG?t=thumbnail_570

Villagers in Hacipasa lay new pipelines for the oil, September 2014. (photo by Fehim Taştekin)

Here is how the oil trade fills IS coffers:

From Ezmerin, about 500 illegal oil pipelines, small-diameter plastic pipes normally used for irrigation, extend to the Turkish side of the Asi River. On the Turkish side, they are buried under agricultural fields to reach the village. Just like the village’s underground water distribution lines, oil pipelines crisscross under streets to reach the back yards of private houses. Diesel fuel pumped from a tanker on the Syrian side fills the private tanks. Simple “pump” and “stop” commands are given over cellular phones.

(...)

The state began to intervene only after the international media started to question whether Turkey was supporting IS and whether IS oil was being sold in Turkey. At the end of March, soldiers that had until then been watching the goings on from a hilltop about 100 meters from the river began digging up the pipes from the fields and cutting the ones that lay visible in the streets. Checkpoints were established to prevent the diesel from leaving Hacipasa. But the smugglers always found ways to bypass the gendarmerie, the latest being shipping the fuel in barrels.

(...)

The state knows what is going on, said the villagers. Everything was happening in front of its soldiers. Some people even imported machinery from Japan to dig and lay the pipes. That can’t be done secretly. Every day, about 30-50 tanker loads of diesel is transferred. In Hatay, there are 4,500 semi trucks. They all use this fuel. Trucks come from central Anatolia to buy cheap fuel.

(...)

When asked, "You are objecting to the measures taken, but aren’t you uncomfortable with the money IS makes from this business?” their answer was: "Fine, let’s say they cut off the oil as a measure against IS. But militants are crossing the border freely. Go to Esentepe and you will see it.’’ Esentepe is a Reyhanli neighborhood where most cars have Syrian license plates. People believe many militants reside in that neighborhood.

Attack on #oil_pipeline in #Yemen sparks fire
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/attack-oil-pipeline-yemen-sparks-fire

Gunmen launched two attacks on the export pipeline linking Yemen’s eastern oil fields to the Red Sea, sparking a fire and halting oil flow, an official and tribal sources said Wednesday. Attacks on oil and gas pipelines in Yemen are frequent and are often carried out by heavily armed tribes as a lever to press for the release of jailed relatives. The latest attacks took place late Tuesday at Al-Hatik, near Wadi Abida in the lawless eastern province of Marib. read more

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Attacks render #Iraq-Turkey #Oil pipeline unusable: minister
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/attacks-render-iraq-turkey-oil-pipeline-unusable-minister

An oil pipeline carrying crude from Iraq’s Kirkuk oil fields to #turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan is unusable because of persistent militant attacks, Turkey’s energy minister said on Monday. “Of course this is a loss for Iraq,” Taner Yildiz told reporters, referring to the Baghdad-controlled pipeline, which has been pumping way below its 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of capacity. (Reuters)

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Jordan signs deal with Egypt, Iraq over regional energy venture | The Jordan Times
▻http://jordantimes.com/jordan-signs-deal-with-egypt-iraq-over-regional-energy-venture

Jordan, Iraq and Egypt started on Thursday studying projects to transfer natural gas from Iraq to the Kingdom and Egypt, according to energy ministers of the three countries.

With regard to this, the three countries have started looking into extending an oil pipeline from Iraq’s Basra to Egypt via Jordan’s Aqaba to export Iraqi oil to Africa, they said during a ceremony to sign a memorandum of understanding.

“We are looking into linking the natural gas fields in Iraq that are being developed to the Arab Gas Pipeline in Jordan. Then, we can provide the commodity to Jordan, Egypt and many other countries that are connected through the existing pipeline,” Iraq’s Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi told The Jordan Times on Thursday on the sidelines of the ceremony.

The Arab Gas Pipeline stretches from Egypt to Lebanon through Jordan and Syria.

Under the memo, the three countries will examine extending the $18 billion Iraqi oil pipeline, which will transfer one million barrels of crude oil per day from Basra to Aqaba, to reach Egypt, Egypt’s oil minister, Sherif Ismail, said during a press conference after he signed the memo with his peers.

Rappelons qu’aujourd’hui le pipeline en question traverse #Israël
#gaz_naturel
#pétrole

#attack on #Oil refinery foiled: #Yemen police
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/18664

Yemeni authorities have foiled an attack on the oil refinery in Aden and arrested 27 suspected Al-Qaeda militants linked to the operation, police said Monday. The thwarted strike was the latest in a series of attacks targeting security forces and vital installations, including oil pipelines, in a country grappling with a thorny political transition. Security forces in the southern port city foiled at dawn Saturday “a terrorist attack by members of Al-Qaeda,” said Aden police deputy commissioner Najeeb al-Mughalas, quoted on the defense ministry website, 26sep.net. read more

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Fifteen Iraqi soldiers killed in pre-dawn attack
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/18581

A pre-dawn attack on an army encampment guarding an oil pipeline in northern #Iraq killed 15 soldiers on Tuesday as authorities grapple with near-daily attacks and running battles with militants. The latest bloodshed comes with unrest at its worst in Iraq in nearly six years, and has fueled fears that, with elections due in April, the country is on the brink of slipping back into the sectarian violence that plagued it in the years following the 2003 US-led invasion. read more

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