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Tag: Oil and gas transportation

  • Qatar to supply liquefied natural gas to Germany from 2026

    Qatar to supply liquefied natural gas to Germany from 2026

    DOHA, Qatar — Qatar is to supply liquefied natural gas to Germany under a 15-year deal signed Tuesday as the European economic powerhouse scrambles to replace Russian gas supplies that have been cut during the ongoing war in Ukraine.

    Officials gave no dollar value for the deal, which would begin in 2026. Under the agreement, Qatar would send up to 2 million tons of the gas to Germany through an under-construction terminal at Brunsbuettel.

    The deal involves both Qatar Energy, the nation’s state-run firm, and ConocoPhillips, which has stakes in Qatar’s offshore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf that it shares with Iran.

    As European countries have supported Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February, Moscow has slashed supplies of natural gas used to heat homes, generate electricity and power industry. That has created an energy crisis that is fueling inflation and increasing pressure on companies as prices have risen.

    Germany, which got more than half its gas from Russia before the war, hasn’t received any gas from Russia since the end of August.

    The country is building five liquefied natural gas terminals as a key part of its plan to replace Russian supplies, and the first are expected to go into service shortly. Much of Germany’s current gas supply comes from or via Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

    Germany’s drive to prevent a short-term energy crunch also includes temporarily reactivating old oil- and coal-fired power stations and extending the life of the country’s last three nuclear power plants, which were supposed to be switched off at the end of this year, until mid-April.

    German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is also responsible for energy, visited Qatar in March — about a month after Russia invaded Ukraine — as part of the government’s effort to diversify gas supplies. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was there in September.

    Habeck said Tuesday he wouldn’t say much about the deal because “the political talks were always only framework talks; the companies remained in contact after that.”

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  • Russian energy giant says no further gas cuts to Moldova

    Russian energy giant says no further gas cuts to Moldova

    BUCHAREST, Romania — Russian energy giant Gazprom announced Monday that it will not further reduce natural gas to Moldova as it had threatened to do after claiming that bills went unpaid and that flows crossing through Ukraine were not making it to Moldova.

    Gazprom tweeted that Moldovagaz has “eliminated the violation of payment” for November supplies and that “funds for the gas deposited on the territory of Ukraine, intended for consumers in Moldova, have been received.”

    Last week, Moldova and Ukraine hit back at Gazprom’s claim that Russian gas moving through the last pipeline to Western Europe was being stored in Ukraine, saying all supplies that Russia sends through the war-torn country get “fully transferred” to Moldova.

    “The volumes of gas that Gazprom refers to as remaining in Ukraine are our savings and reserves stored in warehouses in Ukraine,” Moldovan Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu said last week. “These volumes were and will be fully paid for by our country.”

    The Russia state-owned company alleged “regular violation by the Moldovan side of contractual obligations in terms of payment for Russian gas supplies,” adding that it “reserves the right to reduce or completely stop gas supplies in case of violation of their payment.”

    It comes as Europe’s poorest country — which had relied entirely on Russia for natural gas — is facing an acute energy crisis after Moscow dramatically reduced supplies in October and halved them in November as cold weather took hold. Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure also have triggered massive blackouts in several cities in Moldova.

    Russia has cut off most natural gas to Europe amid the war in Ukraine, which European leaders have called energy blackmail. Gazprom’s threats to further reduce flows raised concerns about rising prices heading into winter, when natural gas is needed to heat homes as well as generate electricity and power factories, with higher bills already squeezing households and businesses.

    With inflation high all around, there were fears consumers in Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.6 million, would struggle to pay their heating and electricity costs.

    The European Union pledged 250 million euros (nearly $262 million) in aid to Moldova this month to help it weather the crisis. Last week, an international aid conference in Paris raised more than 100 million euros to support the country through the energy crisis.

    ———

    Cristian Jardan contributed from Chisinau, Moldova.

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  • Sweden: Traces of explosives found at Baltic Sea pipelines

    Sweden: Traces of explosives found at Baltic Sea pipelines

    HELSINKI — Investigators found traces of explosives at the Baltic Sea site where two natural pipelines were damaged in an act of “gross sabotage,” the prosecutor leading Sweden’s preliminary investigation said Friday.

    Mats Ljungqvist of the Swedish Prosecution Authority said the investigators carefully documented the area where the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines ruptured in September, causing significant methane leaks. The parallel undersea pipelines run from Russia to Germany.

    “Analysis carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found” at the site, Ljungqvist said in a statement.

    The prosecution authority said the preliminary investigation was “very complex and comprehensive” and further scrutiny would show whether anyone could be charged “with suspicion of crime.”

    Investigators in Sweden, Denmark and Germany are looking into what happened. Danish officials confirmed in October that there was extensive damage to the pipelines caused by “powerful explosions.”

    The leaks, which stopped after several days, occurred in international waters but within the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden. Investigators have not given indications of whom they think might be responsible but reported earlier that the blasts were likely to have involved several hundred pounds of explosives.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday it was “very important to find those who are behind the explosion.”

    Sweden’s findings of “a sabotage act or a terrorist act — you can call it whatever you like” confirm “the information that the Russian side has had,” Peskov said. Moscow needs to wait for a full damage assessment to decide whether to repair the pipelines, he said.

    Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies at the end of August. Nord Stream 2 never entered service as Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

    The governments of Denmark, Germany and Sweden have refrained from speculating over who may be behind the sabotage, saying only that there’s no sufficient proof yet to identify the perpetrator.

    But some Nordic and other European media outlets have pointed a finger of blame on Moscow, hosting military experts suggesting that Russia has all the resources to carry out such a precise attack requiring careful advance planning.

    Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said late September it was “very obvious” who was responsible of the pipeline sabotage, suggesting Russia’s involvement.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of blowing up the pipelines and singled out the United States as profiting from attacks on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

    Earlier this week, Germany marked the completion of port facilities for the first of five planned liquefied natural gas terminals it is scrambling to get running as it replaces the Russian pipeline gas that once accounted for more than half its supplies.

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  • Official says oil tanker hit by bomb-carrying drone off Oman

    Official says oil tanker hit by bomb-carrying drone off Oman

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire has been struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman amid heightened tensions with Iran, an official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

    The attack happened Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, the Mideast-based defense official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they did not have authorization to discuss the attack publicly.

    The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military organization in the region monitoring shipping, told the AP: “We are aware of an incident and it’s being investigated at this time.”

    The official identified the vessel attacked as the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon. That tanker is operated by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, which is a company ultimately owned by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer.

    A phone number for Eastern Pacific rang unanswered Wednesday.

    While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, suspicion immediately fell on Iran. Tehran and Israel have been engaged in a yearslong shadow war in the wider Middle East, with some drone attacks targeting Israeli-associated vessels traveling around the region.

    The U.S. also blamed Iran for a series of attacks occurring off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in 2019. Tehran then had begun escalating its nuclear program following the U.S.’ unilateral withdraw from its atomic deal with world powers.

    Iranian state media did not immediately acknowledge the attack on the Pacific Zircon.

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  • 12 killed in Nigeria gasoline tanker explosion, police say

    12 killed in Nigeria gasoline tanker explosion, police say

    ABUJA, Nigeria — At least 12 people were killed when a gasoline tanker crashed on a major road and then exploded in Nigeria’s northcentral Kogi State, police said Friday.

    The tanker had a brake failure along a major road in the Ofu council area on Thursday night when it collided with a vehicle obstructing the highway, causing a fireball, a police spokesman told The Associated Press.

    The vehicle “crushed cars on the way” and “12 people were killed” — all burnt to death, said William Ovye Aya with the Kogi police command.

    Bisi Kazeem with Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps said 18 people were involved in the crash. Seven sustained “various degrees of injuries while the remaining 11 were burnt beyond recognition” at the scene, Kazeem said in a statement.

    The road has been cordoned off and road safety workers are working to identify the victims, Kazeem said.

    Such crashes are common along most major roads in Nigeria, with new measures introduced by the country’s road safety corps failing to curb their occurrence. Kogi is a known hot spot with more than 10 people killed in a similar crash in September.

    Authorities in Kogi are investigating the latest crash, Kingsley Fanwo, the state commissioner for information, told the AP.

    “As a state government, we have always been harping on this issue of road safety. It is becoming one occurrence too many,” Fanwo said.

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  • 4 sickened by apparent gas leak at Los Angeles airport

    4 sickened by apparent gas leak at Los Angeles airport

    LOS ANGELES — Four people were sickened by a release of carbon dioxide at a Los Angeles International Airport baggage area early Monday, authorities said.

    One person was in grave condition and three were in mild distress, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Brian Humphrey said in a statement that noted the information was preliminary. There was no information on their identities.

    The source of the gas in the Terminal 8 baggage area was “unspecified,” the statement said.

    “Though no escalating or off-site hazard has been identified, an LAFD Hazardous Materials team has been assigned pursuant to protocol,” it said.

    The airport tweeted that Terminal 8 was being cleared of passengers due to an apparent gas leak, and passengers were being sent to Terminal 7 for screening.

    The terminal serves United Airlines and United Express, according to the airport website.

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  • Cholera overwhelms Haiti as cases, deaths spike amid crisis

    Cholera overwhelms Haiti as cases, deaths spike amid crisis

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The sun shone down on Stanley Joliva as medical staff at an open-air clinic hovered around him, pumping air into his lungs and giving him chest compressions until he died.

    Nearby, his mother watched.

    “Only God knows my pain,” said Viliene Enfant.

    Less than an hour later, the body of her 22-year-old son lay on the floor wrapped in a white plastic bag with the date of his death scrawled on top. He joined dozens of other Haitians who have died from cholera during a rapidly spreading outbreak that is straining the resources of nonprofits and local hospitals in a country where fuel, water and other basic supplies are growing scarcer by the day.

    Sweat gathered on the foreheads of staff at a Doctors Without Borders treatment center in the capital of Port-au-Prince where some 100 patients arrive every day and at least 20 have died. Families kept rushing in this week with loved ones, sometimes dragging their limp bodies into the crowded outdoors clinic where the smell of waste filled the air.

    Dozens of patients sat on white buckets or lay on stretchers as IV lines ran up to bags of rehydrating fluids that gleamed in the sun. So far this month, Doctors Without Borders has treated some 1,800 patients at their four centers in Port-au-Prince.

    Across Haiti, many patients are dying because say they’re unable to reach a hospital in time, health officials say. A spike in gang violence has made it unsafe for people to leave their communities and a lack of fuel has shut down public transportation, gas stations and other key businesses including water supply companies.

    Enfant sat next to her son’s body as she recalled how Joliva told her he was feeling sick earlier this week. She had already warned him and her two other sons not to bathe or wash clothes in the sewage-contaminated waters that ran through a nearby ravine in their neighborhood — the only source of water for hundreds in that area.

    Enfant insisted that her sons buy water to wash clothes and add chlorine if they were going to drink it. As Joliva grew sicker, Enfant tried to care for him on her own.

    “I told him, ‘Honey, you need to drink the tea,’” she recalled. “He said again, ‘I feel weak.’ He also said, ‘I am not able to stand up.’”

    Cholera is a bacteria that sickens people who swallow contaminated food or water, and it can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea, in some cases leading to death.

    Haiti’s first major brush with cholera occurred more than a decade ago when U.N. peacekeepers introduced the bacteria into the country’s biggest river via sewage runoff at their base. Nearly 10,000 people died and thousands of others were sickened.

    The cases eventually dwindled to the point where the World Health Organization was expected to declare Haiti cholera-free this year.

    But on Oct. 2, Haitian officials announced that cholera had returned.

    At least 40 deaths and 1,700 suspected cases have been reported, but officials believe the numbers are much higher, especially in crowded and unsanitary slums and government shelters where thousands of Haitians live.

    Worsening the situation is a lack of fuel and water that began to dwindle last month when one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs surrounded a key fuel terminal and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Gas stations and businesses including water companies have closed, forcing an increasing number of people to rely on untreated water.

    Shela Jeune, a 21-year-old hot dog vendor whose 2-year-old son has cholera, said she buys small bags of water for her family but doesn’t know if it’s treated. She carried him to the hospital where he remains on IV fluids.

    “Everything I give him to eat, he just throws it up,” she said.

    Jeune was among dozens of mothers seeking treatment for their children on a recent morning.

    Lauriol Chantal, 43, recounted a similar story. Her 15-year-old son would vomit as soon as he finished eating, prompting her to rush him to the treatment center.

    While at the center, her son, Alexandro François, told her he felt hot.

    “He said to me … ’Mama, could you take me outside to wash me or pour water over my head?’” she said.

    She obliged, but suddenly, he collapsed in her arms. The staff ran over to help.

    Children younger than age 14 make up half of cholera cases in Haiti, according to UNICEF, with officials warning that growing cases of severe malnutrition also make children more vulnerable to illness.

    Haiti’s poverty also has worsened the situation.

    “When you are unable to get safe drinking water by tap in your own home, when you don’t have soap or water purifying tablets and you have no access to health services, you may not survive cholera or other waterborne diseases,” said Bruno Maes, Haiti’s UNICEF representative.

    Perpety Juste, a 62-year-old grandmother, said one of her three grandchildren became ill this week as she fretted about how their situation might have led to her sickness.

    “We spent a lot of days without food, I cannot lie,” she said. “Nobody in my house has a job.”

    Juste, who lives with her husband, five children and three grandchildren, said she used to work as a house cleaner until the homeowners fled Haiti.

    The increasing demand for help is squeezing Doctors Without Borders and others as they struggle to care for patients with limited fuel.

    “It’s a nightmare for the population, and also for us,” said Jean-Marc Biquet, a project coordinator with the organization. “We have two more weeks of fuel.”

    Life is paralyzed for many Haitians, including Enfant, as she mourned her son’s death. She wants to bury him in her southern coastal hometown of Les Cayes, but cannot afford the 55,000 gourdes ($430) it would cost to transport his body.

    Enfant then fell quiet and gazed into the distance as she continued to sit next to her son’s body — too stunned, she said, to stand up.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

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  • Inflation, gas prices looming over sports biz, concessions

    Inflation, gas prices looming over sports biz, concessions

    CHICAGO — Dan Coyne makes an annual trip from his Pennsylvania home to watch the Chicago Bears with his brother, Dave, who has season tickets.

    The brothers got something to eat a couple hours before the game. Dave Coyne, 47, normally stays away from the concessions at Soldier Field, but “I only had to pay for myself tonight,” he said. “I didn’t have a kid or my wife with me.”

    That’s the calculus in play as fans balance their favorite sporting events — the games they missed desperately during the COVID-19 pandemic — with persistently high inflation and gas prices that loom over everything these days.

    U.S. inflation jumped 8.2% in September from a year ago, the government reported this month. That’s not far from a four-decade high of 9.1% in June. Higher prices for housing, food and medical care were among the largest contributors to the rise.

    Given the industry’s reliance on disposable income, the inflation numbers are a troubling sign for sports business leaders.

    “What’s historically accurate for teams is that they tend to try to take less on the ticketing side because once somebody comes in they typically will make up for it once they are inside,” said Ron Li, a senior vice president at Navigate, a data-driven consulting firm in sports and entertainment. “But with costs rising pretty much across the board after the turnstile, I think they have some decisions they need to make.”

    According to Team Marketing Report, the average cost for a family of four to attend a 2022 Major League Baseball game was $256.41, an increase of $3.04 from the previous season. The main engine behind the rise was the cost of tickets, with the average general ticket price increasing 3.6% to $35.93.

    Despite the jump in prices, Americans have largely kept up their spending, particularly on entertainment and other services like travel that they missed out on during the pandemic. Still, there are signs the solid spending won’t last: Credit card debt is rising and savings have declined as consumers, particularly low-income ones, have taken hits to their finances from the spike in inflation.

    Sitting on a bench in front of Soldier Field, about to watch his beloved Bears play in person, money wasn’t exactly a big concern for Corey Metzger.

    Or any concern, really.

    “This trip has been a long time in the making, and I’m splurging whatever I got to spend to make it happen,” said the 45-year-old Metzger, who works in law enforcement in Fargo, North Dakota.

    Casey Lynn, 43, a low-voltage technician from Minneapolis, and his wife, Lori, 44, a commercial lender, aren’t big football fans, but they decided to check out the Bears on a trip to Chicago. While Casey Lynn said he is bothered by the ticket surcharges, the couple didn’t want to pass on the opportunity to see the game.

    “The gas is a necessity. Electric’s a necessity. The sports isn’t a necessity,” he said. “But when in Rome, why not?”

    Of course, the cost of games often includes a trip to the concessions stands for a hot dog or a beer. Concessions typically have a higher profit margin for sports teams and providers, but increased costs for goods, transportation and labor have cut into those margins.

    The changes come after concessions companies were already profoundly impacted by the pandemic.

    “The whole model has been kind of disrupted in a pretty big way as we’re dealing with inflation of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30% when we have typically underwritten 2 or 3%,” said Jamie Obletz, president of Delaware North Sportservice. “And you can imagine the impact that that’s had on us and what it’s forced us to think about and do over the past six to 12 months, like a lot of companies.”

    Paul Pettas, a vice president with Sodexo Live!, estimated overall costs are up 10% to 15% over the past 12 to 24 months.

    “In reality, costs are up across the board, but we certainly try to do as much as we can to keep that down and not have that affect the average fan or guest who comes to our events,” he said.

    Concessions companies also are experiencing lingering issues with their supply chains, which have improved recently but remain a factor. Obletz recalled his company running out of peanuts midway through the 2021 World Series in Atlanta, so two workers drove a truck to another venue, loaded up and then drove through the night to get back to Truist Park.

    “Things are not great,” Obletz said. “They’re better than they were, it feels like, three to six months ago, and our hope is that it continues to improve.”

    The issues have forced concession companies to get creative in an effort to address the rising costs with minimal effect on consumers in terms of culinary options and price.

    Chefs are redesigning menus to replace items that face significant cost increases and consolidating other options. They are using analytics to examine portion sizes — do consumers need six chicken fingers or will five work instead? — and taking a closer look at their vendors.

    “There’s dozens of things like this that we’ve tried to do and are doing as we speak, trying very desperately to offset those pricing increases that we’re seeing,” Obletz said.

    Alison Birdwell, the president and CEO of Aramark Sports + Entertainment, said the company is leaning on analytics and its data science team “more than ever” when it comes to menu strategies and new concessions items.

    “With that guidance, we are working to give fans the items they’re looking for while simultaneously being efficient with our product and mitigating significant increases in cost,” Birdwell said in a statement to AP.

    ———

    AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

    ———

    For more AP coverage of the impact of inflation: https://apnews.com/hub/inflation And for more AP sports coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • Report: Norway detains university lecturer as suspected spy

    Report: Norway detains university lecturer as suspected spy

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s domestic security agency has detained a man who entered the country as a Brazilian citizen but is suspected of being a Russian spy, a Norwegian broadcaster reported Tuesday.

    The man was arrested Monday in the Arctic city of Tromsoe, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said, adding that investigators believe he was in Norway under a false name and identity while working for one of Russia’s intelligence services.

    Norwegian Police Security Service deputy chief Hedvig Moe told NRK that the man had been based at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe as “a Brazilian researcher” and would be expelled from the Scandinavian country “because we believe he represents a threat to fundamental national interests.”

    The security service, known as PST, “is concerned that he may have acquired a network and information about Norway’s policy in the northern region,” Moe said, according to NRK. “Even if this network or the information bit by bit is a threat to the security of the kingdom, we are worried that the information could be misused by Russia.”

    PST representatives were not immediately available to comment. In a statement, Arctic University of Norway administrator Jørgen Fossland said the person in question was “a guest lecturer” at the school. Fossland referred other questions to the security service.

    Several Russian citizens have been detained in Norway in recent weeks. They include three men and a woman who were seen allegedly taking photos in central Norway of objects covered under a photography ban. They have since been released.

    European nations have heightened security around key energy, internet and power infrastructure following underwater explosions that ruptured two natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that were built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.

    The damaged Nord Stream pipelines off Sweden and Denmark discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.

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  • Cash is king for sanctioned Russian, Venezuelan oligarchs

    Cash is king for sanctioned Russian, Venezuelan oligarchs

    MIAMI — It was a deal that brought together oligarchs from some of America’s top adversaries.

    “The key is the cash,” the oil broker wrote in a text message, offering a deep discount on Venezuelan crude shipments to an associate who claimed to be fronting for the owner of Russia’s biggest aluminum company. “As soon as you are ready with cash we can work.”

    The communication was included in a 49-page indictment unsealed Wednesday in New York federal court charging seven individuals with conspiring to purchase sensitive U.S. military technology, smuggle oil and launder tens of millions of dollars on behalf of wealthy Russian businessmen.

    The frank talk among co-defendants reads like a how-to guide on circumventing U.S. sanctions — complete with Hong Kong shell companies, bulk cash pick ups, phantom oil tankers and the use of cryptocurrency to cloak transactions that are illicit under U.S. law

    It also shines a light on how wealthy insiders from Russia and its ally Venezuela, both barred from the western financial system, are making common cause to protect their massive fortunes.

    At the center of the alleged conspiracy are two Russians: Yury Orekhov, who used to work for a publicly-traded aluminum company sanctioned by the U.S., and Artem Uss, the son of a wealthy governor allied with the Kremlin.

    The two are partners in a Hamburg, Germany-based company trading in industrial equipment and commodities. Prosecutors allege the company was a hub for skirting U.S. sanctions first imposed against Russian elites following the 2014 invasion of Crimea. Both were arrested, in Germany and Italy respectively, on U.S. charges including conspiracy to violate sanctions, money laundering and bank fraud.

    On the other end of the deal was Juan Fernando Serrano, the CEO of a commodities trading startup known as Treseus with offices in Dubai, Italy and his native Spain. His whereabouts are unknown.

    In electronic communications among the men last year, each side boasted of connections to powerful insiders.

    “This is our mother company,” Orehkov wrote to Serrano, pasting a link to the aluminum company’s website and a link to the owner’s Wikipedia page. “He is under sanctions as well. That’s why we (are) acting from this company.”

    Serrano, not to be outdone, responded that his partner was also sanctioned.

    “He is one of the influence people in Venezuela. Super close to the Vice President,” he wrote, posting a link showing search results for a Venezuelan lawyer and businessman who is currently wanted by the U.S. on money laundering and bribery charges.

    Neither alleged partner was charged in the case nor are they identified by name in the indictment. Additionally, it’s not clear what ties, if any, Serrano really has to the Venezuelan insider he cited.

    But the description of the Russian billionaire matches that of Oleg Deripaska, who was charged last month in a separate sanctions case in New York. Some of the proceeds he allegedly funneled to the U.S. were to support a Uzbekistani track and field Olympic athlete while she gave birth to their child in the U.S.

    Meanwhile, the Venezuelan is media magnate Raul Gorrin, according to someone close to U.S. law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Gorrin remains in Venezuela and is on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s most-wanted list for allegedly masterminding a scheme to siphon $1.2 billion from PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company.

    A U.S.-based attorney for Deripaska didn’t respond to requests for comment. Gorrin declined to comment but has rejected other criminal charges against him as politically motivated.

    While U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil apply only to Americans, many foreign entities and individuals with business in the U.S. stay away from transactions involving the OPEC nation for fear of being sanctioned themselves.

    For that same reason, Venezuela’s oil sells at a deep discount — about 40% less than the market price, according to the indictment. But such choice terms require some unorthodox maneuvering.

    For example, instead of instantly wiring funds through Western banks, payment has to take a more circuitous route.

    In one transaction this year cited in the indictment — the $33 million purchase of a tanker full of Venezuelan fuel oil — the alleged co-conspirators discussed channeling payments from a front company in Dubai, named Melissa Trade, to shell accounts in Hong Kong, Australia and England. To hide the transaction, documents were allegedly falsified to describe the cargo as “whole green peas” and “bulky paddy rice.”

    But as is often the case in clandestine transactions, cash appears to have been king.

    “Your people can go directly to PDVSA with one of my staff and pay directly to them. There are 550,000 barrels … to load on Monday,” Serrano wrote Orekhov in a November 2021 message.

    There was also discussion of dropping off millions in cash at a bank in Moscow, Evrofinance Mosnarbank, which is owned by PDVSA. It was a major conduit for trade with Russia until it too was hit with U.S. sanctions in 2019. The two defendants also contemplated a possible mirror transaction whereby cash delivered to a bank in Panama would be paid out the same day at a branch of the same unnamed institution in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.

    But Orekhov’s preferred method of payment appears to be Tether, a cryptocurrency that purports to be pegged to more stable currencies like the U.S. dollar.

    “It’s quicker than telegraphic transfer,” Orekhov wrote regarding a planned purchase of 500,000 barrels of oil worth $17 million. “That’s why everyone does it now. It’s convenient, it’s quick.”

    It’s not just financial transactions that are a challenge however. Delivering the crude presents its own risk because most shipping companies and insurers won’t do business with Venezuela and other sanctioned entities. In recent years, the U.S. government has seized several tankers suspected of transporting Iranian fuel heading for Venezuela.

    To obscure the oil’s origins, Orekhov and Serrano discussed instructing the Vietnamese tanker they were using to turn off its mandatory tracking system to avoid being spotted while loading in “Disneyland” — a coded reference to Venezuela.

    While the vessel isn’t identified by name in the indictment, internal PDVSA shipping documents seen by The Associated Press show that it was the Melogy, a two-decade old tanker owned and operated by a Hanoi-based company called Thank Long Gas Co.

    Ship tracking data collected by Marine Traffic shows that the Melogy went “dark” on Dec. 31, 2021, as it was drifting empty off the coast of Venezuela near neighboring Trinidad & Tobago. Almost four months later, on April 18, it resumed transmissions, its hull now fully laden and steaming toward Asia.

    On June 9, the ship then transferred its cargo at sea to a floating storage ship, the Harmony Star, off the coast of Malaysia, satellite images show. That same vessel has been identified as being part of a wider oil smuggling network helping Iran, according to research by the United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based group the closely tracks crude shipments by sanctioned countries.

    ———

    Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman

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  • Oil flow to Germany resumes after Poland fixed pipeline leak

    Oil flow to Germany resumes after Poland fixed pipeline leak

    WARSAW, Poland — The Polish operator of an oil pipeline running to Germany said Saturday that it has fixed the damage that caused a leak earlier this week and that the flow of crude oil from Russia has been fully restored.

    The state-run operator, PERN, said that both lines of the Druzhba pipeline were operating normally, transporting oil.

    It said that the cause of the leak that occurred Tuesday in a field in central Poland is still being investigated.

    The Druzhba pipeline, which in Russian means “Friendship,” was built in the 1960s and is one of the world’s largest pipeline systems, bringing crude oil from Siberia to central Europe. It branches to reach Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany.

    The leak follows attacks last month on the Baltic Sea Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, in which explosives are said to have been used. Europe has been taking steps to reduce its reliance on Russian energy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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  • In Norway, Russian man stopped with drones

    In Norway, Russian man stopped with drones

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A 50-year-old Russian man has been detained in Arctic Norway with two drones and is suspected of flying the unmanned aerial vehicles somewhere in the country.

    Numerous drone sightings have been reported near Norwegian offshore oil and gas platforms in recent weeks.

    The Russian citizen, who was not identified, was detained on Tuesday.

    Norwegian media reported that customs officers found two drones and several electronic storage devices in his luggage during a routine check at the Storskog border crossing, the sole crossing point between NATO-member Norway and Russia. Norway’s Arctic border with Russia is 198 kilometers (123 miles) long.

    He is suspected of breaching sanctions which came into force after Russia went to war against Ukraine, prosecutor Anja Mikkelsen Indbjør told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Under Norwegian law, it is prohibited for aircraft operated by Russian companies or citizens “to land on, take off from or fly over Norwegian territory.” Norway is not a member of the European Union but mirrors its moves.

    The VG newspaper said that a local court on Friday ordered the man held for two weeks in custody. The man told the Indre and Oestre Finnmark District Court that he had been in Norway since August and had flown drones throughout the country, VG said. The seized material included 4 terabytes of stored images and files, with parts of them encrypted.

    The man’s defense lawyer, Jens Bernhard Herstad, told Norwegian daily Dagbladet that his client has acknowledged flying the drones but has declined to say what he was doing in Norway.

    Norwegian Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said it was “too early to draw conclusions.”

    “It is known that we have an intelligence threat against us which has been reinforced by what is happening in Europe,” Enger Mehl told NRK.

    There is heightened security around key energy, internet and power infrastructure following last month’s underwater explosions that ruptured two natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that were built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.

    The blasts and ruptures in the Baltic Sea happened in international waters off both Sweden and Denmark but within the countries’ exclusive economic zone. The damaged Nord Stream pipelines discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.

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  • Turkey, Russia to study Putin’s gas hub proposal

    Turkey, Russia to study Putin’s gas hub proposal

    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey and Russia have instructed their respective energy authorities to immediately begin technical studies on a Russian proposal that would turn Turkey into a gas hub for Europe.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has floated the idea of exporting more gas through the Turk Stream gas pipeline running beneath the Black Sea to Turkey after gas deliveries to Germany through the Baltic Sea’s Nord Stream pipeline were halted.

    Erdogan said Russian and Turkish energy authorities would work together to designate the best location for a gas distribution center, adding that Turkey’s Thrace region, bordering Greece and Bulgaria appeared to be the best spot.

    “Together with Mr. Putin, we have instructed our Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the relevant institution on the Russian side to work together,” Erdogan said. “They will conduct this study. Wherever the most appropriate place is, we will hopefully establish this distribution center there.”

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  • Putin tempts Turkey, suggests making it Europe’s new gas hub

    Putin tempts Turkey, suggests making it Europe’s new gas hub

    ANKARA, Turkey — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday doubled down on his proposal to turn Turkey into a gas hub for Europe after deliveries to Germany through the Baltic Sea’s Nord Stream pipeline were halted.

    Putin floated the idea of exporting more gas through the Turk Stream gas pipeline running beneath the Black Sea to Turkey as he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a regional summit in Kazakhstan.

    It’s the second unlikely energy proposal that Putin has pitched in as many days, with European leaders calling Russia’s cuts in natural gas a political bid to divide them over their support for Ukraine. It’s created an energy crisis heading into winter that has fueled inflation, forced some industries to cut production and sent utility bills soaring.

    “This is just another attempt by Russia to use gas as a geo-strategic tool to weaken EU and NATO countries,” said Simone Tagliapietra, an energy policy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.

    Russia was “tempting Turkey to becoming an energy hub — a long lasting strategic aim of the country — while trying to create new divisions among European countries,” the analyst said, adding that Putin’s strategy was not likely to succeed.

    A day earlier, Germany rejected Putin’s proposal to step up gas flows to Europe via a link of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea – a pipeline that has never been operational. Moscow has cut off the parallel Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline over what it claimed were technical problems.

    The Russian leader first voiced the proposal on Wednesday, saying that Russia could increase the volume of its gas exports to Turkey through the Black Sea pipeline.

    “We could … make the main routes for the supply of our fuel, our natural gas to Europe through Turkey, creating in Turkey the largest gas hub for Europe — if, of course, our partners are interested in it,” Putin told a Moscow energy forum.

    On Thursday, he said the hub could help regulate “exorbitant” prices. “We could easily regulate (prices) at a normal market level, without any political overtones,” Putin said.

    “Putin is in a desperate situation. Nord Stream 1 and 2 are not operational and are unlikely to be operational for a long while,” said Mehmet Ogutcu, chairman of the London Energy Club. “Europe has made clear that it will not enter an engagement (with Russia) as long as the war in Ukraine continues.”

    “Turkey remains Putin’s only option,” he said.

    Ogutcu said Turkey was likely to tread carefully, wary of further increasing its dependence on Russia.

    “There is a delicate balancing act (by Turkey). If the balance tilts too much toward Russia this will damage (Ankara’s) relations with the West,” Ogutcu said.

    Erdogan did not comment publicly on the proposal but Putin’s spokesman, Dimitry Peskov said Turkey has reacted positively to the idea. Officials from Erdogan’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.

    Turkey’s state-run news agency however, quoted Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez as saying on Wednesday that it was “too early to assess” the proposal.

    “Technically it is possible,” Anadolu Agency quoted Donmez as telling reporters at the same Moscow energy forum. “For such international projects, technical, commercial and legal evaluation and feasibility studies need to be conducted.”

    NATO-member Turkey, which is depending on Russian for its energy needs and tourism, has criticized Moscow’s actions in Ukraine but has not joined U.S. and European sanctions against Russia. It has maintained its close ties with both Moscow and Kyiv and positioning itself as a mediator between the two. Ankara recently helped broker key deals that allowed Ukrainian to resume grain exports and led to a prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia.

    Although Russia is still conveying gas to Europe via Ukraine, the amount has plummeted drastically with the two Baltic pipelines out of commission.

    The Nord Stream 2 pipeline never came on stream because Germany blocked its operation just before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

    —-

    Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia. David McHugh contributed from Frankfurt.

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  • Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine-War

    Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine-War

    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Moscow is ready to resume gas supplies to Europe via a link of Germany-bound Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea which has never been in use.

    The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has never brought natural gas to Europe because Germany prevented the flows from ever starting just before Russia invaded Ukraine.

    Russia has cut off the parallel Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which has been at the center of an energy standoff with Europe. Russia has blamed technical problems for the stoppage, but European leaders call it an attempt to divide them over their support for Ukraine.

    Speaking at a Moscow energy forum, Putin again claimed Wednesday that the U.S. was likely behind the explosions that ripped through both links of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one of the two links of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, causing a massive gas leak and taking them out of service.

    The U.S. has previously rejected similar allegations by Putin.

    ———

    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

    — Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant loses external power

    — Belarus army would likely have little impact in Ukraine war

    — Bodies exhumed from mass grave in Ukraine’s liberated Lyman

    — EU countries turn to Africa in bid to replace Russian gas

    — Leak detected in pipeline that brings crude oil to Germany

    — Worried UN meets on Ukraine hours after Russian strikes

    — Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https:/ /apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    ———

    OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian authorities say a Russian attack on a market in the eastern Donetsk region has killed seven people and wounded eight.

    The deputy head of the Ukraine president’s office says the attack happened early Wednesday morning in Avdiivka.

    “The Russian military needs more blood, more death and more destruction,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram. “This is a hunt for the lives of peaceful citizens.”

    Photos attached to the post showed dead people lying in line near one of kiosks that had potatoes and bread on the counter.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine government’s energy minister says Russian attacks in the past two days have damaged about one third of the country’s energy infrastructure.

    “For the first time since the start of the war, Russia is targeting energy infrastructure,” German Galushchenko said on Wednesday. He says this is because Ukraine is exporting energy to Europe.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s presidential office says Russian shelling in the past 24 hours has affected eight regions in the southeast, while strikes on central and western areas have eased for the moment.

    Russian forces used drones, heavy artillery and missiles, according to the presidential office’s Wednesday morning update.

    Three people have been rescued alive from the rubble in Zaporizhzhia after over a dozen missiles rained on the city, the report said. A six-year-old girl and two more people were wounded in the shelling of Nikopol, where the attacks damaged some three dozen residential buildings, private houses, kindergartens, a school, two plants and several shops, the report added.

    Ukrainian forces say they shot down nine Iranian Shahed-136 drones and destroyed eight Kalibr cruise missiles near Mykolaiv, leaving the southern city without power.

    “Russian shelling intensifies and subsides, but doesn’t stop, not for a day the city lives in tension, and the Russians’ main goal appears to be keeping us in fear,” Mykolaiv regional governor Vitali Kim said.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials and military analysts say Kyiv’s counteroffensive in the occupied regions in the south and east of the country has slowed down significantly despite Ukraine retaking five towns and villages in the Kherson area.

    Russian troops have been re-enforcing the front lines and regrouping following Ukrainian successes, which has forced the Ukrainian forces to ease their advances.

    Regional administrator in the eastern Luhansk region says Russian forces there have been building a multi-layered defense line and mining the front line’s first section.

    Serhiy Haidai says people in the Luhansk region are moving from the Russia-occupied cities to villages, where they have been settling down in empty houses to “spend the winter in warm.”

    Luhansk is among the four region that Russia unlawfully annexed following referendums dismissed as sham by both Ukraine and the West.

    “In the south, the Ukrainian army is slowing down the pace of the counteroffensive, because the Russians managed to regroup and put forward paratrooper units, and unexpected issues arose,” Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov told The Associated Press.

    ———

    MOSCOW — The Kremlin says there are no plans for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden during a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia next month.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said “neither the Russian, nor American side put forward any initiatives about organizing bilateral contacts” during the summit in Bali.

    Asked about Biden’s comments in an interview with CNN in which he warned that the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine would lead to a “horrible outcome,” Peskov said the remarks were part of “harmful and provocative” Western nuclear rhetoric.

    Putin has said he wouldn’t hesitate to use “all means available” to protect Russian territory in a clear reference to Russian nuclear arsenals, a statement that was broadly seen as an attempt to force Ukraine to halt its offensive to reclaim control of the four regions that were illegally absorbed by Russia.

    ———

    BRUSSELS — A Belarus opposition leader says Russia is now de facto occupying her country by deploying its troops there and using authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko as its puppet.

    Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya urged more support from EU leaders during a two-day visit to European Union headquarters in Brussels. She says “we face an enemy who denies the very existence of our country as a free and independent nation.”

    The exiled opposition leader fears that Lukashenko could force the Belarus army to join Russian forces in Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Russia has already used Belarus as a staging ground to send troops and missiles into Ukraine earlier in the war.

    Tsikhanouskaya adds the situation has become “dramatic” in Belarus, which has become totally subservient to the wishes of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin and Lukasenko, she says, have “tried to increase and legalize the constant deployment of Russian troops on Belarus territory.”

    “It’s an occupation,” adds Tsikhanouskaya. “Our position is clear, Belarus must officially withdraw from participation in Russian war, and the Russian soldiers must leave Belarus unconditionally.”

    Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania after Lukashenko claimed victory in disputed August 2020 elections that many thought she won.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine Southern Operational Command says its forces have recaptured five settlements in the Kherson region.

    The villages of Novovasylivka, Novohryhorivka, Nova Kamianka, Tryfonivka and Chervone in the Beryslav district were retaken as of Oct. 11, according to the speaker of the southern command Vladislav Nazarov.

    The settlements are in one of the four regions recently illegally annexed by Russia.

    ———

    MOSCOW — Russia’s top KGB successor agency said Wednesday that it has arrested eight people on charges of involvement in the attack on the bridge linking Russia to Crimea.

    The Federal Security Service (FSB) said it arrested five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia on charges of involvement in Saturday’s attack on the bridge.

    A truck loaded with explosives blew up while driving across the bridge, killing four and causing two sections of one of the two automobile links to collapse.

    The FSB charged that the arrested suspects were working on orders of Ukraine’s military intelligence to secretly move the explosives into Russia and forge the accompanying documents.

    It said the explosives were moved by sea from the Ukrainian port of Odesa to Bulgaria before being shipped to Georgia, driven to Armenia and then back to Georgia before being transported to Russia in a complex scheme to secretly deliver them to the target.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the attack on the bridge as an “act of terrorism” and responded by ordering a barrage of missile strikes on Ukraine.

    Ukrainian officials have lauded the explosion on the bridge, but stopped short of directly claiming responsibility for it.

    ———

    KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian official says a Russian attack blew up windows and doors on residential buildings in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

    City council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev on Wednesday warned the residents of possible follow-up attacks. There were no reports of injuries from the initial shelling.

    Zaporizhzhia, which sits fairly near the front line, has been repeatedly struck with often deadly attacks in recent weeks. It is part of a larger region, including Europe’s largest nuclear power plant now in Russian control, that Moscow has said it has annexed in violation of international law. The city itself remains in Ukrainian hands.

    Another powerful blast struck Melitopol, which is in the same region, sending a car flying into the air, said mayor Ivan Fedorov. There was no word on casualties. Also Wednesday, air raid sirens sounded in the capital Kyiv.

    ———

    WARSAW, Poland — A leak has been detected in an underground oil pipeline in Poland which is the main route through which Russian crude oil reaches Germany.

    Polish operator, PERN, on Wednesday said it detected a leak in the Druzhba pipeline, which originates in Russia, on Tuesday evening about 70 kilometers (45 miles) form the the central Polish city of Plock. It said the cause of the leak wasn’t known.

    The Druzhba pipeline, which in Russian means “Friendship,” is one of the world’s longest oil pipelines, and after leaving Russia it branches out to bring crude to points including Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Germany.

    The incident follows leaks late last month in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running along the Baltic seabed.

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  • EU countries turn to Africa in bid to replace Russian gas

    EU countries turn to Africa in bid to replace Russian gas

    DAKAR, Senegal — A new liquefied natural gas project off Africa‘s western coast may only be 80% complete, but already the prospect of a new energy supplier has drawn visits from the leaders of Poland and Germany.

    The initial field near Senegal and Mauritania’s coastlines is expected to contain about 15 trillion cubic feet (425 billion cubic meters) of gas, five times more than what gas-dependent Germany used in all of 2019. But production isn’t expected to start until the end of next year.

    That won’t help solve Europe’s energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Still, Gordon Birrell, an executive for project co-developer BP, says the development “could not be more timely” as Europe seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian natural gas to power factories, generate electricity and heat homes.

    “Current world events are demonstrating the vital role that (liquid gas) can play in underpinning the energy security of nations and regions,” he told an energy industry meeting in West Africa last month.

    While Africa’s natural gas reserves are vast and North African countries like Algeria have pipelines already linked to Europe, a lack of infrastructure and security challenges have long stymied producers in other parts of the continent from scaling up exports. Already-established African producers are cutting deals or reducing energy use so they have more to sell to boost their finances, but some leaders warn that hundreds of millions of Africans lack electricity and supplies are needed at home.

    Nigeria has Africa’s largest natural gas reserves, said Horatius Egua, a spokesman for the petroleum minister, though it accounts for only 14% of the European Union’s imports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, that comes by ship. Projects face the risk of energy thefts and high costs. Other promising countries like Mozambique have discovered large gas reserves only to see projects delayed by violence from Islamic militants.

    Europe has been scrambling to secure alternative sources as Moscow has reduced natural gas flows to EU countries, triggering soaring energy prices and growing expectations of a recession. The 27-nation EU, whose energy ministers are meeting this week to discuss a gas price cap, is bracing for the possibility of a complete Russian cutoff but has still managed to fill gas reserves to 90%.

    European leaders have flocked to countries like Norway, Qatar, Azerbaijan and especially those in North Africa, where Algeria has a pipeline running to Italy and another to Spain.

    Italy signed a $4 billion gas deal with Algeria in July, a month after Egypt reached an agreement with the European Union and Israel to boost sales of LNG. Angola also has signed a gas deal with Italy.

    While an earlier agreement allowed Italy’s biggest energy company to start production at two Algerian gas fields this week, it was wasn’t clear when flows would start from the July deal because it lacked specifics, analysts said.

    African leaders like Senegalese President Macky Sall want their countries to cash in on these projects even as they’re being dissuaded from pursuing fossil fuels. They don’t want to export it all either — an estimated 600 million Africans lack access to electricity.

    “It is legitimate, fair and equitable that Africa, the continent that pollutes the least and lags furthest behind in the industrialization process should exploit its available resources to provide basic energy, improve the competitiveness of its economy and achieve universal access to electricity,” Sall told the U.N. General Assembly last month.

    Algeria is a major supplier — it and Egypt accounted for 60% of the natural gas production in Africa in 2020 — but it can’t offset Russian gas to Europe at this stage, said Mahfoud Kaoubi, professor of economics and specialist in energy issues at the University of Algiers.

    “Russia has an annual production of 270 billion cubic meters — it’s huge,” Kaoubi said. “Algeria is 120 billion cubic meters, of which 70.50% is intended for consumption on the internal market.”

    This year, Algeria is forecast to have piped exports of 31.8 billion cubic meters, according to Tom Purdie, a Europe, Middle East and Africa gas analyst with S&P Global Commodity Insights.

    “The key concern here surrounds the level of production step-up that can be achieved, and the impact domestic demand could have” given how much gas Algeria uses at home, Purdie said.

    Cash-strapped Egypt also is looking to export more natural gas to Europe, even regulating air conditioning in shopping malls and lights on streets to save energy and sell it instead.

    Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly says Egypt hopes to bring in an additional $450 million a month in foreign currency by rerouting 15% of its domestic gas usage for export, state media reported.

    More than 60% of Egypt’s natural gas consumption still is used by power stations to keep the country running. Most of its LNG goes to Asian markets.

    A new, three-party deal will see Israel send more gas to Europe via Egypt, which has facilities to liquefy it for export by sea. The EU says it will help the two countries increase gas production and exploration.

    In Nigeria, ambitious plans have yet to yield results despite years of planning. The country exported less than 1% of its vast natural gas reserves last year.

    A proposed 4,400-kilometer-long (2,734-mile-long) pipeline that would take Nigerian gas to Algeria through Niger has been stalled since 2009, mainly because of its estimated cost of $13 billion.

    Many fear that even if completed, the Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline would face security risks like Nigeria’s oil pipelines, which have come under frequent attacks from militants and vandals.

    The same challenges would hinder increased gas exports to Europe, said Olufola Wusu, a Lagos-based oil and gas expert.

    “If you look at the realities on ground — issues that have to do with crude oil theft — and others begin to question our ability to supply gas to Europe,” he said.

    Wusu urged pursuing LNG, calling it the “most profitable” gas strategy so far.

    Even that isn’t without issues: In July, the head of Nigeria LNG Limited, the country’s largest natural gas firm, said its plant was producing at just 68% of capacity, mainly because its operations and earnings have been stifled by oil theft.

    In the south, Mozambique is slated to become a major exporter of LNG after significant deposits were found along its Indian Ocean coast in 2010. France’s TotalEnergies invested $20 billion and started work to extract gas that would be liquefied in a plant it was building in Palma, in the northern Cabo Delgado province.

    But Islamic extremist violence forced TotalEnergies to indefinitely scupper the project last year. Mozambican officials have pledged to secure the Palma area to allow work to resume.

    Italian firm Eni, meanwhile, pressed ahead with its plan to pump and liquefy some of its gas deposits discovered in Mozambique in 2011 and 2014. Eni established a platform in the Indian Ocean 50 miles (80 kilometers) offshore, away from the violence in Cabo Delgado.

    It’s the first floating LNG facility in the deep waters off Africa, Eni says, with gas liquefaction capacity of 3.4 million tons per year.

    The platform liquefied its first gas on Oct. 2, according to Africa Energy, and the first shipment is expected to depart for Europe in mid-October.

    ———

    Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg; and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

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  • Munich Re to stop its backing for new oil, gas fields

    Munich Re to stop its backing for new oil, gas fields

    Munich Re, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies, says it will stop backing new oil and gas fields beginning next April

    BERLIN — Munich Re, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies, said Thursday that it will stop backing new oil and gas fields beginning next April.

    The company said it will also no longer invest in or insure new oil pipelines and power plants that weren’t already under construction by Dec. 31, 2022.

    Munich Re said the moves were part of its effort to reduce the harmful impact its business has on the environment. The burning of oil and gas is one of the main sources of greenhouses gases fueling climate change.

    Munich Re provides so-called reinsurance contracts that help other insurers spread risks. It also invests the insurance premiums it receives from customers and third-party assets, making it a major institutional investor.

    ———

    Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

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  • Baltic Sea pipeline leak damages marine life and climate

    Baltic Sea pipeline leak damages marine life and climate

    WASHINGTON — Methane escaping from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines that run between Russia and Europe is likely to result in the biggest known gas leak to take place over a short period of time and highlights the problem of large methane escapes elsewhere around the world, scientists say.

    There is still uncertainty in estimating total damage, but researchers say vast plumes of this potent greenhouse gas will have significant detrimental impacts on the climate.

    Immediate harm to marine life and fisheries in the Baltic Sea and to human health will also result because benzene and other trace chemicals are typically present in natural gas, researchers say.

    “This will probably be the biggest gas leak ever, in terms of its rate,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson.

    The velocity of the gas erupting from four documented leaks in the pipelines — which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has attributed to sabotage — is part of what makes the impacts severe.

    When methane leaks naturally leaks from vents on the ocean floor, the quantities are usually small and the gas is mostly absorbed by seawater. “But this is not a normal situation for gas release,” said Jackson. “We’re not talking about methane bubbling up to the surface like seltzer water, but a plume of rushing gas,” he said.

    Jackson and other scientists estimate that between 50% and nearly 100% of total methane emitted from the pipeline will reach the atmosphere.

    The Danish government issued a worst case scenario that assumed all the gas reached the air, and German officials Thursday issued a somewhat lower one.

    In the meantime, it’s nearly impossible for anyone to approach the highly flammable plume to attempt to curb the release of gas, which energy experts estimate may continue until Sunday.

    “Methane is very flammable — if you go in there, you’d have a good chance of it being a funeral pyre,” said Ira Leifer, an atmospheric scientist. If the gas-air mix was within a certain range, an airplane could easily ignite travelling into the plume, for example.

    Methane isn’t the only risk. “Natural gas isn’t refined to be super clean — there are trace elements of other compounds, like benzene,” a carcinogen, said Leifer.

    “The amount of these trace elements cumulatively entering the environment is significant right now — this will cause issues for fisheries and marine ecosystems and people who potentially eat those fish,” he said.

    David Archer, a professor in the geophysical sciences department at University of Chicago who focuses on the global carbon cycle, said that escape of methane in the Baltic Sea is part of the much larger worldwide problem of methane emissions.

    The gas is a major contributor to climate change, responsible for a significant share of the climate disruption people are already experiencing. That is because it is 82.5 times more potent than carbon dioxide at absorbing the sun’s heat and warming the Earth, over the short term.

    Climate scientist have found that methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are far worse than what companies are reporting, despite claims by major companies that they’ve reduced their emissions.

    Scientists measuring methane from satellites in space have found that emissions from oil and gas operations are usually at least twice as high as what the companies reported, said Thomas Lauvaux, climate scientist at University of Reims in France.

    Many of those so-called leaks are not accidental. Companies release the gas during routine maintenance. Lauvaux and other scientists observed more than 1,500 major methane leaks globally, and potentially tens of thousands of smaller leaks, using satellites, he said.

    —

    AP reporters Patrick Whittle contributed from Portland, Maine, Seth Borenstein from Washington, DC., and Cathy Bussewitz from New York.

    ——

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • 4th leak reported on Nord Stream pipelines in Baltic Sea

    4th leak reported on Nord Stream pipelines in Baltic Sea

    This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows a large disturbance in the sea can be observed off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, Monday Sept. 26, 2022 following a series of unusual leaks on two natural gas pipelines running from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany have triggered concerns about possible sabotage. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says she “cannot rule out” sabotage after three leaks were detected on Nord Stream 1 and 2. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

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  • Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

    Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

    KYIV, Ukraine — STOCKHOLM — A fourth leak to the Nord Stream pipelines conveying natural gas from Russia to Germany has been reported off southern Sweden.

    Earlier, three leaks had been reported on the two underwater pipelines. Seismologists detected two explosions were detected before reports of the leaks which officials believe were “deliberate actions.”

    Some experts have said Russia is likely to blame for any sabotage — it directly benefits from higher energy prices and economic anxiety across Europe.

    Sweden’s coast guards told Swedish news agency TT on Thursday that the fourth leak was off Sweden. All the leaks are in international waters.

    ———

    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

    — Russia poised to annex occupied Ukrain e after sham vote

    — US: Focus new Russia sanctions on oil revenue, arms supplies

    — Europe ramps up energy security after suspected sabotage

    — Moscow tries to draft fleeing Russian men at the borders

    ———

    OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

    KYIV — Authorities say Russian missile fire targeted the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight, killing at least three people and wounded five others.

    Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the wider Dnipropetrovsk region, said fire damaged homes, a market, cars, buses and electrical lines.

    ——

    KYIV — Authorities say the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again been targeted by Russian missile fire.

    Ukrainian military officials said Thursday a Russian Kh-59 missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night. The Russian fire struck a grain depot while others were shot down.

    Kryvyi Rih is some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Kyiv.

    ——

    KYIV — The Ukrainian military says it is sending undertrained fighters to the battle front as it tries to reinforce its positions in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman.

    The Ukrainian military’s general staff said Thursday that of seven Russian tanks sent to Lyman recently, Russian troops crashed two of them on the way there.

    It also said troops manning the tanks did not undergo training on how to use the vehicle’s weapons.

    The Ukrainian military did not elaborate on how it knew about the tank unit’s condition. But Ukraine’s intelligence services have played purportedly intercepted phone calls of Russian troops complaining about their conditions on the front line.

    ——

    KYIV — Britain’s military says the number of Russian military-age men fleeing the country likely exceeds the number of forces Moscow used to initially invade Ukraine in February.

    The British Defense Ministry made the estimate in its daily intelligence briefing Thursday amid a Russian push to mobilize more troops to replenish losses its forces have suffered in Ukraine.

    The ministry said those who are financially better off and better educated are over-represented amongst those attempting to leave Russia.

    It added that the economic impact from the call-up as a result of a loss of labor in combination with a ‘brain drain’ “is likely to become increasingly difficult.”

    ——

    KYIV — A Washington-based think tank says Ukrainian soldiers continue to advance around a key northeastern city occupied by Russian forces and may soon encircle it entirely.

    The Institute for the Study of War, citing Russian reports, said Thursday that Ukrainian forces have taken more villages around Lyman, a city some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

    Lyman had been a key node in Russia’s front-line operations in the region before Ukrainian forces retook vast swathes of territory in the northeast earlier this month.

    The institute said a possible collapse of the Lyman pocket would allow Ukrainian troops to “threaten Russian positions along the western Luhansk” region.

    The institute suggested additional Russian losses would further erode morale amid a call-up of hundreds of thousands of men — the country’s first since World War II.

    — Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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